The Well-Appointed Desk

If you’re a fan of the wide array of Japanese gel pen options available, you’ve probably already tried a few Pilot Hi-Tec Cs, a Pentel Slicci, a Zebra Sarasa or a UniBall Signo. What I think makes these gel pens so great (besides the yummy gel ink, fine and extra fine points and great selection of colors) is that they are all available in multi-pens.

These are not your ordinary red/blue/black multi-pens of yore. Nope. These are fully customizable. Depending on which brand you prefer, there are multiple point sizes, mechanical pencil options and even the ability to combine gel ink components with ballpoint components or even a stylus (for touchscreens). Each brand has options for various numbers of colors/tools as well depending on how big you want your pen to be and how many options you need at one time. I’ve come to like the 4- and 5-color options which allow me to make one slot a mechanical pencil.

I started looking into the multi-pens because I loved that the Japanese gel pens were available in so many colors but I didn’t want to have hundreds of pens and then have to throw away all those plastic bodies. With the multi-pens, I can reuse the bodies and just dispose of the cartridge inserts. Makes me feel a little more enviromentally conscious.

Generally speaking the bodies I’ve chosen in the past have been relatively understated like the simple black-and-white polka dot UniBall Style Fit I purchased last year or the plain lime green Hi-Tec C Coleto Me I’ve had for awhile.

My most recent acquisitions are the Zebra Sarasa Pre-Fill 4 in multi-color polka dots ($3.30) and the UniBall Style*Fit Majolica Majorca special edition body ($4.95). I was feeling particularly girlie the day I ordered these. According to the description, the Majolica Majorca is a Japanese cosmetics line that did a cross-promotion with UniBall for these pens. Both are available in more subdued bodies.

Both pens have smooth plastic bodies with no rubberized grip area of ergonomic shaping. Even without a lot of fuss, they are quite comfortable. The larger bodies make them roughly the same diameter as a full sized fountain pen. Both have a clear section from the grip area to the tip so you can see which color is extended. Both the Pre-Fill and the Style*Fit are retractable designs and both use the clip as one of its retractable options (I always put my mechanical pencil on the clip retractor (did I just make up a word?) so that I can find it quickly. When full of pen cartridges, they both have a nice weight to them — still lightweight but balanced and east to hold.

The Zebra Sarasa Pre-Fill has a spring-loaded clip making it easier to clip onto bag, notebook or pocket. It wasn’t a feature I thought I would care about too much but its the same style of sprin-loaded clip they use on the regular pens so if that’s something you like, I highly recommend getting one of these multi-pens.

There is almost nothing different about the UniBall Style*Fit shown here from the black-and-white polka dot model I purchased previously. The gold detail on Majolica Majorca body is actually metallic and does remind me of a perfume bottle label. The text reads “Fullfills all your wishes” so how could I pass it up? I purchased another Style*Fit because I love them so much I wanted one for home and one for work.

I love the gel pens in the 0.38-0.4 range so I loaded both of these with an assortment of colors and each got a 0.5mm mechanical pencil as well.

I filled both pens with a blue-black and an orange-y color. The other colors I chose on a whim. I like having lots of color options in one tool making it easy to carry just one pen but have lots of options to entertain and annotate in long meetings.

One of the other compliments I have about these Japanese multi-pens is that the logos and branding is very discreet. The bar code info was on clear stickers I was easily able to peel off both pens leaving only the teeny-tiniest branding marks on both pens. I appreciate that I don’t have to be a walking advertisement for their company. If someone asks about my pen, you can be sure I’ll tell them in detail about it but I don’t have to let me pen shout it at passing strangers.

Both of these pens, plus the ink cartridges and mechanical pencil inserts cost me less than $15 each. The Zebra Sarasa Pre-Fill ink cartridges are $1.65 each and the mechanical pencil insert is $3. So the total for the Pre-Fill was $11.25. The UniBall Style*Fit was a bit more expensive because of the high-falutin’ body. The gel ink cartridges are $1.65 for the Style*Fit and the mechanical pencil insert is $3.30 making the total $14.85.

Are you convinced to try a multi-pen yet?

In photo

Merry Christmas!

AnaDecember 25, 2012

–From my desk to yours!

(I wish this was my desk… but the plywood tree card holder could be yours if you are handy with power tools. Check out the detailed construction photos and make your own for next year!)

(via 2ModernBlog)

In feature

J. Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite Anniversary Ink

AnaDecember 24, 2012

I have been promising to write up my review of the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary Rouge Hematite inks for almost a month now. I guess good things come to those who wait. I picked up my bottle at Pieritz in Oak Park, IL for about $22. There were two colors released in this series — the rouge hematite red and Ocean Blue.

The packaging on this ink is enough to validate the higher price. The box is a lovely warm white with metallic gold designs around the “1670”. Inside, the glass bottle is square with metallic gold sealing “wax” (more of a plastic I suspect) holding down gold cording and red wax-sealed cap. At first I thought I would have to pull the wax off the cap but it turned out to be a twist off cap hidden under the wax so neither the cap nor the seal had to be damaged to use the ink. Yippee!

Before I used the ink, I gave the bottle a good shake to blend the sediment back into the liquid. Since the bottle is clear, you can see if there’s sediment on the bottom of your bottle so shake as needed.

Inside was a beautiful true red ink. Its a deep red with no hints of pink or orange.

This ink seemed worthy of my vintage Sheaffer fountain pen with the gold nib so I took it out for a spin. I have no complaints about this ink. I’ve been looking for a good, true red and this ink more than fits the bill.

If you are looking for a nice looking ink bottle for your desk or a gift for a favorite pen lover, this is a great idea. Goulet Pens carries both the Bleu Ocean and Rouge Hematite for $19.50 per bottle.

In feature

Pilot Petit2 Sign Pen

AnaDecember 23, 20125 Comments

I recently bought a Pilot Petit2 Sign Pen in blue-black. You can pretty much talk me into to buying any pen if its blue-black (check!) and under $3 (check!). It is just a fraction of an inch longer than my Kaweco Sport so its nicely pocket-able.

It also fills that in-between width: the point is wider than a LePen or Sharpie Pen but much narrower than a Sharpie fine point marker. Am I the only person who thinks there’s a gap in their pen-nib-width options?

If blue-black is too austere for you, there are lots of other color options and the Petit2 line includes brush pens and fountain pens. All are refillable with ink cartridges though I’m not sure what the lifespan is on the fiber-tip.

In feature

Flickr fights back

AnaDecember 22, 2012

If you have used Flickr in the past but — in the age of Facebook and Instagram– sort of forgotten about it, I think it’s time to reconsider.

Flickr has always had some features that made it the go-to for photo storage and sharing. Yes, its a paid service but, as a result, they’ve given users more content and less filler than most other services. In the plus column for Flickr:

full-sized image uploads
no advertising
adult-content filter
lots of content-specific groups

Lately, Yahoo let the service languish. They released one iPhone app a couple years ago and then did little to update it while Hipstamatic and then Instagram trounced all over them. Even my loyal Flickr friends were abandoning ship for Facebook and Instagram’s easy digital upload and streaming always-on content.

But the tide is changing and I have to say I am happy to see it. Last summer, Yahoo hired Marissa Mayer as their new CEO and the internet responded with their plea. There were some updates to the website interface in the months following but no news about any improved integration on phones. About two weeks ago, Flickr released a new version of their iOS app which included some queues from Instagram with a built-in camera app and goofy filters so that images can be shot and uploaded to Flickr quickly. They made sharing to Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter pretty seamless but there’s a noticeable absence of “share to Instagram”.

The new Flickr iPhone app is easy-to-use but is a pretty big departure from the older version so if you were familiar with it, there may be a bit of a learning curve. Flickr has posted a helpful walk-through of all the new features. From the app, you can access your photos, photostream and groups. You can moderate your groups and search for images or people. That’s a lot of action in one little app.

My one complaint is that their is still no support for checking FlickrMail from within the app. Clearly, the folks at Flickr have yet to figure out what a goldmine FlickrMail is. With the exception of “join this group requests”, it is a spam-free email account that only friends and family with Flickr accounts can access.

If you’re a current Flickr subscriber, you should have received a little gift from Flickr in your email recently. Clearly, they are trying to entice people back to the service so go and give them another shot. And tell them what you think. As paying subscribers, our voices and needs should be heard.

Happy snapping!

(For more about the new Flickr app, check out the Forbes write-up)

In feature

It’s beginning to look a lot like Ink-mas?

AnaDecember 22, 2012

Ink Drop Dec 2012 — Oops, that’s Diamine Matador, not DeAtramentis.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Thanks to Goulet Pens latest Ink Drop, even my pens can look a bit more like Christmas. The DeAtramentis Fir ink even smells a bit like fir trees so its even starting to smell like Christmas around here!

This writing sample above is a bit more color correct (white balance with white paper is a PAIN!). The Diamine Matador and Noodler’s Green are as true to Christmas red and green as you could probably get. The Rohrer & Klingner Verdura is an elfish green and DeAtramentis Oriental Red reminds me of red fireplace bricks. DeAtramentis Fir is muted green with that wonderful fir tree smell!

The holiday colors were tested dipping a vintage Esterbrook fountain pen so I have fairly true-to-life performance.

In all the holiday hullabaloo, I forgot to post the November Ink Drop colors which were all reminiscent of autumn leaves. My favorite was the Noodler’s Cayenne. I must be in a red ink mood. I tested these with a flexible nib dip pen so some of the colors bled a bit more than I suspect they would in a fountain pen.

I am still using the same Miquelrius grid notebook that I’ve used to test all my other pens and inks for the past year or so.

In feature

Feeling Blue, Washable Blue

AnaDecember 21, 2012

Can I tell you how excited I was to find this vintage Sheaffer Skrip Washable Blue #42 box? Can you imagine how freaked I was to discover there was still a bottle inside the box? And then can you imagine the pure elation when there was still usable ink in the bottle?!?! I thought you might understand.

With shaking hands, I carefully removed the bottle from the box. The flap was missing but the tabs that fold in were still on the box and proclaim “Throw away your ink wiper — use Sheaffer’s Snorkel Pen. It’s the cleanest pen in the world! POINT NEVER NEEDS WIPING! See it today at your Sheaffer dealer!” On the bottle cap the Scrip logo is bright and shiny and the cap instructions say “Tighten cap. Tip bottle to fill well”. I had noticed the unusual color accumulation at the top of the jar but assumed the ink had collected and dried at the top of the bottle.

When I opened the bottle, I realized that there is a little divided compartment in the jar that allows you to tip the jar and fill this well with ink and then insert a fountain pen to fill it. How tidy! The ink was just as liquidy as a new bottle of ink and it didn’t smell odd or anything. So I took a chance…

I dip-filled my nearest Esterbrook and tried writing a few words to see if the ink still flowed. And it did! Inspired by this success, I decided to go ahead and do a full ink test.

I sloppily copied out the editorial from the bottom of the box. It reads that Sheaffer Skrip was available in four permanent colors: blue-black, royal blue, jet black and red — and eight washable colors: blue, emerald green, purple, brown, black, peacock blue, melon red and Persian Rose. These colors were “washable” because they were not permanent and could be washed out of clothing. Ah ha!

I never really considered myself a fan of blue ink in the past but I love this color! Its an indigo dye blue with a lot of character and shading. I may just use up this ink and then refill the bottle since the filling well is so convenient. It looks like there’s about a half an once left. Sheaffer still sells the Skrip Blue (though its only labelled “Blue” and not “washable Blue” as well as several other colors) so I could refill the vintage bottle and no one would know the difference! Goulet Pens sells the whole line of modern Sheaffer inks for $8.50 a bottle, so I might have to do a little head-to-head and see if they are the same color.