Fountain Pen Tag: 10 More Pen Questions
Leaves are starting to change color here in northern Minnesota and while summer is on its way out, I’ve been swapping in some of my newest inks that I brought back from California and a few goodies that came in with my Hobonichi order from Atlas Stationers (like Wearingeul Romeo). I’ve been enjoying all the planner hype on Instagram, but before I dive in, I wanted to take another pen challenge. On Instagram I was tagged on @randomly_._rachel after writing her post. Another inspiration from the beauty community, but applied to pens. Thanks Rachel for the prompts!
One. A pen that has special memories attached to it.
My Kaweco Ice Sport Green is a special pen. It was my first Kaweco that I got back in 2016 for a writing buddy during my season at Rocky Mountain National Park for the 100th Anniversary season. It marks my first foray into ink samples and an expanding ink collection, as I’d originally purchased it from Goulet Pens with the intention of using it as an eye-dropper. After I learned eye-dropper pens and pockets don’t go all the well together, I ended up just getting a syringe and refilling cartridges. This pen has battle scars from many adventures over the years. It’s fallen down a waterfall out of my pocket, gotten dunked in the San Juan River, and been on top of mesas, mountains, and down in the bottoms of canyons in several different states. I don’t use it as much anymore, but it holds a special spot in my collection.
Two. Ink brand you love that has a lot of dupe inks.
Rather than within any particular brand I have a serious issue collecting dupe colors from different brands. I’m a sucker for a good blue and there are a LOT of blues out there. It’s almost inevitable that I have several sheening royal blues and a lot of sky blues. Some are almost impossible to tell apart if I didn’t label them.
Three. Pen you get your money’s worth out of.
My Kaweco liliput fireblue in its current set up with a 14K bicolor nib with a “journaller” grind from Custom Nib Studio. As I’ve mentioned several times, this is my favorite pen. This pen has had a lot of different nibs while I was exploring nib sizes and shapes and it’s never not had ink in it since I got it in 2018. While the gold Kaweco nibs are expensive (and have recently gotten even more expensive…) I think they are a really great upgrade for the pen. It wrote well before it was tuned and ground, but once I got it customized to me - it’s a great nib. This pen is always with me.
Four. Pen you feel is an amazing deal at full price.
The Kaweco Sport standard editions are great pens and they are usually around $20-$25, with special edition colors coming in around $30. They are really sturdy (remember how I said I dropped one off a waterfall? It survived a 100 foot fall onto rocks), very portable, and customizable. It’s easy to swap nibs, change clips, and even reassemble parts to make whatever combo you want.
Five. Ink you wish came in a larger or smaller bottle.
Mini ink bottles with Kaweco Sport for size comparison.
I wish more brands offered mini bottles in the 5-10 mL range. It’s a great amount of ink to try something out and some brands that do this have gotten creative with their designs. I have a soft spot for the 5 mL Colorverse bottles and the 5 mL ink chargers from Ferris Wheel Press.
Six. Ink you love, but hate the bottle.
Hate is too strong a word, but I am so nervous when filling from the 38 mL Ferris Wheel Press bottles. They are absolutely gorgeous bottles, but so easy to tip over.
Seven. Build your dream notebook.
This one is easy for me. A lay-flat softcover A6 notebook with Cosmo Air Light paper about the thickness of a Stalogy or Sterling Ink notebook. Lined and grid options would be epic.
Eight. The pen/ink combo you won’t break up.
I’m not much of a stickler for combos, since I have a veritable dragon’s horde of ink. I do, however, had a Kaweco Ice Sport Red that just doesn’t look right without a blue ink in it.
Nine. Pen you wish came in a different color.
The Kaweco liliput. I was excited to see the green aluminum one from a few years ago… but I want more options. It would be nice to have more options like the AL Sport range.
Ten. Pen you wish had a matching sleeve/case.
I’m a creature of contrasts and often the mismatched is what gets me. However, if I was going to get matchy-matchy I would want to match my Kaweco Sports to some similarly colored Rickshaw pen sleeves. I have several Rickshaw products and they can take a beating and are so excellent as they age, no thread out of place.
What are your answers?
Currently Inked
I don’t have a plotter, but wanted to try the paper.
Monteverde Pumpkin Cake - Kaweco Sport Macchiatto 1.5 - Still rocking it for headers in my notes.
Wearingeul Romeo - Kaweco liliput copper 14K BB ‘journaller’ - I have been eagerly wanting to try this ink ever since I saw it announced. It’s a blue-black with purple shimmer. It’s very wet and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Colorverse Sky-tinted Waters (Minnesota) - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M ‘journaller’ - Another ink I knew I wanted since it was announced. I’ve been waiting for the brands doing the 50 states inks to drop Minnesota, and I really like this color! It’s a soft sky blue.
Robert Oster x Atlas Stationers Polar Vortex - Kaweco Ice Sport Orange Inkball - After my fill of brown ink, I knew I wanted to try out a gray in this pen. Gray is such a flexible color that can be used at work and in my creative notebooks and still look good. I went back to this exclusive from Atlas, a gray with purple and pink undertones.
Bungubox Kobayashi Hirai Bridge - Kaweco x Elite Royalty Sport BB - I wanted to try this ink in a wider nib to see if I could get some more character out of it, and I did! This is such a fun brown, cooler than Sailor 273 with the same pink undertones.
Ferris Wheel Press Glistening Glass - Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye 14K M ‘selvedge’ - I needed another blue ink in my lineup for the week and decided to return to one I’d tried a few months ago, but haven’t used since. This ink is a soft blue with a gold shimmer inspired by Cinderella. A beautiful color.
If you are interested in any of the pens or inks mentioned in this post, you can save 10% with my code DIME10 at Atlas Stationers or get a free ink charger set at Ferris Wheel Press with the code DIME. Using my affiliate codes helps support my blog.