February Inks

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

What started out as an innocent “How many pens do you have inked” question in a group chat, ended up with me suggesting that someone ink up 14 pens with red/pink inks for Valentine’s Day since they were going to be out of town for the first 14 days of February. Of course, it took minimal encouragement for me to consider doing this myself, so here we are!

First, I had to pick the pens. Thankfully, I already had some inked up! Yes, I’ll admit it’s sorta cheating, lol.

Left to right: Kaweco Sport Carmine; Pelikan Pura P40 Bordeaux; Leonardo Momento Zero Coral; Esterbrook Estie Maraschino; Pelikan M600 Red Tortoiseshell; Platinum 3776 Carnelian; TWSBI 580 AL Pink; TWSBI Eco Pink; Franklin-Christoph 19 Pink/Silver/White proto; Kaweco Sport Blush Pitaya; Retro 51 Sprinkle Ops; Visconti Van Gogh Souvenir de Mauve; TWSBI Eco Pastel Pink.

I used my trusty steel Kakimori dip nib for the swatches and writing samples in the A5 Odyssey Tomoe River notebook.

This Galen Leather exclusive Kaweco Sport Carmine will probably never see another ink besides its namesake, made by Robert Oster.

I’ve had this Pelikan Pura Bordeaux inked up since last year’s Pelikan Hub. It’s inked up with an oldie, but goodie, Diamine Red Dragon.

Leonardo Momento Zero Coral, which is definitely red and not remotely coral, with Robert Oster Red Candy, which is a little lighter in the swatch than irl.

Esterbrook Estie Maraschino looks really good with Monteverde Viva Magenta, which is a bright red and definitely not magenta.

Another one from the Pelikan Hub, the M600 Red Tortoiseshell’s orange/black/red barrel needs a slightly orange leaning red, like Laban Ares Red.

This Platinum 3776 Carnelian looks great with Wearingeul’s Anne of Green Gables, which has a greenish gold sheen with wetter pens.

I haven’t busted this one out in a long time - the TWSBI 580 AL Pink (not to be confused with the ALR Punch Pink). It’s more red than pink, but definitely more pink than red. And that describes both the 580 and the Diamine Cashmere Rose ink.

TWSBI Eco Pink, which is a bright, almost neon, pink - perfect for a bright pink like Akkerman x GourmetPens’ GourmetPens Pink.

One of the weirder inks I own, the Tono & Lims Burma Tourmaline goes down grey, almost green, but it dries in shades of pink and grey.. It goes surprisingly well with the Franklin-Christoph 19 in a pink/white/silver prototype material.

This bubblegum pink Kaweco Sport Blush Pitaya looks great with Inkebara Fairytale Pink.

The Visconti Van Gogh Souvenir du Mauve is pink, not mauve (which has more purple/grey undertones), and its namesake ink is more of a magenta, but Sailor Jentle Peche works well with the darker pink swirls in the material.

The last time I inked up this Retro 51 Sprinkle Ops pen, I put the above Inkebara Fairytale Pink ink in it, but I think it would look good with Wearingeul The Flowers on the Way even if it’s not the best match. It’s also showing up a bit more red in the picture.

Wearingeul x Atlas Stationers Twelfth Night is a great match for the TWSBI Eco Pastel Pink.

All the inks in the lineup (and wishing I put the Burma Tourmaline at the bottom).

After going through the exercise of picking the pens and matching inks, I definitely did NOT ink up everything. I’m nuts, but not that nuts! The Pura, Leonardo, Pelikan, and Platinum were already inked, but I just couldn’t refuse inking up a few more! It’s not inking up 14 red/pink pens, but it’ll have to do!

The final list: Kaweco Sport with Robert Oster Carmine, Pelikan Pura with Diamine Red Dragon, Leonardo Momento Zero with Robert Oster Red Candy, Pelikan M600 Red Tortoishell with Laban Ares Red, Platinum 3776 Carnelian with Wearingeul Anne of Green Gables, TWSBI 580 AL Pink with Diamine Cashmere Rose, TWSBI Eco Pink with Akkerman GourmetPens Pink, and Franklin-Christoph 19 pink/silver/white with Tono & Lims Burma Tourmaline.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s, Galentine’s, Pal-entine’s, Lunar New Year, or you just wanted to see some red and pink inks, I hope you have a great February (and beyond)!

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How I shopped "around the world" at the DC Pen Show

(This is a guest Post from Sam Alpert. Sam is a geologist, gamer, and general lover of all things with good, clean design. See more from Sam on Instagram @samalpert.)

Note from Brad: It’s all my fault for how late this is! Or, is it perfect timing with pen show season just cranking up in 2026? 🤔

Pen shows are crazy; the DC Show doubly so.

I find the best way to manage the sheer stimulus overload that is a massive show like DC is to go with a focus. I had a few things I wanted to get for myself, but I knew they would be fast, so I floated the idea to Brad of me doing a sort of “fetch quest” style shopping challenge for him, similar to what Mike over at Inkdependence had his friend do, but this time with a twist. Brad was the one who ultimately hit on the idea that we try to “shop around the world” by hitting as many countries of origin for products from as diverse a vendor group as possible. And all that on a tight $100 budget.

What a crazy idea.

There were so many ways I could approach the challenge. Obviously I could just find the cheapest thing from as many countries as possible, a Jinhao from China, washi from Japan, et cetera. But to me that wasn’t fulfilling, I wanted this to also be things that I myself would buy, something that could be a fun memory of the show and, where possible, even be something Brad had never tried before. This, it turns out, took the difficulty up another level.

After doing multiple passes of the show floor on Friday, I thought I was ready to begin the search Saturday. The first thing I underestimated is how fast time flies when you’re doing things you love. Saturday was a blur of amazing classes, meeting tons of awesome people (some of you may have seen in Mike’s walkthrough tour, I was also giving a geology quiz to anyone who stopped me, with ink samples as the prize). What I came to realize was that instead of trying to look for specific countries, I needed to instead look for specific items, and then go to vendors that had that item in abundance and see what countries I could “shop” from. To that end I decided to go for a “full” setup: fountain pen, ink, notebook, carrying and desk accessories. This dovetails with the idea I love of getting people into the hobby with minimal fuss, but maximal awesomeness.

So the puzzle became who had what from where? I decided that the easiest thing was to start with the most expensive things and move backwards. I was fairly confident I could get a pen for cheap if I had to, and ink, so the first stop was a desk tray. And who better to get it from than a master of the craft, NFP Design. The two pen tray in a gorgeous mustard yellow was a big ($25) chunk of my budget, but it was perfect, starting my journey off in Turkey. As a bonus, Galen Leather was giving out drawstring bags at the entry to the hall they were in, which came with a lovely leather pen sleeve, a free bonus just for coming to Turkey!

Right around the corner from NFP was Smruti Pens, who had the Dominant Industry Takasago Notebook, conveniently also a new product to Brad, and putting me in Taiwan for a reasonable $.

Next was a pen. Here’s where I struggled the most. I had this crazy idea to try and find something German and vintage, but my lack of knowledge of the vintage pen world meant that I just couldn’t find anything cheap and effective. My next thought was a cool Lamy Safari, but nothing stood out in my price point, so I “settled” on what I think is one of the GOATs of “one for life” pens, the Pilot Prera. Now here’s where things get a little tricky. I maaaaay have bargained this one down a little, but hey, that’s the beauty of coming to a pen show, especially late on a Saturday afternoon (and especially Sunday), vendors are starting to be willing to haggle on things they may not want to schlep all the way back home. So for a cool $ I was able to pop over to Japan.

Now all I had to do was find ink. Thankfully I now had a plan. Heading to a major (unnamed) vendor who I knew would be happy to offload a couple bottles at a deal I grabbed a gorgeous Diamine Imperial Blue (alongside a bottle of Diamine Oxford Blue for myself, I just couldn’t resist) a bargain deal brought it down to $15 for the bottle, a steal to put me in England.

In my browsing at the very end of the day, I stumbled across notebooks. Made in Italy, and theoretically fountain pen friendly. The sadly now-discontinued pocket-sized journal was an easy $7 addition for on-the-go notes to round out the package and take me all the way back around to close the loop!

Brad’s verdict: Nailed it! Sam did an amazing job, taking me on a stationery tour to five different countries, and ending up with a full writing setup as a result. This is a kit that belongs together, so you know what that means. Stay tuned for tomorrow!

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What is the LAMY CP1, and why do I like it so much?

One of my favorite review categories is products that are great, but not great for everyone. The LAMY CP1 is a perfect example of this type of product. I love it, it has its super fans, and it flat-out won’t work for many people. Let’s dig in.

Starting with me: why do I like the Cylindric Pen 1 so much? It is a long, skinny fountain pen, with a lightweight metal barrel and a Stainless Steel clip. LAMY’s classic Bauhaus fingerprints are all over the design, making the CP1 look like a mini LAMY 2000 - ok, maybe if you squint a little.

My enjoyment of this pen comes primarily from the narrow barrel, with everything else tied for second. (Second, until they released the Aquamarine model, which made me throw money right through my computer screen.) Having a narrow barrel fountain pen is convenient for sliding it into notebook loops, clipping it to notebook covers, or stashing it into any type of pocket. Yes, it is long, but the narrowness comes in more handy than I ever thought.

The CP1 hits the price point where a converter is included. I think all fountain pens should ship with a converter.

I’m also a fan of LAMY’s Steel nibs, primarily Extra Fine. You may notice that I ordered a Fine for this pen, and that is for good reason: I don’t own a Fine, and this nib is swappable with other LAMY nibs found in some of their most popular pens, like the Safari and AL-Star. I have plenty of stock EF nibs I can swap into the CP1, plus their unique Cursive and A nibs (found in the LAMY ABC,) and I have a few grinds at the ready if I’m feeling frisky. I ordered something I didn’t have, and if it’s too wide for regular use, I can swap it easily.

To my surprise, the line and flow of the Fine LAMY nib in this CP1 is close to many of my Extra Fine favorites. I’m not compelled to change it anytime soon, but the option is always there.

A very controllable LAMY Fine Steel nib.

Given that I like the CP1, who won’t like it? Those who don’t like narrow pens, for starters. Obvious, right? The diameter is a negative for users who need, or simply prefer, wider barrels.

The LAMY Safari could eat the CP1 for dinner, and still have room for dessert.

Secondly, the grip section isn’t great. For some reason, LAMY loooooves slippery metal grip sections, and the CP1 grip is no exception, even with grooves that provide absolutely no bonus grippability. My fingers will slide when I first pick it up, but once a little natural temperature and moisture cranks up when writing, it’s fine. If you have dry hands, this grip will frustrate you, especially since it is straight-sided. There is no concave here to help.

Posting is a mistake.

Up next, the aforementioned nib. They can be wide and wet even in relatively fine sizes, so if you are looking for a narrow pen with a needlepoint-adjacent nib to match, I’m not sure even the Extra Fine would be an option for you.

The grip is slick.

Finally, the price. For $60 I think it is fairly priced, but that is too expensive to take a random chance on because there are downsides to the CP1. If this price point is within your budget but the style isn’t, take a look at the recently discussed Pilot Prera, which is an easier recommendation to make to a wider audience.

Remember, there is a pen out there for everyone, but not every pen is for everyone. The LAMY CP1 is a perfect example of that.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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It even ships in a nice box, not a perforated sleeve.