Choosing My Tier 1 Pens

It's a Pilot heavy list.

We discussed the challenge of thinning the pen herd on episode #161 of The Pen Addict Podcast and the difficulties that come along with it. I commandeered the phrase 'Tier 1' when describing how to determine what pens to sell and what pens to keep. Has tiering resulted into any action for me thus far? Not yet, but it all starts with a list.

The way I chose to think about this list was to select the pens I would miss the most if they were gone. They generally represent the best of the best, the most meaningful, or, most likely, both.

I went into the task of naming my Tier 1 pens with no restrictions. I could select as many or as few as I wanted, and for any reason whatsoever. Here is my list, in no particular order:

Nakaya Portable Ao-tamenuri

My first Nakaya and easily my favorite. I worked hard to choose the right one for me, reading anything and everything about the brand and all the options available. I bet it took me at least a year to come to my decision, and I'm ecstatic with the result.

Pilot Murex

You will see Thomas Hall's fingerprints all over this list, and this is one pen you might literally see them on. Thomas gifted this pen to me towards the end of my fountain pen education, and it may be my single favorite pen I own. Not just for the meaning either. It fits my visual aesthetic and performance requirements perfectly.

Pelikan M405 XXXF Nib

My first Pelikan and still my favorite (mine is the blue stripe model, the one in the review is Thomas'). While the 600 and 800 series fit my hands better, the nib on this 405 is killer. Mike Masuyama ground this down to an 0.2 mm Japanese EF nib for me a few years ago and it writes like a dream. I don't ink it up as often as some other pens but when I do it never fails to put a smile on my face.

Edison Menlo 3-D

This on makes the list not only for its great feel and performance, but for the story behind it as well. This pen was custom made for me secretly by Jeff Bruckwicki and Brian Gray and knocked my socks off when I got it. This pen gets me.

Newton Shinobi

Recency bias? Maybe. But in the few weeks I have had my Shinobi it has never been more than an arms length away. The feel when I write with it is so unique and hard to explain. I'm having a hard time seeing when this pen might get cleaned and stored away. Not gonna happen.

Pilot Vanishing Point Black Faceted

In a lineup of cool looking pens this one is arguably the coolest. Black from head to toe, this VP is a blast to use and always gets a reaction from others. This one might be the hardest to replace of the bunch.

Pilot Custom Heritage 912 PO Nib

Using this PO nib was one of the first wow moments in my fountain pen education. If there was ever a stock nib that was built for me this is the one. That's the key here. I wouldn't recommend this nib to many people but for me it is perfection.

Unique nibs are a priority in this list.

There you have it. Seven pens in my arsenal that I find irreplaceable. That seems like a pretty good number to me. "But Brad, what about [insert pen here]?"" I hear the questions now, so let me try to explain some of the obvious ones:

-- Lamy 2000: There is no doubt the 2000 is one of the best pens on the market. And that's just the thing. It's always available. I have two of them currently, and if I lost them both it would be quick and easy to buy another one. A huge number of pens fall into the same category.

-- Three other Nakayas: A second one nearly made the list - my Piccolo Writer in Kikyo Blue. And it still may creep into Tier 1 eventually. That's the good thing about this list. It's always subject to change.

-- Vintage pens: I don't have many and I love the ones I do, but I tend not to use them quite as much as other pens. I'm not sure exactly why, although they are slightly more finicky than their modern counterparts. My two Vacumatics are solidly in Tier 2 territory.

-- Any non-fountain pen: I was thisclose to adding my gonzodized Ti2 Techliner to this list because it is always with me and you can't buy this exact one anymore. But, there are other Techliners that are equally as good, and the same goes for some of my other favorite machined pens like the Render K. I can always get another one.

This has been a fun exercise that may eventually turn into action. I imagine my Tier 2 of pens would be enormous for a litany of reasons, and anything left for Tier 3 would be the pens I should consider selling and moving on from. If nothing else it's food for thought.

Bexley Phoenix Fountain Pen Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Bexley Phoenix collection includes four colors: black with a clear barrel, red with a clear barrel, blue velvet with a blue translucent barrel, and cappuccino with a bronze translucent barrel. The caps on these pens are marbled acrylic, and the piston knobs are black, except for the cappuccino's which is caramel.

Goldspot Pens kindly loaned the Bexley Phoenix in Velvet Blue for review. The retail price for this pen is $219.00, but it is currently on sale at Goldspot for $164.95. The pen is 5.3 inches capped, 5.125 inches uncapped, and 6.45 inches posted.

The nib is a two-tone, custom-engraved, stainless steel nib that comes in fine, medium or broad. The nib on the loaner pen from Goldspot is a fine.

And the nib is the best part of this pen. It is large and writes smoothly. It's a very firm nib (no flex or bounce). But it isn't scratchy nor does it exhibit hard starts.

The marbled blue cap with a black top section is elegant, and the steel accents complement the silver swirls in the marbled acrylic.

The clip is unadorned except for a small "B" stamped at the top and the ring is plain. The clip is flexible enough to attach to a pad of paper or a shirt pocket.

Unfortunately, the pen's design begins to fall apart once you remove the cap. The grip portion of the barrel and the piston are black. The mid-section of the barrel is translucent blue, allowing you to keep track of your ink level. This unusual combination of a marbled acrylic cap with a demonstrator barrel doesn't work well. When I look at the pen, I think "someone put the wrong cap on this pen."

Then there's a section I can't quite describe. It's opaque, and it looks like a wad of wet Kleenex was stuffed into the barrel.

I have no idea why the pen was designed with this element which, frankly, I think is ugly. Had the designers simply used the marbled acrylic or translucent blue, the pen would be more attractive. Maybe they were trying to hide the piston mechanism. But this strange opaque white section ruins the appearance of the pen, especially since it isn't uniform but mottled.

In the photographs, it looks like this section is textured on the inside, but you can't see that with the naked eye. It may be a trick of the light or an aberration the camera picked up.

In addition, two holes, which I assume are necessary, mar the appearance of the barrel.

Appearance isn't the only problem with this pen. The piston does not turn smoothly at all. You can feel the piston bump along as you turn it–gallumpf, gallumpf. It's quite disconcerting. I don't know if the barrel is misshaped or if the piston is not perfectly round. I've owned Pelikans with hard-turning pistons (something easily fixed with a little silicone grease), but I've never felt a piston "gallumpf." Maybe this is simply how Bexley pistons turn. If so, I don't like their pistons.

Whatever causes the Bexley piston to stutter doesn't seem to affect the seal. However, I discovered that the pen won't fill unless you have the entire nib submerged plus a little of the grip. Since the nib is so large, you'll need to have deep, full ink bottles or figure out a way to angle bottle so the nib is completely submerged. That's what I did to fill the Bexley with Diamine Denim.

My son demonstrates the tip fill

I am not impressed with the Bexley Phoenix fountain pen. Although it is a smooth writer, the design of the pen is disappointing, and the piston mechanism, at least on the loaner pen, is bumpy. I've not tried other Bexley models, but I would not recommend this one.

Pros

• Smooth writing, large steel nib
• Piston filler

Cons

• Unattractive design, especially the opaque white section
• Rough piston movement
• A bit difficult to get a good fill

Copic Doodle Pack Brown Ink Review

(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.)

Okay listen, I'm a black and white sort of fella. No no no, I like grey as much as the next person and life is so rarely as simple as the bright clear white and the rich dark black, but when I'm doodling I prefer the starkest of contrasts. Good ol' B & W.

That said, comfort zones are made to be stepped away from. Markers are decidedly outside of mine. Sure, as an awkward youth I burnt through many a flimsy yellow cardboard box of brightly toned cylinders, and had fun while doing so, transforming white sheets into worlds where the grass really was green and the sky always a brilliant blue. I think I was probably in high school when I abandoned colors in general in my drawings. Too much work! The thing was done and now I have to risk ruining it by coloring? No thanks. I have talked to many people who feel the same way about inking, which I have always found relaxing and a general refinement of the previous version, but I digress. Let’s get down to the business at hand - Copic Markers Doodle Pack in Brown. A fine way to test the swirling waters of color.

Here is the (my) thing about colors: when given all of the choices in the world, it is crippling. It can be overwhelming trying to choose the right color when there are limitless options. It is much easier and even more effective to limit a pallet and work within constraints. That is what piqued my interest in these packs. You are giving various tones of a single color group and a variety of tools as well. Let’s do a quick breakdown of the four items:

• Copic Ciao Marker - E31 Brick Beige: dual edge (one chisel, one brush) perfect for large area toning. A light (but not too light) brown.
• Copic Ciao Marker - E35 Chamois: dual edge (one chisel, one brush) perfect for large area toning. A dark (but not too dark) brown
• Copic atyou Spica Glitter Pen - Chocolate: Lays down a decent sized deep dark brown. 
• Copic Multiliner Pen - 0.3 mm Brown: Lays down a super fine deep dark brown.

For an analogy, let’s say you are painting a room: Your Ciao Markers are your rollers, Spica is your edge brush and the Multiliner is your tiny-detail-single-hair brush. They work wonderfully in concert with one another, each doing a job the other couldn't do and making the whole better.

To be honest I totally forgot how to use markers and started to do line work with one of the Ciao markers. Rookie move. Markers bleed like my nose in allergy season, what was meant to be a fine line wound up a broad stroke and I sat agape watching the pigment do it slow march outward. Oops. I shrugged it off, finished lining it with the marker and relined it with the Spica. Went back with the Ciaos to fill and then finished it up the details with the Multiliner. Suffice to say it was like riding a bike and before long I was grinning like that awkward child I once was (I am now an awkward adult, thank you very much).

One of my favorite aspects is the layering effect of the Ciaos. You might have only two colors but you can overlap the color for slightly darker shades of each, adding nuance to the shading. The Spica was my main outliner, the flow was solid and clean. Yes, it is a glitter ink pen but I hadn't noticed HOW glittery till the next day in better light. Glitter ink is, admittedly, not my bag, but it has a very nice look to it! The Multiliner worked well, but I am not wild about the tips on these types of pens. The super fine point is made of what feels like felt and they crush too easy for me, but tip works perfect for details and the shade is close to the Spica, so they work well together.

All in all I would highly recommend the Doodle packs to anyone interested in trying either expanding their marker knowledge or color palette. They are extraordinarily fun to use and will add some variety to an otherwise drab sketchbook. They can be purchased at JetPens and are available in a variety of color spectrums (I have my eye on the turquoise next).   Cheers.

(Disclaimer: This product was provided for me free of cost but I am not otherwise being compensated for this review. The opinions contained are my own.)