Ink Links

-- DIY Deco Tape  (Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Twenty-Something DIYer)

-- diary art  (les calepins de lapin)

-- The Pilot G2 Will Take You Where You Want To Go  (Flashpack)

-- Review of EcoJot Journals  (Pencil Revolution)

-- Multi Notebook is a notebook that includes 6 kinds paper items  (In The Library)

-- Me And My Trinote  (Plannerisms)

-- Liv Crayola™ Metallic Markers  (Does This Pen Write?)

-- Stabilo Swano 4907  (Stationery Traffic)

-- Papermate Berol Mirado Triangular Grade 2 Pencil  (Pens'n'Paper)

-- Chung Hwa Drawing Pencil 101  (Bleistift)

-- Pencil for long-term writing  (Pencil Revolution)

-- Franklin Covey Padfolio  (Pocket Blonde)

-- The Forgotten Pen Collection  (Writer's Bloc Blog)

-- A Closer Look at Moleskine’s PacMan Limited-Edition Notebooks  (Journaling Arts)

-- User Review: Gentian and a bottle of Herbin’s 1670 ink  (Rhodia Drive)

-- Interview with Lily Kim, Co-Founder of JetPens  (Mochi Blog)

-- Mitsubishi Pure Malt Pencil Review  (Dave's Mechanical Pencils)

-- Doodling with the Palomino Blackwing  (Lung Sketching Scrolls)

-- The great eraser race  (Woodclinched)

Pens in Flight: One approach that works

Recently I had an opportunity to test some of the internet's advice for taking pens on airplanes.  I ended up putting together several tips & tricks into a routine that worked quite well. It's nothing fancy but it does the job!

All the pens were placed in a zippered plastic bag, so their tips were pointed in the same direction. The water brush was emptied to avoid any potential issues with airport security.

As soon as we were seated, I pulled out the bag of pens and slipped it into the seat pouch (tips up, of course).  This way not only were they safe and totally secured into an upright position, but I could unzip the bag and use the pens while flying with very little fuss.

I used several of the pens during the flight - including a Pilot Penmanship fountain pen with a half-full cartridge.  None of the pens shed a drop of ink or had any other troubles, during or after the flight.

Surely a bit of bad luck could have caused this to go differently but I feel confident that this routine will minimize the chances of a spill, and mitigate the damage should the worst occur.

Review: Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen EF Nib

Am I getting heavy into fountain pens now?  Not quite - I still don't use them on a daily (or even weekly) basis, but it is hard for me to pass up a new Lamy model.  The Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen is a recent addition to the ever expanding JetPens lineup, and comes in a few different flavors.  My model has the orange cap with metal clip, and an extra fine nib (see all options here).

My first impressions of this fountain pen is that is a design mashup of the AL-Star and Safari lines from Lamy.  The Nexx has a nice aluminum barrel like the AL-Star, and a plastic cap like the Safari, which results in a more industrial look, as the product description puts it.  The one thing that is different from both is that the grip area is a solid rubber as opposed to plastic.  It is still molded in the triangular shape, but the rubber gives you a litte more security in the grip area.

At the start, I only have the standard Lamy blue ink cartridge that came with the pen, but many other ink cartridges are available, and the Lamy Z 24 converter works with it as well.  I'm a fan of the standard Lamy blue, and the EF nib in the Nexx actually seems a little smoother than the EF nib in my Charcoal Safari.

The Nexx is a great fountain pen for Lamy fans and for those looking for something different.  Since I only have a Safari to compare it to my opinion is limited to those two, but gun to my head I will pick up my Safari first, but it is really close.

Click here for the XL review.

Products used:

Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen EF Nib from JetPens

Writing Pad from Doane Paper

See also:

Review: Lamy Safari Charcoal/Black EF Nib

Review: Lamy Safari Lime Green with F Nib