Plumchester Square Sketchbook Review

When Lee and Sarah Rubenstein of ArtSnacks let me in on the creation of their own art supply company last year I was excited to see what they would come up with. The secret was revealed to all in the November ArtSnacks box with the introduction of the Plumchester 1.5 Fine Brush Pen. It was met with excellent reviews, and seeing it in action on the Plumchester Instagram feed, I could tell it was well done.

With a successful launch behind them, it was time to branch out and expand the brand. Enter the Plumchester Square Sketchbook.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a sketchbook guru. Watercolors, charcoal, brushes, and other media with a more artistic bent are not my forte. But I know what I want in a notebook, I have a plethora of pens, pencils, and ink to throw at one, and I know how paper should act. I think Plumchester nailed it across the board right out of the gate.

If nothing else is obvious from the pictures, this is not your old school black sketchbook. For that, I am thankful! The purple vegan leather hard cover is vibrant, and the yellow elastic closure and bookmark ribbon add the perfect amount of pop. The branding is minimal, with only the Plumchester “P” logo stamped on the back cover. Inside contains 48 pages of blank, white, acid-free, 160 GSM paper, all bound to lay flat when in use.

Brad Dowdy, not an artist

I wasn’t sure what to throw at it first. The Sakura Pigma Micron seemed like the obvious choice, as well as other drawing pens. They went down on the page as expected. The feedback from the paper is smooth, not rough, so it’s not exactly made for the products I mentioned above, like watercolors. There is no feathering or bleed. Gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils worked as expected also.

Back of the page above

Fountain pens on sketchbook paper is generally a no-no, but not with the Plumchester Sketchbook. None of the nibs I tried dug into the paper, and the inks behaved as if they were writing in any other fountain pen friendly notebook. The ink dried quickly, with no bleed to speak of. I didn’t expect this at all, but I’m certainly happy about it. Even Sharpies worked well, and were the only pen to show even a hint of ink on the back side of the page.

Sharpie front

One format that I enjoy that doesn’t get used enough, for various and valid reasons, are square notebooks. For a sketchbook this size, it is wonderful. It is the right amount of space all the way around. 8.3” in each direction to be exact, sort of like a double-wide A5. It’s an ideal size for sketching and still fits easily in your bag or backpack.

Sharpie back

For $18, this is close to no-brainer territory. Even if you are not an artist, as I clearly am not, this is a sketchbook that you can find a myriad of uses for. Using it is an enjoyable experience. It gets out of its own way and does its job. Simple as that.

My thanks to Plumchester for sending me an advance copy of the Square Sketchbook at no charge for purposes of this review.

Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun Fountain Pen Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

It might be 2017, but there's still a long stint of winter ahead for most of us. When I decided to order a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun, part of my reasoning was due to the wintery color of the ink. Another reason is that I haven't had any experience with gray inks of any kind. A few days later, it's in my pen and putting a smile on my face.

Being an ink from the Iroshizuku lineup, I knew to expect a well-behaved ink. I just wasn't sure about the color. Gladly, it's a very low-key blue-gray that shades nicely. It's not dreary at all. It's crisp and stoic like an early winter morning full of snow and clouds. Even though those conditions can be miserable, they can also be beautiful.

The color of Fuyu-syogun is gray with a heavy blue undertone. At times, the overall color can look like a pale, cold violet. When you look closely, it's unmistakably gray. The shading is the main reason your eyes want a second take. The blending and shifting of gray, blue, and violet make for some beautiful shading qualities. Even though the color is subdued, it stands out enough to possibly be a problem for regular office use. But, it's a tough call about how professional this ink is. It could pass in some office environments.

One minor setback for me is the lack of saturation I get in some of the lighter strokes with this ink. It's a minor complaint, and it pretty much disappears (the complaint, that is) when used in a larger or wetter nib. After trying the ink in a Kaweco EF and a Pilot F, I can say that I'll probably never use this ink in anything but a European medium nib or larger. Keep that in mind if you prefer inks with more potent saturation. Smaller nibs don't show off the nice shading this ink is capable of.

The last several inks I've tried have had relatively fast dry times. It's not something I've done on purpose, and it's not even a feature that I demand out of my inks. All the same, Fuyu-syogun dries rapidly. In my tests using a medium nib, it dried consistently between 10 and 15 seconds for normal writing. Fast drying inks are always a nice bonus.

Feathering, bleeding, and show-through are minimal with this ink. Given the light color saturation in most nibs, show-through isn't a concern for nearly any decent paper type. Even when I've tried this ink in a 1.5mm dip nib, I wasn't able to detect any feathering or bleed. Like all other Iroshizuku inks, it's well-behaved and predictable in this sense.

I ordered this ink from JetPens, and it's one of the Iroshizuku lineup that come in two sizes: 50ml or 15ml. I've recently been on a small bottle kick because of how easy they are to store. And even though 15ml is a lot less than 50ml, it still goes a long way in fountain pen terms.

This is a great ink, and a permanent favorite for me. It's my first gray ink experience, and I'm glad it's a positive one. If you're looking for a neutral, slightly-blue gray ink to try, give this one a look. With gray inks, you can choose from many different shades (from cold to warm, blue to brown), but this is a great place to start.

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

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Sunderland Machine Works MK1 Now Available (Sponsor)

Kickstarter machined pens come and go, but none has seen more use from me over the past few years than the Sunderland MK1.

While it looks simple on the outside, Brad Sunderland packed several unique features in the MK1. First of all, there are no visible threads on the pen barrel. This is accomplished by hiding the cap threading beneath the grip section. It’s so well integrated you wouldn’t know it was there if I didn’t tell you.

Secondly, this is a metal pen that posts, and posts well. This is accomplished by a slight taper in the rear of the barrel combined with a polymer liner inside the cap to prevent metal on metal scratching. The liner also allows the cap to stay firmly in place when writing.

Finally, the clip is machined from a block of stainless steel, not stamped like you will find on other pens. This greatly increases the clip strength while retaining its flexibility and functionality.

The Sunderland MK1 fits all Pilot G2 compatible refills, plus Montblanc’s screw-in refills for their rollerball and fineliner. And did you notice the new barrel colors now available? Red, Blue, Grey, and Orange have all been added to the mix, and they look fantastic.

The MK1 is now available at Sunderland Machine Works and is absolutely worth checking out. My thanks to Sunderland Machine Works for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.