Misfill, Year of the Ox Edition

Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:

— Embrace the Year of the Ox (the RAD AND HUNGRY blog)

— Kuretake Karappo Empty Brush & Felt Tip Pens (Set of 5) (The Well-Appointed Desk)

— Handwriting Practice with Fountain Pens - Conid Kingsize Bulkfiller + Montblanc Ink (Gourmet Pens)

— Monteverde Fireopal on Midori MD (Inkcredible Colours)

— Artist Adriana Lozano on discovering new music through drawing (It’s Nice That)

— Ink Review #445: 3 Oysters Delicious Mustard (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)

— Inky pursuits: some non-fountain pen tinkerings. (Fountain pen blog)

— La nueva Italia, 12 plumas tan parecidas como hermosas (El Pajarete Orquidiado)

— Stretching Those Gratitude Muscles (From the Pen Cup)

— Keith Haring’s Lines of Desire (Hyperallergic)

— Rediscovering pens I already have (mnmlscholar)

— Fountain Pen Quest Trail Log - February 14, 2021 (Fountain Pen Quest)

— Sketch Vs. Final: Artists Show The Huge Difference Between Their Sketches And Finished Artwork (Design You Trust)

— A New Yorker Cartoonist Explains How to Draw Literary Cartoons (Open Culture)

— Pocket Size Review 48: Red Dragon Pen Company Sylvan, Bungubox Clown Teardrop (Penquisition)

— Pencil Review: Moon Bare Wood (HB) (Polar Pencil Pusher)

— Schon DSGN Pocket6 (dapprman)

— SEED Radar (Lexikaliker)

— Faber-Castell Broadpen 1554 Pen Review (My Pen Needs Ink)

Want to catch the rest, plus extra articles, reviews, commentary, discounts, and more? Try out a Pen Addict Membership for only $5 per month!

Penco Carry-Tite Case Giveaway Winner

I’m a Penco fan, and this Penco Carry-Tite Case is one of the more unique items I’ve seen them release recently. I had one to give away, and the winner is:

Congrats Bryan! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.

JetPens Kanso Noto Notebook A5 Dot Grid: A 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 JetPens exclusive Kanso Noto Notebook comes in four colors: black, dark green, navy blue, and deep purple. It's an A5-size notebook with 52gsm Tomoe River Paper in a dot grid format.

The notebook is simple with cardstock covers, a sewn binding, and a taped spine. There are no extras, such as page numbers, an index, or ribbon bookmarks.

It has 320 pages (front and back) of dot grid paper. The dots are a light grey color--so light they are a little difficult to see except in bright light.

The cardstock covers are easily bent. In fact, my notebook already had creases when I opened it. If you don't want this notebook to get beat up in your book bag, you might want to put it in an A5 cover.

Tomoe River Paper is best known for being smooth, thin, and fountain-pen friendly. Inks are displayed at their very best on this paper, which brings out shading and sheening properties.

I tested ten fountain pens in this notebook. As expected, all the inks worked well with the paper. There was no bleeding and no bleed through; however, because of the thinness of the paper, show through is quite visible.

I used Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo in my Nakaya with a medium flex stub nib to write out a longer passage. You can see good shading properties in the writing sample. Again, show through is obvious, so you may not want to write on both sides of the paper.

I love doing ink swatches on Tomoe River Paper. There's just nothing quite like it to bring out the qualities in various inks. I tested ten inks from different manufacturers in the notebook. All the swatches are vivid (though the cream color of the paper may mute them slightly), and pooling, sheen, and shading are dramatic. I did my swatches with a paintbrush, so they were quite wet and some did bleed through to the other side.

Tomoe River Paper is now ubiquitous, being used in notebooks from many manufacturers. It's good to have options. If you want a simple notebook at a decent price ($19.00) the Kanso Noto is a good choice. Although JetPens is currently out of stock, you can sign up to be emailed when the notebook is back in stock.

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

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