Reflections on Some Currently Inked Pens

(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!.)

Despite being in this rabbit hole for 6.5 years, I continue to learn not just about pens, inks and all that, but about my preferences and habits. There isn’t a right or wrong way to be in this hobby and what works for someone may or may not work for you. For some reason during the past few weeks, a few of my currently inked pens were good reminders of lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Pelikan M215 Blue Stripe

*Hard to tell from this picture but there are silver colored stripes on the barrel of this pen.*

Patience (and research), Grasshopper - I have wanted this pen for 3-4 years (maybe longer) and have seen it on eBay for very high/ambitious prices. And I am definitely not one for patience. But I also don’t want to overspend. Doing research ahead of time, including reaching out to folks who have better pulses on the Pelikan secondary market, made it easier for me to pounce on a listing that was finally in the right price range.

Inks & pen combinations matter - As I mentioned in recent ink reviews, inks behave differently in different pens (and also on different papers too). This M215 is currently inked up with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite, which is a lovely blue-black ink. Is it a shocker that this is a good matchup? No, not really, but I haven’t used this ink since I first tried it, gulp, way back in 2017, in a Lamy Safari. I absolutely hated the combination because it felt like writing with sand and I wondered if I should dump the ink out of the pen and get rid of the sample. What I didn’t know then, was that Lamy pens can be on the drier side and that Pelikan inks are also on the drier side (to compensate for their wetter nibs), so that combination was doomed from the start. What’s sad is that I was hesitant to try the ink again, even though I learned more about pens and inks since 2017. I’m glad I decided to try the ink in this pen, because it flows just perfectly from this pen, and it’s a great match colorwise, too. I’ve also since learned that it’s ok to empty out a pen if the ink just isn’t doing it for you. Life’s too short to write with a bad combination.

TWSBI Classic, Blue

Oldie but goodie - One of my first TWSBIs is the Classic, in Turquoise. I love the non-demonstrator look but I don’t really think about them as much because I usually want a demonstrator when I want to ink up a TWSBI. I needed to ink up a blue pen so I decided on the blue Classic. It had a Fine nib and even though Mediums are my usual jam, I just shrugged and inked it up anyway. Then I wrote with it and was shocked at how much I liked the Classic AND the fine nib. It is so easy to ink up the latest acquisitions and forget about the older pens (and inks). I try to balance that urge by having a mix of old and new pens in the “to-be-inked-next” tray. I do this with inks too. It’s like discovering a lost treasure.

Visconti Van Gogh, Starry Night

It’s ok if looks are important - As a Van Gogh fan, and more specifically of Starry Night, I love this pen. Not because it is an amazing writer (I mean, it writes fine) but because looking at it makes me happy. It makes me think about my favorite piece of art and that makes me happy. People place different levels of importance on the nib vs the appearance and that’s one of the many wonderful things about this rabbit hole. My personal pen preference emphasizes looks over writing (probably 65:35 as long as the nib doesn’t write poorly). In the end, as long as you’re happy, whether it’s with the looks, the nib (or both), it’s a win in my book.

Oldie but goodie, this time with ink - I inked this up with an ink that I once loved but sorta put by the wayside (shame on me) - Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo. When everyone was raving about Shin-kai (cough cough, Bossman), I instead fell in love with Tsuki-yo. With all the deluge of inks that currently exist and continue to be released, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest “must-have ink”. I had forgotten how much I liked that ink and I’m glad I decided to use it again.

Platinum Curidas, Matte Blue

It is not a popularity contest - Not gonna lie, the Platinum Curidas is probably one of the more polarizing pens when it comes to looks, nock length, design, etc. And yet, I still love it. I have the original demonstrator finishes but I love this Matte Blue with black trim. The Medium steel nib gives me the perfect line width. Do I love it more than the Vanishing Points or Decimos? Probably not, but I still love it, even if it’s not for everyone, and that’s what matters.

Don’t judge an ink before using it - I bought a sample of Taccia Ukiyo-e Hiroshige-Ruri and after swatching it, I thought “yet another dark blue ink” and was glad that I hadn’t bought a bottle. After pairing it up with the Curidas though, I’m loving the richness of this blue ink, along with its subtle sheen that can even been seen on Rhodia, and am now adding it to my “bottles to buy” list. It’s another reminder that I shouldn’t judge an ink too quickly!

Pilot Falcon/Elabo, Metal Blue

They can’t all be winners - The Pilot Falcon (or Elabo in other markets) is a pen that has a fun, bouncy nib that can give some line variation, which I generally love, but there’s something about this one that isn’t doing it for me. I really like the plastic version of this pen with a Soft Fine nib, but I don’t think it’s the minimally- added weight. The Akkerman Delfts Blauw ink is flowing just fine so it’s not that. Maybe it’s the Soft Medium nib which feels blobby and almost squeaky. I really want to love it, but I don’t, so I think it’s better to part ways, than to have it stay in the collection untouched and unloved.

It’s hard saying goodbye - Despite everything I just wrote about the pen not being a good fit, it’s still really hard for me to decide to sell a pen. I just have to remember that someone else will enjoy it more than I do and that I can use the proceeds to get something else, like that bottle of Taccia Hiroshige-ruri :-)

None of these things are earth-shattering or new in any way, but I don’t usually have these revelations when I’m writing with my pens. So when they do pop up, it’s worth taking a moment to pay attention to what they’re trying to teach me.

Posted on November 17, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Fountain Pens, Pilot, Pelikan, TWSBI, Visconti, Platinum.

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 590 - Writing With the Theme of Writing

*Uni Kuru Toga Dive Purple,* *via Instagram*.

Myke and I went off the rails quickly this episode, only getting back on track in the second half of the show. It doesn’t take much for us to share silly stationery stories, and this episode delivered.

Show Notes & Download Links

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Posted on November 16, 2023 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Podcast.

Meet Your Maker - Abigail Markov, Third House Inks et al.

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

After writing these columns for over a year, I think I can break the fourth wall to tell you that Abigail Markov’s Instagram makes me tired. She’s like the Hindu goddess Kali with the six arms, each one spinning a different plate: pens, ink, jewelry, soap, choir, kids…. Whew! What’s going on here??

It started with her mother. “She loved fountain pens. I remember all the brand names from going to stores with her, even if she didn’t always buy something.” She and her late husband loved pens, and she said to him, “You know, we could make these,” so he bought a wood lathe and started making pens. “He didn’t let me near it, so I started casting the materials with supplies I had on hand from art.” When he passed away, she thought it was a shame to give it up because he wasn’t there anymore, so she taught herself to do kit pens, and then kitless pens. Shop creep came quickly with the need for a metal lathe to do all of the things she wanted to do.

Markov’s first pen model was called the Saturn – it was a rollerball pen with a metal fidget spinner in the pen body. Her current flagship model, the Bebe, came about as a way to create a fountain pen that is fun and more affordable than the Saturn with all its more involved metalwork – a sub-$200 daily writer. “I wanted to make something able to withstand the kind of abuse I would put it through.” The Bebe has aluminum parts as well as resin, but it isn’t heavy. “My resin is lighter than most, it’s polyester resin. Nobody likes working with it because it will explode if your angles aren’t right, but it’s lightweight and durable, it polishes like glass, and the colors stay bright.” She makes her own metal parts from rod stock – aluminum currently, and some brass is on the way, which she finds more fun to work with.

Markov’s soap business was created to help fund the rehab of the farm in rural Florida that she and her husband had undertaken. “The design aspect of soap was very close to some of the art I had done.” With soap came incense that wouldn’t give her a headache.

Perhaps her most complex endeavor has been the creation of Third House Inks. You may have noticed that the ink bottles you buy from your favorite manufacturer don’t have lists of ingredients on them. Nobody really talks about what’s inside those bottles, and there are undoubtedly trade secrets involved. So figuring out how to make ink seems like a rather tall order. For Markov, it started with a fiber arts interest. “Eighteen years ago, my first husband and I were stationed in Germany and my youngest had just been born – I was home all the time, so I took up knitting.” Of course this led to spinning, weaving, and dyeing her own yarn and fiber. “I wanted to dye yarn, so I did some dyeing. When I wanted to make ink, it seemed like it involved ingredients I already had from soap making and dyeing.”

To find out what really needed to be in the bottle, she started looking up and reading patents for different kinds of inks, and began iterating. After releasing her Version 1, she got a lot of feedback about the ink’s behavior in pens and on paper, and started tweaking her ratios to get better results. After about forty small incremental batches she arrived at Version 2. She now produces close to a dozen colors.

With pens, ink, soap, incense, jewelry, and driving her youngest a long distance to his magnet high school, oh, and rehabbing a farm, you would think every second would be crammed full. But Markov is also in a community choir. “I sang in a choir in eighth grade, but it wasn’t until my kids were older and I stopped moving around that I joined a community choir. People say, ‘Why would you want to go be bad at something with other people?’ Because it’s fun! And we’re actually pretty good.”

Even while juggling all of these endeavors, Markov is always inspired with new ideas. “I have more ideas than I even have time to write down. So many people on social media are making interesting jewelry, sculpture, art – so many ideas I can use.” Future plans include a clip design, an eyedropper pen design, a piston fill design, and experiments with using titanium as the metal component in her pens. She wants to make more “art pens – similar to the concept of the Saturn, but with more moving parts.” She is also looking to move her ink business to wholesale, once she takes in feedback on Version 2.

It can’t be entirely coincidental that the goddess Kali comes to mind when taking in the scope of Markov’s endeavors, and not only because her cat’s name is Kali. “I have what you might call a ‘kitless faith process’ – also called chaos magic.” Wikipedia says chaos magic practitioners “… treat belief as a tool, often creating their own idiosyncratic magical systems and frequently borrowing from other magical traditions, religious movements, popular culture and various strands of philosophy.” For the past few years, Markov has been delving into aspects of Kali. “Personification of traits helps us deal with hard things. Kali shows that you are not lesser for having anger, frustration, trauma, or grief.”

All those arms are just an extra perk.

Abigail Markov’s work can be seen on her Instagram, her website, and at the Orlando Pen Show.

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Posted on November 16, 2023 by Caroline Foty and filed under Meet Your Maker.