Fountain Pen Day 2024 at Flax Pen-to-Paper

(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!.)

I was fortunate to spend Fountain Pen Day (and the day after) at Flax Pen-to-Paper last weekend and wanted to share some pictures from the trip!

Flax Pen-to-Paper celebrated Fountain Pen Day with a Kenro trunk show, as well as handwriting classes by yours truly!

The prize wheel and prize ball machine greeted you upon entering the store.

I love that the prizes included Flax merchandise (like the cute tote that you can’t quite see behind the wheel), personalized notebook, bottle of ink and more!

Ryan Sirignano from Kenro Industries and Jeremy Saumere from Flax starting the FPD celebration!

I love the packaging on the new King of the Night by Esterbrook, especially the pen wrap/cape, which has a magnetic closure!

Folks got a preview of the Kenro trunk show and had a nice time meeting fellow pen enthusiasts.

Flax customer James is checking out the various pen binders from Kenro.

Ryan Finnegan (left) of Saiko Stationery, Ryan Sirignano and customer Farina are all smiles about FPD! Managed to get Jean-Luc in the photo too!

Super excited to see that Schon Dsgn pens are now available at the Flax store!

Saiko Stationery’s pop up shop!

SO tempted by the washi, but I was good! These notepads are so fun!

OMG, these Duckhead umbrellas are so cute! I still haven’t been able to pick one out yet! Does anyone who lives in a drought-prone state need four umbrellas? Asking for a friend, lol.

This amazing, new Leuchtturm display wasn’t here when I last visited a couple months ago! Wow!

Also new is this Leuchtturm cart where they can personalize your new notebook! And the machinery is theirs, so this personalization service is available year-round!

I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do because I was busy preparing for and teaching my class (Elevate the Everyday: Improve Your Handwriting) on Friday and Saturday! Both Jeremy and I forgot to take pictures during the classes (you’d think one of us would remember after forgetting to do so after the first class, but nope), but I did take selfies with the class afterwards!

Friday afternoon’s class.

Saturday morning’s class (I almost forgot to ask for a selfie but managed to get them before they left, which is why they’re all standing, oops!)

Saturday afternoon’s class included a mom and her son (with the emoji face), as well as Laurie, who took the day off from Flax to take my class!

It was such an honor to learn a little about what bothered folks about their handwriting and to be able to share some things I’ve learned as part of my own handwriting journey. It was awesome to see people having their own a-ha moments when they started figuring out what things they wanted to focus on when they practiced. I was especially happy to see the boy (and his mom) in my Saturday afternoon class - he was writing along with everyone else and was picking out a notebook afterwards so he can practice some more! I’m hoping to do more of these classes next year including at pen shows, shops, and other events, so stay tuned!

Just because I was busy teaching and not taking enough photos doesn’t mean my wallet left Flax unscathed.

My Next Read acrylic stamps from Everyday Explorers, Dog note cards from Crane, Sheaffer VFM, Otto Hutt 03 Lila Orange (I couldn’t ignore it after seeing the Bossman get this last year), sticker sheet from Saiko Stationery, Tono & Lims Pumpkin and Cinderella inks, two inserts for my Traveler’s Notebook, and a personalized Leuchtturm notebook in Dusty Rose (one of four new 2025 colors.)

Happy 13th Fountain Pen Day! (Ink used was actually Diamine Thunderbolt because I didn’t get the FPD ink until after I made this.)

I hope everyone had a great Fountain Pen Day and to Cary Yeager who thought of this 13 years ago! A huge thank you to Jeremy Saumere and the Flax Pen-to-Paper team for having me, to Ryan Sirignano for penabling me (again), to the folks who came and took my class, and to everyone I’ve had a chance to interact with, in person or online, about this crazy little rabbit hole called fountain pens! Until next time, stay safe and stay inky!

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 639 - I Love Pencils I Use Pens

We back up.

After a month of heavy pencil usage, pens are back on the priority list. Which ones? Fine ones. Some would even say Ultra Extra Fine. We also discuss the end of Mitsubishi Bank Paper, why the Pilot 823 is good, and stationery tattoos.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

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Pen Chalet: Check out this week's special offer, and to get your code for 10% off.

OHTO Minimo Ballpoint Pen Review

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

For those times when you need to carry a pen, but are extremely limited on space, the OHTO Minimo might be the right tool for the job. But being small and easy to stow comes with plenty of trade-offs. What exactly is this pen meant for?

There's a fairly robust market for pocketable pens to choose from, and they can be surprisingly comfortable to use once they're uncapped and posted. The Fisher Bullet is a prime example of this. It's small enough to be stowed in a small pocket, but the posted length makes it comfortable for writing notes. I wouldn't want to write a novel with the Bullet pen, but I could if I really needed to (and had plenty of extra refills). Is the Bullet still too large for your needs? Maybe you want to stow a pen in a wallet or pocketbook. Maybe you want to store a pen inside a notebook without worrying about damaging the pen or the notebook spine. If your ultimate concern is size, then the OHTO Minimo is an interesting choice.

The Minimo is among a class of pens that I don't lump in with the pocket pen class. The Minimo is even smaller — so much so that it's uncomfortable and difficult to use. But the main point of this pen is to stow in places other, more comfortable, pens just can't. I've tried a few of these pens and mechanical pencils in the past. They're generally billed as something you can slip into a small notebook, a wallet, pocketbook, or other small space for those "just in case" moments where you don't have another pen available. Ever seen the pen on a Victorinox knife? That's the level of minimal design we're talking about.

The Minimo is only 9 cm/3.56 inches, which is small enough to easily fit into a wallet or pocketbook. It's also only 3.6 mm in diameter, which is quite an accomplishment. This is barely large enough to allow space for the D1 refill and spring to fit inside the barrel. And, it even packs in a retractable mechanism and a nose cone that threads onto the tiny barrel. From an engineering standpoint, it's impressive that they were able to get the tolerances this tight. This pen feels solid and reliable. The retractable mechanism is similar to other larger pens that feature a switch on the upper side of the barrel (like the Tactile Turn Side Click). Depress the top to extend the refill, and press the tab to quickly retract. Operating the retracting mechanism is flawless, which I'm still impressed since it's all so small.

Replacing the refill is a bit fiddly just due to the small size of all the components. The spring is the same length as the refill, and there's a small metal cap that slips over the back of the refill to provide a place for the spring to stop. And, since this is a standard D1 refill, your options for replacement are abundant.

The bright green barrel color I chose doesn't seem to be available right now, but the black and pink options look good too. There's only a small OHTO Minimo brand logo next to the tiny clip, and it's a bit difficult to notice it since it's so small.

The included refill is a 0.5mm black ballpoint that writes really well. It can require a small scribble to start going, but it writes smoothly and reliably. Since it's a small D1 refill, I wouldn't expect it to last very long, but that's not really the point with this pen.

So far, so good, right? Sure, but I haven't talked about what it's like to write with this pen, and that's where the negatives crop up. To get straight to the point, this pen is a difficult to use, uncomfortable, and generally awful as a writing instrument, and this entirely due to the small physical size. There's just nothing to hold onto when trying to write. It's only marginally better than writing with a naked refill. Writing out a whole A5 page (double-spaced) left my hand cramping. I don't want to use this pen. But, I guess it's better than nothing.

What's the point of this pen? At $8.50, the cost is low enough to justify storing it in something that you generally always carry with you in the event you need an emergency pen. Other than that, the other legitimate use case I can see (and my personal favorite) is just the novelty of the tiny form factor.

Speaking for myself, I can always find room for a small pen that is also comfortable to use and that doesn't leave my hand cramping after a few sentences. But that doesn't mean the OHTO Minimo will be forgotten in the back of a drawer — it's an excellent fidget toy and conversation starter. And maybe this could be your standard loaner pen when someone asks if they can borrow a pen? They'll definitely give it back to you.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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