The Desk (xi) : nice pens (last desk shots)

The final Desk post (pen cases and cabinets to come!)

Not much to say here, just caption the pics:

The Pen box. From left - A Dunhill (I believe these were made by MB); A Mont Blanc Boheme retractable; MontBlanc Hemingway (my first 'signifcant' pen); a MontBlanc 149; A MontBlanc Writers Edition (Kafka); a Simpole Conway Stewart (great IM nib, lovely pen - Thanks Chris); 4 Waterman Edison (1 stub, 1 fine, the other two are a pencil and ballpoint).

Here it is with the top up (and an Ollo lens on my iPhone):

and here is the second drawer:

From Left: 3 Noodler Ahabs and a Noodlers flex. This is followed by a Franklin Cristof 27 (lovely pen); a Parker modern Duofold; a Bexley Mandarin; and 4 Edisons: an Extended Mira (bulb filler), an LE Piston called the Brockton, a Collier bulb filler (great colour); and an Ebonite Pearl.

The Desk (part x) ...are you seriously still reading?

Yes, this is the tenth!!!! blog of the desk. But now I'm moving back to a few pens to make it interesting:

So here, above the computer on a former fireplace ledge you can see the side of a box for a Montegrappa Cigar which looks like this:

Behind that box is the box for an Omas Gallileo Galliilei LE

which looks like this:

Next to these boxes is a Rhodia orange pad behind an Art Deco Charles Rennie Mackintosh Pewter flask, next to the box of a Delta Isaac Newton LE which looks like this:

Underneath the Isaac Newton is the box (and pen) of a Visconti Mazzi Dragon (LE) which looks like this:

This is next to a Moleskine with a Pen Quiver on the spine.

Moving to the left we see this:

A photo of my Blossom, three bottles of ink: Noodlers St Patty's Eire (a very bright green for which I have no use at all - more like a highlighter colour), Diamine Blue Sapphire (my go-to blue) and Pilot Black. 

And finally, for this page, under the inks is an Aurora red-tipped Demonstrator that I don't have a pic of (and I'm writing this too late at night to post one unless you pester me) but this is a clear pen with a celluloid piece at either extremity - very nice.

So here ends Desk blog #10 and there is still one more to come!

Until next tine....

The Desk (part ix)

I'm moving today to the more mundane part of the desk before moving to more interesting bits.

We start with my CPU - an Apple (quite old now - 2007), but a fabulous machine.

In front of the desk top, you can see a bottle of Tsuyu-kusa Iroshizuku ink (quite like this one). Under the CPU you can see the spine of a Rickshaw Bags Moleskine cover (Moleskine inside) then a pen rest (Nakaya) on top of which are an Omas Green Arco with a fabulous Mottishaw italic nib; and a Pelikan Go. There is a close up of these here:

Here you can also see a Kaweco Al Sport in aluminium sitting on a vintage glass ink well, as well as a couple more of my "Go-to" inks : Private Reserve Tanzanite (a great purple and known about the traps as a pen laxative!) and MB Racing Green.


Here is the shelf just above my pen drawers: This includes a box with an Eversharp Skyline set (pen and pencil), some of my stationery a bucket lid of ballpoints, felt tips and pencils (see below) and a Visconti pen display (that I don't use - who said I'm a horder!)

That's it until next tine!

Pen Poem

A fountain pen that's filled with ink
Exudes a style and feel I think
Is better than a ballpoint pen
Which has its uses but again
I much prefer the flow and flex
That celluloid and nib reflects

The Desk (Part 8) - The Last Drawer (sort of)

Here we come to the last of the "Main" drawers on my desk: the ominously titled 'Miscellaneous' drawer.

This is the drawer where I place the bits and piecey pens that don't really fit anywhere else.

From top:

• Stipula Passporto (Ebonite) (LE #99/220)
• Fine Omas nib and feed (in container)
• Stipula Passporto (Blue)
• Stipula Passporto (Black)
• Columbus Extra Mechanical pencil (part of a set) in green celluloid
• Tswibi 530
• Pelikan Twist 
• Tswibi 540 (with Pendleton fab nib)
• Noodlers Flex pens (blue and red)
• Rotering Skynn
• Another Twsibi nib

Pen Poem

Who is that woman with the fountain pen?
I can see she has style, it's a piston and when
She puts nib onto paper I can see how it flows
Should I speak or just wonder at ink, pen and prose

Who is that woman with the fountain pen?
When she writes I smell violets, so subtle and then
When she smiles I see clearly she knows how to flex
Line on line, curve on curve, she knows how to perplex.

A Short tale of contrasts: Visconti Pinifarina & Platinum Cool

Today was a very exciting day. Two pens arrived. One from Bryant at Chatterley Pens, the other from Goulet Pens (who also sent me some ink). One pen was in carbon graphite, boasting a disappearing nib; the other in plastic not boasting at all (other than in name).

The Visconti Pininfarina is one of 930 pens made (a reference to Pininfarina's founding in 1930). This one is number 196.

The colour of the pen is really hard to photograph, and this one below is the closest I can get it:

The feel of the carbon graphite in your hand is just fantastic! 

The Pininfarina  is a well weighted pen too with a great functioning retracting nib (although I can see people complaining about the placement of the clip - why don't they do what Stipula has done with its retracting nib pens and allow the clip to be rotated?)

I know the carbon graphite in these pics look a little silver, but the pen is much darker (not dissimilar to a Lamy 2000).

But enough of the looks, what about the nib? Out of the box, a real problem - this is a stub nib but it just wouldn't write! (and I was so excited filling the Cartridge converter with the mosquito filler - although i'm not sure where to put it when it's not in use). 

On advice from a friend, I gave the nib and converter a good wash with soap and water and tried again. Sort of victory. It writes, but not my Diamine Sapphire Blue looks like Omo blue!

Home again, and she writes; and I like the line (a bit bigger than my usual), but for a pen with racing heritage, it certainly doesn't come burning rubber at the starting flag! A lot of stop/start before it flows.

I'll keep you in the loop.

The Platinum Cool however, is another beast altogether.

This little plastic wonder wrote straight out of the box with ease! And for a steel nib - great performance!  Even a little flex! (and you have to love Noodler's Apache Sunset - what a fabulous ink!

This unpretentious pen, comes with both cartridge and converter, and just delivers. 

Sure the Platinum doesn't have an 18k nib; but the steel it does have seems to deliver even better. The Platinum doesn't have an interesting trash can container to hold it (I'm sure it's meant to mean something else but the Pininfarina comes with a phallic black metal cylinder with a silver lid that seems more designed to justify the price than hold the pen); but a pocket does just as well. Of course, in the end, the Platinum doesn't have the weight of the Visconti (which is perfect) or the brilliant carbon graphite feel (which is pretty fantastic), nor is it's design as cool as the Pininfarina; but the Platinum Cool light weight, writes well and makes you smile in its own "cool" way!

Until next tine...