G-Tec Mistakes and Leuchturm Love

Perhaps I ought to name this blog Pen Blunders because lately I've had more than my fair share of them. First I broke the nib of my new Noodler Flex Pen and now I've ordered (and received) the wrong pens! I wanted Hi-Tec-C pens to see why everyone raves about them but what I actually ordered was G-Tec pens. From looking on the internet, it seems that it is the same pen with inferior ink.

Still I like the pens. I have the size 4mm but probably I would like the 5mm better. It is true that my handwriting is a lot smaller with the narrow nibs but I like the wider ones myself.

Leuchturm 1917 notebook which came is fabulous. I hope I can work up my courage to put a mark in the beautiful thing! What a lovely notebook. I like the way that the dots barely show up on the paper, the pagination and the attention to detail. It makes me wish I was on the board of some important company or an artist. I'm not worthy!

Zuretake Zig Letter Pen CocoIro

Today I finally made friends with my Kuretake Zig Letter Pen CocoIro. I received it from JetPens some time ago but this is a pen that takes some getting used to, at least for me. It has an odd flexible tip, you see. Suddenly today I found myself reaching for it instead of other pens and thinking I quite liked the way it felt on paper and the way I could make the line thicker or finer by the amount of pressure. I'll be ordering some more colors both for the pen body and the refills. I have a pink body and blue ink right now.

Basic Suri Tips

My nephew recently got his first iPhone and turned to me as a long time user with the question "What apps should I download?" I'm sorry to say that he got a blank stare and the counter question in return, "What do you want to do with it?"

He didn't know mainly because he has no idea what a smart phone does and, it turns out, I didn't know much more. Sure, I bought my first iPhone 3 or 4 years ago but I haven't kept up and I'm no businessman, like he is. So, sitting outside on the porch, we explored Suri first.

Tip #1- Fill in the data for yourself and your contacts so that Suri will know basics.

Tip #2 - Rather than flail around with commands hold down the home button (this brings up Suri) and tap on the i in the right hand lower corner. Up pops a list of suggested commands and questions and if you tap on each one, more suggestions about phrasing or things Suri can do. Until our back porch session, I did not know that.

I thought, in the enthusiasm of discovering pen and paper blogs and podcasts, that I wished to write one of my own. After listening to and reading a bunch of blogs, however, I find I am bored by pen reviews. Paper and notebooks are still interesting to me as are the blogs of people who draw. Tech blogs have moved to the forefront but only a certain kind. I've become a little more discriminating and that is a good thing.

I'm trying to help my nephew learn to use his new iPhone, something which I felt comfortable about since I have used one for three or four years. It has been what is called a lowering experience because I don't use it to its full capability or (as it turns out) even know how much it will do! Why have such a spiffy phone if I don't at least try to use its features?

So I am going to change the name of this blog (something I can do because it isn't being read by anyone except the dear Russian bots) and post about my experience and anything else I wish to post about instead of limiting it to pens and paper.

Cutting the Cord

...and now for a short break from pens and paper.

Last month Comcast upped their charges one more time and I decided to cut the cord, go cable-less. It was the tipping point for me. I bought an Apple TV - and that certainly is a tiny thing, a whole lot smaller than the monstrous cable box, by the way - and registered for a Netflix account.

After that, I realized that I had been mindlessly flipping on the tv just for noise in the house which, if you have to deliberately choose a program, is too much trouble, for me anyway. So, the television only went on when I really wanted to watch it. Refreshing. Plus I began listening to podcasts while washing the dishes and cooking. Or an audiobook. I think my IQ rose a couple of points.

But something was missing, namely House Hunters International. It turns out I really like to see apartments and houses, the way people live, in different parts of the world and I missed it. So I discovered AirPlay, an incredibly easy way to watch PBS, HGTV, ABC and the Discovery Channel. By downloading those channel's apps to the iPad, and pushing a button, suddenly I was able to watch Sherlock Holmes and other television shows. So far I am not sorry I cut the cord.

Doane Notebooks

This is not really a review of a Doane Paper Notebook, more my impressions after using it for a day. Thing I instantly liked: the rough sturdy pressed paper cover in grey. It looks like something that I imagine an architect or tech person would carry, suitable not just for notes but technical drawings. Thing I wasn't so certain about: the gridline paper. I wasn't at all sure about the darker lines and the contrast with the white paper. It seemed too busy for me.

Now that I've used it a day or so, I like the darker lines. I like having all that space divided into three more spaces. I can write tiny and large, put my glyphs on top, center them, at the bottom or use the whole space. It gives me so many choices and then I can add color without worrying that it is going to bleed through. Only the red-orangy Platinum Preppy highlighter can be seen on the other side and that is to be expected: I am not using highlighter ink in it. Even so, it doesn't bleed through or feather. Fountain pen ink doesn't either. And did I mention how smooth the paper is? It is. I'm liking this notebook a lot so far.

Sad Pen News

How quick was that? The Goulet Pen Company couldn't have been faster. The package arrived yesterday on my doorstep at noon when I was home for lunch. I took the Noodler's Flex Pen and a bottle of ink back to work with me to play with when I had time. I ordered a pretty bright pink pen and no disappointment there. It is as lovely as I could wish. I now have two pink pens... although the Noodlers isn't usable right now.

This is is first for me. I broke it. Yes, I did. I read a bit of the instructions, loaded the pen with Diamine Florida Blue and began writing. It was scratchy. This is my very first flex pen and I should have done some research about it. Instead I messed with the nib trying to get it to not be so scratchy, then I messed with it more to get the ink to come out right. In the end, the pen wouldn't write at all. My fault, all of it, because I took my frustration out on the pen rather than step back and do some reading. I'll try to get a replacement nib and this time do the research before I wreck the nib.

The Goulet Pen Company and Anticipation

One of the things I love most about my obsession with pen, paper and ink revolves around ordering. There are no local stores that carry the things I want so I must (!) pour over internet pages from online companies. What a joy that is! My first discovery years ago was Pendemonium but they turned more to the collectors side of things, next came Pen City in Georgia (their site is down right now) and then Jet Pens, a choice that was reinforced by The Pen Addict, Brad Dowdy. That site is where I discovered the delights of pencil cases and bags. Now each day I not only have to decide which pens to take, I must agonize over which bag or pencil case is needed.

There's a new company I stumbled across and want to try, the Goulet Pen Company. I've been shifting things in and out of the basket for several days, getting closer to the time when I hit the buy button. Such hard decisions although in two cases not. I want to try a Noodlers flex nib pen with - wait for it - piston fill! Yes, a cheap fountain pen that doesn't require a converter. Yay. Another thing I want to try is Clairefontaine's French lined paper. I think that might be just the thing for italic handwriting practice. For the rest, I am still undecided. Delicious anticipation, oh how I love thee.

Italic Nibs

To improve my handwriting, I decided to learn a little calligraphy. The book I took from off the library shelf was called The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting: Cursive and Calligraphic by Fred Eager and it clicked with me, so much so that I bought my own copy. I admire people who can do calligraphy but all I really wanted was a legible hand plus be able to write names on certificates and have them look good. Italic handwriting seemed to fit the bill.

And that led to my discovery of italic nibs. The combination of thin and thick lines just does it for me. It seems to me that they are even more finicky than the pointed nibs, however. Still, when the ink, paper and feed is right it is a glorious thing and sure to charm adults and children alike. I have never bought a custom ground nib. My experience is with the cheap Pilot Plumix, Pelikan calligraphy pens, Manuscript, Schafer and one disasterous Parker Frontier pen that was recommended to me but never worked well.

Now when my handwriting becomes impossible for me to decipher, much less the public, I pick up my old Fred Eager book, a pen with an italic nib and practice until my handwriting is once again legible. I'd like to find a piston fill pen with an italic point. I'm sure they exist.

Pelikan Go!

The first fountain pen I fell in love with was the Pelikan Go! I began using one maybe 13 years ago or so during graduate school when I discovered that writing with a fountain pen was a lot easier on the fingers than using a ball point pen. Less pressure is needed and that's a good thing when one is doing a lot of writing.

The Pelikan Go! can still be found on eBay only now they sell for double what I paid. I believe that one can get picked up for somewhere in the mid in the mid $20s now. That still qualifies as a cheap pen, in my book.

The pen has a medium nib and refills from a bottle of ink by twisting the end of the pen (piston fill). It is a real pleasure to have a pen that doesn't need cartridges or converters. I wish more pens on the lower end would include that. Just put the nib in the bottle and twist. It is much easier than refilling a cartridge with a syringe or dealing with a converter.

My Pelikan Go lays down a medium line. I prefer a thicker line but I believe that fine nibs are available, too. Just remember that it is the German idea of "fine" rather than the Japanese. The nib glides smoothly on most paper, except for a few exceptions. I had a red ink once that did not do well in the pen. Still this was the pen that converted me to love fountain pens. It is a good dependable German made pen.

Moleskine & Clairefontaine

I like Moleskine. I like the convenience of examining & buying it at local stores rather than having to send off for it like I had to do with my Clairefontaine notebooks. I like the pocket, the color of the paper, the hard back & the band that keeps my 4 X 6 notebook shut. If I never wrote with fountain pens, I expect that I would think the surface of the paper is just fine but I do like using fountains pens & a lot of different colors. Last night I tested the Moleskine paper against a larger, spiral bound Clairefontaine notebook paper using cheap fountain pens.

Just by running the tip of a finger over the two, I could tell a difference. The Clairefontaine paper is much smoother. There is probably a term for that! I got out a handful of cheap Pilot Plumix pens with italic nibs which I bought from Target while they still had them.

Note to self: discuss converters someday.

The more expensive pens I used were two Lamy Safari fountain pens & a 1980s Pelikan fountain pen I ordered years ago off eBay. The poor thing is probably on its last legs. The cap doesn't stay on anymore so the ink dries out & then it is a pain to get it going again. In its time, it was beloved.

As for ink, I used all kinds & all colors in converters. Some pens were nearly empty, some full. The conclusion? The pens that were draggy on the Moleskine, slid across the page much better on the Clairefontaine. Some doodles I drew & colored soaked through several pages of the Moleskine but with the better paper of Clairefontaine, the ink only barely showed on the other side.

& there you have it, Clairefontaine paper wins but I still like Moleskine.

Pen, Pencils, Inks, Paper, & &

First post! There is nothing like a clean sheet of paper, is there? That moment of anticipation...sometimes it is a bit difficult to lay down the first mark, I confess, & here I have a clean blog. The best thing about a blog though is that if I don't like what I've written, I hit the delete button.

I'm a librarian by profession. I like & enjoy pens, pencils, inks, paper, & writing & I am also of the opinion that the ampersand needs to be added back into the alphabet. About the thorn, I'm undecided. It is handy but a little too close to the Y after all. Some of the other letters we could probably do without, don't you think? Well, that can be explored in another post.

I'm no great expert, don't think that. I just want to write about what I like. & so I will. :)