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Fingers Were Meant to be Inky

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Quick Look: Robert Oster Signature Inks (Part 1)

Banner image for the Robert Oster Signature Ink Quick Look posts

Robert Oster Signature: A Tsunami of Color from Down Under

Australia has a lot of the grooviest things on this planet. They have the best spiders. They have the coolest snakes. They have the cutest marsupials. If that wasn’t enough, a mighty wave of new and little-known ink companies are emerging from the wild and wonderful island continent. In the last year, I’ve learned of four such companies from the land Down Under: Toucan, Blackstone, Bookbinders, and the newest kid on the block, Robert Oster Signature. Nestled in the heart of South Australia’s wine country, Robert Oster Signature is a (mostly) one-man outfit run by (you guessed it)… Read More

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Pilot Falcon Review

The Pilot Falcon Fountain Pen, capped and laying down

Right out of my “I always wanted one of these” file, please give a warm welcome to the…

Pilot Falcon Fountain Pen (a.k.a. Namiki Falcon)

Price: $150.00
Nib: Soft Fine
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Pilot Proprietary)

Disclaimer & Giveaway

This pen was provided for review by Pen Chalet. Because I don’t want you clowns thinking I’m handing out artificially inflated reviews in exchange for free products, I decided to give this pen away to one lucky reader (details at bottom of post).

About the Pen:

I’ve been using fountain pens for…oh, just over two and a half years. My first was a total impulse buy. I was wandering through Staples, noticed a $7 Sheaffer Viewpoint calligraphy fountain pen hiding on the bottom peg, and decided I couldn’t live without it. Two hours later, I had blown through half a cartridge and was completely engrossed in YouTube, watching video after video from Brian Goulet, Stephen Brown, and a few others. Pen reviews, how-to videos, disassembly/repair instructions, and Q&As. I was hooked. I began researching different pens and started a list of those I “had to own.”

One of the more interesting pens often mentioned was the bold & mysterious Pilot Falcon, with its strange and unique-shaped nib, its soft springiness that allows you to get some line variation with just a little pressure (don’t you dare call it a “flex” nib, though!), and its $150 price tag. At $7, my still-freshly-inked Sheaffer was probably the most expensive pen I had in the house, so the thought of spending $150 on a pen seemed ludicrous. I put the Falcon on my “When I’m Rich” list and went on binge-watching videos.

Over the course of the last couple years, I heard many things about the Falcon, both flattering and not-so-flattering. The most common argument against the Falcon was… Read More

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Quick Look: 11 Callifolio Inks

Sampler image and title block for the Callifolio ink comparison: Anahuac, Baikal, Bleu Equinoxe #6, Botany Bay, Cannelle, Cassis, Grenat, Inca Sol, Oconto, Olifants, and Olivastre

Callifolio Inks: Mostly Unknown, but Super Interesting French Export

Callifolio is a line of fountain pen inks from French art supply manufacturer Artisan Pastellier. They actually have two lines of ink (their other is Encre Classique, which  are mixable so you can create your own colors). Artisan Pastellier also makes art pastels, watercolors, natural & metallic pigments, sealing wax, and a few other brightly colored art supplies.

There’s not much talk of the Callifolio inks out there, and I only know of… Read More

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Italix Parson’s Essential Fountain Pen Review

Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen, uncapped with the pen laying down and the cap laying beside it

If you’re on the quest for affordable italic nibs, you’ll want to read about the…

Italix Parson’s Essential Fountain Pen

Price: $55.00
Nib: Fine Cursive Italic (FCI)
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Standard International)

Background & History:

Italix is the “house brand” of the British online fountain pen retailer MrPen. The Italix brand was born in the mid 2000s, when Sheaffer and Cross decided to discontinue many of their italic nib options. According to MrPen owner, Peter Ford, “We thought this odd because 30% of our sales were speciality nib options.”

Knowing the decision of their two largest suppliers would leave a gap in product offerings (and likely cut into sales), Ford worked with a pen manufacturer that would take kit pens and outfit them with Manuscript calligraphy nibs. This initial product was called the Originalis. It was extremely popular and is still in production today.

Looking to expand their line of high-quality, affordable italic fountain pens, MrPen developed a new model, commissioning the bodies from an Asian company and the nibs from Jowo in Germany. This new model was initially called The Buddy, and sales were not so hot. They changed the name to Red, and sales continued to be disappointing. In the meantime, they worked out a technique for quickly and efficiently modifying the nibs into a number of various italic grinds.

While the Parson’s Essential nib is from Jowo, other pen models include nibs made by Bock and Manuscript.

Upon perfecting their nib modification technique, they decided to rename the pen again, this time to reflect the quality of the market sector they were trying to attract. After a few positive reviews for the newly christened Parson’s Essential, sales of the pen “went ballistic” (in Mr. Ford’s own words).

The Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen, capped and in its Box, which is labeled MrPen

After about a decade of producing affordable, custom italic fountain pens, the Italix brand boasts about 11 different models, each with a dizzying array of nib grinds available (standard, crisp italic, cursive italic, oblique, etc.).

Close up shot of the Italix Parson's Essential Fountain Pen two-tone, stainless steel, #5 nib (Fine Cursive Italic)… Read More

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Quick Look: Cheap Composition Notebooks

The covers of Five Cheap Composition Notebooks, four from Norcom (Brazil, Colombia, USA, Vietnam) and one Casemate (China)

“Back to School” Means Dirt-Cheap Notebooks! Are They Any Good with Fountain Pens?

Fountain pens are wonderful. That’s a given. But because they use water-based ink, they’re really not suitable for most run-of-the-mill paper (see what I did, there?). Fountain pens aren’t very popular in the US, so most of the everyday paper found here is a poor match for pens that use water-based inks. Ballpoints and gel pens effectively make up the entirety of American daily writing instruments, so manufacturers only need to supply paper that works well with those inks…which, really, any crappy paper can do.

So that leaves us poor fountain pen users stuck buying higher quality paper, mostly imported from France or Japan. These papers are great, but they’re pretty expensive compared to… Read More

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Jinhao 3005 Fountain Pen Review

The Jinhao 3005 Fountain Pen, uncapped, with the pen resting on the cap

Inexpensive. Chinese. Fountain pens. Some are gems; some are disasters. How does this one measure up? Let’s mess with the…

Jinhao 3005 Fountain Pen

Price: $1.58
Nib: Fine / Extra Fine (Hooded)
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter (Standard International)

About the Company & Pen:

There is a huge number of Chinese fountain pen brands. Some, like Hero and Wing Sung, have been around for several decades. Others, like Duke and Kaigelu, are relatively new, but considered among the high-end of options from the Middle Kingdom.

Jinhao—a property of the Shanghai Qiangu Stationery Co., LTD—is another new-ish pen brand that came storming onto the scene in 1988. Okay, so maybe “storming” is a bit of an exaggeration. But at the present time, Jinhao produces a large number of fountain pens that are considered to be of… Read More

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Quick Look: Six Pilot Iroshizuku Inks

Sampler image and title block for the Pilot Iroshizuku blue and green ink comparison

Pilot Iroshizuku Inks: Blue, Green, and In Between

Pilot is arguably the biggest name in pens. If you’ve ever put a long, pointy thing in your hand and wrote with it, you’ve undoubtedly used a Pilot product along the way. Pilot is a Japanese company, and regardless of whether you’re using a cheap, throw-away ballpoint or a $5,000 makie fountain pen, their products are all made with impeccable quality, and you’re sure to experience a nice, trouble-free writing experience.

In addition to pens, Pilot makes a wonderful line of bottled inks for fountain pens. While other brands shoot for vibrant, highly saturated color palettes, Pilot aims for colors that mirror the beauty found in nature. Here’s a description from the Pilot web site:

The name Iroshizuku is a combination of the Japanese words Iro (Coloring), expressing high standards and variation of colors, and Shizuku (Droplet), that embodies the very image of dripping water. Each ink name derives from the expressions of beautiful Japanese natural landscapes and plants, all of which contribute to the depth of each individual hue.


… Read More

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Baoer 508 Fountain Pen Review

The Baoer 508 Fountain Pen, uncapped, with the pen's section resting on top of the cap with the top of the nib facing the camera

Getting back to some good, old-fashioned inexpensive Chinese fountain pen action. Is it cheap? Or is it good? Could it be Both?

Baoer 508 Fountain Pen Review

Price: $3.00
Nib: Medium (on the finer side)
Filling System: Standard International Converter & Cartridges

About the Pen:

Exploring the world of Chinese fountain pens is an adventure. Some are inexpensive, others are less so. Some are outstanding performers, while others are absolute disasters. And there seems to be no real correlation between price and quality. Some of my best finds were in the $4 to $7 range, while some of my biggest disappointments cost between $12 and $19.

Some Chinese pens lead to adventure not because of the price-to-performance ratio, but because of some of the crazy things that happen with them. The Baoer 508 is a perfect example.

I filled the 508 with ink from a sample, so I used a syringe. I was also filling another pen, so I stood the 508 up on its cap to let gravity help the ink find its way to the nib. After about three minutes, I came back to it and took the cap off. Ink went flying… Read More

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Delta Vintage Fountain Pen Review

The Delta Vintage Fountain Pen, uncapped, with the cap laying down and the pen resting on top of it

Straight out of the “No idea what to expect” files, here’s a review of the…

Delta Vintage Collection Fountain Pen

Price: $29.00 (Typically retails for $110 to $150)
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Standard International Cartridge

About the Pen:

No, this is not a vintage pen. It’s a modern pen. Its name is Vintage. The Delta Vintage. Why, Delta? Why? Anyway…

I went back and forth on buying this pen several times before pulling the trigger. And this pen truly is an exercise in paradoxes:

  • It’s made of a beautiful, swirly-pearly acrylic, but it only takes cartridges (as I understand it, the mini Monteverde converter will fit, but I don’t have one to test it).
  • It’s been around since at least 2009, but there is very little information about it on the Internet. It’s not listed in Delta’s own web site, and you have to really hunt to find it in the Yafa site (Yafa is the US distributor for Delta).
  • I found two reviews of the Vintage: Mike Dudek from The Clicky Post loved his, but Amanda Crawford had a ton of problems.

My first Delta, the $76 Unica, is magnificent. The online retailers that carry the Vintage list it for anywhere between $110 and $150 (with $140 the most common price). Delta doesn’t market this pen, it’s over $100, and it doesn’t take a converter. Didn’t seem like much of a deal to me. But then I found it

… Read More

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Cross Dubai Fountain Pen Review

The Cross Dubai Fountain Pen, capped and laying on top of the writing sample

From the “What the Hell Were They Thinking?” Files…It’s an ugly, pitiful little thing, but I guess it gets the job done.

Cross Dubai Fountain Pen

Price: $15.00
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Cross Cartridges (No Converter Included)

About the Pen:

If I had to describe the Cross Dubai in one word, it would be “not fantastic.” (But Ken, that’s two words. Shut up!) Thankfully, it only cost $15, because it’s not all that impressive of a writing instrument. The nib is fat and mushy…should probably be considered a broad, not a medium. It dries out fast. The section is slippery. It has an ugly design. It doesn’t come with a converter.

In summary: The Cross Dubai is kind of a loser. Truthfully though, it’s not entirely terrible either. In many ways, writing with it is pretty freaking unpleasant. But when the ink is a’flowin’, it’s kind of appealing, too. A little.

The Cross Dubai Fountain Pen Uncapped with the pen laying down and the cap standing up behind it

Founded way back in 1846, Cross is a huge name in writing instruments. The fact that they’ve been around so long must mean… Read More