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The Pacific Arc H-1304 Lead Holder
This is the lead holder that got me into mechanical pencils. After discovering erasable pens in the 7th grade I viewed pencils in general as a necessary evil for scantron testing and drawing. The only mechanical pencils available near me were very cheap and the lead would break and retract on me while writing. But…
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The Noodler’s L’Ahab Frankenpen
It’s Saturday the 14th, and on this special day I would like to present a cursed frankenpen that I’ve named the L’Ahab. It’s a Noodler’s Ahab with a Lamy Safari nib and feed. The Ahab is a flex pen with an ebonite feed and Noodler’s stock flex nib. The body and cap of the pen…
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The Best of Left Hook Pens
As 2022 comes to a close, many websites republish popular and/or well written pieces from throughout the year, and this blog is no different. I recently went through my stats and tallied which posts you lovely readers have decided to view the most over the past 3 calendar years, so here are the top 10…
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Karas Pen Co. Decograph
I received a Karas Decograph as a birthday present earlier in the year, and here are my first impressions after using this pen for a few months. The Karas Pen Company is based in Mesa, Arizona, and they make a variety of machined metal and acrylic pens. Besides fountain pens, they also make some very…
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The Pilot Lucina
The Lucina fountain pen from Pilot is a slick little pen that is no longer widely available in the U.S. except for on eBay. It has the aesthetics of an Italian sports car and comes in red/orange, yellow, blue, and black. The nib sizes available are fine, medium, and broad. Pricing on eBay ranges from…
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The Noodler’s Cinematic Universe: Noodler’s Q’ternity (Brevity Blue-Black)
Let’s expand the NCU with Noodler’s Q’ternity, a fast drying dark blue ink. Q’ternity is part of the Bernanke series, which consists of bulletproof and fast drying inks in office appropriate colors. Ben Bernanke was head of the US Federal Reserve during the Bush and Obama presidencies, and during the 2008 financial crisis. The Bernanke…
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Stalogy Planners
Stalogy is a Japanese paper company that makes very minimalist planners in several sizes and colors. I used their 1/2 year A6 and A5 planners for a time, and consider their paper a faster drying alternative to Hobonichi or Midori notebooks. The paper is thin and can handle most fountain pen inks. If you’re transitioning…
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The TWSBI Swipe
If you’ve read any of my other TWSBI reviews, you know that I really like their piston fillers. When I heard that TWSBI was coming out with the Swipe, I was skeptical. Why is this company that helped to democratize the piston fill fountain pen making a cartridge pen? What is this Tesla-looking clip? Why…
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Birmingham Pen Company Hydrangea
It’s late hydrangea season, which means there’s no better time to review Birmingham Pen Company’s Hydrangea ink. Here are some actual hydrangea bushes from my front yard in June, then August: These flowers can change every year depending on your soil acidity and the weather. This year happened to be an exceptional bloom for the…
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Fun With Ballpoints
Ballpoints, they’re everywhere. They’re in banks, grocery stores, restaurants, under your car seat, there might even be one wedged in between your couch cushions. Ballpoints were invented as a cheaper, cleaner, maintenance-free alternative to fountain pens with patents dating back to 1888. For more on the history of the ballpoint, please click here. Ironically, people…
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Left Hook Pens 