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Upturned & Downturned Nibs
Take a look at a nib of yours. Is it straight, or does it have a slight upturn or downturn? Is the tipping ball on the top or bottom? There’s an entire spectrum of nibs from an upturned fude all the way to a downturned concord or reverse fude. Fude nibs somewhat resemble a painter’s…
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KUM Pencut Scissors
Scissors can be a sensitive subject with lefties, because we’ve been scarred with a lifetime of embarrassment from trying to wrangle a pair of right-handed scissors. There are many options now for lefty scissors or even ambidextrous scissors that work great, but I’d like to highlight one highly portable pair of scissors by KUM called…
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Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-Iro
Ama-Iro from Pilot’s Iroshizuku line is a consistently great ink. It dried super fast on every paper I wrote on in my paper tests. Across all 21 papers that I tested, the average dry time was 6.6 seconds. For several months I had Ama-Iro in a TWSBI Eco with a fine nib, and that combination…
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The Pilot Deluxe Urushi
Back in March, I posted some first impressions of the Pilot Deluxe Urushi on Buy Me a Coffee. Here are some of those impressions along with the insight I’ve gained after having this pen for a few months. The Pilot Deluxe Urushi is a slim snap cap fountain pen with an Urushi lacquered brass body.…
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Snap Cap Fountain Pens
Snap cap fountain pens are great for taking quick notes, writing on the go and general convenience. Here I have compiled a list of ten snap cap pens, for beginners and experienced users alike, for any way you hold your pen. This isn’t a ranked top ten list because there are so many snap caps…
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The Noodler’s Cinematic Universe: Noodler’s Lermontov
You’ve heard of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now get ready for the Noodler’s Cinematic Universe (NCU). Nathan Tardif is a salty New Englander who makes inks that are as wet as a Nor’Easter and shade like a Cape Cod sunset. Tardif uses all kinds of historical and political references for his ink names and ink…
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The Desiderata Pen Co. BAMF
I’ve actually reviewed this pen before, in a post called Happy Fountain Pen Day. That post was an initial review, so this will be a more long term one after having the pen for about five months. Desiderata is a Black owned pen company based in Chicago, and they make excellent small batch fountain pens.…
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The Scale of Paper Absorption: Part 3
This is Part 3 of a series of paper tests. If you would like to read them, here is Part 1 and Part 2. A blog called Fountain Pen Love had an excellent post last year about the difference between fountain pen friendly, and fountain pen fun paper. In short, fountain pen fun paper helps…
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The Kaweco Sport (Fountain Pen)
The Kaweco Sport is a favorite among many fountain pen users for its small size and many color options. I’m a fan of pocket pens myself, and enjoy these little guys. The Sport line has many iterations besides the rainbow of standard plastic models; there are AL or aluminum models, carbon fiber, special acrylic, steel,…
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A Lesson on Ink Hygiene
Back in December, I needed to refill a pen that had run out of ink. The ink (Diamine Wild Strawberry) had been in my pen (a Pilot Legno) for about three months. The nib had some ink dried on it, as well as the feed. I figured that since I was just refilling the pen…
Left Hook Pens 