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The Wing Sung 601a
There are many Chinese Parker 51 clone pens available on online shopping platforms such as Amazon, Ali Express, EBay, and Etsy, and some of them are better than others. Wing Sung has the 601 with a hooded nib, but they also have the 601a with a Sheaffer-like stainless steel conical nib. I needed to try…
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The Sailor Promenade
While Sailor is known for its Pro Gear and 1911 series of fountain pens, they’ve had several other models that have come and gone. A few years ago Sailor made the Promenade, which is basically just their version of Platinum’s 3776. The Promenade looks like a 1911 but with a different clip, slightly wider body,…
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The Kaweco Student
Kaweco is very good at taking pen designs from their archive and updating them just enough for today’s fountain pen market. In the case of the Student, Kaweco took the popular flat top design and made it their own. The Student comes standard in black and clear, and is also available in neat retro themed…
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A Left Handed Guide For New Fountain Pen Users (2023)
I’ve tried a lot of fountain pens at this point, and even started this blog to publish more information online about the fountain pen experience for lefties. When I got in to pens in 2019 there wasn’t that much about tips or “things I wish I knew” for lefties, and there still isn’t in 2023,…
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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 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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Learning To Underwrite
I have written hook handed all my handwriting life. As a wee lass in kindergarten it felt most natural to basically write upside down or from the side. Learning to write with a pencil or even a crayon definitely frees someone to hold their instrument however they need to. When I got into fountain pens,…
Left Hook Pens 