I picked up a few more of the ink studio range lately and I’ve been particularly partial to dusty light to mid blues with a touch of multichromatic features lately, so one of my new purchases was 240. 240 certainly fills this brief well and when I compared it to other inks in my collection, its very similar to many of my favourites – including Kobe Ink Story Sakae Machi Indigo Blue, one of my favourite inks of all ink. It is a hint brighter than #36 and has a touch of pink in wetter nibs, but they are pretty similar in all.   The ink behaved well, as you can expect from Sailor and ..read more

  A few years ago I reviewed the Ajoto Rose Plated Rollerball, which I loved but was crazily heavy. Since then, I’ve picked up the Aluminium edition in Matte black.   The Matte Black is 25 grams, compared to the 55 grams found in the Rose plated edition (which is plated over solid brass) so its significantly lighter and therefore much more usable for my small hands. The rest of the features and looks is identical to the rose edition.   The matte black is coated, I believe, the current edition is called “Northern Coal” which is anodised. This might be a better overall solution as ..read more

  Its perhaps not fair that I review a pen that is no longer available, but given Pelikan has been releasing more recent editions of the Tortoise series in the M600 size, I thought it would be nice to talk about one of the first in the range, the White Tortoise.   As usual, when I first saw it I thought, why would you pair a beautiful white and gold trim with a bright green tortoise? But as I saw it more and more and then finally got the chance to see it in person, it looks beautiful and extremely unique.   The M600 size is my favourite of the Pelikan pen sizes, it’s a great len ..read more

  Sailor has been on a roll releasing multichromatic inks lately, the first (I think) being in the Ink Studio range, then Manyo and now the Yurameku. Whilst the Yurameku range isn’t specifically marketed as multichromatic, rather as an ink that changes colour based on the paper used, many of them are multichromatic and that’s probably largely to do with the fact that they do change colour based on the paper used.   The Yurameku series is inspired by the expressive and ever changing sky and Yoi is said to be inspired by the early evening sky and is the darkest of the range. On the bot ..read more

The Pilot Metropolitan (or MR in some countries) is one of the most popular beginner fountain pens available, but little is said of the other products in the Metropolitan range. They also have a rollerball and pencil available and I picked up a white tiger edition of the rollerball.   The rollerball has the same pen body as the fountain pen and pleasingly, the grips are interchangeable so you can switch up your rollerball into a fountain pen if you have both. Its just saved me from buying a white tiger fountain pen now, so that’s great to find out!   The rollerball comes with the st ..read more

Most people know of the Lamy Safari or the Al Star, which are some of the most popular starter pens out there. If you’re looking for a slightly higher end Lamy Fountain pen, you will probably know about the Lamy 2000, the iconic Bauhaus piston filler. But if that is a bit out of your price range, or you enjoy the Safari or Al star nibs and you’re just looking for something a bit sleeker, you might have looked at the Studio.   The Studio comes in many finishes with a variety of prices making it a good choice if you enjoy the look but want something a bit more cost effective than the Plati ..read more

Montblanc doesn’t really need any introduction to the pen community, even to non pen fanatics due to their prominence in the business world as a status symbol. Montblanc produces a range of limited edition inks each year, some inspired by famous people or writers, usually with a matching pen, and this year’s releases include Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari – another brand that needs no introduction. According to the motor web museum, Enzo Ferrari used only purple inks as an homage to his father’s memory (read more here). I saw Enzo Ferrari on the Fountain Pen Australia Facebook page and ..read more

Muji is one of my favourite brands of all time. I’ve had great experiences with most of the things I’ve purchased from Muji, from stationery to food and skincare. Their products are really great quality and available for a reasonable price. Sadly, there isn’t a Muji store where I live, however, they have just opened up online orders for delivery here and I took the opportunity to stock up on a few things.    Many brands have tried to produce a refillable metal pen that accepts the general Uniball RT/Pilot G2/Pentel Energel gel refills. When browsing through the Muji store the other ..read more

  Sailor Fountain pens probably don’t need any introduction and I’ve recently reviewed the Sailor Imperial Black and Pink Gold fountain pens. Today I review the Sailor Professional Gear Slim, in a basic black with silver trim.   If you’re not familiar with the Sailor Fountain Pen family, the Professional Gear Slim is the miniature version of the Professional Gear and the standard edition comes with a 14K nib. Some of the special or limited editions may come with 21K gold, but the standard editions that are readily available usually have 14K nibs. The good thing about this range is ..read more

I went through a long Blue Black phase and looking back, I think it was my aim to collect every blue black ink ever made in existence. I’m glad that phase ended (I’m now into purples and multichromatics) but Blue blacks remain one of my favourite colours to use, especially in a professional environment.   Lamy Blue Black was one of the inks I picked up during this phase. It is a cost effective and reliable ink that’s readily available and while I’ve yet finished an entire bottle of ink, these were important factors to me back during that phase.   One handy thing about Lamy inks, whi ..read more