by Tony Thomas I used my fountain pens quite a bit while I was working for a company that did not allow devices such as cellphones and tablets in the office.  Now that I am retired and working at home all of the time, I find myself using my devices the majority of the time and largely ignoring my fountain pens.  And when I don't use devices, I find myself using rollerball pens and mechanical pencils to write with because they are easier to deal with.  What are the disadvantages of using fountain pens?  - Removing, replacing, and posting caps is not fun - Many i ..read more

  by Tony Thomas It is already March and this is my first blog of the year.  2020 was certainly interesting and now things have to be returning to some degree of normal. The global pandemic has certainly made life much more complex and challenging for most of us.  It has literally turned our lives upside down.  Some questions for you: 1. Are you using fountain pens more or less? Since I quit working full time and retired three years ago, I find myself using my fountain pens less.  One of the reasons why is I was in an environment where electronic device use (other ..read more

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by Tony Thomas Let’s face it, fountain pen ink is ridiculously expensive! Most ink is somewhere around $12 for a 50 ml bottle.  And as it takes over 3785 ml to make a gallon, that is over 75 bottles of ink.  At $12 per bottle, a gallon of fountain pen ink costs $900 per gallon!   Noodler's ink is one exception that I can think of (aside from Chinese or Indian inks).  You can get 90ml for around $12 and a huge 16 oz. bottle of selected ink colors for $50.  That is around 473 ml of ink for less than .11 per ml, or right around $400 a gallon.  A comparative bar ..read more

  by Tony Thomas I bought my Edison Collier back in 2013 and it is one pen purchase that I have never regretted.  Although it is not a completely custom pen, it was turned on a lathe and hand finished.  It is really a work of art. I prefer hand-finished pens to those created in factories using mass production methods because of the tender loving care that goes into them.  The human touch.   It really makes a difference.  And, yes, hand-finished pens are worth it. I love pens from Edison and other companies that produce hand-finished pens like Franklin-Chris ..read more

by Tony Thomas I'm back!  Did you even miss me? I know that I haven't shown up here in quite a while. I have been retired for the last few years and haven't spent a lot of time with my fountain pens lately, although I hope that will change. I've been doing most of my work on my tablet and my computer.  Dictation is sure a lot easier than writing everything out by hand. And, paper takes up a lot of space and is pretty expensive these days. I still love my fountain pens although I am not able to buy them at the pace that I once did. That said, I still have a pretty nice collec ..read more

by Tony Thomas I love Nemosine nibs.  They are inexpensive and come in a range of line widths including the unusual (and usually sold out)  .8 and .6 italics.   They are reportedly made in Germany and compare favorably to the JoWo and Bock nibs I have used.  I have no idea who makes them as there are only a few nib makers in that country. They are available exclusively from xfountainpens.com and on Amazon by their parent company, Paramount Goods, LLC. Nemosine nibs can make inexpensive pens from China and India come alive.  As you can see, I have quite a few of t ..read more

by Tony Thomas I recently received a Quo Vadis Compact Habana notebook from Exaclair and decided to a quick review.   First of all, it brings back memories of the Moleskine notebooks that I have used in the past but the paper quality is much, much better.  It uses 85 gram Clairefontaine paper which is the paper of choice for many fountain pen users.  I found the ivory paper color to be very pleasing and it looks good with most inks.   The notebook has a faux leather cover, a bookmark ribbon, an elastic cover closure and a rear pocket. The Quo Vadis logo is embossed on ..read more