The Rotring Tikky Graphic is a fiber tip drawing pen that features water resistant pigment ink. The Tikky comes in seven different tip sizes with black ink only.
The Tikky features a brown body with the famous red Rotring ring. There is a translucent ink view window that continues into the feed section. I like that you can see the ink level while the pen is capped. The look of this pen is quite pleasant despite the branding. I also cannot think of another disposable pen that uses a brown body, so in that way it is unique.
Rotring is famous for making excellent quality German-made technical drawing pens and to be honest the Tikky is a letdown. While I generally like fiber tip drawing pens, the Tikky is hands down the worst I have used in recent memory.
The 0.5mm tip is not particularly smooth, resulting in a considerable amount of resistance on the Rhodia pad I used. The lines are messy and I found that my lines began and ended with what I will call “snake tongue” (see below). I found no issues with ink flow or skipping.
Notice the “snake tongue” at the bottom of the Rs the T and the N.
I looked at the tip under a loupe to see if the tip was misshapen and I could not see any flaws; it looked perfectly formed. Even though I couldn’t see any problems with the tip, I may still have gotten a dud.
The Chinese-made Tikky costs $3.60 which is $2.30 more than the excellent German-made Steadtler Triplus Fineliner and a $1.10 more than the popular Japanese-made Sakura Pigma Micron. I cannot recommend the Tikky; a high price and poor performance do not go well together. Avoid this one.
Here is a great review of the Rotring Tikky:
(I have no affiliation with the site linked below)
I love Rhodia paper products because they are both affordable and fountain pen friendly. They come in dozens of formats and I have tried almost all of them and only two have remained staples in my notebook collection: the Rhodia Reverse Book (review to come) and the Rhodia Bloc Pad No 11.
The No 11 is small notepad that measures 2.9″ x 4.1″ and contains 80 sheets of Rhodia’s standard 80g paper in lined and graph formats (I prefer the graph). The No 11 comes in black and classic Rhodia orange covers. Like the vast majority of Rhodia products, there is a lot of branding; all three sides of this tiny pad have the Rhodia logo. The sheets are micro perforated and if you are careful the sheets come out pretty easily. Because the sheets are bound only with one centered staple it is important pull the paper up off the pad to get the perforations to work. If you pull straight the paper will detach at the staple.
The No 11 is great for short lists and notes. I prefer them to using sticky notes.
As you can see there are no issues with feathering or bleeding. Rhoida (and sister brand Clairefontaine) are the gold standard when it comes to fountain pen friendly paper and it is easy to see why.
Virtually no ghosting to speak of.
At $2 a pad it’s pretty hard to go wrong. I believe the No 11 would be useful to almost everyone; I highly recommend it.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by JetPens for review purposes.
Want a notebook with fine stationery quality ribbed paper? The Semikolon Il Creativo may be just what you are looking for.
Let’s start with the stats:
152 sheets (304 pages) of cream colored, ribbed, lined, and perforated.
141 organizational stickers
soft stain resistant vinyl cover
two page makers
5.5″ x 7.48″ (also comes in small and large sizes)
The looks of the Il Creativo are bold; you are going to either love it or hate it. While the cover comes in multiple colors the spines are all rainbow colored. I weirdly, love it. I like that the main cover color (yellow in this case) continues into the rainbow spine and around to the back cover. There is some light branding on the cover; both the front and back covers read “Semikolon” with the little semicolon logo. The spine has a large semicolon logo.
The vinyl cover is soft and has a slight texture to it that feels nice to the touch. The inside of the cover continues the rainbow and yellow design of the outside. The first few pages feature the days of the year in two formats (see below). Also, I should mention that when I initially opened up the notebook there was a strong smell of glue. The smell did seem to go away quickly as I used the notebook.
The lined pages have an unfortunately wide rule that measure 3/8″ or 9.5mm. The lines are also darker than I would like. The half way point is marked with the Semikolon logo that I found to be distracting. Each of the lined pages feature a perpetual calendar at the bottom of the page (to be honest I am not entirely sure how to use it properly). The pages are nicely perforated and detach easily.
So how does the paper perform? In a word, beautifully! My widest, juiciest nibs behaved well, no bleeding, no feathering and very little ghosting. The paper is a pleasure to write on as it gives wonderful feedback without being rough. As I said earlier, it is like fine stationery paper.
141 Organizational Stickers
Even though I may not be in love with the formatting of the Il Creativo I do love the paper and look forward to filling it up. I will be testing out Semikolon’s Mucho notebook (which uses the same paper later as the Il Creativo) this month.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Semikolon for review purposes.
The Sheaffer Taranis is the first modern Sheaffer fountain pen I have used in a long time. As with the Parker 51, it has been argued that Sheaffer’s vintage fountain pens are so plentiful (and consequently affordable) because in their day they were the best in the world. Take the Sheaffer Snorkel for example, these pens had one of the most complicated filling systems which allowed the user to fill the pen without dipping the nib in ink. I know us Montblanc lovers rave about the telescopic filling system used in the 1950s and earlier but on engineering merits alone the Snorkel goes far and beyond. I bought my Snorkel dirt cheap and it performs beautifully.
Sheaffer Taranis and Sheaffer Snorkel
Sheaffer has dubbed the Taranis “groundbreaking” so let’s see how the it measures up.
Appearance:
The Taranis gets its name from the Celtic god of thunder and as far as appearances go I don’t see a connection. Designed by architect Charles Debbas, the Taranis’ main feature is the patent pending grip section and semi-hooded nib. The idea behind the grip is that your fingers touch the resin parts, while the metal remains exposed such that you can see the Sheaffer name running down the section.
I like the design, however I have a few problems with the looks of the nib; viewed from the side, you can see that the nib really isn’t flush with the section which would be fine if the nib didn’t stick out so far, but it does. I think an inlaid nib would have looked better. The second issue I have (and perhaps this is just my problem and not the pen’s) is keeping the point in the correct position on the paper. I find that I am rotating the point away from its sweet spot and at quick glance it is not obvious; as a result, I find I am spending more brain cycles than normal trying to right its position.
Overall I am a fan of the tapered black resin body and the elongated clip with the classic white dot. It is a nice clean simple and balanced design. The Taranis comes in several colors; the black resin model that I am reviewing is referred to as “Stormy Night”. You can see from the pictures this pen is fingerprint prone. Score: 2.5/5
Build Quality:
The Taranis feels high quality and for $145 (retail), it really should. The bottom of the barrel has a nice brass lining and the cap is lined with plastic. The resin body has no seams and feels quite nice to the touch. The cap clicks securely on to the barrel and requires little effort to remove. The clip when viewed from the side looks a little cheap as it is hollow and thin looking but it does feel strong and tight. I was a little disappointed when I found out that the Taranis is made in China; I do not think that this necessarily is a negative on the quality front but I do think it should be pointed out. The Taranis is on par quality-wise with the majority of its competitors. Many pens in this price range have gold nibs and I would have definitely liked to have seen that on the Taranis. Score: 3/5
Size and Weight:
The Taranis weighs approximately 35 grams which is a comfortable weight, though a bit heavier than I normally like. The pen is well balanced such that it does not cause any comfort issues for me. Being that the brass lining is only in the bottom part of the barrel the pen has about the same balance capped and uncapped which is a rare quality that I quite like. Capped the pen measures 5.5″ and uncapped about 4.75″. At its widest point the Taranis is 0.5″ thick. This is a average-sized pen very similar in size and weight to a Pilot Vanishing Point. Score: 4/5
Sheaffer Taranis next to Pilot Vanishing Point
Performance:
The Taranis I tested has a steel medium point nib. The nib is quite smooth to write with but it is one of the narrowest medium nibs I have used. I would compare it to the medium on a Platinum or Sailor; the medium nib on my Pilot Vanishing Point was noticeably wider and juicier. The nib on the Taranis is definitely a nail and out of the box it had no character; as the nib broke in more, the character improved but it’s definitely not a lively or fun nib. I tried a couple of different inks in the Taranis and I found that the flow was a bit drier than I prefer but I have had no issues with skipping or hard starting. Score: 2.5/5
Filling System:
While a cartridge/converter filling system is not the most interesting, it is becoming my favorite as it’s the most easy to deal with on a daily basis. The Taranis uses Sheaffer’s proprietary cartridges and converters; this is a big drawback if you like to use cartridges, as you will be stuck with Sheaffer inks. On the plus side the converter that comes with the Taranis is nicely made and holds a decent amount of ink. Score: 2/5
Value:
With chrome trim the Taranis is $145 and with gold plated trim the Taranis is $195. I cannot say that this pen is a value. For $140 you can buy a Pilot Vanishing Point with an 18kt gold nib. The price for me is way to high to be compelling. There are so many great pens at this price point and by comparison the Taranis falls short. I really wanted to love this pen but sadly it just didn’t happen for me. Score: 2/5
Comes with a large nicely branded box.
Bottom Line:
The Taranis is a good pen with an interesting design but at this price point it just doesn’t make sense. Final Score: 16/30
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Sheaffer for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Sheaffer Taranis:
Word. Notebooks are quite unique in that they are specifically designed for making lists. The notebooks are pocket sized at 3.5″ x 5.5″ and contain 48 pages of acid free paper.
The white flowers and skulls against the blue background makes for an excellent cover design.
On the left margin at the beginning of each line you have a circle within another circle designed to be used with Word. Notebooks’ standardized symbol system (see the use guide below).
The paper is thicker than you find in a standard Field Notes notebook but it seems to feather and bleed when using fountain pen ink. This paper seems work best with ballpoints and fine point gel pens.
I have been using the Word. bullet point system for a few weeks now and I have to say that I do like it quite a bit. If Word. Notebooks were to improve their paper I believe I would use them for my daily to-do lists but for now I have been using them to keep track of the reviews I need to complete for THE UNROYAL WARRANT.
Word. Notebooks are sold in packs of three for $9.99 and if you are not a fountain pen user, I highly recommend these notebooks; the design inside and out is fantastic.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Word. Notebooks for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Word. Notebooks:
The Uni Jetstream 3 is a refillable three color (black, blue and red) ballpoint multi pen. The Jetstream 3, like all pens in Uni’s Jetstream line, writes very smoothly. The ink is fast drying and the pen always starts without a hitch. Being a ballpoint, the pen lays down lines that are not particularly clean and there is more resistance on the paper than you get from the equivalent roller ball or gel pen.
The translucent black body and rubber grip give the Jetstream 3 a simple and clean look.
Overall, the Jetstream 3 is a good ballpoint pen and I have found myself using it more than I thought I would.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by JetPens for review purposes.
Much like the Pilot Precise, the Pilot Razor Point is a classic. The Razor Point is a simple felt tipped pen that (to my knowledge) has remained unchanged for at least a decade now. The completely opaque metallic blue plastic body and the thin metal clip are clues that this pen was designed quite a while ago. I personally find the design refreshing as I am so used to loudly colored pens with horrible branding and translucent bodies.
The Razor Point has an extra fine felt tip that writes with a smooth wet line and manages to stay true to its specified 0.5mm width.
There are a couple downsides to the Razor Point that its modern peers do not share. First off, the ink in the Razor Point tends to bleed more than other porous tip pens like the Copic Multiliner or the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner. Second, the tip is not particularly durable; in my experience the tip gets worn out before the pen runs out of ink.
While there are better felt tip pens out there, the Razor Point is really quite likeable and I think worth a try if you are curious about it.
Here are some great reviews of the Pilot Razor Point:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
While I know we are already in 2014, it is not too late to buy a 2014 diary. The Standard Memorandum Notebook produced by Word. Notebooks is a bit of a curiosity. Designed by illustrator, Jon Contino, to resemble pocket journals form the early 1900’s, The Standard Memorandum Notebook only gives you a few lines per day. When I received the notebook in the mail I was surprised by how tiny it is; at 2.35″ wide x 5.25″ long it will easily fit into your pocket.
The black cover features gold lettering with an interesting Jon Contino drawn script that reads “THE STANDARD MEMORANDUM 2014”. The rest of the notebook features Columbia Titling typeface.
The notebook contains 64 pages and is bound with two staples. This notebook does not lie flat nor does it close well. Because the pages are skinny there is not enough weight to close the book so it stays open at a 45 degree angle in the middle of the book. Each page contains 7 days, such that you get 14 days on a 2 page spread.
Up front you get a place for your personal details (can’t say I have seen a diary with a place for sizing and transportation info before).Also up front is an index with a cell for each day of the year so that you can mark important events.Some feathering
The paper is smooth but not fountain pen friendly. I found a good amount of bleed and feathering with fountain pen ink.
Bleed-throughI love seeing all of the manufacturing details listed. Glad that this is becoming a more common practice.
I have been using the notebook for a week now and at the end of each day I write down the day’s highlights. Trying to get your whole day into 3 or 4 lines is surprising fun; it forces you to cut out the unimportant details. While I still use a regular full size journal, I am finding that the The Standard Memorandum is easier to keep up with every day and in that sense it’s pretty valuable.
The Standard Memorandum Notebook can be purchased for $11.00 here.
You can also purchase a leather cover for $45 which can be monogrammed.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Word. Notebooks for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the The Standard Memorandum Notebook:
Writing sample on Maruman Smooth To Write loose leaf paper
I have improved my review format for the writing sample to make it more informative. I am now including a rating system for four key areas; the ratings are from one to five (five being the best). Please let me know what you think.
I love red/orange brown inks and Diamine Ancient Copper is my new favorite. My two other (now former) favorites in this category are Montblanc Red Chalk and Noodler’s Antietam. Unlike Noodler’s Antietam, there are no issues with feathering and long dry times (on the papers I have tested) and unlike Montblanc Red Chalk, the flow is generous. Ancient Copper shows excellent shading; it doesn’t get much better. Dry time on this ink is on the faster side and it is not waterproof.
This ink changes quite a bit with different nib sizes; if you look at the writing sample you will see that with the Italix (1.3mm nib) the color is lighter and more orange, then compare to the Pilot (M nib) it looks darker and more red.
Overall, Ancient Copper is a beautiful, well behaved ink. I highly recommend it.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by JetPens for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of Diamine Ancient Copper:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
The Baltimore-based Write Notepads & Co. produces American-made notebooks featuring high quality letterpress chipboard covers. At $16 for the Large Notebook, you get 120 5.5″ x 8.5″ pages of lined or blank paper with a brass spiral binding. Each notebook comes with a thick rubber band that can be used to keep the notebook closed. When you buy a notebook from Write Notepads & Co. they donate one to a public school, so the $16 for the large notebook actually buys two.
I quite like the rustic look of these notebooks. The thick chipboard covers go well with the brass spiral. I also like the letterpress logo featuring a fountain pen.
The inside front cover features a place for your name, address, phone number and email, all done in letter press.
The notebook is dubbed “fountain pen friendly” and while smooth and thick, the recycled paper doesn’t handle fountain pen ink all that well.
I found that the paper tends to bleed with fountain pens, roller ball pens and porous tip pens. Most of the gel pens and all of the traditional ballpoints I tested, behaved well on this paper.
Bleed-through seems to be more of an issue than ghosting.
Interestingly, the lines on the page do not seem to be perfectly printed, some are thin, others are fat and I notice that in the middle of most pages there are some breaks in the lines. I think this adds to the character and charm of the notebook but others may find it distracting.
The pages are perforated but don’t always produce the cleanest of tears.
Overall, I like this notebook because its design and materials have a lot of character.
Is it right for fountain pen users? I wouldn’t call it “fountain pen friendly” but I have no problem using it with most of my fountain pens; some bleed through doesn’t bother me and one advantage of an absorbent paper is faster dry times.
Please note: this product was provided to me at no charge by Write Notepads & Co. for review purposes.
Here are some great reviews of the Write Notepads & Co. Notebook:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
Rotring is famous for making excellent quality German-made technical drawing pens and to be honest the Tikky is a letdown. While I generally like fiber tip drawing pens, the Tikky is hands down the worst I have used in recent memory.
The 0.5mm tip is not particularly smooth, resulting in a considerable amount of resistance on the Rhodia pad I used. The lines are messy and I found that my lines began and ended with what I will call “snake tongue” (see below). I found no issues with ink flow or skipping.
