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)
This month’s Goulet Pen Company Ink drop is a tribute to the creator of Private Reserve Ink, Terry Johnson. This shipment contained eight inks from the same manufacturer instead of the usual five from various manufacturers.
My favorites this month are DC Supershow Blue and the Ebony Blue. All of these inks have a lot of saturation. The Ebony Blue is the most unique; it is a blue black with a bit of turquoise in it.
Ink Drop is a subscription service through The Goulet Pen Company (no affiliation) that consists of monthly shipments of 5 ink samples. Each shipment is $10.
The Midori World Meister’s Note series features collaborations between Japan and other countries. The Dainel is the first in the series which Midori describes as ” A marriage of French leather paper and Japan’s MD paper, developed for the best writing comfort”.
The color of the cover is a bit more brown and less grey than the picture shows.
Let’s start with the cover and then make our way inside. The cover is made in France out of “French leather paper” and according to the packaging:
“[Dainel] stands for ‘suede’ in France. In a town some 200 km east of the capital, Paris, 30 years of experience with suede work have created a one-of-a-kind technology unique in the whole world. This unique technology has crystallized in this gorgeous leather paper.”
To me the cover looks a bit like suede but I was disappointed when I touched it; it feels like a mediocre felt. The more I use the notebook the more I like the cover; it is a lot nicer than a paper cover but it certainly isn’t leather. The cover has “Dainel” pressed into the front of the cover and “The World Meister’s Note” pressed into the spine. This cover is the light brown color and I believe they come in four or five other colors.
This notebook is extremely well made and dare I say, better than anything else I have seen in its price range. The notebook is nicely stitched this notebook lays flat.
The inside of the notebook features 91 A5 pages of Midori’s exceptional cream colored MD paper which holds fountain pen ink beautifully. There is no bleed through even with juicy pens and almost no feathering.
It’s a 91 page notebook because the first page has this logo printed on it.
No bleed through and minor ghosting.
At around $13 this notebook is not cheap but the combination of the quality and the branding make it a winner. I look forward to getting my hands on the other notebooks in this series; I believe they are up to volume 3.
The Montblanc Leonardo da Vinci Red Chalk is a limited edition ink that was introduced with the Montblanc da Vinci fountain pen. The 30ml bottle is the same standard ink bottle I have seen with the other inks in the Montblanc “Great Characters” series. The color is a nice reddish brown color that to me looks a bit like a darker version Noodler’s Antietam. I have not see any issues with feathering or bleed through on the papers I have tested the ink with so far. There is a good amount of shading and saturation so I am not sure why it’s called “Red Chalk”. The flow is a little on the dry side but it’s not dry enough to prevent me from using the ink. Dry time is about average and the ink is not waterproof. Overall I really like this ink. I am going to have to try and get another bottle before they sell out.
So first I want to start by saying that 50ml of this ink retails for $35 and can be had online for $28. In my experience Pilot Iroshizuku inks are well behaved and have a satisfactory flow. I am not certain however, that the consistent quality and beautiful bottle justify the price. I have found that other inks half the price are as good or better in some cases. My point: don’t think that for $35 you are going to get some kind of magical ink that is beyond the rest. If you fall in love with one of the Iroshizuku colors, go for it you wont be disappointed.
On to Shin-ryoku:
This ink in my opinion is very close to J. Herbin Lierre de Sauvage (I would do a comparison but my bottle had mold in it so I threw it out *harumph*). The translation of the name is “forest green” and the color is quite nice, particularly vibrant when wet. When it dries it ends up looking a bit flat which is disappointing. Shin-ryoku offers some nice shading (harder to see with the fine nib on my Cross) and like all Iroshizuku inks I have tried, no issues with feathering. Dry time is faster than most inks on Maruman Smooth-To-Write paper. The ink is not waterproof. I wont be purchasing a bottle of this one as Lierre de Sauvage is more vibrant when dried (I will be crossing my fingers that my next bottle wont have a mold problem).
Here are some great reviews of Shin-ryoku:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
Here is a preview of my first Nakaya fountain pen, a Naka-ai Cigar Negoro in Shiro-tame with a soft medium nib modified to be even softer and ground to be a left foot oblique (review to come next month):
The Caran d’Ache Hexagonal Ecaille Chinese Lacquer fountain pen is an odd ball in my collection. I don’t like skinny pens nor do I like fingerprint prone pens and pens with metal sections….this pen is all of these things. So why do I have it you ask? It was the price. I saw this pen new old stock in a small pen shop in the Netherlands and I just couldn’t let it go.
I have decided to use a more standardized review process for nicer fountain pens with six categories and a scale of 1-5 (5 being the best and 1 being the worst).
Appearance:
It is hard to see the marbled red look of the Chinese lacquer in the pictures.
The Hexagonal shares the same shape as the original Caran d’Ache Ecridor pencil. The combination of gold plate and red marbled Chinese lacquer are pretty dated looking but the fit and finish make this pen still beautiful in my eyes as an objet d’art. I can’t think of another pen in production today that is comparable. The Hexagonal Chinese Lacquer is still listed on Caran d’Ache’s website but if you look around you will have a hard time finding one. The rectangles carved into the grip section are a touch I quite like. I love the squarish shape of the 18kt gold nib and the lack of a breather hole. My pen is from the 90s and the more recent Hexagonals have a more traditional nib with a breather hole. This pen is a fingerprint magnet and I worry that even wiping it with a soft cloth with scratch it. Score: 3.5
Build Quality:
Just by looking at the Hexagonal you can tell that it is of the highest quality. The “Maison de Haute Ecriture” will never disappoint you in the quality department. The gold plate is beautifully polished and the hand painted Chinese lacquer is gorgeous. Running your finger on the barrel you will notice that there is a seamless transition between the gold and lacquer; you cannot feel it at all. The rectangle shapes carved into the section are painted with lacquer. The pen both caps a posts with a crisp snap. This is an incredibly well made pen and is easily on the same quality level as S.T. Dupont and Graf von Faber-Castell. Score: 5
Size and Weight:
The Hexagonal weighs in at just under 27 grams which is neither light nor overly heavy for a normal fountain pen. The pen measures 5.25″ capped, 6″ posted and without the cap the pen measures 4.75″. At its widest point it is less than half an inch thick and the grip section measures about a quarter of an inch thick. The weight and the length of the pen are all excellent but the width makes this pen uncomfortable.
What Caran d’Ache did was made a capped version of the Ecridor pencil which has the same girth as a pencil wooden pencil. Keeping the same form factor with a capped pen means shrinking the grip section width and this is a serious problem comfort-wise. The smaller the girth, the more pressure needed to control the pen and when you consider that this pen weighs many times more than a wooden pencil the result is not brilliant.
I wrote a letter with the Hexagonal and about half way into the second page my hand was in pain and it was a struggle to continue. As a pen for quick notes you shouldn’t run into any problems but I wouldn’t recommend it for long writing sessions at all. Score: 1.5
Performance:
Lots of tipping material
The 18kt gold medium nib writes well and is very smooth with some light feedback. I have had no issues with skipping or hard starting. The performance of the nib has been flawless for me. It’s a pretty stiff nib so you wont see much in the way of line variation. I love nibs with character and unfortunately (like most modern nibs) the Hexagonal’s nib does not have much. Score: 3
…Perle Noire*** (I did it again)
Filling System:
The Hexagonal uses a cartridge or converter which is a feature I am starting to like on high-end pens. A piston filling system is more expensive to produce and holds more ink but from a cleaning perspective is much less desirable. I like to be able to change inks frequently and a cartridge or converter allows me to do just that without much hassle. I can easily go from an dark black to an ultra light orange without even giving it a second thought. With a piston fill pen I wouldn’t be able to make that change without a ton of cleaning. I use a regular Waterman converter with the Hexagonal and I have had no issues. Like the nib, the performance is good but there is nothing special to note here. Score: 3
Value:
The retail price of this pen (with the updated nib) is about $1,300 and I could never pay that for this pen. The quality is certainly there but it’s just not comfortable. I also feel as though there is no X-factor with this pen like you would have on many similarly priced pens from other manufacturers. I paid about €120 for my new old stock Hexagonal and at that price it is not a regret for me but it also isn’t a home run purchase as I rarely use it. Score: 2
Bottom Line:
Unless you love the style and can put up with the thin grip section, the Hexagonal isn’t a pen I would ever recommend. Final score : 18/30
Left the “e” off of Noire…just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
J. Herbin Perle Noire has been my go to black ink for the last few years. Perle Noire is a dark black ink that is very well behaved. There is not much in the way of shading and I have had no issues with feathering. The flow is average. Dry time is faster than normal and ink is not waterproof but I have read that is is water resistant. The ink did fade with drops of water but it did not completely disappear like other inks. The only ink that comes close is Aurora Black which may even be a slight bit darker, however, in my experience Perle Noir is better behaved.
If you know of a better black ink please let me know.
Here is a great review of J. Herbin Perle Noire:
(I have no affiliation with the site linked below)
Noodler’s Blue Eel is a lubricated ink that is designed to improve the flow of your fountain pen. I was surprised by how much I ended up liking the color of the ink; it’s a real bright and saturated blue. The flow is heavier as you would expect from a lubricated ink but so far has not caused problems with any of the papers I regularly use. No real issues with bleeding or feathering. Dry time is on the average to slow side and it is not waterproof. This is easily one of my favorite blues.
Writing sample on Maruman Smooth-To-Write loose leaf paper.
Here are some great reviews of Noodler’s Blue Eel:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
Montblanc has released two new permanent inks, Permanent Blue and Permanent Black. Both of these new inks are ISO 14145-2 certified; this is the same standard applied to roller ball refills with permanent ink suitable for documents. Montblanc Mightnight Blue was previously formulated as a permanent ink but I do not believe it held this same ISO certification. The new Midnight Blue is no longer permanent. Interestingly, the Permanent Black costs $28 while the Permanent Blue costs $17 (same as the other MB inks). I went for the Blue because the saleswomen couldn’t explain to me why the black was worth an extra $11 (…if someone knows why please let me know).
The branding on the these new permanent inks is a little bit different. The boxes and labels on the bottles are white instead of the normal black with a color fade. The permanent inks use the same great 60ml Montblanc bottle which has a little hump in the middle making it easy to fill your pen when the bottle is low. Montblanc does an all around superb job with their packaging. There is an expiration date on the box and bottle which is a feature I love.
Permanent Blue is a nice true blue color with some shading. Permanent inks tend to write on the dry side and MB Permanent Blue is no exception. The flow was comparable to the R&K Salix (permanent) ink but noticeably dryer than the Waterman Florida Blue. I saw no feathering in my test and the ink had an average dry time on the Maruman Smooth-To-Write paper. I have tested the ink and it is completely waterproof. I dripped water on the word “Waterproof?” and the result is what you see below. Overall I really like this ink. I am going to see how it behaves in my Pilot VP for a couple of weeks and if I don’t run into any issues with clogging as I have with some other permanent inks, I will use it regularly.
