Inventory Reduction: Last Call for Certain Brands and Products

Many thanks to everyone who’s participated in this month’s sell-off-a-thon! Through the D.C. Pen Show next month (ending August 7, 2022), most pens, pencils, and paper in the Curated Shop are subject to a 10% automatic discount at checkout, on top of reduced clearance pricing on certain items as the shop gets right-sized. I’m down to the last few items on several skus, so if you’ve been waiting to pick up some of these, act quickly:

1. Caran d’Ache 849 Fountain Pens. Excellent fountain pens, now at an even better price. I only have a few left.

2. Soumkine “Oh My 307 Universal Planner”. I still have a few in Charcoal and Rose. These are the hardcover journals, which aren’t made anymore, at a reduced price. 160 numbered pages of high-quality paper.

3. Hightide Desk Accessories. I still have ONE 30-minute clear hourglass, and 5 and 3-minute hoursglasses remaining in most colors. Folding bookstands are running very low….

4. Caran d’Ache 849 “Claim Your Style” Season 3. Personally, I thought the third season of Claim Your Style was the best. I have the last few pens marked down, and you take the 10% on top.

5. Caran d’Ache Ecridor Racing Ballpoint/Mechanical Pencil. Honestly, if someone doesn’t take this last set off my hands, I’m going to end up buying it myself and I really can’t afford to do this right now.

6. Caran d’Ache + Nespresso Swiss Wood Pencil Sets. This year’s Nespresso collaboration included a set of Swiss Wood Pencils featuring end caps made from Nespresso capsules. They were really popular, but I ended up ordering a lot of them.

7. Kokuyo PERPANEP A5 Notebooks. I’ve heard that Kokuyo is not continuing with the PERPANEP paper, at least in this format. I have a handful of notebooks left, in the popular “Steno” ruling, but after they’re gone that’s it.\

8. Kokuyo “Sketch” Hardcover Pocket Notebooks. I have a handful of these left in green, white, charcoal, anise, and dark blue.

9. CW+T Pen-Type A and Pen Type-C. All Pen Type-Bs have sold, but I still have one Pen Type-A and a handful of Pen Type-C’s remaining. Enjoy a clearance discount on these excellent EDC options for Hi-Tec-C lovers.

Many thanks to all your support! The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

Sunday Reading for July 17, 2022

1. Gioia Alleria (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). I’ve not tried a Gioia fountain pen, and the aesthetic isn’t really something that’s in my wheelhouse, but I’ve seen nothing but good reviews in terms of their quality.

2. Thin Strokes, Thick Strokes: 1.1mm Lamy Stub Nib (via KraftyKats). Chloe has a guest post this week from A Fleeting Ripple (another great blog you should be following). Honestly, the standard Lamy 1.1mm stub shouldn’t be as good as it is, yet I find myself reaching for it periodically as well.

3. Water Lilies: Giant’s Pens (via A Fleeting Ripple). I have a pen on order with this same resin (Water Lily Koi), and it’s also interested to read about yet another newer artisan maker!

4. A Currently Inked That Is Currently Sharing (via mnmlscholar). I can’t go on enough about how enjoyable it is to have a pen club, either local in-person or either online, where you can share your love for stationery with other like-minded people! (Especially if you don’t have anyone in your family, at work, or in your close circle of friends who loves stationery as much as you do.)

5. Pens That Make You Go Ooh (via Dapprman). I think one of my own goals as I reevaluate things is to make sure I write with all my pens. Especially those pens I love and have kept because they both write well AND are visually appealing.

6. Graf von Faber-Castell “Perfect Pencil” (via Scrively). An iconic product, but is it super-functional from a usability perspective? Maybe for some people but probably not for me.

7. Otto Hutt Design 04 Fountain Pen (via SBRE Brown). Otto Hutt has been getting more exposure lately, especially how good their nibs are. Some of their designs are a bit too slim for me.

8. Nespresso + Caran d’Ache Fixpencil (via Bleistift). I wish I had kept one of these for myself when I had them in the shop. I do love the orange finish, even if I would definitely have replaced the Nespresso recycled lead with a 2B Technograf.

9. Ink Review #1859: Scribo Grigio (via Mountain of Ink). As discussed a bit further below in today’s post, I’ve been using Scribo Ink lately, and Scribo Grigio is a personal favorite.

10. Curnow A5 NEW PAPER Inserts (via Well-Appointed Desk). Known as being among the first to use Tomoe River in pocket notebooks and handmade journals, Curnow Bookbinding has started experimenting with new papers.

In Case You Missed It…

This week on the blog I had two posts: a follow-up look at the Lamy 2000 Multipen (or “4 Color Ballpoint), more than five years after I first reviewed this particular pen. I also reviewed another Scribo ink I’ve been using, Verde Prato, which is a quite functional bright green.

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Only a couple of these are left in T.G.S. “Gently Used”!

Visit the T.G.S. Curated Shop for Reduced Pricing Storewide!

We’re selling down a lot of our inventory as we refocus the shop going forward, so take advantage of 10% off pens, pencils, and paper (some exclusions will apply) from now until the D.C. Pen Show. The discount automatically applies at checkout, so no coupon code is necessary. Also, there are still a few pens left in the “Gently Used” section of the website. These have gone relatively fast, and I’m happy to see pens going to homes where they will be used and loved!

Consider T.G.S. Patreon!

I would love for the T.G.S. Patreon to become the primary method of support for T.G.S., and have tried to streamline it. I’ll also need to be a bit more vocal about its availability and what it offers. As of yesterday, I’ve streamlined the Patreon to two tiers: $3 and $5, and plan on making monthly meetups, pen show events, and periodic exclusive content the primary benefits. Of course, Patreon members will continue to get first access to periodic sample sales, with right of first refusal on gently used pens.

Ink Review: Scribo Verde Prato

I’ve enjoyed getting back to full-time reviewing, as I step back from expanding the shop and refocus the site. If you’ve missed it, I’m in the process of thinning out my accumulation of pens, inks, and paper; selling off a huge chunk of what I don’t use, and - relevant here - rediscovering things I forgot I had, such as six or seven bottles of Scribo Ink at the back of a cabinet. (Ridiculous, right?)

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Scribo sells their ink in a hefty 90ml glass inkwell, which not only gives you plenty of ink for your money but also makes for an attractive desk accessory, if that’s your thing.

I’ve previously tested a few different colors from Scribo’s ink lineup, and found them all to have good flow with zero bleed and feathering. For those unfamiliar with Scribo (or “ScriBo,” as I’ve seen it written), the moniker is short for “Scrittura Bolognese”, a reference to both the company’s location and the fact that it was started by former employees of OMAS who wanted to keep that former brand’s legacy alive. Scribo places a strong emphasis on nibs and ink: the nibs tend to be “soft”, with “extra flexible” options available, and the inks are formulated to accommodate the company’s nib style with a special emphasis on inkflow. I’ve also taken an in-depth look at the ink bottle, which is impressive in its own right.

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This particular ink dries fast, in addition to behaving well. This writing sample was dry to the touch within 15-20 seconds.

The ink I’m looking at today is “Verde Prato,” a very bright grass/spring green that’s a difficult color to get right. I enjoy using bright greens such as this one for highlighting and annotation, but with some brands, the dyes used in this shade of green tend to make for a drier writing experience and/or precipitate out to form nib crud. Verde Prato, however, is a different story. Scribo has done a very nice job of making a bright - almost neon - green ink that’s still highly usable and likely to stick in my collection since I don’t currently have something similar.

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While I store my Scribo inks in the sturdy cardboard packaging, the caps on the ink bottles helpfully have a color reference in case you keep your inks in a drawer and have to view/organize them from above.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

As I noted above, I’ve tended to stay away from these light green inks despite generally liking the color. Unlike some brighter colors such as orange, I’ve found light greens to have a tendency towards extremely dry flow. Scribo Verde Prato flows much better than most, and going forward this one will definitely remain in the collection as my “nuclear green” option. The ink’s legibility makes it an excellent option for both highlighting and annotation.

You can purchase Verde Prato and other Scribo pens and inks from our friends at Vanness Pens. At $35, the ink isn’t inexpensive, but you do get the impressive glass inkwell bottle containing a full 90ml of ink (which is approaching Akkerman territory!).

Disclaimer: I purchased the ink featured in this review for my own use, though I purchased it so long ago I can’t recall whether I may have received a discount or not. This post does not contain affiliate links or paid advertising. To support The Gentleman Stationer, please consider shopping at the T.G.S. Curated Shop (large inventory reduction sale ongoing!) or visiting our Patreon Program.

Review Revisited: The Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint (Multipen)

I don’t often revisit old reviews, but I’ve been in a nostalgic mood lately as I prune back my collection and decide what to keep and what I should pass along to others. I also periodically get questions about whether my opinion on certain pens I’ve recommended heavily in the past still feature prominently in my own daily use. One of those pens is the Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint, more commonly referred to as the Lamy 2000 Multipen. For a refresh on my opinions of this pen, you should start by reading my original review.

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A small split in the Macrolon, which is pretty shallow and hasn’t “moved” at all since I first noticed it 2 years ago. I still use the pen without incident.

Nearly five years later, everything I said in that original review still holds true. The “gravity drive” refill system, where you rotate the pen so that the refill you desire to use faces up, continues to work flawlessly, and the pen itself has withstood significant use fairly well, including relatively heavy pocket carry and briefcase travel. My pen does have a small split in the Macrolon around mid-barrel, though it’s stable and hasn’t expanded in the two years since I first noticed it.

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The Sailor Imperial Black Multipen features a .5mm mechanical pencil, which is great even though I prefer the Lamy’s form factor. (The Lamy also rattles less.)

If there is one “regret” I have with this pen, it’s that the Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint doesn’t feature a mechanical pencil option. If I were able to roll with three pens and a pencil in this form factor, this pen would never leave my bag. As it stands, if I think I’m going to be in a situation where a pencil might be necessary, I’ll carry the Sailor Imperial Black Multipen instead. While that particular pen is quite a bit heavier and not as comfortable to use as the Lamy, the mechanical pencil option is a huge plus.

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My two preferred multipen options: the Sailor Imperial Black and the Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

While I don’t use multipens in general as much as I used to, the Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint still makes its way into my regular daily carry. I use the same four D1 refill options as I did five years ago (two .5mm Jetstreams in blue and red, a Lamy highlighter refill, and a standard .7mm blue-black ballpoint refill that I bought in bulk years ago and which I think is Monteverde). While this particular pen is going on six years old, and carries some “battle scars,” I’d consider it stable and a worthy investment, especially given how much use I’ve gotten from it and the fact that I only paid $50 or so. You can still get these in the U.S., though the price these days is more around $80. If this particular pen ends up breaking, I’d have no hesitation about investing in another one. I’ve linked here to Jetpens, the U.S.-based retailer that also features a wide range of D1 refills that should be compatible with the Lamy 2000 Multipen.

Disclaimer: I purchased this pen with my own funds, for my own use, years ago. This post does not contain affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges from the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

July Inventory Reduction, Part II: Additional Clearance Pricing, Plus Most Pens Now 10% Off!

I had a long, 14-hour work trip yesterday, so I’m a day behind in my weekly posts, but I wanted to go ahead and continue our July Inventory Reduction sale with a slight change. We will continue to offer 10% off all paper and pencils, automatically applied at checkout, through the D.C. Pen Show as we reduce certain of our inventory and refocus the shop and website. As of today, most pens are now 10% off as well, excluding TWSBI. Be sure to take advantage of this as it’s a great opportunity to snag a deal on daily writers such as the Caran d’Ache 849 and the Traveler’s Company series. I’ve also placed some additional items on sale, and the discount will be in addition to the reduced price.

Much of this inventory I plan to take with me to D.C. to further reduce, so if you have your eye on something, now’s the chance! I’m still determining what I will be stocking going forward, but I would like most of the focus to be on custom designs and exclusives, not standard or stock items.

This particular promotion excludes TWSBI. The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all items shown.