Pelikan M320 Ruby Red photo by Halsted M. Bernard

Pelikan M320 Ruby Red photo by Halsted M. Bernard

It has come to this: my passion for fountain pens, ink, and other analog tools requires its own page.

I don’t know when it began. From a very early age, I was fascinated with stationery, particularly office supplies. As a child, I learned calligraphy, so I must have owned my first fountain pen then. It didn’t turn into a full-blown passion until 2003, and I’m still not sure why.

Despite all this, I am not snooty about writing instruments; I appreciate any pen that provides a compelling tactile experience. I love to talk pens with people, and sometimes I even write about them.

If you’re here because of my ink swatches, the supplies I use to create them are in the “Ink” section below.

Fountain pens

I have been collecting fountain pens for a while now, and have some recommendations. Soon I’ll write short blurbs next to each pen explaining why I recommend it. And I’ll add some photos, too.

Starter pens

Although these are considered starter pens, I love them and recommend them to anyone curious about fountain pens. They have smooth nibs and good ink capacity.

  • Kaweco Sport
  • TWSBI Eco
  • Lamy Safari or AL-Star

Best pens under $100

  • TWSBI Diamond Mini Classic is a pocket pen, which makes it ultra-portable, and it turns into a full-sized pen when posted.
  • Pilot Metropolitan

Grail pens

I don’t yearn for any “grail” pens anymore; I am very happy with my collection.

When considering a grail pen purchase, I always recommend that you visit a local pen shop to try before you buy. And then sleep on it. I’ve been burned by an impulse purchase of a Stipula Ventidue while on holiday … I ended up with a gorgeous yet hopelessly busted pen.

But I always keep this here for posterity: Dragon Studio’s Jules (the “squid pen”).

Other writing instruments

Although I primarily use fountain pens, I recommend these other writing instruments.

  • Fisher Space Pen: The ballpoint pen that writes upside-down and through butter. I have the matte black bullet, which fits in a small pocket and has written the first time, every time, for decades. (With refills, of course.)
  • Blackwing Pencils: FunkyPlaid turned me on to these fancy pencils. I don’t use them often, but whenever I do, I enjoy the experience.
  • Ferris Wheel Press makes a rollerball pen called the Roundabout with a converter so you can use fountain pen ink in it.
  • A friend gave me a set of uni-ball EMOTT fineliner markers, which have 0.4mm tips and water-based, water-resistant ink. These are brilliant pens for paper planners.

Ink

One of the best parts of using fountain pens is playing with all the beautiful inks! My ink collection is cataloged at Fountain Pen Companion. Goulet Pens' Swab Shop is my online reference for ink swabs; in person, I go to Oblation Papers & Press and use their ink swatch book.

Don’t know where to start? I regularly post swatches of my favorites in my Fountain Pens category. And you can get a free ink set from Ferris Wheel Press with my referral link.

Ink swatches

These are the supplies I use to create my ink swatches:

To blot or not to blot

Different inks have varying drying times on various paper types. Some people let their pages air-dry; I can be impatient so I use blotter sheets. These J. Herbin blotting paper sheets are especially good at soaking up excess ink and are sturdy enough to use for many months.

Paper and notebooks

Pen people tend to fuss about paper because it’s a huge bummer to break out a beautiful pen filled with gorgeous ink and watch it feather and bleed all over the place.

You may have heard about Tomoe River paper by Tomoegawa Paper because it has unique properties that allow for almost no ghosting or bleed-through, and it can unlock some truly gorgeous shading and hue changes in sheening inks. As a long-time user of Tomoe River paper, I can confirm that it lives up to the hype. (Read “Tomoe River: The Full Story” for more.) Unfortunately, this paper is no longer made; from 2024 on, Hobonichi will be using Tomoe River S paper by Sanzen Paper Manufacturing.

The planners, notebooks, and covers I use daily and recommend are:

Journaling and planning

I’ve kept a journal since I was 7 years old, and a planner since high school. (Shout out to my trusty Chandler’s Assignment Notebook.)

Since then, I’ve dabbled in many different analog systems: Day Runner, Uncalendar, Filofax, Moleskine, Traveler’s Notebook, Passion Planner, Hobonichi, and Wonderland222, to name a few. I also eagerly jumped into digital systems like PalmPilot, Blackberry, and iPhone when they launched, excited by the promise of new technology to solve old problems.

That’s when I realized: Analog tools weren’t problems, for me. Rather, they excited me into creation, into noodling and doodling, into a mindset that encouraged creative thought. So while I do have a smartphone and I use a digital calendar, my default remains analog.

Here are my favorite websites that celebrate analog tools:

Also, here’s my Micro Camp 2022 talk: “Blank Page, Full Pen, Can’t Lose: Journaling for Mindfulness”.