Pens and stationery.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      3 comments      link this post     


I was asked, in the comments section of an earlier post, what I might recommend for stationery and pens. Since this sounds like the beginnings of a serious letter writer, I decided to do a quick blog post and throw out a few links.

Pens
I do enjoy an old-fashioned ink-dip pen with a good nib. The key is, of course, the nib. If the nib is cheap or rough, it cuts into the paper and sprays ink. I'm less worried about the look of the barrel as long as the nib is good.

Fountain pens are the next best thing. They do save you the trouble of the constant dipping into the ink well. My first fountain pen was in high school, a cheap plastic pink and purple A&W SizzleStix. It had ink cartridges and wrote very nicely, considering the price. I had a handful of pens that were my grandfathers, the older kind with a rubber ink bladder inside that filled with ink using a suction-draw method. Most of these, however, had aged to a point where the ink bladder was cracked.

During college, I picked up a few other fountain-type pens that were around the same low-price range. I like the Pilot Varsity, though I found the tip created a little wider line than I cared for. However, the ink flow was smooth. This pen, once the ink is gone, is thrown away. It is not refillable. I graduated up to the Berol Fontaine pen, and preferred it to the Pilot Varsity. The Fontaine had an extremely smooth writing quality about it -- very nice. It seems, though, that Berol has stopped making them despite the pen being very popular. I might be wrong, but I stopped seeing them in stores. It came in a number of great colors. It, too, was a disposable fountain pen. I only have a few left and am loathe to use them up. The Pilot Varsity is readily available online and in most stores that carry pens. It is still a good pen.

My first "serious" pen was a Lamy, compliments of an exchange student from Germany. She had one, I fell in love with it, so she sent me one and included a refillable cartridge that worked on a similar suction action but used a hard, plastic tube instead. I often use Pelikan ink with this pen. Lamy pens are a little more expensive than the SizzleStix, but very affordable once you start seeing the price of serious fountain pens, which start to hit the hundreds of dollars mark. Pelikan also makes some very nice pens of various price ranges.

I also have a Parker fountain pen that I picked up at WalMart. It's a good pen, though I always feel like either the pen or tip is just slightly bulky and I don't get the fine control I want. This pen uses ink cartridges.

When I'm not using a fountain pen, the pen I use -- and I have a well-stocked supply of them on hand as I use them up, so I must be serious about this pen -- is the fairly cheap but fine-writing Pentel Needle Tip Energel Liquid Gel Rollerball Pen (.5 mm tip). Might seem boring...but I've tried a lot of different pens off the rack and this is the one I keep coming back to. No complaints whatsoever. Fine line, smooth writing, fast-dry ink. All around good. I often use it for sketching when I don't want to drag around a lot of art materials.

My only suggestion with fountain pens is to use them often, or the ink will dry and clog in the tips. If you have a simple ink-dip pen, the tip is easily removed and cleaned. More extensive tips are a bit more challenging. I find that it's best if I store my pens (which are of the cheaper variety and not the $100+ type) tip-down in a vertical pen holder. Then the ink is ready to go. This would be a bad idea, though, if you have a faulty pen which leaks or pools ink. Writing with a fountain pen is a bit different than a ballpoint pen. (It's much better.)

Where to find pens:

• Find on Ebay
• A Pen Lover's Paradise
• Lamy pens (USA)
• Fahrney's Pens
• Bittner Fine Pens (for serious pen lovers with money to burn)
• Pilot Pens
• Colorado Pens
• Gold Spot
• Parker Pens and Pencils
  

Other Pen Links:

• The Fountain Pen Network
• Levenger (a site for "serious readers", but it also has many pen and pen info links)
• Nostalgic Impressions
• Penmen.com: This is a fun and unusual site that you simply ought to visit.
  

Stationery
Stationery is kind of a personal preference. I have odd tastes; I like it to be a real pleasure for one of my letters to arrive and it is important that I don't dash off a letter on a piece of notebook paper. Part of the experience is the stationery -- presentation is important! Two favorite sources of stationery are Papyrus (both the store and online shop), and Chronicle Books, a book publisher with odd tastes that makes unusual stationery often found in Barnes and Noble (which also has its own fine selection). If stately or traditional looks are more your style, perhaps a heavy, luxe paper with laid-mold finish, you might want to check out some of the links below (and even some of the pen links above, which carry some seriously fine stationery), which have a little of both.

Where to find stationery:

• Lone Prairie Stationery (Heh. I have to toot my own horn, of course.)
  
• The Stationery Studio
• Fine Stationery
• Crane's Fine Stationery
• Clarkson Potter Note Cards
• Alden Grace
• Paper Style
• Harris Fine Stationery (Italian Stationery)
• San Lorenzo Fine Italian Stationery
  

(As you can see by the list above, I have a thing for Italian Stationery. I don't know why.)

As usual, if you have suggestions, links, or anything else to add, please do so in the comments section below. I would love to find new sources of great pens and stationery!

Labels: links, supplies, writing life

Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger      10/28/2007 10:34:00 PM      (3) comments      Links to this post    

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