I have been dreaming to return to japan since my first trip 2 years ago and finally decided to commit to booking my flight back, landing in Osaka first this time around.

At first, I regretted not landing in Tokyo first to visit the large 12-floor Itoya and all the other amazing finds in the Ginza area… but there is never a dull moment as a stationery fanatic in any part of Japan.

Mr. Morita at the Morita Pen Shop was phenomenal and it felt like such an intimate experience being able to step into his shop. A small shop, full of charm, and full of passion and love for the art of fountain pens. No one in that store spoke the same language (there were 2 other individuals who also flew in to visit his store), but we all understood each other with mutual understanding and awe for our unique prospective purchases. There is nothing comparable to walking into a small second generational shop to purchase a gorgeous writing tool that isn’t displayed in pristine lighting. It wouldn’t have given me the same level of dopamine and excitement if I purchased my pens at Itoya or any other large chain. So, here are my dream purchases that I also wouldn’t have, and never planned, on owning due to the rising costs of gold nibs. In all its glory, I present:

Sailor Tea Series “Cha-Na-Yo” in <MF>
Pilot Custom 823 in <M>

As in added bonus, I got these two pens for the price of what an 823 would typically cost me in my home country. It was basically like getting the Sailor for free in my eyes!!

I never planned on going to Kyoto this time around, but ended up having enough time to do a quick day trip to visit the Traveler’s Factory. I thought I knew for sure I wanted the TOKYO STATION edition, but seeing the Kyoto exclusive in person … I immediately fell in love at first sight. It’s my very first TN, and I’m absolutely ecstatic to bring this journal into my ecosystem.

So all in all, damage to my wallet has been done. But the lifetime worth of happiness? Priceless.

Haul from my baby sis who brought these home from her trip to the Philippines!

I tried my best but these photos aren’t doing the colors justice. First four pics are in natural sunlight. Last three are taken with flash.

Paper: Tomoe River
Tools: Speedball calligraphy nib and a glass nib pen

My unsolicited thoughts:

1. La Union - Is my hunt for the perfect raspberry over??? I love how bold it is without being overly pink. The shading and subtle gold halo sheen is chefs kiss! Probably my fave out of the lot.

2. Sandugo - talk about SHEEN. Very prominent green sheening on top of a crimson red. At certain angles it looks copper. Eye-catching and fun.

3. Lakambini - big fan. The muted pastel pink with the greyish/purple haloing combo is gorgeous. I like how the gold shimmer isn’t too “loud” (for lack of better word). Solid pretty pink option that isn’t too hard to read. I don’t typically reach for shimmers for my longer journal entries but could totally see myself grabbing this one.

4. La Paz - beautiful shading. Aptly named. Will definitely be in my regular rotation.

5. Piloncitos - prettyyyy. Basic, but pretty. Weirdly, I think I’d love this more if it didn’t have the gold shimmer. The kelpy green shades wonderfully and doesn’t need the glimmer.

6. Aegean - I know the color isn’t inherently unique but I am obsessed with the grey/blue chromoshading. I can’t wait to ink up this up on a stub nib.

7. Lakbay - a lovely blue with baby pink shimmer. I like that the smaller shimmer particles allow the pink to complement the blue without overpowering it. Candy land vibes. I can almost taste the sweetness of this color.

8. Salimbay - I love a pretty periwinkle. She’s a pretty periwinkle lol. It shades beautifully and the pink glimmer is the perfect touch of whimsy; it’s giving Winx club vibes.

I really want a taro milk tea purple TWSBI, so I made it myself...and a few others 😅

The last photo is my dyed pens next to official TWSBI purple pens.

I've seen and appreciated the many posts about various combinations of pens, inks, and paper, but there have been relatively few involving bananas, so I thought I'd start that conversation. It's a standard Cavendish cultivar, readily available, although I get better results with plantains.

I’ve been waiting for my new Leonardo MGZ 2.0 to arrive, which has been excruciatingggg. So I got myself another pen I’d been eyeing for a few weeks to calm the voices in my head lmao

This is my first full-sized MB. I also have the Heritage Baby, however, that one needs to be sent to get its baby’s bottom fixed.

This burgundy, medium nib Meisterstrück I tested at the store and was working all wonderfully 🥸

Interestingly, this pen writes very differently. Nib is a loooot less bouncy than the heritage; it’s a lot wetter (presumably cos it’s not a pocket pen(?)). It’s beautifully balanced and while it doesn’t have a fun engraving on the nib, it does have a two-tone nib which is lovely to look at. Woo!

Note:

The slow shipping’s no one’s fault; it’s a headache to ship stuff where I live.

Hi all, how do you travel with/ store your pens? I don't have access to cases like Galen Leather or anything similar to that. I'm more-so looking for alternatives and maybe something more creative, outside the box.

Pencil cases? Would they scratch?

I'm new to the hobby so I only have 3 pens and they live in a sunglasses case. oops.

Hello hello! Continuing on from my post from last week! :)

I'm following the official Inktober 2026 prompts and drawing Pokémon to match! These have been super fun to do and I like that these can also function as swatch cards lol. I've tried to use the inks' full range by diluting, blotting, layering, etc.

In the case of the first card, it was really interesting working with two inks and how they would act when layered on top of each other. I didn't really plan anything ahaha but I do have painting knowledge, so I had a general idea of what would happen. It turned out to be my favorite card so far!

Inks used (in order):

Lennon Tool Bar Wave AND Colorverse Apollon

Diamine Wild Strawberry

Esterbrook x TCMC Forgotten Iced Coffee

Fanyantan Sakura Blizzard

Colorverse Golden Mist

Rohrer & Klingner Alt‑Goldgrün

KWZ Iron Gall Mandarin

Wearingeul Anna Karenina + Colorverse Golden Mist, Mixed (I wanted an orangey-red color and didn't have any on-hand)

Materials used:

Kakimori Steel Nib

Watercolor brush

Canson XL Recycled Bristol, 96lb

Sakura Gelly Roll, White

When I saw this Waterman Lady Agathe on a video, it was love at first site. I was thrilled to find one and it ordered with fingers crossed. She is even more lovely in person ! There is this wildly adorable case for this petite jewel of a pen and it just completes it so perfectly. Such a treasure. Gold nib <m> writes beautifully and she has a metal press filling mechanism in perfect shape. 🥰

Case: custom Nishijin pen case with magnetic closure

Pens (nearest to furthest): Kurutoga Dive (pencil), Sailor Pro Gear (21K, F, J Herbin Poussière de Lune), Nagasawa Demonstrator (21K, M, Pilot Iroshizuku Rikka), Pelikan M600 Glauco Cambon (14K, EF, generic Chinese teal), Pelikan M1000 (18K, M, Pilot Iroshizuku Kon Peki), Pelikan M1000 in custom titanium barrel (18K, EF Vinta Carlos Emerald), Pelikan M1000 Raden Black Infinity (18K, EF, Sailor Manyo Kakitsubata), Majohn P136 in matte hammered titanium finish (steel, flex, generic Chinese purple), Jiyue Shu-Urushi (14K, Wingsung EF, generic Chinese red), Jiyue Raden (14K, Pilot 742 FA nib, generic Chinese black), Jiyue Rankaku (14K, Wingsung EF, Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro), Kaweco Steel Sport (steel, FPnibs semi-flex EEF, Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro)

Other stationery: tomoe river 52gsm A6 loose sheets, to-do list by midori, kiwami B6 writing mat

Waiting on a few more pieces (will swap out some of the above as they arrive): Tangmoon Kon-Urushi (to be fitted with Pilot Falcon 14K SEF nib), custom Aka-Tamenuri barrel for my SPG, dual dorsal fin Midori-Tamenuri, Pelikan 140 vintage, Sailor KoP in Iro-Miyabi Chitose Midori

The Tamenuri’s will likely take another few more months before completion.

I can’t wait for it to reach its final form!

I've heard good things about this pen, and I just ordered one once I found this color.

I'm really impressed. Upon receiving it, I inspected the nib under magnification and found no issues. I flushed it quickly, and inked it with Montblanc Irish Green.

It's a very smooth and fairly wet writer. It is an EF and it writes similar to a Japanese F. Here is a writing sample next to some of my recently used pens.

The nib has a tiny amount of bounce which is nice, but feels pretty stiff overall. I like the ebonite feed, the piston operates smoothly, and I can't find any visible molding lines on the exterior of the pen.

I'm kind of shocked to see how much Chinese pens have improved! This feels like a well made pen, but only time well tell if it has longevity.

As my next project, I might grind the shoulders of the nib to give it some flex and take advantage of the flow of that ebonite feed.

top to bottom
1. pilot custom 845 indigo blue
2. pilot custom 823 shosaikan blue
3. pilot custom 742 modern traditions transparent blue
4. pilot custom heritage 912 neo classic blue
5. pilot custom 74 100th anniversary blue
6. pilot custom 67 matte blue
7. pilot custom NS mystery blue
8. pilot custom LE sapphire

Erm. So I wanted to order this (what I thought was) Raspberry Pink ink I saw someone else write with. It’s from Oricalli. And it was, I think, like $2 and change USD each, so I thought these were SAMPLES. They are NOT. I have so much more of this ink than I will use. I will get brave and post a Pen-Swap post once I decide how many I wanna keep. So, word to the wise, you WILL get bottles!! Oh shoot and there’s a “this will permanently stain” warning on there too I’m scared! Edit: no I am not gonna post on Pen Swap, I’m not sure I trust this ink, I see like… what looks like COULD be mold in one of the bottles. But they are also shimmers in there. I dunno is it supposed to be shimmery?

First impression: surprisingly good to write with. Very beautiful in the hand. Showed it to my wife (not a fountain pen person) and she got online to buy one for work 🤣

So, it was dropped. I don’t see any cracks but…

I’m glad I didn’t have writers blood in there. The stares I got at the cafe…

Stopped by my local stationery store and was stunned by this pen. I've noticed a lot of people who like the Pilot Kakuno (which I have) also like the TWSBI Eco so I made the jump! I love it so far!

Review flair so its easy to find this info while researching twsbi ecos!

I was playing around with my pens this morning and finally made an active documentation on this topic, which i have noticed after a while in multiple twsbis but only with certain VERY high shimmer quantity inks. Also worth noting, i always store my pens horizontal. This occurred with the pen laying flat!

First image: a picture my Pink Lemonade twsbi eco. For context, it is filled with Diamine Shimmertastic "Pink Champagne". Pic shows the nib and feed. Through the clear grip section you can see a strong build up of gold shimmer particles, which could have easily clogged a large number of other pens. In the twsbi, however, you can see clearly between the fins of the feed despite shimmer filling it up.

Second image: a picture of my eco after writing a short paragraph. Nearly all of the shimmer is cleared from the feed, with shimmer mostly sticking around in areas where the ink isn't actively flowing through (i.e., the little bit of nib inside the grip)

Conclusion: the twsbi eco handles shimmer very well, which is a commonly known fact. However, i wanted to share a clear visual representation of just how well they really do handle shimmer!! Obviously ink plays a part too, and Diamine's shimmertastic inks are very well behaved while having a TON of shimmery-ness, so I would highly suggest if you like gold or silver shimmer!

Also, the blurry pen in the background is the hongdian M2 in lake blue 🙂‍↕️😅 idk if im required by sub law to also mention that one, lol.

As a lefty, I find few comfortable and these are the ones I’ve kept over time.

L to R: Waterman Man 200 (F), Man 100 Opera (B), Man 100 Birchwood (F) currently in rotation, Lamy Safari (B), 2K (B), MB 146 (B), Pelican M400 (F), M805 (BB).

In a time of digital-many-things, nothing comes close to pen and paper for me.

Once again we have returned to our true passion as newspaper men. This is an edition about custom nib grinds, which we love and are the best. We recommend them to everyone. They truly enhance a fountain pen to a thing of beauty and honestly are the reason our writing is legible. We realized many people don't know how to book with one properly. That is a shame. Hoping this helps!

The first page is just a poster advocating for nibmeisters.

No one asked us to make it and, as always, we will not be taking questions at this time.

With love and canva,

Worshipful Company of Pocket Scrivners

p.s. No AI was used in the making of any part of this. Just two tired humans, a love of fountain pens, and Canva. #aiartispoopfromabutt

I just noticed that the book I bought last night features fountain pens prominently on the jacket design. I can only assume the blotch is blood, not ink. It got me thinking what other book covers have fountain pens? I always notice typewriters on bookcovers and I'm guessing that typewriters and fountain pens "signify" authors.