Tag Archives: musings

100,000 Pages Hits – A Big Thank You

23 Thursday Sep 2021

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When I started to actively cover the fountain pen scene on my blog I knew I was a small player in a big pond. One of the great things about our hobby is the creativity it helps to develop and this includes the number of people writing about their views and experiences but this also means there are a lot of pages being regularly updated out there. In many respects I was a year or two late with starting and at the same time I’m no The Pen Addict, The Gentleman Stationer, Well Appointed Desk or UK Fountain Pens. I struggle to post once a week and I feel my style is a tad too cold and clinical (and when ever I try something different I do not like it).

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Pens in Daily Use August 2021

27 Friday Aug 2021

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It has only been four months since I last did an update, a remarkably short period for me. There have been some changes since my last pen list from back in April. This was partly a result of the football related England v Italy piece which did result in a couple being kept in use, a number of new pens claiming their place or presently being tested, and a number that should be in my work carry case.

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The Late Late London Spring Pen Show

27 Tuesday Jul 2021

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A few months later than planned and in its new location, we finally had our first pen show for around a year and a half. Now migrated from the Holiday Inn near Russell Square to the Hammersmith Novotel, there must have been uncertainty over how the show would go. Less so over the new location and more down to the personal comfort factor now we’ve just come out of lock down and entering what is considered the ‘new norm’.

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England v Italy

10 Saturday Jul 2021

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You would have thought there was an important football coming up tomorrow (soccer to those of you from across the Atlantic), so for a bit of fun I gathered together a handful of pens to represent each side, along with suitable inks (with caveats). Some of these pens were already in my daily rotation/desk set, and some were an excuse to use up some samples I have taking up space.

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John Twiss Thuya Burl Revisited

20 Saturday Feb 2021

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I was looking at my pens last week and saw one I had not used for a while, a John Twiss creation made from Thuya Burl wood. It looks good and a lot of attention was made to bringing out its character and beauty. It has been an enjoyable week using the pen and I had created an nice review piece for it, though in true blogging fashion, felt the article was missing something. Photos were taken and about to be processed to find I already had photos …. from the previous time I had covered it … ‘doh !’ I believe is a suitable term. Still it’s a great excuse to show off the new photos of this beautiful pen.

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[PfMP] Parker IM

23 Saturday Jan 2021

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Been a few months coming, the final part of my Pens from My Past series where I cover the fountain pens that led up to my purchase of the TWSBI Diamond 580 and my entry/re-entry in to the fountain pen hobby. After all this was the one that could have completely moved me away from fountain pens but instead resulted in my looking for better alternatives.

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New Pens To Me 2020

28 Monday Dec 2020

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As the old Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times”, and for 2020 this has been true for most of us. Personally my family has not been hit (so far) by Covid and those friends of mine who’ve caught it have all recovered, however as previously mentioned here I did lose my father at the end of August, so not a great year. As a result I’ve split this article up in to four sections, and many of these pens will appear at pen clubs once life returns back to normality (or what ever is considered the new normality).

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Dapprman’s 10 Main Inks

02 Wednesday Dec 2020

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I’m not really an ink collector yet I have managed to amass a few. Part of this was due to trying to find the ‘right’ inks for me before I discovered that in the UK The Writing Desk sold samples (Pure/Niche/Pelikan Pens also do so). It may also sound odd that this area of our hobby is not my scene to those who know me from pen clubs as I actually do enjoy swabbing inks and presently have three Coloring card decks on the go covering around 200 tests.

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Detective Work Pens…

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

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OK a slightly misleading title, but presently I am spending time going through my late father’s documents and making notes with my pens, rather than my laptop (who would have thought I have been working in IT for over 20 years, much of it hands on the technical side). With that in mind I’ve actually assembled a slightly different set of pens from normal, and these I’ve been carrying up to my mother’s for a few weeks now.

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