Currently Inked #34 | 29 March 2017

• 00:30 – How do I get ink trapped behind the seal of a Pilot Con-70 converter cleaned out?
• 4:20 – How can I avoid getting oils from my hand on the paper as I write?
• 6:45 – What would your perfect custom-made __pen look like?
• 8:30 – __pen with a fine nib that doesn’t skip with a price under $20?
• 9:50 – Currently Inked #1 – Eversharp Skyline (vintage) w/ Monteverde Capri Blue (I think…)
• 12:15 – What is a good replacement for Sheaffer Skrip Peacock?
• 13:45 – How much ink do you find “enough” to sample an ink, and do you have a process for determining whether or not to buy a bottle?
• 16:45 – Currently Inked #2 – Sheaffer Legacy Color Prototype w/ De Atramentis Document Blue
• 19:50 – Are handmade pens of a higher quality than mass-produced pens?
• 24:40 – If you had to pick a favorite manufacturer in Italy, Germany, and Japan, what would they be.
• 27:00 – What is your experience with / opinion on music nibs.
• 28:55 – Can you please make Inky Fingers notebooks with perforated pages? (And a digression about Inky Fingers notebooks in general).
• 34:10 – Has anyone ventured into cryogenic treatment of nibs?

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Currently Inked #33 | 15 March 2017

• 00:00 – Life overview, Inky Fingers Paper problems, 2017 __pen show attendance
• 3:20 – Matt’s 4th anniversary of fountain __pen users
• 4:40 – Does it matter if you store the converter with the pen, or if you use the same converter with the pen all the time?
• 7:30 – Have you noticed any variation on the green in your Nakaya Heki-Temiuri Decapod over time?
• 8:50 – Could you make a video comparison of different kinds of papers?
• 10:15 – Have you ever used Ogami paper?
• 12:10 – Currently Inked #1 – Platinum 3776 Chartres Blue with Parker Quink Blue-Black
• 14:55 – Thoughts about Visconti’s nib quality in the ’90s and early ’00s vs. today.
• 18:30 – Some inks stain clear demonstrators. Are there “rules” for what inks are safe and what inks to avoid?
• 21:10 – Aurora Optima vs. Sailor Optima Realo
• 24:30 – Currently Inked #2 – Aurora Optima Green Auroloide with Diamine Autumn Oak
• 26:05 – What type of reviews do you prefer making: Written or video?
• 30:40 – Shouldn’t we be able to store our pens with the nib down?

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So. Much. Ink.

I was recently asked to do a quick(ish) tour of my ink collection by a viewer, so I thought I’d whip out the iPhone and walk you through what 230 bottles of ink looks like. It’s no Taipei Ink Collector or anything, but still respectable enough.

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Cat seal

Nineteenth-century pencils often featured seal stones in their crowns. Sometimes these were glass, but better examples typically boast seals of bloodstone, moonstone, carnelian, and other semiprecious materials. And sometimes these seals are engraved, usually with initials. More elaborate engravings are unusual, and especially unusual is this engraving of a cat found on the bloodstone seal of a fine 15K gold Mordan pencil from between 1845 and 1860.

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Currently Inked #32 | 3 March 2017

• 0:45 – Do you have any suggestions for pens that pair well together (2 fountain pens plus a ballpoint)?
• 4:20 – Do you have another goal in mind for your ink collection?
  • Inquisitive Quill tour of Taipei Ink Collection
• 6:20 – __pen purchases as investments?
• 7:55 – What are your thoughts about Massdrop?
• 10:00 – Any news on updates to the Inky Fingers Notebook lines?
• 11:55 – What is your favorite ink per brand?
• 14:20 – Have you used a fountain __pen with a WA nib? How do they compare to standard nibs?
• 15:05 – How do you mentally get over not matching the ink to the pen body?
• 17:50 – I love the Aurora Optima Green Auroloide. Are there any other larger pens that use a similar material?
• 19:20 – What are your tea preferences?
  • Quangzhou Milk Oolong
  • Earl Grey Cream
• 21:15 –  What are the benefits and the disadvantages to modern vacuum-fillers filling systems?
• 24:20 – Currently Inked #1 – Homo Sapiens Bronze Age Maxi w/ Diamine 1864 Terra Cotta
• 27:20 – What is the best way to polish a pen?
• 29:30 – Am I better off getting a bunch of cheap pens with a Platinum Preppy or a slightly more expensive pen with swappable nibs?
• 31:10 – What are some of your other interests in life besides nibs and ink.
• 34:55 – I start to get pain in my back and shoulder are when I write. Any suggestions or tips?
  • Wobble Cushion
• 39:10 – What is your opinion about the pricing strategies of Italian nibs?

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20-year anniversary

The last few months have been more than usually hectic. So much so, that I entirely forgot the twentieth anniversary of www.vintagepens.com, which went online at the end of January 1997 (first snapshot at the Wayback Machine is from June). It was one of the first __pen sites on the web, predated slightly by Jonathan Steinberg's www.vintagepen.com, and launched in parallel with friend and colleague Simon Gray's Battersea __pen Home site at www.penhome.co.uk (we shared ideas and software -- FrontPage, way back then).

Despite longstanding intention to give the site a complete revamp, it remains more of a palimpsest. The most recent major structural change was to the catalog and Pen Profiles sections to make them mobile-friendly. Carrying over those same changes to the rest of the site is on the to-do list, though a full redesign may arrive first.

Looking back, one of the biggest changes between then and now is the ease of online commerce today. Back then, we were turned down for a credit card processing account because we didn't have a bricks and mortar store. Assets, credit rating, established business -- none of that mattered. For the first months we processed online credit card orders (received by fax, for security) through the merchant account of a friend with a local antiques store. We were running more sales through his account than he was, but we couldn't get our own account until bank policy changed several months later. Not that that account was much of a deal, with all the added charges and surcharges and hidden charges and overpriced required processing equipment. It's all so much easier, cheaper, and more transparent now.

Then there was all the time spent on shipping. No online postage then -- we had to take our packages to the Post Office, waiting in line at the end of the day to mail them at the counter. We pretty quickly set up multiple printers to handle labels, including the multipart labels for Express Mail, Registered Mail, and customs (two different labels for the latter, large and small), but there was no getting around those lines. That was one reason we long maintained a rather high minimum order threshhold, so that we didn't get overwhelmed with small orders that would push our Post Office time to unacceptable levels. As I recall, I did look at postage meters, but at the time they were both expensive and insufficiently flexible, especially as regards international shipments.

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Currently Inked #31 | 26 February 2017

• 4:15 – How can you use a fountain __pen with lower-quality paper and still have a good writing experience?
• 6:30 – Is the Sheaffer Skrip ink on the shelves behind you still available in that packaging?
• 8:10 – Do you have recommendations on a good, really black ink?
  • Aurora Black
  • Sailor Kiwa-Guro Pigmented Black
  • Platinum Carbon Black
  • Private Reserve Velvet Black
• 9:35 – An exploration of ink starvation on a Pilot Vanishing Point
• 13:15 – Currently Inked #1 – Classic Pens LB3 Jupiter w/ Monteverde Yosemite Green ink
• 15:00 – What editing software do you use for your videos? Final Cut Pro vs. Adobe Premiere
• 17:20 – Are there people who can re-tip nibs?
  • Nibs.com (US – California)
  • Gregminuskin.com (US – California)
  • goldnibs.com – (Spain)
  • fpnibs.com – (Spain)
• 19:40 – Local stores in the Seattle area for pens
  • Silberman Brown Stationers
  • Kinokuniya
  • University of Washington Bookstore
• 22:10 – Currently Inked #2 – Scriptorium Pens Conway Stewart Wellington Homage – Robert Oster Melon Tea
• 23:55 – After the passage of time and with more experience, have you changed your experience of the Montblanc 149
• 26:55 – Have we reached “peak ink?”
• 32:50 – Have you ever considered taking on a partner for The __pen Habit?

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