MAZE - The End of Boring Fountain Pens (Sponsor)

My thanks to Endless Stationery and Arclayer for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.

Their new project, MAZE Pens, isn’t just another fountain pen launch. It’s an explorative experiment in what happens when you turn the inside of a pen into the star of the show. Instead of hiding ink channels deep in the barrel, Endless and Arclayer have sculpted them into artful pathways, printed in high-clarity SLA resin and post-processed to gleam like a jewel. The result is a pen that looks alive — ink twisting and drifting through a transparent, three-dimensional maze as you write.

Each MAZE pattern (Five of them!) feels like its own personality carved into light. You can run it as a classic eyedropper or go full engineering-nerd with the Japanese eyedropper shut-off system for leak-proof travel. And yes: shimmering inks look beautiful in these barrels — in the best way possible.

If you’ve ever wished your pen had a little more soul, a little more strangeness, a little more why the hell not — this is the one to get. Head over to their Kickstarter page and grab yourself one!

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 696 - The Secret Menu of Nib Grinders

MD Drawing Pen, coming soon from the newly rebranded MD Products.

It’s an exciting week for me, as news of the next LAMY X uniball collaboration hit the internet. I’m am extremely stoked to see this, and March can’t get here soon enough. We also got feedback on our artificial gold conversation, and let’s just say we are glad our listeners are smarter than we are.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code PENADDICT.

Pen Chalet: Check out this week's special offer, and to get your code for 10% off.

Factor: Healthy, fully-prepared food delivered to your door. Use code penaddict50off

Paper Source A5 Dotted Journal Refill Notebook Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I’ve been on a bit of a paper kick when I saw notebooks at a nearby Paper Source store and was curious to see how it handled fountain pens. Paper Source had gone bankrupt a few years back and has since been bought by Barnes & Noble. Since the store is near one of my running routes, I decided to buy one for review.

I got the Paper Source A5 Journal Refill in dot grid. They are also available in lined, graph, and undated. It is 5.83” x 8.27” or 15 x 21 cm. The cover is a little bit stiffer than a softcover but thinner and more pliable than hardcover. This is so you can put them into most A5 notebook covers out there, including ones sold by Paper Source, as well as Hobonichi. This was also one of several notebooks I used when reviewing Helen’s Creations A5 notebook cover.

The back of the notebook is minimally branded with the Paper Source logo in gold.

The insides have the same color end papers as the cover.

Neither the notebook band nor the website mentioned the weight of the paper, but it felt slightly thicker than the Leuchtturm 1917, which is 80 gsm, and thinner than Leuchtturm’s 120 gsm paper, so my guess would be ~90 gsm. The Paper Source paper is not as cream-colored as the Leuchtturm but isn’t bright white either; It is slightly cream-colored and also feels smoother than Leuchtturm.

The notebook opens fairly flat, but I don’t consider it truly “lay flat” if I have to hold it down.

This is the first page of the notebook - I hate when it is glued to the end paper such that it needs to be pressed flat to be used.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, when I review notebooks, I do my writing samples in the back of the notebook. This way, I can still use the rest of the notebook starting at the front.

The paper is fairly smooth, but I never felt like my nibs were sliding uncontrolled. I picked a wide range of nibs so that (1) I could see if there was any feathering, (2) if the paper felt equally good to write on with different nibs, and (3) to see how it handled different ink qualities.

Left to right: Platinum 3776 (Stacked Coarse by Gena Salorino), Schon Dsgn Pocket 6 (Masuyama Needlepoint), Platinum 3776 (Broad), Pilot Custom 823 (FA), Leonardo Momento Zero (Stylosuite EF X-Wing Harpoon flex), Kaweco Perkeo (1.1), Penlux Delgado (Broad), Franklin-Christoph (Medium Schon Monoc), Grifos Dante (Medium).

TWSBI Eco (1.1), Pelikan M215 (EF), Scribo Piuma (14kt gold Broad Flex), Visconti Comedia (Medium), Pelikan M800 (Italic Broad), Zodiac Pen Co (Fine Monoline by Kirk Speer), Montblanc 146 (Medium).

Writing samples with a variety of nibs including a stacked Platinum 3776 Coarse and a Masuyama Needlepoint and several in between.

The paper handled the amount of ink laid down by the stacked Coarse nib.

Look at that gorgeous pooling from the X-Wing Harpoon flex nib!

No feathering after the flex writing was dry. I liked the shading from the Vanness Hootenanny ink.

The back of the page showing some ghosting which looks more drastic in pictures than in real life.

More fountain pens up top, and standard pens on the bottom. No ghosting except from the Sharpie, including from the finer tip, which bled through to the other side and onto the back end page.

The Pilot G-2 took a few scribbles before it would write, and the Parker Flighter’s gel refill really didn’t like the paper, and wrote worse than the ballpoint above. Both pens wrote fine on scratch paper. Everything else was fine, including the pencil.

Overall, I was surprised at how well the Paper Source A5 Dotted Journal refill handled fountain pens. I was even more surprised, considering it retails for $14 for 192 pages. This is a great value, considering similar softcover Leuchtturm models cost $25. The only thing I wish this notebook had was numbered pages. I plan on using it as a bullet journal as soon as I’m done with my current notebook (a Leuchtturm 1917). This notebook can be found on the Paper Source website as well as in store.

(Disclaimer: I bought the Paper Source notebook at a local retail store at regular price. All pens and inks used are my own.)