Three Questions With Ana From The Well-Appointed Desk

The Best. That's how I refer to Ana Reinert from The Well-Appointed Desk. Her blog is an amazing resource, her reviews are spectacular, and she is one of the nicest people on the planet. Like I said, The Best. My thanks to Ana for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Since I've been writing The Well-Appointed Desk for over four years, pens, pencils and paper ARE my life. That said, I often pick out my pens and pencils in the morning with the same considerations most people reserve for their wardrobe. When I get up to go to a meeting, I select pens or pencils based on my mood. Is this a doodle-necessary meeting? If so, I'll pack a multi-pen for multiple color options. Is it a serious meeting where I'll be doing a lot of writing? A good notebook and a fountain pen will be carried. Will there be handouts? Then I pack an extra fine fountain pen or a good gel pen like my Karas Kustoms Render K G2.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

I just met and fell in love with a Kaweco Dia2. Its got a medium nib which is not usually my preferred nib size but it feels so classic I just love it. I'm hoping to upgrade the nib to a 14K gold as soon as they are readily available.

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

Its a tie between the Epic Refill Guide and the Guide Sheets. I worked closely with Dan at Karas Kustoms to pull together the Refill Guide and I keep trying to update and add to it as new options come to light. And the Guide Sheets was an involved project that has gotten a lot of enthusiasm from readers. If you find the perfect notebook but the pages are blank, guide sheets can help turn that book into lined or graph paper. I'm inclined to buy blank paper notebooks now because I can use a guide sheet to make the line widths exactly what I prefer. I've recently updated the Guide Sheets to include graph paper and more size options.

Three Questions With Azizah From Gourmet Pens

In the relatively new world of stationery blogging, Azizah from Gourmet Pens is one of the stalwarts of the community. Her reviews are thorough, beautiful, and always entertaining. My thanks to Azizah for taking the time out to answer Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Currently, my life revolves around analog tools and I'm really enjoying that. I write three blogs, in addition to recording the "Serious Nibbage" series, and am building up a fourth (scientific) website. It takes a lot of coordinating, planning, and preparing. I have to log my time and make sure I'm posting in the right place, make sure I have drafts ready to go, and there is a lot of research and editing involved. I have a lot of potential ideas, comical quotes and sayings, words and other topics of interest I want to research out, often for a blog post but also out of curiosity, questions I want to ask, things I have to do, things I have to remember… it’s a long list in my head. If I don't write it all down, I'll forget something important, and I hate making lists on my phone. I carry four notebooks with me at all times and a case full of pens and other tidbits I might need. I write everything down, so I have to use analog tools or I wouldn't be able to stay organized!

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

My current favorites are a strange variety of things. I have a thing for machined pens, so I keep a Karas Kustoms Render K (aluminum, Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4 mm light blue), a Tactile Turn Shaker (copper, Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 blue), and a Karas Kustoms Bolt (hot pink, Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 blue). I also love my Uni-ball Jetstream Alpha Gel Grip pen (black, 0.7 mm blue refill).    The notebooks I obsess over and keep with me constantly are Field Notes in a Mitchell Leather Deluxe Journal Cover, and I don’t care which ones they are. Since I use ballpoints with them, they all work for me, and I like changing it up because I get bored of the same thing after some time. They’re just fun.

Last but not least, there are fountain pens. I’ll do anything for a vintage flex, and the flexier, the better. I love my Waterman 94 with a #5 Waterman wet noodle music nib that is always inked, my Waterman 12 with an extra fine to double broad wet noodle, and my Waterman 52V with a fine to triple broad wet noodle. I’m all about that flex. I also like shiny things, so I keep my Pelikan Souverän M400 White Tortoise (Mottishaw BB Stub) inked (currently with J. Herbin Stormy Grey).

I carry everything in my Kivu, a wonderful leather bag made by Love41, the sister company of Saddleback Leather.

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

A few months ago, I would have had no idea how to answer this. Fortunately,  I wrote a post on music nibs not too long ago – Two Tines, Three Tines: A Symphony of Music Nibs. I spent hours and hours putting it together, doing research, taking pictures, preparing everything – namely by posting reviews of each individual pen prior to putting together the final post, and finally, I published it (nervously, to be honest). I'm actually really excited this was a question. As soon as I saw it, I knew right away this would be my answer. I worked very hard on it and I hope it helps people who read it.

Three Questions With Lito From Palimpsest

Do you know what Palimpsest means? I didn’t before I started reading Lito Apostolakou’s wonderful blog of the same name. I’ve learned more than that from her over the years and emplore you to read through the archives and broaden your stationery knowledge. My thanks to Lito for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

I enjoy forming letters with something as tactile as a pencil or a pen instead of summoning them into existence with the tap of a key. While I do spend a lot of time with my computer screen, keyboard and smartphone, it is the pen or the pencil I go to when I really want to connect with what I’m writing be it a To Do list, notes or a short story. Analogue and digital tools are complementary. But I guess it is the instrumentality of the pen – its capacity to be a physical tool, the sensory signals it sends – that makes it an important element in the thought process.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

My favourite writing instruments change with the seasons and my mood. The pencil pot next to my computer holds currently a Mont Blanc Meisterstück (a birthday present) filled with MB Mystery Ink, a Kaweco Sport (sent by Jet Pens), a Namiki Falcon (bought recently in New York from the Fountain Pen Hospital) filled with Noodler’s Squeteague, and a Palomino Blackwing 602. Rhodia pads (always the ones with graph paper) are a staple.

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

I’m proud of the Literary Pens Pencils Inks page on Palimpsest – which is a growing collection of references to pens, pencils and inks as found (mostly) in literary novels from Douglas Adams to Emil Zola. I have difficulties singling out a post I’m most proud of. Usually the most popular posts in the blog are not the ones I would have picked. I’ve had fun researching How to Pick up a Pink Pen if you are a Boy and frame-by-frame pen spotting in the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.