Posts filed under Fountain Pens

Lessons Learned from Valentina

(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!.)

As you may recall, I have been working on my Italian by copying/transcribing books. I started copying a pocket Italian Grammar book, which sounds exactly as fun as you think. Fortunately, I found the Italian children’s books that I bought years ago and decided I would read/copy one of them. After all, I was also copying The Little Prince (“TLP”, which is also a children’s book,) so why not an Italian one?

The book I picked is called “Un amico Internet per Valentina” (or “an Internet friend for Valentina) by Angelo Petrosino. Valentina is a 10 year old Italian girl who goes to elementary school, where she ends up getting a penpal from England and also an Internet penpal (yes, her father is nervous about this but it’s a nice kids book, not my usual murder mystery, lol).

*This is the second book in the series (I’m waiting for the first book to arrive.)*

With illustrations, large fonts, and even large chapter titles, the book was under 200 pages. So I picked an A5 Nebula Casual Note spiral notebook with 120 pages of their 90 gsm white paper. I was going to take a gamble and hope that would fit, but no big deal if it didn’t. (Spoiler: it fits, phew!)

*This is the Nebula Casual Note. I like the minimalist starry decoration in the upper right corner.*

I hadn’t used the Nebula paper in a few years so it was a nice change of pace from the usual Rhodia, Leuchtturm or Tomoe River. It has a bit of texture, almost like Midori Cotton. I used saturated inks, shimmer inks, and shading inks and had no problems with feathering or bleedthrough. Overall, I enjoyed using this paper, but I quickly discovered that I did not like side-bound spiral notebooks. As a right hander, I had no problems when writing on the right side of the page, but flip to the other side and omg, my hand would dig into the coils as soon as I got to the right half of the page.

*Written with Rohrer & Klingner Solferino, which has a slight golden sheen which you can see here.*

*I wonder if it would be better or worse if it was a spiral (single) versus the double coil.*

Unlike TLP, this is a physical book, which required me to use a book stand because (1) I don’t have room on my desk to lay out a book AND write in my notebook, and (2) so it’s easier to read when it’s propped up. Thankfully, I had bought a bookstand for this project - you can find it at The Gentleman Stationer. I love that it is foldable and has a low profile so it can sit flat on my desk without taking up a lot of room. You can also adjust it to a couple different angles, and use it with books/notepads/etc of varying thicknesses.

*This metal book stand lays pretty flat when collapsed.*

*You can see the 3 notches on the bottom of the stand which holds your book at different angles.*

While I still prefer transcribing an eBook versus a paper book because I can change the font size and I don’t have to worry about schlepping a book around, I enjoyed the tactile sensation of flipping a paper book and eyeballing how much of the book or chapter is left (without relying on my Kindle app’s stats). It’s just a nice change of pace for me, since I do all my reading on the Kindle app.

With TLP, I (1) wrote almost all of it in cursive, (2) used a different pen/ink combination per page, and (3) only wrote on one side of the page because I was using a 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook. With Valentina, I changed it all up!

For starters, I wanted to do something a little different than the cursive writing I used in TLP, but I couldn’t decide on cursive versus print. And we know that the answer is always “both” whenever there’s a choice to be made! So I chose a style that is a slightly different style of my usual cursive as well as simple print, which I don’t usually use.

*I asked IG folks which one they preferred and most of them said cursive.*

Since I wasn’t planning on making IG posts for every page like I did with TLP, I decided to use that style for a whole chapter, regardless of how many pages it took. It was nice to get a few pages of practice, which really helped with improving my consistency, especially for print, which I don’t do nearly as much as cursive.

*I wrote ~2-3 pages per chapter before switching styles.*

This last one, it’s a doozy, at least for me. Ready for this? I wrote with one pen in this notebook until the pen was empty. I didn’t use the pen for any other purpose. Not only that, I decided to pick higher capacity pens too! No Kaweco mini-converters here! For someone who routinely has 48 inked pens in order to switch it up multiple times a day, doing this was pretty extreme! I know a lot of folks regularly write with one pen until it’s empty but not me! I left these pens at home so they wouldn’t accidentally get used while at pen meetups or in my regular day-to-day writing. I was also kind of curious how many pages it would take to empty out a pen, so it was a fun experiment!

*I used the following pens to copy the book: Nahvalur Original Plus, Pilot Custom 823, TWSBI Eco-T, Pelikan M205 and Leonardo Momento Magico (which isn’t empty yet.)*

*I didn’t think to make this log until the third pen, which is why the first two entries are also in purple.*

I had no idea how many pages it would take to write a pen dry from start to finish, but it took as few as 13 pages with the Pelikan to 34 pages with the TWSBI Eco-T. In all cases, I filled the pens to as much as they can be filled, including expelling air from the vac fillers to top them up. Thank goodness Fountain Pen Companion made it easy for me to track all of this!

Here are some stats:

199 physical pages (includes pictures, etc) -> 97 handwritten A5 pages
5 high capacity pens used (the 5th pen still has ~10 pages of ink left)
- Nahvalur Original Plus, Medium nib - 22 pages
- Pilot Custom 823, Fine Medium - 26 pages - I would have expected to get more pages due to the FM nib.
- TWSBI Eco -T, Medium - 34 pages - Wow, I am shocked I got more out of this pen than the 823!
- Pelikan M205, Medium - 13 pages - I know it’s a smaller pen than the others but I didn’t expect it to have that much less writing capacity.
- Leonardo Momento Magico, Medium nib - 11 pages so far. I’m pretty sure there’s another 10-20 pages worth of ink left.
4-5 months spent on this project, writing 4-5 times per week, 1-3 pages per session.

I’m no language expert or student of linguistics but I feel like transcribing a book in a foreign language has really improved my Italian. For starters, you can only really read and remember a few words at a time before writing them down. This makes it much easier to figure out what I was reading. Whereas, if I tried to read the book (and not copy it), I would naturally try to read it at the same pace as English and end up not understanding what I’m reading because my brain can’t process it at that faster rate. I’m also “speaking” the words in my head as I write them, which also engages a different part of the brain than just reading the words or writing them on paper.

When encountering unfamiliar words, I had heard and read that it is better to guess at the meaning than it is to bust out a dictionary to understand every single word. Every now and then, an unknown word or two would be so critical that I couldn’t figure out the gist without looking it up. Not gonna lie, Google Translate’s camera feature came in clutch a few times. But for the most part, I was able to follow along and understand the story even though I didn’t know every word. In the end, I would say I understood 75% or more of the text, which I think is pretty good, even if it is a book geared towards 5th graders!

*Screenshot of the book (left side) and Google Translate (with Google Lens) in action on the right.*

I still have another 20 or so pages left in this notebook AND the Leonardo Momento Magico is still inked up, so I’m excited to pick up another Valentina book and keep on reading, writing, and learning!

*Next up, “Gli Amici di Valentina” (Valentina’s Friends)!*

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Posted on December 13, 2024 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Writing, Fountain Pens.

BENU Euphoria Collection Bourbon Fountain Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Christmas will be here before you know it, and if you're looking for any gift ideas for folks that appreciate a good pen, this product from BENU is a great option to consider.

The BENU Euphoria Collection is a classy pen design that looks great no matter which colorway you choose, but I'm smitten with this Bourbon variant. It reflects a lot of sparkly light, which attracts a lot of attention. The gold and red tones feel warm and cozy, and I just can't get enough of this material.

Before going into more detail about the material, let's look at the common traits that you'll find in any of the Euphoria Collection pens. The body and cap are faceted, with 10 small facets going around the diameter of the pen. These facets add a lot of visual interest to the pen, but also changes how the pen feels in your hand and how it behaves on flat surfaces (meaning it doesn't roll easily). Regardless of the colorway, every Euphoria pen has a broad, bold black band at the base of the cap that features a BENU logo debossed on the faceted side that also houses the clip.

These pens also share the same nib options — a Schmidt #6 with silver-colored plating and minimal scroll work. The grip is substantial and provides plenty of space to grip it however you like while remaining comfortable.

The overall size of the pen is similar to a Lamy Safari. While the cap only has a small taper from the opening of the cap to the top of the cap, the body has a more noticeable taper toward the tail of the pen body. This makes the pen body very comfortable to hold since most of the weight is concentrated toward the nib end. You can post the cap on the back of the pen if you want, but I prefer the balance of the unposted pen for writing.

The pen can house a full size international cartridge, but it also comes with a standard cartridge converter so you can pick the right ink to match or compliment such a bold pen material. I went with Robert Oster Whiskey even though I know it's some form of sacrilege to combine bourbon and whiskey. In this case, I make no apologies because I love the ink and pen pairing here.

Getting back to the real star of the show, this acrylic material is something I have yet to tire of seeing on my desk. The main acrylic is a translucent amber, but there are hundreds (thousands?) of small gold and amber metallic flakes suspended in the material that make it look like it's moving. Depending on the color of the light in the room, the pen can take on different colors from bronze, red, gold, orange, and even yellow. Regardless of the color of light, this pen reflects light like crazy and draws attention from whoever is nearby. Be prepared for conversations that start with, "Whoa; what is that?" when this pen is visible.

Writing with the fine nib on this pen has been a great experience. The balance of the pen is perfect without the cap posted, and the grip section provides a great area to hold and control the pen. Ink flow has been great, and I didn't need to tune the Schmidt nib at all out of the box. When it's time to pack up, the silver clip does a great job of securing the pen to a pocket or bag. The cap screws on to the pen with about two and a half rotations, so it's really secure when closed.

Overall, I've been so impressed and pleased with this BENU. The fit and finish are great, and the quality of materials are fantastic. Any pen from the Euphoria Collection would make a great gift, but I'm really partial to this Bourbon option. You can choose from fine or medium nibs at the moment, though it would be trivial to swap the nib out with another of the same standard size. At $157, this is a good value for the quality and artistry on display. I'd happily recommend this to anyone that looks at it and has a remotely positive reaction to the color.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on December 11, 2024 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Benu Pen, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Pilot Silvern Fountain Pen Review

When I think about having a pen that I can use all day, every day, I have a few boxes it needs to check:

— Goldilocks size: not too big, not too small

— Light, and balanced

— Comfortable grip section

— Great nib

— Cartridge/Converter filling system

The Pilot Silvern checks all of these boxes for me. It is also a stunner, which certainly helps its cause as the one pen that can do it all.

The Silvern came into existence around 1970, which, in my opinion, was Pilot’s heyday of design. Taking cues from the Pilot Elite, and later, the Pilot Custom, the Silvern blinged out those models with a Sterling Silver exterior barrel. It has been a staple of Pilot’s product lineup ever since, with the last several years seeing it used as a platform for unique design elements throughout the barrel.

My review pen is the Jaguar model, which features this cuddly beast on the prowl through the jungle. The level of detail shows off all its spots, as it sneaks through the palm leaves, trees, and bushes. It’s a fantastic scene laid out on the Sterling barrel, and something Pilot does well throughout the Silvern lineup.

The shape of the Silvern is torpedo-like, with slight tapers towards rounded ends. The grip section is black plastic, with a matching taper into what is one of Pilot’s knockout design elements in their inlaid 18K Gold nib. As great as the exterior barrel is, the entire pen comes together because of the nib. If they used a more traditional grip section and nib I don’t think the Silvern would pop off as much as it does.

I inked this pen with a Pilot Black ink cartridge, which is an easy match. That said, what ink color wouldn’t be a perfect match for the Silvern? My inclination is to keep it classic with Black or Blue Black, but bright colors like Green and Purple would look great, or even Brown and Yellow would complement the Jungle theme.

At the moment, the Silvern is available with Dragon and Turtle themed barrels, along with Jaguar. Additionally, there are two non-creature themes available, Ishidatami and Tsumigi, both classic Japanese patterns.

Cost-wise, they are expensive at $544, but relatively speaking, they are priced well. For a full-Sterling Silver exterior barrel and an 18K Gold nib, the Silvern brings a lot to the table compared to other pens in its price range. Add in fantastic designs and their limited nature (these are each an edition of 550.) And, if you are paying attention, they drop special editions outside of their normal lineup, such as this Pokemon model a few years ago.

Back to my checklist above, the Silvern has me covered. It doesn’t hurt that it is made by one of my favorite brands in Pilot. I’ve had one on my watch list for years, and it might be time to move it to the purchase list in 2025.

(Chatterly Luxuries loaned me this pen for purposes of this review.)

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