Longest out, first in, I say
A clean split this week: three returning pen and ink pairs with three new combinations. I leaned heavily on the “last inked” column of my pen database to select this week’s new trio of pens.
Two pens have been out of rotation since last calendar year. The Parker last held ink in February of 2020. It returned from Pentiques with a new diaphragm a week ago. Easy choice.
The Prussian Blue TWSBI has sat in my pen tray since last spring. I was torn about whether this week’s blue ink should rely on broad or narrow lines. The Prussian Blue offers both with its multitasker Hybrid Predator nib. Score.
The Jinhao 9305 is new and so is previously uninked. It is a gift from my partner — chosen in an effort to reach the free shipping threshold on a holiday gift order. Take that, shipping.
Eclectic triforce
Considering how I want to use this week’s pens, I’m splitting daily driver duties across two pens inked with greys this week. Both have F nibs. One wears a sharp cursive italic grind (the Jinhao); the other, the Parker, sports round tipping. The italic adds flair to routine writing. The round nib adds versatility — suiting stencils and quickly-jotted scratch notes.
Balancing duties is clearly also on my mind generally. This week’s nib selection splits sharp grinds and round nibs evenly, three and three. I’m prepared for both fast and slow writing this week. Bring it on, November.
My color palette skews unsaturated, with cold tones dominating the sextet. The two greys offer purple and blue undertones. The rest: cobalt blue, and three muddy accents in green, red, and orange. I’m quite happy with the palette as a whole. All six colors compliment one another. It feels like fall. Lovely.
Grey/Black
Jinhao 9305 Walnut (F CI, by Mike Masuyama). Diamine Earl Grey. A wet writing combination that still manages to dry quickly. Masuyama’s crisp CI grind leaves noticeable line variation. This pair is well-frankensteined to spice up mundane or intimidating tasks — because it’s so fun to write with. Considering this week’s boring and scary tasks: a teaching review, curricular sustainability reports, task management, and lesson plans.
Parker Vacumatic Silver Pearl (F). Monteverde Azure Noir. A second wet and quick-drying combination. The Parker nib is unforgivingly hard — which I like for quick writing. The rigidity ensures line consistency even when I subconsciously press harder while jotting notes down. Discussion notes, lesson plans, reading notes, meeting notes, and stencil-related task management.
Blue/Teal
TWSBI 580-ALR Prussian Blue (M Predator Hybrid, by Nib Grinder). Kyo-no-oto Aonibi. The M reverse grind elicits the most fun sides of Aonibi: strong shading. The EF side of the grind is just wet enough to overcome Aonibi’s dryness, but dry enough to dry quickly. We have a hall of fame combo here. The week’s pocket carry. Meeting notes (headings and accented details), lesson plans, lecture notes, pocket notes, journaling, manuscript drafting.
Earth Tones
Kaweco Skyline Sport Fox (EF). Monteverde Gemstone Fireopal. A moderately dry combination, with increasingly frequent hard starts. Slower writing tasks should be the best best as I can afford to pause and wait for the capillary action to catch up. As such, I’m swapping this pair out of my pocket and into my books — reading notes to accent the Parker. Also: lesson plans and some journaling.
Nakaya Neostandard Heki-tamenuri (B). Organics Studio Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass. A large pen, a broad nib, and a whispy green ink. Excellent for long stretches of writing. My primary manuscript drafting duo this week — for evening writing sessions. I’m worried about the hand sanitizer at work damaging the Nakaya’s urushi. Evening manuscript writing sessions, journaling, lesson plans, some thank you notes.
Wild Cards
Franklin-Christoph 46 ‘20 Philly Pen Show (EF SIG, by Franklin-Christoph). Ferris Wheel Press Candy Marsala. This pair has survived nearly a month of active use. The EF SIG nib has done an admirable job of stretching the lifespan of the standard converter’s worth of Candy Marsala. Continues to produce a sharp and disciplined EF line. Perfect for squeezing comments between lines of students’ writing. And my own writing. Editing, marking papers, accent notes, some journaling.
