The giggling is the point: A visit to Penny Post’s Fountain Pen Test Drive Event

The moment I know that a new pen is coming home with me is when I actively seek out reasons to continue scribbling. Cursive “s” shapes. Hash marks. Nonsense sentences. My dog’s name. Often done to a soundtrack of quiet, joyful giggling.

The warm folks over at Penny Post held space for people who are new to fountain pens to experience writing with nibs of varied line widths, softness, and grinds. An event they call the “Fountain Pen Test Drive.”

Visitors were gently introduced to Sailor and Kaweco nibs from F to Zoom. They even provided  Esterbrook’s line of ground nibs for experimentation.

The table even sported Fountain Pen Day 2Go Cups

During my visit last weekend, I watched as one family took turns scribbling. The father began with careful, gentle strokes. He quickly moved on. His daughter eventually jumped in. After writing in reverse with her proffered Sailor 1911, the pen was flipped nibble-side up and, as ink hit paper, her whole face lit up. Smiles and quiet, joyful giggling.

That giggling while she got the hang of writing with a fountain pen for the first time … the giggling is the point.

For my part, I picked up an Esterbrook 2Go Cup, a bottle of Diamine’s Earl Grey, a set of thank you cards, and some stickers.

I will always say yes to a sticker

All told, I left Penny Post with a full bag and a hopeful heart that we have a new fountain pen hobbyist in the making.

This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. I have no doubts that  the Franklin-Christoph 03 is this week’s standout combo. A floss, a cleaning, and a week of writing ironed out the rough edges of the Utility (EF/B) nib grind. Excellent multitasking by Saturday, smooth as both EF and a reverse B. Daily driver. Task management, meeting notes, journaling, scratch notes, reading notes, and lesson plans. Feed only.

• Pelikan m805 (F) — Empty. The reliability of this pair led the Pelikan to be my go-to meeting pen in the beginning of the week. Until it ran dry. Also: journaling, lesson outlines, and some paper marking during student workshops.

• Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (FM) — Feed. The second go-to meeting pen. The blue color clearly signals the writer as a pen and not a vape. Safe for parent and somber administrative meetings. The FM nib wrote well after initial hard starts due to the dryness characteristic of heavy sheening inks. Also: journaling, reading notes, lecture notes, lesson plans, and teaching reflections.

• Relic Pens Large (Bu-di) — 1/6. The cool factor of the bent nib lends whimsy to otherwise boring organizational tasks. Reliable writing on both sides of the grind. Accent notetaking, marking student papers, journaling, lesson plans, and lecture notes.

• Cypress Cone Micarta (M SIG) — 3/4. Hard starts followed by rainstorm-wet writing. Best Wishes dries a murky, near-black. Plenty of sheen with minimal shimmer (as a result of not shaking the bottle before inking). One lesson plan, one meeting, two teaching reflections, and one journal entry.

• Visconti Homo Sapiens (F CI) — ?? The pair grew wetter and wetter throughout the week. Rose is a depressed red-black. Primarily slow moving writing tasks like journaling and outlining lesson plans. Largely sat unused through the week.

Notebooks. Work bujo. Kokuyo Century Edition Dot Grid (A5). I felt teaching flow in my preferred rhythms over the course of last week. Teaching prep, meeting prep, and meeting notes dominated my handwritten work. Spotted, of course, with messy scratch notes as I built handouts and tracked student feedback.

The week began with my go-to teaching weekly layout on pages 121 and 122. My final sequence of meeting notes concludes on page 138. Seventeen pages of scribbling, plotting, tracking, and reflecting.

My weeklies typically exist in monochrome. Dominated by grey ink. And returned to frequently to track my progress on tasks that need attention.

On Thursday, I had a meeting that concluded with urgent tasks that needed to be wrapped up quickly. I used the pen I already had in hand from the meeting — the Pilot 92 — to fill in the task on my list. Paakezah’s red sheen over deep blue readily leaps out of the list.

A screaming red sheen. No wonder that task got done-did.

All six pens touched paper over the course of sketching five lesson plan outlines, each comprising one page.

Of note, I appreciated the Utility nib’s flexibility during fast-paced meetings. The reverse B lines made excellent, readable headings that stand out against the EF side’s disciplined EF letters.

Utilizing utility

I returned time and again to the Pilot for accenting actionable parts of my meeting notes. Paakezah’s sheen ensures even the ink’s demure blue still stands out while skimming my notes for action items.

Yes, Paakezah. I can see you.

Journal. Kobeha Graphilo Grid (A5). Last week was a welcome breath of fresh air. The first slow week since my move last summer. I had six opportunities to thoughtfully reflect on my days last week. Six short entries, each between one and two pages.

Frequent shortform journaling is a boon. I cycled through five of last week’s currently inked pens. In order: Downpour, Verdigris, Best Wishes, Hara-hara, and Raspberry Rose. From rain to symbols of love. I wonder if the transition is a subconscious reflection of my mental state.

The B side of my new Monty Winnfield Utility nib unpacked last Sunday. The two-page entry also test drove the new nib, introducing me to the quirks of the nib’s reverse B grind.

Shading and line variation and consistent ink flow. Well met, I must say.

Visiting with each pen-and-ink combination in the evening reminds me of the options awaiting in my penvelope. Reminders that translate into eagerly digging into my work the next morning.

“Oh yea. This Relic writes a great EF line, too. I can use that during tomorrow’s lecture-building time block.”

Written dry. The Pelikan ran dry Thursday afternoon while I prepped a meeting on progress reports. Each school approaches formative feedback differently. My current school values face-to-face constructive conversations. So progress reports pair a tweet-length (does this reference still count?) statement of what can be improved with conferences between myself and parents.

That means I need studious and accurate notes on each student to bridge each’s comment and the conference discussions themselves.

With great Pelikan comes great responsibility

Both the Pilot and Franklin-Christoph rest on my desk still able to write. However, I’m loath to carry a pen over into next workweek if it has only a feed’s worth of ink in store.

So, while the 92 and 03 are consistent and reliable writers, their numbers are up. I opt to swap out such love ink level options for new nib and ink combinations.

Last gasps

Newly inked. I wrote throughout Friday with five inked pens. All major color families were still represented. I felt quite prepared as a result, even whilst down to a fountain pen quintet.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. The Earl is back. Diamine’s Early Grey is my top-most favorite grey ink. Anachronistically, Earl Grey’s dulcet purple-grey hue was my first wow ink — even amongst a quickly growing early collection of beautifully colorful inks.

Hello again, Earl.

I emptied my first 30ml bottle of Earl Grey in June 2023, when I sent the final 2 ml to a pen friend and reader of the blog.

Penny Post had a bottle stealthily looming over at me, at eye level, in their ink cabinet. The universe was hinting that the time had come to re-engage with the Earl.

I also picked up Esterbrook’s clever 2Go Pen Cup. My partner initially eyed up the Fountain Pen Day special in an earthy maroon color. But the green and tan called my name.

You’re not a cup, 2Go Pen Cup

The pen case holds even my largest pens. And, importantly, the 2Go does so in a small circular footprint. Add the cup’s ability to stand upright on its own.

And the canvas composition still allows my Galen Leather A4 folio, which I use as a desktop organizer, to stand out as the only leather object in my stationery retinue. Balance.

Outgoing / trades or sales. Intent and action misaligned last week. Alas: no further movement posting the pens I’ve marked for sale. Each is priced and packaged. Photography and posting to Slack remain.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. I placed a time lock on my Instagram and YouTube apps last week — my two biggest time sinks. The apps lock up after an hour of combined use within a 24 hour period.

I used newly protected personal time to dig into the first half of Ryan’s The Traitor. The week started on page 112 and concluded at the beginning of Chapter 20, on page 260. Chapters 7-19 were all read on my phone. Apple’s Books app is solid software.

Alwyn is leaning heavily on his eccentric assortment of friends, with eyes on broader politics. Ryan is magnetic where he shines a human light on interpersonal and nation-building politics — nation-building in a high fantasy setting.

The week ended with Alwyn leading his group into a swamp. Worst vacation ever.

All told: more time spent on reading for personal enjoyment. A happy success.

Nonfiction. I also wrapped up Walzer’s The Struggle for a Decent Politics on Thursday evening. A sandbox book. Walzer is playing with the edges of his conception of functional democracy, which orbits his notion of liberalism. Deep and accessible.

I knocked out four body chapters with my trusty, if stubby, Mitsubishi 9852EW pencil. The core is a goldilocks blend of firm writing with enough softness to leave clean, mid-grey lines on soft publisher paper.

Marginalia on the classical philosophical meaning of liberalism in a democracy

I’ve grown into a reader who far prefers a needlepoint sharpened pencil tip over F or M line widths. So I attend my sharpener often.

Frequent rounds of sharpening balanced out with my omission of chapter summaries. So the margins hold a modicum of my handwriting.

Music. I traveled full bore into the work of Hans Zimmer last week. Big soundscapes carrying out well-structured arrangements.

Soundtracks, in my experience, are excellent choices for background reading and writing music. They’re often built to sit in the in-between spaces between our intentional attention and subconscious attention.

In particular, I kept coming back to Zimmer’s soundtrack from “The Last Samurai,” which I’m sharing below.