A duo from a galaxy far, far away
The week of May 4 has become a Star Wars fan’s holiday amongst my friends and coworkers. I dug deep and added two pens which channel a galaxy far, far away to the week’s currently inked.
Platinum released a line of 3776 pens years ago and the Kylo Ren edition lives in my pen case. The F nib is one of my all-time best writers, and narrow enough to serve as an EF most weeks. This week, though, the junior Solo carries a moody purple accent ink.
Brooding, as Kylo Ren is prone to do
The white on black of Visconti’s Blizzard colorway channels Bad Batch era stormtrooper armor for me. Add the helmet-like nib art and the Homo Sapiens proves a fitting May 4 addition to the week’s penvelope.
Grey/Black
Platinum 3776 Tsuki Kusa (EF). Birmingham Slag Gray. I like a tidy, narrow line for task management. My tiny handwriting stays legible and narrow nib sizes often dry quickly enough to avoid smearing. Platinum’s EF provides both, and throws in pencil-like feedback as a bonus. The 3776 is light with a narrow section that allows fine control whilst scribbling scrawny letters.
Blue/Teal
TWSBI Vac 700R Kyanite (B Selvedge, by Nib Tailor). Yoseka Ming Kong Que Blue. A searing turquoise blue with intermittent red sheen keeps my accent notes and students’ paper markings cheery, even as they highlight improvements to be made to our writing. The Selvedge grind lends an unobtrusive flair to my niggling of students’ works. Bonus.
Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard (EF). Troublemaker Abalone. Stormtrooper. A reader recently recommended Abalone to me as a next-choice for my empty Aonibi: a murky blue with lively pink-red chrome shading. The magnetic closure facilitates rapid note taking during fast-paced meetings and while brainstorming. A stormtrooper that hits its mark.
Earth Tones
Pilot Custom 74 Forest Green (B). Montblanc Homage to the Brothers Grimm. Grimm shades to a beastly degree; lending a shouty dark green to even quickly-scrawled lines of text. The 74’s muted green also camouflages into administrative and casual meetings alike. A notetaker for all cases. Reading notes, meeting notes, and journaling.
Nakaya Neostandard Heki-tamenuri (B Naginata, by Kyuseido Tokyo). Troublemaker Sea Glass. Two days inked resolved to highlight for me that the platinum converter I chose seats only loosely in the Nakaya. It rises up out of the section following travel in my penvelope and so requires frequent re-seating to prevent spillage into the pen’s body. Otherwise, the Naginata is a forgiving grind and Sea Glass is a calming green well-suited to creative writing and brainstorming.
Wild Cards
Platinum 3776 Star Wars Kylo Ren (F). Papier Plume Bootlegger’s Sacrament. Sacrament is a sleeper purple — a dark purple bordering on purple-black. Kylo Ren’s F lays out narrower lines than even my true Platinum EF (score!). The 3776’s section is moderately narrow, rendering the pair comfortable for medium-length detailed writing: mental inventory, planner tracking, and lesson planning.
