Stabilo Singapore has provided me for a review their EASYbirdy fountain pen, one of their first fountain pens which they have launched this year. It is an interesting pen with a feature that I haven’t seen before in other fountain pens – the nib angle can be adjusted using the red tool in the picture. The red tool is actually a device where you can plug into the cartridge area and unscrew the nib part of the pen, after which you can adjust the nib angle in 3 different places to find your preferred one, and then tighten it again. To explain the mechanism better, I have made a video introducing the pen and its special nib adjusting mechanism, as well as a brief review of the writing experience. Oh, and I should mention that this particular version that I received is a left-handed version, which means that the ergonomic grip on the pen section is shaped nicely for a leftie to use. That’s kind of them! Although, to be honest, I am so lazy that I don’t actually bother to change the writing posture of my hand. š If you’re looking to give a fountain pen to a child […]
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Just a short and brief update today: Cody from The Pen Haul has invited me to guest post on his website, ThePenHaul.com. I took a long time, honestly, but I managed to come up with a decent post to contribute! I wrote about my journey in my sub-collection of small fountain pens. Yep, I have this strange fascination for small fountain pens. They just look so cute. Here’s a picture: CLICK HERE TO READ MY GUEST POST: INTRIGUED BY SMALL FOUNTAIN PENS Thank you Cody, for letting me guest post on The Pen Haul! It’s an honour!
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Thanks to the help from C.H., a Singapore Fountain Pen Lover and a friend of mine, I got my hands on this interesting Lanbo 008 fountain pen (temporarily). He had borrowed it from his colleague who also agreed to lend it to me to play with. Don’t be intimidated by the dragon’s head embellishment on the clip – the fountain pen itself look relatively simple and harmless. As usual, let me start by talking a bit about the pen and its design, before going into the cleaning mechanism. It is black with gold accents and the barrel has a nice lotus flower design that is placed in the centre, but does not take up a lot of space on the barrel. The only other interesting design on the pen is really just the dragon on the clip, gold with ruby-red eyes. Not real rubies, of course. On the cap, between two gold bands, is the brand name in Chinese. čę³ (pinyin: lĆ”n pÅ) translates somewhat to “blue berth”; “berth” as in the place where a boat stops. The other side of the cap shows the brand name in English, “Lanbo”. The nib is a two-tone gold and silver coloured nib. […]
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A while ago I had published my Rohrer & Klingner (I will just call it R&K in the rest of the post) series overview from parts 1-6, covering 3 R&K inks in each part. I love manufacturers who make a greatly attractive series of ink colours, but then again, we are all spoilt for choice, and a variety of ink colours can make choosing the “ideal” one quite difficult. But call me picky or not, sometimes I am targeting that one specific ink colour which eludes me, despite the sheer variety of inks available on the market! Before the R&K ink series, I had also published a 4-part series of the Pilot Iroshizuku inks, 24 colours in total. For a number of those inks, I managed to spot some sheen very easily. I don’t know if this is characteristic of Japanese inks or not, but I hadn’t managed to spot much sheen in other inks, especially those from R&K. I wasn’t convinced that R&K inks have totally no sheen, so I decided to do a little experiment on my own. DO ROHRER & KLINGNER INKS HAVE SHEEN? For my ink swab records, I usually made a single ink layer followed […]
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The Levenger L-tech 3.0 came in a silver box. Something cheap made well enough to be customised, but just a box. appearances do not matter to me here, it has been tossed carelessly as I did not deem it worthy of a photo. How it is presented looks costly, but gaudy and too much of a resemblance to a metal brief case filled with cash like on a low budget D-list movie. It is jarringly out of place, Iām no triad boss, it is not a discreet box. Diagram by me, like I used MS Paint, I made this with pro Photoshop skillz. Mad SKILLZ bro. Lie. I can’t Photoshop. Next. Photo sources as listed. Opening it, I nodded my first approval– thorough enough, and not too expensive for what I paid, a mostly brass alloy stick nestled in dense foam with not just one, but two stylus tips. One meshy and the other silicon-y Well, for a fountain pen, it wasnāt too expensive, retailing at the Levengerās site for US$99. Levenger also sells other pens, associated paraphernalia from paper to, quite oddly, wallets and wristwatches. Are they going to be a department store? At the point of my first […]
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[[ADVERTORIAL]] Think of minimalistic fountain pens, and the brand name of Lamy is called to mind. The latest fountain pen range that has emerged from Lamyās Premium trove is the Lamy imporium. Designed by Mario Bellini, the award-winning imporium comes in 3 designs: the Lamy imporium TiPt (titanium matt), Lamy imporium BlkBlk (black matt/black), and the Lamy imporium BlkAu (black matt/gold). This year, the penĀ has won the iF Design Award in the āWriting Instrumentsā category. Impeccably engineered from the nib to the clip, the penĀ features a straight-lined body which is guilloche all around. The section towards the nib has guilloche patterns all the way across the section. The nib itself is a two-tone nib, made of 14K gold across the slit to the tip, and the rest of the nib being PVD-coated (PVD stands for Physical Vapour Deposition). Contrasting the guilloche body is the smooth screw-off cap featuring a glossy clip, either in platinum, gold, or black (PVD). Here are the 3 different models available: Model 093: LAMY imporium TiPt The Lamy imporium TiPt fountain pen has a titanium matt body, refined with PVD. It is accented by a glossy clip made of polished galvanized platinum. It retails in Singapore […]
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Being of Chinese descent, I always celebrate New Year’s day twice in quick succession. The first New Year is, of course, the one most people know of, which occurs on Jan 1. The second new year, usually occurring within 2 months from Jan 1, is the Lunar New Year. Old Chinese traditions follow the lunar calendar which places the turn of the year during the beckoning of spring. This year, the Lunar New Year falls on Feb 8 and both the 8th and the 9th are public holidays in Singapore. HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR, all of you out there who celebrate it! If you’re into Chinese zodiacs and all that, this year is ushered in by the Monkey. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and Monkey is the 9th animal. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Monkey has not predicted anything related to fountain pens for me this year, so it’s up to me to set my own resolutions! Adjusting to my own lifestyle To be perfectly honest, I have had very few chances to use fountain pens on a daily basis over the past couple of years. Most of my chances of writing, if any at all, are when […]
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Thank you Maybelline for inviting me againĀ this year to participate in the 12 Days of Christmas. This is about my quest for a custom pen. I had never had a bespoke pen before and never gave it much thought. It started at the 2015 DC Super Show when i saw a lot of people who had custom pens tucked away in their cases between the Viscontiās, Montblancās Sailorās etc. Not only were the bespoke pens unique but every one had a story behind them. I found myself drawn to the beautiful Shinobi by Shawn Newton. Leigh Reyes and Thomas Hall both had stunning examples. It was then I knew I had to have one. The Shinobi is a hand made pen created by Shawn Newton, the owner of Newton Pens. Each pen is made to the customers specifications. From the material of the body and section to the nib material and nib grind. You can even supply Shawn with your own nib and he will fit it to the pen. So who is Shawn Newton? Shawn,a teacher, started making pens back in December of 2011. After selling off every pen he owned to buy machines, tools and parts he used […]
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Several years into my teaching career, a long time ago now, I found myself going to lots of meetings. I was not very good at meetings. (Iām still not.) My mind wanders, I get fidgety and I get bored. I needed to make notes but that seemed like piling tedium upon tedium. I wasnāt keen. Just in time, along came Merlin Mannās 43 Folders and David Allenās Getting Things Done. In amongst many great ideas that, to this day, help keep me relatively sane, was this great tip: use tools that give you joy and so turn chores into pleasures. I went out and bought a black Lamy Safari and a Moleskine. (As I said, this was a long time ago, when Moleskine notebooks were quite good.) It worked. Writing became fun. I wanted to take notes because I wanted to use my pen and notebook. I wonāt everything down. I paid attention. I didnāt get sacked. Many people wonder why anyone would want to spend so much time and effort on something as everyday and unremarkable as pen and paper. Yet it is this ubiquity that makes it worthwhile. If you are going to be writing more than a […]
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With 2015 drawing to a close I thought I would cover what ended up being my top 3 pen purchases this year. It was a bit tough as this has been quite the year for new acquisitions with over 50 pens joining the collection ranging from the inexpensive Pilot Metropolitan to the exquisite Visconti Opera Metal. When I sat down to pick, it ended up coming down to flexibility, reliability, or uniqueness that helped these three stand out from the crowd. With that said and in no particular order this is who came out on top: Lamy AL-Star Copper Orange w/ 1.9mm Nib This was one of the first pens added to the collection this year and became an instant favorite. The design is very clean and the 2015 special edition Copper Orange color is excellent (as is the ink if you can find it). The pen is easy to fill and clean with a solid convertor while the nib and feed unit is pretty bulletproof. I swapped out the fine nib shortly after getting it to a 1.9mm Italic and it is perfect for doing calligraphy. The nib starts instantly every time and is not too wet or dry […]
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