I have never tried before any pens from Karas Pen Co, so when they contacted me to check my interest to review one of their pens, I definitely jumped at the opportunity! The pen they sent me is from their Signature range – a spring Decograph 1801 Special Edition no less, elegantly named Sleeping Beauty. While this pen was provided to me for free in exchange for a review on my blog, all opinions where applicable are my own. In Karas, all their items are designed and manufactured in Arizona, USA. So it is not a surprise that their Decograph 1801 was going to feature one of their landmarks. That landmark would be the the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Mine of Globe, Arizona. Initially, the name “Sleeping Beauty” calls to mind the Disney animation based on a classic fairytale, but upon reading the product sheet that came along with the pen, I realised it’s about the mine! That makes much more sense as I could not really think of how else the pen would be associated with Disney (laughing at myself now). Appearance and packaging When it comes to acrylic pens, I really love marbled or swirly designs, so when I […]
Read More
Click, click! Pilot introduces annually some new designs for their Capless retractable fountain pen, and this year they have just unveiled 3 new designs. Two of them are the Kasuri designs as seen above, in green and red. Kasuri refers to fabric that has been woven with dyed fibres that create specific patterns and motifs in the fabric, particularly in the 18th century. The two Pilot Capless Kasuri pens show a simple repeating pattern that is not too flashy, and is subtle enough for everyday use. I wonder why they chose these two colours – might there be some link to the Chinese traditional “red for male, green for female” symbolism? The Pilot Capless Kasuri pens have nibs that come in fine, medium and broad sizes, and are 18K rhodium plated, along with the trims of the pen. In addition, Pilot has also introduced a less traditional-looking, and more modern variant which is the Pilot Capless Midnight Blue. This pen boasts a striking blue colour, with matte black trims which fit the description of being a “Midnight Blue”. This pen looks a little more masculine and might attract those who enjoy a contemporary and sleek-looking pen. The blue barrel has a […]
Read More
Thanks to Maybelline for inviting me to write a guest post here on On Fountain Pens! I am honored to ramble about pens and inks! I thought this would be an interesting topic, since I did indeed buy an expensive pen this year. That pen is the Namiki Yukari Nightline Moonlight fountain pen. I saw it on the website of La Couronne du Comte and couldn’t ignore it. I remember the years where a PaperMate ballpoint with grip was exciting, because it wasn’t a Bic Cristal. I also remember when I bought my first Lamy AL-Star and I thought I would never spend more than $100 on a pen. Then it was $250. Then it was $500. Then I was certain I would never cross the $1000 mark, because that would be crazy, let alone anything over that. And it is. I won’t argue with that. It is definitely crazy, but I justify it to myself in this way: I’m madly in love with the thing. I had a good few pens in my case that I had acquired over several years in the more affordable and far more reasonable price range of $100 – $300. Still expensive, but not […]
Read More
Be blinded by the striking colours of the new Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop fountain pens! Pilot Singapore has generously sent me these pens to drool over and caress, and I got to keep one of them. I spent a long time deciding which pen to keep, and finally decided on the purple one as I don’t think I have a purple pen yet (I might be wrong… lost track of all my fountain pens). But keeping any or all of the colours was definitely possible, since they all look so gorgeous! As always, the condition I make to my sponsors for pen reviews is that I would like to provide my personal honest opinion of the pen, and this is the same case for this review. Pilot has in no way influenced my opinion of the pens. The Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop is the third series of Metropolitan fountain pens that were launched in October by Pilot. In Singapore, the Metropolitan pens are very popular especially among beginners, and even some of the more seasoned fountain pen users seem to like them very much. No wonder 3 full series were launched. These stylish pens are a refreshing change from previous Metropolitan (MR) series, […]
Read More
This is my fourth and final part of the Iroshizuku Inks And Their Meanings series of reviews, where I reviewed 6 Iroshizuku inks per part. In this last instalment, I will review the remaining 6 inks: Murasaki-shikibu, Chiku-rin, Ina-ho, Ama-iro, Take-sumi, and Shin-kai. To read about how I log my inks, click on this article. It may be helpful for you to read that to understand some of the terms and references that I make in my post below. Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu Murasaki-shikibu (紫式部) has a couple of meanings. Most call it “beauty berry” but Murasaki Shikibu is also the nickname of a famous Japanese poet/novelist from the Heian period. She was from the Imperial Court in Japan and served as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress then. In fact, when I asked my Japanese colleague about the meaning of “murasaki-shikibu”, this lady was the first to cross his mind. Other than that, the Japanese beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica) is a tree that has purple berry fruits, a plant native to Japan. Ink Characteristics This is the only purple ink in the whole Iroshizuku series, a bit of a pity because I love purple inks myself and hope that there might have been more purple options. But at times, […]
Read More
This is the third instalment of my Iroshizuku ink review series, where I talk about Iroshizuku inks and their meanings, and also observe their characteristics. Here I will review Fuyu-gaki, Kiri-same, Fuyu-syogun, Tsukushi, Yama-guri, and Kosumosu. For a brief on how I log my inks, read this article. It may be helpful for you to understand some of the terms and references that I make in my post below. Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki Fuyu-gaki (冬柿) translates to “winter persimmon”, which is an orange fruit that can be found worldwide, but mostly in China, Japan, and Korea. These fruits turn ripe and are ready for harvest in autumn, and most of the persimmons that are available at the end of the year are of the fuyugaki type, with softer and juicier flesh (as opposed to the jirogaki, which has a harder and crunchier flesh). Ink Characteristics As expected from the name, the ink is a bright orange colour, the colour of fresh, ripe persimmons. It’s a very attractive orange, especially when the first layer of ink is swabbed on the paper. Interestingly, when the second layer of ink was laid down (refer to the top half of the swab area), the colour turns into a duller […]
Read More
Welcome to Part 2 of my Iroshizuku Ink review series. This time I will be looking at Shin-ryoku, Tsuki-yo, Yu-yake, Yama-budo, Ku-jaku, and Syo-ro. For a brief of how I do my ink logging, have a look at my write-up here. It may help to understand some of the references I make and the terms I use. Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku Shin-ryoku (深緑) means “dark green”. I can’t find a direct reference to a part of the Japanese culture from the name of this ink, although I noticed that some online sources mention this as a “forest green”. I have also found out that a certain type of Japanese green tea is called “Sencha Shinryoku”. It may be related, or not. Ink Characteristics Looking at this green ink, it feels to me like a very solid, typical green colour. I would call it a primary green. I tend not to like greens very much, and this is a less interesting green to me. This ink is quite a saturated and wet ink, but some sheen can be observed while writing. It doesn’t do well with water resistance, but you can see it either ways – the yellow parts of the ink […]
Read More
Pilot has launched their Iroshizuku range of fountain pen inks for some time now, and it is a very popular range among fountain pen enthusiasts and collectors of inks. Following the success of their 50mL glass bottled Iroshizuku inks, Pilot has recently launched the Mini Iroshizuku inks that come 3 in a set. Each mini glass bottle contains 15mL of an ink, and you can mix and match your preferred colours for each set. I decided to dive in and let myself be tempted by the inks, as I had held back from buying them long enough to jump onto the opportunity to buy all 24 colours when the Mini Iroshizuku inks came out. I didn’t need 24 bottles x 50mL of inks, as I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to finish them all! So when the 15mL were out, it was perfect for me. All 24 bottles fit into a little box which I tucked away nicely in my cabinet. Iroshizuku inks are named in Japanese, so while I found it exotic and attractive, it was really quite difficult to remember. I haven’t found a way to remember the ink names yet, but I have decided to take […]
Read More
Everyone does ink logging in different ways. I have come across a variety of interesting ways that people record their inks. Some techniques may be good representations of ink being laid down on paper when writing with a fountain pen, some may not. For me, my method is not perfect, but I like it anyway. Here’s sharing with you the procedure by which I log my inks. Materials used: Memo word cards, 90mm x 38mm Round paper stickers (Sun Flower Brand Labels, #1013) Cotton swabs Kitchen towel, cut to desired size (mine is about 25mm x 50mm) Plastic dropper/pipette (for inks and water) Inks (here I am using the Rohrer & Klingner Viridian Green) Water Dip nib holder and dip nib (I use a WM Mitchell Pedigree Fleetwing #0528) The Process Step 1: Dip the cotton swab into the ink and let it soak for 5 seconds or so. This is to ensure that the cotton is well saturated with ink. If you do not soak it well enough, the swab may turn out paler than what it’s supposed to be. Step 2: Perform your swabbing on the word card. I do it from left to right and trying not […]
Read More
Finally, I’m writing a post dedicated to fountain pens for beginners. Let’s get started on fountain pens in the economy price range, which, by my definition, is below 20 USD. That would be approximately 25 SGD or 15 Euros. In the eyes of many non-fountain pen users, fountain pens seem to be luxury items that are valued at a full month’s salary or more. Well, it is true in certain cases, but let’s not go there today. If you are just starting out on fountain pens, you’d probably prefer to invest in something that has decent quality but does not cost a bomb, and most likely not something that you’d spend even a tenth of your salary on. Many questions may have come to your mind when you consider that purchase. You may wonder if you will actually like fountain pens at all, since you’ve spent all your life using ballpoint pens, pencils, and rollerballs. You may have walked past a fountain pen store or a Montblanc boutique, and got a little freaked out at the 3- or 4- digit price tags (and probably with multiple zeroes at the back, if we are talking currencies like the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, or Indonesian rupiah) on the […]
Read More
