Parker 51 Special (Christmas Card Time)

You would think having to pick out a pen to write 85 Christmas card envelopes would be a huge dilemma for me, but not so much, It was either this or my Waterman 92 with a flex nib, but for the amount of writing I had to do...this was my "go to" pen when it came down to it . The Parker 51 "Special". The ink was the only real question mark and I ended up going with Noodler's Polar Black. I still have the inky fingers to prove it. (No pictures though.)

It's rare that I ink a pen, write with it, then clean it and put it back, but for some reason I did that tonight. I will use it soon, but not until something special pops up. I am way over my limit of inked pens and this one should be clean, or in use. I need to put that list together somewhere, but this pen is in my top 5 for writers. The nib is a perfect Fine. It's easy to fill and has not let me down.

It looks as though I will be trading my pen for a shovel this weekend. Lovely. Everybody stay safe and warm.
I will be back with another pen on Monday.

I am on twitter if anyone else does that sort of thing. Feel free to follow. http://twitter.com/dunkind

Sanford Uni-ball Micro (You are to blame)

Every now and then science makes a great discovery, something that ties together a string of unanswered questions, or explains the unexplainable. Like cracking the Genetic code in the 60's or the Neutron in 1935 or Silly Putty in 1943. I believe that this pen is what sent me over the edge into pen lunacy. I remember always having these pens handy and it was probably the only pen I wrote with for a long time.


At the time they seemed like the perfect pen to me; lightweight, thin, great colors and with a smooth line that was consistent. I am not sure if my tastes refined, or if I over-used this pen but the tide turned and sadly, I barely write with these pens anymore.


It is important to remember where your roots are and where things start from. Writing with this pen I was still impressed with how classic and smooth this pen writes. I am not sure if it will go back into use, but it's nice to know that I have these if needed again. Good pen.

The Classic Sheaffer Snorkel Fountain Pen and a winner!

It's ok to love a pen, it's just not ok to LOVE a pen. I love this pen. From the clip, to the nib, to the little white dot on the cap that makes me happy every time I see it. The Sheaffer Snorkel. Pure joy.

Some say this pen has the most complex filling system ever made. You turn a knob on the back of the pen and out of the nib pops a snorkel...you fill it up, then twist it again to hide the snorkel. The idea being you do not get the nib all inked up when you refill. Brilliant!

All that is great and I appreciate the engineering...but I could write with it all day and that is what is important to me. It just goes, and looks good doing it. If I could only use 5 pens for the rest of my life, this would be number 2. I will create that list in another post sometime.

Now to the Giveaway!

The magic number of pens on my desk was 59! It was listed as Price as Right Rules so it looks like KH is the winner of the giveaway from Monday and the officesupplygeek wins the prize for bringing the funny. Shoot me your details in an email and I will send the pens out. Thanks for the guesses everyone.

Here's how I keep my rotation:

I keep a small pile of "handy pens" right on my desk, I keep Pilots G2's (and variations) along with Sarasa's in the long black holder and a happy mix in the silver cup. I had a few on the other side of the desk that are not in the photo... blow up the picture and check, but trust me, there was 59 there.

Uni-Ball Signo 207 takes a bath

There's a huge sticker on the front of the package that says "Helps prevent check fraud." Sanford uses a special ink formula that traps the ink into the paper fiber to prevent washing your info off of your checks.

So being the curious fellow that I am, I wrote down a quote and did my best to get rid of it.

Click for better views....I did not feel like having a bunch of guys in suits knocking on my door so I didn't do any online research on how to commit check fraud. I did do a 6 hour soak and then sprayed on some Spray and Wash and gave it a little scrubbing. The first picture is just after the soak.

It reminds me of the Office Space quote: "I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "money laundering" in the dictionary." Good Stuff.


This was after the scrubbing. Bottom line, it held up very well. In the past I would sign my checks with a fountain pen, but... no more, this is my new pen of choice when it comes time to give that little punk up the street a check for mowing my lawn. (I never trusted him anyway.)


It's a Good Pen. It's a .7 and writes like it,  puts down a nice fat line of ink.  There's one more day to get your guess in on winning a free pen. Just check yesterdays post, and the winner will be announced tomorrow.

What did she bring me...Episode #2 and a Giveaway

This is episode #2 of just asking my wife to just "pick up a pen for me." No questions asked, no guidance and then I review it.
Yesterday I found a 3 pack of Pilot Precise V5 "Begreen" pens sitting on my desk with a receipt for about $3.49 from Target. It's my second green pen, I also reviewed the V Corn here. Sweet!


Other than having a massive green logo on the side, I really like this pen. Don't worry, the other side is solid black. The packaging says "xfine 0.5" but it really feels like a .4 or even a 3.5. Much finer than I expected. I am very pleasantly surprised at the thin lines this was putting down. The packaging says that the pens is 89.2% made from recycled content and refills are available.  I really like it.  It's going into the rotation.



In the spirit of reduce, reuse, recycle....and since there were 3 in the pack...I have a small and very unofficial giveaway. (Meaning, don't sue me, I am making this up as I go along.)  I just counted all the pens on my desk and emailed that number to my buddy Matt. The rules are simple, leave a comment on this post with how many pens you think I had on my desk. To the person who guesses the closest, I will fire off one of these pens to you.

The Fine Print:

The Price is Right Rules are in place...closest without going over. One entry per person and Matt is sworn to secrecy (you can try, but no amount of torture will break him) and he is also exempt from the giveaway. Feel free to bring the funny for a chance at another pen and all this ends on Wednesday at 8:00 AM Eastern*. Good luck!

*update,  I will name the winner(s) in my Wednesday morning post. 

** update #2:  "On my desk" includes pens in cups as well as just sitting on my desk.  Adjust your guess if needed