Itoya Finepoint System .1

What part of "writes on glass" is not awesome? Any pen that has the word "system" in the name has to be cool. I present the Itoya Finepoint System.

Permanent ink and a .1 point. That to me is sweet music. This pen can go from fine line drawing and doodling to marking up metal. If I owned an awesome meter it would be on 9.5.

If you do not feel like clicking to zoom, the pen says that it is for writing, drawing on clear film, plastic, glass metal and when you write rainbows and unicorns come flying out. (it's true, I tested it.)

Do you have any idea how hard it is to photograph writing on a mirror? Getting my tonsils out when I was 6 was easier and at least I got some ice-cream after that. (I complained and threw a fit so my parents bought the wind up Evil Knievel motorcycle toy) as seen here: Good times.

The experiment went well yesterday. I limited my choices and only took two pens on the road with me, a Pilot Penmanship and a Parker 51. That is traveling in style. Have a great weekend everyone.

Sheaffer Cartridge with Short Triumph Nib

This pen makes me happy, I am not sure if it is the color, or the design on the cap, or that its an easy to load cartridge filler, or that it's full of rainbows and sunshine (I made that last part up.) Maybe it is all of those things. Whatever it is...It was my "go to" pen today. That little upturn on the nib makes it very smooth.

Yes, that's a Triumph nib on a cartridge filler. I think this one dates to around 1965 or so. It's a true medium nib, I would love to find one of these in a fine (or finer) nib. By the way, that is my Levenger 3x5 card holder I recently found and put it back into use. I forgot how much I love it.

The experiment? I found that it is easier to stick to 1 or 2 fountain pens during the day rather than keeping a stack of loaded fp's ready to go with. When you narrow your choices to pens that you are happy with, it makes decisions a little easier. I miss my pencils though!

Clairefontaine notebook, FPE day 2

What's better than 90 g pH neutral, acid-free paper? Nothing today... it was perfect. Day 2 of my Fountain Pen Experiment and I could not have been happier with my tools. The kind people at Exaclair sent this over for me to play with and it quickly has replaced quite a few of my other notebooks. This one is the perfect size to throw in my messenger bag and go. Zero complaints with my inks either. I am now a big fan of these.

Day 2 of my experiment was...okay...my Aurora was in steady action. My brain still tells me to reach for a .38 G2 but since I had to hide all them from my sight it's been a little easier. I literally was boxing up pens (non fountain) today to get them away from my reach.

Great news, Unposted had the scoop but it looks like the Pilot Fountain pens (called the Penmanship) that I have been raving about are now for sale at Jetpens. I reviewed them here and here. They were one of my most popular reviews and I really hope they offer the EF nib.

Here are the two in action. Great combo that I will be digging back into tomorrow.

And yes, I covered my whiteboards with big sheets of paper today. This might be a little harder than I thought.

The Fountain Pen Experiment Day 1.

I made it till about 1:00 this afternoon when I realized that I had not used a roller ball, or gel pen, or a marker or a pencil yet. I had used only fountain pens. So... that got me to thinking...could I go the entire day using only fountain pens? I can and I did.

So the experiment was put into action, could I go 2 days with only using fountain pens? Could I do 2 weeks? Could I do all month? It's worth a try just to test my will power alone.

All month it is... My only straying will be if I do writing samples for my daily posts. The only rule is...nothing other than fountain pens for work or play for the rest of the month of April. The countdown begins. I just completed a massive re-inking to get things rolling. this should be fun.

Expo Whiteboard Markers (love)

I have a serious need for my whiteboards. I also have a serious need for my Expo dry erase markers. These two hang in my office and are in constant use. It was cleaning time over the weekend so I wiped them down and grabbed the camera.

My favorite is the fine point (shown above) although I do write with the chisel tip at times. I love that I can walk over to my whiteboards and just start brainstorming if the moment hits. I keep two boards side by side because I start on the left and move the good thoughts and ideas to the right for refinement.

One of my first high tech jobs was with a company that used dry erase markers in their products so I have seen my share of these. Did you know you can buy scented dry erase markers? Yes you can: Black/chocolate mint, blue/blueberry, green/apple, purple/grape, orange/orange and red/cherry. Fun.

I keep a small pile right here beside my whiteboards, easy to grab when I need them. I probably go to my boards 3 or 4 times a day for whatever. I still love pen and paper, but nothing is as smooth as a dry erase marker on the board. It just flows.

Redsox opening day today. No rain outs today please!