My Pen Collection 2021

February 18, 2021 in Pen Review, Miscellaneous, Pen Discussion

In early January I wrote about my ink collection and I mentioned that I’d be writing an update on my pens as well. It’s taken a while because there has been a lot of photos taken for this! This is a long, so I’d understand if you skim the stats and my thoughts on the pens and just look at the pretty pens (I think they’re pretty anyway)! This article is also more of a pet project, and more of a journaling and record keeping article. I’m hoping some people can get something out of it though.

In early 2019 I wrote about my pen collection then and in mid 2017 I first wrote about my pens.

My Pen Collection 2019

April 19, 2019 in Pen Review, Pen Discussion

Within the theme of my ink collection, this is my pen collection. Over a year and a half ago I wrote about my pen collection and while a lot has changed, the collection has only grown by around 10 (in this post and the previous I have not counted cheap $5 Chinese pens but I am ignoring the Noodler’s Creepers this time). Unlike with my ink collection, where if I buy an ink it doesn’t leave the collection, I don’t have have that rule with pens. If there’s a pen I’m not using that much or don’t love (and it’s worth my time selling it) then I will periodically trim these pens from my collection. Inks are rarely over $100 and selling them second hand isn’t really worth the hassle for me (and I don’t want to sell them for other reasons) but when you have a $200+ pen that is just sitting there it’s worth the effort freeing up funds for other pens I might want. Because of that while my Ink collection just keeps growing, my pen collection is quite fluid. I don’t regret buying pens and selling them, I appreciate the experience of owning them. With inks as well I like having them for comparisons! I remember Brad Dowdy on the Pen Addict podcast once mentioning (and I am paraphrasing) that the monetary loss from selling a pen (compared to what you paid) can be compared to the costs associated with renting a pen (I have no idea which episode).. This is something I have taken to heart.

Swatch Card Comparison

August 08, 2017 in Pen Discussion, Stationery Review

I like to keep swatches of all my inks in a binder. In the past I've used Rhodia 80gsm but paper never felt right; too flimsy and I was never good at cutting accurate and consistent rectangles. In the past there was Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards (which I never used), this year (2017) there is the new Col-o-ring cards, Robert Oster has some swatch cards as well and I have also found some good card stock myself. I'll be comparing these 4 different card stocks with Rhodia 80gsm and Tomoe River (as baselines). They all often perform quite differently and bring different attributes to the table! This is a very image heavy comparison with over 135 images!

My Pen Collection

June 19, 2017 in Pen Discussion

I mentioned, when sharing my ink collection, that I had 58 pens and this will be a tour, of sorts, of all 58. It's an eclectic array of pens; from a cheap Noodler's Creeper to the now rather pricy OMAS Paragon Brown Arco Celluloid, my pens are hardly unified. I haven't really got a focus with the collection (though I haven't had, in the past, much of a focus with inks either!). I am, however, keeping an eye out for Sailor Store Exclusive or LE pens that catch my eye but in general I'm merely acquiring pens that I like a certain feature of (such as a nib or material) or a set of features. The closest I am to any form of organised collection is to complete my Visconti Wall Street set (I just need Blue) and I am, more generally, a fan of stacked celluloid.

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