I don’t do many reviews of “normal” pens because quite frankly I find them boring. Does it write? Ok, it’s good.

So what I’m going to do here is a “quick view” of a pen. I’ve been a bit of a fountain pen snob for a few years so I’m starting to feel my way around the world of non-fp pens and am finding things I like. One of those is the Pentel Slicci. My first experience with the Slicci was one with a .4mm tip which is MUCH too fine for my taste. I’ve developed a preference for pens that have at least a .7mm size as I get older and writing with the .4mm was like writing with a needle. I used that as an excuse to place yet another JetPens order and try the .7mm Slicci.

Once I had my hands on my preferred size, I began to really like this pen. My biggest complaint? The barrel is very slender and I’m a fan of a much fatter pen. But something about the needle style tip and the combination of the beautiful blue ink keeps bringing me back to this one. The combination of the price, the available ball sizes, and the great ink make for one great pen.

Hey Pentel, if you’re reading this, can you make one that’s a little bigger diameter?

For the past 2-3 years I’ve been trying to improve my penmanship as well as turn writing into a hobby. I’ve spent hours sitting at different tables, chairs, etc and I simply cannot get comfortable. It may have to do with my 6’2″ height, or it may have to do with my poor posture when writing. You see, I can’t write very well without leaning over the paper and that causes my elbows to cramped up.

I also fight with the problem of holding onto my pen much too tightly. While I’m able to focus on that and get my hand to relax somewhat, it’s only a matter of time before my elbow starts hurting due to being bent for so long. I’m also resting a lot of weight on my arms as I’m bent over so far. I have to admit, I”m sort of at a loss here.

At the moment, I sit in a normal swiveling office chair and write at an old oak desk that I picked up from a friend for cheap. Sitting in my chair, the top of the desk sits at my mid-belly which I think is about as good as I can get it. Any lower and I feel like a kid sitting down at an adult table, and any higher makes the desk seem super far away. As I mentioned before, if I don’t bend myself over the paper, I don’t write very well. I’ve tried sitting up straight and writing but it seems the quality of my penmanship begins to suffer.

Perhaps I just need to practice sitting straight up and working on that penmanship problem but regardless of what I try, I’m never comfortable. If I can crank out 3-4 pages in my journal before becoming annoyed by the discomfort, it’s quite the accomplishment.

Any suggestions on how to alleviate the pain I’m facing? I’d love to be able to sit down for hours and write but at the moment, it just doesn’t seem possible.

I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a fan of Piccadilly. In fact, it seems almost normal to be a fan these days considering the great pricing of their products. Sure, their products are made in China but so is the mega-star Moleskine. It’s also been my experience that their paper is less inconsistent than the beloved M as well. The Piccadilly Primo journal has been popping up a lot on the ‘net so I went on a journey to find one. After 3 tries, I found a Borders that had some in stock.

They come in 3 sizes which are named… ready for this? Small, Medium, and Large. And would you know it, 2 or 3 shopping trips later, I had all 3!

These journals have 100gsm wood-free paper, the conventional ribbon bookmark, a somewhat unconventional elastic band closure, and a nice cream colored paper. But by far my favorite part is the smell. Yes, I like the smell of the cover, I don’t know why, it just smells … booky? I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it seems like rubber and it’s quite flexible. Something about this design screams “I’m a journal!”

But I know you don’t care about the looks, the smell, or how it stays closed as much as you do about the paper. While it clearly performs better than a Moleskine, it still isn’t perfect which I didn’t really expect seeing how the paper is 100gsm. Despite the fact that most pens work well, it still has the same peculiar single thread feathering that the other notebook suffered from. I managed to capture the feathering using the macro mode of my camera.

I wouldn’t let this keep you away from the Primo, the feathering is slight and really seems to depend on the pen. One thing I notice a lot when reading reviews of paper is the distinction that fine tip fountain pens tend to feather less than mediums. Unfortunately for almost everything I review, I’m a fan of a medium/broad nib and therefore I’m probably a bit harder on the paper than I should be. When it comes to “normal” pens; gel, Sharpie pens, and ballpoints, this paper works great. Unlike my experience with the Moleskine, gel ink dries instantly and without much drama at all. I also managed to find a fountain pen that wasn’t a big fat wet mess and the Primo handled it without any feathering at all.

I do have to give points to Piccadilly for binding this journal so it opens flat on almost every page. There’s also a ton of pages (288) which makes this journal a bargain. The Borders in my area sells the small journal for $5.99 which means you get a lot of space to write for very little cash. In my case, that would probably last me 2 years.

Sure it has its shortcomings but when you look at the price and the fact that not everyone is a fountain pen devotee, it’s a pretty darn good journal for most people.

And now, a contest!  I’m going to give away a FREE small Primo! All you have to do is post a comment. I don’t care if it’s as simple as “I want to win” or you feel like waxing philosophical about my review, any comment gets you entered to win (you can only enter once). On October 30th, I’ll pick a winner at random and that person will get a free small Primo journal! Simple eh?

Here’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve come across bloggers who hand write their entire blog post before typing it into the computer.  I’ve also found many examples of other types of work that people prefer to write out by hand before entering into the computer. Let’s face it, we live in a computer age and most of what we write for the consumption of others ends up on a computer.

So this question is for those of you who write for the public eye, be it a blog or simply a report for work; do you hand write it first? How do you feel it helps your process? Is it simply therapeutic or do you feel it brings out better writing? Are you more apt to keep it simple? Or perhaps it just lets you get your first draft out at a leisurely pace which helps keep the re-writes to a minimum.

Hit the comments and share! I’m very interested in the responses as my blog posts tend to come straight from my mind to the keyboard. I don’t think I have the patience to handwrite all the words that want to tumble from my fingertips.

As a person who has had many hobbies, there’s always one adage that gets thrown around everywhere; you get what you pay for. In most cases, this means that you’ve opted to buy something cheap and it failed and someone is lecturing you on the benefits of spending money on quality. One of the best examples that I’ve found where this isn’t true is fountain pens.

If you’re new to the fountain pen scene, you’re probably enamored by the sight of the big money pens. People lust over all different brands and styles and usually these tend to be out of your financial reach. Trust me, I’ve been there before and I still find myself lusting over pens that cost a lot more than I could ever bring myself to pay. The most expensive pen I ever bought was a Visconti Van Gogh Maxi. I was so excited when I got that pen and naturally I expected it to be an amazing writer. Instead I had a beautiful pen that couldn’t get through a single page without drying up. Regardless of what I tried, I couldn’t get it to write with any consistency and it ended up going back to Italy to have the feed replaced. By the time it came back, I wasn’t in love with it anymore and I quickly parted ways with it.

That served as a wakeup call that no matter how much money you spend, you’re not guaranteed a flawless writing experience. The simple truth is, if a pen can hold ink and perform the simple capillary action required of a fountain pen, you’ll have a pen that won’t let you down. There’s a reason so many people swear by some of the cheaper pens coming out of China right now. The Hero 616 is a favorite of many due to its obvious resemblance to the Parker 51 and the fact that it just plain works without breaking the bank.

Then there’s the Platinum Preppy. For a whopping $3 at JetPens, you can own a cartridge pen that writes great and is refillable. If you’re crazy, you can spend 2x the amount of the pen and get a  converter that will allow you to use bottled ink. There’s also a very popular modification that turns these pens into eyedroppers which means you’ll have a literal tank of ink at your disposal, perfect for those times when you need to write a lot.

Move even farther down the scale and you get to the disposables. Pens like the Pilot Varsity, Pilot Vpen (same as the Varsity but just look a little different), and the Sailor Ink-bar are some of the more popular options. These pens are non-refillable (although some resourceful folks do refill them) and are as reliable as can be. Just last night I was using a blue Pilot Varsity to test my new Rhodia Webnotebook and it was as smooth as silk with great color, all for less than $3.

The lesson here is to remember that you don’t need to spend a ton of money to get a great writing pen. I’m not knocking people who prefer pens that cost more, that’s simply a matter of preference. If you’d rather be using a Parker 51, then you should. But if you’re looking for a good fountain pen that isn’t going to give you trouble and doesn’t break the bank, don’t automatically assume the cheap pens are a waste of money.

Last week I finally broke down and bought a Rhodia Webnotebook. Tired of dealing with the inconsistency of the Moleskine paper and as always, under the influence of my paper fetish, I found a seller on Ebay who happened to be in Michigan and had free shipping. I swallowed the pill of paying $15 for yet another 3.5×5.5″ notebook and waited a whopping 2 days for it to show up.

Obviously when it comes to Rhodia, the people who use their products have come to expect a certain level of quality. I didn’t even bother reading reviews of this notebook, I blindly trusted the Rhodia name and assumed it would be good. That’s a spot most manufacturers want to be in but it’s also a dangerous one. If you put out a bunch of good products then follow up with a flaky one, you’ll never live it down. It would seem that there’s more disappointment to be had in the 3.5×5.5″ range than there is joy but as you’d expect, Rhodia doesn’t drop the ball here.

I don’t want to give too much away because I’d like to do a full review, but I’ll comment briefly on the paper. Because I didn’t read any of the reviews, I missed the fact that they didn’t use their normal bright white lined paper for this notebook. When I cracked it open, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice cream colored paper with light grey lines and a Rhodia logo at the bottom of every page. IMO, if you’re shooting for the Moleskine, you must have cream colored paper and thus I was quite happy to find that Rhodia already knew this fact.

The rest of my thoughts shall be saved for an upcoming review but I’ll leave you with this. If you’re tired of spending $10 on a Moleskine only to play Russian Roulette with the paper quality, spending an extra $5 for the Rhodia will end that pain forever.

Watch for a full review soon!

Ah the paper fetish, oh how strong a curse it is. Those of us who are afflicted know the feeling well; we walk past the office supply aisles of a store and hear the paper calling us. Sure, we have probably walked down that aisle 500 times in the past and know there’s nothing worth buying yet we check again, just in case.

Yesterday I stood in the aisle at my local Target holding a Miquelrius notebook in my hand and staring at the Rhodias sitting a couple shelves lower. I had to work to convince myself not to buy either. The Miquelrius was color coded for subjects and the pages seemed thin so that wasn’t all that hard to put back. The Rhodia, on the other hand, screamed at me to buy it. If they had a better selection, I would have picked something but they only had 2 types: the stapled pad which I dislike, and the reverse notebook which I would have bought if they had anything other than graph lining. I made it out of the store without any paper, quite a feat if I must say so myself.

For me, it’s a constant battle not to buy paper. I don’t know what it is, but every time I’m in physical contact with paper I love or have heard is good, I want to buy it. I literally have to argue with my inner voice to save myself from spending the money. Then I head home, open up the 2 drawers in my desk that are stuffed with empty notebooks and journals, and remind myself that I have enough paper to last me for years.

Ah what a rough life. I can’t wait for the pen buying fetish to start back up, I can feel it in the back of my mind just begging to be let free.

Exaclair has great timing. Right about the time I was lamenting my lack of organization, I stumbled onto the Quo Vadis blog and saw they were offering planners to bloggers who wanted to review them. I had no experience with any of their products but I’m not one to turn down an opportunity so I threw my hat in the ring. I chose the Equology Textagenda Daily planner which is marketed as a student planner but I hoped the daily layout would suit my needs. Karen quickly shipped the red covered planner I requested and I put it to use immediately. Over the last two and a half weeks, I’ve used it almost every day to keep my work and personal activities on track.

First, let’s go over the basics of the Equology Textagenda. The Equology line is Quo Vadis’ recycled paper products and while that makes most people cringe, you’ll see you have nothing to fear. The cover has a nice textured rubbery feel and is refillable. Being that it’s aimed at students, this planner covers the dates between August and July to accommodate a normal school year. I personally don’t see that as a problem but some people will have a hard time getting out of the Jan-Dec rut. Quo Vadis does sell a planner called the “Notor” which contains what appears to be the same page layout but in a more conventional Jan-Dec date range. However, it should be pointed out that the Notor is not an Equology product thus does not contain recycled paper.

If I had to guess, I bet you’re still thinking about the recycled paper. Admit it, the idea of writing on 100% post-consumer fiber conjures up images of writing on a paper towel or a brown paper sack. Well have no fear, Quo Vadis has actually created a recycled paper you don’t need to be afraid of. It’s not going to win a brightness contest against Clairefontaine or Black n’ Red but for a recycled paper, they did a great job of making it white. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s very fountain pen friendly. Even my Pelikan M200 with Mont Blanc British Racing Green ink which is notorious for how badly it feathers doesn’t have any problems on the Textagenda’s recycled paper. There was a fair amount of bleed through but I find that a normal occurrence with this pen and ink combination. None of my “normal” flowing fountain pens exhibited any annoying characteristics. As with most paper, there is a slight amount of show-through but nothing I consider to be out of the ordinary. I have used as many different types of pens as I could in the past 2 weeks and all of them were very well behaved on this paper.

Something I really found very handy is the way this planner helps you find the current date. Instead of an old fashioned ribbon, the bottom right hand corner of each page is perforated allowing you to tear off the corner once you’re done with that page. This makes finding the current day a snap which is great if you’re opening your planner before you’ve had your morning coffee. One word of advice, you may be tempted to tear off several pages at a time but that’s not the best idea as I ripped a few pages trying to get caught up to the current date. I find the best way to tear them off is usually 2-3 at a time and folding them at the perforation helps as well.

The Textagenda is one of Quo Vadis’ line of medium sized planners and I think it’s the perfect size for daily use.  It measures 4.75″x6.75″ and I’ve been carrying it in a small messenger style laptop bag that I use to transport my 9″ netbook. If it fits in that bag, it will just about fit in any bag. The cover is thin and flexible but very tough so it should easily handle being shoved in and out of your bag on a daily basis and will most likely live through many refills.

They actually crammed a lot of features into this planner, so many that I’m not going to have time to devote to each one. Sufficed to say, they’re pretty self explanatory and if there’s anything I don’t cover to your satisfaction, just ask for a clarification in the comments.

When you open the planner, you’re first greeted with the typical personal information page, followed by a quick glance calendar, a class schedule, and a very handy page that is labeled “Anno-Planning” which is intended to give you a quick daily glance at your entire year. There’s a very tiny box designated for each page so I’m not 100% sure what you could write in there, but I suppose if you had small handwriting and a very fine pen, you might be OK. At the back of the planner there’s several maps, an address book, and another quick glance calendar for the upcoming years, in this case, 2010/2011. I want to circle back to the address book very quickly. In today’s day and age, almost everyone has their address book on their phone or has a dedicated book for this information. I’m not sure if I’d want to spend time putting a bunch of address data into a planner that will only last a year but if you want it, Quo Vadis has provided it. I’m sure someone will find it very handy and if you don’t, it’s easily ignored.

Quo Vadis makes it clear on the opening page that they intend for this to replace the somewhat normal system of random dates and notes in a notebook. Once you see the open page layout, it’s pretty obvious how this planner could easily fix your poor organizational skills by giving you a great place to cover what needs to be accomplished on any given day. Sure, you’ll still need a real notebook for notes, but if you need to jot down something about your schedule or just a quick note, there’s plenty of room for it.  At the top of each page is a very prominently displayed date surrounded by lines for each hour between 8am to 7pm. These are clearly intended for printing your class schedule although you shouldn’t feel locked into that. I’ve been using this section to jot down meeting schedules for those rare days where I might have to tear myself away from my desk.

The rest of the page consists of a box for the day’s priority items, 14 blank lines, and another box for notes.  I’ve been using the 14 blank lines as my way of keeping track of what I need to do throughout the day, and also as a record of what I’ve accomplished. Seeing how the lines are blank, you’re free to work out your own way of using them. I use a system of prefacing each line with a P: or W: which obviously stand for Personal and Work. I mostly use the planner for work as I need to remember what I did the day before in the morning’s stand-up meeting.

Until the Textagenda arrived at my door, I had been using a single notebook for all my meeting notes, work notes, schedules, etc… Once I had this daily planner in my hand, it became obvious how cluttered my previous system had been. Sure, it wasn’t a bad setup but when I can easily flip back to last Tuesday and see what I worked on, it makes a big difference over the scrambled notes I had before. All in all, I find the Textagenda to be a very well executed daily planner and it does a great job bridging the gap between a serious planner and a notebook for your daily tasks. Whether you’re a student or not, it’s a handy tool. It’s also good for us pen geeks to know we don’t have to be afraid of using our favorite pen on this planner, even if it is made out of recycled material.

I’m pretty sure everyone who reads this blog uses their stash of notebooks and pens for different reasons. What do you use yours for?

School notes?

Journaling?

Scribbling notes about your day?

Notes for an upcoming story or perhaps you even handwrite your stories in them?

Maybe something else? Hit the comments and tell us what you like to write about most!

Ah the beloved and classic Moleskine, how I wanted to know thee. Before I bought my first one, I read numerous accounts of people feeling very strongly one way or another about their place in paperdom. The complaints ranged from the paper being the most horrible ever made, to the best ever made and everything in between. I tend to research my paper purchases heavily but when you see something as visual pleasing as the Moleskine and the seemingly 50/50 split on the quality, I simply have to try it myself.

Unfortunately for Moleskine, I didn’t get very far in my usage. Yes, I still carry the Volant in my pocket because it’s the perfect size and intended to be used with a Fisher space pen which has no problems on any paper. However,  the Cahier and the ever ubiquitous 3.5″x5.5″ hardback Moleskine are getting shelved to most likely never be used again. I really wanted them to work because they’re everything I imagine a notebook should be. Simple, classy, and very easily obtained. Even when placing a Moleskine next to a knockoff Piccadilly, I would pick the Moleskine, there’s just something about it that oozes class. Yes, I’m aware the Piccadilly looks almost the same so my choice is hard to explain, it might be the page color or the way the one I own seems to have a slightly more hand assembled look but the Moleskine simply calls to me more than the cheaper version.

Of course, that’s where the fun stops. Both brands of notebook have some issues  with certain fountain pens but the Moleskine has a problem with almost every fountain pen I’ve tried on it. I’ve read that using a Fine or XF nib is the key but I don’t like those, I’m a Medium kind of guy. Seeing how I’m starting to use a lot of other types of pens, I also tried numerous gel pens on the notebook only to find they take forever to dry. What’s the point in using a notebook where any good pen is practically useless?

And then you have the Piccadilly. Noticeably cheaper construction, similar look to the Moleskine, and a paper that, at the very least, dries almost instantly with every gel pen I have tested on it. Several of the fountain pens that would make a feathering mess on Moleskine paper actually work quite well on the Piccadilly. Sure, some very wet pens have a feathering problem but nowhere near as many as the Moleskine. It should be noted that the Sharpie Pen works great with every paper I’ve ever tested but I sort of expected that.

And so I bid farewell to the Moleskine. I needed this notebook to perform yesterday’s Moletape review and now it will be shoved in the dark recesses of my desk never to be called upon again. All the fancy marketing and history can’t overcome the great disappointment these notebooks have been to me. Goodbye Moleskine, the Piccadilly shall take your place and no longer will I have to leave the page open to let my ink dry.