Ink Nouveau

Taking a week off

2012-06-01T14:53:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be light on the blog this coming week (starting today). Rachel and I have had a really busy last several months (moving the business, having a baby, moving the business again, now moving personally), so we're going to take some time off for the next week or so to get our new house in order and take care of family things. We'll still be accessible by email and working from home, but I won't be blogging as much as usual until we're settled in. I'm pretty sure I'll still be doing Mailbox Monday this coming week, but FP101 today and Wed. Review next week probably aren't happening (FP101 next week is up in the air). Don't worry, I'll be back up to it all again soon, but I have to take care of my family and my home right now :) Thanks for understanding, and write on!! ~Brian Goulet

Wed. Review - New Noodler's Flex Colors

2012-05-30T17:28:00.001-04:00

Noodler's has (yet again) come out with more pen colors, this time in all three pen models. In the Nib Creaper Flex, there's Red, Navy, Turquoise, Green Mountain, and Burgundy. The Ahab is seeing Gray Fox, Green Mountain, and Tiger, and the Konrad has some exciting smoke and blue demonstrators! It's hard to keep up these days, isn't it? All of the pens are the same as the previous versions, just new colors. I just wanted to share them with you, what do you think?

Noodler's Konrad Hudson Bay Fathoms Blue demonstrator flex pen

Noodler's Konrad Pequod's Smoke demonstrator flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Gray Fox flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Green Mountain flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Tiger flex pen

Noodler's Nib Creaper Burgundy flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Navy flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Red flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Turquoise flex pen, reformulated to be darker than the 'old' turquoise

For comparison, the 'original' Noodler's Nib Creaper Turquoise color (since discontinued)

How many more colors will there be? Who knows, Nathan Tardif (of Noodler's) has hinted at the almost unlimited possibility of color combinations. These are just the latest ones :) What do you think?

Write On,
Brian Goulet

Mailbox Monday #13

2012-05-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person who writes to me. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with you! I'll be posting highlights of some of my more interesting email questions every Mailbox Monday. These are some emails of mine from the past week or so:

In the Platinum Preppy, there is a clear plastic, cylindrical support section that seems to be designed to support the rear of the feed stem and perhaps is designed to provide some support and alignment for the Preppy ink cartridge. The Preppy that Noodler's supplies doesn't have this feed support section. Is this some sort of insert that can be removed? Or, is it a permanent piece that cannot be removed? Should I just ignore that it is there? Seems like ink would feed better if it weren't in place. I tried to gently remove it by attempting to use the slot at the top of it to see if it would unscrew but didn't have any success.

You're one of the few people ever to ask me about this, believe it or not! All of the Preppy's come with this plastic support....it's there to hold cartridges in place. The reason it isn't there on the pens that come with Noodler's inks is because Nathan fundamentally doesn't 'believe' in cartridges, so he removes these plastic supports from the pens he puts in his ink bottles! It doesn't really make a difference in terms of the flow of ink, but it obviously makes the pen useful only as an eyedropper. You can remove it from your other Preppy's, but it's not necessary, and I don't believe it can be put back once you take it off. Mystery solved :)

Before the revamp of your site one could narrow the list of inks by style or whatever they were called. For example show me the Eel line or the Russian links. Where did that go?

We actually still have this feature, but it's not named as Noodler's-specific terms like 'Eel' or 'Russian'. If you go to any of the brands (or the 'Shop All Bottled Ink') pages, you will see drop downs just below the header where you can filter your searches. The ones you'll want to focus on will be 'shop by ink property':

Perhaps we can look to integrate Noodler's-specific searches in the Noodler's groupings, I'll talk to Rachel about that.

This one will give you lots to do for Ink Nouveau. It kind of looks like some of the De Atramentis inks, especially the famous persons are duplicates of regular inks, just with a new name. If so can the duplications be cross referenced?

De Atramentis....yeah....you're not the first to ask for this! This is a project for sure, something I plan to do but not right away. It's going to be a huge undertaking. I'm basically on my own with it, because Dr. Jansen (who makes the ink) doesn't even speak English, he has to have his daughter translate all of our emails going to and from him.....and it's not always super-clear what's being said and it takes a week or two to get a response to an email. I'll have to do a lot of investigating myself to see about the inks and their similarities, and it will happen...at some point.

Hi Brian: I just ordered a sample of Noodler's Black from you. I have read a couple of posts on the Fountain Pen Network that this ink can be diluted and not change it that much. Just wanted to hear your take on this, and what I can expect, with reference to saturation, shading, etc.

It's true, a lot of the Noodler's inks can be diluted to improve flow and increase the cost effectiveness. You can usually do a 10% dilution of distilled water to ink and not notice any significant change in color. You can dilute to your heart's content up to about 50%, but of course the more you dilute, the thinner the ink will get and the lighter the color will appear. It's something you can play around with, I just recommend diluting in small quantities until you find the right ratio for you :)

Can the Noodler's Konrad Flex pens and Rollerball pens accept each other's nibs/feeds?

Unfortunately, the diameter of the inside of the two Konrads (rollerball and flex pen) are slightly different, so the nibs aren't interchangeable with each other :(

I received today the Noodler’s 4.5 oz Lexington Gray with the enclosed eyedropper pen – thanks for the quick delivery. As I understand it, the pen can be converted to a rollerball (as delivered, the fountain nib was installed). I can’t figure out how to do the conversion – I’ve looked on the web but the videos I’ve seen don’t look like the pen that was delivered to me, and the papers delivered with the pen don’t appear to provide any direction.

Can you tell me how to do the conversion?

Nathan briefly covers the Preppy rollerball tip in one of his videos. It's a video on Baystate Blue, which also comes with that same Preppy fountain pen with the interchangeable tip. You'll want to skip ahead to 22:20 and watch until about 23:15: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOws7QsdQMM

The basic idea is that the nib/feed pulls right out of the pen (it's friction fit), and you just replace it with the rollerball tip in the pen. I will probably end up doing my own video on this at some point.

Can I go ahead and buy something that is Out of Stock - and just wait for it to come in?

Unfortunately not, sometimes we are out of stock of items for months at a time due to unreliable supplies (Noodler's flex pens when they first came out, TWSBI's, etc), and it would be a logistical nightmare for us to try to keep track of backorders. The way we go about it is we have an email notification list, and we are willing to combine orders if you'd like us to. I have a video that explains how to do the email notification sign-up, as well as our philosophy behind why we do it: http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/11/gouletpenscom-email-notification_362.html

I have started up a blog at TheInkedNib.com. It's a hobby blog, but I am trying to do the blogging thing right by creating a good number of decent quality reviews. I intend to review a mix of pens, paper, and inks on the blog.

I own a decent amount of paper as it is now. However, the only Clairefontaine paper I own aside from a couple of really tiny Rhodia pads is bound in such a manner that using it for reviews would be a challenge. I am scanning my reviews, so I really need something either loose or perforated. I'm just not willing to take apart a Habana or a Webnotebook to be able to easily scan the paper.

I'd prefer not to go down the path of Rhodia because I don't like the finish of that paper as well as the Clairfontaine. I admit I haven't looked too carefully at the selection you have, but is there any paper with the Clairfontaine-type finish that can be perforated for my use? If not, I'll just have to grin and bear it with Rhodia for my pen and ink reviews and get a little creative for paper reviews.

First, you'll need to decide what size you want, I'd recommend no smaller than A5 and no larger than A4. Here would be my top choices for Clairefontaine papers for you:

Top wire bound A4

Top wire bound A5

Top staplebond A4

8.5x11 side wire bound

These are all micro perforated, and the same 90g Clairefontaine paper you know and love. Good luck with the blog! :)

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

FP101- Storing Fountain Pens

2012-05-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

I get asked a lot about the 'proper' way to store your fountain pens, particularly the orientation of the pen's nib. The honest truth is that you can store them however you want, it's really up to you. There are some loose guidelines I've learned, so I'll pass along what I know.

Generally speaking, there are 3 ways to store your pens:

Nib pointing up
Nib pointing sideways (horizontal)
Nib pointing down

Me personally, I store all my pens horizontally, in leather pen cases or in pen rolls. But that's me. I find storing pens horizontally keeps the nibs wet enough to start writing right away, without leaking into the cap. When I take pens with me in my pocket or laptop case, I'll store them nib up, usually, so that ink doesn't leak down into the cap like it would if they were nib down. I don't store anything nib down, but I would if I had a pen that tended to dry out a lot when left sitting.

You can store your pens in the boxes/cases they come in, but that's usually not practical if you're going to use them often. I like leather cases because they're durable, portable, and can hold a lot of pens. I know some people who have wood cases, though not as many people as I would suspect.

Even after several years in the pen business, I haven't found one particular way that everyone prefers to store their pens, it really varies a lot by individual, and I've seen some really creative ways of storage! How do you store your pens?

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

2012-05-23T14:13:00.000-04:00

Video timeline:

Meaning behind the label (0:55)
Ink performance (5:25)
Comparison to Baystate Blue (8:53)
Bleach torture test (10:01)

Liberty: freedom from external or foreign rule; independence

Elysium: the abode of the blessed after death

Here's the newest ink from Noodler's, our Goulet-exclusive ink called Liberty's Elysium. This is a brand-new ink, not a reformulation or repackaging of any previous Noodler's ink. We have been working with Nathan Tardif for some time now on this ink, and what we wanted was a bulletproof vibrant blue, on par with Noodler's Blue (one of my personal favorite colors) that was inspired by Patrick Henry. Our Goulet shop is located in Ashland, Va., which is just minutes down the road from Scotchtown Plantation where Patrick Henry was born. In fact, I went to Liberty Middle School and Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Va., so early American history is quite prevalent in our area!

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium bottle label, inspired by Patrick Henry, Mary Dyer, and Nathan Hale.

The label is done in typical Noodler's fashion, steeped in history, deep meanings, and somewhat in-your-face images. There are three people featured on the bottle, Patrick Henry, Mary Dyer, and Nathan Hale. Each of them had a strong impact of the formation of early America, and they all devote their lives (or lost them) for the cause of liberty and freedom. I strongly encourage you to read up on each of them, they're quite fascinating!

We had Nathan put together the most vibrant bulletproof blue that he possibly could, and we're thrilled with how it turned out. So here it is:

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, reviewed by Brian Goulet.

There are a couple of slight drawbacks to the ink, it takes a little while to dry on ink-resistant paper like the Rhodia that I tested. It's a pretty vibrant and saturated color, and its bulletproof properties make it so that it needs to soak into the paper and bond to the actual paper fibers, as the way that Noodler's inks are bulletproof is by cellulose reaction. Because of this, there may be some excess ink that sits on the top of the page that can smear a bit when wet, as you see in my drip test. However, there isn't another blue this shade that even comes close to this level of water resistance, so we're happy with this result. As the ink dries over several days, it'll become even more permanent.

There are only a couple of other bulletproof blues, and they're really much darker. Bad Belted Kingfisher and Bad Blue Heron are both bulletproof but are really more blue-black. Noodler's Blue and Blue Eel are close in color, but not waterproof at all (see my review here). Diamine Asa Blue and Private Reserve American Blue are also close in color, but again, not waterproof at all.

Now I knew we wouldn't be able to come out with a vibrant bulletproof blue and have it NOT get compared to Baystate Blue, so I went ahead and swabbed up the two side-by-side. Baystate Blue is more vibrant, and has more of a purple-tinge to it, but Liberty's Elysium is going to be more permanent and a little more conventional than the infamous BSB.

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium and Noodler's Baystate Blue, compared.

Liberty's Elysium is bulletproof, which means that it's fraud-resistant and will fight against aggressive chemicals like bleach that are used to wash ink off paper. I wanted to test this out for myself, so I soaked a q-tip with straight household bleach and rubbed it on the ink. The ink held fast, but the paper did not! As long as the ink is making contact with the fibers of the paper, then it's going to create a permanent bond that is so strong that the ink will hold fast to the paper right up until the end:

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium bleach torture test

Many Goulet fans out there suspected this would be a blue that would be dubbed as 'Goulet blue', matching our ink splatter in our logo, as well as the blue stretch-wrap that we use for packaging up products as we ship them out, and I think that's a pretty dead-on description :) This ink is distinctively Goulet, distinctively Noodler's, and one that I am hoping will help to fill a much-needed gap in the ink world. You can check out more info and pick up your bottle of Liberty's Elysium here.

I would love to hear what you think, please post in the comments!

Getting a Full Fill on a TWSBI VAC-700

2012-05-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

The TWSBI VAC-700 is a pretty cool pen, check out my full review of it here. It has a pretty interesting vacuum-filling mechanism, not all that common in pens today. Doing a 'conventional' fill, you get about 1.5ml of ink in it, which isn't shabby at all (about 3x's the capacity of a standard cartridge/converter). However, if you're like me and you derive a sense of personal satisfaction from maxing out your pen's ink holding capabilities, you can get a full 2.3ml into your VAC-700.

This technique can be used for any vacuum-filling pen such as the Pilot Custom 823, as well. It does take a bit of practice and some guts to take the risk of shooting ink everywhere, but if you're like me and live life on the edge (not really), you'll enjoy having one of the largest ink capacities around. Let me know what you think!

TWSBI VAC-700, vacuum-filling pen.

Mailbox Monday #12

2012-05-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

There are a few things you can do with ink you don't use:

1) Give it away/sell it to someone who does want it (especially new people just getting into the hobby)
2) Throw it away (that's a shame though!)
3) Keep it, perhaps you'll come back to it later and like it
4) Use it for experimentation like ink mixing/diluting

Do you have any tips on how to convert my fellow college classmates (and a few professors) to fountain pen geekery? At one point, I tried giving out Preppies to my interested friends but they inevitably ended up treating it like a "special pen" to be saved for "special occasions." Now, I understand this is a limitation of the Preppy sans converter and ink bottle. But I really can't think of a cheaper or easier way to get people into fountain pens! Any advice?

For 'converting' your friends to fountain pens (pun!), there's really not a lot you can do other than educate them. A Preppy is a great place to start, and you're starting them out right with that! But obviously it doesn't do any good if they don't use it! Show them how to ink it up, how to write with it, and how to clean it, and point them to my videos (especially the Fountain Pen 101 videos) so they can educate themselves. If they take an interest in it, then great! If not though, there's nothing you can really do to force it upon them. The thing about fountain pens is that they have a lot of cool benefits to offer, but only if someone's interested to learn them. I've made efforts to 'convert' all my friends and family members, and some of them just don't 'get it', others have taken it and run with it.

It is difficult to look at one fountain pen nib size (the overall nib size) and compare it to another fountain pen nib size (the overall nib size) on your website or anyway else on the Internet. I was wondering is there a way to determine the overall nib size on a pen by looking at the pen on the Internet? I know the nibs used to be number based upon nib size.

There are some very loose standards, but most companies today don't designate any kind of size. The only tool I really have is that we measure the length of the nib as it protrudes from the pen, and put it under the detailed measurements on each product page. You need to use the comparison tool on our website to see more than one pen at once, but at least it's there:

I wonder if you know why the J. Herbin boxes state that the inks must never be mixed. Will they blow-up, curdle, turn weird colors, make the writer extremely eloquent, profane?

J. Herbin is just covering their butts with the warning, I can't think of any practical reason why you can't mix them, and I know plenty of people that do. I guess the reason they put it there is because they don't want someone mixing their inks with another ink with different properties and coming back and complaining to them.....but in a practical sense there's nothing going on with their inks that prevents you from being able to mix them. Just realize if you do, you're going 'rogue' and they won't stand behind any of the results you get by mixing the inks, but if you're okay with that then go ahead and mix to your heart's content :)

I ordered a Noodler's Ahab along with some silicone grease and a package of Noodler's Ahab Piston O-rings because my intention is to turn the Ahab into an eye dropper. Unfortunately, I ordered the wrong rings, but I will just add them to my fountain pen maintenance kit. Which o-rings do I need to order...the Preppy o-rings?

You actually don't need to order any additional o-rings to make the Ahab an eyedropper, it already has an o-ring on the pen threads. A little silicone grease on the threads and you're all set! If you do ever need to replace that o-ring though, the Preppy o-rings will be what you want: http://www.gouletpens.com/Platinum_Preppy_O_Rings_p/orings-preppy.htm

I am interested in acquiring at least one Noodler's Konrad fountain, but want to get one from thee ebonite series if such a things exists. However, I don't know if there is going to be such a beast. Can you tell me if the Konrad will be coming out in ebonite and if so what will it's expected price and release date?

There was a very limited batch of ebonite Konrads that were made, and those are long gone now. I have heard that Nathan is going to make more, though I don't have an ETA yet. I don't think it will be too long, maybe a few weeks? It's hard to tell with Nathan, he's not really an 'exact date' kind of guy. All I know is that when we do get an official word on when they'll be coming, we'll list them on our site ahead of time, and you'll be able to sign up for an email notification. It's still too early for that point though. I'd recommend signing up for our newsletter if you haven't already, because we'll have the info in there as we find out more.

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

Stefan V. compares Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite to 4001 Blue-Black

2012-05-20T09:01:00.000-04:00

Many of us were shocked last year when the Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black was discontinued suddenly in the US due to chemical regulation changes. Since then, Pelikan has developed a new Edelstein color called Tanzanite, presumably meant to replace the missing blue-black ink.

Stefan emailed me saying he had some 4001 Blue-Black and wanted to compare it to Tanzanite to see how suitable a replacement it really is. I sent him some samples of the ink and he wrote an incredibly thorough and comprehensive review/comparison of the two inks.

Here's a preview of his post, to see the whole thing visit Stefan's blog, here.

Long story short, the inks are pretty darn similar. Not exactly the same, but very similar. See how Stefan gets to this conclusion here. Thanks so much for all of the hard work, Stefan!

Write On,
Brian Goulet

FP101- Terminology 2, Fountain Pens In Use

2012-05-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Following up on last week's Fountain Pen 101 on Parts of a Fountain Pen, I'm going to explain a lot of the terms that involve pens, ink, and paper, and the interactions you get when you put them all together.

Here are all the terms I cover (with time markers for the video):

Feathering (0:53)
Bleedthrough (1:24)
Ghosting/Show-through/Echo (1:41)
Spread (1:53)
Dry Time (2:40)
Feedback/Tooth (3:18)
G/GSM (paper weight) (4:18)
Sizing (paper coating) (5:11)
Absorbency (5:53)
Nib Creep (6:29)
Saturation (6:51)
Shading (7:42)
Flow (8:23)
Skipping (8:36)
Starting (9:17)
Flex/Spring/Softness (9:45)
(Nib) Grind (9:50)

The video is a little longer than I like to shoot for with most FP101's, but the terminology is so important to understanding future topics I plan to cover, I thought it was important to include as much as I could. Now of course this doesn't include everything, there are a lot of other terms I left out. For anything you still don't understand, I recommend you check out the Glossary of Terms in the Fountain of Knowledge.

My goal with the Fountain Pen 101 series is to educate new fountain pen users the way that I wish I had when I first started out. If you're new or have friends you want to introduce to fountain pens, I recommend you start out at the beginning of the series and watch them in order, here.

Write Now 5/17/12

2012-05-17T17:07:00.001-04:00

I'd mentioned a while ago that I would try out doing live broadcasts on the fly when I have time during the day. Well, I had some time today while I was swabbing up 5 new Diamine colors (Sargasso Sea, Grape, Ochre, Peach Haze, and Misty Blue) and 10 new De Atramentis colors (Verdi, Puccini, Shakespeare, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Raphael, Augustus, Dante, Brahms and Don Quichote), so if you have any interest in watching me do that, enjoy!

Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks Overview

2012-05-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

Stillman & Birn is a relatively new company that has burst onto the art journaling scene with some incredibly high quality sketchbooks, and bloggers are starting to rave about them for sketching, mixed media, and ink washing. I first found out about them from Jamie Grossman's blog with her glowing reviews, and after checking them out for myself, I knew these things were legit.

The brand is broken out into 5 series, Alpha (3:48), Beta (5:52), Gamma (7:15), Delta (8:33), and Epsilon (9:50) that are all blank paper. For easier reference in the video, just jump to the time marker next to the series name.

Here's a chart to explain what they're all about:

Overview of the Stillman and Birn series lineup

What I aim to do here is to explain the different series and how they all differ. It may seem complicated, but it's really not. There are a couple of different paper grades, two different bindings, and two paper colors. All of these series are just a combination of these factors. I'll go through each series and explain what's up.

Alpha Series

Alpha Series Key Points:

100lb/150gsm natural white paper
Vellum surface (smooth, but with some resistance)
Hardbound (62 sheets) or wirebound (50 sheets)
Exact same as Gamma series (except Gamma has ivory paper)

Beta Series

Beta Series Key Points:

180lb/270gsm natural white paper
Rough surface (that's what they call it, but it's not really that rough)
Wirebound only, 25 sheets
Exact same as Delta series (only Delta has ivory paper)

Gamma Series

Gamma Series Key Points:

100lb/150gsm ivory paper
Vellum surface (smooth, but with some resistance)
Hardbound (62 sheets) or wirebound (50 sheets)
Exact same as Alpha series (except Alpha has white paper)

Delta Series

Delta Series Key Points:

180lb/270gsm ivory paper
Rough surface (that's what they call it, but it's not really that rough)
Wirebound only, 25 sheets
Exact same as Beta series (only Beta has white paper)

Epsilon Series

Epsilon Series Key Points:

100lb/150gsm natural white paper
Plate surface, smoothest paper in the Stillman & Birn line
Hardbound (62 sheets) or wirebound (50 sheets)

The Paper

Stillman & Birn's focus is on the paper, point blank. They recognize that art journaling is now becoming its own art form, and the sketchbook is no longer just a transitional tool from the field to the art studio, it's becoming its own fine art. So they wanted to create the highest quality art journal possible, that can withstand the most demanding of art mediums, such as ink, acrylics, chalk, and watercolor.

All of the paper washes exceptionally, with no bleeding or feathering on any of the inks I tried.

I don't know much about ink washing, but it sure is fun to try!

The Beta and Delta paper especially can withstand just about anything, watercolor or straight ink dumped on the page. That's straight Noodler's Apache Sunset, dumped on the paper and smeared with a q-tip, and you can't even see it on the other side!

Minimal show-through on the Alpha, Gamma, and Epsilon, none at all on the Beta and Delta.

I'm no artist, and I am definitely biased because I sell them, but even still I can safely say the paper in these sketchbooks is very tough to beat. Drew and I had fun just messing around with a lot of different pens and inks on all the Stillman & Birn paper, and I can safely say that it'll all take just about anything you can put down.

We're starting out with a limited offering of Stillman & Birn at GouletPens.com at first, and we'll expand as there is demand for it. These sketchbooks are a bit outside of the type of notebooks we typically carry, but I believe in supporting a good product and I think it's something that fountain pen users will enjoy. I'd love to hear what you think in the comments!

Mailbox Monday #11

2012-05-14T09:17:00.000-04:00

Brian, on the packing slip I received with my Lamy broad nib, someone had written a thank you note using DA's Kiwi. I LOVE the color...but when I searched all of DA's ink, I could not find Kiwi but found Kiwi Fruit in the scented inks section. I am not a fan of scented ink. Do you know if DA offers a regular, non-smelling ink in Kiwi?

De Atramentis Kiwi Fruit is the ink that was used, and it is scented. They don't have a non-scented version of the same color. However, the scent on that particular ink is very subtle.

Why do all these pens look like demonstrator's? I'd prefer to buy the pen once they've decided to go into production and not trial products.

http://www.gouletpens.com/Glossary_of_Terms_s/1136.htm

Can you recommend a large, hefty fountain pen, under $50, that’s good for eyedropper conversion?

http://www.gouletpens.com/Noodlers_Ahab_Flex_Nib_Pens_s/1098.htm

http://www.gouletpens.com/TWSBI_540_Fountain_Pens_s/1120.htm

http://www.gouletpens.com/Platinum_Preppy_Fountain_Pen_s/879.htm

http://www.gouletpens.com/Kaweco_Classic_Sport_Fountain_Pens_s/1008.htm

Are Noodlers your only American made pens?

We also have Edison, which are made by Brian Gray in Milan, Oh. Those are all the US-made pens we carry though, the only other American pens (that I know) are Bexley and Franklin Christoph. Just not a lot of fountain pen companies in the US these days!

I was wondering if the sale price on the Rhodia No. 19 Notepad - 8.25 x 12.5, Dot Pad - Black means that you'll be phasing them out in favor of the No. 18?

Yeah, we're anticipating the demand for No. 19's will all but vanish now that No. 18's are out, that's pretty much how it works with all the other Rhodias where both 18's and 19's are available. If we have enough people asking for No.19's we might keep them, but I doubt we will.

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

FP101- Terminology 1, Parts of a Fountain Pen

2012-05-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of basic terminology that I'm going to be using in future Fountain Pen 101 videos. It will be much more helpful for you to have the foundation of understanding what all the parts of a pen are called and how they work before you learn the more subjective aspects of the use of a fountain pen.

All of these terms (and many others) can be found in the Fountain of Knowledge on GouletPens.com under the Glossary of Terms, as well as Common Online Abbreviations to make it easier for new fountain penners cruising forums and blogs to understand the slang.

In this video, I'm focusing on the parts of a fountain pen. Here I cover the following terms (with time markers for the video, for easy reference):

Nib (0:31)
Tip/tipping material (1:06)
Slit (1:30)
Tines (1:49)
Breather hole (2:15)
Wings (2:45)
Feed (3:03)
Feed Channel (3:23)
Fins (3:50)
Filler hole (4:34)
Body/barrel (5:15)
Grip Section (5:31)
Reservoir (5:54)
Threads (6:22)
Cap (6:51)
Finial (7:15)
Clip (7:37)
Trim/hardware (7:54)

There are a lot more terms, for sure, but this will help to give you a solid foundation for the parts of a fountain pen as I continue to talk about them ongoing. Next week I'll be covering FP101 Terminology 2, Fountain Pen Use Terms. These will include terms such as shading, dry time, bleed through, flow, nib creep, and a lot more terms that involve fountain pens, ink, and paper as they all interact with each other.

Let me know what you think in the comments! I'd love to know what terms you'd like me to clarify in future videos.

Write On,

Brian Goulet

TWSBI VAC-700

2012-05-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

We just got in the hot new TWSBI VAC-700's last Thursday, and amidst the chaos of trying to get them out to eager new VAC-700 owners, I had a little bit of time to shoot a video on the new pen. For the sake of time, I didn't record the intro or outro of the video, as I wasn't planning to post it until 6 days later (today, Wednesday). Ironically enough though, I got a sore throat over the weekend and my voice sounds like I'm a chain-smoking sea captain, so I had to 'improvise' in the video. It's definitely worth a look!

The VAC-700 has been talked about for nearly two years now, and it's release has been pushed back all the way from October of 2011 until now, May 2012. That's a long wait, for sure. So I thought even though my time was limited and I knew that these pens would be limited in supply, I would still make a video introducing them even though I know it will make some of you who weren't able to get one angry. I'm sorry!

The video explains most everything, but here are some highlights:

It's slightly bigger than the 540
It has a vacuum filling mechanism which is super cool
The ink capacity is 1.5ml, but I am able to get 2.3ml in there with some finesse (which I'll feature in a future video)
They are offered in the same colors as the 540 color demos, amber, blue, smoke, and clear (clear isn't yet released though)
VAC-700 nibs are different from 540 nibs, and they are all made by Bock in Germany
Nib sections will be available separately, but for now it's only whole pens

I didn't get to a full writing test or anything like that in this video, and I'm sorry. It was already long enough ;) But I'll be talking about these more, this is just to give you an idea of what a vacuum filling pen even is, and how the VAC-700 follows up to the TWSBI 540.

TWSBI VAC-700 in amber, blue, and smoke

TWSBI VAC-700 in smoke

TWSBI VAC-700, screw on cap, push to post on back (posts really securely)

TWSBI VAC-700, vacuum filling pen, which is not very common these days

TWSBI VAC-700, nib units are interchangeable, but not available separately (yet)

TWSBI VAC-700 (top) and TWSBI 540 (bottom), almost the same length capped

TWSBI VAC-700 (top) and TWSBI 540 (bottom), uncapped nearly identical in length

TWSBI VAC-700 (top) and TWSBI 540 (bottom), posted the 540 is actually longer

TWSBI VAC-700 nib (left) and TWSBI 540 nib (right), all VAC-700 nibs are made by Bock in Germany, 540's are moving that direction from Schmidt

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Write On,
Brian Goulet

Mailbox Monday #10

2012-05-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Your intro video of the Noodler's Konrad was great, but missed a discussion of IF the Konrad will make a wider line than the Ahab and nib creaper?

I mentioned in the video that the nib and feed are identical to the Ahab, so it will write just like the Ahab does. I did a video when the Ahab came out comparing the Ahab writing to the original flex pen writing, and I found them to be very close to each other. http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/11/noodlers-ahab-writing-test.html

What is the ink capacity of the Noodler's Konrad Flex Pen?

With a regular 'first fill' from a dry pen, I got about 1.1ml. But if I expel all the air out, I can get somewhere between 1.3ml and 1.4ml. The Nib Creaper flex is about .9ml, and the Ahab (piston) is 1.9ml, Ahab eyedropper is almost 6ml. Your typical ink cartridge/converter will get you about .5ml, just to put things in perspective.

What's with the pictures of pens on top of rice, beans, etc? It's cool but do you actually have like, little boxes of dried rice and beans that you break out for product shots? Or a little square of flooring?

Haha, a perfectly legit question! Why rice and beans? They're small, interesting, and cheap :) They provide an interesting background, and also provide a somewhat 'soft' bed to lay pens down so that I can position them in any placement I want and they stay put, as opposed to a solid flat surface like paper where I have to prop up the pens to stay in place, then they rarely do...

I actually have several baking sheets filled with things like rice, beans, sand, small stones, korks, potpourri, etc for miscellaneous pictures. It's fun! It's all a great experiment, and I pretty much just go to places like Target and Michael's and look for anything that would 'look neat' in a picture with a pen.

Just for curiosity's sake, would it be possible for Nathan [Tardif, of Noodler's] to make a custom ink order, but instead of one of the regularly offered inks, have him make up a bottle of black ink jet printer ink? I remember him saying that he made all of his own printer ink since he prints all the labels himself, and was just curious about it.

Nathan does mix up inks for his own printers, and that's what he uses to print the Noodler's ink bottle labels, he does all that himself. He is willing to make custom sizes of his regularly available fountain pen inks, but he doesn't sell inkjet inks or any custom ink mixtures. He's about the busiest man on the planet and he is a staff of one, so he has to keep his work streamlined to his regularly offered products. I'm sorry!

I'm thinking about getting a Pilot Vanishing Point but am worried that the capless design (i.e. the hole in the top) could potentially make the nib dry out very quickly. I'd be curious to hear about your and your customers' experiences with this pen, especially as regards "dry-out" (sorry if that's not a real term) and flow/start-up after disuse.

That's a totally understandable concern. The VP actually has a little gate (flap-type thing) that covers over the nib inside the pen to seal it shut when the nib is retracted, and it works remarkably well to keep the nib from drying out. It essentially makes it so that it's like any other fountain pen in terms of how long ink will last in the pen before drying. I have one and use it regularly without any noticeable problem, and it's also an issue I rarely hear from our VP-owning customers. There are a lot of VP's floating around out there, and the overall consensus is that you don't have to be too concerned with it drying out.

Look at the picture below. Look at the discoloration at the lower part of the cap. The main body of the pen is jet black. But the cap has discoloration (as the pictures show) in striations. It seems like a flaw. But - not having owned a Lamy 2000 prior, I'm not sure. What do you think?

It may seem like a flaw, but it isn't. Just about every Lamy 2000 I've seen has this. The material used to make this pen is called Makrolon, which is a material made of a composite of fiberglass...what you're seeing there is apparently some kind of dust left over from the manufacturing/polishing process, likely from the stainless steel grip section. It's purely cosmetic, and you can actually even see a similar grey mark on the pen I used for the Lamy 2000 pictures on our site:

Interestingly, in a follow up email, this Lamy 2000 owner found that rubbing the pen with a microfiber cloth typically used to clean a computer monitor actually removed the gray streak! I've heard others have done this as well, if the grey streak is bothersome. Other's like it and leave it :)

A nice addition to your Fountain of Knowledge (or wherever it should go) would be a list of DeAtramentis colors listing the unscented versions of the scented inks for those of us who can't tolerate fragrance. There are so MANY inks in their line now it's hard to figure out accurately. If there's already a complete list somewhere (in English) could you please tell me where to find it? Thanks!

This is a good idea! Believe it or not we only carry about 2/3 of their ink line, there's still about 100 more that we don't carry....yet. It's hard because there's no list of any kind out there, so we'll have to go through every ink and investigate for ourselves. This kind of project is hard to do because it takes a tremendous amount of time, and there's really not any information to pull from out there in the online world. We'd be creating it from scratch. I'll see what we can do, no promises right away but it is definitely a good idea and something we'll work on!

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

Cardinal Darkness Ahab Makeover

2012-05-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Nathan Tardif, the man who creates all things Noodler's, really likes to keep everyone on their toes. The most recent adventure is with the Cardinal Darkness Ahab Flex pen. Previously, this was a mostly red pen with black striations. However, it was really close to the December 25th pen, which is red with dark green striations.

So Nathan made a change, Cardinal Darkness will now be black with red striations, sort of an inverse of what it was before:

Noodler's Ahab Flex pen, Cardinal Darkness 'old' color (top) and 'new' color (bottom)

Noodler's Ahab Flex pen, Cardinal Darkness new color

Cardinal Darkness is now inverted in color from what it used to be.

We just received our newest shipment of Cardinal Darkness Ahabs a few days ago, and we've sold off all the 'old' colors. So if you get one from GouletPens.com, it will be the new, black one. If you're shopping anywhere else, you'll want to inquire as to which versions they have on hand if you have a particular preference.

I always liked the red with black, and I will miss it a little bit. But I must say, the new color is actually pretty slick, and especially nice because the black Ahabs have been available in such short supply, this one could definitely work as a substitute. What do you think of the change?

FP101- How Does A Fountain Pen Work?

2012-05-04T12:16:00.000-04:00

Every Friday, I'm going to be posting a Fountain Pen 101 video on the foundational elements of using and understanding fountain pens. Today is the first in what I plan to be a very comprehensive series of videos to help anyone interested to learn more about fountain pens. I'll be compiling all of these videos into the Fountain of Knowledge on GouletPens.com.

Today's video is about the basics, what is a fountain pen and how does it work? In the video, I cover the following:

How a ballpoint pen works
How a rollerball pen works
How a fountain pen works
The internal parts that allow a fountain pen to write

There is a lot more I can cover, but I'm leaving this video to the absolute basics so I don't go running away with it (this is actually the second video I made, the first one I DID run away with it and it was 12 minutes long...). This will lay a good foundation for future topics that I plan to do in Fountain Pen 101. Future videos will go more in depth about the parts of a pen, different filling mechanisms, types of ink, how to choose a pen for you, and more. But for now, we're keeping things simple. Enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments.

New Stuff is Here!

2012-05-03T13:33:00.000-04:00

We have a slew of new stuff that arrived in the last day or two, and we've now listed it all for sale. Check out what we just got in:

TWSBI VAC-700's, clear 540's, color 540's (all colors), ink bottles, quantities will be limited and we will sell out far too fast (please don't get mad at us!), but we should be getting restocked at the end of May
Noodler's Konrad Flex pens, stock is good so you shouldn't have too much of a problem here
Noodler's Rome Burning ink, in good quantity
New Rhodia products, including No. 18 dotpads (orange and black), orange No. 16 dotpads, orange No. 12 dotpads, No. 16 top-wirebound dotpads (orange and black), all good quantities
Replenishment of J. Herbin Rouge Hematite 1670 ink, as well as J. Herbin rocking blotters, good quantities
Stillman & Birn art journals, conservative quantities to start, but we can restock these quickly

Thanks for being so patient with us! The last month we've seen a whole string of backordered products from our various distributors/manufacturers and we really have been doing everything we can to try to keep things in stock as much as possible. But for this very moment, we have them in stock : )

I'll be taking a LOT of pictures today, so look for them to come out in the next couple of days. Here's a teaser:

TWSBI VAC-700's, in amber, blue, and smoke

TWSBI VAC-700 nib (left) and 540 nib (right)

Write On,

Brian Goulet

Noodler's Konrad Flex Pens- Wed. Review

2012-05-02T10:23:00.000-04:00

Noodler's is releasing its latest evolution in flex pen design, the Konrad. This is a pen model that is currently offered in a refillable rollerball version, and was prototyped in a brush pen as well. But now, it is to be offered for the first time in a flex pen version.

I've been getting a lot of questions about what the new Konrad is like, and specifically how it compares to the other two Noodler's flex pens. The Konrad is a medium-size pen, in between the Noodler's Nib Creaper flex and Ahab flex. I think it's a wonderful compromise between the two pen sizes. It is a screw-type piston-fill just like the Nib Creaper flex pen, but with a larger ink capacity, closer to the Ahab (non-eyedropper converted, of course).

Noodler's Flex Pens capped, top to bottom: Nib Creaper, Konrad, Ahab

Noodler's Flex Pens upcapped, top to bottom: Nib Creaper, Konrad, Ahab

Noodler's Flex Pens posted, top to bottom: Nib Creaper, Konrad, Ahab

Noodler's Konrad Flex Pens, released in three colors: Red Mesa Tortoise, Roaring 20's Brown Tortoise, and Fleur de Lis Blue Tortoise

The Konrad flex pens are being released in three colors (to start), and there will almost certainly be others to come just like there have been with all of the previous flex pen models.

The design of the Konrad is Noodler's best yet, a true evolution from the two previous models. There is a clear ink window on the pen that helps tremendously to see your ink level. Unlike the rollerball version which has a little bit of a yellow tint in the ink window (on the black version), these ink windows are all clear.

Noodler's Konrad Flex pen, postable with a clear ink window.

It is a screw-type piston fill with a blind cap, so posting on the pen will not be a problem at all. A blind cap is a removable, protective cap that covers the piston so that there is no chance of inadvertently unscrewing it and forcing ink out of the pen. Not that this was a problem with any of the previous pens, but it's still good to see Noodler's is guarding against this.

Noodler's Konrad Flex with blind cap

One really nice aspect of this pen (aside from the pleasantly moderate size) is the fact that the entire thing can be disassembled with no tools whatsoever. You simply unscrew the back of the piston mechanism and it pulls right out of the back, so cleaning the pen could not be easier. One thing I will warn is that if you screw on the blind cap too tight, it will lock itself onto the back of the piston mechanism, and make it so that when you unscrew the blind cap it'll take the whole piston with it. It's an easy enough fix, you just hold the piston in place and unscrew the blind cap, but just be aware that this potential is there for this to happen. Don't take out all of your life's frustrations on that blind cap when you screw it on, and you'll be fine :)

Noodler's Konrad Flex with easily removable piston mechanism (and double o-ring)

The nib and feed on the Konrad is identical to the Ahab, but some slight improvement has been made on their production. The issue that the Ahabs had with ink not flowing well from a new pen is much improved. What contributed to this issue was that the feeds on the Ahabs were being polished in the beginning of the Ahab production, which actually is not as ideal as unpolished for ink flowing reasons. This issue has been corrected with the Konrads (and Ahabs actually, but there is still 'old stock' of Ahabs out everywhere), though I won't be able to say for certain until our shipment of them comes in.

It's still a good idea to give the pen a thorough cleaning. There are machining oils used to cut the slots in the feed, and residual oils can make the pens write a little dry or skip at first. This isn't always a problem, but about 10% of the Ahabs seemed to need a thorough cleaning to work well, I would assume that these will be the same way, but perhaps there are improvements made in the production of these feeds. I'm not privy to that information at this time.

One other thing to be aware of with the Konrad (and any Noodler's flex pen, for that matter) is that the nib and feed are friction fit inside the pen. This makes it incredibly easy to take apart and clean, but it can also require a little bit of tinkering to get them set in the right place for your ink to flow properly. This is something I talked about with the original Noodler's Nib Creaper flex pens, and I have a video on adjusting the nib and feed here. The concept is exactly the same for the Konrad.

Noodler's Konrad Flex pen completely disassembled.

The body of these pens is what's considered 'tortoise', so it has a partially translucent body with a swirl pattern to it. It's quite lovely, I must say! The translucent aspect of these pens is basically cosmetic. Normally, the benefit of a tortoise would be to see your ink level in the pen, but since there is a clear ink window, that takes care of that. Still though, it's a neat design aspect of the pen.

Noodler's Konrad Tortoise Flex pens, partially translucent bodies

So you might also be wondering about the ink capacity. The original Noodler's Nib Creaper flex pen is about .9ml, not too bad but many felt it was small. The Ahab addressed that when it came out and with the piston is 1.9ml, and eyedropper converted it's a whopping 6ml! The Konrad is a compromise between the Nib Creaper and Ahab. I was able to get about 1.1ml when doing a 'fresh fill', but when I expelled the air out of the pen using this technique, I was able to get around 1.3ml or 1.4ml. That's pretty good, considering most converters are somewhere around .5ml.

All-in-all, I think the Konrad is the best designed pen to come from Noodler's yet, and I'm very eager to see how it's accepted by the fountain pen community. We're expecting our first shipment of them to arrive today, and we're going to release them for sale tomorrow. Why wait until tomorrow? Well, we're also getting in Noodler's Rome Burning ink, a long-overdue backorder of J. Herbin 1670 (Rouge Hematite), the new TWSBI VAC-700's, and a replenishment of a bunch of TWSBI 540's, nib units, and inkwells. Rather than put them all in stock randomly as they come in, we're going to wait until it all arrives and list it all at once tomorrow. We don't have a set time yet, it'll all depend on when the TWSBI order comes in tomorrow. We will blog/tweet/Facebook when it all arrives and let you know when we'll make it live.

The Noodler's Konrad pens will be selling for $20 at GouletPens.com, in Fleur de Lis Blue, Red Mesa, and Roaring 20's Brown. You can sign up for an email notification on each product page so we can let you know as soon as we list it for sale. I've love to hear any questions or impressions in the comments below!

Write On,

Brian Goulet

Mailbox Monday #9

2012-04-30T09:39:00.003-04:00

I'm actually much more in love with the black rubbery grip on the SS studio. The bare metal grip is okay, but it gets slippery after a while if you are like me and have really oily hands. The SS studio is heavier, but is well balanced. Both pens are pretty well balanced, both pens are just a teeny bit back heavy when posted. The one thing to look out for with the SS studio is that trim ring that holds the cap onto the grip section, it wants to unscrew over time. I actually did a video on it: http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/10/lamy-studio-trim-ring-mystery.html

It's not a big deal, especially once you know to look out for it. Personally, i think the finish on the SS pen is crazy cool, it looks far more impressive in person than in pictures. The barrels on the Studio is thicker in the middle (it kind of bows out), but the grip sections on both are about the same, so I doubt you'd notice too big of a difference when actually holding them. The main difference in the grip is the material, as well as the contour....the Studio tapers on the grip section to the nib, the Accent is convex, so they feel a bit different depending on where you hold them.

I recently received an order from you which included a Private Reserve Sepia ink sample (among 4 other browns). I LOVE this colour, but after doing some research on line, there seems to be some hesitation from others about using it due to the fact that it "sticks" to the side of the tube thus leading to a concern about clogging your pen. When I went on PR's website, they don't list it as a current colour thus adding to the concern. I couldn't find your full-blown review on your blog. I don't believe you would send anything that wasn't "safe" for our pens, but would appreciate your thoughts on this ink colour.

Clearly, we take our ink very seriously, so I appreciate your letting me know about the ink not being listed on PR's site. The ink is new....relatively.....to PR's line. It actually came out a while ago (year and a half ago?), but it looks like they never updated their site. They came out with two more colors as well, one at the same time as Sepia (Rose Rage), and another last summer (DC Super Violet). They are both missing from their list as well, but we've been ordering them all along and we haven't been told they will stop them. I will let them know about the inks missing from their site....you can tell by it's 'homemade' qualities that it's not updated very often! ;)

It's true the ink is a little 'clingy', some inks are like that and it's not just PR. J. Herbin Rouge Hematite (1670), and Diamine Pumpkin are also like this. It has to do with the chemical composition of the ink, as well as the level of saturation of the ink dyes. When the dyes reach a certain level of saturation, they begin to fall out of suspension and 'settle out', and this is what can cling to the bottle. Shake the ink back up and it gets the dyes back into suspension and it's good to go. I haven't had any serious clogging issues in my pens using Sepia, but then I also don't use it for long periods at a time. If anything, the ink will just need to be used in the pen more regularly than other inks, and may require a bit more effort to clean, especially if the ink dries out in the pen. I can say thought that after carrying this ink for about a year at a half now, that I haven't had complaints about it performing much different than any of the other inks we carry.

I would like to replace the nib on my Lamy (medium) with a fine one. Lucky I have a Safari -- no other pen appears to have replaceable nibs. Or am I missing something?

Most other pens don't have replaceable nibs, but some do. Kaweco does, as does Edison, Pilot Vanishing Points, most Pelikans (mxxx series), and TWSBI 540's. But Lamy is the king of nib changing, and has the widest range of available nib sizes.

About the Caran d'Ache Blue Night 30ml bottle ink, which I have heard somewhere from the FPN that there's a "bad batch" of ink that came through with wrong color. The Thai importer of Caran d'Ache also completely discontinue importing Blue Night ink to Thailand for the very reason. Which is a shame, as I totally Love the color, and it's excellent property. And so, does the Blue Night that is available on Gouletpens belong to the new batch or does it still belong to the troublesome batch?

I just checked the Blue Night we have on hand and it matches what I swabbed up originally nearly two years ago. Since I've never had any report of a color variation from our customers in the two years we've been selling the ink, I can't help but think that the issue was isolated to another part of the world and we never received any of that batch. What we have on hand appears to be exactly what it always has been.

I have one quick question. I can't seem to find the answer online. Is the Edison nib a Bock nib? I have found the Bock nibs on the TWSBI to be better than the original and am wondering if the Edison is also a Bock.

Edison uses Jowo (prounounced Yo-vo) nibs, which are made in Germany and they rival Bock nibs. TWSBI is switching to Bock from Schmidt (another smaller German nib company), and Bexley if you're familiar with them, just recently switched from Bock to Jowo. Both Bock and Jowo make great nibs, they are the two leading independent nib makers in the world, no question.

When using a converter and the ink is running low, is it smart to tighten the converter so there is less space between the ink and the plunger? I always wondered about that.

It doesn't really matter. As long as ink is touching the back of the feed, it'll draw through the pen. How much air is behind it doesn't make a difference. The ink flows through the pen with capillary action, so as long as there is ink there, and it's at the bottom of the converter (not stuck up at the top), then you're good. The only time you need to tighten down the converter is if the pen starts to dry up a bit (like if there are air bubbles in the feed) and you want to force some ink down through to get it going again, but that's not usually necessary.

What is the best way to store ink?, and in particular, since I have many antique ink wells, many cast iron type from the 1800’s, which pretty much have loose lids or pewter, glass or brass, would the ink be ok for a period of time, or just dry up? I haven't tried it, but I would hate to pour some in a well and find it thickening over time.

Keeping ink well sealed is pretty crucial, unless you're going to be using it very quickly. Fountain pen ink is water based, and if left unsealed, the water will evaporate and the ink will thicken, eventually drying completely. The good thing about water-based inks though, is that if they do thicken up a bit, you can always just add water back in and get it back in shape! Distilled water is best. Also, keeping ink out of direct sunlight is key, as many ink dyes break down with UV exposure. It's best to keep them in the boxes they come in, or in a drawer or cabinet :)

I like a wider rule on my lined paper, so I hope it's okay to trouble you with two questions that came up when I was browsing: Lined Rhodia Soft Touch notebooks: Any chance you know what the ruling size is? I don't see it in the details on the product pages. Lined Rhodia top-wirebound note pads: The ruling is listed as 8 mm, and I just want to double-check with you regarding this, as all the other lined Rhodia products seem to be 7 mm.

Oh my, I didn't realize we forgot to list the rulings on the Rhodia soft touch pads! Thank you so much for letting us know, that was a simple oversight on our part. You can imagine how we might miss something like that with over 2400 products on our site right now :P

Anyway, all of the staple bound Rhodias (including the soft touch pads) have 7mm ruling, and all of the wire bound have 8mm. I don't know exactly why they do them this way, but they do!

Hopefully these posts are helpful to you! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

New Product Timelines

2012-04-29T10:28:00.001-04:00

In a better effort to keep you up to date on new products coming in to GouletPens.com, I'm going to post when we have a better idea of delivery dates for new things coming to us. The reason I'm posting these ahead of time is so you can sign up for the email notification lists for the items you're interested in, that way you will be automatically notified as soon as we list them in stock. For a complete list of all the new things at GPC, check out the 'Coming Soon' page on our site. Here's what's on the way:

TWSBI VAC-700's, clear 540's, color 540's (all colors), ink bottles should arrive to us on Thursday, May 3rd (somewhat limited quantities of just about everything)
Noodler's Konrad Flex pens, sometime between Wed.-Fri. (May 2-4), stock should be good
Noodler's Rome Burning ink, no definite date yet, but should arrive in the next week or two. We have our order in and should be one of the first to get it in stock.
New Rhodia products, including No. 18 dotpads (orange and black), orange No. 16 dotpads, orange No. 12 dotpads, No. 16 top-wirebound dotpads (orange and black)
Replenishment of J. Herbin Rouge Hematite 1670 ink, as well as J. Herbin rocking blotters to arrive this week
Stillman & Birn art journals, arriving Tuesday May 1st
Lamy Apple Green Safari, no definite date yet, we're told 'Mid-May' right now
De Atramentis restocking should come in any day now, including Sherlock Holmes and some additional new famous people colors (like Handel, Verdi, Don Quichote, Brahms, Shakespeare, and others)
Restocking of Rohrer and Klingner glass pens and inks the end of this week or early next week

We recently met with the distributor for Stipula, Conklin, Delta, and Monteverde, and we're going to be carrying select pens from them, as well as all the Stipula and Monteverde inks. There are a LOT of different choices for pens we can carry within these brands, and we're going to start out slow. We would absolutely love your feedback about which models you'd like to see us carry, so please shoutout in the comments here or to me by email about which ones you like. Look to see us start carrying these brands in the next few weeks.

I also haven't talked much about Stillman & Birn yet, but I will soon enough. For those running circles in the watercolor/ink washing world, these sketchbooks are pretty darn exciting. Here's a little about them:

Alpha Series: White paper, 150g (100lb) weight. Vellum finish for dry media and light washes.
Beta Series: White paper, 270g (180lb) weight. Multi-media surface.
Delta Series: Ivory paper, 270g (180lb) weight. Multi-media surface.
Epsilon Series: White paper, 150g (100lb) weight. Plate finish for pen & ink.
Gamma Series: Ivory paper, 150g (100lb) weight. Vellum finish for dry media and light washes.

That's a lot of exciting stuff coming in soon! I absolutely plan to blog about every one of these things, so look for more info about all these coming in the next few weeks. We'll be updating each of the product pages with more info as it becomes available, and I'll work to keep the blog up to date, too.

Write On! ~Brian Goulet

Fountain Pen 101 Friday, Introduction

2012-04-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

As a part of my new blog format, Fridays will now be reserved for Fountain Pen 101, a series of videos on elementary fountain pen education. The idea behind Fountain Pen 101 is that there is a desperate need for education for those who are interested in fountain pens but who need to learn the basics.

The world of fountain pens is vast and very rewarding, but it can certainly be intimidating unless you have some guidance. Rather than send you off to random forums and blogs to piece together bits of information, I'm going to step you through all of the things you need to know to begin learning and growing as a fountain pen enthusiast.

These videos will all be compiled into the Fountain Pen 101 section of the Fountain of Knowledge on GouletPens.com. The Fountain of Knowledge is an emporium of all the best pictures, reviews, and online tools that we've built over the last two years to help fountain pen enthusiasts make the most out of their writing experience.

Some ideas of FP 101 videos that I will produce include:

Explaining the differences between ballpoints, gel rollerballs, and fountain pens
How paper can affect your fountain pen writing
The 'Trifecta' of pen, ink, and paper
Pen filling mechanisms
Explaining different ink characteristics
How to fill piston pens
How to load an ink cartridge into your pen
Elemental fountain pen terminology
How to properly maintain and clean your pens
and a lot more!

These are just a few of the basic ideas I have, but I am always looking for more. I've been immersed in fountain pens for several years now, and I sometimes overlook the basics in my own daily pen use, so please don't hesitate to contact me or post in the comments below if there are burning questions you have about how to use your pens. I may very well make an FP 101 video on it!

Apple Green Lamy Safari is Coming Soon!

2012-04-26T13:54:00.000-04:00

Lamy Apple Green Safari

For reasons beyond my ability to explain, we haven't been able to officially talk about the Apple Green Lamy Safari until today. Word leaked out about this pen with pictures floating all around the internet for the last several months, but in the US we weren't allowed to show any pictures or post anything official about the pen's existence or arrival until now. We want to remain in good graces with Lamy, so we played by the rules. My apologies to all of you who were trying to figure out what's been going on with this pen but been confused with all the hush-hushery going on.

Anyway, we did have a chance to see one of these pens for ourselves, and though we don't have any in stock, I was able to snap a few pictures of it. It's a real nice looking green, very vibrant but not ridiculous. I know a lot of you are looking forward to this color, and I don't think it will disappoint. Like all the other Safari pens, this one accepts proprietary Lamy cartridge, a Z24 (or Z26) converter (not included with the pen), and has an interchangeable steel nib.

Officially, retailers aren't supposed to advertise the pen at below list price, $35. I'm sure once the hype dies down, the pens will be able to sell closer to their Safari brethren at a fair market price. We don't have an official eta for these pens, but we're told "mid-May" is the arrival date, and I'll update on Ink Nouveau and GouletPens.com just as soon as we know more. If you'd like to be put on the GPC email notification list for the arrival of the pens, just go here and sign yourself up on the email notification list.

Lamy Apple Green Safari (on rice!)

Lamy Apple Green Safari (on beans!)

Lamy Apple Green Safari (on travertine!), posted

Lamy Apple Green Safari, capped

Quo Vadis Habana A4 Blank - Wed. Review

2012-04-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Every Wednesday now, I'm doing reviews/overviews/comparisons of specific products and brands. Today is all about the new A4 Quo Vadis Habana, which just arrived in the US.

Many of you have been asking for A4 bound journals, well the wait is over! Quo Vadis has come out with their Habana journal in an A4 (8.25" x 11.75") size. The journal itself is well-made just like the other sizes, folds incredibly flat and has the elastic enclosure, back pocket, and ribbon marker that you will recognize from the smaller sizes. For the time being it's only available in a black cover with blank paper, but they could offer more if these are popular.

Quo Vadis A4 Habana, with a Lamy Al-Star to give it perspective

Quo Vadis A4 Habana

Quo Vadis A4 Habana back pocket

What more can I say? It's a Habana and it's big. It has 80 sheets of fountain pen friendly 85g ivory paper. The price isn't too bad either. The 6"x9" A5 Habana lists for $24, and this A4 Habana is $30, for nearly twice the paper area.

What do you think?

Noodler's Art Contest Winners, Konrad Flex, Rome is Burning

2012-04-24T13:30:00.001-04:00

Timeline for the video:

0:00-3:00 - Famous quotes from the US Founding Fathers
3:01-17:25 - Artwork of the contest winners (amazing!)
17:26-22:02 - "Rome is Burning" introduction, new Noodler's ink
22:03-29:58 - Konrad Flex Pen introduction

Nathan Tardif of Noodler's ink introduced an art contest last year, where contestants could submit artwork depicting a catfish in some majestic manner using only Noodler's pens and ink. This video compiles all of the winners of the contest, who get some pretty sweet prizes. I am simply amazed at all of the entries! They are something to really appreciate. Congratulations to all of the winners, you all have done some incredible work!

I'm seen threads on the Fountain Pen Network where the contest winners received their prizes, which included any combination of things such as the new Rome is Burning ink and Konrad Flex pens, even a pen that's been in development for a while with no definite eta, the Neponset.

In typical Nathan style, we didn't find out about the new ink, Rome is Burning, until the introduction of this video. That said, we'll look to acquire it and offer it on GouletPens.com just as quickly as we can. The ink looks really interesting, a golden brown/copper color that when wet, turns a vibrant purple. I imagine you ink washers out there will find some really interesting things to do with this ink!

Nathan's not holding much back on this ink, touting right on the bottle that "aqua shading ink of flames burning Rome's purple...excess liquidity will reveal the Patrician color". He has several famous quotes by, as well as pictures of, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin, and the Roman Emperor Nero.

Undoubtedly, this is a jab at the US Government's willingness to print money as fast as it can, echoing a similar message from the Bernanke ink released last year. Nathan's known for expressing his beliefs on the Federal Reserve and US monetary poilicy on his ink bottles. If this kind of thing turns you off, then you will HATE this bottle!

The Konrad Flex Pen is also introduced in this video. I have a couple of sample pens and I will be making my own video in the next week or two, as these pens are closer to being available. I can say from handling them and using them, that they are an evolution of the piston-fill and Ahab flex pens, taking a lot of their best attributes from both and putting them into more of a mid-size body that I think will be more appealing than the typically small piston-fill flex, or typically large Ahab flex. I'm excited for these to arrive.

Noodler's Konrad Flex pens, in Red Mesa Tortoise , Roaring 20's Brown Tortoise, and Blue Tortoise Fleur De Lis

Noodler's Konrad Flex, with #6 size nib, clear ink window, and tortoise (semi) translucent body.

Noodler's Konrad is piston-fill, with a blind cap so that posting the cap won't untwist the piston accidentally.

Noodler's Konrad disassembles entirely, with no tools required at all.

One thing is certain, Nathan certainly is passionate about what he does, and his video is every bit as long and entertaining as all of his previous ones! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below.

Write On!
~Brian Goulet