I was going through the gigantic pile of pens I have in my bag, and I thought it might be a interesting exercise to make a list of my two favorites. One fountain pen and one non-fountain pen.

• Fountain pen: Pilot Custom 823 with Fine nib
• Uniball Signo DX 0.28mm

As an gift to myself on hitting a weight loss milestone, or more like a milestone in getting back to where I was at the end of 2021 I decided to getting myself a Lamy 2000 with a EF nib. But after looking at some comparisons of the performance of it, I instead started looking at the 823 with a F nib. I would most likely have gotten one in EF if it was in stock.

The main reason is that this nib seemed to fit better with my current preferences than a EF 2k would.

First of all. This pen also came in the whole “gift” packaging I hate. And it included a bottle of Black Pilot Ink I’m not sure what to do about.

On to the pen itself.

I got the “brown-ish” color instead of the grey-ish color. Either one is fine though. But I’d much rather wanted it in a fun color. This brown or grey with gold is really pushing into grand dad pens for me.

The pen features a vacuum filling system. Easy enough to use once you get used to it. And with most vacuum fillers it has this added feature of unscrewing the plunger to let ink flow into the feed. Something that has the added benefit of being useful for air travel.

The nib on this pen feels amazing. Fine without being scratchy at all. It would not be a surprise if I end up with another one of these in EF.

A lined Rhodia Pad that have been my go to for writing for a while now.

I started using them instead of the Leuchtturm1917 because of cost. And then I just kind of continued because they’re cheaper and better for my use. I even started using the dot grid version of it instead of the regular dot pad.

It’s a top ring binder thingy.

What I love about that is that I can write on a page, flip it over and keep going without noticing it, and then tear out pages as I’m done with it

The lined one is what I use to draft almost anything long form I post

And the dot grid are mostly for brainstorming and work tasks.

When I look at notebooks and planners I see a lot of the same.

For notebooks we have grid, lined and blank; plus dot grid if we’re lucky. Side note: what the fuck Field Notes, get your act together.

Sometimes they do a funky notebook with a mix of the two.

For planners we usually get one page per day layouts, and monthly layouts. Some, but not enough do a weekly calendar layout. This is an area I’d love to see more experimentation.

I really think that there could be much more innovation and experimentation in page layouts that could lead to a lot of interesting and awesome products.

I recently changed CMS and because of that the URL to the RSS feed changed, I have configured redirects for them, but it still might not work as expected. The new feed url is: https://stationery.pizza/feed.rss

For a long time now I’ve been looking for something to replace Field Notes. I like the size and format, but the paper quality sucks and I hate that they usually don’t have anything with dot grid.

I tried out write notebooks, but they have too many pages to work that well for me. Plus that I’d have to order them from the US.

So slowly I’ve been moving towards the Travelers Notebooks smaller “passport” size. So I finally decided to pull the trigger, and this far I’m really happy with it. Lots of page formats and options available, the refills are small enough. And it is easy to get them from a Norwegian store. The format is kind of similar to Field Notes, a little bit smaller.

This far I’m really happy with it.

My Field Notes and Write notebooks stack plus the Bellory cover have been demoted to being my car notebook.

This may be weird to a lot of people

But most of my lists starts in a notebook. Then I end up in a task app, where they at some point get a due date. At that point it will most of the time end up in a notebook, usually a Rhodia Dotpad if its work or typically my hobo if its not. And at the end of the day or a page I complete what was done in my task app.

Why?

The main reason I do it like this is that I find it much easier to think on paper. I can just sit down and write down everything, then move it into a computer. And when I are working I find it much less distracting to have a notebook next to my keyboard than having to change between what I am doing and a task app.

I really like them

They are probably not best color wise, and almost certainly over priced as fuck. Like everything else with the Blackwing branding.

As someone who is not an artist, and just have them to do some adult coloring now and then they are great.

A big part of why is that unlike most other color pencils I have tried I can sharpen them with the same tools as I sharpen my writing pencils.

This is a pink Iroshizuku ink, or it may be their only pink. I’m not sure and too lazy to figure ut out.

It is the only ink I use in my pink TWSBI Eco. This is another of the inks that kind of perfectly embodies what I love about Iroshizuku inks. It stries that subtle balance between darkness and vibrancy.

This was also the first ink I got after I decided to get even more into bolder colors.