Charcoal Lamy Safari F Nib + J. Herbin: Eclat de Saphir

This review's a special one because this time, there's two reviews in one post! That's double the fun!

Charcoal Lamy Safari F Nib


First, let's start with the Lamy Safari. This is my first fountain pen that I can actually use with bottled ink without modding anything except switching converters. _{(My dad won't let me mod anything since he thinks all I'm going to make is a mess...)}I chose to buy a charcoal-colored Lamy because I was afraid the regular plastic version of the pen would feel...cheap in my hands and I wouldn't like it – I wouldn't know what the plastic version's like anyway. The pen body has a matte finish with a black clip that is pretty sturdy when clipped onto something. The cap and the pen weigh almost the same so when taken off and left aside, the pen is pretty light: something I'm not too fond of. I like having a bit of weight in my pens. When the cap's on top of the pen, although a bit top heavy, it balances out the weight in the pen.


As for the nib, the main feature of the pen, it writes smoothly and lays down a nice, solid line. The nib's slightly scratchy, but nothing that detracts the quality of the pen. Depending on the type of ink you're using, it may or may not dry fast. I'm using a piston converter for bottled ink. I haven't used the blue cartridge that comes with the pen.


I'm no connoisseur of fine writing instruments nor do I have much experience with fountain pens, but the Lamy Safari is a very nice, reasonably priced starter fountain pen that gives you a bit more than what you paid for (in this case, close to $30 with a converter). It's a good pen especially if you don't want to shell out lots of money on an exquisite fountain pen.

J. Herbin: Eclat de Saphir


(Picture is from Jetpens.com)

I won this bottle of ink in a giveaway held by Rhodia Drive back in September along with two other bottles of ink. I haven't had a pen to load the ink in since then, so here's the long overdue review of it.


(Written on a Rhodia No. 12 pad)

The only concern I have about the ink is the drying time for it. When it first hits paper, you can see a bit of ink where you end the line of the letter you're writing. Since the ink's wet when it first hits paper, it might lead to a bit of smudging (as shown in the sample).

Overall, the pen and the ink are a very nice combination: charcoal black and sapphire blue. The ink and the fine nib is a good combination and it makes for a fine writing experience.

JetPens Order!!!

Yesterday, my JetPens order was waiting to be opened by an anxious pen enthusiast, when I rushed home from school, opened the mailbox, squealed with joy, had about six other people looking at me, ripped the package open right then and there, and squealed even louder. What made me so ecstatic, you ask? Well, I ordered...



Charcoal Lamy Fountain Pen: Fine Nib
Lamy piston converter
Pilot Hi-Tec-C: 0.38 mm in "bengara" (ferrous oxide)
Uni-Ball Signo: 0.38 mm in bordeaux-black
Mitsubishi Boxy eraser

The main bulk of my order was the fountain pen, since this is my first "fancy" fountain pen. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to fill ink in it yesterday (I won some ink bottles in a giveaway that I never had a chance to review), so today I'm hoping to fill it, squeal with joy again when I get to write with it, and I'll have a review of the pen up shortly. (and by shortly, I DO mean shortly. I mean it this time.)

Don't ever take out your anger on...

...your beloved pens. I was very angry at something last night, and the anger got to me, fogged my brain, and I took it out on one of my Hi-Tec-C pens. I slammed it on my desk so hard that the cap flew off and the bottom half of the body snapped from the pen refill. (I would take a picture of it, but it's too small and minute to take a picture of) If you don't know what I mean, the part where the conical, metal barrel at the end took a bit of the plastic barrel with it and it won't twist back on properly anymore.

So what have we learned today, girls and boys? 1) Don't take your anger out on your precious pens and pencils and other stationery what-have-you-nots. 2) Liquid glue can fix almost anything. To everyone who's reading this, if you're ever angry, take out on something that won't break in one drop. Like a pillow.

Finals Week...

As I go back to school after a short yet somewhat refreshing winter break, I have finals to stress over for the rest of this week and part of next week. I'll be taking a break from the internet during that time to focus on my studies, and hopefully do well on my finals. I know I haven't been posting as often as I hoped, but I hope that after finals I'll be able to post at least one review every week. Over the holidays, I went on a trip and visited a Kinokuniya. I found so many things there that I wanted to buy, but unfortunately they would've run over my budget. I did, however, pick up a few pens, notebooks, and erasers that I thought might be worth reviewing. I will try (and this time I really mean it) to get some of those reviews posted, and again, I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything much worth reading (if any at all) within the past few months.

In the meantime, check out this great view of TeNues CoolNotes over at Notebook Stories!

Now, I think I'll slink off and put myself in solitary confinement with my textbooks, notes, and five of my finest weapons _{(by weapons, I hope you know I mean my pens and pencils)} to attack finals. Wish me luck!

Pilot Hi-Tec-C: Sear Blue 0.4mm

Looks like Hari's prepared for winter!

Haven't heard from me in a while, eh? Well, I'm back for a few reviews before Christmas rolls along. Today I'll be reviewing one of the many colors in Pilot's Hi-Tec-C line.

First of all, why "sear blue?" The katakana on the label reads "shia buruu," which could translate to "sear blue" or "sea blue," but JetPens marks it as "sear blue." Name aside, sear blue is a dark, turquoise color. It's a nice shade of blue (or green...whatever you consider turquoise to be) to write in. Being a .4mm sized tip, it is only slightly on the scratchy side, but not so much that it's significant. It skips quite often, but other times it writes normally. I tried to clean the tip and remove any fibers, but even after all that it still skips. Could it be the way I'm holding the pen? Could it be that there's paper fibers tightly stuck in the tip?

(Lyrics are from "I Believe in Father Christmas," by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) (I'm sorry, the pictures don't do much justice to the ink's real color...)




Moving onto aesthetics. The body of the pen is pretty simple, like your typical pen body. Nothing extravagant or out of the ordinary. The cap clicks on, it has a rippled grip, the body is transparent, and all that. The tip is a needle tip, and there are two dimples on it where you can see the ink coming out of it.

PROS:
-Simple design
-Nice turquoise color
-Lays down a relatively smooth line

CONS:
-Skips occasionally
-Needle tip is somewhat scratchy, though almost unnoticeable

PRICE: $3.00 at JetPens

Overall, I give this a 9.8/10!!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

So...as we all know, Thanksgiving weekend has started for most of us and Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow. I haven't been posting a lot (if at all...), but I'm going to take a break from the 'webz for the weekend. While we're all stuffing ourselves with turkey, turducken, tofurkey, and whatever protein you eat for Thanksgiving, spend a few minutes thinking about what you're thankful for. If you're reading this, most likely, you're a lot better off than millions of people around the world. I'm thankful that I have a loving family, a roof over my head, there's always food in the house, that I've met so many awesome people in the past year, and I'm getting a good education. There's a whole lot more stuff I"m thankful for, but it'll take too long to post. So I have two questions for you...

1. What are you doing for Thanksgiving?
2. What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving, and have fun for the rest of your weekend! :D

Field Notes: Levis Edition

"I'm not writing it down to remember later, I'm writing it down to remember it now."

I went to the mall over the weekend and remembered that the Levis store was selling Field Notes. Since buying Field Notes online wouldn't be an option for me (I have one book I picked up at an anime convention that's too pretty to use), I decided to buy a pack from there. These look nice to slip into your jeans pocket... Enough chit-chat and let's get straight to the review!


The graph paper notebooks are in blue, white, and red with silver printing on them. The back of the paper slip reads "I'm not writing it down to remember later, I'm writing it down to remember it now" which I assume is Field Notes' motto. The inside of the cover has printed what you would normally see in a regular Field Notes book. (I tried taking a picture of it, but the silver kept glaring at the camera.)


Overall, I love these notebooks although I haven't written in them yet. Heck, I don't even KNOW what the first pen strokes will be! To be truthful, I don't even know how to use graph paper notebooks, besides actually graphing something...

For anyone who's reading this and would like to comment, I have a few questions.
1. What can I use graph paper for?
2. If you bring a small memo book everywhere you go, what kind of stuff do you write in it?

Post it in the comments below!