Spicy Ink

It won’t surprise anyone to hear that I stumble almost daily over bottles of fountain pen ink and that keeping up with so many different inks can be a problem. Basically, it’s because my system of arrangement and storage doesn’t allow them to be easily seen one by one, but it’s also because I have too many bottles. Even with optimum display and quick access to each bottle and color, the numbers mean that a few are going to get lost in the crowd and likely ignored for long periods. Favorites are always placed in spots easy to reach and easy to see, but managing as many as ten shifting favorites also gets unwieldy.

But at least this inefficient system of storing ink makes for an occasional happy surprise. That was the case two days ago when I uncovered an old bottle of Noodler’s Cayenne ink and realized it hadn’t been opened in at least seven years. There is a reason for that apart from its being lost in the crowd around here, but more about that later. Buying ink in Japan always comes with the privilege of trying out a particular ink in-store before purchasing it. Shopping one day in Shosaikan, a pen and ink store in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, I first discovered Noodler’s Cayenne ink. Not hard at all to describe, since the color of the ink is a perfect match to the brownish orange of everyday cayenne pepper. 2005 was a time when brownish orange ink was something of a rarity. Not too many ink manufacturers had yet come up with the idea of creating an ink color from the spice rack. The Noodler’s Cayenne intrigued me. I remember sampling it in Shosaikan and being impressed by the color, but uncertain of the ink’s lubricity. In the pen offered to use for sampling, the ink didn’t show a great deal of smoothness. Scratchy was the feeling I got. Still, I bought the ink for the simple reason that the color was gorgeous.

At home, the ink went immediately into my freshly washed Sailor Professional Gear pen. My thought at the time was that the sample pen at Shosaikan was a poor match for the Sailor, and that the Cayenne ink would flow from the Sailor nib like butter onto glass. That proved not to be the case, even on various kinds of paper in several notebooks. I told myself not to jump to conclusions, to go on using the Professional Gear with the Noodler’s Cayenne for at least a week. At the end of the week I decided to try the Cayenne in a Pelikan Souverän 600, a fountain pen that turns all ink into silk, but after a few days the verdict was unavoidable, and it wasn’t good. And so the Noodler’s Cayenne ink got relegated to the back row of ink bottles, and in time forgotten.

The other day I uncovered that Cayenne ink and for a moment wondered why it was hidden at the bottom of the pile. Without a moment’s pause I grabbed it up and brought it together with a Lamy AL-Star and a Bexley Limited Edition. It didn’t take more than a few lines from the Lamy and its fine nib to know that the nib and Noodler’s Cayenne were not a good match. I continued to use the Lamy hoping that the Noodler’s ink would eventually smooth out, but hope proved insufficient and I switched to the broad nibbed Bexley. In my opinion, the Bexley fountain pen will never be the pen a Lamy is, especially one designed by Wolfgang Fabian, but in this case the Bexley’s broad nib was enough to tip the balance. The Noodler’s Cayenne is much better with the Bexley, the flow and smoothness an improvement over the Lamy, but still not exactly hunky-dory.

The sample on the left above, a short poem by Pablo Neruda, was written with the Lamy AL-Star and a fine nib. It looks okay after the fact, but there was little smoothness to those thirteen lines. Despite that, the color of the ink is superb. The example on the right—a journal excerpt—was done with the broad nibbed Bexley and was much closer to the smooth flow of ink most prefer. Personally, I prefer larger nibs, and the Bexley example exhibits better saturation and shading than the Lamy sample.

The excerpt from Kerouac’s On the Road above is one more done with the fine nibbed Lamy AL-Star, and something about the writing of this sample was easier than the first one in the Neruda Poem. Could be the paper, which is no more than an inexpensive memo pad from a Tokyo stationer.

Despite my reservations about this Noodler’s ink, for the time being I’m happy to have it once again in my weekly menu of colors. I expect that continued writing with this ink in whatever fountain pen—say something in excess of five full pages—might become wearing. We all like that which allows us to forget the collaboration of ink, nib and paper and apply our thoughts to the content uninterrupted, and I’m just not sure this particular and exquisite shade of ink will permit that.

For anyone interested in this ink, you can do no better that seeing it, sampling it and buying it at Goulet Pens.

The Pull of Mountain Grape

Sometimes it’s the sight of a particular ink on paper that spurs a person to buy a fountain pen, maybe even two fountain pens. My friend Kathleen had no notion to buy and begin using a fountain pen before seeing a page of writing in the Iroshizuku ink, Yama-budo (Mountain Grape). Had the ink been blue, red, green or black she would probably have been unmoved and today still writing her cards and letters with a giveaway ballpoint from the local paint store.

Not long after admiring the mountain grape purple from Japan, Kathleen ordered two fountain pens. Sampling several from my pen rack she decided that the Lamy AL-Star and Pelikano Junior would bring her pen and ink dreams to life. Perfect choice of starter pens, both of them 99.9 percent certain to bring satisfaction. I always sort of hope that a good starter pen will encourage eventual upgrades and add another enthusiast to the fold.

The suggestion was for Kathleen to hold off on buying any ink until she had a chance to sample and play among the inks I have. Both pens arrived with cartridges and the Lamy with a converter as well. The green cartridges that came with the AL-Star turned out to be a keeper, a mostly ordinary green but in the Lamy smooth and flowing; a good standard green. The blue ink in the Pelikano cartridge got emptied down the sink, the cartridge well-washed and refilled with Yama-budo. Had she closed her eyes the smoothness of the Pelikano might have convinced Kathleen that she had an expensive Montblanc in her hand. I have long believed the Pelikano is an exceptional pen and there are few who doubt the qualities of Iroshizuku Yama-budo.

The three purple characters in the photo above are yama budô—mountain grape. I’ve always thought that Pilot does an excellent job not only with the quality of their Iroshizuku line but also in choosing names for those inks. Rather than a perfect description of the colors, the names are faintly poetic, or at least they are in Japanese. The Yama budo is an arresting color, even what some might describe as drop-dead gorgeous, but it does not look much like grapes grown in the mountainous regions of Yamanashi Japan. Not quite so much red in those grapes.

Here are some interesting tidbits about purple—ink or otherwise:

• The Byzantine Emperor signed edicts in purple ink.

• Purple is the color of the highest denomination poker chip worth $5,000.

• Purple coloring first came from a dye made of sea shells—the Mediterranean Murex. It took 10,000 Murex mollusks to dye one toga.

• Purple is associated with Thursday.

• A combination of the warmest color (red) and the coolest (blue), purple is thought to be an ideal color.

• Purple represents the planet Jupiter.

• The English word ‘grape’ comes from an old French word, ‘graper’ which was a tool used to harvest grapes.

Another Wolfgang Fabian Design

At first look, it appears to be a desk pen, one of those that fits into a holder on a round or rectangular base, and something we once saw on every banker’s desk. Were it not for the cap with its large and familiar pocket clip, you might not guess you were looking at a Lamy fountain pen—one that despite its shape and length is not a desk pen at all. This is the Lamy Joy Calligraphy Fountain Pen L15, designed by Wolfgang Fabian of Safari and AL-Star fame.

Lamy describes the Joy as, ‘a fountain pen that inspires beautiful, creative writing.’ Mmm…Wouldn’t that be nice? The implication is that it is designed for calligraphy, ‘…for those times when you want to convey an especially personal touch.’ I tend to think a letter or note derives its ‘personal’ feel from the fact of its individual and inky, non-digital, unprinted handwriting, whether it’s beautiful or not, but then, Lamy didn’t ask me to write their copy.

The Lamy Joy is a long quill-like pen measuring 7 inches capped, and 6.7 inches without the cap. It is surprisingly lightweight, made of shiny black plastic. The pocket clip is the same spring brass wire as that on the Safari and the AL-Star, but this time bright red. For visual balance, there is a small red accent on the top of the pen. The ink window is also a repeat of the Safari and AL-Star design. The nib is polished stainless steel with a chisel point, available in three sizes: 1.1, 1.5 and 1.9mm. The pen comes with a converter and one blue cartridge.

I have the 1.1 millimeter nib, and am quite pleased with the way it writes. It definitely writes a line that looks and feels like calligraphy. My guess is that a little experience with this pen will improve the look of the ‘handwriting’ or even calligraphy, if you want to call it that. My own experience has been with another kind of calligraphy using brushes, and fountain pen calligraphy is pretty ragged in these hands. Still, the Lamy Joy does give a sense of encouragement, and makes you think that with some practice a beautiful flow of inked words is just around the corner.

The AL-Star Lineup

No question, I love my Lamy fountain pens. I’ve been using a Safari since December of last year, and a 2000 since March of this year. Both pens have brought nothing but complete satisfaction and continued admiration for Lamy design and engineering. True, I am not the biggest fan of steel nibs, but I’ve adjusted to my Lamy nibs over the course of using them. I have great respect for designers Wolfgang Fabian (Safari) and Gert Müller (2000), and am also a big fan of the Bauhaus principles of functionalism and simplicity.

The spotlight here is on what some call the upscale Safari, the pen introduced by Lamy in 1997, the AL-Star. Anyone looking at the AL-Star will see immediately that it bears close resemblance to the hugely successful Lamy Safari. The AL-Star was in fact designed by the same Wolfgang Fabian of Lamy fame. But he has made two noticeable shifts in the AL-Star design, perhaps both in the hope of giving the pen a high-tech look and feel. Side by side, the AL-Star is bigger than the Safari, but not in length, and not in weight. It’s the diameter that is bigger, and a close look at the caps end-on makes clear the difference in size. The other shift comes in the material. Unlike the Safari, which is crafted in plastic, the AL-Star is lightweight durable aluminum. I have the polished matte aluminum model, but it also comes in five other colors: coffee, blue, graphite, green and ocean blue. As for the shift to durable lightweight aluminum, Lamy indicated that they hoped to link the AL-Star with the prestige of high-tech industry. I would say they succeeded in that. Certainly, the designer has achieved the look and feel of high-tech. Despite the almost 100 year history of Bauhaus design as envisioned by Walter Gropius, the Lamy design looks as fresh as tomorrow’s bread.

Consider the ergonomic design of the AL-Star’s grip. Unlike the upper body, the grip is made of smoky-transparent plastic and ends in sculpted finger pads. The pen is amazingly comfortable in the hand, and at the same time provides grip-guidance for young, inexperienced users. Here again they succeeded, if we are to believe the Lamy label, which calls it “The most successful young person’s pen on the market.”

Like the Safari, the AL-Star measures 5.5 inches capped, and at 6.7 inches posted, is slightly longer than the Safari. The nib on the AL-Star is black chromium-plated stainless steel. It comes in extra fine, fine, medium and broad. The cap does not screw on, but clicks into place, and posted maintains a strong airtight seal. The top of the cap has cross-shaped slots cut into a black plastic disc, almost like a Phillips-head screw. I inserted a dime and turned it, but nothing happened. The clip is a repeat of the Safari design, black painted spring brass wire in the distinctive broad upturned design. The pen takes either cartridge or converter and the barrel has an ink window, which I find somewhat hard to read in terms of ink level.

Overall, the AL-Star is a tough and rugged design, with young users in mind, and only slightly expensive for a start up pen. It lists for about $40, but a better price is available from several dealers. I call the pen slightly expensive because the best priced start up pen in my opinion, is the Pelikano Junior for about $10-12.

Performance wise, the AL-Star is okay, but I am more comfortable with a medium nib, and feel the scratchiness of a fine steel nib a little bothersome. My other Lamy pens are medium and the feeling is smoother, more comfortable, providing a better flow of ink. Writing with a full cartridge I still get the feeling that the ink is low. Little wetness to the fine nib on an AL-Star. Unless you have a real bond with fine nibs, I recommend a medium. Hard for me to imagine what the AL-Star extra fine nib must be like.

Considered all around, I have to echo other opinions and say that the Lamy AL-Star represents good design, good engineering and strong manufacture. Great pen for a high school student.

Look here for earlier reviews of the Lamy Safari 1, Safari 2 and Lamy 2000.

Bounty of Pens

An interesting package came today. But it was one of those double-edge sword kind of things. I’ve had much of the afternoon to examine, clean and polish most of fifteen different fountain pens, a fun and also educational afternoon for me any way you look at it. The other side of it is, the pens are not mine and there is a measure of covetousness about handling so many classy fountain pens that have to go back to the owner in a week’s time.

This past Friday while in town for the day, a friend wondered if I would be willing to take a look at his collection of fountain pens and give him some idea of what he has. That might impress you as odd, someone with a fine collection of pens, but with little knowledge of exactly what it is he has lined up in a glass showcase. But this is someone who likes the look of fountain pens, finds the shape, the design and colors interesting, though isn’t driven to write with the pens, or to even ink them in some cases. At least five of the pens I looked at today have never been inked. Maybe his fascination with the pens is a little like my own interest in tobacco related objects. I don’t smoke, but am drawn to the paraphernalia of smoking.

Of the fifteen fountain pens (and one Montblanc ballpoint), so far I have only looked closely at ten of them, and have not written with any of them. For the moment, the ten are all newly cleaned and polished, but still without ink. Filling the pens and trying them out is something I will do over the next couple of days.

The ten I have chosen to showcase here are as follows, from left to right:

1. Lamy AL-Star with a fine nib

2. Montblanc Meisterstuck 146 / B nib

3. Montblanc Marcel Proust / M nib

4. Porsche P'3110 / M nib

5. Alfred Dunhill, model unknown / M nib

6. Visconti Voyager / B nib

7. Mabie Todd Swan Leverless / No. 4 Eternal nib

8. Louis Cartier, model unknown / M nib

9. Waterman Philéas / F nib

10. Visconti Van Gogh / M nib

I took photos of two pairs that I particularly like, though a writing test will come later. The first pair (second photo) is the Montblanc 146 and the Marcel Proust. I have a 146 of my own, but without the silver cap. The Marcel Proust is from the famous writers series and is very handsome.

The third photo shows the Swan Leverless, one I like because of its vintage look. It is paired with the Porsche P'3110, which has a very unusual barrel of woven gold and silver bands.

I will say more about these fountain pens after I’ve had a chance to try them out on paper with an assortment of inks. Stay tuned.