Pam Alison Knits

It’s time to show you the pens I’ve got inked for my scribbling throughout August. I’ve already used them enough to suss out which I’m going to enjoy and which are going to be a bit more of a challenge. That’s, basically, three that I’ll enjoy and one which I might not re-ink when it runs out. We’ll see.

We shall start with my Kaweco Al-Sport in Iguana Blue. I still love the colour and feel of this pen and it always makes me happy when it’s in my rotation. That is especially true when I have the extra-fine nib fitted. The other Kaweco nib I have is the medium which this pen came with, but I’m back to loving my fine nibs at the moment.

I’ve been working through a cartridge of Kaweco’s Ruby Red ink for what feels like months now. I bought an assorted pack of their cartridges to try out their colours and to use when I am away. I like to use cartridges on trips even when I’m travelling in the UK, though I couldn’t explain why. Anyway, this is a very nice shade of red, vibrant and well-defined, slightly more pink than orange. It’s definitely a bright red with no hints of purply-wine or browny-claret. Which is just how I like it.

The reason the cartridge has lasted so long is that I use it sparingly. Even now I’ve reverted to writing out the date of my journal entry each morning, I’m hardly using any of this. That’s a shame because I do love my red inks and it seems a shame only to use them in such limited places. I’ve promised myself once I’ve used up this cartridge I will make some serious inroads into my bottle of Montblanc Shakespeare Velvet Red. I can’t wait.

Now let’s move on to the one I’m enjoying least: my Tom Hessin Charles Collection pen which I’ve filled with J Herbin Poussière de Lune. The medium nib is the undoing of this pen, at least in combination with this ink. It doesn’t look bad at all in my written pieces here, but as soon as I pick up a finer nib I realise how much the medium line is irritating me.

I’m predominantly using this one to write my journal entries. This is only possible because I’m back using my Silvine exercise books and the paper tames some inks that challenge other books. I’ve been very limited over the past three months as I’ve been using a book which was lovely so long as I was very careful about which ink I wrote with. Poussière de Lune, even in a very fine nib, would be likely to have bled through the paper. As soon as the book was finished, I immediately wanted to ink up some variety of purple because I wasn’t able to use one for such a while. Yet even on the Silvine paper I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve managed to smear this ink – the medium nib and generous feed in this pen lay down a line that takes a while to dry. That puts me off the pairing, though I’m not so disenchanted that I’d wish to dump the fill of ink and move straight to something else.

My Faber-Castell Neo is the pen I’ve got lined up for journal entries and general note-taking once I’m through the Poussière de Lune. This pen is filled with Graf von Faber-Castell’s Gulf Blue ink, which you’ll recall was one of the blues I was comparing last week. I love this pairing. The Neo’s fine nib feels so lovely to write with and, though the pen is slim, it’s very comfortable even for extended writing session. I wasn’t sure I’d like the Faber-Castell nibs, but this one has won me over. I can only imagine how good their higher-end Graf von Faber-Castell offerings must be.

The last of my four pens is my Waterman Hemisphere in the L’Essence du Bleu finish. This has a fine nib and I’ve got it filled with Waterman’s Inspired Blue ink. It was one I inked up for the comparison post, and have adopted it as my everyday carry with my A6 William Hannah notebook which houses my diary and jottings. These inks in that bright-but-light blue or blue-to-turquoise shade just seem perfect on my diary pages. I thought I was ready to move to a dark blue, but I tried and it simply didn’t work as well as these more aquatic shades. I’m getting through my bottle of Inspired Blue and it’s highly likely I’ll buy a new one when this is done.

These four pens fit perfectly into my carry cases. The Waterman nestles in the William Hannah pen sleeve – the one which matches the notebook and holds it closed when it’s in my bag. The others stay in my green leather 3-pen pouch. It’s true that the Kaweco, being a pocket pen, isn’t a particularly good fit in here. It’s actually better if I take the clip off because at least then I can tip the case gently to ease it back to the top when it slips down. I will usually keep the Kawco in its own sleeve but this time I want it conveniently housed with my other pens.

Of course, there are two more pens which aren’t part of my official August line-up but are, nevertheless, full of ink. We shall see if I feel these need to join in the party later on in the month. If not, they can always sit on the substitutes’ bench until September.