What To Bring to a Pen Show

February 27, 2020March 2, 2020 ~ notebookjoy ~ Leave a comment

On Saturday, I’m going to the Baltimore Pen Show. This definitely isn’t my first show, but I thought I’d offer some tips for first-time visitors or anyone thinking of going in the future. First, what to bring:

Dip pen and notebook for ink testing

There’s usually an ink testing table with dozens of bottles and nibs, but I prefer to bring my own accoutrements. My glass dip pen is really light and easy to clean. The notebook is essential, I use it to compile all the inks I test and what inks are currently in my pens. Both make ink testing a lot easier.

Some of your favorite pens in a pen roll

You never know when you might want to show pens to other people! I still remember when a guy showed me his flex nib pen and let me write with it when I was talking to a vendor about wanting one. It was so nice of him! You could be that person for someone else. Also, pen shows are a chance to see unusual or expensive pens in person, instead of online. As long as you’re careful, bring that Pelikan with you!

Tote bag

I like bringing a small tote bag to carry all of my purchases. If you end up buying a lot of heavy inks, as I do, then you’ll be grateful for a sturdy bag. However, they are usually offered for free as you enter the convention.

Water bottle

It gets hot walking around a giant room. Remember to stay hydrated!

Other tips:

People often gather at the hotel bar after the pen show is over. You can meet some nice people that way!
Making plans in advance is also fun! For the DC Pen Show last summer, I went to dinner with the local DC Metro Pen Crew. It was a blast and I enjoyed seeing friends from previous meetups.
Go to the panels! They are usually free or have a minimal cost.
Don’t be afraid to talk to vendors! Everyone is really nice. Some of them remember me from previous years (Hi Lisa Vanness and Frank from Federalist Pens!). Also Brad from the Pen Addict is awesome and I love visiting him at Nock Co. 🙂

Those are my tips! I hope you enjoyed reading and you’ll have the chance to go to a pen show one day if you haven’t already. I’ve been to anime and comic conventions before but the fountain pen community is truly the kindest group I’ve been part of. I love that I share this niche hobby with so many other passionate people. I’ll write a follow up about how my day at the show went soon!

Hobonichi Weeks Planner Review

February 25, 2020February 26, 2020 ~ notebookjoy ~ Leave a comment

I thought that my Quo Vadis Weekly Planner would be enough for school assignments. Then I started missing my other non-school appointments. My Quo Vadis was so crowded with schoolwork and exam dates that I didn’t have much room to write down other obligations. I’m naturally a very disorganized person so as school gets harder, I have trouble juggling all my commitments. I thought about using Google Calendars, but technology distracts me. So I bought a Hobonichi Weeks of course!

Specs:

Cream 52gsm Tomoe River paper
3.7″ x 7.4″
240 pages
$25, though there are variations that are more expensive
Calendar format, yearly overview, monthly pages and weekly pages
Extra pages at the back
Thread and glue binding

The Hobonichi Weeks is different from its more famous sibling, Hobonichi A6 Techo. It is taller and narrower, and comes into a horizontal weekly format. It also has cream 52 gsm Tomoe River paper instead of white. It’s also less expensive at $25 compared to $37 for the A6 and $52 for the Hobonichi Cousin.

Oops…

My quick fix for crumpled pages

My Weeks has a red fabric cover. I was supposed by how flimsy the cover felt! It’s not very protective. I already accidentally crumpled the pages inside so I wrapped a rubber band around the outside to keep it shut. The cover does feel nice to touch though! There are two thin bookmarks that are already unwinding. 2020 is embossed on the cover in gray ink. The Weeks doesn’t lay flat sadly. I always have to push the pages down with my hand. It’s very light because of the thin pages inside! It doesn’t weigh down my backpack at all. I really like how slim and light this planner is. It came with an adhesive pocket sticker that I attached to the back.

The interior has cream 52 gsm Tomoe River paper. I love this paper but it’s somewhat impractical for a planner. I keep on leaving ink stains on the opposite side of the page because it dries so slowly. Fountain pens feel great on the paper. Shading and sheen show up in my pen test. My Zebra Sarasa and Pilot Precise V5 work well on the paper, but the Pentel Energel takes forever to dry. Using Sailor Tokiwa-Matsu ink, it took 20 seconds to dry on the paper! That’s quite a while for a planner I’ll be opening and shutting constantly.

There is a calendar, yearly overview, monthly pages, and weekly pages. There are pages in the back and quotes throughout the pages but they’re in Japanese. A set of memo pages are in the back of the book, which is helpful for making lists or activity tracking. I enjoy the light 3.6mm grid that is used in much of the book. It gives me structure but isn’t too distracting. There is one month per spread, with room on the side and bottom for lists. I’d rather that the calendar was bigger though. The weekly spread has the week on the left side and grid paper on the right side. I’d prefer if the week continued on the right side so there’d be more space. However, I’m using this only for writing down appointments and deadlines so it doesn’t matter as much.

Overall, I like the size and slimness of the Hobonichi Weeks but its format and paper isn’t perfect for me. I’ll keep using it this year then switch to Google Calendar or another planner. But if you like the format and its size, I’d recommend it. The Weeks is unique among the Hobonichi planners because of its horizontal weekly format. There is also an April start planner available. It’s not too late to pick one up at Jetpens!

I bought this notebook with my own funds. I was not paid for this review.

Quo Vadis Scholar Weekly Planner Review

February 18, 2020February 24, 2020 ~ notebookjoy ~ 2 Comments

I didn’t use planners consistently until college. I always buried the half-used ones my high school gave me in the bottom of my backpack. Then I realized that college was much more complicated and I needed a planner to keep me organized. As a freshman, I visited my college bookstore and found the planner for me! It’s called the Exacompta Scholar Weekly Planner. It goes from August to July so it’s the perfect student planner. There are several other styles available, with vertical weekly pages, daily pages, etc. You can buy them online at classicofficeproducts.com. I’ve been using these planners for three years now, so it’s due for a review. My pictures are from autumn, but the planner looks much more worn now!

Specs:

white 90gsm acid-free Clairefontaine paper
6 1/4″ x 9 3/8″
124 pages not including the separate booklet
$14.75, $9.45 for refill only
12 months, August to July
sewn binding
refillable

The outside of mine has a red vinyl cover. It is removable and Exacompta has other covers offered online. The planner is very slim. It seems like it would be flimsy but the flexible exterior allows it to bend to fit in my backpack. The pages don’t get crushed inside my bag unless I’m careless and pile textbooks on top of it. The cover gets scratches easily but I’m not concerned about how it looks. The planner is taller and thinner than average, closer to B5 than A5 paper size. The pages also lay flat!

The interior is crisp, white Clairefontaine paper. It’s great for fountain pens and gel pens. Pencil feels too smooth and skate across the surface of the page. My Pentel Energel takes forever to dry. I generally use fountain pens and Papermate Inkjoys on the paper. In my pen test, shading and some sheen appear. White Clairefontaine paper really makes the colors pop! It took ten seconds for Kobe Arima Amber to dry.

The Weekly Planner has pages to write down your daily schedule, a vertical overview of the year, monthly pages, and weekly pages. There is a tiny three year calendar page and a separate booklet for passwords, contacts and scrap paper. I generally use only the monthly and weekly pages. As a student, I appreciate having a weekly format with plenty of room for writing down assignments and upcoming due dates. In comparison, the Hobonichi Techo’s daily format doesn’t work as well for me.

The week is in a two page spread, with three days and space for notes on the left side, and four days including a shortened Sunday on the right side. Honestly, my weekends aren’t too busy but this should satisfy people who are annoyed by minuscule sections for the weekend. There’s still space near Sunday to write in. There are 11 lines for each day, except for Sunday which has five lines. The lines are made up of light gray dots and are inconspicious. A darker ink lists the date to the side of the lines. This is plenty of room to write my copious assignments in.

The pages have perforations at the bottom corners so you can tear them out. It’s helpful because you know exactly where you are in the planner and can flip to it.

Overall, if you’re a student or a professor, this planner will be very useful to you! If not, Quo Vadis has many other options for planners with the same luxurious paper.

I bought these notebooks with my own funds. I was not paid for this review.

Valentine’s Day: Bungubox Sweet Love Pink

February 14, 2020February 24, 2020 ~ notebookjoy ~ Leave a comment

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided to do a review on my favorite pink ink ever, Bungubox Sweet Love Pink! It’s the brightest hue I’ve seen in the ink world! I got it as a sample and promptly used it up. But with the rebranding of Bungubox to include smaller bottles, I haven’t seen this ink available in a while. I was lucky to get this bottle on r/penswap. If only I had the sparkly pink pen based on this ink!

Here’s Sweet Love with my Pelikan M205 Star Ruby

The bottle is the squat 50ml Sailor bottle, which is getting replaced with a smaller 35 ml shoe-shaped one. I took out the plastic inkwell inside because I get a better fill without it.

My writing sample

The ink is a bright bubblegum pink, with some shading and a bit of gold sheen. It’s a beautiful color that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Taccia Momo is more cherry and Lamy Vibrant Pink is darker. The ink is smooth and the perfect consistency, as expected from Sailor-formulated inks. Despite its bright hue, it’s surprisingly legible, even in smaller nib sizes. Using my old sample, I wrote a 15 page story with a Pilot medium nib and it’s not too hard to read. But in larger sizes, you can see shading from light to darker pink. I wrote my sample using a Pelikan M200 M nib and on Tomoe River 52gsm paper. It took about 20 seconds to dry fully. If you can find it anywhere, Sweet Love is the perfect Valentine’s ink!

I bought this ink with my own funds. I was not paid for this review.