Recently a discussing in the wellness thread prompted me to get into journaling semi-daily. I wanted to make a space for that to maybe spread the good word, discuss writing prompts and other techniques, and of course get into the geeky gearhead stationery side of things.
Here’s the Yoshitomo Nara-themed book I dug out of my closet for the task. It’s ok, the paper is nothing special and it is divided equally between lined, grid and blank sections. I’ll have to write differently when I hit the grids but I don’t know what I’m gonna do for the blanks cause I don’t particularly want to use this as a sketchbook. Things might get broken and weird but it could be interesting.
I’ve been writing in it in the mornings, in the evenings. Some days will have a few shorter entries clustered, while others get one big one. By the end of the day I’m more tired but I have more to say, but maybe I can talk about my worries and goals more in the mornings. Maybe I’ll settle into a regular time of day for writing eventually.
I wanted to ask fountain pen-owners what the best on-ramp to getting into those were. I don’t think I’ve ever written with a fountain pen, and in fact I’ve been journaling so far entirely in pencil. But I might one day. I came across a post on bsky a while back of someone’s writing and drawing in their techo, and I thought the quality of the lines and the colour was all neat and with variable ink flow I hadn’t seen before, so I asked about it and they told me they wrote with a Franklin-Christoph pen which seems to be at the higher end maybe? I don’t expect these made up this author’s first ever fountain pen, but then what could you start with that isn’t too much of an investment but isn’t like scratchy or clog-prone? or whatever else might be an issue with a cheap pen.
I have one of the MUJI pens as I mentioned before. I bought it in store but I can’t seem to find it on their page, only on Amazon. It’s the only one I tried tbh so I have very experience, but I enjoy using it. If the amazon thing isn’t a dealbreaker, I recommend it as a cheap starter. I got some cheap Kaweco ink in dark green and didn’t need a converter for it. So overall the pen + ink was about $25 dollars. It’s really important for me (idk why) that the pen feels weighty and balanced, and the MUJI one feels nice to hold.
Thank you for making this post, I think journaling as a topic deserved its own space, so many things to learn/discuss! I’ll post about my journaling practice when I have more time :)
I’ve ordered from St. Louis Art Supply before and I recommend them for wood pencil users because they’re the nearest place to carry the NJK 531S, the best sharpener I’ve ever used by far. It’s a long point sharpener, small enough to be pocketable but big enough to not need to be emptied super often, comes with a spare blade and the blades it uses are so sharp they make a big deal on their website about their ability to create these continuous ribbons of cedar.
No idea if it’s run by weirdos (I had an account in like 2017 that I nuked) but there is 750 words: https://750words.com/
The cool thing about it is it has a little timer to see your progress and lets you see if you clicked into another tab or got distracted, if those type of things interest you.
I will gladly be your dealer, and your first hit while not free can be much more approachable than Franklin-Christoph pens (like many things in life - at their price point, they are certainly high end for some, and entry level for others in the fountain pen world)
The Pilot Varsity I used to get from my Staples up here in Canada, but that was easily 25+ years ago…
But the Platinum Preppy is a solid starter if you want to start messing around with different colors of ink (via cartridges)
Either of these are great to try different nib widths to try your preference. From there, the sky is the limit. For variable ink flow - you might want to look at a stub nib where you’ll get different lines based on the direction of your stroke, but depending on what you saw, they might have been using a gold nib (where you get a tiny bit of flexibility depending on the pressure you put on the page) but as you might expect, those get much more expensive.
I better show myself out for now, but don’t be shy if you have questions. I’m happy to be your penabler
I lied - I have to write more. You mentioned scratchy - for starter pens, you may want to try medium or broad tipping points - they’ll be a bit wetter on the paper and less likely to be scratchy. And then - obvious in retrospect - paper matters. The regular paper I grew up with (looseleaf, high school grade notebooks etc) are typically going to be a struggle. Again, if you’re US based, Jetpens will have selection and they do a great job of showing you the paper and how friendly it is to fountain pens.
This is good info and exactly what I was fishing for. I’m in Ontario! I think we first interacted in the good evening music thread about finding Underworld’s latest album in Canada. I didn’t think you could find a decent entry level Japanese fountain pen at Staples of all places!!
Here’s the piece of fountain pen writing/drawing I saw btw on MariNoami’s bsky!
Oh wow, great memory! Love it, was subjecting my wife to Eight Ball live over dinner. Up here, I favour wonderpens - great little shop if you’re near downtown, I don’t remember their shipping threshold. Wonder Pens: An Original Writing Experience - Fountain Pens
There are other shops around too, but I’m trying to refrain from overwhelming you. Looked at the bsky - looks like it could be a stub, or could be a custom grind (like an Architect nib), independent of whether it’s gold
Oh yeah I love that shop. I didn’t know about them when I lived in TO but I got some Hi-Uni and Mono 100 pencils delivered from there once. It ruined pencils for me lol. They made us use Castell 9000s in college, which were a huge leap from the Cretacolors I went in with, and I kept using them for years. The leap to Mitsu and Tombow was just as big (maybe an exaggeration but it was still noticeable).
Lol there was a very shortlived MUJI store in venice / santa monica up the street from me, but during 2020 it was vandalized and it closed for good. I didn’t care because it was a dumb ass tourist trap with overpriced dollar store stuff you could get at daiso for… a dollar.
HOWEVER
they did have a marker/pen/sharpie type thing that was two bucks, which I used for at least five years before it dried out!.
I love japanese stationary but I moved out of a town with a daiso and into one with with out. I only journal on d’Arches MBM Ingres with vintage Conte’ now. Honestly I have been collecting strange bespoke blank books for a while and have about a lifetime things to journal in. I’m being overly precious about this ships log that I’ll eventually use as a journal as I don’t have a ship or a log. I also found this deco era binder. I found an industrial hole punch with adjustable punches. I need to find the right legal ruled paper with a large top margin. After my ex got me into fine point gel pens I can’t go back. I bought a pack of pastel glitter ones so I all of my journals and daily lists are going to have the essence of heart dotted i’s even if they’re not there. Between thrift stores and the trades with other obsessive collectors i love all the trash this country has produced.
I know this is not the purpose of this topic and I will leave my unrelated interjections at the door going forward, but I just wanted to say that this place is a 10 minute drive for me. Only on the insert credit forums could I learn from a Canadian that I’m a stone’s throw from the best pencil sharpener store in North America. And I will be going to this store to buy one.
I went through kind of a series of pencil/general art tool epiphanies when my local art supply store stopped carrying the Faber Castells I was using and introduced me to Tombow Monos. I fell down the rabbit hole hard.
Blackwing
The pencils currently sold under the brand “Blackwing” have a similar story to Moleskine notebooks in that it is a relaunch of a much older product that gained a reputation among famous artists before being tragically discontinued. Blackwing, formerly Palomino, advertises that the 602 was the preferred pencil of Chuck Jones and Glen Keane among others.
I’ve never used an original Blackwing but I have used all four grades of the current relaunched brand since I first came across them in a Midoco when they still had the horse on the barrel. The Natural is their hardest grade and is close to maybe a B? It’s my favourite/the only one I still use. I currently journal with this pencil, and write with it in my techo alongside the jetstream 3. It’s very smooth like most Japanese pencils, and I like the bare laquer. There isn’t much besides that to set them apart. The 602 and Pearl, 2B-ish and 3B-ish, are also nothing special and have no advantages over like a Tombow Mono/Pro—even with the included eraser, which is fine for a non-foam eraser. These are all ok-to-great pencils whose worst feature is their cost, but some art stores and college bookstores undercut the msrp by like 50% and at that price there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
The Matte is the worst of the four. Not for quality of materials, since they’re all pretty well-made. The Matte is a 4B pencil with a core barely any thicker than the next hardest grade. This means having to sharpen constantly, and that exposing the lead with a knife reveals a very weak point that snaps easily. I left brittle leads behind when I ditched my Cretacolors and can’t say enough mean things about this pencil. I call them gift shop pencils because they’re there to trick people who don’t know any better into thinking this is what you should expect for four dollars.
Although I would argue that wealthy people are hoarding original old stock Eberhard Faber Blackwings in their study.
Another pencil we were expected to own in animation school was the Sanford Design Ebony, now by Prismacolor I think? I’m pretty sure these were what took the BW 602’s place after that got discontinued because they were presented as what Glen Keane used in his roughs on Tarzan (1999). I’ve always thought that was bullshit though, because the lead in the Ebony is so gritty that sometimes you’ll hit whatever particulate it’s contaminated with and your line will stop. I have a theory that this was just the closest approximate they could find on the market that college students could afford, and Keane—a Walt Disney animator, come on—bought up whatever 602s he could and is still using them.
My pencil recommendations are going to be pretty skewed in favour of drawing but anything by Mitsubishi or Tombow is actually going to be a joy to use. They made me realize how scratchy my FCs were. I only don’t use Mars Lumograph because I don’t like blue lol.
I spent almost as much time looking over my reply wondering what it says about me that I wrote it and wondering if I should post it and reveal what I’ve become than actually writing it.
They’re out of stock right now, but if you still go ask them when they’ll be restocking please!!
