Holy Rabbit Hole! Japan Stationary stuff!

[boomchakabowwow]

I almost lost my lucky mechanical pencil. Figured using it at work was unwise, so I’m shopping for a new one. Enter the search “fun mechanical pencil”. Weeeeeeeeee! I slid into a rabbit hole. I ordered a pencil. 0.5mm lead, which is normally thin for me. Hmmmm, what’s a good lead? Oh, that’s dark! Oh, break resistance!

Wait! Did a pen get in the Guinness Book of records for the BLACKEST INK? What?!

Did you know in Japan they have a Stationary Awards? I write a lot at work. Take notes, jot down ideas, napkin sketches for engineering solutions…etc.

My wife, “hey order me a blue one! Really? The blackest ink?”

Kinda fun. In Tokyo, I lost my wife in some stationary store for two hours. I gave up and sat outside.

 

[MrHiggins]

I almost lost my lucky mechanical pencil. Figured using it at work was unwise, so I’m shopping for a new one. Enter the search “fun mechanical pencil”. Weeeeeeeeee! I slid into a rabbit hole. I ordered a pencil. 0.5mm lead, which is normally thin for me. Hmmmm, what’s a good lead? Oh, that’s dark! Oh, break resistance!

Wait! Did a pen get in the Guinness Book of records for the BLACKEST INK? What?!

Did you know in Japan they have a Stationary Awards? I write a lot at work. Take notes, jot down ideas, napkin sketches for engineering solutions…etc.

My wife, “hey order me a blue one! Really? The blackest ink?”

Kinda fun. In Tokyo, I lost my wife in some stationary store for two hours. I gave up and sat outside.

I fell down the rabbit hole of Japanese fountain pens, inks, and paper earlier this year.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

^ haha. My wife loves fountain pens.

 

[Jovidah]

Interesting timing...I recently discovered how deep this hole goes after my box of cheap disposable pens I bought 10 years ago finally ran out. I was amazed by how much is out there if you find dedicated stores.

Luckily I hate fountain pens with a passion so my wallet is actually reasonably safe. There's a ton of stuff to be had that seems good quality without being ridiculously overpriced as long as you:
-avoid the stuff that's focused on hardcore-EDC crowd who thinks their pen needs to be an armorpiercing weapon too
-avoid the stuff that's focused on men trying to roleplay a late 19th-century gentleman

Only downside: the youtube algorhytm now thinks I'm a little girl who's into journalling and putting stickers into their diary...

 

[blokey]

I bought 50 zebra airfit because I heard them discontinuing it…

 

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Fountain pen tragic here.
I love me some Pilot Iroshizuku ink, and my favourite calligraphy paper at the moment is Awagami Shiramine…. Both expensive habits.

 

[MrHiggins]

I fell into this hole because I started journaling earlier this year (which, if you had told me a year ago I'd be into, I would have laughed in your face, but it turned out to really click with me). I also didn't think I'd like fountain pens until I tried one with good ink (Pilot Iroshizuku). The writing feel you get with a good pen and a good ink is simply a joy.

I started journaling with disposable pens and tried quite a few before I found my favorites: EnerGel Clena and Uni-Ball Signo DX (which are now my work pens - and I write a lot at work!)

As for paper, my favorite journal is the Mnemosyne shown above (I love the B5 size). And at work, all my notepads are now Midori MD.

Just like the first time I tried a Japanese knife, I realized that there's no going back once you try quality writing materials.

 

[MrHiggins]

^ haha. My wife loves fountain pens.

Get her a bottle of an Iroshizuku ink for her stocking this Christmas!

 

[More_Gyutos]

I almost lost my lucky mechanical pencil. Figured using it at work was unwise, so I’m shopping for a new one. Enter the search “fun mechanical pencil”. Weeeeeeeeee! I slid into a rabbit hole. I ordered a pencil. 0.5mm lead, which is normally thin for me. Hmmmm, what’s a good lead? Oh, that’s dark! Oh, break resistance!

Wait! Did a pen get in the Guinness Book of records for the BLACKEST INK? What?!

Did you know in Japan they have a Stationary Awards? I write a lot at work. Take notes, jot down ideas, napkin sketches for engineering solutions…etc.

My wife, “hey order me a blue one! Really? The blackest ink?”

Kinda fun. In Tokyo, I lost my wife in some stationary store for two hours. I gave up and sat outside.

What pencil did you choose? I bought one earlier this year but I am not happy with it nor is the lead dark enough. A good pencil or pen 8s a lovely thing. Not that I need another rabbit hole.

 

[Jovidah]

What actually surprised me was when I started diving into ballpens, fineliners, gelpens etc how many I actually recognized from having used at least once in my life and thinking 'hey that's nice'. But I was always too much of a cheapskate to put any effort or research into it. Now I find out that a lot of them are surprisingly affordable - especially for something Japanese!
In fact, truth be told, the majority of the pens I've used in my life were never bought by me in the first place but just... ended up with me. Most of the time I have no clue where they're even from and if it's a company pen I often don't even recognize the company...

 

[boomchakabowwow]

I inherited some dope fountain pens. just not my jam, and my handwriting actually becomes not legible (at all).

@More_Gyutos , I bought a regular pencil. the Sakura Writoll. in 0.5mm. why? with a click the point recesses into the protective tip. this way it won't stab a hole into my "man-bag". something I need. my drafting pencil (that I almost lost) is so stabby, jostling around in the bag. Lead? I got the UNI Ain lead. supposedly jet black, and more difficult to snap. I am seeking something that scratches like a BlackWing wooden pencil. such great lead in that thing!!

 

[boomchakabowwow]

oddly, I am in anticipation about the goofy pen. hahah..

the Uni-Ball One P Gel. hahaha

 

[Heckel7302]

My all time favorite pencil

https://flaxart.com/itoya-ginza-pen...5e-wrrV6to-d1rRV5pma9Dp3I9YnssDOVkVDypx-cf4Ke

 

[boomchakabowwow]

you ever try a BlackWing?^^

 

[Heckel7302]

you ever try a BlackWing?^^

Blackwings are nice for sure, also Mitsubishi 9800 is a good one, a couple others I like, but Ito-Ya takes the cake. I love that they are round, the paint feels really nice, they look cool with the flush eraser, and write super clean and dark.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

I can't do round. I am always sketching something on a hood of a truck. I need something that won't roll around.

 

[aporigine]

I can't do round. I am always sketching something on a hood of a truck. I need something that won't roll around.

Get a flat hood for the truck.

 

[Jovidah]

Non-mechanical pencils are the rusty wrought iron cladding of the pencil world. Mechanical pencil all the way!
I'm partial to the Pentel stuff but that's more because it's the brand I knew from growing up. But there's a whole bunch of Japanese pens worth looking into. There's some youtube channels from both enthusiasts and stores that do a pretty good job explaining the differences and advantages.

Admittedly though my drawing tends to be schematics and floorplans, not art.

 

[aporigine]

Non-mechanical pencils are the rusty wrought iron cladding of the pencil world. Mechanical pencil all the way!
I'm partial to the Pentel stuff but that's more because it's the brand I knew from growing up. But there's a whole bunch of Japanese pens worth looking into. There's some youtube channels from both enthusiasts and stores that do a pretty good job explaining the differences and advantages.

Admittedly though my drawing tends to be schematics and floorplans, not art.

That has me imagining a very upscale store called writingtools.

 

[Jovidah]

That has me imagining a very upscale store called writingtools.

There's undoubtedly at least one sucker in the world willing to pay 4 or 5 digits for a 24 carat gold-plated Bic pen...

 

[aporigine]

Non-mechanical pencils are the rusty wrought iron cladding of the pencil world. Mechanical pencil all the way!
I'm partial to the Pentel stuff but that's more because it's the brand I knew from growing up. But there's a whole bunch of Japanese pens worth looking into. There's some youtube channels from both enthusiasts and stores that do a pretty good job explaining the differences and advantages.

Admittedly though my drawing tends to be schematics and floorplans, not art.

That has me imagining a very upscale store called writingtools.

There's undoubtedly at least one sucker in the world willing to pay 4 or 5 digits for a 24 carat gold-plated Bic pen...

Elie Bleu (Paris) makes fancy wooden boxes for collections of pens. I see them for thousands.

 

[SammieM]

I inherited some dope fountain pens. just not my jam, and my handwriting actually becomes not legible (at all).

@More_Gyutos , I bought a regular pencil. the Sakura Writoll. in 0.5mm. why? with a click the point recesses into the protective tip. this way it won't stab a hole into my "man-bag". something I need. my drafting pencil (that I almost lost) is so stabby, jostling around in the bag. Lead? I got the UNI Ain lead. supposedly jet black, and more difficult to snap. I am seeking something that scratches like a BlackWing wooden pencil. such great lead in that thing!!

You should check out Mitsubishi Kurutoga Dive. Not long ago I was looking into mechanical pencils and it looked interesting. Nice features, especially for someone that’s using it extended period of time…

 

[sanmateo]

for a contrary opinion, I find I don't enjoy the Kurutoga drive so much. I think it's optimized for writing asian characters, with many short strokes. If you write cursive with a western alphabet, it will never cycle and does nothing. Also I never got used to the slight wiggle in the mechanism.

I reverted back to my old standby, Pentel P205

 

[SammieM]

for a contrary opinion, I find I don't enjoy the Kurutoga drive so much. I think it's optimized for writing asian characters, with many short strokes. If you write cursive with a western alphabet, it will never cycle and does nothing. Also I never got used to the slight wiggle in the mechanism.

I reverted back to my old standby, Pentel P205

Thank you for sharing. Great to know that it doesn’t work for cursive writing. We traditionally wouldn’t use a pencil for cursive. We only use them for math, sketching and technical drawings. For technical writing we use print and a character is built with few strokes per letter/ number so the cycling of the tip is not an issue…

 

[Naftoor]

I find the kurutogas work well for math, and I haven’t had issue with non-cursive writing since there’s enough short strokes for it to cycle. Don’t think I’ve noticed issues with it producing flat spots in either of those uses. Agree it would be terrible for cursive, if memory serves the mechanism is designed to rotate the lead once per 30 pencil strokes or something which would be like 5 lines in cursive lol

I do laugh because they’ve been making essentially the same pencil for 10 years and yet the eraser is still god awful on all designs. The Sanford/papermate PHD is probably my all time favorite pencil. Lost my remaining ones over the years which was heart breaking. They’re massive, thick beasts. The upside is that they have a thick, ergonomic triangle grip that’s like a lamy safari on steroids so they’re really comfy to hold properly, and they have a massive twist eraser so you don’t need to bother packing a secondary eraser with you.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

I'm stoked. I get the box today.

I am starting a food journal to track what I stuff into my face. it will be nice to have a dedicated pen to do so. or pencil.

I did study the VAST(!) world of fountain pens. they aren't all stodgy, old-man writing implements. some very updated, modern versions out there.

 

[Chopper88]

Elie Bleu (Paris) makes fancy wooden boxes for collections of pens. I see them for thousands.

I think they're highly overrated. Bought a jet lighter earlier this year, it's a fun little lighter but pretty underwhelming F&F for the money (€220). Rough finishing, crooked lid and uneven gapping.