New Brush Pens!

Kinokuniya purchases

Yesterday, on my way to massage a few horses at the racetrack (yes, I do that too!), I stopped at Kinokuniya Bookstore (heaven!) in downtown Seattle and took a good look at their brush pens. I have been doing some tests of the Zebra Disposable Brush Sign Pens and liked them, but of course, there’s always room for a more perfect pen. So…on to Kinokuniya. They had a lovely selection, luckily with testers all arranged neatly as I couldn’t read a word on the labels except for Pentel, Pilot, etc… I tried them all out and picked out three, which I needed to research when I got home to find out what I had bought!

Apparently, I bought a Pilot Pocket Brush – Hard, a Pilot Double-Sided Brush Pen, and an unknown Pentel grey brush pen. It’s funny that I can’t figure out what the third pen is exactly. I have been looking on the web and can find nothing that looks just the same. If any of you know what this one is, please tell me. I am curious!

Brush Pens - (from left to right) Zebra Disposable Brush Pen Fine, Zebra Disposable Brush Pen Superfine,
Pilot Double-Sided Brush Pen, Pilot Pocket Brush - Hard, Pentel unknown grey brush pen.

Here are my pen tests. All of the brush pens seemed quite good. The Pilot Pocket Brush is perhaps the best of them and it pairs nicely with my Noodler’s Flex pen. (I like creating matched pairs of pen and brush. In my next post, when I talk about my new brown inks, I’ll mention this again.) For the test I also added my Pitt Design Pens (Brush and “S”) to round out the field. I’ve been using the Pitt brush pens for some time now, but they may have just had their spot taken by the Pilot Pocket Brush. It’s a darker black and really is quite enjoyable to use.

Brush pen tests

As another interesting note, today I proved to myself that Thelwell MUST HAVE used both pen and brush in his cartoons. Some of the effects he achieved could only have been gotten this way.

Pentel Pocket Brush and Noodler's Flex pen a great combination!

All my ink tests were done in a Bee Pen Sketcher’s pad.

Adventures in Writing Part 1

The unveiling

Yesterday I received my new Pilot Custom 74 fountain pen in the mail. I had been looking for a new writing pen for some time. My other two “top” fountain pens (for writing) were the Noodler's Aerometric/Eyedropper Ebonite Fountain Pen and the Parker Sonnet. Both pens are really in different categories, certainly in terms of price. The Sonnet was my first “expensive” pen clocking in at slightly under $100. The Noodler’s Ebonite pen (costing only $24.00) actually wrote pretty well and overall, I preferred it to the Sonnet.

I really enjoy writing with fountain pens. I really do. The feeling of the ink flowing through the nib onto fine paper makes the whole experience for me. Over time, I’d developed some choices that I thought might be the “it” writing pen for me. The Custom 74 was at the top of my list, at least in terms of pens that I could try out before buying. Some of my others choices were “internet order only” and although I trusted the reviews, I couldn’t justify buying one of them sight unseen at this point.

First look at my new pen

Thus my trip to World Lux in Seattle last Saturday and notification of their super sale on Leap Year Day.  The sale made my two new pens possible! (I’ll discuss the second pen, a Namiki Falcon, in a separate post.) Last night I had my first chance to ink up the Custom 74 and start writing. I chose to do some practice letters to try it out. It is not a calligraphy pen, nor is it a flex nib (for writing in varying line widths.) Hence my choice of copying out some monoline alphabets after my initial cursive practice. I totally love the feel and smoothness of this pen. It’s a dandy!

Showing the nib

My practice paper was good but not great – a moleskin grid notebook – but the ink is a favorite of mine, Noodler’s Kung Te-Cheng. Knowing Kung Te-Cheng ink as well as I do, I felt it made a good test ink for the new pen. As it turned out, I liked the combination of ink and pen so much that I think I’ll keep that color in that pen for the foreseeable future!

Writing practice

My new fountain pen seems perfect for monoline alphabets.
Draftsman and Bungalow are two of my favorites.

I am very much looking forward to doing more writing with my new fountain pen, the Pilot Custom 74!

P.S. For those pen fans out there who are curious - my pen is a blue demonstrator with a 14 karat Rhodium medium nib. Love the color by the way...it's very pretty. :-)