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A dark bruiser: A review of Diamine 150th Anniversary 1864 blue-black
I’m not much of a drinker… in fact the last time I was drunk was on my eighteenth birthday, and let me tell you that was quite some while ago. I do imbibe the odd glass of red wine on occasion and at...
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Mean green: A review of Diamine 150th Anniversary ‘Safari’ ink
I love movies, watching them either at home or at the cinema… and I love being reminded of my favourite movies, of which there are many… Whether it’s the visual splendour of ‘Avatar’ and ‘Kingdom of...
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Blue heaven: A Review of Diamine 150th Anniversary ‘Blue velvet’ ink
How do you eat your meals? In my family there are two types of people, the seagulls (like me) who just demolish everything on the plate all at once, and then there’s Matthew, in a set all of his own…...
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Dust and ashes: A review of MontBlanc Permanent Grey ink
Some links are too easy to make and so are best avoided… I decided to demur from any crass ’50 shades’ comments when reviewing this particular grey ink, probably a good thing as I’ve no intention of...
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A Retired Southern Gentleman: A review of the Franklin-Christoph M14 fountain...
Retirement comes to pens as well as people it seems… The pen in view today is no longer in production and mine has long-awaited a deserved review. It was, as a matter of fact, one of my first forays...
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White city looker: A Review of the Kaweco Art Sport ‘Aksehir’ fountain pen
Looks can be everything… In the West I think its true to say that in general we live in a very image based culture… What a person or thing looks like is often taken as being most important factor. It...
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First among equals : A Review of the Monteverde Prima fountain pen
Perhaps I’m a little melancholy this evening… But the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy (aka Mr Spock – RIP) has got me reminiscing over the Original Star Trek series I first watched as a boy. You...
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Clearly colourful: A review of the TWSBI 580 RB
Hesitation is the enemy of progress, or so they say… To be honest I’ve hesitated a fair bit about reviewing this pen simply because apart from the different finial, coloured cap, section and piston...
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A changed mind: A review of the Lamy 2000 fountain pen
Over the last weeks I’ve had something of a Shakespeare moment… Not the dark sort of moment from the Scottish play, I have seen no daggers before me as it were, but more of a much ado about nothing...
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Cheeky Green: A Review of Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin Ink
The Iroshizuku range of inks from Pilot is well-known for their range of intriguing colours and the overall quality of the inks. I have sampled a number of them, indeed one or two of their number,...
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A Fool’s returning: A review of Diamine Graphite ink
Well, here I am again at long last… Appearing, as it were, to suddenly break my self-imposed exile from the blogosphere. Admittedly its been a long while since my last post, some few months indeed,...
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My view from the desert: thoughts on my exile from pen buying
I’m told the American writer Henry Miller once wrote, “Ones destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things…” That may or may not be the case, but I thought it was quite profound. Anyway I...
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Just for Ian: A review of the Conklin Stylograph mosaic fountain pen
Far be it from me to appear to break my own period of pen exile again so soon… But I confess there are still a few pens in my collection as yet unreviewed. Also my fellow pen aficionado, Ian Hedley,...
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Spread some Christmas cheer to my local pen shop…
I realised long ago that fountain pen users are a great bunch of folks… In the light of this I thought I would ask, due to the recent floods in Cumbria (for the geographically challenged that’s Cumbria...
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Have yourself a merry inky Christmas…
Christmas is nearly upon us once again… So as the festive season approaches I know many of us are busy writing our Christmas cards and letters; hopefully sending them well before the postal deadlines...
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Feeling the pinch: A review of the Jinhao 11 fountain pen
It’s nearly Christmas, and can I take the opportunity I wish everyone a blessed holiday season… For me Christmas is of course a wonderful time of year but one that tends to be taxing on the wallet. So...
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Black to the future: A review of Namiki Black ink
A belated happy 2016 to all! I hope your new year has begun well! The good news is that it’s time to begin blogging again… Interestingly my first ink review of the new year turns out to be Namiki Black...
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A Chinese kangaroo: a review of the Kaigelu 356 fountain pen
It may interest you to know that I’m committed. To what you ask? Simply to the belief that a good writing experience should not be the preserve of the affluent; rather it should be available to all. It...
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Crying over blue: A review of Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao ink
“You’ve got to try this, you really do…” Those words, or at least words to that effect, fizzed excitedly across the shop floor as Malcolm, the proprietor of my local (pen shop that is), passed me this...
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Basically Distinctive : A review of the Faber-Castell Basic fountain pen
I like a bargain… Some time ago I wrote a series of posts on the expectations one can realistically have of fountain pens in differing price brackets. Part of the rationale for that was to contribute...
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