Fountain Pen Quest Trail Log – May 17, 2020

Photo of my currently inked fountain pens — My currently inked fountain pens

I’m still using my fountain pens much more than I did a couple of months ago. However, if I counted words, I suspect this past week would have seen a lower word count than the previous couple of weeks. With so many pens inked (13), it will take some time to write any dry. I’m itching to get some new fountain pens into the rotation. So I have a conflict between wanting a lot of inked pens to chose from and wanting new pens moving into the rotation regularly. I have to admit this is a nice problem to have. I’m considering a rule where any currently inked pens will be flushed if they still have ink at the end of the month. I’d exclude the two eyedropper filled pens. A better solution will be to use them all enough to write them dry.

Rather than a month-end purge, I’m also considering going the opposite way and inking up a couple of dozen pens and then picking the one I want, when I want it. I tend to use very safe inks, so I wouldn’t expect any problems.

I ordered some inexpensive pen storage options from Go Pens, which arrived on Wednesday. So, I again went down the rabbit hole of reorganizing my desk and pen storage. Last week I mentioned the possibility of a desk tour. I should learn not to speculate on the future. I’m still exploring how I want to set up my desk, and it changes every couple of days. So that will wait until things settle down. This is one of the problems with being locked down at home, I get to procrastinate while appearing to be busy organizing. Part of the problem is that this was supposed to be an analog desk. Instead, it doubles as my work desk and the computer or iPad visit daily.

New Arrivals

None

Incoming

OK, another complete collapse of willpower. I did promise myself that at least three pens (which might include these) need to move on to new owners. The Benu Minima impressed me so much that I ordered two more Benu fountain pens, this time opting for full-size pens. I split the order to support the retailers I haven’t purchased from recently. In these cases, the prices were very similar across the sites I checked, and that had the specifics that I wanted. Anderson Pens continues to sell vintage pens, and there was one I had to buy.

I ordered the Benu Scepter II from Goulet Pens. They still aren’t shipping yet (or may have just resumed as you read this), so this is a few weeks away.
I bought the Benu Briolette Secret Garden from Jet Pens, along with many ink cartridges. Plus, Schmidt refills for my Retro 51 pens.
A vintage Sheaffer Jade Green Ringtop from Anderson Pens. Probably not a pen I’ll use very much since it’s small, but it’s that lovely jade green color along with being a vintage Sheaffer model that I don’t have.

The gripping section on the Benu pens seems a little thin for me, but I found the Minima comfortable, so I decided to take a chance.

The Jet Pens and Anderson Pens orders should arrive this week, while the Goulet Pens order is a few weeks away from delivery.

Outgoing

None

Written Dry

The Namiki Sterling Hawk as inked up on April 19th and went dry the evening of May 10th. I will clean it out and return it to the storage case, although it’s still in the cleaning queue.

Newly Inked

The Sheaffer Balance Oversize Marine Green with its fine nib was inked up with Sheaffer Green ink. I was writing about it for my This Just In post and missed it, so I inked it up. Plus, I like to use the fountain pen that I’m writing about.