Old Manila Pen/Ink/Paper Hunt

Last Saturday, a small group of Fountain Pen Network - Philippines (that's FPN-P, yes) members trekked to Old Manila to pen/ink/paper-hunt. There were nine of us, yes, including the two girls with the Lucky Panda everyone calls Ivan (I have a photo with him.).

My haul: the brown notebooks are Golden Bridge brand, bought more for sentimental reasons than their use; the colorful ones are Staples brand Memo Notebooks; Hero 221 pens and a white Rotring Tikky II; vintage red and green Parker Super Quink inks; the pad underneath all these good stuff is a Cattleya yellow ruled pad, very, very friendly to fountain pens! *Wink.*

The day started for some five of us eating McDonald Quarter Pounder meals while waiting for the others to arrive. Our first stop: Recto.

The first shop we visited in Recto is Conanan's. It was my first visit to Conanan's, and I saw a bad/poor/dirty Parker 25. Poor pen. *Sigh.* I wished I could buy it, but I was saving my moola for the Birdies in Cosmos. Some of us got excited over Conanan's notepads with laid paper selling for less than PhP10 a pad. We all had a hoot seeing boxes of vintage Parker Super Quink inks in black, blue, blue-black and red. I got a bottle of red Super Quink, but not before ink-meisters Mona and John turned the bottle this way and that, held it against light to check for serious sediments or molds, and smelled the ink for signs of bad chemical reactions. They said the ink should not smell vinegary. *Wink. Wink.*

Vintage Parker Super Quink inks. The red is from Conanan's in Recto, the green is from Merriam and Webster in Avenida.

Our next Recto shop: Corona!!! Corona is unforgetable for me because it's the first shop I went to visit and bought a lot of pens without hurting my cashflow. :) A Hero pen at Corona costs between PhP60-70 a piece. A lot cheaper than a McDo Quarter Pounder meal! There were plenty of Youth and Hero pens available, some new since my first visit, and several Lamys, but I just got myself two Hero 221's. Saving it up for the Birdies...

The last shop we visited while in Recto is the Merriam and Webster store. Lots of Parker 45s and some Sheaffers, but I really wasn't into buying these pens so I tried the paper department and came up with, voila! a pad of Cattleya yellow ruled legal paper! And like the other Cattleya pad I got previously, this one is very friendly to fountain pen use. I also spotted a bunch of Rotring Tikkys and I got myself a white one.

Next stop: Avenida. John was telling us about cheapie Sailor fountain pens at Avenida's Merriam and Webster branch, so we dropped by, only to find out that someone bought all the pens last week. Hmmm... We were all thinking, who could that be? So we feasted on their vintage inks and I got a bottle of the permanent green Parker Super Quink ink with Solv-X. Surprisingly, the bottle I got is Made in the Philippines. Cool.

While the others went on to look at the other bottles of inks, I went to check out their notebooks and I was so surprised (and happy all the same) to see stacks of the brown Golden Gate notebooks. Remember the 55 notebooks blogpost? I wish I had a Golden Gate there. These notebooks date to my elementary days and I bought three of them last Saturday, more for sentimental reasons than their usefulness. Sentimental because I once used a University Theme notebook as a reviewer of sorts when I was about to take my scholarship exams for my high school qualifications. And it helped. Together with a blue and red Haba-haba ballpoints. I got a four-year high school scholarship complete with book and uniform allowances. God, how I miss those days...

Golden Gate notebooks date back even to my parents' school days. Rarely sold in big bookstores nowadays, it's a delight to see them again.

These are PhP9.75 a piece notebooks and I'm glad to have found them and let them keep my fountain pens company.

Lastly, the pens. The two capped pens are the Hero 221's from Corona with different barrel colors: green and black. Both are excellent writers, never mind that the green one leaks. The white pen beside the two is a Rotring Tikky that accepts 0.7mm nibs only - time to use the Pilot ENO color leads!

And the Pilot Birdies? No we didn't get any of them. Cosmos Bazaar was already closed for the day when we got there. Argh! Then again, while we were in Binondo, Hazel treated us to a dinner of noodles, pig's ears, dimsum, and the winner ube siopao. It rocks! It's true that time flies by (fast) when you're having fun. Soon after the unforgettable dinner (and some pictures taken), we were let off at the UN Avenue LRT station to catch a ride to Buendia and then home to Laguna. What a day it was for all of us. Fun! (That of course spells pens, inks, paper, food, friends.) *Wink.*

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Oh, I Got 'Red'

Here is a new notebook/journal to join my growing paper arsenal: the Scribe A5 Ruled Notebook.

Scribe journals are sold in the Philippines by Scribe Writing Essentials, a local company that imports and distributes a variety of writing accessories from the UK, USA and other countries. They have previously marketed unique writing instruments such as quills and dip pens, and other related items including bookmarks and the then unnamed journal which would later become the Scribe.

I have seen Scribe notebooks in Powerbooks and Fully Booked store branches in the past, but really, pink and gold do not appeal to me. Besides, I love my black large Moleskine, and I still do. But word about the Scribe's paper's friendliness to fountain pens intrigued me. And so one hot Saturday morning, while browsing books at Greenbelt 4's Power Books, I didn't resist temptation and allowed myself to be lured by a red Scribe.

Scribe A5 Ruled Notebook. Off-white 80gsm paper. Soft, faux-leather red cover. Delicious.

I have always wanted a red journal - red is a coveted color for me. And who could resist a red Scribe? I got two of the ruled A5, and I plan to use one when my Molie runs out next month. And it will be called Red. Simply Red.

Red's got closure. I love Red's red elastic closure. It's sturdy and hopefully will last.

Red's red bookmark. This notebook has also its own, what else, red bookmark. Lovely.

Red's missing something. I kinda miss that part on the inside cover where I can write my name.

Red's got a pocket, too! The backpocket is made of the same thicker paper in the inside front and back covers.

Red's spread. Scribe notebooks also lie flat when opened. The binding is shown here.

Red's paper. The 80gsm paper used on Scribe notebooks is not so thick, but a bit shiny and silky to the touch. The pages have lines running to just short of the edges, and I like this feature because it limits my writing to a part of the page before the edge.

Now we've come to the tough part here. The writing samples!!! I have to say that the Scribe notebook caught me by surprise. I was surprised and in awe of its paper which is uber-fountain pen friendly. Writing on it is a totally different experience. It's bliss.

The fountain pens tested here are the broadest of my stash. Mostly mediums, these pens are not to be daunted as they spit out ink like geothermal geysers. *Grin.*

I also tested my favorite gel pens, ballpoints, and permanent markers.

And now the real test is revealed. Because of the paper type used in Scribe notebooks, there is noticeable show-through for most of the fountain pens used in the test, but bleed is only observed from my medium Retro 51 and Thein, the Sheaffer Thin Model frankenpen, also a medium.

As expected, remarkable (or, say, profuse?) bleed is shown by the permanent markers used in the test.

Red on Black. The Scribe on top of the Moleskine and it is a bit wider than Da Molie.

The Scribe is a fantastic notebook! It's a class on its own, and will definitely pose as a tough competitor with most notebooks and journals of its category. I will not use it much for notetaking - Blue Feather and Sterling can take care of that, as I prefer wire-bound notebooks for notetaking - but I would love to write on it for my leisurely journaling and diary keeping. I plan to get a plain A6 notebook soon - for illustrated journaling. Now that's a level-up in journaling!

(Better photos are also available in my Flickr account. Click here to visit my photostream.)

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Postcard Joy

Oh, joy! Been truly busy lately, but there are small, wonderful things that made me blissfully happy these days. Among pens, paper and inks, these firetruck postcards from postcrosser Milan of Czech Republic gave me a long needed woot!

The first firetruck card was sent to me through Posctcrossing. I then sent him a message to ask if there are more from his place and he said yes, indeed, there are four more. And he sent the four to me, complete with lovely bird stamps. I'm one lucky person to have so many kind friends who send postcards, buy inks, paper and donate pens -- all for friendship's sake.

Ah, joy! While buried in so many things right now -- some are good and some are not-so good -- I have a wide, sweet, content smile on my lips. For these small things are what make me feel that in my life, I really must have done something good. *Wink.*

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The Search is (Almost) Over

... for the (almost) perfect paper for my pen reviews.

I must admit that I'm new to this gel pen review stuff and it's an exciting project. My first three reviews were well-received, but I felt that somehow, something is still missing. Until I saw The Pen Addict's Signo review recently. I noticed that for all his reviews, The Pen Addict used the same paper, where he wrote with the pen being reviewed. And he only used a single photo: the pad (with his review written in longhand) and the pen. After reading that post, and seeing other pen reviews, I knew what I wanted to do with my reviews.

Not that I want to duplicate what The Pen Addict and other pen reviewers do, but I felt I could do something similar so I will have consistency in my reviews. I'll post more photos, of course, but I'd like to use just one pad, notebook, or paper type for my reviews. So during the weekend, I went out looking for a white, ruled pad that I can use to write on for my pen reviews. I had a very specific criteria in mind: 1) paper must be white so it won't interefere with ink colors; 2) paper must be ruled; 3) paper must resist feathering and bleed because I also plan to use it for my fountain pens.

As I browsed the stacks of various paper supplies at NBS, a pad caught my attention because of its blue lines. The 8x10in paper is immaculate white and the lines are printed in light blue. Think about Waterman South Sea Blue. Thickness is not very remarkable, but as an elementary pad paper, I don't think I should expect too much. I'm glad the paper is not shiny, which means it's not coated. After "feeling" the paper for some time, I went ahead and paid for it.

The Cattleya intermediate pad: heaven sent!

A closer look at the Cattleya pad's paper.

At home, I was like my four-year old niece in my excitement to try the new paper on my hands. I tried some of my gel pens first and it went well. No bleed, no feathering. I then took out my pen case and tried my inked daily warriors: medium Schneiders, Parkers, and Lamy Safari, Thein (my Frankenpen, a Sheaffer Thin Model), and Pilot 78G.

A test page showing different pens and inks on a page off the pad.

The ballpoints went okay, and writing is silky smooth, as is the gels and pencils. The Sharpies despite being ultra-fine points feathered and bled too much, but that's okay.

A closer look at the upper part of the test page.

Ballpoints, gels, markers, and pencils.

As I wrote the first line using my Schneider Base, I was super amazed - there wasn't any trace of feathering or bleeding even if the ink dried up fast! It looked (and felt) like I was writing with a ballpoint! (But only because the ink from my Schneider, a wet pen, did not feather or bleed.) I went to try my other pens as well - the very wet medium Lamy Safari, then my Parkers this time, and still, there wasn't any feathering or bleed! The long-awaited but tolerable bleed came when when I tried Thein, a medium Sheaffer. But that is okay, I guess. I've seen worse bleed on paper. :) And I must say that most of the FPs I tried fared better than the gels.

Here are the fountain pens, all with medium nibs: Lamy Safari (it should be M), Schneiders, Parker, Sheaffer and Pilot.

The back of the test page shows some "see-through", but it's not a bother at all. And I think some see-through (exhibited by some of the gels and fountain pens) is way better that the heavy bleed shown here by the Sharpies.

The pad's back board showing Cattleya's logo, its manufacturer and where it was manufactured.

And so the search for the THE (almost perfect) paper ended with with the Cattleya intermediate paper. Sold in pads of 90 leaves in 8x10in book paper, it's selling for PHP28.50, or approximately US$0.60! I will definitely go back to NBS this weekend and get more pads. This pad of paper is not only good for reviews, it's good for oodles and doodles too! Well, as another FPNP member said, the good stuff do not have to always be the expensive ones. *Wink.*

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I Made It!

Yay! I made it to the very First Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper!

The July 28 post I wrote about my 55 notebooks was submitted and chosen for the Carnival. It's totally unexpected but awesome all the same!

The Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper is organized by Nifty at NotebookStories.com. It is a monthly collection of the best blog posts about notebooks, journals, pens, pencils, paper products and other related topics, appearing at a different blog the first Tuesday of every month starting August 4 and it features blog posts in the following categories: Editor's Picks, New Product News, Notebook Reviews, Pen Reviews, Sketchbook Art, and NotebookStories Collection.

The next edition will be hosted by The Pen Addict on September 8th.

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