Analogue Tools

Bouncing Back to Gel Pens

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments
Gel pens! Though one could certainly make the case the Alpaka Pencil Case Pro is the real hero here

Did I ever really leave? Really? Well, no I didn’t — not quite, however the relentless march of everything pen and stationery towards fountain pens is — rightly or wrongly — hard not to fall into. We each have our path (it just seems to be the same one, and boy is it worn…). I’d simply say, progression towards a fountain pen habit doesn’t always need to be at the exclusion of all else.

One area gel pens continue to flourish is in the planner community. Those people gel pen hard — and good on them. There is much joy to be had. Speaking of planners, as I mentioned in a recent post, it was a foray into the Traveler’s Notebook and Hobonichi Weeks which triggered my own renewed vigour towards gel pens. Those Hobonichi Weeks daily entries are not overly endowed with page real estate, that’s for sure.

The pens

Having a certain fondness for the Pentel Energel over the years, you’d be right in thinking these feature fairly prominently in the current line up. Incidentally, I’ve also harboured mostly the opposite feeling towards the Jetstream line of ballpoint pens, and part of this process involved throwing out the last one remaining in my pen drawer. I don’t know, I’ve just never really liked the overall feel when I write with them.

It’s here that we should acknowledge the term ”gel pen” is quite a broad one. After all, we have the EnerGel’s “liquid gel pen”, and the pigment archival quality of Uni’s “Super Ink” being just two manufacturers’ riffs on the category. No doubt there are plenty more, however we’ll go with the origins of the family tree and stick with “gel” for simplicity.

As for tip size, well, 0.38 or 0.4 mm are a little too fine for me, and to be perfectly honest, I feel if more existed, 0.6 mm would be my goldilocks size. In the absence of a widespread, spoilt-for-choice line-up in 0.6 mm, I’ve settled on 0.5 mm as my go-to. There are of course some 0.6 mm options further afield (the Schmidt P8126 refill for example, of which I own several), however there is simply not the any-colour, any-type of pen range which exists in the other sizes.

Delineating at a glance through colour

Colour? Go wild. Anything goes really, and I’ve found within the confines of those daily entries in the Hobonichi Weeks (minimal, tight, feintly ruled lines and separators) colour is my best bet to delineate each one. As you’ll see from the associated image, it carries a certain rainbow-like joy.

Writing performance

Comfort in the hand is fairly important, and the diameter of the Energel I find to be most comfortable. To be honest, nothing I write with a gel pen typically runs longer than a couple of hundred words at a time, so I wouldn’t say there are any real limitations here.

Perhaps the Uniball Signo DX is a little thin for longer than a few bullet points, yet there are all manner of ways to obtain these in a thicker package (say the Uniball 207 or 307 series of retractables). This does bring me to one caveat of my “no real limitations” statement above.

I’ve never enjoyed using a pen where the grip section runs thicker in diameter than the rest of the barrel (or at least that portion of the barrel immediately preceding the grip) — a reverse taper, if you will. Many plastic barrel gel, ballpoint, and liquid ink pens seem to have this design. The retractable Energels and Signo DX you see in this post have successfully incorporated that rubber grip in a way that minimises any perceptible change in diameter. Enough said on that, however it is another (subtle though it is) factor in my lack of fondness for the Jetstream.

When available, my preference is probably 0.5 mm

The need for quick drying (those Energels a tad longer than the Signos mind you), fine-ish tipped, comfortable enough, colour varied pens was satisfied with the fistful I picked up from my local Officeworks. I’ll no doubt work my way back around to others I’ve had before from Zebra, Sakura, and the like.

Signing off

With things rolling (gelling?) along fairly well in the current Hobonichi Weeks / Travellers Notebook combo, I intend to continue this personal resurgence into the gel pen universe.

And I’ll say it once more. In turning my mind to these matters, I cannot help but again question the all-roads-must lead-to-fountain-pens journey of just about every blog, podcast, and social media feed across the stationery community (I’m also guilty as charged…). If we’re talking fit for purpose, in the couple of notebooks I’ve mentioned above, for me at least, fountain pens certainly won’t cut it.

But I digress. Gel pens — how good are they!

Kicking off the year — maybe a list will do

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments

Yearly planning. Goals. Themes. It’s that time of year again. A time to decide what type of system you might subscribe to, align with, or have a go at this year. At times, the superimposed complexity we add to reviewing the year’s end and planning for the next can be stifling. We force our way into a system or way of thinking we’d read or heard about, only to be left with more uncertainty rather than a clear, well-defined path. Go on, ask me how I know…

With the opportunity comes the dread.

So Far

Over that quiet, relaxing Christmas/New Year Period, I entertained the following, amongst other things:

Some of the above remain ongoing, as you might imagine, and the irony of my introductory paragraph when compared with the list above is not lost on me. That said, it wouldn’t be this time of year without such a list…

Guiding light or railroad

Of course, without some sort of intention, we are just meandering through space and time. Yet, at the same time, perhaps a simple list will do. Or maybe three?

  • More of this
  • Less of this
  • Try this

Wait… the year of the list perhaps?

In recent years I have tended to have a somewhat meandering January followed by some kind of realisation (epiphany?) at the start of February, and then we’re underway. In seeing the same pattern develop again this year, I will simply embrace that and begin whatever it is I settle upon in late January or when the calendar turns over to February.

The journey probably is the destination

Is a successful and robust “system” really a process, or some sort of completed state with a finite end point?

The distinction between having arrived versus being at your destination is likely important. One is simply a point in space (and perhaps time) — a finite conclusion. The other? Well, I think it infers some kind of arbitrary achievement in concluding whatever journey you were on. Perhaps there are others at the same destination; however, no-one can take that journey and arrive for you. That is for you and you alone. Here I am. I’ve done the work to get here, and my arrival marks the conclusion of that.

The problem is, maybe we never really manage to arrive at the destination we’ve set? What if the destination is sufficiently vague to the point where perhaps I arrived 2 years ago (hardly…) or I’m unknowingly powering along to somewhere I’ll never get to. Worse still, what if that destination wasn’t quite right all along, and now here we are and well… it’s a little underwhelming at best?

All that being what it is, if you never ask the question; do the work; consider your options; engage with the journey; then sure, that’s a guarantee you’ll never arrive. It only takes one thing, something, to make it all worthwhile, and you’ll often find that along the way rather than at the destination. I think it’s in accepting the journey never really ends is where the real magic lies.

Keep moving, keep evolving and learn along the way. Ask questions more about where you are now, where are you going, and embrace the journey as the destination. Going through the process is what’s likely needed to improve things. The destination being a perfect system that works all the time and never needs to change? A false god.

Tried and filed

Yes, correct. That’s filed, not failed. I’m a firm believer in that the best approach at any given time may be one you’ve used before and moved on from, only to consider returning as the situation dictates. You’ve got runs on the board. You know how it works and why it would or wouldn’t align with your current needs. Experience counts.

Maybe it’s just the thing to extricate yourself from a situation of overwhelm. Or at least inform your next steps. The airlines had it right all along: “remember, your nearest exit may be behind you…”

A perfect way to avoid yet another foray into a “new” system, which may take a good few months to really bed down.

Just a thought…

My experience has seen me in and out of a few “systems”. Twice filed Bullet Journal escapades (notwithstanding my analogue adoration, there was just too much digital in my life to make this work). A few years running the Theme System and associated journal (I was always too specific in theme and didn’t check in/reset often enough).

There are probably a few more that escape me currently, though my daily journalling habit is something which hasn’t waned over the past few years.

This Year

…to save me from tears — or at least undue stress and anxiety about what I’m going to use, things are a little less systematised, so to speak. That said, I do tend to ruminate a little through January on various topics, themes, plans, and the like (as you can see by that So Far list above).

Funny thing is, between the commencing the initial draft and completing this post (a period spanning much of January), I did manage to organise my thoughts a little better. I must thank you for allowing me to write through this out loud — always the best way to find yourself at least closer to, if not at the very foot of, a solution or answer.

I wish you well on whatever plan or system you might be embarking on this year. May it be a runaway success. If not, the tried and filed category will still serve you well for years to come.

A planner and a plan

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments
Image courtesy Bunbougu

Sure, everyone has long moved on from planner season and even the “my year in review” posts are done and dusted, though I guess you cannot say this blog has ever really been at the cutting edge of anything. So here I am talking of my initial foray into planners. Better late than never, I guess. Surely having been into stationery all your life and written this blog for over ten years now, this can’t be an initiation into the world of planners. Can it? Well, ostensibly friends, the answer is yes.

Yes, there were the yearly, very cheap appointment diaries of many years ago, and the Filofax years (loved my brown leather Timberland cover) in between, however since becoming really invested in all things pen and stationery over the past decade, I had largely been a notebook only kind of person. At least until now. Honestly, this makes me both excited and a little nervous all at the same time.

Why now?

Well, it’s not been a great year to be honest, and during the tougher times the tendency for me is to turn inwards and embrace what brings a little joy. Something to turn your mind to when it needs an outlet. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say the very topic themes on this blog (pens, coffee, stationery and the like) are generally the things that help me do that.

Viewing a few planner videos on YouTube (and wow, dangerous as that is…), I began to see a slightly different angle on things. Maybe trying to develop my creative side a little? What began attempting a few basic drawings and sketches, morphed into accumulating a few stickers and templates. I also shifted gears a little from my fountain pens back towards a case full of gel pens. Needless to say, both my favourite Brisbane pen store, Pen and Ink, and online Japanese stationery site Bunbougu facilitated this transition nicely.

How it’s going

I’d have to say I’m fairly pleased so far. Sure, I’ve ultimately realised I’m not great with the drawing, nor am I overly creative, but let’s just call it a work-in-progress. An evolution if you will. Some days I give it a run, others are just words-only as they always were, and that’s more than okay.

If you can’t sketch… then stamp. The Everyday Explorers Currently Inked stamp set

The usual crew

Planner season or not, it’s always notebook season… in some form or another. So, at the current time, things are looking like this:

  1. Daily Journal: Black Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover in dot grid (a left over from a second failed Bullet Journal experiment earlier in the year)
  2. Everyday Notebook: new addition outlined below
  3. Novel Writing Notebook: Montblanc #149 lined notebook (sounds grand, though when your last story was 2014’s NaNoWriMo and this is a follow-up — it has been a long time…)
  4. Pure Capture: a mix of 2. above and a Field Notes Pitch Black
  5. Travel Diary: again, that’s integrated with 2. above as well…
  6. 2024 Diary/Planner: the second new addition, further details below

New additions

Traveler’s Notebook – Olive Regular Size

I guess this is where things get a little more interesting — at least in terms of the purpose of this post. In the context of some of that list (numbers 2,4 and 5) above, it perhaps comes as no surprise I have delved into the world of the Traveler’s Notebook system. Having purchased an Olive Regular size Traveler’s Notebook cover in August before a 10-day trip away, it has now also become my everyday notebook of sorts as well. I’m still tinkering with various inserts and thinking about how I might “section off” various aspects of my writing life (travel, commonplace, general note-taking, writing etc) so I’ll say the TN lifestyle is also still a work in progress.

Notebooks and coffee – that theme thread is strong… the pen is a Caran d’Ache + Nespresso 849 ballpoint pen

Things seem to be working well at the moment though, and I have embraced various pockets, clips, and other accessories in my quest for something a little different to my typical standard notebooks of the past. Inserts are your standard dot grid, blank, and grid, though I’ll be adding a lined version soon. The slimmer, taller nature of the regular inserts seems to suit me fairly well, and a 0.5mm gel pen has turned out to be the tool of choice (currently a couple of Uniball Signo DX, however there are quite a few 0.7mm Pentel Energels’ that emerged from the second drawer when this all began).

Behold the results of sending your sister and niece all over Tokyo searching for additions…

The Olive leather on the Traveler’s cover is certainly something to behold, and is already showing a little lived-in wear which looks fantastic, and will no doubt become even better with age. I do have a matching Traveler’s Company pen loop attached, which is 50:50 both useful and annoying, though I think it will stay given its utility. I of course also could not go past Mal’s perfect monogramming for that personal touch — love it.

First comes the creativity…

You can say I’m very much enjoying the change so far.

Hobonichi Weeks 2024 Hardcover Planner

This one I’m a little less sure about. Not because I have any doubts about the planner itself, just what I’ll use it for. I have a few ideas, and they are mainly around the wellness/habit tracking type of area, and I’ve been noting down some ideas over the past month or so.

Then comes the structure…

I seem to have mostly settled on a combination of personal development/self-improvement/wellness journal/health/habit tracker. I lump them all together because I’d like it to be more than a simple tracker, yet terms like “wellness” though valid, give me Instagram snake oil/supplement seller — vibes. Whilst I realise that sweeping generalisation is unfair; I simply cannot comfortably call this anything ”wellness”, and it will be more than simply a healthy habits’ tracker.

So, in the interests of something meaningful and relevant to the task at hand, the working title which has meandered its way into my consciousness: my TG37 Journal. This is simply based upon the writing of James Clear on “tiny gains”, and the “1% better every day providing a 37-fold improvement at year end” theory. We’ll see how things go.

The tracking options are many

For my first foray into Hobonichi land, I went with a cover design by Japanese illustrator Hiroko Kubota, called Another night of falling star sparklers. I was looking for something a little unique and upon seeing a shared birth year with the cover designer, it seemed a pretty good fit.

Something a little unique for the cover design

I think the challenge here will be not overthinking things, though it has indeed been a while since I’ve entertained the structure of a dated planner in my analogue tools. Overall, I’d say I am fairly optimistic though.

Wrapping Up

It can be a little funny putting together a post like this, in that when summarised on a page, what feels like a significant change in reality, perhaps doesn’t sound as grandiose when outlined on a blog. Then again, it isn’t meant to be either. Our interests, plans, and realities take many forms, and how we document this is unique to each of us. Thankfully, we have as many options for tools as there are approaches to doing it.

I hope the finish to your 2023 is a good one, and 2024 is looking promising as well — however you intend to plan, log, track, or document your own journey.

A Journalling Streak – holding on a little too tightly

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

The same morning I read Mary’s account on From the Pen Cup of reaching the milestone of seven years of Morning Pages (well-deserved applause all round), I ended my own daily journalling streak which stood at 1308 consecutive days. A tip of the hat in either direction, perhaps. Congratulations Mary, I wish you many more years, Morning Pages, and words to come.

Myself? Well, I’m guessing it will largely be the same, and while 1308 days is no seven year run, I’m fairly content with my consistency, particularly given there were a few decent consecutive-day streaks (albeit lower in number) before that. If so, why the celebratory “I missed a day” post? It certainly isn’t to decry the act of journalling, and whether it’s a page a day in the Muji A6 notebooks I’ve used these past couple of years, or the mind map I’ve just dumped into a new MindNode document for this post, both have the same effect: thoughts are out (page, screen, blog…) and better for it.

Given the subtext of this post might read: a post related to journalling but not really a post about journalling, forgive me for the confusion. What I’m railing against a little here is becoming too wrapped up in my “streak” for its own sake — or the sake of my “system”. That said, I suspect this journalling example is simply bearing the brunt of a certain level of frustration with my other systems, habits, and routines as they relate to output when sitting at my desk. As the commonly used quote attributed to Peter Drucker states” ”if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Well, to that I’d counter: “if you can measure it, you can certainly obsess over it” – attribute that one to me…

Journalling is the first thing I do every morning and something I certainly see continuing indefinitely, as I find it a great way to ease into the day. Some days I write about everything, others it’s nothing at all. There are days I’ve Googled and rewritten song lyrics for goodness’ sake, and yes, there have been some significant life events mentioned in those pages as well. As you’d expect, there are (brief) tales of challenging and emotional times, however the last sentence of every entry begins with two letters enclosed in a box: GF (grateful for…). Whatever follows in that final line or two is a simple reminder of the good. Of course, this again runs the gamut: overcoming struggles, life events, a great cappuccino, or just how good the nib is on my Pilot Custom 823. The big and the small — it’s all there.

I guess that is where I’m coming from with my thinking on this — hastily scrawling a date and “nothing to see here” (or similar) on days when I’d missed the morning routine (usually when away from home), just doesn’t feel quite right. Of course, it’s not wrong either — if it had a purpose other than to simply fill in the circle on my Streaks app.

In many ways, the streak needed to be broken simply to put my mind at ease and confirm it could be broken without the earth somehow falling off its axis. It didn’t by the way, with the new streak now sitting at 7 days. I do feel quite ridiculous in saying some sort of weight had been lifted, when after missing the morning routine that day, I made a conscious decision to leave it that way as I walked past the journal sitting on my desk that same night. Be real and end it…

I started a daily journalling habit a good few years ago because I thought I should, though I’ll keep going for any number of great reasons. I never have to decide what the first task or activity is in my day; it is a perfect chance to work through a rotation of fountain pens; it gives the coffee machine time to warm up; and I do feel as though I’ve missed something on the few occasions I haven’t done it.

Now though? Well, I’ll happily continue this helpful and calming daily ritual without the overhead of a 1300+ daily streak to maintain. It is indeed ok to “break the chain” Jerry.

So today, I am indeed grateful for: ending a streak, but continuing one of the more valuable habits I’ve managed to form.

Gain, Fail, or Shine – A Less Ultra Black Montblanc M

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

The Ultra Black finish. My Montblanc M ballpoint. Certainly a love at first sight situation when I first came across it in a display case a few years ago. Admittedly I was not entirely sure what the “ultra” really was at the time. A finish? A colour? The mostest or blackest of blacks? In any event, it was different to the standard shiny black “precious resin” of the Montblanc line.

While Montblanc describes it as ”black precious sandblasted resin”, it’s probably fair to call this one “matte black” if we’re trying to provide some context or perspective. While I do enjoy the lustrous deep black shine that is the standard precious resin finish, something a little different is always nice to have, particularly when it’s not at Montblanc’s Great Characters or Writers Edition prices.

So why the post? Well, really only to mention a change I’ve seen in that Ultra Black finish over time. You see, my Ultra Black M ballpoint, when compared with the standard precious resin of the M fountain pen I own — is decidedly less Ultra than it used to be.

I’ll say up front it doesn’t really bother me, however knowing we are all somewhat different in our tolerance for these sorts of things, thought I’d put down a few words outlining what I’ve seen.

The Pens

I’ve written before of my experience with the Montblanc M Ultra Black ballpoint, and it remains close to the the top of my all time favourite and most used pens (perhaps explaining what follows). When it comes to its fountain pen sibling, well I have to say my fondness for the M design lineage continues. I’ve had the M fountain pen for a shorter period of time (though also a good while now), so its long term position in the “inked” pen pot is still being assessed, though to date it has demonstrated quite a strong showing.

My workhorse Montblanc M ballpoint

After all, fountain pens aren’t necessarily the universal truth compared with a ballpoint are they. With nib placement, angle, and balance, there is a reasonable combination of “getting it right” required before you end up with a decent writing experience. Compare that with the uncap-and-dash world of the ballpoint. In my experience so far, the M fountain pen deserves some kudos, at least in this medium nib version I have in my hand.

So, the pens? All good there — love them. The real question being have they lost some of their “shine” given what follows below. Maybe, maybe not — again, it depends on your perspective I guess.

On Shade

Now, onto matters of shade, hue, finish, or at least the “Ultra” of the equation here. To be honest, had I not had both pens out side by side recently I might not have noticed anything different…

Having the M’s tucked away next to each other in a Nock Co Lookout pen case, it was easy to distinguish between the two by the cap finishes peeking out the top. One, a shiny, lustrous piano black in precious resin. The other, a decidedly matte version of well… black. The point being, its a simple task to tell them apart. Funny thing was, after using both, I accidentally recapped them incorrectly as the barrels looked pretty much the same. Upon comparing a little closer, I was somewhat surprised to see that for all intents and purposes the barrel finishes carried essentially the same sort of gloss finish.

The all gloss standard “precious resin” on the left, the Ultra Black on the right – well the cap at least…

Confused yet? Well I feel as though I’m writing my way around in circles here so I wouldn’t blame you. Where I’d usually refer you to a picture that speaks a thousand words, here I’ve found it incredibly difficult to capture what is clearly visible to the naked eye. In any event, the upshot here is that after a few years heavy use, the barrel of my Ultra Black ballpoint, pretty well matches the barrel of the decidedly non-Ultra Black fountain pen.

Now strictly speaking there is somewhat of a gradient here. That is, the cap remains the truest version of Ultra Black, not having the constant buffing of my hand wrapped around it, unlike the now-glossier barrel does. Another step along the continuum is the actual precious resin of the fountain pen finish. I guess if we liken it to interior house paint, we’d be talking matte (the Ultra Black cap); semi-gloss (the Ultra Black barrel) and gloss (the standard black precious resin). I’ve gotta say though, those barrels are pretty close.

An unordered gradient of sorts – the standard precious resin pen and cap on left; the Ultra Black yet semi-gloss body far right, and Ultra Black cap centre right

Call it patina, shine, wear and tear, or whatever you like, I simply thought it worth putting down in a post should this sort of thing worry you. Of course it may not be a concern at all. It isn’t to me, however I cannot say for certain that would have always been the case. Perhaps it’s age (as in mine), experience, or something else, but I have this underlying feeling I may not have been overly happy early in my pen journey to notice the removal of the Ultra aspect of my Ultra Black pen simply through the friction of use. I guess this may be somewhat moderated by the fact it didn’t come with any premium addition to the price when I bought it (other then the brand premium of course…), although that is perhaps not entirely the point.

The truest form of Ultra Black remains in the cap – on the right here of course.

Signing off

There are times I feel I”ve written a “What??? Who cares about that???” type of post, and this is one of them. But let’s face it, we all write thousands of words about pens and it simply becomes the nature of a blog at times. There will be those posts that are probably irrelevant to many, yet interesting or useful to some. Hopefully this one finds a place.

One final point in the hypothetical and mostly irrelevant (to me at least) bucket: If I wanted to sell this pen, could I really do so as an Ultra Black model? Perhaps not, though technically that is indeed the model you’d be buying. Again, an interesting question, though as I say, decidedly hypothetical given it is certainly not going anywhere.

So there you have it, the Ultra Black Montblanc M that becomes decidedly non-Ultra Black over time. Make of that what you will.