SBRE Brown fountain pen ink is back!  This ink is made by Diamine and will be  distributed by P.W. Akkerman in The Hague: get yours here.  I realize shipping outside of the EU may be costly, but you will also not pay 21% VAT.  You may want to see a full Inkcyclopedia entry on this ink, but bear in mind the ink now comes in very cool 120 ml (4 oz.)  Akkerman Dutch Masters bottles.  The price of the ink is 23.50 EUR – that’s more than the ink cost last time, but you get four times as much ink plus a very cool, reusable bottle this time around!

A review of the Montblanc Heritage Collection 1912 fountain pen, from La Couronne du Comte! Continue reading →

My sweet wife gave me a very cool Christmas present: this Leatherman Surge, in its latest incarnation (inmetalnation?).  In this video, I unbox the tool and give you my first impressions; after using it for a while, I will do a full review.

I’ve long desired to launch a physical, fountain-pen related product in addition to my videos.  Something you can use and enjoy.  Although it is tempting to launch a pen, that’s quite an elaborate process: design, production, etc..  Therefore, I was thinking of launching a fountain pen ink.  I am not a chemist, so I am definitely not going to be mixing all kinds of chemicals to concoct a writing fluid, but I have contacted a producer of fountain pen inks, and the initial response was enthusiastic.

However, before I pull the trigger on anything, I would love to get your input.  Given my family name, I would love to launch a brown ink – and I love well-shaded brown inks.  But I would love to hear what you are looking for in an ink.  Clearly, good behaviour, little feathering, and so on.  But what are you interested in colour-wise?  Light brown?  Dark brown?  What would you like to see?  What would make or break an SBREBROWN ink for you?  Please take a minute to give me your input below: I’d love to hear from you!

Many thanks in advance!

Andreas Lambrou is a world-renowned expert of all things fountain pen.  He has released two parts of his book trilogy on fountain pens of the world.  Following the very successful Fountain Pens of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, he launched the second installment, Fountain Pens of Japan, which took 12,000 man hours in research, in 2012.

Massdrop will offer these books for a truly great price soon, and was kind enough to send me these books for review purposes.  If you’re interested in buying these excellent, well-researched, and fabulously illustrated books, check out their “Drop” here.