Ink Nouveau

It may seem like an elementary topic, but you'd be surprised how often I get asked how to properly install an ink cartridge. The concept is the same for just about any cartridge/converter fountain pen, and I am using a Lamy Vista to demonstrate the practice. Learn how to properly install it, when to change it, and how often to clean it depending on your usage.

While the feeds of Lamy fountain pens aren't made to be removed as a regular part of their operation, it is possible to accidentally pull one out when swapping your nib. If you put the feed back in incorrectly, you can jam it in and make it nearly impossible to remove without damaging it. I made this video to help you safely replace your feed in your pen in case you should find yourself in this situation.

Noodler's has recently released a new material for the Konrad Flex Pen, Acrylic Acetate. This is the same shiny, rich (non-smelly) resin that you're used to in many other much more expensive pens. Definitely a step up in the Noodler's line.

It's hard for me to believe that you have seen my face (and hands!) over a million times now on YouTube, thank you so much for watching my videos! Podcasting is something I started later and I have a smaller but still loyal following. This video is purely just to thank you, and to give you some backstory about how and why I started doing videos.

I'm very pleased to announce the introduction of the Goulet #6 Stainless Steel nibs! Made by Jowo in Germany, these $15 stainless steel nibs are available in EF, F, M, B, 1.1, and 1.5 sizes, and have a sweet GP ink splatter logo on them. These nibs are ideal for converting your Noodler's Ahab or Konrad (and any other pen that holds a #6 nib) to a non-flexible pen with a good range of nib sizes.

Coveted as one of the pens with the largest ink capacity and unique filling systems, Edison's bulb filling pens have long been at the upper price range for most pen enthusiasts. Until now!

You spoke and Noodler's listened! The change made to Army Green back in Sept. 2012 from an olive color to an emerald color has now been reversed. Army Green is back to it's original olive formula, all thanks to your support. Bravo!

If you like leather pen cases, and you like pretty colors, then check out Sula Jane & Earl. It's a start-up company from California, that hand-makes pen sleeves, pen wraps, and a journal/notebook/phone cover.

TWSBI has instructions inside their pens showing how to take it apart, but I find that taking apart and putting a pen back together is shown best in a video. This demonstration will show you how to take apart and reassemble a TWSBI 580, 540, 530, and Mini, they're all identical in the piston mechanism assembly. If you've ever struggled putting your TWSBI pen back together, this is the video for you.

The design changes that TWSBI made to the Diamond 580 from the 540 are subtle, but worth taking the time to review. That's what I cover here.

After publishing my initial video introducing Midori, I received some great suggestions from Midori fans about how to arrange notebooks inside the Traveler's Notebook leather wrapping in creative ways, which bypass the need to use any special rubber connecting bands. I'm a retailer showing you how you don't need to buy something from me. How often does that happen?

This is a video of the TWSBI Diamond 50P inkwell, the more economical version of TWSBI's original Diamond 50 inkwell. I compare the two and demonstrate how to use the 50P in this video.

Here I'm testing the Apica CD and Basic notebooks with several different fountain pens and inks.

Since not many folks are familiar with Apica as a paper brand, I thought I'd go over some of the details of the journals, at least the ones I'm familiar with, the CD and Basic lines.

***WARNING*** This is probably something your pen manufacturer does not want you to do at the risk you'll do something irreversible to your pen! But really, it's not that big of a deal. Basically, I'm showing you how to remove the o-ring that seals the ink chamber of your vacuum filler pen (in this case, a TWSBI Vac-700 and Pilot Custom 823). What this does is allow you to avoid having to unscrew the back filler knob of your pen.