Ink Nouveau

This is a video to thank everyone who supports the Goulet Pen Co. and Ink Nouveau...we get to enjoy moments like these because of you.

TWSBI is changing the nibs in their Vac-700 from Bock to Jowo, and in the interim there will be one of each shipped with the pen. If you want to swap the Bock (on the pen) with the Jowo (which comes in a separate nib unit), then you'll want to see this video. It's a little different than when you purchase a TWSBI nib unit by itself (not yet available for the Vac-700), which comes with the grip section of the pen. This nib unit only comes with the nib, feed, and housing, and you'll need to pull the nib out of the housing in order to swap it. It's not hard to do, but there are a couple of little things I needed to point out.

Noodler's 54th Massachusetts is a wonderful 'bulletproof' blue-black ink, and is one of the most exciting inks I've seen come out since Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses. I give the backstory to the label, as well as review the ink.

In a collaboration between Goulet and Edison, we have designed the Edison Nouveau Encore LE in the beautiful Flecked Tortoise acrylic. It's a rare material that we never thought would be feasible in a production setting, but Brian Gray was able to acquire enough to make this limited run. This pen will be available for pre-order through Nov. 30, 2012 for $185.

The Pilot Metropolitan is a new pen from Pilot that is really, really exciting me. It looks good, writes well, and is only $15 (with a converter!). They're only available in medium nibs, but they write like most Western fine nibs.

Didn't think there were enough Noodler's Ahab colors already? How about 23 more! I run through the latest batch of new colors here, and compare them to what's already out.

November 2nd, 2012 is the first ever international Fountain Pen Day. What is it? It's a day that members of the fountain pen network as well as retailers and manufacturers in the fountain pen world are marking as a "day to embrace, promote, and share fountain pens and the handwritten arts." You'll probably see a number of retailers and bloggers doing special things to promote this kickoff holiday celebrating this crazy hobby we love. And what better way to kick it off than to show you a collaborative video that a bunch of us fountain pen video-making folks decided to put together. The video is called The Fountain Pen News, and was led by Stephen B.R.E. Brown, the Dutch-sensation on YouTube. It includes him, myself (Brian Goulet of GouletPens.com), Brian Gray of Edison Pens, Brian and Lisa Anderson of AndersonPens.net, and Dan Smith of the Fountain Pen Geeks. Stephen was the brainchild behind the video, but we all had fun contributing to this parody of the obscure Monty Python's Flying Circus skit "News for Parrots".

After getting the TWSBI Mini in my hand, I couldn't help but wonder if the 540 nibs could be swapped successfully onto this pen. I touched on it in the full Mini review, but needed to spend some more time playing with it to be sure. Turns out, it can!

After a long wait, the TWSBI Minis are here! They're neat little pens, like smaller 540's. I show you the three colors, how they compare to the 540, how to take it completely apart, swap the nibs, and do a writing sample of it with an extra-fine nib.

After a 7 month hiatus, we're thrilled to bring back Write Time, our live interactive video broadcast about fountain pens. We'll be doing our broadcast every Wednesday at 9pm Eastern US time, and we look forward to seeing you there! We'll be posting the recording of the broadcast the following day on TheInkNouveau's YouTube channel.

What do you get when you cross a Pilot Plumix with a Pilot Prera? A Plumera!

Monteverde has a pretty nice looking pen for a pretty fair price, and it's called the Prima. Available in 7 colors of cast resin, these snazzy pens impress me because they write well, look nice without being gaudy, and are priced fairly. I show all 7 colors here, and write with the 1.1mm stub.

The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 isn't a new pen, but it is new in the US. This is the first I've gotten the chance to play with it, and I thought I'd share my impressions with you. I took the opportunity to compare this to the Prera, Custom 74 (one of my absolute favorites!), and the Custom 823.

Pilot has come out with a new Vanishing Point color, Gun Metal with Black Matte Accents. It's basically a Gun Metal Gray VP body with Black Matte trim instead of rhodium. It's a simple merge of the two pens, but WOW does it look sweet!

This is a follow-up video to my Leuchtturm1917 Overview where I covered all of the sizes and formats of the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. In this video, it's all about the paper. I write test the 80g and 100g Leuchtturm paper and compare it to a Moleskine ruled notebook and a Rhodia Webnotebook.