Pens and Paper

My new Kaweco Sport

I'd never heard of Kaweco until recently, oddly enough. It sounds like it's a Japanese company, but actually it's a very old German one, dating from 1883, according to the box.

This little cutie retails for about $30, and it's an aluminum body with steel nib. It's four inches long closed, and five inches long when posted. It only takes cartridges, but I bought a squeeze-style refillable cartridge for it. I've used the included one with it, so I'll wait to see how the squeeze one does.

What's surprising is that, for the price, it's a really nice nib - very smooth, and starts flowing right away. A really nice pen overall.

My Wonder Pens order has arrived!

Just a few days after placing my order, I receive my stuff from Wonder Pens in Toronto, via the mail. I got a TWSBI piston-fill fountain pen, a pack of Field Notes (lovely little notebooks), and a refillable cartridge for my Kaweco pen.

And they threw in a couple of goodies as well! C'mon, who doesn't love the Miracle Fish fortune teller?

Great service, and exactly as advertised. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Check out Wonder Pens!

There's a new pen and paper retailer in Toronto - Wonderpens, at 906 Dundas Street West. I haven't had a chance to visit the store in person, but I've gone through the website, and I'll be ordering some things. Shipping is a flat-rate $7.00 across Canada.

The site includes a great blog, too.

It's nice to see a store like this in Toronto. There are some great shops that carry the high-end stuff, like Laywine's and B. Sleuth & Statesman, and then you get a couple of the entry-level Cross fountain pens at big-box stores like Staples, but it's hard to find someplace that does the nice mid-range stuff by itself.

And when you're finished at Wonder Pens, go down to Queen Street to The Paper Place. It's the old Japanese Paper Place, and it carries a magnificent selection of fine Japanese papers, book binding supplies, and other really cool stuff.

After writing all that, I'm starting to get the urge ... I need to make a trip into Toronto!

Paging the 70s: Ms. Parker by Pucci!

You certainly have to love the 1970s. While BIC recently tried (and failed) with a "pen for women," Parker was smart enough to run with the Call Me Ms. movement that was just coming into play as women decided that their titles shouldn't indicate their marital status.

A friend gave me this piece of history. The Ms. Parker was styled by Italian designer Emilio Pucci, and featured a gold band that's ribbed on this model (you could get a plain one, too). It would originally have come with a thin leather holder that fit in the large blank space in the box behind the pen. The model was discontinued in 1981.

It used a "floating ball" liquid ink system, but I'm not having much luck finding a replacement, and this pen may have to stay in the collection as a curio, rather than a writer. It's a problem with a few old pens -- I have an ancient Esterbrook pen that will probably never write again, since its refills are long defunct.

It's also one reason why I won't buy the Parker 5th. It's mostly because I prefer a fountain pen, not a fineliner masquerading as one. But beyond that, I'm leery of pens that take refills specific to them. If the pen goes off the market, eventually the refills will, too. And what's a pen for, if not for writing?