Diamine Registrar's Ink

I love dark blue-black inks, and had seen previous reviews of the Diamine Registrar's Ink. This small, 1 ounce (30ml) bottle has an almost antique look to it, so I was keen on trying it. I'd read that it was based on iron gall ink, which can damage modern fountain pens, so I was a bit hesitant. But on further reading over at FPN it seems that as long as I give my pen a good soak all should be well.

The ink starts out a dark blue with black in it, then oxidizes to black. According to Diamine, this is permanent and waterproof ink to be used for maintaining official records. (I don't think my journal counts as that, even if it is a large orange Rhodia webbie.)

The color is velevety soft, like the night sky. Next to it Swisher Blue Black looks like it has a teal undertone. I wanted to see it against a truer blue, so I swabbed the J. Herbin Bleu Nuit for comparison. I like this old-looking color, and plan on using it for a lot of my notes and writing.

A Field Notes Lookalike for the iPad

I wanted to get a notepad app for my iPad, and looked over quite a few when I came upon Penultimate and thought it seemed vaguely familiar (*snicker*). The notebooks come in three styles: graph, lined, and blank. And you can have as many pages as you want, and start as many notebooks as you want.



The lines and graphs are in a pale brown ink, similar to the brown of the notebook. I keep looking for a name on the front cover in a black ink called "Dachsund's Nose." Like the paper version, this is becoming my favorite note taking device.

12th Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper at Goldspot Pens

Goldspot Pens is hosting the 12th Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper, go over and browse the posts (especially Julie's post on her awesome pen cabinet). And a big thanks to Nifty at Notebook Stories for founding the Carnival a year ago

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Cavalier Pen

I love Pilot's Hi-Tec-C gel ink pens, so when I saw this Cavalier at Kinokuniya I decided to add it to my collection. It's a very slim, elegant pen with a metal body, gold accents like the clip and ends, and this is an unusual teal lacquer that looks good.

I wasn't too happy with the 0.4mm needle tip, however. The ink didn't flow very well, the line was way to thin to be readable, and many times the pen just stopped writing. Kind of like the plastic Hi-Tec-C pens, but more expensive. So I went looking for a new refill, and found the Pilot G2 rollerball with a 0.7mm line that looks great. I love the G2 pens, so I've got plenty of refills available for a quick change. If you want something a little more professional-looking in a Hi-Tec-C, this is it.

Happy 4th!

The Macy's fireworks will be on the Hudson river for the second year in a row, giving my cats another break from the noise (I'm so close to the East River and the fireworks I can see them just by sticking my head out the window of my apartment). So I'm off to a friend's place in Brooklyn for a late afternoon picnic. She owns a converted church and we'll be on the roof deck grilling venison burgers and snackin' on chips and dips. Enjoy the day!

Staedtler Triplus Fineline

Here's a really unusual looking pen the Staedtler triplus fineliner. I found this and a purple one at a local stationery store and liked the look and feel. It's a very long, slim, triangular pen with a porous needle point that I thought looked like a 0.5mm width line or larger. The info from Staedtler is that it's about 0.3mm. Hmmm.

Anyway, the ink has a Dry Safe feature: the pen can be left uncapped for days without drying up. I'm sure I'll be testing that out very soon, and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised. The ink is water-based, so it will wash out of clothing and there's an airplane safety feature--an automatic pressure equalization prevents the pen from leaking while flying.

Cool looking liquid ink pen, reminds me of the Flair. If you find any, give them a try.

The iPad Has Landed

Finally arrived, the iPad 64gb with WiFi and 3G wireless. This is truly amazing, I've got my Kindle app set up and all my books, along with Netflix and a game or two. And I bought an app to let me create and edit docs in Word and Excel 2007. If this were cheaper, Bezos would be crying himself to sleep at night.

So posting will remain light while I play with the new gadget.