Hacking ink with an x-ray machine… The story is two weeks old by now, but I thought I post it here in case you also find this fascinating.
Read more about it on the MIT web site.
The image has been taken from the MITweb site. I believe that the use of this image falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
One of the indispensable pens in our kitchen is the Stabilo All pencil. It can write on almost any surface, so is suitable for labelling more or less whatever needs labelling in the kitchen: plastic tubs, bags, clips and more. When our current 8008 got lost we got a new one, or rather two: the graphite version (8008) and the colour pencil version (8046) which is not graphite based but more like a black coloured pencil.
One thing we noticed very soon is that, unlike our old version, the current version is now marked as being made in the Czech Republic. I assume it is made in Český Krumlov, Schwan-Stabilo’s factory that I mentioned in the past, the first time in a blog post about the EASYgraph.
Writing with the new version feels quite different. I hope the lost 8008 will turn up again so that I can compare them.
You can find a review of the 8008 on the From The Pen Cup Blog:
In other news: I noticed that Kaweco has a few new products, including the Perkeo in very unusual, matte looking pastel colours. Kaweco now also has ink bottles in a new square design and a new book. You can see the new products on Kaweco’s page for new products – I assume the page linked to will only show these products for a few weeks, so if you look at this blog post after Spring 2021 you probably won’t see them there.
There were also a few other, very nice products from Kaweco which don’t seem to be new, but which I haven’t noticed before – including a nice concrete pen holder. I couldn’t resist and ordered one, so will update you soon.
The Perkeo image has been taken from the Kaweco web site. I believe that the use of this images falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
All pencil and Kaweco Read More »
Today: a very exciting arrival: My Lamy Safari collection got company.
For several years I was hoping that Lamy would re-release their original Safari colours. I think this idea started to grow in me when Lamy re-released their Lime Green special edition from 2008 in 2011 (with some small differences).
My thought were along the lines of “If they can re-release lime green, why not savannah green, one of the two original colours…”
By the way, if you want to have a look at what is probably the most comprehensive list of special Safari editions on the web, head over to the Lamy Safari article on stationery.wiki.
There are many differences that make it easy to distinguish the original versions from the 2021 versions, so there isn’t much danger of this re-release causing too much confusion – instead it represents a homage to Lamy’s original colours.
I have been a Lamy Safari user since the mid-1980s, but I have to admit that I don’t remember at all what my first Safari colour was. I am however quite sure that in came in a box like the one pictured below (linked to from Flickr). The box looked very cool, so I kept model figures in it for many years.
The Pen Company, where I got the engraved Caran d’Ache from, is just about the get new stock of the 2021 Lamy Safari colours in. I bought the savannah green and terra red fountain pens from Write Here and the savannah green ballpoint pen and rollerball from CultPens. Somehow Write Here’s search function seems to have a problem, so I didn’t even realise they also carry the non-fountain pens as they didn’t show up in a search. When I checked again today some of them did now show up.
The Write Here Logo that they managed to emboss on the official Lamy packaging came as a surprise – a great idea and looks fantastic.
Savannah green is certainly one of my favourite colours in terms of look, but it’s not quite my absolute favourite Safari – that is the grey version (sometimes referred to as griso). I had two and sent one to Sean of Contrapuntalism fame, but unfortunately the postal service managed to damage it in transport. The one I kept is still in it’s packaging. Maybe I should unpack it one of these days. It’s just too good looking to stay unused.
What are your favourite colours and do you prefer the ‘matt’ or the glossy’ pens?
Savannah green and terra red Read More »
Spring is coming – and it turns out there’s not only a special Spring version of the Hobonichi notebook (the Spring version starts in April), there are also special Spring Hobonichi covers [1]I saw two, but maybe there are more, officially only available now. Well, officially they are only available in Spring, but I guess in reality they are available until they are sold out.
Hobonichi seems to be going from strength to strength, expanding their line a bit more every year [2]…not sure whether the Spring edition is new, but it is certainly new to me..
To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Noris Staedtler has created a special page for our [1]..certainly my and maybe also your favourite pencil favourite pencil. You can find it in the ‘Highlights’ section of Staedtler’s website (it’s part of the the ‘Discover’ menu item).
I wish this important brand and pencil could have been in the limelight a bit longer – by Staedtler featuring the Noris anniversary article on their landing page for a few weeks – especially in countries like the UK where the Noris is very popular and people might appreciate this special anniversary [2]The 120th anniversary of the pencil with then umber 120.. Addendum: I have been told that that the Noris anniversary pages will be expanded throughout the year.
The special Noris web page is a great read with lots of historic details plus some quirky titbits thrown in, like the record-breaking Noris color pencil that is more than 450 meters long or the giant Noris Obelisk in Barcelona. Unfortunately the translation into English seems to have been done by a computer, which resulted in the occasional information hiccup, but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment you get from all the details. Addendum: My understanding is that Staedtler will get the translation issues fixed.
I feel very honoured that my best wishes for this anniversary are featured on the German version of the Staedtler website, next to Gunther’s.
The anniversary details from this page are great, so I couldn’t resist and added some of them to the Noris page on Stationery.wiki.
The screenshots have been taken from BBC News. I believe that the use of these images falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.