A few days ago I found a refill again that I ordered in 2021 and forgot about after moving home. It’s OHTO’s needlepoint gel refill.
An air bubble prevented the refill from writing
There was an air bubble right behind the tip, probably from evaporated ink, so the pen didn’t want to write. Luckily it was easy to pull the tip out without using any tools. You can then just let the gel ink flow down to the end of the cartridge and close it again. I wish I had figured this out earlier, it would have helped me in the past to get other refills going. So far, this is the most effective trick I have discovered to get old gel refills going again. After letting the ink run down to fill up the air gap, writing was dry at first, but a few days later the refill wrote like new.
Comparison
Back to the actual refill: It puts down a very fine line. The tip looks similar to JetStream’s Edge tip, but writing is much more pleasant. For me the best news was that it fits directly into a Caran d’Ache 849. The not so good news is that I have only been able to find this refill in black so far.
A refill from 1973 and 2018, marked as 7 73 and 28 12 18.
Since we’re talking about Caran d’Ache: it’s probably clear to most, but I only recently spotted that the refills have the date of production stamped on them. New-ish refills seem to be marked in the DD MM YY format. Very old cartridges seem to be marked M YY, written top to bottom.
Did you always want to know what happens inside a band’s tour bus at a music festival? Well, you are in luck: Volume Five of Giant Days, a comic book about life as a student, set in Northern England, shows what exactly is going on in there. The following page shows the moment Esther, one of the protagonists, enters the band’s bus.
When a few pages later heavy rain starts, turning the festival grounds into mud, life and society at the music festival start to break down:
The images in this blog post has been taken from Giant Days, Volume Five. I believe that the use of the images shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of visiting Montblanc Haus in Hamburg, located just next to Montblanc’s headquarters and manufacturing site.
The Montblanc Haus in Hamburg
The visit was part of a trip to Hamburg with my wife and son. We didn’t really know what to expect, so I thought we’d see a small exhibition about Montblanc’s past plus a gift shop, situated in a crammed building. The reality was quite different, though: when we arrived we were greeted by the view of a very modern, purpose-built building.
2 meter high metal shopping bags outside the Montblanc Haus
The surface of the building is wavy in a mesmerising way, showing what I assume is the mountain panorama of Montblanc, the highest mountain of the Alps. Even the landscaping of the outside area was aesthetically in line with the Montblanc Haus.
The outside landscape, as seen from the cafe
The reception staff was extremely friendly. To entertain children there is also a treasure hunt activity to keep them busy. The exhibition itself is spread over two floors. The building has a third floor, which wasn’t open on the day of our visit.
Montblanc fountain pens, arranged as a mountain
I won’t be able to relay the impressive exhibition here, so I am not even trying, but just to give you a quick overview: the ground floor is focussed on Montblanc’s history.
Montblanc inkwells over the years
The first floor is looking at the production process of Montblanc’s fountain pens as well as the importance of writing.
A letter, handwritten by Albert Einstein. One of a few dozen letters by influential people.
The last part of the first floor is linked to one of Montblanc’s latest campaigns: Wes Anderson’s advertising. You can be part of the set (or a copy of the set) used in the 100 Years of Meisterstück campaign video.
I am always impressed by Montblanc’s ability to release pens that are very different to each other. If you look at Pelikan’s piston fillers, Kaweco’s Sport or Lamy’s Safari, AL-Star or even the latest pine green Lamy 2000, the ‘achievement’ of the manufacturers is that you get the same pen in a different colour. It reminds me of my factory tour of Staedtler’s facilities: I mentioned the limited edition colours of the Mars Micro 775, which I was quite keen on, but they were hardly aware of it and mentioned “but it’s just the same pen in a different colour”. Montblanc on the other hand brings out new pens that are very different to each other and are often only available for a few months – with a price tag to match.
The Wes Anderson set
There was also a Montblanc shop, selling stationery and more. This includes a special Montblanc Haus fountain pen and ink. Ms Wergin from the shop explained to me, that the ink’s recipe is quite special and was developed specifically for calligraphy. It can however also be used in standard fountain pens without problems. Its consistency is supposedly a little more liquid than that of Montblanc’s main black ink, which helps it dry faster.The ink also consists of several colour pigments, which should give it a particularly deep and rich colour.
The shop in Montblanc Haus
I didn’t get round trying the ink out yet, as my currently used pens were just recently inked, but I am looking forward to trying it out soon.
Today: a look at a new eraser from Staedtler. I bought this eraser in August at Kaufland, a German supermarket-chain that is part of the same group as Lidl, on offer for €1.09 (~£0.92; $1.16). The normal price seems to be €2.20 (~£1.85; $2.33).
The packaging advertises it as being made with a minimum of 56% renewable materials. This made me curious to find out more. Luckily Mr. Rüdel from Staedtler was able to provide some more details: the chalk that is typically used when producing this type of eraser has been replaced by olive pomace, i.e. the solid remains of the olives after pressing for olive oil. The eraser has been available since Autumn 2023.
According to the official web page for this eraser, the plant flour that replaces the chalk can also come from corn. Additionally, the sleeve paper is made from by-products of sugar cane harvest..
This all sounds great, but the question now is whether the eraser performs well at erasing.
Luckily the 526 83-5 (that’s the official article number) doesn’t disappoint. Its performance is comparable to the well-known Mars plastic eraser, also by Staedtler.
My favourite erasers are still dust-free ones, but this is a nice performer with the added bonus of being made from renewable materials.
The Pelikan Hubs for 2024 took place last weekend and luckily I was chosen again as the Pelikan Hub host for Bremen. This year we met in a more central location: in a very nice and vegan Restaurant serving Chinese / Taiwanese food.
Compared to last year it was really busy: Altogether twelve fountain pen fans attended, including Michael Silbermann, the author of the bilingual book in German and English on Pelikan’s special and limited edition’s between 1993 and 2020. He and his wife also brought a few of their special and limited editions with them. It was great to try them out. Other participants also brought lots of pens and I was able to try out pens I didn’t even know existed before this evening.
