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Lamy’s Song Dynasty Safari

When in Shanghai, I like to visit Lamy stores. Unlike Lamy stores in Europe, they tend to offer lots of special editions. My best guess is that I am not only amazed by the quantity of these special editions but also by the quality.

Originally, I was trying to find two specific items: The Lamy Safari Field Green because it looks beautiful and the Hanzi nib because I want to experience how it writes. The Hanzi nib is made for writing Chinese script. I used Google Translate to translate an explanation into English, see below.

Unfortunately, the Field Green Safari was impossible to find in Shanghai: it was neither available in the Lamy stores, nor was it available on Chinese online market places. This came as a surprise because imported pens are often available via online market places at good prices – for example, it was easy and not expensive to get the uni-ball Signo Needle in Japan-exclusive colours. I also got the Pilot Custom Heritage 91 for a really good price.

Back to Lamy: On the trip to Shanghai last year, I bought three different special editions. I will write more about the Hanzi nib another time (spoiler, I got one), but today I want to show you another special edition: The Song Dynasty edition Safari in Jade White. There is also a Sky Blue version available, also very beautiful.

The Song Dynasty edition Lamy Safari

It also came with free engraving, so I made use of this offer. Below is a short video that shows how my pen got engraved. If you look at the barrel of the pen, you can see the characters appearing.

You can also see more of the pen and its packaging in the unboxing video below.

Another special edition is the Lamy Leben set, as seen in this advertising.

Pokemon sets were also still available, but I had already seen these at previous visits.

Some more impressions from this Lamy store.

I hope you liked the look at the Song Dynasty Edition Safari. You can find an overview of other Lamy Safari editions at Stationery.wiki. Please feel free to contribute to the article.

It’s always exciting to find new and unique editions when visiting Lamy stores in Shanghai. To be fair, they are usually just the same pen in a different colour, but if that colour appeals to me I am happy to add it to my collection. In this case the colour is beautiful like the griso and the cream Safari’s colour.

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MAD about pencils

If you grew up in a Western country and are old enough then you probably know about MAD Magazine.

Many countries had their own versions, but the UK edition stopped being published in the mid-90s, so every time I went to visit Germany I tried to get the latest German version. Towards the end of German MAD’s life this wasn’t very easy: the only places I found that sold the magazine were newsagents in train stations of towns with at least 100,000 inhabitants. I happened to be in Germany when the last issue was published and I have to say no one in the German media made a fuss about it being the last issue. It might also not have been known that this is the last issue when it was published, as I don’t see any indication of that in the actual issue.

As is the case with news though, sometimes more relevant news are overshadowed by less relevant news. When the US version of MAD Magazine announced it would stop publishing issues based on mainly new content, this news spilled over the Atlantic and somehow was big news in Germany: on TV and also in popular newspapers and magazines. The news was usually presented as if MAD Magazine will stop being published, even though no one seemed to care when the German version stopped being published and even though the US version MAD is still being published, to this day, it is just mainly made up of reprinted articles, with the occasional new content sprinkled in between.

Why do I mention all of this? Because I want to show you a page form the current (June 2025), reality-TV themed issue:

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A different use for Nock Co.’s Burton

Hands up, please, if you miss Nock Co.

Ah ok, thanks.

You can lower your hands again, thanks for taking part.

I’m not surprised so many here miss Nock Co. It’s a real shame they closed down. Their products were well thought-out and of great quality. Luckily, I backed all Nock Co. x Pen Addict Kickstarters, so can still enjoy a few of their pencil cases.

The 2015 Hightower is just a great pencil case.

The 2017 Sapelo fits perfectly in my Lihit Lab A4 sleeve that I use to transport my laptop to work every day – and the quality of the Sapelo so much better than that of the Lihit Lab case.

The 2018 Tallulah is my dedicated Rotring case.

There’s one case however I never really could find a great use for: the 2019 Burton. The waxed surface made me (probably needlessly) worried that it will make items sticky or greasy if the outside comes into contact with them. The inside was somehow too big for my purposes. The look is great though. Outside it is unobtrusive, inside it is happily and very bright green – it’s the bomber jacket among pencil cases.

My new use is not really stationery-related. It’s now my case for an 8 inch portable screen I use for Raspberry Pis. It’s not quite the intended “A5 notebook and some pens” use, but it works very well for me.

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Staedtler’s sugar cane / corn / olive eraser

double pack of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

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 back of the double pack of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

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.

Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

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.

eraser test of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

My favourite erasers are still dust-free ones, but this is a nice performer with the added bonus of being made from renewable materials.


Price: August 2024

Exchange rates: October 2024

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Pelikan Hub Bremen 2024

Vegefarm, Bremen

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.

If you also attended a Pelikan Hub please let me know how it went. I’d love to find out what happened in other cities.

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