Field Notes to go

After writing about them a little while back, I’ve finally managed to lay my hands on some Field Notes notebooks. I found them at a little store near to where I work in Clerkenwell.
View Larger Map The shop is called Magma, a design bookstore that also caters for the funky objects that funky graphic designers’ desire. They stock a small but random range of obscure and stylish notebooks: notebooks for the left-handed, lined at an angle; some covered in old wall paper; do it yourself versions; pre-doodled; 50s and Japanese styled exercise books; and so on. The Field Notes were £8.95 for three. I also picked up some ‘Idea pads’, but more on them later. The Field Notes themselves looked smaller at first than I imagined. But checking them against my pocket Moleskine, they are in fact the same height and width. It must be the lack of thickness and a soft cover that make them seem so. First impressions? A little less impressive than in real life than the images I have seen online, but still neat. Paper thinner than I thought too, in fact, I do wonder if it will hold fountain pen ink without bleeding through. I will have to test them later with a variety of inks and pens. Otherwise I might just have to treat myself to a new pencil to go with them :-) Review to follow…

Vintage Conway Stewart 58 fountain pen review

One of the pens that has been on my wish list for a couple of years at least is an early-1950s Conway Stewart 58 with Duro nib. Well, I was lucky enough to be blessed with one just before Christmas as a present from my wife (thank you!). A very pretty lined grey and black.

Design As I opened it, my wife said “I question your normal choices, but actually I really like this one!” She has a good eye for design, and I think her comment is a high accolade for the 58. The material is pearlescent and catches the light wonderfully. Conway Stewart can be a little light on the gold-plating and this one shows typical wear on the clip. The delicate lever filler has a dainty Conway Stewart logo. But most of all, I think it has a nice balanced look to it, whether capped or posted. Design 8/10

Feel The weight of this pen is just perfect for me. It’s a plastic-based pen, but not too light. (I really must get some digital scales to tell you the exact weight of these things). What is most noticeable though, is its solid feel. The balance is good when writing, and it is comfortable to hold. It is a reasonably fat pen. The cap is screw-fit, though unfortunately on this one, the threads have worn somewhat meaning they don’t engage and hold the cap in place that well. It will have to have the inner cap shortened at some point to make it more useable. Or have the threads rebuilt. Dimensions: 129mm (5 1/16”) capped, 153mm (6”) posted Feel 8/10 Nib 14ct Gold Duro fine nib. These have a fantastic reputation, there’s therefore little I can add really. It is on the hard side of springy and a good workman. Really smooth, but gives feedback – lovely. I’d like to try a flexible one. Nib 9/10

Filling Lever filler, with a very pretty lever as mentioned already. Filling 7/10 Cost I know my wife paid £70 for this pen. Reasonable, though I would have been happier if the cap threads weren’t an issue. Conway Stewarts are highly collectable and pretty solid, and I think the price reflects this. In comparison to other pens, I think this is pretty reasonable. As a point of interest Lambrou notes the original price of a 58 in the early 1950s to be 30 shillings. The price range from Conway Stewart at the time was 12 shillings to 35 shillings. Cost 8/10

Overall These are great pens, very presentable and good solid writers. Overall 40/50

Field notes notebooks

A little while ago whilst browsing The Fountain Pen Network website, I saw mention of ‘Field Notes’ branded notebooks. A small softback ‘memorandum book’, which I quite liked the look of. As with many things though, it is a case of only being able to admire such things at a distance. Being able to import products from America or Japan can often be so expensive in postage that it is just not worth it.

Apparently they are inspired by agricultural memo books in the US. A little promotional item given out by fertiliser companies and the like. They’re 48 pages of squared paper in a handy pocket size – 3 /12” x 5 ½” – and saddle stitched (stapled). Available in packs of three. Well, it now seems there is a UK stockist, the Design Museum, and better still available (I think) in their brick and mortar shop in London on Shad Thames (SE1 2YD). You can find them on the Design Museum shop website.

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At some point I will have to pop across and buy some, and then hopefully when I find some time review them here. Addendum: It appears The Paperie has them in stock too.

Time flies

Its been a little while since my last post, work has been busy and I've been on holiday. We made our annual pilgrimage out to Turkey, and it always provides a good opportunity to spend some time writing in my journal. There is always the dilema of which pen to take too. What is the best travel solution and what do you need to consider for transporting ink and pens when having to endure airport security. I stuck to my old formula this time around, a Lamy Safari and some Lamy black cartidges. The pen being empty when I fly out to avoid any leaks due to cabin pressure changes. I keep the pen and catridge in a zip lock bag just to be on the safe side though. Check-in was a pain. The usual long wait associated with budget airlines. But, security was a breeze compared to previous trips, or so I thought. Security usually adds quite a bit of time to that required to get airside. It didn't help that we were travelling with our little boy for the first time. A real recipe for stress. Much to our relief, there were no queues though and we went straight through to the x-ray machine. My bags went through and immediately a security guard latched on to me. 'Would you come this way please sir'. 'Do you have any sharp objects in your bag?' My first thought was I am going to have to explain what a fountain pen is, what the ink cartridges are and my wife will be annoyed about the extra delays. But no, its my little boy's bottle and food they want me to test personally. Ah well. Coming back, I left a half empty ink cartridge in the pen and it did leak a little. But only into the cap. Nothong to worry about. A little bit of kitchen roll mopped up the offending ink. What was amusing though was I paid lots of attention and thought on the air pressure change affect on my pen, but not on my little boy's bottle in my hand luggage. One wet bag and one wet journal.

Midlands Pen Weekend 2008

Don't forget, its the Midlands Pen Weekend this week. 20/21/22 June 2008 The George Hotel, Bird Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire

Great source for vintage fountain pen advertising

Yesterday I was doing some background research for a project at work - looking at the development of a few consumer brands during the last century. In doing so, I stumbled across an amazing resource, The Times Online Archive. If you are not already aware it seems that the Times has scanned in and digitised every single issue from 1785 to 1985 - 200 years worth of newspapers. They've obviously had some very clever opticial character recognition software which means the whole content is searchable too.

I did a search on "Parker 51", as you do, and was presented with an overwhelming number of results for the 1940s and 1950s. Clicking on one of the links takes you to a scan of the relevant page of the Times, allowing you to pan in zoom around. Instantly, I had access to look at some wonderful original adverts, like the Margaret Lockwood advert below from 1956.

Have a look and do a few searches. You need to register, but its very worthwhile. I think I may be busy for a while!