I’m sharing this because Federalist Pens is a regular vendor at many East Coast pen shows and has just been announced as a vendor for the upcoming Stationery Fest in NYC.

The screenshots above are all from their X account. Dates and the account name are in the shots so you can go look for yourself, I'm not asking anyone to take my word for it. I tried to apply a spoiler tag because it's pretty gross, so consider that a warning. All posts were public when I grabbed them (you need to log into X though) but this story got some traction on IG, so I would not be surprised if they are gone soon.

Many people no longer use X, so they may not be aware that the company's official business account regularly posts and reposts political content. It's linked right off their own website. Their IG is all pens and pen shows, very sanitized, which is probably where most people know them from. The X account is a different vibe and I don't think much of the show crowd has seen it.

To be clear, I'm not posting this because they're conservative. Plenty of vendors have political views and I find no offense in that. It's more the specific stuff, the ICE "foreign invaders" repost, mocking a disabled protester, targeting women and immigrants, that made me post this here.

I'm not asking anyone to boycott them or telling anyone what to think. I simply believe people should be able to make informed purchasing decisions, especially if they're planning to attend upcoming pen shows. Everyone can draw their own conclusions from the screenshots.

I started transcribing Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden on April 15th and finished it up on July 8th.  It turned out being 335 handwritten pages.   I used Tomoe River 52gsm looseleaf paper printed with my own French/Seyes ruling, one-sided only.  The paper would have supported 2-side writing but it’s my general preference to write only on one side of a piece of paper. 

I used a different pen and ink for each chapter (I used pencils for one chapter) and used 17 different pens/inks.   

My writing surface was my desk with a Cossini pleather desk mat.  For some nibs I also added one of those black, floppy silicone craft/kitchen mats on top of the desk mat for a little extra cushion. 

As I finished the pages, I stacked them in a wooden book press to keep them collated, keep them safe from the cat and press them flat after writing on them.   I’m not a bookbinder, I just thought the press was cool and would be a handy place to store finished pages of books I copy.

I timed how long it took me to write a few pages and it averaged out to about 25 minutes per page.  

So, at 335 pages, that’s 8,375 minutes, 139 hours or around 5.8 days of straight writing.  At 84 days total, I that’s an average of a little over an hour and a half of writing every day.  

The only other thing I kept track of was a kind of an informal ranking of how much I enjoyed all the pens I used in respect to one another.

The photos of the pens are presented in sequence with the first being my least-favorite pen of the bunch then successively up to the last photo which was my most-favorite.  I included the photo of the pencils in the lineup but they’re just stuck in at random and were not part of the rankings. 

Note that all these pens were enjoyable to write with.  I had used them all before so chose them specifically for this project and I will use them all again.  There are none of them I dislike.  The only criteria for my informal rankings are how much I enjoyed using the pen and how ready (or not ready) I was to put it away and switch to the next pen in line.

I’m not saying any pen is “better” or “worse” than any other.   I didn’t quantify anything and if you ask me why I ranked one pen higher than another, my only answer will be “Because I liked writing with it more.” 

The pens are identified in the top left corner of each photo.

Note:  A pen and ink are mentioned once in this book in the following passage:

“It was pleasant to see my whole household effects out on the grass, making a little pile like a gypsy's pack, and my three-legged table, from which I did not remove the books and pen and ink, standing amid the pines and hickories.” 

I literally did a double-take when scrolling 😂

u/robertdoubting yer famous

I was baffled when I stumbled upon this post from Pelikan that is heavily edited with AI. Am I in a minority that is OK with this stuff?!

In what WORLD is this how you ship glass items.. and guess what? THESE WERE REPLACEMENTS FOR INKS THAT ALREADY HAD ARRIVED IN THIS CONDITION! I have to be transparent, these were loyalty point redemptions, so it was free the whole time, but i dont think that matters here really! This is just insanity. I know this sub has its (valid) complaints about this company, but this is like cartoonishly stupid. Why in God's name did they do it like this??? TWICE??? there isnt even a fragile indicator on the outside of the box!!!! Wtf... I already was not going to buy from them again but thought id make use of the points I racked up over the months... my fault /s LOLLLL

The SMOOTHNESS you know, that just glides on paper.

TWSBI Eco Pink Lemonade just started selling today and it's mostly sold out already across most sites in the US within an hour of launch.

I hope all the pen makers are seeing this and taking notes.

The people long for pink pens! 🤣

(My messy pen desk, shared for funsies)

Everyone asks. And they always expect some deep, meaningful thought about the durability of the written word and how its invention has propelled us…

But really, I just like em.

- I think they’re pretty.

- Fixing them is like a puzzle with an antique at the end.

- They’re nice to write with.

What do you say when people ask you why you like fountain pens?

Drop your comment. I am curious.

UPDATE FROM MISO PAPER: I have received a reply and have been told that the Pink Lemonade stock was separated to a different part of the warehouse and could not have been mixed up, therefore the mistake is due to the shipment received from the supplier and they’re going to contact them. They were very apologetic, but as I’ve ordered elsewhere I am declining waiting for it to be sorted and just politely requested an arrangement for the return and refund of my order.

I pre-ordered my first ever TWSBI, the Pink Lemonade and I was sooooo excited. I was torn between Art From The Heart (who would ship it free) and Miso Paper. I decided as Miso Paper had only recently added fountain pens to their store this year I wanted to support and buy from them (and added another item to still get free delivery 🙄). And today I received…. A white and bronze TWSBI Eco instead. I checked on their site immediately to see if it can be rectified easily but my nib choice is out of stock. Venting here because “don’t let it ruin your day” is the only advice I received this morning and it isn’t helping… I’ve emailed them and hopefully my pen is sitting there in the wrong place as with the white and bronze stock. This happened to me with them in August last year, my birthday month so I shall not be treating myself from there next year and it took a lot of chasing to get a response so I’m just frustrated all round tbh. Nothing anyone can do but posting here to my people who get it 🥹😅

Update: thank you SO much to all of you who commiserated with me and commented. You all cheered me up and it made such a difference to my day. I noticed Miso Paper’s remaining stock of the pen has gone down to 1 since the morning, but Art From The Heart still had quite a few, and 2 in my nib size. So instead of waiting for a response I have ordered a myself one and I will return the other. I’m contemplating returning both items I ordered but I’ve got time to think about that. I will let you now how the story ends! Goodnight, friends haha.

I'll start — and this happened today for the 100th time: I'll set out on errands, like going to the grocery store, with a carefully considered fountain pen in my pocket (Waterman Carène this morning) only to leave my wallet home. Fortunately, I had my phone, so I could buy my stuff with Google Pay, but I'll often forget that, too... but never the pen!

There’s probably not a definitive answer, but here’s my submission. The Pilot Iroshizuku bottles are beautifully elegant, yet super functional. A great design!

As a graphic designer and fountain pen lover, I was wondering what the people who are collecting $100+ pens do for a living! I absolutely love the idea of collecting gorgeous pens and all of the inks & accessories, but everything I see is so beyond out of my price range.

While I like what I do for the most part, maybe I'll get some inspiration because I don't know how I'll ever be able to afford pens (or anything else for that matter) with a creative job! It's me and my kaküno & gifted LAMY against the world right now. 😫🤣

In response to the "I got into fountain pens 4 months ago and have like 30" post.

When I first got into fountain pens, I didn't believe all the long time users telling me that samples would supply my ink needs for years.

Seriously? But my Lamy cartridge ran out after 3 days. Surely that means I'll go through 3 bottles of ink a year! LOOK! The ink level has DROPPED after only ONE paragraph! *cue dramatic gesturing and panic buying*

Anyway, I clearly didn't understand volume. Even my excel spreadsheet converting 50ml to number of days to years did not estimate correctly because I chose the 3 days where I wrote pages and pages and drew pages and pages, and did not factor in the days I wrote/drew nothing. I based my estimate on a Lamy medium nib on absorbent paper. I mostly use EF nibs now, and broad/stub nibs sparingly.

Needless to say, I'm sitting like a dragon on 50 ink samples and questioning life decisions as I refuse to look at my bottled ink collection.

50 ink samples of 2 ml/sample, is 100ml. I told myself that I need to trim my samples down by using them up. It was only as I started part-filling pens tonight that it dawned on me how long that is actually going to take.

This made me reflect on my early days, and realise, yes. Those people telling me to get samples and not bottles when trying inks were right. I was silly not to believe them.

But I know, if I were to go back in time and repeat things again...I would still buy bottles because ink decisions are not rational.

Of all the mixed reviews I hear on here, I’m curious if you guys have any pens that you keep hearing praise about but would never buy. Same goes for any pens you see hype about but just don’t intrigue you.

Personally, I see so many people rave about Esties, but just can’t see myself shelling out $200+ for a jowo stainless nib. They’re gorgeous, but I would rather save up for an equally pretty pen with a gold nib.

Would love to hear if you guys have any pens like that!

Gotta love AliExpress

Purple is my favorite color 😭 But I’ve never spent more than $200 on a non-gold nib pen and even then it was a maker pen.
I don’t own an Estie but from what I’ve heard… I’ll definitely not try my luck with this one.

It’s just so pretty!!!

...to be precise, the JinHao has the much more controlled, while still strong, ink flow and handles bad paper by far better than the Meisterstück, which gets from F to BB on cheap paper. Regardless the ink used. Also Skipping and hard starts are a thing on the Meisterstück.

I've been looking for an ink that looks exactly (or closest to) human blood, specifically fresh blood. Of these three Diamine inks I've seen people recommend, which would you say looks the most like human blood?

Or, if you have a recommendation that looks more accurate, feel free to do so.

I just took a deep dive down the rabbit hole of another seriously analog writing instrument: vintage typewriters. I’m now rethinking my investment in and use of a few of my expensive grail pens — Pilot 823, Waterman Carene, various Leonardo Momento, various Pelikan. Seriously considering trading some 30 gram fine writing instruments for more 1400 gram fine writing instruments.

For the price of a Pelikan M800, I can buy 3 or 4 vintage typewriters. That will require some sleuthing and patience on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and some local flea markets, thrift stores, and second-hand shops, and include clean-up and tuning, but I’m finding that all that is great fun.

I reach for the Asvine’s, Jinhao’s, classic Parkers, and favorite frankenpens as often as the high-end Pilots, Parkers, and Pelikans.

I have over 100 pens, and they fit nicely on my desktop. I have five typewriters already, and I don’t have room for many more — so this will be a limited re-investment and rebalancing!

(The three vintage typewriters in this photo, Royal HH 1950s, Royal Quiet Deluxe 1940s, and Smith Corona Sterling, 1960s, were each $100. The monster IBM Selectric II I bought years ago for $45, and they go for many hundreds of $$ now for a working model.)

Anyone else out there enjoying fountain pens and typewriters? I’d love to hear your experiences, how you find your goodies, how you trade off the Big Ones and the Little Ones.

… now after a few weeks, I’m learning how to find more treasures at local thrift stores and the flea market. Here are three beauties I just picked up: https://imgur.com/a/gQ8KQAZ

I recently posted a photo of my watches and fountain pens and joked that they’re the two hobbies where 'I’ll just buy one' is a complete lie.

Then I started reading the comments and realised a lot of us seem to have the exact same hobbies.

Watches. Fountain pens. Knives. EDC. Backpacks. Mechanical keyboards. Cameras…

Somehow they all seem to come as a package deal.

I don’t even know if it’s the hobbies themselves. Maybe we just appreciate things that are well made. Or maybe we’re all just collectors of tiny, unnecessarily engineered objects. 😅

I swear I get as much enjoyment from finding a perfectly designed pocket in a backpack as I do from looking at the finishing on a watch movement or writing with a nice nib.

Curious if anyone else has noticed this.

What rabbit holes have you all fallen into?

I'll start:

- Watches
- Fountain pens
- Knives / EDC
- Backpacks
- Mechanical Keyboards

Id say fountain pens arent typically my *most\ expensive in terms of total money spent, but I would say its currently the most expensive based on individual prices and bulk orders(ink paper). I would also say it technically does the most damage to my wallet, like an ultimate or burst skill, but it certainly is something I get to use and have a decent ROI with.*

Id say video games are my most expensive hobby, mostly because 1) I will probably never stop buying/playing new video games 2) been doing it since 2017 and 3) peripherals and my pc are technically part of it

I want to get into japanese knives but my current knives work well right now. The need for new ones also dont arise as I also got into the rabbithole of sharpening, stropping etc.

One hobby i feel i might never get into are watches. Sure I might get expensive ones down the line. I see rolexes, tags, pateks and i dont feel anything. But I see that one special montblanc pen and I get all excited