I am just three addictions in a trench coat
No Fail February, here I come because I failed No Buy January and you’ll see why
Fine. My grandiose plan of not buying any pens during January backfired tremendously. Not only did I buy one pen, I bought two, and about 18 ink samples. I thought that being super prepared, i.e. buying several pens at the end of December so that they’d arrive in January, AND having my birthday the same month (meaning getting more pens from at least two people and shame on everyone else for not sending me a pen), would be enough of a deterrent. The pen count is now 136, and I still browsed a website for more (Karas Kustoms, and no, I didn’t buy anything because they sold out of Fountain K and I just wanted that sale so I could get a no. 5 titanium nib for cheap1).
It’s not my fault, though. I forgot that Goulet Pens would send me a coupon code for free ink samples for my birthday. I was going to just wait until 2/1 to get the pen I wanted plus those samples, but THEN, Goldspot Pens just had to have a beautiful pen I’d never seen and…
Anyway. Here’s to the consequences of my actions :raises cup of coffee: :banana falls out and onto the keyboraraddnaudua: :wipes keyboard:
TLDR, what got to me is FOMO. I should have known. I even emailed Goldspot to ask if they’d be restocking, and then bought the pen regardless, not having even waited for the response, at the beginning of the last week of January. I did tell myself it is fine because it’s a limited edition.
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t. They responded on Monday saying they would indeed be restocking the pen. Well, failing my pledge, I then bought the other pen I wanted and pledged I Will Not Fail in February2.
Anyway, onto the culprits.
Opus 88 mini Beluga
See, there are couple of things that make sense in my head. No. 1, I used PenBoyRoy’s affiliate link, so I basically helped him keep up with the PenBoyRoy podcast with is funny as heck and contains potty mouth words (you have been warned), and that act of altruism makes me a superhuman. No. 2, I have a fine nib lying around I can swap this 1.4 stub I already have in another pen3. No. 3, the pen has fishies and a whale. Whale aside, if there is anything on this earth that will make me tear up is fishies. I love them. My best friend of 20 years was a fish (RIP, and yes, she indeed lived to be 20, passing away when I was 27 for the second time or so, so basically was with me my entire life). So, naturally, I had to buy a pen that would remind me of her. Or him. Or them. I never learned the gender, but we called the fish a relatively feminine name, so I hope they forgive me if wrong.
If you can hear me in the great afterlife fishbowl, I miss you and you’re to blame for my failing my own challenge.
Tell me you wouldn’t fail your challenge after seeing this.
All jokes aside, this is not my first Opus 88 mini. Frankly, I should’ve gotten a full sized pen, but I will admit I do not know enough to make an educated guess which model would fit me. I know Omar is super big. So, I did what any sane individual would, and I bought my fourth mini, and did what I told myself I never would do, and that is — getting a nib I already have. If anyone wants to swap for, let’s say, a medium, lemme know. We can make it happen.
These pens are small, yet compact; lightweight, yet sturdy; short, yet sporting huge ink reservoirs. I don’t feel this way or the other about the filling system, but I will say it’s quite interesting. On the outside, it may look like your average vacuum filler, or even a piston filler, but things are not always how they seem, are they? You thought you were reading a blog by someone who knows what they’re talking about, but I am just three addictions in a trench coat, as you might have noticed several minutes ago when you opened your email to this week’s shenanigans by yours truly. This filling system is known as the Japanese Eyedropper; the rod inside the pen is actually a shut off valve, which is super cool for flying as you can cut off the ink supply to the nib and prevent burping.
Side note, I have flown with all sorts of pens and have never had any burp on me. Sure, some ink gets into the cap, but no C/C, piston, or vac filler has ever made a mess ever. Ink bottles? As you saw last time, yep. Do not, I repeat, do not try to put cling foil under the cap, it does not work. But pens? No pens of mine ever made a mess, and I would know as I have flown with between 5 and 55 (not exaggerating) pens across the Atlantic four times so far.
But the shut off valve is still great. If you want the pen to write wetter, just unscrew the blind cap and go at it. You can probably write a gazillion pages with one fill. Not that I care for that feature, as I love changing inks more often than socks, but some people don’t listen to my advice about travel pens (go read that post if you haven’t already), so perhaps this is the pen for you. And, from my experience, the 1.4 stub is superbly crisp. The B nib wasn’t as good (baby’s bottom, but also nothing a bit of micro mesh won’t fix).
Pros: ideal pocket pen if you need capacity and can only have one pen for a month.
Cons: I have three more so I do not need this one and I might experience buyer’s remorse. Kidding. The grip is a bit bigger, so if your hand is particularly small, you may not enjoy the pen.
Rating4: slightly yellowish banana.
TWSBI ALR Black (EF)
This is the pen I really damn wanted. My favorite color (excluding maroon) is black, and when the ALR Black was announced and was going to be released just around my birthday, I just had to have it. As I didn’t get it for my birthday, I bought it for myself since I already had those free samples. Why waste shipping fees, right? And I do not regret it.
I know what you’ll say. “But,
, don’t you have another ALR?” and I will say, yes, I sure do. And then you might ask if I also have an AL. And a regular 580. Yes, fine, I do, I have all three and then some. But I do not have any of them in the EF nib and black is my favorite color (after maroon), and it was my birthday and it is my precious.
Anyway. If you have an ALR, you probably know that the grip is textured; if you don’t own one, spoiler alert: the grip is textured. What that means is that the tactile experience of holding the pen is extremely pleasant for those of us who like to handle things and dick around with them and disassemble stuff to see how they work5. On the other hand, if you are sensitive to touch or do not like to put your fingers on, say, weaved baskets or wool sweaters, this pen might not be for you. In that case, I would encourage you to check out the AL version, which is the same thing without texture.
The difference between your regular diamond 580 and AL and ALR is in the materials; the 580 has a plastic grip and the piston rod to match, whereas the AL and ALR have, you guessed it, aluminum6 hardware. Basically, if you ever wipe off the grease on the actual rod of the AL or ALR, you’re out of luck. Which one do I prefer? I like them all. I like my 580 just as much as my AL and ALRs, except I prefer stuff with some color so I lied at the beginning of this sentence. But YMMV, as they say on Reddit; perhaps you hate metal grips, and that’s fine. What I do know is that our fingers won’t slip on any of the 580 models, so you needn’t worry about that. The ALR grip, however, will trap ink and then you’re out of luck if you want to clean it off.
Unless you wet a paper towel and press against the grip and twirl the pen, I guess.
So damn pretty
The grip is so pleasant that I had my wife touch it. And the nib? Superb. Wow. I got the EF and I thought I wouldn’t be excited but I AM. I love it.
The newness of this finish appealed to me immediately; the black comes in as a stark contrast between the aluminum and the plastic parts. See, this pen was mentioned to my brother as something I would like, but he decided it was too “boring” and got me a different pen (also TWSBI, thank you, I love you7).
Pros: beautiful furniture, looks classy for some reason, is nice to the touch.
Cons: the nib is the same as the nibs used on any other 580, 580 AL, Vac, and Precision (bet you forgot about that one didn’t you).
Conclusion
In the end, yes, I am unhappy that I failed my challenge; however, if I had to pick two pens to fail with, I think I picked well. Both pens are well made, will last a long time, and will bring me joy. Besides, if all I do is pay bills, why do I even work in a field that makes me absolutely miserable?
What about you? Any pen regrets since the start of 2024? And did you even expect me to last a full month without failing miserably, promise I wouldn’t buy pens in February, and fail again within the same week?
Or do you think I picked the “No Fail February” as the subtitle because there are no fails when it comes to fountain pens, and I am tricking y’all?
P. S. The content is still and will remain free, but if you’re so inclined, you can always support my work by pledges. I have goodies I’d like to share, and also, I would greatly appreciate it. I promise all donations will go towards pen purchases (unless I actually go through with the promise). And bananas. I have stocked up on coffee though thanks.
Okay, fine. I did end up buying the pen just after getting this post ready, but that’s only because I also backed a project on Kickstarter, so basically I failed no matter what. FINE.
Spoiler alert, yes, I failed that before I even posted this. I am sorry.
If you wanna swap your #5 M for a 1.4 lemme know, we can make it happen.
Green bananas are superior. So, fully green banana, or lime green one, although not yet ready to be consumed, is preferred because it gives you the opportunity to relax and have a break before it’s time to eat it. Slightly off green, so almost yellow, is a good one to nom. Slightly yellowish, good, I will enjoy. Yellow — almost too late. Yellow with brown spots — will eat if hungry. Brownish? Toss. Dark brown? Psychopaths eat these.
I am also three little boys in a trench coat, one of which is Peter Pan as I definitely never grew up and I’ve been 27 for several years now.
I will forever think of this word as aluminium and no one will stop me.
In case it wasn’t clear, I was talking about my brother, not the pen. But if you guessed the pen, you were also correct.
It is really, really nice to see someone else also uses the word fishies in normal conversation.
I bought a pilot decimo, an Esterbrook single pen sleeve, and some spare Chinese nibs to f*ck around with. Oh, and I bought a Pelikan 205 in December, so receiving it in January doesn’t count. I also bought diplomat aero in January, but didn’t receive it until February, so it doesn’t count.