The Planter by Dudek Modern Goods - Giveaway

If you are fairly new to the blog, in addition to writing The Clicky Post I also produce a line of modern handmade walnut pen and notebook stands under the brand Dudek Modern Goods. The support (worldwide) has been so huge over the last three years of making them!

All of my pieces serve a need in their own special way, but sometimes I play favorites....

The recent addition of The Planter, a piece to hold nine of your favorite pens or pencils as well as a succulent or cactus has been received with such a positive response that I felt that a giveaway was in order!

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

The "Fine Print" (sort of):

This giveaway is open to US and International readers (woohoo!) and will run through Saturday, March 26th, until 11:59pm PST (Arizona). 

To enter, post a comment below about whether your desk is super organized, a complete mess, or somewhere in between...

I will arrange the entries in order as received and use a random number generator to pick the winner. The winner will be announced the next day and will have one week to claim their prize!

 

Story Supply Co Pocket Notebook Review

I had seen Story Supply Co on Instagram and Twitter, but hadn't yet taken the opportunity to try out their notebooks. They were kind enough to offer me up a pack to review here on the blog, so a special thanks to them for sending a set my way.

The first thing that stands out to me about the Story Supply Co notebooks is their very simple, but classy looking covers. The set I received is a dark, matte blue with a contrasting cream/ivory colored logo. Nothing too fancy, but nicely done.

Before getting into the notebook a bit more, the company was founded under the idea that everyone has a story to tell. Hence, a little pocket notebook to carry with you to jot down your meaningful experiences, ideas, and maybe even your grocery list, but somewhere to intentionally capture your thoughts. Their mission to spread this idea around is translated into one of their business choices: to provide a kid in need a "Supply Kit" to tell their own story.

A snippet from their site that I found a bit inspiring: 

Stories matter. They help us connect and empathize with others. They make us a little bit more human. But most of all, stories, and the ability to tell and share those stories, give us a voice. 

Well done, Story Supply Co. Super cool.

Even with all of the motivational feel good stuff, these notebooks are actually solid performers. I put one of mine through a gauntlet of different writing choices and it came out pretty well on all accounts.

Palomino Blackwing 211 -

What I found was that the paper didn't have very much "tooth" so it didn't eat through a pencil, even on softer grades like the limited Palomino Blackwing 211. The notebook cover stock is pretty thick which made for a solid writing surface. It wasn't flimsy or flopping around.

The paper they provided me is the blank (which is a little outside of my comfort zone I might add...) which is also nice and sturdy. I believe their only option is more of an off-white, ivory colored paper, but it fits nicely with the branding colors and aesthetic.

LAMY Al-Star Fountain Pen -

Pocket notebooks are traditionally hit or miss when it comes to fountain pens, but I found that the Story Supply Co notebook performed pretty well with the new LAMY Al-Star (recently acquired from Appelboom) that I tested on it. 

As mentioned, the paper is a bit thicker and it seemed to have a bit of "grab" on the nib. LAMY nibs tend to be a bit glassy, so this could be part of it. I found the grabbiness of the page tended to result in some occasional skips with what has been a traditionally wet writer.

From a performance standpoint, the lines had very little feathering which is always the problem. I mean, was it "amazing" around feathering, not perfect, but passable for everyday writing for sure. 

The nib I used is a fine (German, so around a medium in most Japanese brands) and bleed through was minimal. That being said, if you're thinking you might want to go BB on the notebook, prepare for some significant bleeding onto the next page.

Uniball Signo UM-151 0.5mm and Schmidt Fineliner - 

The last tests I did on the book were with more of your normal, everyday writer type of pens. 

I chose a more fine-ish gel pen as well as a porous, felt tip pen as these are some of my favorites when not using fountain pens.

The gel wrote about as expected (great) with no problems, but I found that the Fineliner ended up even better. I really enjoy the more expressive lettering that comes with felt/plastic tipped pens, and the Story Supply Co book performed fantastic. I'll probably make this more of my go-to.

Special thanks again to Story Supply Co for sending me a pack to sample and review and, in conclusion, I was quite pleased with the product and results.

Take a moment to check them out and give them a try.  

 

LAMY M16 Ballpoint Refill Adapter

Many people really enjoy the the modern look and feel of the various LAMY ballpoint models, but absolutely hate the M16 refill that comes with it. Now, I personally don't find it too offensive to use for everyday writing, but what if there was potentially a better way?

About a month or so ago I got a message through Instagram by Anson Chiu (@neotrooper) with a picture of something he had just bought that I had never heard of: an adapter for your LAMY ballpoints...

I was intrigued.

This seems highly enthusiastic!

What this adapter does is allow the user to insert the tiny D1 refills that we most commonly find in multipens into a LAMY ballpoint pen format. There are a lot of beloved gel, hybrid, or other ballpoint refills like the Zebra Sharbo X, Uniball Jetstream, or Fisher Space pen that are made with a D1 size so this opened a whole new world of opportunity.

These adapters only seem to be found in Japan, but I located a seller on eBay (from Japan) that had some listed. I can't seem to find that seller anymore, so these may be hard to get now.

Although, I did find it from a seller (maybe the same one) on Amazon for around the same price.

I wouldn't say it was at all inexpensive... I believe I paid around $15 total to get it, but I figured it would be worth a try. It took a month to get here, so I was hoping it was worth the wait.

The adapter is a small piece made of two parts: a black plastic sleeve section where you insert the D1 and a metal base which you insert into the pen. It is very well made.

I had a 0.5mm Zebra gel refill available in my stash to test with, which also happens to be a favorite.

My initial hopes would be that it would work in my vintage LAMY Unic ballpoints, but it unfortunately didn't seem to fit properly. I'd wager that it is due to the telescoping tip mechanism which may have some slightly different tolerances. Kind of a bummer, but I may try to do some "modifications" to the adapter to see if I can get it to fit.

Instead, I loaded the adapter and gel refill into my stainless steel LAMY 2000 ballpoint and it fit perfectly. The tip extended and retracted without issue and writing didn't yield any of the dreaded "wiggle" we often get with retractable pens.

My thoughts are that the adapter would fit well in most LAMY ballpoints like the Safari, AL-Star, Eco, and other less complicated ones. I've yet to try the Dialog 1 ballpoint by LAMY which I believe has a bit of a telescoping action, so this one may be out... we'll see.

All in all, this is a sweet little piece of equipment to help enhance your daily writing with the pens you love. Cheap? Not really, but may be worth it. I know I'll get a ton of use out of this thing.

Here again is that link to Amazon if you think this might be something you need...