2022 year in review

King Charles got ink on his finger from a leaky pen, probably from a Montblanc Meisterstück Le Grand Solieteir Silver. Frustrated that this happens "every stinking time". It is not clear from the images and video the exact make of the pen, but what is visible is that it is a silver / metal body with a plastic grip and screw on cap.

In a picture of the desk, posted by the Daily Record, mentioning an ink well received as a gift from his sons, the finial of the pen seems to look a lot like a Montblanc.

I assume that the queen was a far more practical person, using a Parker 51, a workhorse of a pen, built to last a lifetime and more. I bet she also had far fewer problems with her pen.

Anyway, it is reliving to find out that this is not a struggle just for me.

I had a fair share of funny accidents with inks. One of them took place during university almost in the morning, after I worked all night at a project, I was ready to print it with my ink jet printer. The project was due in just a few hours, and of course everything that can go wrong will... So I ran out of ink in the printer and I tried to refill the cartridge at 4 a clock in the morning with a syringe. The only sensible thing I did, was that I tried doing it in the bathroom. Because I have seen too many doctor movies, I wanted to get the air out of the syringe before refilling the cartridge. Why? Don't ask! I had a sticky syringe that wasn't moving, so I did the obvious and pushed harder. The ink splashed my face and head. Of course, it didn't come out completely, but the important thing was that I managed to print the project.

 

Lamy 2000 gets competition from Chinese pen companies, Moonman (Mahjon) Ti500 a titanium piston filler similar looking fountain pen, and maybe from Jinhao that came up with a plastic model 80, that takes a lot of design features from the very popular and appreciated Lamy 2000.

Apparently, Moonman (Mahjon) was not impressed by the efforts of German pen makers (Kaweco) and continued borrowing design elements from iconic writing instruments.

The all body titanium pen comes has two body options, brushed or shiny. The body seems in pictures to be well machined and transitions are very smooth looking.

It has a partially hooded nib. The cap clips on the top part of the pen instead of having the ears that Lamy 2000 has.

Lamy Safari special color edition for 2022, strawberry (a lighter red compared to the standard red color) and cream colors.

On a more personal note, the writing instrument that I used the most in 2022, is the Koh-I-Noor 2 mm clutch pencil Versatil 5216. All metal pencil inspired by the traditional Versatil line but now comes in more colors.

I like the pencil quite a lot, it is comfortable to hold, sturdy and reliable, and the color is very nice. I like the dark purple combined with the vintage aspect of the pencil.

Bast everyday ink, Koh I Noor Black Ink

The Koh I Noor brand is mostly known for the mechanical and especially the clutch pencils it offers. Today, instead of a pencil, I am testing the black fountain pen ink. The review for the blue ink, you can read it here.

This is the cheapest or better said the most economical / affordable ink on the market, because cheap will make you wonder if this ink is any good, or will it ruin my precious fountain pen etc. The ink works fine and will not clog your pen, but be careful as Koh-I-Noor has in it's offering pigment inks as well. 

The ink is addressed to students and comes in a basic plastic bottle of 50 grams. Produced in the Czech Republic, the bottle comes as is, no cardboard box.

The bottle has a basic design, nothing special. You can tell right away, just from looking at the package, that this is a no fuss ink. It cost about half what the Pelikan 4001 60 ml costs. Probably a lot of the savings are done by replacing the more expensive and better looking glass ink well with a plastic container. Also, it is offered in a bigger container compared to the more standard 30 ml ink bottles, thus making it a good every day for most students. 

But is it worth using this ink if you are not a student anymore? Does it perform well?

The ink performs well on every day paper, without fathering or showing throw the thinner paper, while still having a nice saturated black look. The ink is not very wet and dries rather quickly. Thus, it can be used even with broader nibs on cheap paper. For the testing purpose I used the Faber Castell Loom with Fine nib.

 

The ink is not water-resistant and washes out rather easily. I've placed a water droplet on the paper and waited for it to dry. The text smudged a bit, but it is still in a decent shape.

 

 

I keep talking and comparing with the price of the Pelikan, because the Pelikan is a well known and used ink, that has a lot of reputation behind its name, and it is an affordable ink as well.

I did a quick comparison with the Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black, and it holds its ground well. I would say that the difference between the inks is minimal and nobody will know if you are using one or the other, probably not even you.

It is a hair wetter than the Pelinkan which dries almost instantly. So if you like the Pelikan but you or your pen would like it to have a bit of wetness, try the Koh I Noor.

My conclusion
If you want an everyday ink, to use on all kinds of paper, it is a perfect contender with its availability (for me at least, it can be bought at every stationery shop), for the good performance it has and of course I can't ignore the great price it is available at. I would go so far to say that it is the best ink you can use as a daily workhorse.

On the other hand, if you are interested in a more refined experience when using your awesome fountain pens, probably you will get more joy using a higher end ink, that comes in a nicer refined glass bottle.

Koh-I-Noor 5219, 2 mm clutch pencil with metal grip section

I do not think that many people still use clutch pencils, but for those of you who still enjoy them, Koh-I-Noor has you covered with a wide range of clutch mechanical pencils. I have reviewed several of them, at the end of the post there are links to the other pencils.

The Koh-I-Noor 5219 is a typical clutch mechanism, meaning it has the jaws that keep the lead and by releasing them you slide the lead in or out. The pencil comes in five different colors, red, blue, green, purple and yellow.

The construction of the pencil is a mix of metal and plastic. As you can see, it has a shiny metal tip and a knurled grip. The rest of the barrel is made out of plastic, with Koh-I-Noor painted on and the model number 5219.

This particular model features a strong clip  that has stamped on the brand. And as any Koh-I-Noor clutch pencil in the push button, it has a basic sharpener.

This is not the best mechanical pencil you can get from Koh-I-Noor. It has a more modern look but, it is not built at the same quality standards as his brothers and sisters. The knurling on the grip is very shallow. I wouldn't say it is bad, but I think it could have been better. Even so, the comfort during longer writing sessions is superior compared to the vintage styled pencils from Koh-I-Noor which tend to slip in hand due to the fine painted metal.

The jaws that hold the lead, are not perfectly aligned, at least on the model I have. One of them doesn't close all the way, leaving a gap between it and the lead. It doesn't affect the writing in any way as the lead is firmly gripped, but if you care about small details like this it will bug you a lot. I do not know if this a more common problem, or I was unlucky.

Also, the guts of the pencil don't scream confidence, as the lead tube is made out of a soft plastic. I am not saying that this will not hold well over time. I am sure it will, but I would have liked to see a bit more metal in the pencil.

Holiday pencils

I just came back from a short but nice vacation, with good weather and great views. On this vacation, I took with me a fairly small notebook where I had info and sites worth seeing, planning notes and stuff.

I had all the information on my phone but I wanted to have a bit of redundancy in case I ran out of battery.  It wasn't the case but it's still nice to have it and maybe take some notes or make quick jots.

For this trip I took the Koh I Noor Notebook mechanical pencil because it is very small, travel safe as you can retract the writing lead completely, it has a built-in sharpener in the lead advance button, it has a body made out of metal and it looks really cool and retro.

I really like the size of the mechanical pencil for travel and everyday carry, not so much for proper writing due to it being too thin to have a comfortable grip. the looks are just a bonus.

You can take a look at the blog post about this pencil I have posted in 2019.

I enjoy traveling and I like walking up and down the streets of a city, getting in touch with the city atmosphere, enjoying the architecture, and all the stuff that is happening all around, and occasionally if the time permits I really enjoy time spent in museums.

This was a trip rather close to my home town, but it had a lot of surprises. On the first night out in the city enjoying site-seeing good food and beer, I stumble upon an open-air Jose Carreras concert. In the following days, I spent the time between beers, sightseeing, aquapark, and two museums.

The first museum visited (on the second day) was an art and science museum. In the science part of the museum between artifacts, skeletons, and all kinds of interesting relics, I found a section where the sketches, a notebook, and a pencil of a local historian were added to the gallery, showing his work and contribution to the exhibit.

Interestingly enough the pencil used was as a red Koh I Noor, 2 mm clutch mechanical pencil. I found it to be very cool, as I was traveling with a Koh I Noor.

The next day I visited a second museum which was a more eclectic collection of exhibits. Its main point focused on the history of the local fortress, the life of the nobles in medieval times, world war, graphic, photo, and art exhibitions, history of the church in the area, life under communism, and a few more.

The museum mostly made use of the beautiful fortress buildings to attract crowds and used all sorts of recreations to depict life from the past. It was a bummer for me, and  I would say its audience would be families with small children which probably would enjoy the pictures, figurines, armors, and so on.

The most interesting parts for me were the ruins of old buildings and tombs which were under the fortress, dug up, preserved, and presented very nicely, and a poster gallery. I really enjoy old posters and these ones are mostly collections of communist period work safety posters. I was fascinated to find out that the painter Toulouse-Lautrec is the father of the poster.

In continuation of the communist posters, there was a room representing the communist period in Romania, with pictures of the leader, common household objects and between them, there were a few stationary objects for students.

So if you wonder what would a student's bag includes, here are a few samples.

You can see in the image a wooden pencil box, a few hooded nib fountain pens and some sharpeners, the "Student" ink, below that is another hooded nib fountain pen and a dip pen and in the left a used bottle of permanent ink.

If you are curious about communist household objects used in Romania click on the images below.

Related articles:

If you would like to see more about Koh I Noor click you can use the following links or the Koh I Noor label in the right panel:

Koh-I-Noor shop in Prague

Koh-I-Noor Notebook

Koh-I-Noor Versatil 70s

Koh-I-Noor 5340 5,6 mm lead holder

or about my old Chinese fountain pen that I used in the primary school

Small notebook

Koh-I-Noor 2mm pencil and lead, 6 color set

I wanted to try out some colored pencils for daily business. Mostly to make marks or annotations on documents in a more visible way compared to a regular black pencil. In the past I did not have a very good experience with mechanical pencil colored leads so I tried something else, 2 mm leads. I found the only 2 mm leads in color available locally are the Koh I Noor ones.

They came in a 6 pack that contains a black one, red, blue, brown, yellow and green. The cool thing about them is that Koh-I-Noor also sells a similar pack with 2 mm clutch pencils. The pencils come in the same colors as the leads. Pretty nice.

The leads are made in the Czech Republic and come in a red plastic box with a clear top that has a Koh I Noor logo. The top slides to reveal the leads inside. They are very secure inside but if you only have one clutch pencil and you want to switch leads often grabbing them from the pack is not too easy.
The price is good as with all the Koh I Noor products. I got them for 1.51 EURO or 1.84 USD.

The colors are ok, not very vibrant but not dull. The black is the one I do not like. It feels like a colored pencil instead of a regular lead, plus it could be a bit darker. For example, a Faber Castell 2 mm lead 3B is smoother and produces a darker line.

The brown, blue, green look good and can be used for marking stuff with no problems. The red is a bit dull and not very vibrant but it is ok. The yellow is no surprise here, it can only be used for highlighting, as it is too washed out to write with it.
My favorite colors are the green and blue, followed by the brown and then red.
An erase test showed that they are not too stubborn and can be erased without too many problems. I have put to the test the Rotring Tikky and the Faber Castell Dust Free 187121 erasers. The Faber Castell did a much better job.

Koh-I-Noor limited edition ink

I have spotted on the Koh-I-Noor site that they have a new ink for sale.

It uses the same plastic 50 ml bottle as the standard one but it is about 5 times more expensive.

The name Koh I Noor is missing from the label, just Hardtmuth. I guess this is because it is a limited edition from the "HARDTMUTH collection".

Blue or black are the only available colors.
I didn't test it yet, I hope I will in the future, but I would like for Koh I Noor to make more colors at least for the "special collections". As their inks come in basic blue, black or red.

Sunday Sudoku

Like many others, I found myself with a lot more time on my hands. I have a long list of stuff I would like to do like learn to ride a skateboard, make a bonsai, pick up the guitar again, read 3 books, exercise and others. But for this Sunday I wanted to enjoy the hobby that made me create the blog. As I do not know how to draw and I am not that much into journaling I thought Sudoku is a great way to use my beloved pencils and erasers, exercise the brain and kill some time. All with one stone.
I think I overstretched downloading some "moderate" Sudoku. The first took me about 2 hours and the second more than 3, as I found a mistake almost at the end, which set me back a lot. I tried a 3rd moderate Sudoku but abandoned it after an hour and 3 numbers discovered.

Koh-I-Noor Mephisto Mechanical pencil 0.7 HB
Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth eraser

Soft Eraser Koh-I-Noor souvenir from Prague

This is the last from the bag of goodies. The Koh I Noor round soft eraser.
The number one thing about it is the unique looks. The logo covers the entire face of the eraser, and it looks awesome. The colors and the printing make this basic white eraser look apart.

If I am not mistaking this model comes in 3 sizes, this one, and two other bigger versions. This has a 37.5 mm diameter and 12 mm in thickness.
The eraser works fine, but it doesn't shine in any area. It's a classic eraser that leaves dust everywhere, it picks dirt on it, and the erasing is fine but not special. It doesn't need much pressure to do its job. I would call it a good all-around eraser.

It only cost 25 CZK which translates in just a little under 1 Eur 0.98 at today's exchange rate.
This is one of the best souvenirs you can get in my opinion. Forget the magnets, just get one of these.