Off topic

Off-topic: a look at a Bulova model 96A189 automatic watch.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 16 Comments

On 9 January 2024, I wrote about my brief ownership of a Lorus automatic watch. The episode concluded with me taking it back to the shop, which was rather a down-beat ending.

But in case I misled anyone into thinking that I was left sad and watch-less, here is What Happened Next.

So this happened.

I do not buy a new automatic watch very often: aside from the Lorus, I had not done so since 1999. After the Lorus episode, I next took a renewed interest in the Seiko ranges of automatics, the “5” series and the Prospex. To do so is to dive down another enjoyable rabbit hole. For instance, I read that Queen’s Brian May had bought a Seiko 5 diving watch in Tokyo which he had worn since the 1970’s and that Seiko made a special Brian May limited edition in his honour.

It was informative to browse the line-up of Seiko watches in my usual haunts. But it was while looking casually around H Samuel’s Oxford Street branch in mid-January (intending to look at their Seikos) that a Bulova caught my eye. I was attracted by the uncluttered dial, the absence of numerals and the absence of any day and date complication. The face has a round hole at the 7 o’clock position to show the balance wheel in action. The watch was not actually running at that stage and my initial reaction was that I would have preferred it without this porthole, which I later learned was called the “open heart” feature, (as opposed to a skeleton dial which shows the whole movement at the expense of making it difficult to see the hands and read the time).

I liked everything else about the watch including its dark blue dial, silver-tone indices and supple steel bracelet. Unlike the Lorus, this movement allows manual as well as automatic winding and also allows hacking: the pausing of the second hand by pulling out the crown, in order to set it precisely.

As well as it being the most appealing in the display, it was also 50% off the list price. I asked to have a look at it. The helpful assistant commented that the colour suited me, although I was wearing a navy blue shirt, jacket and carrying a navy blue shoulder bag! I certainly did like the colour of the dial and had never had a watch with a dial other than white or black. She adjusted the bracelet, removing two links from each side, which still left it comfortably loose but secure. I was a happy and lucky man.

At the front and in a half price sale!

It also has an exhibition back and this, together with the open heart dial (a term I do not like very much) means that you can actually hold the watch and see through it. The movement includes a rotor which, I was surprised to see, is a D outline but open in the middle. Is this to save weight? If so this seems to rather defeat the object. Perhaps it is to allow a better view of the inner workings. In any event, the rotor is very sensitive and works perfectly. The watch also has some modest water-resistance although not a screw-down crown and so I would not wear it in the water.

Exhibition back and Miyota 21 Jewel movement.

Swiss chronometer accuracy is no longer of such importance to me as when I was twenty, or even forty and buying a Rolex. Nevertheless I was curious to check the Bulova’s time-keeping. Over the first seven days it gained about 12 seconds a day. I then tested it over the next seven days too and got the same result. However, trying this again more recently, the deviation had lessened and it was gaining just 7 seconds a day. I hope that it remains there and does not continue to slow much further, but will check it now and again.

Waiting for the pips on Radio 2.

I also tested the power reserve – the amount of time for which the watch keeps running when not worn. I ensured that it was fully wound and then set it down. It managed a very respectable 44 hours.

Comfortable steel bracelet and clasp

I have had this watch for over two months now. I still get a little thrill every time I see it on my wrist. As well as enjoying the sight of the second hand scurrying around the dial, I soon came to enjoy seeing the intricate movement through the porthole, which is much better when the watch is running.

The Bulova tuning fork logo.

I had thought that I might rotate the Bulova with the other watches in my modest collection. In practice though, I have worn it every day since I bought it except for the weekend when I checked the power reserve. And this is perhaps the best testament of my high opinion.

Off topic: a brief romance with a Lorus automatic wristwatch.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 10 Comments

This blog is generally about fountain pens as the name suggests, but I write to relate a recent tale in the world of watches. My excuse for this digression is that many people who enjoy fountain pens feel the same way about mechanical watches.

Whilst I have more than my fair share of high quality fountain pens, I do also enjoy seeing how good a writing experience can be had for minimal outlay. I regularly use a Cross Bailey Light which cost about £20.00 and various inexpensive pens from China. To a lesser extent, this curiosity sometimes spills over to watches.

Having owned several high-end watches I thought I knew a reasonable amount about automatics. It turns out that there were some glaring gaps in my knowledge.

First of all, I had looked down rather snobbishly on the brand Lorus, but learned only recently that the brand was formed by the Seiko Watch Corporation, the mighty Japanese giant and introduced in Europe in 1982. They are aimed at the lower end of the market for people seeking quality watches at affordable prices.

On a recent stay in Chichester, I was strolling the high street when I came across a display of Lorus automatics, in H Samuels. The one that caught my eye was the black dial, military-style watch with a day/date window. Given that Seiko automatics now start at around £260.00, a Lorus at £129.99 is one of the cheapest entry level options. Furthermore, H Samuel were offering 20% off, bring the price of this model to around £103.00. I walked on.

A Lorus military style automatic, reduced to £103.99.

A week or so later, back home in London I visited my local H Samuel branch hoping to take a closer look at this model. Alas, they told me that they no longer sold Lorus watches in their branch but only online. That particular model was (and still is) available on the H Samuel website but I did not pursue it. The price was certainly attractive but I was deterred by the day and the date window, envisaging that for a watch worn only occasionally, I would be forever resetting these.

A little later, whilst in John Lewis and enjoying my customary look at their watch displays, I saw a cabinet marked “Clearance”, in which I noticed a Lorus automatic watch, with a silvery white textured dial and hands in a style reminiscent of a grandfather clock. Remarkably, it was just £43.50. John Lewis is currently having its January sales, with large red signs urging shoppers to “Succumb to the sale.” This watch had a price ticket of £72.50 previously but was reduced by 40%. It had been put out just that day.

And a more dressy version for £43.50.

It was not the military style field watch that I had seen, but nonetheless I quite liked the whitish face, the vintage hands, and large size (42mm diameter case). There was no luminescence and there was still the issue of the day and date hassle. I asked to have a look at it.

Handling the watch, the finish and quality looked and felt impressive, with its highly polished plated steel case and a black leather strap. There was even an exhibition window in the screw-down back, showing the automatic movement and the swinging rotor, on which “TWENTY-ONE JEWELS” was stamped. For a mere £43.50, it was one sixth of the price of the nearest Seiko automatic, and I felt it was a fun purchase and in need of a home.

A glass back gives a view of the Lorus Y676 automatic, 21 jewel movement.

Even the packaging was quite decent and appropriate: a small cardboard lidded box and the watch strapped around a soft brown pillow. The instructions and two year guarantee documents were below.

I was pleasantly surprised that the initial setting up of the day and date was no trouble at all and took only a minute: pull out the crown to the first click, turn it one way to advance the date and the other way to advance the day. Set them to the previous day, then pull out the crown to the second click, and advance the hour and minute hands to the correct time, (remembering to go past 12 o’clock twice if it is after mid-day).

Still a lot of watch for a little money.

However, what was not so easy was then getting the watch to start. Having no power at all, it was necessary to wind it sufficiently to start working before putting it on and allowing the automatic movement to keep the watch wound through the movement of the wrist. I tried to wind the watch manually but felt no resistance from the crown. Peering in at the movement, I began to fear that the mainspring was broken. I had wound the crown perhaps a hundred times and the second hand had not budged.

The instruction leaflet did not mention winding the watch with the crown but suggested that the watch be swung back and forth, horizontally, for 30 seconds. In practice, it needed considerably longer than 30 seconds but did start eventually and the second hand came to life, in the joyous way that mechanical watches do.

I looked online for some reviews of the watch. I found one at benswatchclub.com, for a similar model where it was stated that the movement appeared to be the same as that used in the Seiko 5 models. He states “To my understanding, the mechanism labelled as a ‘Y676C’ is a rebadged Seiko 7S26C, identical to that in most last-gen Seiko 5 watches” and “If you’re familiar with the 7S26, you’ll know that this movement is durable but rudimentary, with no hacking or hand-winding capabilities. You’ll have to rotate the watch to get it going manually.”

This was a revelation. The good news was that my mainspring was not broken. But here was the second big gap in my knowledge: I am embarrassed to say that I did not know that some automatic watches could not be wound by hand.

I also learned that “hacking” refers to the ability to stop the second hand by pulling out the winding crown, necessary for military watches in order that they could be synchronised. Mine did not have that facility either.

Whilst I admired the intricate design and finish of the watch and obviously its price, (the leather strap alone must be worth half of this), I was put off by the lack of a manual winding option.

I am sad to say that ultimately the watch and I agreed that each of us was not what the other wanted. I wanted an automatic, but one which I could wind up quickly for occasional use. I like to wear a different watch at weekends from the one I wear on weekdays.

The watch, on the other hand, wanted an owner for whom it was his only watch, perhaps his first ever grown-up watch, and to be worn every day so that the absence of a manual wind option was immaterial. It did not want an owner who would compare it unfavourably and unreasonably with other, vastly more costly timepieces but would enjoy it for its own merits, not only for its cheapness.

And so, with some regret, I returned the watch to John Lewis for a refund early the next day, still a little sad to see it go but having learnt from the experience. This turned out to be a “catch and release” or as my late father used to say “easy come, easy go.”

Remembering my dad, Manouk Sarkis Arzeian, (1929 – 1983).

~ rupertarzeian ~ 22 Comments

In normal daily life it is rare that anyone asks me about my late father. To be fair, I do not often ask other people about theirs. We are too busy, caught up in our own lives.

Yet I think about him often. Today, 9 December 2023, marks the 40th anniversary of his death. He was aged only 54 and had been admitted to hospital for a coronary by-pass operation, but passed away before the surgery took place.

He had been fit and active all his life. He was born in 1929 to an Armenian father and English mother and grew up near Ealing, west London. He worked for a time in his father’s antiques and carpets business, before moving on to work for an electronics company. He met my mum whilst they were both working for Ultra Electronics in Perivale in the mid 1950’s and they married in 1957, moving into a new detached house in Ickenham, a suburb of London which had a pleasant, village feel. I was their first child, in 1959 and was later joined by a sister and then a brother.

Dad stayed at Ultras, working as an electrical maintenance engineer until 1974 when he moved to a similar role at EMI, better known as a record label, although he worked in a totally different division, building electronic equipment.

At home, he always kept busy, outdoors mostly, such as in tackling jobs in the garden or doing all his own maintenance on the house or the car. One end of the garage comprised his workbench, full of tools and surrounded by odd pieces of scrap metal and wood which might be of use. He once built me a magnificent go-cart, which my friends and I loved to ride around the garden. My parents had landscaped the garden, to include a pond, which my friends and I loved to play in.

He had numerous interests over the years, from collecting coins, Victorian bottles, fossils, flint arrow-heads, attending philosophy evening classes, and a keen interest in watches, cameras, and guns – to name a few. He enjoyed the novels of Nevil Shute and was keen on old films, having been to the cinema’s matinee club, every week for a year as a child, knowing all the Hollywood greats.

If we visited a town centre together, we would always pause at watch shop windows, and pass judgment on all the watches on display and pick our favourite. As a young man he was proud of his Heuer Chronograph. I recall that, as his tastes changed, he bought a Rolex GMT Master, but after a few years, swapped this for a Rolex Submariner (or it might have been the other way round). He then tried the new Bulova Accutron, before eventually coming full circle and reverting to simple, inexpensive hand-wound mechanical watches such as Sekondas, that he did not need to worry about.

Dad, late 1950’s or early 1960’s wearing his Heuer Chronograph.

I remember him trying numerous different, mainly 35mm cameras too, from a Contax, to a heavy Russian Zenith E (his first SLR camera), a Petri TTL, then an Olympus OM1, his favourite. There were many others, including a Konica with one of the first auto-focus systems, a tiny metal Minox “spy camera” and a Zorki 4.

His other most enduring hobby was shooting. He held a firearms licence and, as with his watches and cameras, progressed through a number of different models. He often took me with him to Bisley ranges on a Saturday morning, or to our local gun club, from the age of about 6 onwards. When I later went to a boarding school and joined the cadet force, I did at least have one advantage in that I was already familiar with handguns and rifles. Dad had owned dozens of different models.

He had not been interested in fountain pens, but if he had, I imagine that he would have gone through a similar journey as he did with his watches, cameras and guns, always wanting to try something else, before eventually concluding that he needed only something simple and inexpensive.

As a young man he took an interest in law and liked to discuss legal issues with an acquaintance who was an in-house solicitor for a large corporation. He was happy that I was to go into the legal profession. By the time he died, I was 24 and had been working as a trainee solicitor (then called an articled clerk) for two years and was due to qualify in March of 1984, embarking on a career of almost 40 years as a solicitor in private practice.

Memories of my dad often pop into my head and catch me unawares. About 10 years ago, I compiled a list of some that I could remember, giving them each a key word or words and then sorting them alphabetically in a mobile phone app called Colornote. I continued to add to my list for some time, before writing up these fragments of childhood recollections, one by one, with a fountain pen in an A5 journal. I tried to set aside an hour on Thursday mornings, when I could rise early and enjoy some quiet time with a pen and notebook. Within a few months I had “written a book”, albeit of significance only to myself. It felt good to have these memories down, in case I forget them later. I have since given this to my niece Emma, who missed out on knowing her grandfather by a few years. I was to repeat the writing process later with memories of my mum, then my school days and then college years. It was an enjoyable and satisfying process which I would recommend.

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that my dad’s date of death, 9th December or 912, was also a model of a Pilot Custom Heritage fountain pen that I liked. I toyed with the idea of buying one in his memory, although admittedly that seemed a weak excuse to buy yet another pen. However, when my wife was in Hong Kong recently and asked whether there was anything I would like her to get for me, the idea of the Pilot CH912 was at the front of my mind. She very kindly tracked one down on her last full day there, with my first choice of a Waverly (WA) nib as requested. I love it. I like to think that dad would appreciate his 40th anniversary being remembered and marked in this way.

One of the pen shops my wife visited in Hong Kong. Just as well I wasn’t there.

Travelling with ink: April snippets.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 19 Comments

An Easter at Easthampstead Park.

I recently enjoyed a nice Easter break at the Easthampstead Park hotel, near Wokingham. It was little more than an hour’s drive from home, but still felt like a holiday. The hotel is a stunning 1860’s mock Jacobean mansion, and for many years belonged to successive generations of the Marquess of Downshire, whose estates also included Hillsborough Castle in Ireland. Eventually, it was sold to the local council and then a few years ago to the Active hotel group.

Easthampstead Park Hotel, Wokingham.

As with any holiday, part of the enjoyment is deciding which pens to bring. I am always torn between going minimal and just bringing one pen, or else going the other way and bringing too many. Even though it was just a one night stay, I ended up bringing three of the new pens bought at the London Pen Show in March, plus a Jinhao X159. Three of these went into my new Orom pen case in Elk leather, and the fourth in my shirt pocket.

Believe it or not, this was the stationery that I felt necessary for a one night hotel break.

Whilst I could not resist the desire to bring all these, I did in fact use only one pen for holiday journaling, namely the Aurora Duo-Cart. This was bought from Kirit Dal at the recent London Pen Show, who, after seeing my pen show haul blog post, kindly got in touch and offered to send me a proprietary converter for the pen. A few days later, I was thrilled to receive the converter in the post – a lovely metal squeeze bar type, which seems appropriate for the vintage inspired Duo-Cart model. He also enclosed a box of Aurora cartridges which was very kind.

Before driving home, my wife and I visited Bracknell, a Berkshire town not far from the hotel. Although only an hour from home, it was the first time we had been and we had a saunter around the pedestrian shopping centre, a nice mix of shops, some inside the mall and some outdoors. Although well-prepared with my pen stash, I found myself wondering what options there would be to a traveller who found himself in Bracknell, and (for some reason) in urgent need of purchasing a fountain pen! From our brief visit, it seemed that there were various options although somewhat limited. Someone desiring a fountain pen from the Italian or Japanese brands might be out of luck. However there was a selection of Montblanc pens in Fenwicks’ department store. For Cross, Lamy and Parker you have a Rymans. There were also Parker and Lamy in WHSmiths. Sadly the Paperchase store, as with all their branches, has recently closed.

Just before leaving I did come across a fountain pen, in the shop window of F Hinds, jewellers, which I had not seen before. It was a Sheaffer, in polished chrome and from its size and shape I wondered whether it might be one of the recent Sheaffer Legacy models. I went inside to investigate. They also had a few Cross and Parker fountain pens. The Sheaffer model that had caught my eye, labelled at £85.00, turned out to have a very tiny steel semi hooded nib, not the inlaid nib that I had rather hoped for. The nib looked more like the one on the Sheaffer Taranis. It looked rather odd but strangely appealing, and certainly felt comfortable to hold, with its generous girth and decent weight. But with the help of my wife at my side, I was able to resist buying it. I later found online that this model is called the Sheaffer Icon, in lustrous chrome and found a favourable review of it on The Pen Addict blog.

Sheaffer Icon, Lustrous Chrome. (Photo from F.Hinds’ website).
In Costa coffee shop. This is my writing face apparently. Aurora Duo-Cart.

The Quiet coach.

I am not very good at confrontations. Nor am I very good at conversation, which may be a result of spending most of my working life in rooms on my own.

Travelling back by train from Southampton to London, I was looking forward to reading my God-daughter’s book “Tomorrow Perhaps the future”. I had travelled down to see off my wife and mother-in-law for their cruise ship holiday and was travelling back alone.

Seeing that I’d boarded a “Quiet coach” on the train, (where passengers can escape from overhearing other people’s loud mobile phone conversations etc) I settled into a corner seat with a table. However the remaining three seats were promptly taken by three men in buoyant mood from watching a football match, whose manner seemed unnecessarily rowdy and boisterous for conversation across a table. Fearing that I might be subjected to this for the next hour, I politely mentioned that this was a quiet coach. The man turned to me as if I was mad and told me that I was “very silly,” travelling on a train from Southampton on a match day and expecting the train to be quiet.

To be fair I had not thought this through. Perhaps I expected these three football supporters to just say “oh, sorry” and talk in hushed tones for the trip as if in a library, whilst I read my book in peace. Instead they bellowed “Does that mean we can’t talk?” and asked “what are you going to do, confiscate our phones? “No, that won’t be necessary” I answered, sounding even more ridiculous, before adding apologetically “clearly I am out-numbered, my mistake.”

What could have been an awkward and uncomfortable journey then turned out to be delightful and memorable one. Introductions were made. Whilst one of them went to find the facilities, another, Tim next to me explained that they were keen supporters of Crystal Palace, a London team although he had travelled from Manchester to see the match against Southampton. The third man told me that he had been to every game, and had collected every match programme, for decades. Clearly they were lifelong football fanatics and took great enjoyment in travelling to follow their team.

Tim then asked what turned me on. I hesitated, saying that they would find this ridiculous, before saying that I was a fountain pen collector. Tim immediately recalled his school days with inkwells in the desks, for dip pens. That would be back in the 1960’s. He asked whether I had any fountain pens with me. Funnily enough I had with me a pen case with a Montegrappa, a Cleo Skribent and a Waterman (representing Italy, Germany and France, in football parlance). I got these out, bracing myself for further ridicule, but none came. He took interest in each pen. I talked about the issues for fountain pen users, of being left handed. I got out a notebook to demonstrate the pens and explain the style that I had adopted of writing away from me, turning the paper 90 degrees left, rather than hooking my wrist, to avoid smudging.

One of the men opposite returned to his seat. He asked what I did, to which I replied that I was a lawyer working in residential property. This prompted a bitter tale of his own experience of using a solicitor for a property sale, in which he had complaints about perceived delays being the fault of the lawyers. But soon after this the train reached his stop.

Tim remained while the two friends opposite got off. A young woman boarded and took the window seat opposite me.

To my embarrassment, Tim then asked the newcomer “Are you into fountain pens?” She took out her ear buds and he repeated the question. “No, not really, I mostly use biros” she replied. Tim (who was clearly good at starting conversations) then filled her in, with our conversation thus far. We established that her name was Hannah and that she was an illustrator and author of children’s books. She had written a series of children’s detective books. She was also left handed.

Tim and Hannah each try my pens: Cleo Skribent (Diamine Deep Dark Red); Monte Grappa (Diamine Tavy blue black) and Waterman Embleme, (Serenity Blue). They both liked the Waterman best.

I mentioned that my God daughter Sarah Watling had recently had a second book published and showed it to her. The book concerns a number of women writers and outsiders, who were drawn to the Spanish Civil War. Tim was familiar with George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia and was well versed in this part of Spain’s history.

We also got on to talking about the Titanic and coincidentally I had just visited an exhibition about the ship whilst in Southampton and had noticed that the anniversary of the sinking was just a day ago 14 April 1912. Tim was clearly well read about the Titanic too. Many of the crew who perished in the disaster had come from Southampton.

The journey to London flew by in pleasant conversation between us three random strangers on the train. As London approached, Hannah put on her woolly hat, coat and back pack. Tim shook my hand and we parted as friends. On the platform Hannah disappeared into the crowd and we each went to our separate lives.

After such encounters I am often left feeling that I have not been a very good ambassador for the fountain pen hobby and community. Although one cannot rehearse such conversations it was enriching to meet both Tim and Hannah.

A London walk in a time of national mourning.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 10 Comments

Today there was a special atmosphere in London. With blue skies and warm sunshine, thousands came to central London to see Buckingham Palace and The Mall, Green Park or St James’s Park, some to lay flowers in memory of HM The Queen. Others have come to queue to see her coffin lying in state at Westminster Hall, ahead of the state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday 19 September 2022. It is a moving sight, even on television, with guards in splendid uniforms standing in silent vigil, 24 hours a day, whilst members of the public pay their respects.

For those wishing to see the lying in state, there is a huge queue stretching back to Southwark Park. The authorities are prepared for this to reach 10 miles long. There are constant updates online but at one time today there was an estimated queuing time of 24 hours, and as I write this the current estimate is 13 hours. A colleague of mine at work joined the queue on Thursday evening and reached Westminster Hall at around 7am on Friday. Total estimates were of 400,000 people filing past the coffin, over four days, some travelling from great distances to do so.

I did not wish to visit Westminster Hall but wanted to come to London to mark this rare occasion and experience the atmosphere. I began at Trafalgar Square and joined the many people walking along The Mall. There were a lot of families with young children, and many bringing flowers. Much of the area was closed to traffic. In the quiet without the usual traffic noise, I found myself noticing the architecture of so many grand buildings and it was poignant to see so many flags flying at half-mast.

The police were doing a good job of controlling the crowds. You could not simply wander about where you liked and could only cross some roads at special crossing points, and there were some one-way systems in place for pedestrians. People accepted this and cooperated, chatting to the police. There was a sense that we were all there for the same reason, united by our common loss.

We paused to watch a group of mounted guardsmen ride past, with a police escort. Often helicopters could be heard high overhead. There were tv cameras and reporters everywhere and it seemed as if the attention of the world was focussed on London at this time.

The Mall: preparations for the state funeral.

Because of the volume of people, we could not walk directly up the Mall to Buckingham Palace but had to cross St James’s Park and join long queues down one side of the road and back up the other for those wishing to go to the Palace. With even this queue likely to take a few hours I was feeling a little bit hemmed in by the sheer number of visitors, although there was no pushing and shoving. I decided to change direction and take a path of less resistance away from the main attractions.

Buckingham Palace from St James’s Park.

From Birdcage Walk, I continued on to Buckingham Gate passing the Rubens hotel (where I had enjoyed a weekend break a few months ago) opposite The Royal Mews. Souvenir shops had portraits of the Queen in the window with her dates. There were mugs with the Queen’s picture and dates 1926 to 2022 and messages such as “Forever in our hearts.”

I cut through to Victoria Street, where there was more space to walk normally and headed towards Parliament Square. I was sorry to note that the landmark department store, House of Fraser on Victoria Street had closed down. I ventured down Artillery Row and came to Horseferry Road and found a cafe for some lunch. A man at the next table had just been to Westminster Hall after queuing for 14 hours. A group of police came in for coffee and takeaway lunches, taking these back to their minibus.

At Lambeth Bridge I saw sections of the epic queue heading for Westminster, like a pilgrimage. Not being a part of this, I could walk freely along Millbank and see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben as I neared Parliament Square.

Houses of Parliament.

It was extraordinary to see and hear Parliament Square without any traffic. I passed Westminster Abbey where all eyes will be on the proceedings in two days’ time. There are already stands erected for tv camera crews.

Big Ben in the autumn sunshine.

Once inside Parliament Square, there was a pedestrian one-way system again and so it was necessary to go with the flow. First though, I enjoyed sitting in the sun to write down some impressions of the day, with my new Tibaldi fountain pen and the “traveller” style notebooks from Flying Tiger. I like the Tibaldi more and more and appreciate everything about it, particularly the retro zest green colours, its generous size, firm nib and the ebonite feed.

My journaling companion today, the Tibaldi N.60.

A young woman busker named Harmonie London set up a keyboard and began to sing the national anthem and soon drew a big audience. Without the traffic noise, her beautiful voice and playing could be heard from quite a distance and her set captured the collective mood perfectly. Many videoed her with their phones.

I made my way up Great George Street, passing the impressive Treasury building, and along Horse Guards Road, before cutting across Horse Guards Parade to emerge in Whitehall and back to where I had started.

Whitehall at entrance to Horse Guards Parade.

Before returning home, I headed up to Leicester Square to visit Choosing Keeping at Tower Street, surely one of London’s most delightful stationery shops. I browsed the Japanese pencils, Tomoe River paper notebooks, and a display case of fountain pens including Sailor, Pilot, Lamy, Kaweco and Pelikan. Resisting these I still found myself buying a bottle of Rohrer & Klingner ink in a dark blue or blue black called Isatis tinctoria, their limited edition of 2021. In my relaxed state I had forgotten all the golden rules of ink buying, which are to ask yourself “Do I actually need any ink at the moment?”; “Do I need this colour?”; “Is this sufficiently different from all the other inks that I already have?” and “Would my spouse approve?” and “What is WRONG with me?!” However, it is lovely ink, and it is important to support such wonderful shops.

All in all it had been a remarkable and memorable day. And my phone tells me I walked 7.87 miles so that’s good.

Joshua Lee Turner and Allison Young: first night review.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 12 Comments

Although this blog is usually about fountain pens, today’s post is off-topic, to reflect on an excellent gig at London’s Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush, on Friday 15 July 2022. This was the first of a seven date UK tour and was also the first performance of this new duo to a live audience.

Joshua is well-known from YouTube as one half of the duo The Other Favorites, with Carson McKee. His videos have seen him collaborate with numerous other talented musicians, including Allison Young whose own work includes singing with the Post Modern Jukebox band.

I have raved in this blog before about The Other Favorites (An evening with The Other Favorites, and Another evening with The Other Favorites: this time it’s virtual). I continue to do so, to anyone who will listen. It is hard to think of any other musician as versatile as Josh, not only as a multi-instrumentalist but in crossing pretty much every musical genre, plus being a song-writer and having the IT skills to produce and promote his work.

My wife and I arrived unfashionably early at the venue. The doors were still shut and there was no-one about. A passing couple stopped to look at the poster of Joshua and Allison on the front door, and asked us if this was who we had come to see and how we had heard about the event. “What type of music is it, Americana?” This put me on the spot. How do you pigeon-hole Josh Turner who can not only turn his hand to, but excel at so many types of music from pop, rock, country, folk, bluegrass, singer-songwriter, gypsy-jazz, great American songbook standards, and more. I thought of Allison Young, whose videos of songs such as “Crazy” and “Fever” I had seen – and came out with a fumbled response of “Jazz”. “But that’s not a jazz guitar” said my enquirer, pointing to the Spanish guitar in the poster. “No, but he can play any stringed instrument you put in front of him”, I gushed. I hope that they came back and bought tickets.

Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London.

As show time drew closer, a decent sized queue built up behind us. Many in the know had gone to the bar next door before the show. We chatted to another couple: Dave had been watching The Other Favorites on Youtube for a considerable time but not made it to a live show before.

With no allocated seating, we were able to pick the front row. It was our first concert since lockdown restrictions were lifted and good to be able to enjoy live music again.

There was a full house later, with extra chairs at the back.

Josh and Allison took to the stage, each holding a guitar. They launched into “Shadows on the Wall”, also the opening song on their recent EP entitled “May 9-12” comprising six tracks written between those dates. Josh told the audience that they had realised as the tour approached, that they did not have many songs, – due in part to not quite believing that the tour would happen. They had recorded new material, not that we would have known they were new, as the songs from the EP blended right in with the rest of the set, as if they had been performing them for years.

What took place was an evening of pure joy and a masterclass in musicianship. The two performers remained on stage together throughout, although a few of the numbers were solo. There were some teething problems with Allison’s mic initially which crackled and popped. Josh paused in playing to give the mic a deft tap, which cured the problem temporarily until it was soon replaced by the sound engineer. Allison appeared not in the least fazed by the episode, which endeared them both to us all the more.

Josh’s finger-style guitar playing always amazes me, in his musicality and confident mastery of the fingerboard – be it on an acoustic or his starburst Fender Telecaster seen in many videos, or his ukulele, all of which featured in the show. There is never a beat missed or note out of place as he uses these instruments to their full potential. (I am thinking here of my own baritone ukulele, and a new mandolin, which would love to be played properly).

Josh’s rig.

Allison’s voice is beautiful and has a timeless warmth and quality which was showcased perfectly on such classics as Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust”, or Diana Krall’s “Autumn in New York” as well as “Fever” and “Crazy”. She cites Patsy Cline as a major influence. Her natural charm, expressive movements and the twinkle in her eyes in performing all of these, brought them to life. She also sang and played a few of her own songs not yet recorded, which can be a test for an audience but were well received.

Josh played some songs from his back catalogue. “Nineteen and Aimless” was a song he had written about being nineteen and aimless. He honoured his 93 year old grandmother, in playing an instrumental that he had arranged at her request back when she was only 91, an impressive and foot-tapping rendition of “St Louis Blues” and was the envy of all the wannabe guitarists in the room. But it was his song “Cross-eyed Love” with its rousing speeded up, drop-tuned, gallop at the end, which brought the house down.

Josh and Allison played a guitar instrumental duet on La Valse d’Amelie, Yann Tierson’s “Amelie’s Waltz” from the 2001 French language film Amelie. Josh told us that both he and Allison were fans of the film. This slow piece was one of my wife’s highlights of the night.

I avoided taking photos whilst they were performing.

They played over 20 songs in all. After the encore as the lights came up, two ladies sitting behind us asked how we had heard of the event. I explained that I had seen it online (and jumped on the tickets). They asked me if I played an instrument. I said that I played guitar, or used to think I could! Watching Josh is humbling but I admire these great musicians with so much ability and potential, following their dream.

I looked up Hoagy Carmichael afterwards. On Wikipedia is says that he “was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilise new communication technologies such as television, electronic microphones and sound recording.” Sound like anyone? To this Josh and Allison have harnessed Youtube and Instagram. As Josh put it, social media is not all a hell-hole. Good things come out of too, such as how he and Allison came to “follow” each other, to meet, record videos and the EP and now put together this tour. Josh had made good use of the lockdown to write and record an album and perform some livestream gigs all from his New York apartment. Allison had also been writing.

As I left the theatre, into the sultry warm London night, I had a spring in my step and was still grinning at the joy of the evening and the knowledge that such talent exists in the world.

Edit: 23 July 2022. Below is the setlist (compiled from a combination of my list made during the show, a photo of the list on the stage floor, plus the website Setlist FM.

  1. Shadows on the wall;
  2. Do I ever cross your mind (Dolly Parton);
  3. Lucy;
  4. Stardust;
  5. Plastic Jesus;
  6. Secondhand store;
  7. Fever; (Peggy Lee)
  8. Nineteen & Aimless;
  9. St Louis Blues (instrumental);
  10. Aquellos Ojos Verdes; (Spanish song)
  11. Samba Ukulele;
  12. Winter’s come and gone;
  13. La Valse d’Amelie; (Theme from the film “Amelie”)
  14. Autumn in New York; (Diana Krall)
  15. Til the stars turn cold;
  16. Where in time;
  17. Cross-eyed love;
  18. I fall to pieces; (Patsy Cline)
  19. Tiny Vases;
  20. Crazy; (Patsy Cline)
  21. We’ll meet again; Vera Lynn
  22. Hollow Wood.

Travelling with ink: Forest of Dean.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 10 Comments

For our mid-summer break this year my wife, mother-in-law and I spent a week in the woods. This was not camping, but staying in one of the comfortable, self-catering cabins on a site run by Forest Holidays.

Whereas last year we had chosen a location near Winchester, Hampshire, as recounted in my post Travelling with ink: Blackwood Forest, this time we chose the Forest of Dean, Gloucestshire, and also went for a full seven days rather than three. It proved to be a good choice and we had also picked a week of warm sunny weather.

With the happy prospect of having some time to write, I enjoyed picking the line-up for a week away. After much deliberation (or dithering) I settled upon the yellow Aurora Talentum (my most recent pen purchase), a vintage Montblanc 34, Esterbrook Estie, Delike New Moon, and a Duke 552 bamboo barrel pen. Also I brought the Lamy 2000 multi-pen, a Sailor multi-pen/pencil and finally a Pentel 120 A3 0.7mm pencil, making eight writing implements in all.

The 8 writing implements for the trip.

To write on, or in, I brought a fresh Leuchtturm A5 notebook for daily journal writing, another A5 notebook for everything else, one A4 notebook (good for planning and drafting) and finally a small Silvine pocket notebook – which is always handy for jotting down addresses, phone numbers, directions or any notes made while out and about.

The fountain pens were inked with various colours but I decided to bring only one bottle of ink, Pelikan 4001 Konigsblau and so if any of them needed refilling, it would be royal blue or nothing. In the event, I did refill the Talentum mid-week. Whilst I like the Konigsblau, I did notice that the pen seemed to write a little drier and with less lubrication than with the Montblanc Royal Blue that it had started with. But it is useful to have a drier ink sometimes, to compensate for pens that might otherwise write very wet.

Our cabin was very spacious and slept six people, (as my sister and her family were to join us for part of the week). The open plan sitting/dining room had a large oak table with floor-to-ceiling windows and was a lovely bright place to sit, especially in the early morning when the room was cool. It did become very warm in the afternoons but we were generally out then.

The living area. There is a hot tub (with a chair lift) outside.

From our base, it was about a two-mile walk, through tranquil forest paths, to the stunning views from Symonds Yat rock, looking down on a beautiful section of the Wye Valley.

The Wye Valley, at Symonds Yat.

Our nearest small town was Coleford. Here in a local newsagents, I was pleased to find some A5 notebooks called Companion, with nicely textured soft covers in bright colours, and 240 pages of unlined, 80gsm cream paper. I knew of these from purchasing one in blue last year in a post office in Surrey. It turned out to be very pleasing and I wished I had picked up the other colours (red and yellow). Here was the chance to rectify that oversight.

Coleford town centre.

For a larger town, we were about 20 minutes drive from Ross-on-Wye. Whenever visiting another town and exploring the shops I do keep one eye open for any fountain pen shops. It is rare to find one of course, although Ross-on-Wye has a WH Smiths. I had a cursory look at the Fountain Pen section, in particular to see whether they had the newish Parker Vector XL, which I had seen recently in London – not that I would necessarily have bought one, but just as a bit of research. I was not to find one all week.

New notebooks to add to the stash.

A similar distance drive took us to Monmouth, another pretty and colourful high street, and lined with bunting for the Queen’s platinum jubilee, and with some attractive side streets and river views and plenty of history, although not the best choice for fountain pen shopping.

Monmouth’s famous medieval gate tower, on the Monnow Bridge.

A bit further afield, along scenic country roads, we also spent a day in Ledbury, Herefordshire. This is a very attractive town, famed for its half-timbered buildings and historic market building and some nice independent shops for books and clothes, but I did not find any specialist fountain pen shops in evidence.

Ledbury’s market building.

On our last full day, we visited Tintern Abbey, the impressive ruins of a Cistercian monastery beside the Wye River with wooded hillsides making a picture postcard backdrop. Once there, it seemed silly not to drive on for the short distance to visit Chepstow.

A view inside Tintern Abbey

Here, I did find a shop called First Stop Stationery, with displays of Lamy, Schreiber and other pens and a large glass display cabinet for the more expensive pens. On closer inspection, these were from Cross, Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer, Lamy, Pilot, Faber-Castell and possibly some others. Some notable examples were the Waterman Carene, Faber-Castell Ondorro, several pilot Vanishing Points, a smart Lamy Accent in the glossy black with ringed section and even the newly revived Parker 51 gold nib version which I had not previously seen in the flesh although I was not sufficiently tempted to buy one. I did at least buy some Parker cartridges in blue black.

A row of houses on Castle Terrace, Chepstow.

In our final hours of retail therapy, we headed back up to Ross-on-Wye where I had spotted a mandolin a few days earlier, in the window of River Music, in Broad Street. It was still there. I had felt in need of a mandolin, having accidently broken my old one recently when falling off a stool, whilst passing items up to the attic. It had fallen down the stairs, in its soft gig-bag but the neck was broken in two and I adjudged it to be a write-off.

The music shop had a display of ukuleles and a banjolele but it was the Tanglewood mandolin in “Wine red” that tempted me. I am very much a beginner and can play only a few chords, but recently have been captivated watching musicians such as Sierra Hull, Josh Turner, Sam Bush and Chris Thile and whilst they are all in another league, there is a lot of fun to be had from making music, trying to improve and getting to know your way around the fingerboard.

The shop owner told me how he had lowered the action on this instrument, by paring off some wood from the base of the bridge so that the strings sat closer to the neck. He had done a good job, making it much nicer to play, but without overdoing it so that the strings buzzed on the frets. This was a real bonus, rather like buying a fountain pen when the nib has been expertly tuned. At a similar price to an Esterbrook Estie, you get a lot for your money, (although he had me at “Wine red”). And so it was to come home to London with me.

A Tanglewood mandolin in Wine red.

It is probably just as well that there were not more fountain pens shops in this lovely part of the world and I am glad not to have purchased any more. But when a mandolin calls you, somehow nothing else will do.

A London odyssey and early thoughts on the Platinum Plaisir fountain pen.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 8 Comments

This weekend, with Covid restrictions having eased in the UK of late, I enjoyed an excursion into London’s West End for the first time in many months and visited a few of my favourite haunts.

Beginning at Choosing Keeping, a wonderful store for stationery, I found that they have an exciting range of fountain pen inks, including Pilot Iroshizuku, Sailor, and Rohrer & Klingner, a refreshing change from the usual chain store selection. I was able to handle a Sailor Pro-Gear Slim Blue Dwarf limited edition pen, of which they have plenty in stock with a range of nibs. This is a great shop for attractive journals and for boxes of Japanese pencils too.

I visited some guitar shops in Denmark Street. Rose Morris has a good range of Taylor acoustic guitars on display. Another shop across the road sells Martin guitars. For mandolins and a huge variety of other stringed instruments, Hobgoblin Music in Rathbone Place is a gem and it was good to have a browse. I discovered and bought my baritone Ukulele there a few years ago.

Also in Rathbone Place, is Park Cameras, where I tried some Nikon Monarch binoculars and compared them with the Zeiss Terra ED, 10×42, of similar price. Either would be an upgrade from my current Nikon Prostaff 10×30 binos although I am very happy with them and they are excellent value.

Walking along London’s Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon, weaving through the crowds of shoppers, it was good to find things getting back to normal. A lot of American Candy stores have appeared in Oxford Street, which I do not remember seeing before. At John Lewis, I had a look at the stationery department on the lower ground floor. The island of fountain pen display cases seemed to have shrunk a bit from days of old, but the usual suspects (Cross, Sheaffer, Waterman and Parker) were all there.

Finally I reached Selfridges. The Fine Writing department is also on their lower ground floor although it had moved position sometime before the pandemic. Montblanc has its own area. A short glide down on the escalator and you enter a world of Montegrappas, Graf, Caran d’Ache and other exotica.

There is also a stationery corner for more ordinary items and it was here that I found a row of Platinum Plaisir fountain pens, hanging on a rack in a selection of colours, with matching coloured packaging. It was the first time I had seen them in a bricks and mortar shop. My usual source for such items would be Cult Pens.

Not having tried the Plaisir before, and given that they were only £13.00, it was simply a question of choosing between black, dark blue, red, orange, citrus yellow, light frosty blue or silver. All had the same Medium (0.5) nib. I went with red.

Platinum Plaisir. It is very red.

Description.

The Platinum Plaisir is an aluminium pen, making for a more attractive and durable body than Platinum’s entry level plastic demonstrator Preppy, but with the same nib and a feed which is visible through the transparent grip section. You get a strong metal pocket clip, a shiny chrome cap band and a barrel which is not covered with text and bar code.

The cap pulls off, needing a very determined effort, made more difficult by the hard-to-grip finish of the barrel and cap. The cap features the Platinum “slip and seal” sprung inner cap which supposedly allows the pen to be left inked for up to a year without drying out.

Unboxing. Each colour pen has its own colour package but not one that you would want to keep.

The pen came with one Platinum black cartridge but no converter. Cult Pens sell Platinum converters separately in either silver or gold coloured finish but with a notice that whilst they will fit inside a Preppy or Plaisir, ink will only be drawn into the feed and not the converter and so you may need to fill the converter separately, outside the pen. Another filling option is to purchase an adaptor to enable use of standard international cartridges.

With cartridge inserted.

Size and weight.

The Plaisir is a good medium size, at 142mm long capped, or 122mm uncapped. The cap posts well bringing the length up to around 151mm whilst still remaining very light. Capped or posted, it weighs about 17.5g with a cartridge, or uncapped 9.5g and 8g for the cap alone.

The nib and writing experience.

The steel nib is of the wrap-around variety, like a Lamy Safari nib. It has no breather hole. The nib set-up looked promising under the loupe, with nice symmetrical tipping and a visible but minimal gap between the tines right down to the tip. I pushed in the supplied black cartridge. It popped in decisively and ink immediately splattered onto the feed. I put pen to paper and it started to write almost straightaway. Ink flow to the nib was consistent and ample, even for lefty-overwriting but without being too wet.

The M05 nib. Plenty of tipping.

The medium nib with rounded tipping provided a very smooth writing experience. It has a little bit of give but no “tooth” to give feedback. Like a Preppy nib, it works well. On the Leuchtturm and Rymans notebook papers I have tried so far, it did not skip but might struggle with very shiny papers. It did not have the same “Wow” factor as the medium nib on my Platinum Curidas which seemed more crisp and stubby, but as a general purpose writing tool at this price it provides a very adequate service.

The writing is as you would expect from a round tip medium nib. A fine line can be obtained from the reverse side.

Likes and dislikes.

Before being critical, it is worth remembering that this is a £13.00 pen which is probably about as good as it can be at that price.

At first I was a bit disappointed by the cap being so hard to pull off. However this is probably necessary to help create an air tight seal around the nib in conjunction with the slip and seal inner cap. It does shut firmly with no wobble. Also, I have a knack for this, to minimise the effort and avoid mess: grip pen firmly with thumb tips side by side and parallel to the barrel; then push two forefingers against each other in a controlled pull, and stop as soon as the cap clicks (not ripping the pen and cap apart and sending ink splashing on clothing and surroundings etc).

The proprietory ink cartridges are a bit limiting but there are other options as mentioned above. Also the nib, whilst smooth and reliable, is rather bland and basic.

On the plus side, you get a good sized pen, competitively priced, well made in Japan, with durable metal body, in a wide choice of colours, a grip section which is not marred by facets or a sharp step, which writes reliably, with the admirable slip and seal capping feature, all making for a pen that is robust and ready to be carried around as an EDC or chucked in a bag without worry. It is a good rival to the Lamy Al-star, for those opposed to faceted grips.

A good true red, high gloss finish.

Before getting the tube home, I walked over to see the new Marble Arch Mound, a green hill that has been created in a corner of Hyde Park, next to Marble Arch. It has been in the news this week as the project costs ran to double its initial budget, finishing up at £6 million and the minister in charge at Wesminster City Council resigned. It is not, as I first thought, a huge mound of earth but a hollow structure made from scaffolding poles and then with an outer shell and covered with turf and real grass. An external metal staircase allows visitors to climb up to a viewing platform at the top. It is well worth the climb to gain a new viewpoint over the London skyline. It is a temporary installation and currently free to visit although tickets are booked online.

A view from the Marble Arch Mound. Looking down on Park Lane, with the London Eye and the Shard on the horizon.

I do not doubt that it must have taken a lot of work to design and create this empty hill. I am glad that I was able to go up it without pre-booking (it was late afternoon) and that it was free. Also, it made the new Platinum Plaisir in my bag seem even better value for money.

Another evening with The Other Favorites (this time it’s virtual).

~ rupertarzeian ~ 3 Comments

On 23rd May 2020, I joined a live stream concert given by The Other Favorites, the duo Carson McKee and Josh Turner. This was their third such venture and was streamed from Josh’s apartment in Brooklyn, New York, conveniently timed at 2.00pm eastern time, being 7.00pm for us watching in the UK.

The Other Favorites: Carson McKee and Josh Turner.

This was available to anyone who signed up via Crowdcast with a voluntary contribution, who then received a link to join the stream.

Some readers may recall that I was highly impressed with The Other Favorites, having found them on YouTube last year. I then got to see them at Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush last August and wrote a review here.

I saw Josh Turner in London again in October in Graceland Live at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, with a band and The South African Cultural Choir UK. The first half was given to performances of selected Paul Simon songs up to the 1986 Graceland album interspersed with lively pieces from the choir. In the second half, the company performed the entire Graceland album with Josh on guitars and vocals. It was truly special to hear this classic album brought to life so vividly, 33 years after its release.

The Other Favorites were to have been touring again this year but this was not possible in view of the pandemic. Performing a livestream session from home enables musicians to generate some revenue during these times and also provides welcome “live” entertainment for fans also in lockdown.

I continue to be amazed by this duo. From a rainy afternoon in Brooklyn, with the sound of an occasional car horn from the street below, they gave a very professional performance. Carson McKee played acoustic guitar and seemed the more relaxed of the pair, giving such a steady rhythm guitar and warm vocal performance that it looked effortless. Josh meanwhile began on his Martin acoustic for the first five songs before switching to a Fender Telecaster for the next five and then a banjo.

Josh now on banjo.

They played for an hour with a good mix of original material and covers, then gave a Q&A session for another half hour, answering questions from the chat messages. The original pieces spanned their ten years of playing and writing together. “Flawed recording” was one of their earlier songs, whilst “Nineteen and Aimless” was the opening track from Josh’s 2019 album As Good A Place As Any.

Once again, their performance demonstrated their genre-hopping versatility which takes in singer- songwriter styles such as James Taylor, jazz, bluegrass and Americana murder ballads and, with equal gusto, Abba’s Mama Mia. Josh’s guitar and banjo work on these is sublime, but never over-the-top. Listening to these young men, it is not unreasonable to compare their talents to a young Paul Simon or James Taylor.

The songs that they played are listed below (not including the rendition of Happy Birthday for Josh’s mother), to which I have added links to some of the YouTube videos. I am not sure if I have the title correct for number 7 but it was one of the standout pieces of the night and is one to watch out for.

Setlist:

  1. Angelina (original)
  2. Sixteen tons (Tennessee Ernie Ford)
  3. Little Sadie (Crooked Still)
  4. The Ballad of John McCrae (original)
  5. Table for One (original)
  6. Nineteen and aimless (original)
  7. I feel a certain change comin’ round (original)
  8. Hey Good Lookin’ (Hank Williams)
  9. Low Country (original)
  10. Moonlight in Vermont (Frank Sinatra)
  11. Nine Pound Hammer (Merle Travis)
  12. Mama Mia (Abba)
  13. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson)
  14. Flawed recording (original)
  15. Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash).

Edit. 5 January 2022. I now know that song number seven is called Colorado Cowboy.

What we learned in the Q&A.

Asked whether they ever heard from artists they covered, they mentioned Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes. They had also performed with the Backstreet Boys. However, Josh had never met Paul Simon or interacted with him in any way, which was surprising given Josh’s involvement in the Graceland show last year as well as the Simon & Garfunkel story, theatre show.

Asked when they had started in music full time, Josh had worked in retail for three or four years after college, building up some revenue from Youtube and Patreon but it was not until it became feasible for him to tour repeatedly that he gave up his day job, in late 2018. For Carson, it was as recently as late 2019 that he stopped work in an Apple Store.

Josh clearly is keen on the technical aspects of recording and streaming to the web. Asked about their set-up for this show, Josh turned the camera on some of their gear, showing the mics all going into a Zoom L-8 mixing/recording board (given by Zoom after they had appeared in an advertisement) but I then got lost as he explained the signal path through the compressor and computer software, for the audio and video.

As for their dream venues to perform in, Carson named the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the Troubadour in LA, as the most iconic for him, to which Josh added Clowes Memorial Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana, being at his old alma mater.

Josh had studied music theory at high school and at college. We did not see his classical guitar work this evening (or the mandolin, lute, keyboards or percussion instruments that he sometimes plays in his videos). Asked about artists he admired, he listed Glen Campbell and Chet Atkins. However, in answer to a suggestion about appearing with mandolinist Chris Thile on his show Live From Here, Josh dismissed this as being way too intimidating as Chris Thile and his approach to music “is on such another level.” So even our heroes have heroes.

The Other Favorites do plan to host another livestream towards the end of June. They also mentioned a planned comedy project in the pipeline, where we would get to see Carson exercise his acting chops. Their long history of playing together has produced a great body of work on YouTube and they keep getting better and better. Just as I finished re-watching the livestream, YouTube brought up a song that they had recorded, singing in Japanese!

Early thoughts on the Pilot Synergy Point 0.5 rollerball.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 7 Comments

The Paperchase store near my office no longer has a glass display cabinet of fountain pens. Its fountain pen offerings are now limited to a good selection of Lamy Safaris and Al-Stars, Kaweco Perkeos and Faber-Castell Grips, although it is good that these are still available. I enjoy browsing around the shop and often buy notebooks there.

Whilst visiting the shop one lunchtime recently, I came across a cup full of Pilot retractable pens, in a mix of blue or black, called the Synergy Point. These are not new pens but were new to me. I now gather that in other places they are called the Pilot Juice Up.

The Pilot Synergy Point.

To my naked eye, the writing tip looked so fine that I thought it was a fineliner, although it is in fact a tiny rollerball and one of Pilot’s gel pens. I liked the look of the pen, with its rubber grip section and rather superior metal nose cone. I bought one each in blue and black.

Features.

So, this is an inexpensive, retractable, gel pen, with a fine point. It delivers a smooth line (depending upon the type of paper you are using) with minimal pressure. Pilot’s catalogue entry states “A unique pen which, thanks to the innovative “Synergy tip”, combines a fine line with a very smooth writing experience.” Although labelled as 0.5mm, this is the tip size. The line width is said to be 0.25mm. It is also refillable, (using Pilot’s BLS-SNP5 refill).

Synergy Point, 0.5mm tip gives a 0.25mm line.

The gel ink in the blue version, is a pleasing shade of blue, which dries almost instantly and is also waterproof and so does not smudge.

When the tip is retracted, the push-button does not rattle, but it goes slack once the tip is deployed, which means that the button will rattle if you shake or turn the pen up and down. Also, there is an indicator window at the top of the barrel, just below the clip, comprised of five square dots, arranged like on a dice. If you look closely these are white when the nib is retracted and then go dark when the button is pressed down. As an indicator of whether the tip is out or not, you are better off looking at the tip itself or even the position of the button.

The pocket clip is plastic and rather soft and bendy and so not very secure and best not relied upon.

Size and weight.

The pen is about 140mm long when in writing mode. It weights about 12g. The girth is about 9mm. However the rubbery grip section and stepless barrel design make this a comfortable pen to use. The metal nose cone also places the centre of gravity further down towards the tip.

The writing experience.

The comfortable rubber grip, combined with the weighty metal nose cone and the lack of any wobble from the very narrow writing tip, all make for a feeling of precision when you are writing. Also, very little downward pressure is needed, although you do need a little to avoid skipping.

Some writing comparisons.

I have tried the pen on about half a dozen different notebooks. It is best suited to smooth papers without much texture as you do not have a large tip area to ride the bumps. However the ink flowed well. On all the papers I tried, any showthrough was minimal and there was no bleedthrough, even on papers which often struggle with ink. For example an Agenzio notebook (from Paperchase) has paper which suffers bleedthrough even with Waterman Serenity blue, but not with Montblanc Permanent Blue, Sailor Kiwa-guro or Platinum blue black, all of which are waterproof inks. The Synergy Point now gives me another bleed-free option for this brand of notebook.

A new option for bleed-prone papers. The Synergy Point on an Agenzio by Paperchase soft cover A5 notebook.

Disassembly and refilling.

At first, before checking online, I tried to unscrew the nose cone. However I later learned that the pen unscrews at the barrel, and you just hold the grip section in one hand and the smooth plastic barrel in the other. It was tight the first time and I was worried about destroying the pen, but was encouraged by seeing photos online of the two parts separated. I anticipate that the refill will last for ages but it is good to know that refills can be purchased.

Unscrews at the barrel, not the nose.

Likes and dislikes.

Plus points are the attractive design, sturdy build (aside from the flimsy clip and the rattling button) and the unusually fine writing tip for fine work. Having a waterproof ink is also useful. The familiar retractable design is obviously convenient and practical.

On the negative side, there is the feeble pocket clip and the rattling buttton. Also I would have preferred not to have a permanent bar code and a 13 digit number on the barrel but these are minor issues.

Pricewise, the blue model registered £4.25 on the cash till but then the black one registered as £5.00 which was slightly annoying. I would expect them to be the same price, whichever figure is correct, but it seemed fruitless to pursue this.

Conclusion.

I use ballpoint pens a lot for notes at work and a gel pen makes a pleasant alternative. The writing looks nicer and there is typically less pressure required yet you have all the convenience of a ballpoint pen. It is not a substitute for a fountain pen, which is still far ahead for line variation, shading and general writing pleasure. But the gel pen is a very useful writing tool to have and has its own merits.