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Tackling The OliveOctopusInk #12PenPersonQuestions List

So OliveOctopus.Ink created an open call to the stationery community as a whole to take a shot at answering the 12PenpersonQuestions list that she curated. I have to say, this was much harder to sit down and answer than I anticipated, but I think that was good to take a little bit of time to think on some of them before typing out a response.

You can find out the origins on Lisa’s site at https://oliveoctopus.ink/12penpersonquestions.htm

  1. If you consider the different ways you can engage with pens and stationery—as a user, a collector, a hobbyist, a creator, a maker, a vendor—which roles fit best and what percentage of 100% would you assign to each? Are you happy with the balance?

So this was interesting to sit down and look at for sure. I started as a user with a side of small collection and left it at that for many years. I used what I had and wasn’t really adventurous with inks, ink colors or papers. As I got back into the hobby, I came in a different manner completely. I started by using what I had, and then by happenstance, the invent calendars led me down a different unintended path of the creator space. I quickly learned that I like that part of the hobby, as that helped reinforce the enthusiast and user areas. At this point, many of my personal purchases are now influenced to some extent by what the creator side could do for those items, so that is why it went to 40 over 30 on the other two categories. Having found that not only did we have a local pen club, but it is very active in addition to two local stationery stores, that has allowed me to jump into the Enthusiast category full tilt.

2. What is something you want to understand better or develop more informed opinions about?

I would really like to get more into the larger variety of nib grinds. I love my EF or finer nibs, but I know that there are times when larger nibs have their place, or better utilizing specialty grinds. I think there is a whole new world when it comes to nibs, especially when you get to thinking about the Monoc or the Harmonic nibs that are being made from scratch my members of the community.

3. In the pen community, what’s something someone has said or done that stuck with you?

The thing that comes to mind at first is how supportive Brad ThePenAddict is to other creators, and how when I was close to hitting 1000 subs on Youtube, he stopped his Twitch stream until people who were watching took me over that threshold. I know that he didn’t need to do that, but that kind of support is huge for a newer creator.

4. There are now 25 hours in a day, a bonus hour is available to use however you like as long as pens or stationery are involved—how do you spend your hour?

I think that I would use it to get caught up on all of the various podcasts that I am behind on from the stationery world. I feel like there are so many aspects of the hobby that are discussed in detail in that format that I might not come across otherwise.

5. In the pen community yearbook, what would your superlative be? (i.e. “Best ______”, “Most _______” “Most likely to _______”)

I think my superlative would be something along the lines of mostly likely to own every type of EF nib. The smaller the nib the better to pair with my writing, so I would like to get EF or smaller options from all different nib types and needlepoint or smaller grinds from every nibmeister that I can.

6. How do you feel about your handwriting?

If we are talking print, I like it. Even if I am writing quickly, it is pretty legible. When it comes to cursive, on a scale of 1-10, it would be a 1. That is a skill that has all but vanished due to non use, so I hope to start working on that to bring it back in the future.

7. What is something you are proud of doing, achieving, or overcoming?

I would say that I am proud of starting a Youtube channel. I have never been a person who liked being in front of the camera, so why dive into a medium where that is the cornerstone. I not only started it, I took it to another level of starting a video podcast with no background in podcasting at all that has been I feel successful and I hope that continues well into the future.

8. You’re going on a writing retreat anywhere in the world—where would you go, what would you write, and what would you write with?

I would go with my wife of course, and if the focus is writing, I would have to go somewhere that I have been before, or it would be too tempting to go see a new area vs spending time writing. I really loved when we visited Ireland, so I could see finding a smaller village area to stay in where writing could be done at the house, or at a table in a pub etc.

9. What’s a current or favorite creative outlet?

Obviously, I have really embraced the creating , but the parts I enjoy the most are the livestreams and the podcast interviews. I like being able to make the connections with all of the various creators to learn their stories.

10. What’s something that causes you benign envy—the kind of admiration and desire that leads to inspiration or motivation?

People to have beautiful script writing, or people who are able to make their writing look like works of art by adding in variety and drawing. That has never been something that has been in my wheelhouse due to my handwriting, but I love to see what people are able to create in that medium.

11. What’s a comfort item, material, or color?

Titanium. I have a weakness for all things titanium, and I love the grey and black colorspaces. If I had to only have pens of a single material, as much as I love the colorful materials, all titanium, all the time.

12. What would be a dream collaboration, project, or partnership?

I would love to have the means to just travel around the country and go interview makers, visit stores, and go to all of the pen shows. I would love to be able to partner up with other creators like Independence Mike, The Pen Addict Brad and others as I passed through their areas. As an overall more natural introvert, the pen community has started to bring out a little more of the extroverted side of things which is a nice change of pace.

    That finishes up my answers to these questions for now. I think that I will try to remember to revisit this in the future and see if I have any updates to my answers as time goes on.

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    Ordering My First Fully Custom Fountain Pen

    When I started the DWRDNET Stationery Feed, I didn’t realize that I was starting a new way of helping to decide future pen and stationery hobby purchases. As it worked out, I already owned items from many of my guests, and after the interviews, I found myself looking at the creations of the guests when preparing for the episodes, and that led to new items being added to my collection. When it came to interviewing Lisa Marie of Pourly Controlled, she just makes blanks, so if I wanted to have one of her blanks, I would need to get it made into a pen, so that is what started this path. Another previous guest of Nic Pasquale of Pens By Pasquale was going to end up being called into service to make my first custom pen order come to life.

    I am very lucky to have local pen makers, so when I was thinking about a pen, I was at a Friday morning pen meetup that Butler Stationery hosts from time to time, and Nic was showing off his new faceted creation called the Cerberus. After seeing that pen, I knew that I wanted to own one eventually, but I was thinking of it as a longer term item. After talking to Lisa Marie, I knew that Nic had been an early adopter of using her materials, so the writing was on the wall. I reached out to Nic, and he already had 6 different materials from Lisa Marie in his shop, so that just left me to decide which one to go with, and then get on his commission list around the end of June 2025.

    The selection of Pourly Controlled materials that Nic Pasquale had on hand when I reached out asking about a commission.

    After going through the material options, I was able to quickly narrow it down between the lava and bourbon and smoke and then after some more time, bourbon and smoke seemed to be the verdict among a few people that I polled, so that helped to lock it in. I let Nic know, and then the wait began. I had no expectation of how long this process would take, and to be fair, I never asked. Having dealt with other commissioned items in the past, and having done commissioned work, I know that quality takes time, and while excited, I was not in any kind of timely need for a new pen, so I just settled in for the process to take whatever time was needed.

    The first in process photo that I got from Nic in July.

    I was able to go see Nic’s shop on July 4, and saw the blanks in person for the first time, and I could tell I made the correct material selection. A couple of weeks later, I got a teaser photo from Nic of the pen in process, and I for my first true look at what the pen would end up looking like. One thing that I have learned from talking to blank makers and seeing before and after comparisons is that the true material doesn’t show itself until it is turned down. Seeing the color variation inside of the blank and how it had a great natural flow, I could not wait to see the pen once it was fully polished.

    I got a short video update a couple of weeks later where Nic ran into an issue and was having to do a little bit of a remake, so while I hate that it happened, I really appreciated the great communication from Nic during the process. I know that for many parts of the pen making, things are done in batches as it is easier in terms of what tools are used, dry time, and other factors, so I was glad to see that my pen was still in process. My next update was when the pen was mostly done aside from the finish work. Nic was asking about if we wanted to try going with alternating matte and polished facets, which sounded interesting, but it turned out that this material just performed better when polished.

    The matte version where we decided that fully polished was going to be the best look for this material.

    A few days later, I get a final text to confirm my nib size, and then with Nic being local, I happen to live between where he lives and works, so I got front door delivery service. Seeing this pen in the sunlight is just something else. The camera does not really capture the depth of this material, as the subtlety embedded shimmer just glows in the sun. The polishing is done to such a level that when I took my photo for the Youtube video, when editing it, I noticed my fingerprints were showing on the entire pen, so I had to wipe it down and then take a new photo. There is a reason why Nic is known for his polishing.

    I have to say that this entire experience was a great experience, and has affirmed that while I know that I will continue to find pens from various makers that I will pick up, I am not going to be hesitant about doing the occasional full commission, as that lets me get the exact pen model that I want in my selected material, and that is just a great thing to think about to be able to find that level of customization in a hobby that I love.

    Photos of the finished pen that Nic sent me after it was completed.
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    The Evolution of the DWRDNET Stationery Feed

    I recently wrapped up season 1 of the new video podcast that I started back in March, and in that final episode I took a little bit of a chance to look back at the show and I wanted to expand on that some here in addition to what I spoke about in the episode.

    In the past, I was a photographer for many events and I was very good at not being in photos, and that is a hard mentality to break out of. So how does one go from that to hosting a weekly video podcast, well to be honest I am not really sure, but here is roughly how it happened for me. As a consumer of some stationery audio podcasts like The Pen Addict or the Well Appointed Desk Patron member podcast, I realized that for me, I like having the visuals to go along with some of what is being talked about. I would love to see the pen being held up or the facial expressions during discussions, so that kind of planted the idea in the back of my head to begin with.

    Having discovered that I am very fortunate to have local stores and local makers, I thought it would be great if I could use the Youtube channel to help spread the word about these members of the community who are helping to make the community grow and prosper. This lead me down the path to start doing research on what would I need to do in addition to what I had been doing for Youtube videos and to try to plan out the entire process. If I was going to take on this venture, I wanted it to be repeatable and easy for any guest who I might be fortunate to interview. I tired out different software, settings in the software, advice on scripts, times to record and pretty much every aspect that I could think of. All of this started probably two months before the first episode was ever recorded.

    By the time March rolled around, I was ready to do a tech test with a future guest Lisa of OliveOctopus Ink. With her already being someone who does a Twitch stream, I figured she would be great to help do a proof of concept on the setup and the process. We were able to do a test shortly before the Arkansas Pen Show, so then it came down to me to find guests and get them scheduled. I wasn’t sure how to really approach guests to be on a new show, so I needed to make a pilot episode. Luckily, I was able to reach out to one of my best friends who was a new fountain pen user, but understands the tech side to do a pilot episode 1 of the show. I got stuff scheduled, sent the FAQ document and questions that I had prepared and I didn’t realize at the time where exactly this would go.

    After recording that episode, I had to figure out how to edit the show, which needs a different approach than a normal video. There isn’t really an option to do retakes or anything like that, so after a few days, I got a version uploaded, got some feedback, changed some things and then uploaded the video for real. During this editing time, I was already reaching out to potential guests to try to schedule the next episodes, and luckily things just started falling into place to get people scheduled to record.

    Scheduling guests, while a very daunting task, ended up not being as bad as I thought that it might. I was able to get some help making introductions to people via past guests, and that honestly was a huge help. Many people in the stationery world use things like Instagram as their main method of sharing their work, and due to all of the spam prevention tools necessary in the world today, sending a message normally would go into the abyss and never be received. Once I actually found a way to get in contact with people, I was very encouraged that people were glad to record an episode. Being new to the creator space of a hobby can be daunting, but luckily the stationery hobby is one where people are supportive of other members and creators, which I am sure is not the case in other hobby communities. I was even able to get a couple of guests at the last minute, as someone had to reschedule for a later date, so I was able to maintain that 19 week stretch. Somehow I did manage to take a week long vacation during this time and not miss an episode, but I knew that was really luck when looking back at things.

    One thing that never even crossed my mind with starting a new show, is that eventually I would need to be able to take time off, as going on every week forever as a host, editor, producer was not very sustainable. I wasn’t really sure how to do this, in mid stream, so happenstance of a guest who needed to cancel to help a family member with a medical issue happened at such a time as to ned season 1 on Episode 20. I took this as a bit of a sign that this was the perfect time to look back at the show and take. a little time to regroup and prepare to make season 2 and beyond even better.

    Overall, I think this entire venture has been a great success. I have been able to talk to a variety of people in the stationery hobby and community and help to share some of their stories to audiences that might not have ever had that exposure otherwise. If you came to watching the show later on in its season 1 run, I would encourage you to go back and watch some of the earlier episodes. They might be a tad less polished from a technology standpoint, but the great conversations are the part to not be missed.

    While I don’t have a set date to start season 2 yet, I do plan to spruce up the show production some and try to do a better and more consistent presentation of what guests will be coming up later on the season, so be sure to make sure you are subscribed to the Youtube channel, or if you are doing audio only, follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you won’t miss out on the next season of exciting guests.

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    A Tale of Two Nib Holders

    When I first got into pens over a decade ago, I never really got into ink swatching, so now that I have come back into the hobby in a different way, exploring inks and trying to incorporate more colors into my writing as a whole. Part of this exploration is obtaining and swatching both the new inks, and all of the bottles that are on my shelf.

    Like most people, when I first started swatching with the 2024 inkvent calendars, I was using Q-Tips and a dip nib that I inherited from an old speedball set that my mom had that ended up in my supplies. I got my first ever Col-O-Ring cards and I was off to the races. This was what I thought swatching was, and while it worked, as time has progressed I have learned there are better ways.

    When I did my interview with Lisa (Link Found Here) , who can be found online at OliveOctopus.ink, she shared her knowledge of using non porous objects when swatching, as they won’t absorb any of the ink that could affect the colors on the page. I have switched to using glass stirring rods, but there is still a need to write the name of the inks, and that is where the nib holders are going to come into play. I have a travel glass dip pen, but I wanted to continue to add to my toolset.

    I knew that eventually I wanted to get both the kakimori and colorverse shuttle nibs, but in order for that to happen, I needed some nib holders. When I noticed that Amarillo Stationery got some more kakimori nibs in stock, I placed an order and originally was just getting one of the basic wooden handles. After I placed my order, I got a message from Erick asking if I wanted to upgrade to one of the Amarillo nib holders that he was going to be releasing soon, and of course I said yes.

    While waiting for the delivery, The Pen Addict Brad released the Pen Addict Ink Thrower, and he had a slim model which caught my eye, as it might be a good option to have for ink bottles with a smaller neck, so I ordered one of those as well. They arrived so close to each other, I was able to make the combined video. This also works well, as both of these were turned by River City Pen Company out of materials made by Nic Pasquale for the Amarillo holder and Turnt Pen Co. for the Pen Addict offering.

    The first impression was great for both of these, and I look forward to using them as I get more into my inks and swatching them on the variety of papers in addition to my Col-O-Ring and Col-O-Dex cards.

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    A Titanium Fountain Pen Got Me Again: Gravitas Sentry

    If you know me in real life, or you have followed my videos for a while, it is well known that when it comes to items made out of titanium, I have a weakness. I love titanium, and whenever I come across something made from it in one of my hobbies, something inside my head says, you need to get that asap.

    I was on Youtube the other day, and I saw a video from Drew Brown on the Fahrney’s Channel, and it was all about how Fahrney’s is now the US distributor for Gravitas pens, and that peeked my interest. I have seen other videos about the Gravitas pens, especially the one made from titanium, but I didn’t want to go through the international ordering and shipping hassle, so I had been holding out. While watching this video, I of course went to the website to look, and low and behold before I knew it, I had a Sentry in my cart and the order was placed.

    Gravitas makes some other models in titanium like the Dinkey, Quark and Pocket, but there was just something about the Sentry that drew me in. I carried my Namisu Orion for a few years as I never had to worry about the pen being in my pocket, but I didn’t really have any other fountain pens that I really enjoy writing with that also don’t make me worry if just throwing it in a pocket with a knife or keys, and now the Sentry will be able to allow me to vary what pens I carry with me.

    First page of real writing that was not random work notes related.

    As I was making the video, I had to decide what ink that I wanted to use, and this can be challenging when not trying to match a material, so I wanted to select something that I had not used in a while, so I went with the Montblanc William Shakespeare Velvet Red. I think this was a great choice, as I forgot how much I enjoy this color, and in my experience, Montblanc ink always performs well.

    I ordered the EF nib for this pen, and for being a Jowo #6 compatible housing, the Gravitas nib that I received writes wonderful. The addition of the laser etched logo on the nib adds a nice touch as well. I don’t have an immediate plan to swap this nib out anytime soon, but being able to add a ground nib to this in the future is very appealing.

    The fit and finish of this pen I second to none, and while I understand that Gravitas might have had some customer service issues for some people in the past, I think that handing that off to Fahrney’s to handle is a way of them hearing that there were issues and trying to make it a better experience for customers. This was my first order from Fahrney’s, and it definitely won’t be my last.

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    Interviewing The Gentleman Stationer

    So when I decided to start doing interviews on the Youtube channel, I was lucky to have quite a few local people who I was able to get on the list, and as it would have it, it took a bit for our schedules to align, but Joe and I finally got a chance to record an episode. I go to the Gentleman Stationer shop an on almost weekly cadence, but it is different to be in looking around vs getting a chance to talk about some of the stationery between other customers etc.

    Getting a chance to sit down and ask questions and learn the history of a website and now store that I visit all of the time was great. I love hearing how these people get started and how they have been able to grow their passion for the hobby into a thriving online store, and in this case, actually be able to open up a new physical store. Nashville has needed this type of store, and Joe talks about in the video about he saw that and decided why not me?

    It was great to see a hinted new collaboration item that is in the works as well, but it was just a visual hint in the video, so I can’t really give more details here, so definitely watch to see that tease, as I have a feeling that product will sell quite well. So I do hope you enjoy watching this one as well as all of the other episodes, as I really enjoy getting a chance to showcase all of these staples in the stationery hobby.

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    A Less Expensive Entry To The World of A5 Ring Binders

    As I recently got my A5 Plotter, I have started the trial and error phase of seeing how and what I want to use in the Plotter and in what order. Part of this is looking into the variety of brands that are out there to find the right options, and not necessarily lock myself into a single brand.

    As luck would have it, right after I got my Plotter, my local store The Gentleman Stationer posted about having just received a new offering from Laconic that was a binder and pre punched 6 ring inserts. Since I am just getting into the 6 ring A5 world, I picked up a variety of the inserts as well as a binder to see how they might be of use. The inserts that I got are Monthly, Weekly, Meeting and My Life. There are a few other options like Spreadsheet, but I didn’t think the other formats would be of use to me at this time. One big perk of these inserts is that they are undated, so they offer much more flexibility when it comes to calendars. This is going to be great for me, as I don’t have to commit to a years worth of calendar inserts if I end up not using the A5 for calendar long term.

    Part of moving into the A5 is the variety of accessories. I mentioned in my Plotter video that I was on the hunt for a binder to store my extra pages, and this Laconic I think is going to fit that need. The ring mechanism is easy to open and it holds plenty of pages, so this is going to be how I start for paper storage, as I think this notebook will still be useful if I find a better option in the future. For now, it is filled with my blank sheets of the various insert styles, and with this being as inexpensive as it is, I could see getting as second one in the future to use for used pages vs unused.

    I mention in the video that my initial hole punch ended up working decently, but it was punching with a different margin to the holes when compared to the Plotter paper. I was able to get a recommendation from a friend who is already into the Plotter system, and I ended up picking up a Bira Adjustable 6 Hole Punch from Amazon. So far, it seems to be a much closer margin which is what I was looking for.

    I mention in the video that my A5 Plotter that I got initially was having issues with the tabs to open the rings, so I contacted Dromgoole’s and they did a warranty return. I have to say I am glad that I reached out as my replacement arrived and the rings opening are a night and day difference.

    The tabs were sitting flat and never came up to allow the rings to open.
    One of the rings never did fully close, so that was confirmation to me that the mechanism was faulty.

    All this to say, it never hurts to reach out if you get something new and it doesn’t seem right. There are always one of issues that can slip by quality checks on any product.

    I look forward to continuing this journey into the A5 Plotter world and will continue to look for other accessories and inserts to let me fully customize this setup and use experience.

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    Moving Into The Plotter World

    Earlier this year, I ventured into the world of Hobonici by getting a Weeks, and I had no idea that I happened to be choosing a loaded gun of sorts, as I had no idea the I would happen to be entering into a paper battle and struggle that many people have experienced with the new paper formulation in some of the Hobonici planners. The bleed through was too much for me to use with most pens that I tried, so I put that planner on the shelf and started to look into what my options were for the rest of the year.

    After college, I was using a Filofax Executive size 6 ring planner, and I still had the cover, as well as a second new one that I got when the bookstore I worked at was clearing them out. My wife ordered some some custom Filofax inserts earlier in the year, and put them in that NOS cover, but after they arrived, she realized that she needed a larger format, so those refills were sitting on a shelf, so I ended up taking them over for the rest of the year. I moved the remaining year of inserts into my proven old cover, and ended up ordering a couple of bible size plotter accessories like the pen loop and divider with elastic to use alongside the inserts. This was working pretty well, but the inside of the close to 20 year old cover was never meant for this type of duration it seems, and all of the inside liner was flaking apart and leaving a trail everywhere, so knowing that my proof of concept for that format worked, I made the move to get an actual Plotter cover.

    I started with the black horsehair bible size cover, and after using it for a couple of weeks, I really liked the idea of having a ring system in the A5 size as well. When I interviewed Lisa aka Olive Octopus, I really liked how she had put the disk bound system to use for have a great way for side by side paper comparison, so I wanted to do something similar with all of the A5 size papers that I already had. With this in mind, I ordered the A5 cover in the US exclusive Shiranami color. I got the necessary accessories with it as well, such as the pen loop, elastic band, project manager folders and the zippered case. A local pen club friend gave me some A5 paper samples, so I also picked up a pad of the Plotter dot grid and 2mm grid papers to use in addition to generic A5 looseleaf papers.

    Armed with a hole punch, I added in some Life bank paper and You-Sari to start, and that paper selection will continue over time as I get into the Plotter system more. There are still some other accessory items that I am looking into such as paper storage when it is not in the rings as well as calendar inserts for limited use in the A5, and inserts for the Bible size for 2026. I do appreciate that due to the somewhat standard 6 ring system, I am not bound to only using items from the Plotter brand, so I will be able to search to find the right option for me regardless of what brand releases the product, and that is part of the fun of this hobby, finding the right fit for how you intend to use it.

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    Comparing Maruman Mnemosyne and Spiral Note

    As I continue to go down the path of trying and comparing various papers, it is always interesting to compare like to like within the same brand. This is one of those examples when taking a look at the Maruman Mnemosyne vs the Spiral Note. I have been using the Mnemosyne for the last 6 months between the regular black cover and then Kleid ruled horizontal version, and this has become my standard notebook for work notes that I keep at my desk.

    The Gentleman Stationer recently got in the more budget minded Maruman Spiral Note, I picked one up to give it a try. Finding a reliable less expensive option for a quality paper. The Spiral Note is a great contender to fit that bill. The paper is a 70gsm paper vs the 80gsm that comes in the Mnemosyne, and there seems to be a lack of coating on the paper as well. The cover is a basic Kraft cover, and the rings are a single uncoated ring vs the double coated rings found on the Mnemosyne.

    Both of these papers have perforated pages which is great for being able to take notes, and then remove old pages to be discarded when no longer needed, or to file them away for historical needs. This also makes both of these a perfect fit for a desk notebook that could be put to use across meetings or projects without having to keep a stack of notebooks handy. The Spiral Note comes in a variety of ruling options such as grid, dot grid, blank, and 2 different sizes of lined pages. While I tested the A5 version, there is also a B5 version with the same 80 page offering as the Mnemosyne, as well as a 40 page option in the B5 size.

    In the video, I do a comparison of a variety of pens, inks, nib sizes, and pencils, and I also do an ink swatch to see how well the paper can handle it. Overall, both papers performed wonderfully for everything except for a Sharpie marker, but to be honest, that is to be expected. The ink swatch didn’t bleed through, but for me, this is not the type of paper that I would consider using for a general swatching book, but the paper can handle an occasional swatch or a spill well enough.

    So overall, the Spiral Note is a great budget minded option when it comes to paper, but for me, I plan to stick with the Mnemosyne for now. It takes me a while to finish up a notebook, so the small little fit and finish details are worth the small amount of extra cost for me. If my situation changes where I need to go through notebooks at a quicker rate, I would have no hesitation to switch over to the Sprial Note as my primary use notebook.

    I purchased these both of these notebooks from The Gentleman Stationer. If you are looking to pick up these notebooks, you can use the code DWRDNET at checkout when shopping at The Gentleman Stationer to save 10% on your purchase, so be sure to take advantage of the this generous offer that has been offered to those following along with the website and YouTube videos.

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    A First Look at The Gentleman Stationer First Ever Patron Blind Box

    As soon as I saw that Joe from The Gentleman Stationer was going to be releasing a mystery stationery box to Patron members, I immediately ordered one. There were only 10 made for this first release, and I was able to be one of the lucky people to order in time. This is the first time that I have done any sort of blind unboxing in years, and definitely the first one that I did while recording a video.

    I did not anticipate the extra challenges added in when doing one of these type of openings on video, as Murphy introduced extra hurdles. I had to re shoot parts of the contents a few times, as I had audio that was not syncing to video, but I was able to get everything edited to cover the topic at hand well enough.

    As for the box and its contents, this was a more pencil centric box, and I actually love that fact. Joe has always been a proponent of using a variety of writing tools, and while my main focus has been fountain pens, it was nice to have a change of pace by adding in some pencils, especially some wooden pencils. I said it in the video, and I still think this to be accurate, that I probably hadn’t used a manual pencil sharpener in 15 years. I can now reset that clock, and I look forward to putting those pencils into my writing rotation.

    When I first filmed the video, I was looking at the TGS website for what some of these items were, and I couldn’t find the Midori A7 notebook. It turns out that was such a new item at TGS, that it went into the Patron boxes before it was even added to the website, so to me, that reenforces that the box is curated of new items and not things that have been sitting around on the shelves.

    Along with the pencils, I also got my first bottle of TWSBI ink, so that is another brand to add to the ever growing ink collection. While I have not put this into a pen yet, the swatch that I did on the video looks to be a very nice green. I am not sure if all 10 boxes had the same color, so I look forward to seeing what others ended up with when talking to some of the other Patrons on the Patron discord that Gentleman Stationer recently launched.

    Another item that I am really excited for is the Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil and the Uni smudge resistant lead. Having recently started to do watercolor, I currently had one of my multi pens in with my painting supplies, but I think this is going to be a better fit for that use case. I like that the pencil has a different look, and that it has a pull cap that protects the end of the pencil, which is great to keep it from pushing through the Lochby Tool Roll that carries my watercolor supplies.

    To round out the box, aside from some TGS swag of a sticker and some coasters, Joe included one of the low viscosity Anterique Ballpoint pens, and to add to the great pen, he did some mix and match to have it be in the Gentleman Stationer colors of black and red. I already own a couple of these pens that are in places like my Jeep or gym bag, so now I have another one to keep around on my desk.

    Overall, this was a fun unboxing experience, and I will definitely do my best to try to get any more of these that are released in the future. It was nice to be truly surprised by what was in the box, and now have some new items to add into my normal stationery use. Be sure to check out Gentleman Stationer on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/gentlemanstationer

    Another thing that happened to line up with this video release, is that I am able to announce that the DWRDNET YouTube channel now has a discount code that can be used when shopping at The Gentleman Stationer. Use code DWRDNET at checkout to save 10% on your purchase. Some exclusions apply. I really do appreciate Joe offering this to YouTube viewers. Any chance to save, much less on items that might be more hobby related these days, is a very pleasant surprise.

    Be sure to Subscribe to the Youtube channel, as there should be an episode of the DWRDNET Stationery Feed in the near future.