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A Guy With A Typewriter Walks Into A Bar

So this week I had the honor to be a guest on the Pen Addict Podcast. Normally the PA podcast is recorded live with Brad and Myke, but when someone is going to be out on vacation, there are occasionally pre-recorded episodes, and this week I was the lucky guest.

It was my first time being on the other side of the podcast so to speak, and I enjoyed that aspect. I have a much greater appreciation of what is involved ever since starting up the DWRDNET Stationery Feed, so I loved to see what the guest side of the podcast experience is like. The PenAddict is an audio only podcast, but we did record on Zoom, so in all reality, if felt like chatting with a friend more than a recording.

Brad asked about how I got into the hobby and more all the way up to how the podcast got started, and then we also talked about other stationery interests as a whole. I got to touch on my first ever trip to Vanness, as well as being fortunate to have some local stores like The Gentleman Stationer or Butler Stationery in town, which were not around when I first got into the hobby in 2013.

As the title of this post and the podcast reference, we did get into the latest adventure into typewriters. That is a part of the stationery world that has really clicked with me lately, and I liked to be able to talk through some of that. We talk about how I have started to take some of the typewriters out of a new local bookstore (The Raven Book Lounge), and use them for letters or journaling while sitting at the bar. We talked about my interview with Richard Polt of the Typewriter Revolution as well as gave the shout out of the week to Michelle Geffken of Paperblogging.com. Both of these podcast episodes were linked in the show notes, and since both Richard and Michelle are also fountain pen users, it really shows how we all approach the hobby from different paths, but there are many common things that are there if you take some time to inquire about them.

We touched on my journey into pen making as well, and I was able to give some proper shoutouts and credit to people like Nic of Pens By Pasquale, who really helped me get started down that aspect of the stationery hobby.

So let me know what you think of the episode in the comments, and if there is anything that we talked about that you would like to see a post about or more information, please leave that below as well.

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A Different Type Of Col-O-Dex Swatching For Pens And Typewriters

About a year ago, I found an old 2 wheel Rolodex, and I planned to use this for my fountain pen ink swatches. What I did not realize at the time, is there is no way that I would ever be able to fill both sides, as my measly collection barely fills enough of one side, and I have no aspirations to have the largest ink collection or anything like that. This left me in a predicament of what do I do with the other side of the Rolodex.

My vintage double roll metal Rolodex. Ink swatches go on the right, and the left will be typewriters and pens.

A while back, Lisa of OliveOctopus.ink gave me the idea of doing a pen inventory on the other side. I liked this idea, but I hadn’t done anything with it. I was not sure of the best way to make it happen, but it did have me thinking through how that might work. Once I started to get into typewriters, I found myself with something else that I wanted to have a good inventory of, especially the typefaces of the various machines. I thought about using my Instax printer for images, but that was just too bulky, and I didn’t think that it would work well with the Rolodex setup.

I saw some people talking about the Canon Ivy printers, and that is when everything seemed to come together to make what had been in the back of my mind come to fruition. The Ivy prints on ZINK paper, and each photo is a peel back sticker. These happen to be the perfect size to fit on a Col-O-Dex card from The Well Appointed Desk, so once all of these factors combined, I had everything that I needed to start to populate the other side of my Rolodex.

The Canon Ivy printer and a 10 pack of the sticker print media.

Once I got all of the pieces in place, I got to work at creating what had been brewing for over a year. I went through all of my typewriters and took photos, and then did a typeface swatch on the opposite side of the cards. This will allow for a visual reference of the machine, as well as the typeface that comes on it. This will be handy to take with me to events where I might be talking about typewriters as well if people have questions. It took some time to get them all compiled, but here is what I came up with.

My Typewriter Swatch Cards

My typewriter swatch cards on the Col-O-Dex cards printed with the Canon Ivy.
I used the typewriters to do typeface swatching on the other side of the cards.

The typewriter cards ended up great, so now I am starting the process of working through my pens.

I will create a complete pen inventory to go alongside the typewriters in the Rolodex.
On the back I will note the make, year I got it if I can validate that, the material that it is made from, and what nib size and filling mechanism.

This has been a fun project, and will continue to go on for quite some time as I work on creating cards for my entire pen collection. The Rolodex turns out to be a great solution for organizing collections like this, so now the question is, what other collections need a similar style set of cards in the future.

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I Am Really Loving Curated Mystery Boxes

Ever since Joe from The Gentleman Stationer announced his first ever Patron mystery box, or as he describes it, Curated box, I knew that was something that I wanted to try out. I am a terrible person to try to get gifts for, as my wife can attest to, as if I see something that I want to get, I will research all of the options and get whatever version I feel like will be the right fit for me. The idea of receiving a box and having no idea what is in it, that is a way to bring back some of that mystery associated with opening up a gift.

I have now been a part of almost every box that Joe has offered aside from one on this last round, as he added it after I had already picked up the couple that I talked about in this latest video and I really can’t think of a single item that I have either not given an honest try, or in some cases, they have become staple items that I use all of the time. I have also found that items from past boxes really come to be useful for future boxes. A great example of that is the NJK long reach pencil sharpener from the very first box, I have used that to sharpen future wood case pencils that have come in later boxes.

These boxes are normally offered to Patrons first, so you might consider signing up for the Gentleman Stationer Patreon if you want to be able to get one of these when they next come available, but for the last few, there have been some left over that have been released to the general public as well.

Here are some of the past curated box videos to check out as well.