A Pen And Ink Log

[Tom Kellie]

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A Pen and Ink Log

~ For the past several years I've said to myself that there was a need to informally track my use of both pens and inks. Nothing so systematic as a digitalized rotation, but a casual handwritten system to monitor usage.

I'm not much of a fountain pen collector, but rather am someone who prefers handwritten notes, correspondence and sketches to their digital counterparts. As such there are a number of pens which are used throughout the year for different writing projects, as well as for detail correcting of student research manuscripts.

Here and there I've learned about impressively well-organized systems for keeping track of both pens and inks. As much as I admired what others had set up, they weren't what I had in mind.

Since childhood I've been the do-it-yourself type about whatever might be achieved with a pencil lead, ink pen nib or a paintbrush. Working in Central China where brush pens remain in use and in the exact area where paper was originally developed, has reinforced my interest in handwritten documents, without in any sense denigrating contemporary digital innovations.

What was in my mind was nothing more than a personalized, handwritten, small-scale notebook which would list the various fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerballs and mechanical pencils.

The notebook would record each fresh inking of any fountain pen with an entry showing which pen, which ink on which date.

By doing so I intended to show myself how frequently any given pen or ink was used, to encourage greater use of all writing resources.

All of this remained in the ‘someday phase’ until this afternoon, when I finally decided that it was time to prepare what I'd long been mulling over.

I'm posting this in the Fountain Pen Network Montblanc Forum, as most of the writing I do is with Montblanc fountain pens, and more often than not with Montblanc inks.

By no means do I urge anyone else to follow what I've done, as it's a purely personal approach, in the same sense that each individual's handwritten journal is highly personal.

The small notebook with fish on the cover is called “鱼语” or “fish language”. I'd seen a student using one in class so asked for their assistance in buying one for my use.

Now I'm set. For one full week I've lived with no pens inked. It was my first “pen fast” in several years. It feels great to ink three pens to resume handwriting in daily life.

Tom K.

[meiers]

I like this concept. A lot.

What a great notebook! No feathering and probably no bleed-through either.

Are you going to use cursive writing in any entries?

[Pravda]

What a beautiful exercise I had my doubts that I would be the only one that did this haha

 

I always have 2 types of logs, one is my overall collection and the second would be the inked pens (usually 15) and the colors I have matched them with.

 

I have made a similar list of my 2016-2017 acquisitions for fun

 

 

This exercise is particularly of value to me, because I like to dedicate 1 ink for each pen long-term, i.e. once I find the specific pen's 'ideal' ink, it stays more or less forever.

 

Notes:

 

1. The first 1906 is the coral version. The second is the Tropic Brown. I don't have the black one inked.

 

2. I misspelled acquisitions. Yup.

 

3. Paper quality is terrible. Some scrap I found that thought might come of good use. I'll get rid of it.

[zaddick]

I use an small (8.25" X 5.875") ruled Black n' Red book for a similar approach. I am not very consistent, but when I ink up a new pen or one I have not used in a while, I put a writing sample on the page. I often describe the pen a bit and test nib flexibility. I also note the ink I used and the date.

 

Here is a photo of today's entry. Sorry it is not an MB. I don't have any inked right now.

 

Edited June 16, 2017 by zaddick

[grantmm]

You have a beautiful pen log book, Tom. I'm waiting on a Hippo Noto to make my long term ink log/journal. It is loose leaf or staple bound Tomoe River paper for right now in this household.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SAm7cfs.jpg?1

 

http://i.imgur.com/0zbblxS.jpg?1

[meiers]

I find your log very appealing: striking colours and nice hand writing.

Edited June 18, 2017 by meiers

[Tom Kellie]

[TheRealMikeDr]

I do something similar - my wife thinks I'm nuts!

 

http://i.imgur.com/8vu3vi7.jpg

[Tom Kellie]

[Tom Kellie]

~ After considering the approach TheRealMikeDr uses, I've modified my own pen and ink log, as shown below.

Tom K.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Tom Kellie

[TheRealMikeDr]

Excellent!

 

I love the MB Leo Tolstoy ink!

[Tom Kellie]

Excellent!

 

I love the MB Leo Tolstoy ink!

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ Thanks to a suggestion from Kalessin in the “Collecting Montblanc Ink” thread, the pen and ink log will fill a practical purpose.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/326241-collecting-montblanc-ink/page-4

He mentioned the idea of using a different ink each week to mark student work, e.g. draft research manuscripts, examinations, and assorted homework.

I've used the log for the past few months, finding it to be a practical way to encourage wider use of all inks and fountain pens.

Tom K.

[Chris]

Great idea.

 

I give each ink a page to itself and then I can add another line quoting the pen name and nib information as well as the ink each time I try that ink in another pen. I can add observations too, such as 'wet and slow to dry' or 'as arid as the desert' or 'looks nice when wet but flat as a pancake when dry' or whatever takes my fancy. Can be fun to look back and see how the pen and nib influences different inks when at least the paper itself is constant.

[siamackz]

Lovely collection of inks and pens! Great log book too!

 

Here's mine:

 

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ Chris and siamackz:

 

Thank you for your posts about your respective approaches to pen and ink logs.

This thread has shown the diversity and creativity of approaches to recording which inks and pens have been used.

The flex shown in the vintage 244 is beautiful!

A photo post like that enhances the pleasure of reading about various pen models, and inks.

I've learned from the posts in this thread, such that I've modified my own pen and ink log.

Tom K.

[Cyrille81]

As I like the idea and as before I made my tests on different notebook I decided to start a log book too

 

This is the my first entries (JFK fountain pen is missing as currently at MB in Hamburg) of all my pens (fountain, rollerball, ballpoint, document marker and mechanical):

 

[Tom Kellie]

~ Cyrille:

 

Thank you so much for posting images of your pen and ink log book.

I like the format and layout.

You've included non-fountain pens and a mechanical pencil — great idea!

I may borrow part of your style for my pen and ink log book.

Tom K.

[hdw]

I have recently started keeping a log similar to the above using Matt Armstrong's "Currently Inked" notebooks. For those who have not seen it, it is a small passport size notebook with boxes for your ink log. Though the notebook is more constricted than a blank piece of paper, the simplicity and pleasing layout is something at appeals to me.

 

 

Kind Regards

HDW

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by hdw

[Tas]

What are we like ?!

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_ink_log.jpeg