Over the last couple of months, my working kit — i.e. my kit for work — of pens and pencils has changed considerably. Back in the summer, I would probably have used a Uni-ball Eye micro black-ink pen and the dependable Pentel BK77 Superb blue-ink fine ballpoint. Pencil-wise I’d be using something straight out of the stationery cabinet, whittled to a point with my penknife.
Nothing so pedestrian these days.
Current kit includes a Faber Castell Ondoro Oak Wood Fountain Pen with a fine tip I acquired from eBay (as it originally came with a medium tip that didn’t suit my writing style), a trio of orange, green and blue Uni-ball Eye fine tip pens, and a silver Uni Kuru Toga 0.5 rotating tip pencil. I also have a Pilot Kaküno fountain pen that I happily used until I got the fine tip for the Ondoro – and still provides a fall back as I don’t carry spare ink or cartridges with me.
I don’t know why I have taken such a marked step away from the straight forward black and blue or the somewhat more demanding business of fountain pen use and management. Perhaps I want to enjoy writing more when I have cause to do it — and how often do we still make time to handwrite in this world of mobile devices and computer keyboards?
I have a certain satisfaction from the smooth writing of the Ondoro; the multi-coloured array of my notes certainly entertains and engages the eye compared to the straight black slab of text I’d have created in the past.
Perhaps, in a few months time, I’ll get bored and move on. I have a stationery thing and it isn’t unknown for my tastes to waver. For the moment, I feel decidedly decadent and old school in my approach.
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