The end of summer, the cusp of autumn. Back to mundane tasks and familiar everyday life. Lamy Petrol is, in my opinion, the perfect everyday ink. Not because it’s boring – it’s not! – but it is convenient and simple to use, can withstand some wear and tear and has just enough distinctiveness and uniqueness not to become bland. The colour is, unsurprisingly, a muted, rather dark teal (i.e., petrol). There is not a lot of colour variations, but still…
Exploring vintage fountain pens from the first half of the 20th century is often an important part of the pen hobby, and there can be a lot of exciting things to find from the golden age of the fountain pen. I have quite a few old pens in my own collection, and have also spent a lot of time learning how to restore them, but for everyday writing I almost always prefer modern fountain pens. There’s a lot of cool stuff…
Written by Kjartan Skogly Kversøy and translation of Norwegian Gothic handwriting by Gina Dahl The 16-year-old Johan found himself in a predicament. On the 10th of October 1858 he wrote a letter to his father to discuss the matter. Many years later, the writer of the letter became the vicar of Vikør (now Vikøy) church in Hardanger. The letter was addressed to Toldcasserer Christie. Mr. Christie, who was a customs treasurer (Toldcasserer), was Johan’s father. The father lived in Bergen. Johan was stranded in the wilderness of…
This blog post was originally published in Norwegian at Pennen er mektigere, on March 14, 2021. FOMO – The Fear of Missing Out, is a term that’s used in many contexts, including by many in the fountain pen community. But what is FOMO? Why do we feel FOMO, and how is this fear exploited by the market? We will take a closer look at that in this blog post. This phenomenon was first described by Dr. Dan Herman in a scientific article titled…
This article was originally published in Norwegian at Pennen er mektigere, on May 8, 2022. In this article you will read about fish theft, arson, tax and insurance fraud. It’s about the demolition of a district in the capital, and about being on the wrong side in a war. We will meet a non-commissioned officer, teacher, organist, writer, merchant and factory owner. Yes, and an opera singer! And we will hear about a couple of brothers from Senja who moved to Oslo and each…
I visited Flying Tiger in Trondheim this summer, and found a pen pack for NOK 80,- (approx. $8), with 8 pens of different types in it. I noticed that it contained, among other things, a fountain pen, and decided to buy it for testing. My hopes were not very high, especially after the fiasco with the fountain pens from Søstrene Grene last winter. Those were cheap chinese knock-offs of Kaweco Sport sold in a Norwegian design store, that dried out after just a…
A version of this article was originally published in Norwegian at Pennen er mektigere on March 12, 2023. Parts of it has been rewritten for the sake of this translated version. I moved into a new flat in October last year, and although I’d mostly gotten things in place before Christmas, large parts of my pen collection was packed away in boxes until the beginning of March. I had unpacked the pens and inks I use regularly, but the collection of…
Welcome back to Pennen er mektigere, and happy new year, as we say in school and university circles! I hope all of the blog’s readers have had a lovely summer. I myself have spent a large part of the summer working on things for the blog, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with everyone throughout the fall. To begin with, let’s start the autumn off with a little easy reading, and let our international readers get to know me a little bit….
Welcome to the English version of Pennen er mektigere, a blog about writing instruments, hand writing, and the power of words. Pennen er mektigere is a Norwegian phrase, meaning “The pen is mightier”. This blog is primarily Norwegian, and started as a fountain pen blog back in 2019. Since then it has evolved into a blog with a broader theme, but most of our articles are still related to hand writing and stationery. Over the past several years, we have…