The second ink in this year’s Inkvent is from the standard series. Standard inks have neither shimmer nor other “special” characteristics such as scent or a lot of sheen, but can instead have significant shading, a darker halo, or a bit of sheen in wet areas. Cashmere Rose is a quite dark, dusky rose color with some shading. In wet areas, it has a dark, almost black halo. The ink seems to have a medium wet flow. The ink swatches…
Countdown to Christmas has officially begun! Just like last year—and the year before—I plan to post pictures and brief reviews of each ink from this year’s Inkvent. It’s also a good excuse to open the calendar slightly earlier than December 1st. As in previous years, this year’s advent calendar includes inks from a few different Diamine ink series. The first ink is from their chameleon line, which we first became acquainted with at last year’s Inkvent. They are Diamine’s name…
In the spring of 2018, I inherited a pair of Pan pens, and started looking for information about this Norwegian fountain pen brand. At first it was difficult to find any reliable information, but as I managed to uncover little hints here and there, those hints could be used to dig deeper. I have written about Pan and Eberhard Bredesen Oppi several times in the past, and the most recent example up until now is an article in Norwegian from May 2020. Since…
Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to write a full blog post this week. With NaNoWriMo and a number of other commitments, it has been difficult to make time. I am also working on a big article that I will publish on the last weekend in November, i.e. in two weeks. It’s a post with updated information about Den Norske Fyllepennfabrikk (The Norwegian Fountain Pen Factory), which made the Pan pens, and it’s likely to be the longest article I’ve written here on…
Earlier this autumn, I wrote a blog post where I tried to get to the bottom of why I always prefer to write with modern fountain pens, and not vintage pens. As soon as I had published the post, an idea began to form: maybe part of the problem was that I hadn’t given the vintage pens a good enough chance? Were the points I listed in the August post actually based on empirical evidence, or just an outlet for my own prejudice against…
This article was originally published in Norwegian at Pennen er mektigere on May 2, 2021. When you search in old Norwegian newspaper archives for the name “Milton Reynolds”, you find a lot of articles that mention two specific events in particular. One happened in 1947, when he flew around the world with his plane “The Reynolds Bombshell” in 78 hours and 55 minutes, thereby setting a new record for circumnavigating the world. The other case that was widely reported in Norwegian newspapers…
In a previous post, I wrote about the special envelope Andrine Aschjem received from her husband Hans Jakob just before Christmas in 1862. Hans Jakob Aschjem was a member of the Norwegian Parliament for Jarlsberg and Larvik County. His wife Andrine lived during this period at home on their farm Grini. It still exists and is today located in Larvik municipality. Four years earlier, in 1858, Andrine received another letter. It was written by her friend Lise Kahrs. Lise lived in the capital Kristiania (Christiania). This letter…
A couple of weekends ago I decided to fix up a couple of Parker pens I’ve had lying around for a long time: a Vacumatic and a 51. These are two legendary pen models, which, together with the Duofold, takes much of the credit for Parker in its time becomming the world’s largest and most-selling fountain pen brand. Vacumatic and 51 have very different filling mechanisms, and different considerations that must be taken when repairing them. They are also quite different from most other…
On the 17th of December 1862, Andrine Aschjem received a letter from her husband Hans Jakob. The letter was addressed Laurdahl. To find her home in Norway on a map today you would have to look for the farm Grini in Lardal in the county of Vestfold. The farm still exists. It was just before Christmas. I think Andrine was busy in the house baking and cooking. It was probably cold outside. She might have been having trouble with the snow…
This is a blog post about National Novel Writing Month. If you don’t know what that is, you might find it useful to read my post “Nibby Sunday – Write a novel in a month!” first. This year will be my fourth time writing National Novel Writing Month by hand. The first time was in 2016. I started the month with a trip abroad, and didn’t really have time to write much the first couple of weeks, which led to…