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The Conklin Pen Company

The Conklin pen originated in Ohio, 1898 by a man named Roy Conklin. Conklin pens are considered to be one of the most prestigious and significant writing instruments; a fine portrayal of American design. The unique and quirky design pattern on each pen is truly stunning. From intricate patterns to multi colours, it’s aesthetically pleasing and a treat to look at. Each Conklin pen is a great representation of hand crafted talent. At Pens Etc, we only stock pens that are designed for longevity and are comfortable for our customers to write with. This is why we supply a wide range of them.

View our wide range of in Conklin Pen’s here

For years people have had to plan their time and keep some form of a diary and now there are more “planning” tools than ever. Initially starting as a plain paper book, the diary later evolved into a chronological dated book dedicated to each year. Now, with the rise of technology, digital planners and online calendars are the latest editions to the “diary” family. Not only are there multiple electronic devices available; there are an abundance of third party apps offering a variety of features to suit individual needs. Technological and online solutions are often seen as a superior solution to predecessors however, is this the case when it comes to diaries?

Why bother with an old fashioned diary?

Some people genuinely will have no idea why anyone would waste their time using an “old school”, “prehistoric” and “dated” way to organise their time, making statements like:

“why would you write anything down, there’s an app for that!”

“well it might work for you but can your diary notify you on 5 different devices?”

“a diary won’t fit in your pocket but a phone will”.

But paper diaries have worked for people for years and based on records have been used for over a millennia. They have helped humanity evolve. The question shouldn’t be “why use a paper planner?” but should be “why would you not use a tried, tested and proven way of planning?”.

Benefits of Using a Paper Diary

Before the 2000’s I wouldn’t have to justify the positives of a paper diary – there would be no true digital rival. It was the “go to” organisational tool for millions of people. The current era, as aforementioned, now offers a wealth of digital alternatives but that doesn’t mean that a paper planner doesn’t have it’s advantages.

To effectively use a diary, you need the diary itself, and a pen or pencil. Good diaries will include a clip or loop to store your pen within the diary. With just the diary and writing instrument, you can use your diary for months. It doesn’t need battery power, it doesn’t need charging every day and it doesn’t require a network connection. It’s simplicity and lack of technology is it’s major benefit.

No Annoying Notifications

With a diary, you can view appointments and look back at what you’ve done when it suits you. You’re diary doesn’t ping, it doesn’t light up and it doesn’t vibrate. It’s there to look at when you want to. A busy day can quickly feel more congested if you have constant pop ups and reminders informing you of what you need to do and what appointments you have.

The last benefit to mention is that everything is now technology based. The average day for a working individual may be something like:

• alarm goes off in the morning
• check preferred news website to keep up with current affairs
• check emails once at work
• use spreadsheets and word processors throughout the day
• call significant other on the way home from work
• turn on the TV at home whilst browsing the internet on a tablet or phone
• look up a recipe for dinner
• look for something to do at the weekend
• finally, once in bed, drift off to sleep whilst reading an E-book

Constantly being “connected” via a phone, tablet or laptop is becoming a regular occurrence and can add to stress without you even realising. Taking a break from technology and bright screens to use a paper diary can do the world of good for both your mentality and your eyesight.

It’s also proven that writing things down is a more effective way of remembering – see our post “Is it Better to Type and Touch or Write and Mark?“.

Benefits of Using Digital Planners and Online Calendars

The “techies” reading this post will, most likely, disagree with the benefits listed above. However, there are both very obvious and less obvious benefits to using technology as a calendar, diary or digital planner.

A calendar app, such as Google Calendar, has far more space to add details to appointments. You can include when an event starts and finishes, where the event is, add your contacts to the event and add custom notes such as “remember rain coat”. All this information would not fit into a section on a diary page, and maybe not even a full page, especially if you have multiple events/appointments in one day.

Calendar Syncing

Another major plus digital solutions have over pen and paper is the option to add other people to an event or appointment. Syncing with colleagues, friends or loved ones calendars offers a multitude of benefits including notifying everyone an hour before an appointment. Also, one person can create the appointment to update everyone’s calendar rather than everyone having to write it down themselves in their own diary. A synced calendar is great for both the workplace, families and relationships allowing everyone to remain in sync, organised and up to date on what each other is doing.

Reminders and notifications also offer an advantage which diaries can’t. Birthdays for example, you can receive a notification on all your devices both a week before, 2 days before and on the day. This reminds you to buy a birthday present and card in advance, post the card 2 days before and send a Happy Birthday message on the day. Equivalent reminders in a written diary would have to be written down four times, showing the digital solution in this instance both saves time and effort. Not only does it save time, but your notification can be set up to pop up on all devices reducing the chances of you missing a reminder.

Cloud and Online Backup

Most calendar apps will sync online, automatically creating a mirrored backup in the cloud. Don’t have your phone or tablet with you? Log into your calendar online via an internet browser. If you don’t have your diary with you, there’s no online backup and no way to view appointments/events. If you get a new phone or upgrade your tablet, once logged into your calendar app you immediately have access to all your appointments again.

The last advantage of online calendars I’ll mention is that you can have recurring appointments. What’s the first thing you do when you get a new diary or calendar? You add the birthdays of those important to you. With the digital counterpart, Birthdays and other specified events automatically recur each year. This means you only need to add these to your calendar the once.

Summary

There are pluses and negatives for both methods of maintaining an online calendar and diary. The best solution will always come down to the individual. If you’re tired of your phone constantly buzzing and beeping, a diary will give you a break. If it’s convenient to have everything you need in one place, including your calendar, on your phone, then why carry an extra item everywhere? The choice of which method is best is down to you; both methods work, it’s simply down to which benefits appeal to you.

In our shop we offer a range of diaries and personal planners as well as compact pens designed for using with touch screens.

by Guest Writer Penn’orth.

Pretty much everyone receives mailings. Most mailings end up in the recycle bin (destined to add to carbon emissions and waste resources). The junk mail I receive is shredded to be tossed into our compost bin in our garden. Every so often, there is something about the mailshot that catches your eye. In this instance it is a modest sized A5 brochure full colour six paged from a company called Write Size. This grabbed my attention, quite why I don’t know.

The Brochure emanated from a company called Write Size who were advertising their range of different sized pencils which the Company claims help children who are learning to write to establish a good grip which in turn helps their writing to ‘flow’.

At this point, I must declare an interest. I am deeply concerned about the ‘Educators’ across many parts the world who are charging head along towards the abandonment of handwriting in favour of only teaching keyboarding skill. This will detriment of developing in-depth understanding of language and the ability to use much more precision in employing words, not just through a spell checkers suggestions.

Therefore, product developers such as Write Size, who seek to encourage the development and use of writing by hand, are to be applauded.

Now Back to Write Size

The innovation by Write Size is to initially produce a range of pencils in three different sizes that have been scaled to fit children’s hands. This help’s the youngsters feel more comfortable when writing.

The pencils are ‘scaled’ for children of 2 to 6 years, 6 to ten years and those over ten.

It is also good that the company is supporting education in developing African countries too!

I do have a little concern which may be dispersed when I am able to use the pencils up close. A pencil is used and is sharpened, weight (a little) and the whole feel probably will shift and change. I would be very interested to see how such a pencil alters during its life.

For the moment it is ‘Thumbs up’ for innovation and another for encouraging and supporting children to write.

Put Pen to Paper

In the beginning (see my other blog, Solved – who invented he fountain pen) when fountain pens were beginning to exert real influence across the world, and yet were basically two tubes, a feeder and a nib, the unpredictable nature of the manufacturing process with a difficult material (black, hard, vulcanised or chased rubber) lead to problems with pens leaking. Many solutions were tried but most were not very successful or reliable. A metal sleeve sealed on three side was fitted into a gentleman’s suit jacket breast pocket, inside or out to contain any leakage of ink – very effective at containing ink but when the user extracted the pen from the sleeve it was often covered in ink, which was, of course, transferred to the gentleman’s hand……

Retractable Nibs

One of the earliest solutions, surprisingly still used to this day, is the retractable nib. Pens were manufactured with a moveable nib and feed section with a screw thread on the inside of the barrel which matched up to a thread on the outside of the feeder which carried the nib and screwed up inside the barrel. A sealing washer, usually of cork (not many synthetics at this time) helped to stop leaks, known as the ‘Safety pen’ this attempt was used by a number of pen manufacturers, but wasn’t always successful. For a look at a modern retractable nib pen seek out the Mont Blanc Boheme range, which are short ‘pocket’ or ‘handbag’ pens, often with a synthetic coloured ‘jewel’ adorning the clip.

Onoto THE pen

A rather more complex design was one championed by Onoto, the pen making arm of the De la Rue Company, best known for their security and bank-note printing, Titled on the barrel as ‘Onoto THE pen’ it is alleged that the name was chosen because it sounds the same in all languages. They produced high quality pens in BHCR (black, hard chased rubber, produced using the vulcanising process patented by Charles Goodyear in 1844 and used for making tyres.

Vulcanised rubber can be moulded and turned on a lathe and will polish to a high gloss although it is brittle and prone to oxidation. In early part of the 20th century perfected the plunger method of filling a fountain pen where a knob, on the end of the barrel and connected to an internal rod with a sealing ring inside the pen is unscrewed from the end and pulled out to its maximum, the nib is inserted into the ink, the plunger rod pushed down swiftly and with the vacuum created, the pen fills by using the external air pressure. Onoto also provided a seal, where by twisting the filler knob on the end of the barrel closed off the ink flow, making the pen leak-proof. The Onoto pens were highly regarded and popular, as witnessed by Winston Churchill writing home whilst serving in the trenches of the First World War: “Please send me an Onoto pen, I have stupidly lost mine!”

New Materials

With the 1920’s and 30’s came many innovations in pen manufacture, including new materials such as celluloid – bringing an enormous variety of colours and innovative filling systems and the first sight of a ‘click’ action retractable nib pen in the 1922 film ‘Dr Mabuse der Spieler’ Directed by Fritz Lang, there is a scene where Dr Mabuse brings out a pen and presses down on the end of the barrel, writes some word then presses the end of the barrel!

By 1932 the first firm evidence appears with the launch of the ‘Pullman Pen’ by the French company Meteore. This looks remarkably like the modern day Pilot Capless, using a push-button (click) action at the bottom of the barrel, differing only where the tiny door that seals the nib and feed is outside the barrel unlike the Capless, where the door is concealed inside the barrel and the main material is rippled multi-coloured ebonite rather than modern day metal.

In 1934, Italian company Aurora launched the Asterope which exposed the nib using button sliders to push the nib outwards and to retract it.

Over the next 30 years many innovations appeared in the world of fountain pens, including new materials such as acrylics with their astonishing range of colours, new filling systems such as cartridges, successful in the 1950’s after the first attempts in the 1890’s

Then in 1964, Japanese company Pilot Namiki introduced the Capless/Vanishing Point to coincide with the Tokyo Olympic games. Beautifully constructed, this is a serious pen, yet sales were mostly confined to Japan, with some being brought to the US with returning US Service Military and business people, until….

The Internet burst into life and EBay arrived resulting in many items hitherto restricted to Japan and their immediate neighbours being made available to the wider world. Pilot subsequently went on to market the Capless world wide with special editions, new finishes and colours understandably gaining fans across the globe.

So, is it the most successful pen ever? Maybe not yet, but I predict it will be one of the most long lasting pens in production. It will have some way to go to beat the Parker 51, but given I am currently using my fourth, long may it continue

Put pen to paper

View our wide range of Pilot Capless Pens

Penn’orth

Over time, dust, and other particles of dried ink can build up in the nib and feed. This can have a significant impact on how the pen preforms. You will find that the ink doesn’t flow as smoothly. This automatically makes you press harder on the surface you are writing on and therefore could cause damage to your pen nib. (Gordon Brown pressed down so hard he’s permanently damaged the prime ministers desk!) Cleaning your pen is time consuming but is costless and if done well, can extend the life of the pen.

There are many different ways to cleaning a fountain pen. For example, you have the Flushing method, the Syringe method and the basic method.

The Basic method

This technique is perfect for getting rid of all ink contained over the time it has been used. By forcing water through the nib, this ensures the best results possible. The water will push out any ink or dirt in preparation for it to be refilled with ink.

Step 1

Firstly, you must disconnect the pen. You do this by unscrewing the device (depending on the type of pen). Once disconnected, you then pull the nib and cartridge apart.

Step 2

You then place the nib under the tap for at least 20 seconds allowing the water to flow from the opening right down to the tip of the nib ensuring the water has eliminated any signs of ink. It has been said you should use warm or room-temperature water, this is due to it being able to melt ink particles you may have that has previously caused the pen to block in the ink.

Step 3

After completing step 2, you then place the pen nib in a cup of room warm water (approximately 10 minutes) . This will eliminate any final blots of ink.

Step 4

You then place the nib in an upright position in a cup with a paper towel at the bottom. The paper towel will absorb the liquid that the nib may still contain. You then leave the nib for at least 20 minutes making sure all the water has escaped.

Step 5

Finally once the nib has been drained and dried, you can then insert your new ink into the cartridge. You then reconstruct the pen to its former glory. With a dry paper towel, gently wipe the pen, removing any excess water or dust, to give it a new shiny look.

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to clean a fountain pen? If so please post a comment.