New Arrivals: Bank Paper, Typewriting Paper, and Airmail Paper from Life Stationery!

After a bit of an unintentional hiatus, Life Paper - including all specialty varieties - is back in stock! Favorites include the 100-sheet Bank Paper pads in both Letter and A5 sizes, Typewriting Paper, and the new (to us) ultra-lightweight Airmail paper. We even added the spiral bound stenographer’s notebook in classic Gregg-style ruling. Whether you’re looking for dedicated correspondence paper or the classic Noble Note writing pads and notebooks, all of the Life stationery is fountain pen friendly.

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Life is one of the few brands that continues to make specialty papers such as Bank Paper, Typewriting Paper, and Stenographer’s notebooks.

Visit our Curated Paper shop to view our full selection, as we continue to add new brands regularly. Many thanks for your support!

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I love the classic green chipboard cover.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. We are authorized resellers of all brands sold.

New Arrivals: Mark'Style Days Metal Ballpoint and More Mark's x Anterique Pens

Mark’style Tokyo is a curated line of product collaborations from Mark’s, a Japanese brand that takes its own unique design riffs on classic stationery items. The Mark’style “Days” series is perhaps the most popular, and we’ve carried their hexagonal woodcase “Tous les Jours” needle-tip ballpoints for a couple of years now. Last month, we added the Mark’s x Anterique Mach Ballpoint, which features an excellent low-viscosity refill with a new level of performance in a vintage-style click pen.

For those who love a hexagonal barrel but find standard ballpoints or gel pens too narrow, the Mark’style Metal (aluminum) Gel Pen offers a bit more of a grip.

We’re continuing to build out our selection of Mark’style pens! This week, we received a shipment of the “Days” Metal Gel Pens, a more substantial - yet still lightweight - hexagonal ballpoint that includes the .5mm Ohto needle-tip gel refill, an excellent Parker-style refill that’s a quick drying, smooth writer. Available in six different colors, these pens are currently priced at $23.50 and available for purchase in the Curated Shop. (You won’t be surprised to learn that I couldn’t resist adding a yellow version to my own collection.) Additionally, we added a few additional colors of the Mark’s x Anterique ballpoints, including two “transparent demonstrators.” Happy shopping!

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The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all products sold, including the Mark’style pens featured here.

Thursday Drops: Pen Show Weekend! (Plus a Midori Restock - Too Heavy to Take!)

Since it’s a pen show weekend, we’ll be running our usual promotion of extra swag with your order while we’re away. We just received a fresh shipment of T.G.S. buttons and stickers, so you’ll get a few extras in your package to compensate for any slight delay in fulfillment. I will have a couple days in the shop early next week to get caught up on shipping orders before turning around and heading back out on the road to Little Rock for next weekend’s Arkansas Pen Show! Remember, if you want to pick something up at Arkansas next week, just check out in the shop and use the “615PICKUP” Code to drop the shipping charge.

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Likewise, if you miss our display of Traveler’s Company and Lochby in-person at the show, most of our stock continues to be available online.

In the meantime, right before I flew out we received a large shipment of Midori MD paper, including a restock of several favorite Midori MD Notebook sizes, all Midori MD Notebook Covers (including the natural goat leather), and more Traveler’s Company Brass Pens!

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

1. Midori MD Light 70th Anniversary Notebook Sets. These sold out lightning fast when we first stocked them last Spring, and fortunately I was able to procure another shipment. Each set contains seven A5 MD Light notebooks, each with a different color grid.

2. Midori MD A5 Notebooks. We now have most rulings back in stock in standard A5, our most popular size, including the dot grid notebook journal.

3. Midori MD Leather Notebook Covers. These natural leather covers fit the standard Midori MD notebooks and notebook journals, and will age beautifully as the undyed natural leather develops a patina.

4. Midori MD Cotton Notebooks. These cotton paper notebooks have “F” series sketchbook dimensions, but the larger F3 fits the A4-size paper notebook cover, and possibly others.

5. Traveler’s Company Brass Ballpoint Pens. My favorite everyday pocket ballpoint, which lives clipped to my Plotter Mini 5 (and to be honest, most of my other planners as well, given that I have like five of these pens). Though they last a long time, we also have the refills.

6. Traveler’s Company Brass Bullet Pencil. After a short hiatus, the Brass Bullet Pencil is back in the store. As a concept, this type of pencil is one of my favorite products in existence, and the Traveler’s version might be the only one currently made?

7. Midori MD Letter Pads and Envelopes. There’s still time to respond to all of those InCoWriMo letters! (I know I have a personal backlog… stay patient, pen pals.)

8. Penco Pocket Drafting Pens and Pencils. I’ve brought several of these to Baltimore with me, so if you’re at the show you have to come by and see what’s become a top-selling product.

9. Caran d’Ache 849 “Colour Treasure” Edition Ballpoint Pens. We still have a few of the 849 Colour Treasure ballpoints in both the cool and warm tones. Once these are gone, that’s it! If they’re not gone before next week I’ll take them with me to Arkansas.

10. Penco Perfection Light Bullet Pens. We have a full display of these at the Baltimore Pen Show this weekend, but we also have some remaining in online stock.

Classic Products are Classics for a Reason: Clairefontaine and J. Herbin

While we enjoy exploring new releases, limited editions, Kickstarters, and other experimental offerings, our main interest has always been the so-called tried-and-true “workhorses” of the stationery world. Think the type of products that just work whenever you need them, without having to think much about it. Often, the companies themselves have been around for hundreds of years.

Clairefontaine Paper: An Inexpensive, Rock-Solid Choice for Everyday Writing

Clairefontaine paper is what got me interested in fine writing in the first place, as a student in France, experiencing something other than cheap American student-grade writing paper for the first time. Clairefontaine paper handles pretty much any fountain pen ink available without feathering or bleed-through, and is available in multiple formats, ranging from the classic spiral bound notebooks to the “Triomphe” series of writing tablets to the composition-style “1951” series, now available in both cloth and staplebound versions. Sibling company Quo Vadis uses Clairefontaine paper in the dot grid version of their “Habana” journal, a product that in my opinion is grossly underappreciated by the broader community. If you haven’t yet used Clairefontaine paper, you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try! Our shop stocks much of the Clairefontaine lineup, in addition to Quo Vadis Habana and a selection of Rhodia.

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J. Herbin Inks: Safe, Inexpensive Fountain Pen Ink Available in a Wide Array of Colors

Today’s fountain pen ink market is arguably oversaturated (pun intended) with so many brands and colors that it’s easy to get lost, not to mention caught up in testing and trying all the various shades and formulations in an effort to find that “perfect” ink that doesn’t really exist. I’ve always enjoyed the inks made by Herbin and Waterman because these inks tend to just work. They don’t clog, dry relatively quickly, are easy to clean, and available in interesting colors (both bright and muted). We’ve decided to stock the standard J. Herbin inks in both the 30ml bottle size as well as the 10ml “sample” size, to make it convenient for you to test as many different colors as you want without running into storage issues or accumulating ink you’ll never use. Our initial selection features personal favorites from the line, with more on the way!

Please visit the shop to view our full selection of pens, inks, paper, and assorted fine writing and desk accessories! The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

New in the Shop: Design Your Own Desk Space, at Home or on the Road

Never underestimate the importance of quality everyday desk accessories! Personally, I see this every few days when I switch between my home office and “the office.” (I tend not to leave my good desk setup where it might get borrowed.) While everyone pays a lot of attention to things such as pens, pencils, ink, and paper; accessories such as scissors, rulers, tape, book stands, and desk trays can also make up a big part of your everyday work experience.

The Midori XS Stationery Kit has everything you need for a full day of work/journaling/creating, and it zips into a portable go-anywhere pouch. (Shown here my 70th Anniversary Edition version, but we stock the standard in both black and white!)

Slowly but surely, the Desk and Reading Accessories section of the T.G.S. Curated Shop is starting to take shape. We’ve recently added new items from Midori, including these multifunction scissors, wood-inlay rulers, and the ever practical XS Stationery Kit for when you want to carry an entire desk setup with you in your bag. In addition to accessories, be sure to keep checking the “New Arrivals” in Pens/Pencils, Ink and Refills, Paper and Notebook Systems, and our recently restocked selection of Washi Tape and Enamel Pins. More items are being added daily!

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.