Thursday Drops: New Roterfaden Taschenbegleiters Have Landed; Plus Jetstreams and More!

This week we received a restock of Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter organizers, which included several old favorites such as the recycled leather “LB_23” organizer, a four-clip limited edition (the LTD_020), as well as new colors and layouts. We have all sizes available, ranging from A6 (Roterfaden Small), to A5 (Roterfaden Medium) to A4 (Roterfaden Large).

I ran an Instagram poll the other day asking you all to guess which color I went for: It was the “Mimosa Yellow” in the Bamboo Jetstream 4&1. More and more, I’m opting for yellow/saffron color options.

Finally, a shipment of new products from Japan arrived this week, including Uni Jetstream 4&1 Multi Pens and unique colors of the Uni-ball One Gel Pens! We offer an expanding range of Uni Mitsubishi products, which are excellent tools for everyday work. Happy Shopping!

1. Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. One of our best-selling products over the past year, Roterfaden makes versatile handcrafted organizers from materials that include leather, recycled leather, and even vegan-friendly options such as danceflooring (used to surface ballet studios) and tent fabric! For an overview of how I set up my own personal Taschenbegleiter, check out this video walkthrough.

2. Blackwing One Step Pencil Sharpeners in New Colors! The excellent Blackwing “One Step” long-point sharpeners are now available in white and grey. I love this sharpener for the concave, slightly curved point and the capacity to hold as many as three sharpenings’ worth of shavings.

3. Uni Mitsubishi Jetstream 4+1 Multi Pen, Bamboo Edition. One of my all-time favorite multi pens is now available in the T.G.S. Curated Shop. These muted pastel colors feature a soft matte texture and ship with four different .5mm refills (black, blue, red, and green), plus a .5mm mechanical pencil.

4. Kaweco Sport Piston Filler Fountain Pens. Kaweco released the long-awaited piston-filler version of their Sport fountain pen, which features a matte-black finish and integrated filling system that holds a surprisingly large amount of ink. Be sure to check out my video overview, which shows how this pen compares to the vintage version.

5. Tom’s Studio Fountain Pens. UK-based Tom’s Studio started off making tools for the calligraphy space, but has recently expanded their fountain pen related offerings to include “The Studio” and “The Studio Pocket” fountain pens, as well as a range of specialty nib units that include an exceptionally good broad architect’s nib.

6. Tom’s Studio Lumos Refillable Fineliners. The “Lumos” pens are something I’ve been looking for over the years: a refillable fineliner that actually delivers on performance. Lumos pens use a wick-like capillary filling system that accepts pigmented and fountain pen ink, with interchangeable, replaceable tips in different styles. We did a full review here last week.

7. Lamy AL-Star Special Editions in “Fiery” and “Aquatic”. We currently have stock of the 2024 Lamy AL-Star releases, in fountain pen, rollerball, and ballpoint formats, as well as a mechanical pencil. Until this past month, I had never actually tried an AL-Star rollerball and came away pleasantly surprised!

8. Lamy 2000 Pens. We received a full restock of Lamy 2000s, including fountain pens, ballpoints, rollerballs and mechanical pencils. The Lamy 2000 remains one of my all-time favorite writing instruments, and a core workhorse in my rotation.

9. Uni-ball One Gel Pens. Uni’s latest gel pen technology features a smooth, bold pigmented ink that makes dark inks darker and colored inks brighter. The One is available in both muted pastel and “Earth Texture” finishes.

10. Allex Scissors. A quality pair of scissors should be at the top of everyone’s list of essential desk accessories. These high-end scissors from Japan come in both fluorine-coated and non-coated versions. (The coating helps if you regularly cut through sticky materials like tape, plus the matte black versions just look cool!

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 greatly appreciate the support of our readership.

As much as I love black and red color combinations, if you were to ask me for my favorite new arrival, it would be this smoke blue and honey A5, which is a gorgeous pairing.

New Arrivals: Jetstream 4&1 Multi Pens and Uni-ball One Special Editions!

As a self-proclaimed multi pen connoisseur, it was only a matter of time before I really began building out our own multi pen offerings here in the shop. One of my personal favorites is the Uni Mitsubishi Jetstream “4&1” pen, which features a textured (yet still smooth) bamboo grip section, four different Jetstream .5mm refills, and a .5mm mechanical pencil option. The Uni-ball “One” gel pen showcases Uni’s latest gel pen technology - a new smooth, dark ink formulation in both .38mm and .5mm tip sizes.

Uni-ball One Gel Pens are available in both .38mm and .5mm tip sizes. Refills in the stock pens are black, but extra refills in blue, blue-black, red, and orange are also available for purchase separately.

We currently have interesting versions of both the Jetstream 4&1 multi pen and the Uni-ball One gel pen available in the shop. In addition to the “Bamboo” series of the multi pens, we have Uni-ball One pens in both solid muted colors as well as the “Earth Texture” series. Multi Pens start at $25 and Uni-ball One Pens at $4.50. Refills are also available for both.

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The “Earth Texture” barrels are gorgeous. I’ve not seen anything else quite like this in the gel pen world!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

New Arrivals: Lamy AL-Star "Fiery" and "Aquatic" Special Edition Pens Are Here!

While this year’s Lamy Safari special editions landed last month, members of Team AL-Star were waiting on this next release. Well, the wait is over and the pens are in stock and available to ship immediately! This year’s AL-Star pens come in two different finishes: “Fiery” (a cool metallic red) and “Aquatic” (a cool metallic blue). Lamy has paired each metal finish with a matching translucent grip section - red for the Fiery and blue for the Aquatic - as well as matching cap finials.

The Aquatic finish comes in a .5mm mechanical pencil version, which is what caught my fancy from this batch. I’m keeping one!

Since these pens feature black trim, the fountain pens pair perfectly with the Lamy Cursive nibs, which are now back in stock. Rollerball and ballpoint options are available in both the Fiery and Aquatic finishes, and Lamy has released a .5mm Aquatic mechanical pencil. As noted above, all of these pens, as well as the restocked 2024 Safari releases, are available to ship immediately!

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of Lamy pens, and carries a selection of many different models. T.G.S. is supported entirely by purchases from The T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Thursday Drops: Underrated and Overlooked? Pens and Stationery You Shouldn't Sleep On!

Since yesterday’s review of the Pilot Explorer fountain pen, I’ve received a few comments and messages thanking me for spotlighting what many consider an underrated fountain pen that often goes overlooked in recommendation lists. That’s a big part of what I’m trying to do here, both on the blog and in the shop: curate a selection of writing instruments and stationery with a focus on those items that I feel don’t necessarily get the attention they deserve. It’s easy to get distracted by the FOMO of new releases, limited editions, etc. (and those can be fun), but if you’re looking for a pen that you can actually use to write reliably on a daily basis, don’t sleep on some of the more “standard” offerings.

Recent arrivals include the latest Kaweco Collection release, “Apricot Pearl,” as well as a new ballpoint from Tombow (the Zoom L105)!

1. Pilot Explorer Fountain Pens. While the Metropolitan is a nice pen in its own right, the Pilot Explorer should have broader appeal, given its light weight, rounded grip, and the same reliable nib. The colors also really pop, even if they’re technically more demure than some of the wilder Metro patterns. Check out the full review from yesterday.

2. Pilot Custom 74 Fountain Pens. Pilot still offers a relatively broad range of gold nib pen options at the sub-$200 price point, led by the Custom 74, which I would equate to a “higher end Explorer” because it generally takes on the same shape and feel in the hand, only with several steps up in build. Currently available in multiple transparent demonstrator colors and four nib options!

3. Lamy Studio Fountain Pens. The Lamy Studio (both the steel and 14k nib versions) are the unsung heroes of the Lamy lineup. Even if you don’t enjoy a rounded metal section, check out the “All Black” Studio, which sports a matte finish for added grip texture.

4. Lamy Pico Ballpoint Pens. It really surprised me at the Arkansas Pen Show how many people had never picked up a Lamy Pico ballpoint pen! These pocket ballpoints expand to a full-sized writing instrument with the press of a button.

5. Craighill Caro Pen. I carried a “wallet pen” for years, and the Caro Pen builds on the same idea only with EDC/keychain functionality. The slip cap attaches using a garter spring, so it’s quite secure, and to date I’ve not had any issues with this pen coming loose even with my keys in my pocket. More on how I use this pen here.

6. Kaweco Collection Fountain Pens. There are some excellent colors in the Kaweco Collection “Sport” line, especially the muted pastel blues. And of course, don’t forget the latest release in “Apricot Pearl”, which just hit the shop last week!

7. Caran d’Ache 849 Rollerball Pens. While I love the original Caran d’Ache 849 for its portability, the 849 Rollerball is probably more versatile due to the fact that it takes Parker-style refills. The Caran d’Ache Rollerball refill is exceptionally good, especially in the fine tip, but you can also swap in your ballpoint of choice if you’re one of those who feel that the standard Caran d’Ache 849 is too narrow.

8. Anterique Brass Ballpoints. Anterique has expanded the range of colors in the brass-barrel offerings. The brass lower barrel adds a nice weight/balance to this vintage-inspired click pen.

9. NJK Pencil Sharpeners. Japanese sharpener specialist NJK continues to release excellent pencil sharpeners at an insanely good value. I keep several of these in rotation, at each of my work stations.

10. Viarco Pencils. Portuguese pencil maker Viarco has been making pencils in their factory for generations, and it’s one of a handful of pencil factories remaining in Europe. We offer a range of their vintage-inspired pencils,

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

New Arrivals: Don't Sleep on Tombow as a Brand!

Tombow remains a deeply underrated “sleeper” Japanese stationery brand. Known more in the states for their art supplies than writing instruments, Tombow also offers a deep lineup of pens and pencils. We’ve long carried the Tombow 2558 woodcase pencils - one of the best standard office pencils around - as well as the high-end Tombow Mono in various degrees of graphite. This year, we’ve expanded our selection of Tombow “shaker” mechanical pencils, and just recently added pens, including the L105 ballpoint and “Airpress” pressurized pen!

The L105 belongs to a class of ballpoints that I’ve recently come to enjoy: full-sized retractable ballpoints (as opposed to multi-pens) that use the universal D1-sized refill. The L105 is a cylindrical twist pen that ships with a standard .5mm Tombow ballpoint refill, but which is also compatible with other D1 cartridges like the Uni Jetstream and the Zebra Sharbo gel refills. Similar to the mechanism in the Craighill Kepler pen, the D1 refill attaches to a longer “holder” inside the pen body, allowing you to use a full-sized twist or click mechanism to extend the tip.

I keep one of these Tombow extendable Mono erasers in my pencil case at all times!

Finally, we recently expanded our range of Tombow Mono extendable erasers. Now available in three different formats (rectangular, 2.3mm round, and 3.8mm “Mono Knock” round), Tombow makes some of the best erasers on the market. The “Mono” line sets the standard for me personally, whether it’s a retractable stick eraser or the standard Mono block erasers. They erase cleanly and without much residue. Pencil lovers should have at least one stand-alone Tombow eraser in their kit!

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of Tombow and other brands sold. TGS is supported entirely by purchases from the Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.