On The Paper Trail Episode 3: We Visit Pilot USA Headquarters

On the Paper Trail Episode 3: We Visit Pilot Pens USA!

February 11, 2026

Joe and Lisa take a trip to visit Pilot USA headquarters and come back with a lot to report! In this third episode of On the Paper Trail, we not only discuss our Pilot Tour, but take on three questions from the "12 Pen Person" questions challenge, answer reader questions about appraising and selling pens, and talk about the upcoming California Pen Show and a live recording at the San Francisco Stationery Fest!

Show Notes and Links:

On The Paper Trail: Where You Can Download the Podcast

As noted above, if you want to follow along and watch the video, On The Paper Trail has its own YouTube Channel. We have also uploaded the podcast to most popular podcast networks and apps, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Overcast. We have submitted to additional services such as iHeartRadio, Pocketcasts, Audible, and others, and you should see On The Paper Trail appear as an option once their review process is complete.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. You can also come visit us at our physical stationery store in Nashville, Tennessee.

New Arrivals: TWSBI ECO Black Marble + Bronze Fountain Pens!

February 10, 2026

We just received our shipment of the new TWSBI ECO Black Marble & Bronze fountain pens, along with a restock of in-demand TWSBI pens including the ECO Serpentine Bronze and the new Obsidian special edition piston filler. These swirled acrylic TWSBI ECOs have been more popular than expected, with certain colors and patterns hard to keep in stock (especially Serpentine and the Cosmo + Onyx). We’ll continue to order more and restock as long as we can, though as you all know these are typically released for a while and then cycled out to make room for new colors!

Oh, and I Caved and Ordered Some Shimmer Ink

So many of you asked for these in the Nashville shop that I finally gave in and ordered some shimmer inks. And you know what, despite myself I’m really enjoying some of these colors! Fountain pen shimmer ink has come a long way in the years since I’ve been in the hobby, with manufacturers fine-tuning the inks with ever-finer particles and better overall formulations. I’ve been using inks from Tono & Lims (My Bank Account is Sick and Bechorium Chloride), Herbin (Opale Nocturne), Colorverse (Year of the Dragon), and Robert Oster (Bless Your Heart!), and have had no issues with any of these clogging pens or flowing regularly. We recently added several of the Tom’s Studio shimmer inks, which span a broad range of colors. I’m looking forward to getting a few of these latest arrivals into pens as well!

Come see these and more in-person! We will be open this week from 1-6pm Thursday-Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday, but be sure to check back for hours the week of February 16 because they will likely change due to travel.

Be sure to listen to Nick’s interview (linked below) to learn more about this Rickshaw collaboration!

Sunday Reading for February 8, 2025

February 8, 2026

DWRDNet Stationery Feed Season Two with Nick Dominguez (via dwrdnet). Derek has kicked off season two of his series of interviews with people from around the stationery community, and in this episode he sat down with Nick Dominguez, with whom we’ve collaborated on our recent Rickshaw release.
February Inks (via Pen Addict). Kimberly has 14 more pens inked up with red and pink inks for February! In addition to her already-impressive currently inked lineup.
What Are You Taking to Work? (via SBRE Brown). I enjoy seeing what people take to work with them and use in their day-to-day life. I need to do a video like this at some point and walk through my work carry.
Esterbrook Estie Raven Oversized (via Figboot on Pens). The Estie Raven was a popular standard release, and the oversized version has now hit stores.
Why the Pentel Sharp Mechanical Drafting Pencil Is Perfect for Me (via Pen Addict). Brad reviews a stationery classic from the world of mechanical pencils. These used to be everywhere, and I probably have a dozen or so around my house.
Feed Your Creativity - Live with River City Pen Company (via Feed Your Creativity). A chat with Rich from River City on what he’s working on, new inks, and more.
Wearingeul Reservoir Thread Note B6 (via Well-Appointed Desk). Another ink-friendly notebook in the increasingly popular B6 size. I can vouch for the growing B6 fan-base, both in standard B6 and the “café” size B6 slim.

A photo of the cold Hudson River in February 2026, NYC. — Just a wee bit chilly in NYC this past week. Ice-in-the-river type of cold.

In Case You Missed It…

We focused on thawing out a bit this week in Nashville, and I managed to get away for a couple days to attend the NYNow and Shoppe Object trade shows in New York City, both of which have strong stationery components. I also wrote a bit about my travel kit for 2026, as I’m definitely gearing up for a lot of travel in the coming months with three shows on the horizon.

Restocks, Prototypes, and More Piled Up In-Store

This week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop

It’s restock season, as all of the post-holiday reorders we placed are arriving! We have fresh shipments of Midori MD, Nakabayashi, and Lochby, as well as new Life Noble Note 6-ring binder refills and some new journals from NOLTY. The latest Pilot Explorer releases also arrived, which feature matte finishes in four new colors. Finally, we welcome Benu fountain pens to our lineup, with the new “Haute” series of squared barrels and several gorgeous new acrylics. Be sure to check out each week’s “Weekly Drops” post for a full list of new arrivals and restocks.

We will be open this week normal hours, from 1pm-6pm Thursday and Friday and from 10am-6pm Saturday. Please note that the following week, hours will be modified as we will be attending the California Pen Show. I will post updated hours later this week once I finalize support for the in-person shop when I’m out.

Yamamoto Paper

Pilot

Kakimori Inks

Rickshaw Bags

How to Support T.G.S. and Our Various Projects

If you enjoy our content (whether here on the main website, Instagram, YouTube Channel or elsewhere), and would like early/extra access to shop releases and special promotions, consider supporting us via Patreon. The T.G.S. Patreon includes early access and discounts on exclusive shop releases, a monthly updates newsletter, and of course our monthly meetups. As of this morning, ALL Patreon supporters (including non-paying free members) have access to one or more initial “practice” episodes of “On the Paper Trail” which have not been publicly released.

Ask TGS: What's In Your Travel Bag for 2026?

February 7, 2026

Since I’m gearing up for a fairly significant round of travel over the next two months, and just returned from two trips, I thought it might be fun to break down my “go bag” travel stationery for 2026. Sometimes I bring more than the items on this list, sometimes less, but I’ve made an effort to dial in my travel kit according a few basic preferences for stationery travel:

If I don’t know that I’ll use it on the trip, I’ll usually leave it at home.
One fountain pen for non-pen show trips, to use for journaling or longer-form writing projects.
Use modular cases that pack flat or roll, and minimize paper as much as is practical to reduce weight.
On pen show trips, all the rules go out the window, since the purpose of the trip is to share pens.

Joe's Notebook Stack from his 2026 Travel Kit — I know it’s not packing “light”, but it’s a lot less than I used to carry! From top, journal, planner, and 6-ring binder for work notes.

My 2026 Travel Kit From The First Two Trips of the Year

Mechanical Pencil (Uni Kuru-Toga). I rarely take multiple fountain pens with me on an airplane unless I’m traveling to a pen show. If it’s a true work trip, and especially one where I have to work on the plane, I’m using either a mechanical pencil or some sort of multi-pen. On a bumpy flight, it’s nice to be able to erase your mistakes with the pencil, and there’s nothing worse than having a much-loved pen roll off your tray table and having to dive for it before it slides under someone else’s seat. Lately my pencil of choice has been one of the Uni Kuru-Togas, since the rotating lead mechanism helps keep the point sharp.
Gel or Low-Viscosity Ballpoint Multi Pen (Pilot Frixion 3 or Pilot 4+1). A good multi-pen allows you to have multiple ink colors readily at hand, and if you have a 4+1 design, you also have the mechanical pencil in the same pen body. While low-viscosity ballpoint ink is my default, lately I’ve been experimenting with Pilot’s line of Frixion gel pens, which I’ve enjoyed for many of the same reasons I like using mechanical pencils - erasability! The Frixion is hugely popular in Japan, and has increasingly made inroads among planner enthusiasts because, well, sometimes plans change.
Sticky Notes or Document Flags. Even though I’ve moved many of my larger work documents to pdf format, I still mostly read physical books, and I tend to annotate my personal notebooks so that I can find things later. Cloth & Paper and Craft Design Technology both make highly versatile lines of document flags and sticky notes that I enjoy, and lately I’ve discovered Japanese-style memo rolls, which are essentially rolls of paper tape that you can cut to size and write on. That said, there’s not really a specific format I prefer, and sometimes I’ll even roll with classic Post-Its since I’m usually writing with a pencil or gel pen and I don’t need excellent paper.
Pen Roll or Pen Case. I’ve moved towards pen rolls and smaller pen cases as opposed to zippered pouches or bulkier album-style storage. I find pen rolls to be the most versatile for those of us who travel with a heavier kit, since they hold a lot yet still roll up to a compact size that fits in a carry-on travel bag. On this last trip, I was testing out one of our new Rickshaw 6-pen Coozy Rolls as well as the new Fillmore zippered pen case. The Coozy Rolls are a classic that I’ve talked about before, but the Fillmore is a newer design that I like because this layout holds up to six pens in individual slots plus a larger slot for a notebook - or more pens. Best of all? The Fillmore unzips flat to form a tray that works great on a hotel desk.
Two Notebooks: One Personal and One Work. If there’s one area where I’ve cut down on bulk when traveling, it’s been paper. I used to travel with several journals out of a misguided FOMO-like fear that I would find myself without the exact notebook I wanted to write in. I finally realized that it made little sense to take five notebooks on a three-day trip, so now I’ll usually carry my personal journal and planner. Sometimes I’ll add a 6-ring binder if I think I’ll need to take work notes that I don’t want to permanently add to the planner. This past weekend was a three-notebook trip.

I have a lot of trips on the horizon, so this topic was particularly timely for me. If you come see me at this year’s California Pen Show (which is just around the corner) I’ll probably have much more than this in tow. How many pens do you travel with? Do you have a dedicated travel notebook that you only use for trips? I’m interested to hear from you, and this may even make it into a future podcast episode as a topic for discussion.

Rickshaw Coozy Roll being used as pen tray. — Traveling with the Coozy Roll (or any pen roll for that matter) is convenient because it serves as a pen tray on your desk when not being used as storage.

Pilot Explorer Fountain Pens Matte Colors

Weekly Drops: New Pilot Explorers, Life 6-Ring Paper, NOLTY, and More!

February 6, 2026

ALL the restocks seemed to arrive this week, from the new Pilot Explorer to NOLTY notebooks and Life 6-ring binder paper. In advance of three upcoming pen shows in which we’ll be participating, we’ve also restocked on our Rickshaw exclusive collaboration, adding six-pen Coozy Rolls in both the standard and deluxe formats. Finally, Lochby cases are back in stock, including multiple sizes of the zippered Field Folio and the Field Sling. We have boxes stacked up the wall right now, so if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and shop with us in-person and see all of this up-close!

Rickshaw Bagworks Coozy Rolls — Nick Dominguez’s “Clouds” patterns were hand-drawn with multi-shading fountain pen inks,

We are open this week normal hours this week! Please note that the week of February 16 we will have modified hours. Because we will be traveling to the California Pen Show, we may open Monday-Tuesday with reduced Saturday hours, so stay tuned if you are looking to visit us in Nashville.

New Matte Pilot Explorer Fountain Pens and Rollerballs. Pilot has revamped the Explorer lineup, swapping out some of its glossy colors for these new matte ivory, turquoise, navy, and coral. And, yes, these new colors feature a new logo, foregoing the larger Pilot imprint for more subtle branding on the cap.
NOLTY PAGEM Freelog Notebooks. NOLTY is a popular line of Japanese notebooks and planners that feature both dated and undated layouts. The PAGEM “Freelog” has minimal structure and can be used as a planner or a standard notebook.
Life Noble Note 6-Ring Binder Refills. We’ve been working to fill out our selection of 6-ring binder paper that is compatible with binders from Plotter, Brelio, MeePlus, and any other brand that uses standard 6-ring spacing. Life offers A5, Bible, and Mini (6 hole) refills in their standard Noble Note paper, which is quite Fountain Pen Friendly.
Rickshaw Bagworks “Cloud Series” Pen Cases and Pen Rolls. Our collaboration with local-to-us artist Nick Dominguez has been restocked, with Fillmore, Sinclaire, and Coozy Rolls available for order in three different colorways.
TRAVELER’S Notebook Starter Kits. These have sold briskly in the shop, but we still have a handful of Standards and several Passports in stock. The shortage from late last year appears to be easing somewhat.
Lochby Field Sling. Lochby’s popular A5 Field Bag is back in stock in all colors. These sling bags combine the size of the Field Journal and Field Folio with a shoulder strap, allowing you to carry one or two notebooks with a phone, pen, and other small items.
Mnemosyne Hardcover A5 Journals. My personal journal from this year is the dot-grid version in Mint. I walked through how I plan to use this and my other notebooks for 2026 in this recent YouTube video.
Stálogy Planners/Notebooks. The Stálogy 365 and 1/2-year notebooks are designed to be used as day-to-a-page notebooks, journals, or even an undated planner. It’s a flexible system that fits most standard-sized covers (A5, A6, B6, etc.).
Lamy Swift Retractable Rollerballs. We’ve had increasing demand for rollerball pens lately both in-store and online, and one of my favorites is the Lamy Swift retractable rollerball. These have a nice matte texture with a retractable clip. See our full writeup here.
Ohto CR01 and CR02 Rollerball Pens. These capped rollers from Japanese brand Ohto feature a .5mm tip (something of a rarity in the rollerball world) and come in both a thicker and thinner format.