The Updated 2025 "Best Pens" Page Is Live!

Longtime T.G.S. readers know that I update the “Best Pens” list annually, typically around the T.G.S. Anniversary in mid-to-late April. I’m a little late this year, but not by much, and in any event this year was more of a maintenance update because as the list matures, there’s simply not as much movement between the categories. I’ve made a few adjustments to account for pens moving between the different price points - who knows what the coming year will bring - but I always enjoy this exercise.

As with previous updates, the last 10 or so lists remain live so that you can see how my opinions and tastes have changed over time. View the 2025 Best Pens List and prior lists here, and if you see something you like, please consider supporting us by shopping our store* or pledging via Patreon. We’ve recently launched a T.G.S. Discord forum for Patreon members, and so far it seems that everyone has enjoyed being able to interact in a much more user friendly format that what Patreon can offer with its build-in features.

*The “Best Pens” list goes back to at least 2017, and predates our shop by several years. You’ll see that these lists have informed how we built out our own retail operation, as I knew when I opened my own shop that I would only want to sell stuff that I could readily recommend to other people.

5 Reasons Why General Stationery Is Important at Pen Shows

Pen Shows and “Stationery Fests” have been drawing growing numbers of attendees, as more people discover these events and, in general, turn to analog as a way to push back against ever-encroaching digitalization of life. When longstanding events - pen shows in particular - start to change, you always hear a certain amount of griping. A few years ago the complaints centered around how shows were focusing more on modern pens, as opposed to vintage fountain pens. Today, you’re more likely to hear talk about the growing presence of “stationery” (i.e., not just pens, but the broader category of journals, planners, letterpress cards, pencils, and more), and the fact that fewer vendors are showing up with pure fountain pen displays. While some may not like this development, for several reasons, which I discuss below, I don’t think that it’s a bad thing at all. Great, in fact, because it helps grow our community!

1. General Stationery Expands the Community By Drawing in People with Different Interests. I’ve long believed that if we want pen shows to continue to grow and be sustainable, they need to expand their appeal beyond the fountain pen enthusiasts who started the shows and who have continued to form the core of show attendance. Opening up the shows to different types of vendors by encouraging existing vendors to bring a broader range of products to shows creates a broader and more stable attendee base.

2. A Range of Less Expensive Items Allows More People to Participate in the Fun. While there certainly are less expensive fountain pens, some people - especially new pen and paper enthusiasts - aren’t yet comfortable spending even $15 or $20 on a pen. Having a selection of excellent stationery products in the $2-5 range encourages newbies to participate in the show experience and lets everyone had the chance to take home something fun, whether it be a fine-tipped Japanese gel pen or a roll of washi tape.

3. Expanding into Non-Fountain Pens Makes the Show Experience (and the Entire Industry) Less Sensitive to Price Fluctuations. So what happens if prices skyrocket due to tariffs or other price pressures, and there are high-end fountain pens are less economically accessible? Well, because general stationery (gel pens, ballpoints, washi, notebooks, etc.) can be relatively inexpensive, demand for these products might be less sensitive to the price swings that could be coming. (i.e., a gel pen increasing from $3 to $3.75 feels like less of a big deal than a $400 fountain pen increasing to $500). I suspect that if we see steep price increases due to the tariffs that were just announced, traditional pen shows could start to feel more like general “stationery festivals” catering to a more cost-conscious consumer. Of course, some would argue that buyers on the higher end are less price-sensitive to begin with, so all we can really do is wait and see what actually ends up happening.

4. For Those of Us Who Use Our Pens Everyday, We Like to See Complementary Products and Accessories in Person. And, perhaps, view them together with the accessories we plan to buy or already own so that we can better pair our planners, notebook covers, pen cases, and more. In recent years, I’ve been most excited to see more case and bag manufacturers (like Rickshaw) attend shows and give people all sorts of options for bringing home their new pens.

5. Encouraging Vendors to Diversify What They Sell Leads to a Better Result for both Vendors and Attendees. I’ve always wondered why people try to sell the same pens and ink that everyone else at the show is carrying. Be unique, which not only gives people a reason to shop with you (and remember your table) but also offers attendees a fun show experience. My tables at the recent Arkansas show were somewhat unusual, in the sense that I decided to bring those things particular to my shop, like Roterfaden, Anterique, Tom’s Studio Lumos Fineliners, and assorted multi-pens. (I know I’m not the only one who carries these things, but at shows they do tend to be under-represented.) I’m planning something similar for Atlanta this weekend!

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Ask for the “special washi”. I have lots of it.

So what’s in store for the Atlanta Pen Show? For starters, I’ll be bringing what’s left of my current Roterfaden stock, my Traveler’s Notebook setup, Lochby cases, and all of my recently arrived Uni gel pens and Jetstream Multi Pens. I’ll have some fountain pen options as well, and maybe some washi tape surprises! While the Atlanta Pen Show website is a touch behind schedule, and I can’t see an official layout, I understand that I’ll be next to Hinze Pens in the first room.

Is there anything you all would like me to bring to the show? Anything you wish dealers would bring more of to pen shows and events in general? Drop a comment! Also, we will have regular hours tomorrow (Thursday) in our Nashville shop from 1pm-6pm before I have to take off for Atlanta.

Desk Accessories: What's on My Desk, at Work and at Home?

I’ve written a lot about desk accessories this week, and I mentioned in an earlier post that as a shopkeeper, the desk and reading accessories section is probably my own favorite area of the shop since so much of myself goes into the curation. In talking to customers, I’ve found that a lot of people focus on the pens, pencils, and paper side of things but don’t put as much thought into other aspects of analog work. Today I want to talk about three categories of desk accessories that I personally recommend, and which can immediately upgrade your workflow.

• A Book or Pad Holder. In today’s world, even if you take notes by hand, on paper, you will, in all likelihood, eventually need to either type those notes up and/or incorporate them into a longer form piece of writing. The single most used piece of office equipment (other than my pens and my computer) is the Hightide folding metal bookstand. I keep one in my home office and one at each of my work desks, and use them to hold notebooks, notepads, tablets, or anything else I want to be able to look at while I transcribe notes or review source material. Anecdotally, I’ve heard they are also very useful for those who transcribe books as part of their journaling practice. I’m not sure there are a ton of options on the market here, and in any event I’ve settled on the Hightide version because (1) they’re relatively inexpensive, making it easy for me to have duplicates pretty much everywhere I work; and (2) they fold flat, so they slip into a briefcase and I can take them with me when I travel.

• Scissors. Don’t underestimate the utility of a quality pair of scissors. I used cheap scissors for years, but until I spent just a little bit more money on a pair of Allex desk scissors at C.W. Pencil Enterprise (R.I.P.), I didn’t realize what I was missing. Quality scissors tend to be sharper, more precise, and don’t gum up when you have to cut through things like glue and tape, especially if you buy scissors with fluorine-coated blades.

• Page Markers. I’m a heavy annotator, meaning that I mark up documents and books as I read, and I nearly always end up tagging passages for later review. My own personal favorite is the Book Dart, but people also love Levenger Page Nibs and even Washi Tape, where you can mark a passage by folding a tiny piece over the edge of the page. If there’s one category of office supplies where I probably should try to economize but can’t, it’s on page markers, because I go through tins of these things and can’t stop. Pro tip: use them to divide your notebooks into multiple sections.

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Why Do You Focus on This Stuff and Where Can I See It in Person?

I enjoy helping people assemble a workspace that’s both functional and enjoyable for them to use, which is why I like maintaining a physical shop location in addition to having an online presence because this type of product can be hard to visualize without seeing it in person. I can talk about this stuff for hours, and even though T.G.S. would probably make more money focusing on more expensive luxury goods, desk accessories provide a LOT of value to users because they tend to be “buy-it-once” items. (My Allex Scissors are now six or seven years old and work as well as they did when I bought them, and my Hightide Bookstands are the same ones I purchased for myself back in 2020.) If you can’t come see us in person in Nashville, I’ll be taking T.G.S. to the Arkansas Pen Show at the end of March 21-23, where I’ll have desk accessories as well as all the pens, pencils, and paper you can handle.

Thank you for reading! The Gentleman Stationer is supported by the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’d like to visit our in-person location, you can view directions and up-to-date hours here.

Practical Points: Freezing Ink and Cleaning Fineliners

We’ve had a huge blast of cold here in Tennessee. We only occasionally get “real” winter weather, but when it arrives it tends to cause trouble. So, it comes as no surprise that more than a few people have asked me for my recommendations about ordering ink in the winter. Namely, should you do it?

How much Should You Worry About Ink Freezing?

I’ve read many different takes on this question. There are people online who will tell you that they pause ordering ink entirely from December through April. Others (myself included) don’t pay much attention to the issue, as it will take a pretty significant, prolonged exposure to cold in order for most inks to freeze. But if that happens, there is a chance that a plastic cap, or the glass bottle itself in some cases, will crack as the frozen ink expands and make a huge mess as the frozen ink thaws.

The right answer here depends on your personal risk tolerance and the weather where you live. If the temperature in your area is well below freezing for multiple days (or weeks or months) at a time, I probably wouldn’t risk it. Your ink will likely sit in a postal service storage unit or non-climate-controlled truck prior to delivery, and this is where stuff tends to freeze. If you are worried about a specific ink selling out, or find yourself needing to place an ink order despite the weather, most retailers (us included) will hold ink upon request. Please call or e-mail to request such a hold - we simply can’t monitor the weather at every destination we ship to and the waypoints in-between, and if you order ink, we will ship it ASAP absent instructions to the contrary. The one exception is the weather here. If it’s below freezing and forecasted to remain that way for more than a day or two, we may hold ink orders until it warms up because we don’t want packages to sit in the cold at our shipping service waiting for collection. If this hold extends beyond our normal shipping time, we will reach out and let you know.

I’ve ordered a lot of ink over the years, and have had exactly one ink bottle freeze in transit. That’s a pretty good track record, so freezing ink isn’t something I tend to worry about too much. That said, if you live in a perpetually cold area (the Northeastern US, Canada, the Rocky Mountains), or the area you live in is experiencing a deep freeze, it may be wise to hold off until it warms up.

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The internal wick shown here was filled with black fountain pen ink for almost a year, and still rinsed clean. I reloaded with Dominant Industry Romania Red.

Can You Clean the Tom’s Studio Lumos and Wren Fineliner Refills/wicks?

This is an easier question to answer: Yes, you can! I’m often asked how hard it is to change colors with the Tom’s Studio Lumos and Wren refillable fineliners, or whether you have to replace the cotton wick. Yesterday I swapped out the black ink that I had loaded into my Lumos and rinsed it completely clean. (See the photo above.) How did I do this? Simply submerge it in a sink full of water and squeeze it until it’s white again. Any non-permanent, water-based fountain pen ink should rinse out easily from both the cotton reservoir and the replaceable tips, though in this case the year-old fineliner tip I had been using was starting to wear down so I replaced it. If you want to rinse the tip, I’ve found that it works best if you hold it under the faucet and then dab the tip into a paper towel until all residual ink leaches out.

I hope you all have found these periodic “Q&A” sessions helpful. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and have tried to keep doing them regularly. If there are questions you’d like me to answer, feel free to reach out via the Contact page or drop a comment.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’re in the Nashville area, you can now come pick my brain in person! You can view directions and up-to-date hours for our brick-and-mortar shop here.

More Thoughts on (Relatively) Inexpensive Stationery

Building on Wednesday’s post and accompanying YouTube video about why many of us love inexpensive pens, I’ve been thinking more broadly about the role that the less expensive stationery products play in my everyday rotation. While I firmly believe that all stationery - even the very nice pricey stuff - needs to get used at some point, because that’s what it’s made for - even I balk at using more expensive paper for things as routine as grocery lists, meeting notes that won’t be retained, draft markups, and other “junk paper” that I never intend to keep. Similarly, when I’m forced to write on cheap recycled copy paper at work, I don’t necessarily want to use my nicer inks in a context where they’ll just feather and bleed, and where I won’t get much enjoyment from the writing experience. So although I do tend to use the more “upscale” stuff for most of my personal journaling and longhand professional writing, here are five categories of relatively inexpensive stationery that I tend to keep on hand for the more mundane tasks:

1. Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Levenger, and Maruman Mnemosyne Paper. These paper brands handle most ink types relatively well, and the paper is fairly priced so that I don’t feel self-conscious about using it as scrap paper. Sure, I do sometimes still get comments from co-workers such as “You spent $8 on a legal pad?!?”, but honestly, if you care about a baseline level of quality in the tools you use, you learn to tolerate the attitude. (Sometimes I like to gently remind people that the legal pad I’m using still costs less than the coffee/beer they’re consuming during the course of our conversation, and will last 30x as long.)

2. .5mm Mechanical Pencils. For everyday office work, I’ve been relying more and more on mechanical pencils because I can use them for pretty much anything, without thinking about how they’ll perform on the paper. As you saw in Wednesday’s video, I’m a fan of the Pentel Sharp Kerry since it has a cap and slips easily into my pocket. The Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch is an underrated writer, which also comes in a .3mm for those who write very small.

3. Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen with EF Desk Pen Nib. This particular pen requires a bit of a hack, but if you take the EF steel nib from the Platinum Desk Pen and swap it into a Platinum Plaisir fountain pen, you get an excellent everyday writer that works quite well on less expensive paper, especially when you pair it with Platinum Carbon Black or Blue-Black cartridges (both great “cheap paper” inks).

4. Standard Blue, Black, or Blue-Black Ink. Speaking of ink, I always have one or two workhorse fountain pens inked up with very basic water-based “pen company” inks that I know will behave moderately well no matter how they are used. All of the Waterman Inks, basic Pilot Blue, Black, and Blue-Black, and the Platinum cartridges linked above are all rock-solid options.

5. Low-Viscosity Ballpoint Multi Pen. Alongside my mechanical pencils, a versatile three or four-color multi pen is always in my rotation. While not the most inexpensive, the Lamy 2000 4-color is my main workhorse, supplemented by various Jetstream Multi Pens and the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto gel pen. The ballpoints come in handy for when I need to sign documents in permanent ink (not an infrequent occurrence), and the Coleto Multi Pen when I need a pop of color.

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My Platinum Plaisir Frankenpen (Top) and a green Pentel Sharp Kerry I’ve had for years.

As someone who makes a chunk of their living writing about and selling stationery, people often expect that I use the most expensive stuff available, and that’s far from the truth. Most of what I use day-to-day falls well under the $30 price point (and sometimes sub-$20). It’s one reason I’m not overly pessimistic about the future of our hobby in the face of inflation and rising costs. Even if we end up having to scale down, there’s plenty of great options to be had for not a lot of money!

Thank you for reading! The Gentleman Stationer is supported by the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’d like to visit our in-person location, you can view directions and up-to-date hours here.

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