2021 Year-End Review, Part IV: Series and Editorials

One of my goals for 2021 was to expand the T.G.S. repertoire to include more “editorial-style” writing to complement the traditional pen, ink, and paper reviews. It’s something I’ve always done to some degree, but given reader response and feedback from members of the T.G.S. Patreon Program, I decided to increase the volume of this type of content and I’ve actually enjoyed it. Sometimes constantly cycling through new pens/inks/paper can start to feel like a grind, and stepping back and taking a higher-level perspective can keep things fresh for me (and hopefully interesting, from a reader’s perspective).

T.G.S. Pen Review Archive

Perhaps the project I’m most proud of is the creation of a legit “review archive” of past T.G.S. fountain pen reviews. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a repository of nearly eight years’ worth of content, navigable by brand. While the archive is currently limited to fountain pens only, I hope to expand it to non-fountain pens and inks in 2022.

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Mini Collections

A key personal theme for me in 2021 was “consolidation,” meaning that I started the year with a goal of reducing the overall volume of pens and inks, and succeeded, for the most part. Before I sold off more than half of my ink collection, I embarked on this project of swabbing all of the bottles and samples so I could preserve them for future comparison.

• Mini Collections and Under-Appreciated Pens: The Parker Sonnet

• Mini Collections, Part II: All the Red Inks

• Mini Collections, Part III: All the Green Inks

• Mini Collections, Part IV: All the PURPLE Inks

• Mini Collections, Part V: All the Blue Inks (Including Blues, Blue-Blacks, Teals, and Turquoise)

• Mini Collections, Part VI: The Rest of the Inks - Blacks, Greys, Browns, Oranges, and Golds

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2021 Pen Show Recaps and Travel Posts

The big news from the second half of 2021 was the resumption of pen shows, which came in fits and starts. While D.C. remained “the big show,” and saw traffic reminiscent of years past, the San Francisco and Chicago shows were a bit slower. I will continue to attend and cover shows in 2022, conditions permitting, and I’m interested to see how specific shows resume and recover.

• Great Pen Stores: A Quick Trip to Anderson Pens Chicago and Atlas Stationers

• Chicago Pen Show Recap: Back to Normal… Slowly

• San Francisco Pen Show: The Big Weekend Recap

• D.C. Pen Show Recap: Saturday, Sunday, and Overall Thoughts on the Return of Pen Shows

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Stationery “Lifestyle” Posts

This year I tried to be more responsive to reader questions, and turned the most frequent inquiries into full-feature blog posts. For example, I get a LOT of questions about fountain pen friendly paper for specific use cases, how different paper sizes compare to one another, how to swap nibs, and more. These posts were insanely popular and I intend to continue them, possibly even keeping them as a core focus of the site.

• Swapping Fountain Pen Nibs: From Easy to Expert

• Water Resistance in Fountain Pen Inks: How Important Is It Anyway?

• Ask TGS: Comparing Popular Paper Sizes

• Vintage Pen Primer, Part V: What About Just Opting for a Vintage Nib?

• Filling Systems: Pros and Cons of Piston Fillers, Vacuum Fillers, and Cartridge/Converter Fountain Pens

• Hierarchies of Fountain Pen Friendly Paper

• Organizing a Pen Collection: Pulling It All Together

• How Many Pens is Too Many (To Have Inked Up At Once): Managing a Collection

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Industry Trends

I spent less time writing about stationery industry trends this year, probably because I found that a lot of what companies were releasing didn’t interest me, and the overall direction of the industry boring and uninspiring at times. For example, I have zero interest in tracking multiple “seasons” of ink from a single company over the course of a year, much less hundreds (if not thousands) of inks from a half-dozen companies adopting this same growth strategy. The same goes for the endless waves of limited/special/regional/store editions that manufacturers seem to be cranking out monthly, in quantities that are neither limited nor special. While T.G.S. will still comment and post on important “stationery news,” I don’t plan to resume regular weekly updates on the latest brand-specific releases.

• Customizing Stationery: If the Ideal Product Doesn’t Exist, Make It Yourself!

• Stationery Trends: Subscription Services Today - Do You Still Use them?

• The Allure of the Stealth Pen: What Makes the All-Black Pen So Popular?

• Online Pen Shows: They May be Easier, But Are They Really the Same?

• Has the Market For Limited Editions Finally Jumped the Shark?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of year-end recaps. If you missed the first installments, you can check them out here: 2021 Favorite Products Reviewed; 2021 Top Sellers from the T.G.S. Curated Shop; and 2021 Favorite Acquisitions. I will be taking some time off to breathe and recharge here at year-end, so posting may be a bit sporadic, so hopefully this content is enough to tide you over until 2022!

This post does not contain affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases made through the T.G.S. Curated Shop and reader contributions. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!