Travel Interlude: First Bag Dump of 2025, Plus a Travel/Pen Show Week Promo

It’s been a while since I did a “Bag Dump” post, probably because I haven’t traveled much in the last six months. For a short 2-day trip like this one, I still carry a fair amount of stationery, especially when the travel relates to a work conference where I’ll be taking a lot of notes. Because this trip doesn’t involve a pen show (sorry, Baltimore!), you won’t see any fountain pens featured here, and this particular Rickshaw Sinclair Model-R permanently holds a fistful of workhorse rollerballs, ballpoints, fineliners, and gel pens, which is what you see above from left to right:

• Rickshaw Bagworks Sinclair Model-R Pen Case in Saffron Yellow. One of my absolute favorite pen cases for travel, the Sinclair Model-R (and previously, the Nock Co. Sinclair) makes a great modular case that’s simple to move between bags.

• Leuchtturm Drehgriffel Gel Pen. A review in process, and one where I keep going back and forth on how much I like the product. Some days, I love the Drehgriffel; on other days I wish it were slightly larger. Stay tuned.

• Lamy 2000 Rollerball. I’m not a proponent of the Lamy 2000 fountain pen for air travel, since hooded nib pens don’t generally don’t handle the pressure change well and tend to burp ink into the cap. Given how much I love the overall design of the Lamy 2000, however, one of the other Lamy 2000 formats always comes with me. Here, I’ve hacked a .5mm Ohto rollerball refill by taping a small piece of paper to the end to make it longer, so this is a rollerball pen with a fine refill that doesn’t feather or bleed. Perfection? Possibly.

• Tom’s Studio Lumos Pro Duo Fineliner, with Leather Rollstop/Grip. You all know how much I use these things, so I won’t belabor the point, but I added the rollstop to ensure this one doesn’t end up rolling off the table onto the floor. I don’t want to be that guy crawling up the aisle at a conference in the middle of the presentation looking for his pen. I swore that would never happen again.

• Gravitas Twist Ultemate Ballpoint. A pen that I picked up some time ago but have held off on reviewing while Gravitas worked through some production issues. It’s back in the queue for future commentary.

• Uni Jetstream Prime Lite Touch 3 Multi Pen. I don’t go anywhere without at least one Multi Pen. The recently released Lite Touch 3 made the cut for this outing.

• Lamy Swift Retractable Rollerball. Stay tuned on this one, as it has a few cool aspects that I’ve never seen on another pen. (Like a retractable clip?) I received a couple of these pens with the large rotating Lamy display I ordered earlier this month, and I plan to have more to list in the coming weeks.

• Montblanc Classique Ballpoint with Monteverde for Montblanc Gel Refill. Yes, you can turn your Montblanc twist ballpoint into a gel pen. These Monteverde for Montblanc gel refills are still around, and very good.

• Pilot S20 Ballpoint. While I love my Jetstreams, Pilot’s “Acro-Ink” is excellent, and the Pilot S20 might be my favorite ballpoint for long writing sessions.

• Notsu Vegan Leather Notecard Holder. It fit perfectly inside the Sinclair, what do you know? I plan to have this with me at my conference to discretely jot down any non-conference related thoughts that may be worth retaining.

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So what about notebooks? With me this week are the same three notebooks I picked to start 2025 (the Musubi is very close to completion), along with the Lochby Field Journal Mini, which sadly will be out of stock for a while, from what Lochby tells me.

And What’s a Pen Show Week Without a Promo? This Time on Notebook Systems!

If I’m attending a pen show, I’ll always have something on special to compensate for the fact that I’m away from the shop for a few days (until Friday), and also to let those who can’t attend the actual show to get in on the fun. Even though I won’t be at the 2025 Baltimore Pen Show, I thought it might be fun to do a flash promo on notebook systems through Friday, March 7. Take 10% off notebook systems, including Traveler’s, Midori, Lochby, Laconic, and Stàlogy, using the code “TRAVEL” at checkout. I hope you use them for something fun!

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I’ve switched things up some lately, but since I prefer aisle seats with little under-seat storage, this week’s travel companion was my classic Filson Twill Briefcase.

Did you like this post? The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. To accompany this post, I filmed a short “unpacking” video (a true “bag dump”) and will try to upload tonight to the YouTube Channel, though that will of course depend on the vagaries of hotel internet.

2023 Bag Dump, Part II: Travel Edition and Pen Show Packing

August is usually a big month on the road for me. In addition to two of the largest pen shows in the world (the D.C. Pen Show from August 3 - August 6, 2023, and the San Francisco Pen Show later that month from August 25-27, 2023), our family sometimes tries to take one last summer trip before school’s back in full swing, and I occasionally have a 1-2 night trade show with some day-job work travel mixed in. I actually do love being on the road and meeting new people, but this is a lot even for me.

As both a travel and stationery enthusiast, I spend a fair bit of time thinking through what I pack for trips (especially business trips and pen shows). It’s a delicate balance between packing far too much - encumbering yourself in ever-shrinking airports, planes, and hotel rooms - and leaving yourself without the tools you need to do your work, and a modicum of comfort on the road. Today I’ll walk through what I tend to pack, with a focus on pen show travel.

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The Rickshaw Banzai Bag is slightly smaller than a 13-inch Macbook Air, making it conveniently small enough to carry over your shoulder in crowded event spaces.

I Bring Two Bags to Pen Shows

Let’s assume that all of my clothing and toiletries go into a carry-on roller bag, and that any shop merchandise I’m bringing to the show goes into checked luggage. There’s not much leeway there in terms of what I can and cannot take, so the focus will be on my “personal items” (to use airline terms). My current travel backpack is an older North Face Surge II (black with red trim), which I like not just because of my signature colors, but because it has a sturdy laptop compartment and more than a half-dozen different compartments for smaller items like headphones, chargers, notebooks, etc.

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Inside my backpack (or possibly in my carry-on), I’ll pack my Rickshaw “Banzai” bag, which is a bag that Rickshaw specifically designed for pen and stationery carry, with shows in mind. I did a Banzai-specific post earlier this year, which showcases just how much you can fit inside this relatively small shoulder bag.

But why bring two bags to pen shows? DON’T BE THAT PERSON WHO WEARS A HUMUNGOUS BACKPACK IN A CROWDED BALLROOM. If you don’t want your bag to hit other attendees in the head and/or knock valuable merchandise off vendor tables when you inevitably get jostled, bring a smaller shoulder bag or tote to carry around during the day. The Rickshaw Banzai is perfect for this role.

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Believe it or not, by comparison with many people who will be attending, this is a relatively small number of pens to bring to a pen show! All of this fits inside the Rickshaw Banzai with room to spare.

What Goes Into My Pen Show Bag?

This year, I plan on bringing the following stationery gear with me to the D.C. Pen Show, and my San Francisco Pen Show carry will likely look similar if not identical:

• Lochby Field Journal to Carry Personal Notebooks. I always travel with my personal journal, a notebook for morning pages, and at least one blank “scratch paper” notebook.

• Plotter A5 Binder. This is my “T.G.S. Notebook” for post ideas, pen and ink testing, notes from meetings with vendors and suppliers, and recent ink swatches for comparison purposes.

• Plotter Mini 5. If I really want to lighten the load and walk a show with no bag at all, I’ll grab the pocketable Mini 5 with a pocket pen and go. The Plotter paper is exceptionally fountain pen friendly and great for testing any pens and inks, and the Mini 5 pulls double duty as a wallet.

• Multiple Pen Cases with Pens to Share. I always bring a lot of inked pens to shows for after-hours show-and-tell, and this year will be no exception. I’m currently in the process of packing a Lochby Tool Roll and Quattro, a Rickshaw Sinclair Model R, and a Rickshaw 6-pen roll and three-pen sleeve. The shocking part is that all of these cases will fit inside the Banzai Bag at one time, allowing me to carry up to 30 pens to the after-hours meetups in the hotel bar (though I’ll likely leave at least a few slots open to carry new finds home).

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Our table setup from last year.

2023 D.C. Pen Show Details

This year you can find me sharing table space with our friends at Vanness Pens. TGS won’t have a stand-alone table, but I’ll be bringing a handful of items with me, including Lochby cases and notebooks, washi tape, and whatever stock remains from the TGS-exclusive Penwells and Hinze Collaboration pens. While I plan to have a full table setup in San Francisco, I tend to use the D.C. Show to visit with people and scope out new releases. Note: If you have your eye on something from the shop and want me to bring it to the show for you to pick up, you can select “Local Pickup” at checkout to drop the shipping charge and send me a message to arrange for delivery. Just be mindful that I probably won’t be able to bring heavier orders (i.e. 5 or 6 notebooks) due to airline weight restrictions.

Pen Show Primer Series

Every year when I start getting ready to attend the “big” pen shows in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, I link back to a series of articles I’ve written including Volume 1: Why Visit a Pen Show; Volume 2: Getting Ready for a Pen Show; and Volume 3: Tips for Surviving the Pen Show. While these particular articles have some age on them, I stand by pretty much all of the advice! (You’ll also note that “get a good pen show bag” has remained consistently high on the list of tips for a positive pen show experience.)

This post does not contain paid advertising or third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

2023 Bag Dump: What Do I Carry to Work?

Bag dump posts are insanely popular, whether on the internet or social media. I think mainly it’s because people (1) are generally nosy, and love to glean insights into other people’s lives via the things they carry with them; and (2) at least in the stationery community, would like some reassurance that they are not the only insane person who carries 12 fountain pens, three pads of A4 paper, a traveling inkwell, and 300 Post-it notes everywhere they go.

The main reason I’ve not done many true “bag dumps” in the past is because they can be difficult to photograph, and also because I have to be careful to protect the confidentiality of a lot of the papers, etc. that I carry with me for work. This is less of an issue recently since I’ve successfully taken a more paperless approach to certain work materials and try not to retain nearly as much in hard copy. More on that later! Meanwhile, here’s today’s bag dump:

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Bag: Filson Original Twill Briefcase.

My go-to work carry remains my standard Filson briefcase in Otter Green. I love this bag not just because of its durability - it’s going on at least six years old - I find the interior well-organized and just big enough to fit all of my “daily needs” gear without becoming unwieldy. If I’m traveling for work or there’s a day when I need to carry larger physical files or other larger, heavier items like a bigger computer, I also have a Filson Zippered Tote.

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My fountain pen carry from yesterday, from left: Pilot Custom 74 in Blue Stone, Sailor 1911 Large Black Luster, and my personal T.G.S. x Hinze Elementar.

Pens and Pencils: Versatility Is Key

For my workday, it won’t surprise you that I use many different pens, pencils, and highlighters. Currently, I’m carrying either a Rickshaw Bagworks three-pen sleeve or six-pen roll (both my own customized designs), or one of my Nock Co. Sinclair pen cases. As I’ve mentioned, I keep a lot of different fountain pens inked up, so if I want to switch out what I’m using on a daily basis I’ll typically just grab a different pen case that has new pens in it and rotate between them throughout the day. This week I’ve been carrying my Rickshaw Bagworks 3-pen sleeve with a Pilot Custom 74 in Blue Stone, a Sailor 1911 Large in Black Luster, and my personal T.G.S. x Hinze Pen Elementar (complete with the now-available Crimson nib).

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Subtle matching.

Permanent residents in my work bag include a fistful of Pilot gel pens (currently Frixions, which I’ve enjoyed using, especially in the .4mm tip size), a Penco “Prime Timber” leadholder in Navy Blue, two Anterique click ballpoints, a Caran d’Ache “Black Code” ballpoint, a Caran d’Ache striped Paul Smith collaboration (no longer available, sorry!), and a pack of Kokuyo “Beetle-tip” Highlighters, which are a specialized Japanese highlighter that allows you to highlight in different line widths.

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Notebooks and Paper: Paring it Back

One major difference you’ll notice is that I’ve pared back the number of notebooks I carry with me to work. Not only did I find that I wasn’t using them during the workday, but I felt less enjoyment mixing work and play by bringing my personal journals, etc. to the office, which isn’t really a “happy place” for me. I have a dedicated “work planner,” which is my William Hannah A5 in Agave/Mustard. While I plan to do a fuller write-up of this particular notebook system in the future, I generally love ring and disc-based planners/notebooks, and this one is mostly compatible with the Levenger Circa and Filofax refillable systems I use to archive work papers.

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My Cortex Brand “Sidekick” covered notepad has been traveling to and from home with me, and it typically sits under my keyboard and serves as a repository for fleeting ideas and action items that I need to archive elsewhere. Once the page fills up, I’ll transfer these notes to another notebook/planner or digital app. I also carry one A4 pad (currently a Midori MD Grid) and one A5 pad (currently one of the Color Pads in blue), and I tend to burn through these pretty quickly so there is a lot of turnover.

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I’ve really been leaning hard into the blue stationery lately, especially blue paper. From left, two Patreon thank-you notes on the way courtesy of G. Lalo Vergé de France, and the recently arrived Midori Soft Color Pad.

What I won’t get into here in any detail is tech/electronic products that I carry. It’s beyond the focus of the blog, though I may talk about it over on the Patreon in the future. That said, the computer sleeve (for my 2020 MacBook Air) is a Rickshaw Bagworks Horizontal Sleeve. My tablet of choice these days is a Remarkable 2 with the Typefolio (which I’m enjoying so far).

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It looks like my last detailed bag dump post was from 2021, and while certain pieces of stationery I carry have been rotated out (probably not permanently), it’s comforting to see general overall consistency, which I take as an indication that I’m sticking to stuff that I use and not chasing trends. I’m on the road for a long weekend starting tomorrow, so Saturday’s post may look at my travel carry!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links.

Bag Dump: What's in My Rickshaw Banzai Bag?

So the people have asked, and I have answered. I teased a photo of my Rickshaw “Banzai” Bag - designed specifically for pen people - and which makes a great carry-all for pen shows and meetups. Despite it’s relatively small size, the Banzai Bag holds an astounding number of pens, in addition to notebooks and tablets up to A5 size. Enjoy the unpacking!

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The thing that I love about this bag is its versatility. This was a “Pen Club Saturday” loadout, with three separate pen cases, my Plotter A5, plus some highlighters and my Kindle Scribe for some Saturday afternoon reading.

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The Banzai Bag is slightly larger than A5 length-wise, and is capable of holding several notebooks and similarly sized tablets in the center, plus accessories in the three interior pockets: two pockets on one side, a single pocket on the other.

Four pen cases that I regularly carry, clockwise from top: Rickshaw six pen roll/wrap, three-pen coozy in tweed, Lochby Quattro in Brown, and a Rickshaw x Nock Co. Sinclair Model R. You can check out the full selection of Rickshaw cases and sleeves here, and see below for some options on how I arrange the different pen cases.

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In addition to the pen cases show, I’m able to fit two A5 notebooks (my William Hannah A5 and Plotter A5), as well as a Kindle Scribe.

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Everything fits! I put one of the notebooks (the Plotter A5) in the single side slot and the rest in the center.

All packed up and ready to go to the Baltimore Pen Show!

Come See This Bag in Person at the Baltimore Pen Show!

As I mentioned yesterday, we will be at the 2023 Baltimore Pen Show in-person! I’ll have this bag (not for sale) and many other items (for sale) at the T.G.S. Table! Since we will be traveling, shipment of shop orders may be slightly delayed until early next week, though as always any orders placed will receive some extra T.G.S. Swag as an apology for any inconvenience. Many thanks for your support, and I hope to meet many of you soon!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. This post does not include paid advertisements or third-party affiliate links.

Travel Carry, Part II

I rarely buy bags. I only have a handful, and bags - whether you’re referring to backpacks, briefcases, luggage, or whatever - are a “buy it forever” category for me, meaning that I tend to buy good bags and keep them until they fall apart. In terms of daily carry, I own two briefcases, a Filson Original and a leather Lambertson Truex that’s no longer made, a single backpack (a North Face Surge), and a handful of tote bags in various sizes. Over the past few years, the versatile tote bag has become my new favorite product category. My current lineup includes an early version of the Baron Fig “Roamer” bag, as well a recent addition, the Filson Zippered Tote, which is the first bag I’ve purchased in three years.

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The Filson Zippered Tote was my "I-don’t-need-fewer-notebooks-I-need-a-bigger-briefcase” purchase. This thing absolutely swallows notebooks, pen cases, legal files, and even a 16-inch laptop if necessary. While it won’t serve as my primary everyday carry bag, it will see plenty of use on days when I need to lug a bunch of stuff to work, and certainly when I travel.

Since I’m still on the road (and can’t wait to get home tonight), I thought it might be fun to do this short post on travel carry. Pics shown here have been taken in real time, and accurately reflect what I’ve been using for the past week-plus. Links below. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: None of the third-party links in this e-mail are paid affiliate links, and I am not receiving any compensation in exchange for listing them here. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

1. Filson Original Briefcase (via Filson). I have the original twill in “Otter Green”, and it’s lasted me well over five years. While not a fancy backpack, Filsons are essentially indestructible, have three compartments for files, a laptop, iPad, etc., and a few pen slots.

2. Filson Zippered Tote Bag (via Filson). As discussed above, this Filson twill tote is extremely versatile. In the short time I’ve owned it, it’s been used for everything from an overnight carry-on to a larger briefcase.

3. North Face Surge Backpack (via North Face). Though I don’t carry a backpack that often - typically only when I’m flying or at a pen show where I need something more ergonomic than a shoulder bag - I’ve loved this older version of the Surge, a classic North Face backpack that has three versatile compartments and can hold multiple laptops, sometimes a necessity for work trips.

4. BaronFig Tote Bag (via BaronFig). My first “grown up” tote bag that I purchased after they were first released by BaronFig several years ago. A great basic tote for the grocery store, library, and sometimes work. It’s also my “pen club” bag when I’m carting pens, paper, and products for local delivery.

5. Traveler’s Notebook Standard Size. My go-to work notebook, and overall my favorite notebook system that I appreciate for its customization options. I have the blue, and you can see exactly how I’ve customized my notebook with my most-used refills and accessories in this post from last year.

6. Lochby Field Journal. The rugged Lochby series of notebook covers and cases serves as the perfect complement to my Filson gear when traveling. The Field Journal notebook cover holds as many as six A5 notebooks (depending on thickness, of course). For maximum capacity opt for the Lochby refills, which come in a variety of rulings and feature exceptional Tomoe River 68gsm paper.

7. Lochby Tool Roll. While it’s currently sold out (more on the way!) the Lochby Tool Roll made it’s debut as my primary pen show travel case, and I don’t see it being dethroned anytime soon. The Tool Roll holds at least a dozen pens, plus it has additional pockets to stow notecards, post-its, and more.

8. Lochby Pocket Journal. Another excellent Lochby item that I carried at the Baltimore Pen Show this past weekend and used to test pens and nibs. In addition to holding two regular-size pocket notebooks (or a notebook plus passport), the Lochby Pocket Journal has an exterior pen slot for a larger fountain pen, plus smaller items like cards. You could easily use the Pocket Journal as a larger wallet.