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Clut and Clutter

Bits and bobs to bring with me to in-person meets

(It is my privilege — and I mean that sincerely — to be able to have ‘blog’ articles of my own on FPN, and so I'm using it now.)   Notwithstanding that my career was in Information Technology, I've resisted having “social media” accounts on me-me-follow-me platforms in the fashion of MySpace and Facebook for literally (two) decades, … until this month (July 2025). Some opportunities to link up with “local” hobbyists are alas limited to “private groups”, for which signing up for an acco
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Workshopping

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Clut and Clutter

My notes and advice on fountain pen cleaning

A “casual beginner”, as she self-identifies, whom I've offered to penable asked to pick my brain about cleaning and maintenance, and wanted to know my suggestions about what tools and apparatus may be useful. This is what I wrote for her, and I thought it may be good to share it here, in case someone else may see some value in the content.       Cleaning Removing ink from fountain pens relies primarily on carrying the colourants (and other components) in the ink
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Workshopping

35
Clut and Clutter

On my second trip to Japan in seven months, while the going is good

My wife and I weren't exactly planning on visiting Japan again, so shortly after our eleven-day stay in Tokyo late last year. However, when the offer of even cheaper airfares — by about another 25%, compared to the last trip — for return flights to Osaka came up, and she has so much annual leave her employer was pushing her to take (some of), we just couldn't resist. Serendipitously, the yen has fallen to something like a five-year low this month; so much the better! So, off we went again.
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Musings

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Federalist Pens

Black Friday Discount

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Event!   Save all weekend @Federalist Pens! Enter Code "Cyber" at Checkout thru Monday to save 10% more all weekend! www.federalistpens.com   Latest site blog posted at "Market Watch" and view here- https://federalistpens.com/blogs/news/collaborations-events-new-products-forecasts   Thank You! Frank
Federalist Pens

Federalist Pens in BFCM Blog

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Clut and Clutter

Oh, what a trip!

Almost every time after going on an extended break away from Sydney with my wife (which, for her, means taking annual leave from her work, that her employer usually has to pressure her to take), we — or, more precisely, I — come home thinking, “Damn, I need a holiday after all that!”   Now that she's back at the office, and not merely working from home today, I finally have some peace and quiet, and the space to take stock of what transpired over a very busy umpteen days ju
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Musings

1
Clut and Clutter

Notes on candidate ‘FAQ’ topics

Membership types, levels, ranks, badges, points, etc.   The membership types, groups, and levels are detailed here. The table of ranks is here. In some places, you'll seen a redundant “(n/15)” shown next to the name of a rank.   What can a Silver member do that a Bronze member cannot? What can a Gold member do that a Silver member cannot? I'm not sure, and I have no access to reference material detailing the entitlements and/or differences. I see examples of Bronze membe
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Work-in-progress

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Sus Minervam docet

How-to: Set, or change, personal info that others can see about me

It helps to explore this yourself, revisiting once in a while if need be, and keep in mind where each of those personal info fields are entered. Don't leave it until the urge to change something specific to come upon you, and only then bother to ask the question! Invest the time surveying upfront, instead of waste it later waiting for an answer from nobody in particular.     Most of the fields shown above are self-evident as to what they are. I think the only ones that could
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in How-tos

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Sus Minervam docet

How-to: Block; Censor; Delete; Erase; Hide; Ignore; Leave

I don't know whether all of these qualify as Frequently Asked Questions, but they have at least been asked and/or discussed before on FPN. Since I'll probably be referring others to the same old discussions, tutorials, and information pages next time the questions are raised, if at least to fill in “the story so far”, I may as well gather them in one place now for my own convenience.   Last things first:   How do I…   … delete my FPN account? You can't; but you can
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in How-tos

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Clut and Clutter

Links to web pages or articles about Chinese typesetting, signwriting, etc.

Seeing there has recently been more discussions (not all initiated by me, w00t!) on FPN about: writing Chinese hanzi and/or Japanese kanji ; and writing with ‘long knife’ and ‘fude’ nibs fashioned after Naginata Togi and Fude de Mannen nibs respectively, ‘art‘ nibs, Waverly nibs, and other crooked-by-design nibs, I thought I'd look more into how those nibs could be used to produce different styles or characteristics.   Here are a collection of (English language) w
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Workshopping

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Clut and Clutter

Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

A dear friend of ours, to whom we've made a habit of giving fountain pens, bottled inks, and other paraphernalia over the past couple of years — whenever we had the opportunity to meet up every few months, what with busy lives, lockdown restrictions, and all that — has recently ‘graduated’ in the hobby to ordering pens, ink, and even an inkwell of her own initiative. Bravo! My wife and I are so pleased to see the interest we sparked take hold.   However, not being someone w
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Workshopping

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Crud!

My thoughts on sharing ink samples by post

(This is mainly in response to @Daneaxe, at Amber's bidding)   “It won't be easy; you'll think it strange When I try to explain how I feel…”   So you're concerned that there is a noticeable gap in what is available the fellow hobbyists in your neck of the woods, and other seemingly more fortunate — or perhaps just more organised — hobbyist communities elsewhere have in train only make the disparity all the more conspicuous and perturbing. You're motivated to do something
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Challenges

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Crud!

End of sharing ink samples by post economically

Today is 大年初一 , and this is one way to start the Year of the Ox on the wrong note.   Australia Post has just, or finally, announced that international Economy Air Letters containing Merchandise service is permanently discontinued, in a very loose interpretation of what constitutes an announcement. Not as a notice, not as an entry in the list of general or notable updates, but as a new FAQ entry sandwiched between piles of older FAQ entries, on its web site where there is no dedicated F
A Smug Dill

A Smug Dill in Foiled Again

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Debbie Ohi's Inky Journal

Thank You, Sailor Kenshin!

Thanks to my penpal Sailor Kenshin for sending me this fun UPS fountain pen! I filled it with some KWZ Sheen Machine (from BauerInks.ca). Sailor also sent me a Jinhao Shark with a fude nib (I need to figure out how to use this properly). THANK YOU, SAILOR!
inkyelbows

inkyelbows

2
Debbie Ohi's Inky Journal

New Eyes, New Pen! (Pilot Custom 823 With Fa Nib)

Apologies for the dearth of entries this past year. Many reasons, but double eye surgery was one of them. If you want to know more, here's my blog post. Many out-of-town trips (mostly work but some personal) combined with work deadlines resulted in my poor pens (and snailmail correspondences) being neglected. I just recently was able to do a proper pen cleaning and have started catching up on snailmail again. And one of the pens I'm finally able to use is my Pilot Custom 823 with FA nib, acq
inkyelbows

inkyelbows

3
Debbie Ohi's Inky Journal

My First Pen Review: Monteverde Giant Sequoia

Thanks to PenChalet.com for sending me a Monteverde Giant Sequoia to review. This is my very first pen review! It's probably not going to be your typical review, however, since I tend to use my fountain pens for drawing (I write and draw children's books for a living) as well as writing. First off, the pen is GORGEOUS: The shimmery brown really did look like a highly polished wood. It came in this classy-looking Monteverde box: And here's what the pen looks like inside the box: As
inkyelbows

inkyelbows

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Karas Kustoms' Blog

Welcome To 2018, Now Here's Some Free Stuff!

As a company we do a LOT of giveaways. Whether that's traditional raffle giveaways, social media giveaways of various types, hidden pens, and other random giveaways; it's something we've done for several years. But we've never done done giveaways one the scale you're going to see in 2018. For starters, we're running monthly random YouTube subscriber giveaways. If you didn't know about that, you've still got time to get in on . In February we're going to be adding monthly random Newsletter subs
Karas Kustoms

Karas Kustoms

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