Review: Quiver Pen Holder

When I saw this newly-released pen holder late last year, I was both curious and excited because of its name. Most people know I named my blog after the centaur with a bow and arrow that is my sign, but only a few knows that I am a former archer. Which is why the pen holder held my attention the moment I saw it. It brought back happy archery memories way, way back. When I was an archer, a leather hip quiver held my arrows, and now that I am a pen collector, a unique pen holder holds two of my favorite pens to a favorite notebook, and it is called the Quiver.

Quiver Global's Bob Koch kindly sent me one of their pen holders to review. I received a double/dual pen holder for large notebooks and I used it as soon I took it out of the envelope. It was love at first sight. Who wouldn't fall for these penholders? They are made from genuine soft leather and hand-stitched by Quiver's skilled leather craftsmen. It's perfect for my pens! I got a brown pen holder, but it is also available in black.

The Quiver pen holder is very easy to use because of its simple design. Just slide the pen holder over the notebook's front cover and move it according to the desired position. The photo below shows the wide elastic band that keeps the pen holder secure on the notebook's cover. This elastic band also offers maximum flexibility to the pen holder so it can be used on a number of large notebooks. Quiver's website has a list of Quiver-compatible notebooks.

The double/dual Quiver pen holder comfortably accommodates two pens. Its soft leather can be stretched a bit, so two large pens can fit in. I tested several pen combinations shown in the photos below, and I paired a big-sized pen with a thin one so they will not scratch each other.

On the Webbie: Haolilai and Esterbrook SJ. 

On the Reecovid notebook: Lamy Safari and Sheaffer thin cartridge pen.

On my red Scribe notebook: Waterman Hemisphere and Lamy Safari.

Lastly, two birds on my 2011 Starbucks planner: Pelikan M200 and the yellow M205 demo from the M205 Duo set. Love, love, love this combo!

The pen and notebook combinations are great! I love seeing two of my favorite pens on the cover of my notebooks and it makes writing very easy for me. I don't need to open a long pen wrap to get a pen to write, I just need to get one from my Quiver.

Quiver pen holders are available for online purchase through Quiver Global site. Other Quiver products include:

• single pen Quiver for small notebooks;
• single pen Quiver for large notebooks; and
• double pen Quiver for small notebooks.

Quiver also offers an adapter for use in softcover notebooks. Also available are a number of Combo Sets that include any Quiver pen holder paired with a Moleskine notebook of choice.

The Quiver pen holder used in this review is courtesy of Quiver Global. Webbie is from Exaclair, Reecovid from Reecovid, and Scribe from Scribe. Pens and Starbucks planner belong to my personal collection.

Ink Review: J. Herbin 1670 Ink

Red was your colour.
If not red, then white. But red
Was what you wrapped around you.
Blood-red. Was it blood?
Was it red-ochre, for warming the dead?
Haematite to make immortal
The precious heirloom bones, the family bones.

- Ted Hughes, 'Red'

Karen Doherty, Exaclair's Marketing VP, surprised me with a box last September. It was completely unexpected, and I jumped like a little kid when I saw the 1670 Anniversary ink, a large Rhodia dotPad, and an anise green blank Habana inside the box all swathed in seemingly endless piece of bubble wrap. I felt very lucky to receive a bottle of this ink because it is a limited edition ink, released early this year to specifically commemorate J. Herbin's 340th founding anniversary.

The J. Herbin Anniversary ink is named 1670 after the year the company was founded. It is also called Rouge Hematite for its color, taken after the mineral hematite (blood ore), which is also the Greek word for blood.

I like the unique design and packaging of this ink. Unlike the other J. Herbin inks, the 1670 Anniversary ink arrived in a new bottle inside a new box. The 1670 comes in square 50ml bottles, with 1670 simply embossed on gold wax to tell its name.

The 1670 Anniversary ink's clear square bottle reminds me a lot of Caran d'Ache ink bottles, but the gold string on the bottle's neck caught under the gold sealing wax (which Stephanie of Biffybeans blog wrote as glue gun wax) adds a touch of elegance into its simplicity.

The gold wax on the bottle, according to the J. Herbin website, is "reminiscent of the wax used for the 'grand cru' wines of France," and all gold wax seals on all 1670 ink bottles are handmade. PaperAndCo.com has a video of this process and it's amusing to see how it's being done: the person assigned to this task puts the gold string on the bottle's neck, pumps the glue gun wax onto the gold string and the bottle, stamps the 1670 on the glue gun wax, cuts the gold string to desired length, and does the whole process again. Cool!

The red wax on the ink bottle's cap is made of official wax cherry, and strongly reminds me of the wax used in cheeses, especially the big queso de bola (Edam cheese) we see in supermarkets around Christmas time here, and get either as gifts from friends or as part of our Christmas grocery package. According to the inital set of reviews, the red wax used for the earlier batch of inks was brittle and crumbled easily, but I received a newer version with a more flexible wax. But all the same, I am very careful when I cap and uncap the bottle. I don't want to destroy the beauty of this ink yet. 

This ink's bottle cap is made of aluminum, and I wished they used the usual hard plastic caps. Then again, wax may not stick to the plastic very well, and so they decided to use aluminum.

The 1670's box is another J. Herbin work of wonder. It has been carefully designed to represent the life of J. Herbin, who was a sailor. The ship, anchor and palm tree represent navigation and discovery; while the crown is a reference to the red sealing wax color used in the royal courts of Europe.

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Rouge Hematite is a unique ink color in the red/orange/brown range, which is my favorite. It has an intense, vibrant, earthy and blood-red color that is reminiscent of the historical J. Herbin logo and the sealing wax used in the royal courts of previous eras.
 
The 1670 ink has the same qualities of J. Herbin inks I have tried in the past. It has smooth flow, good lubrication, shading and of course, excellent color. However, it is very, very saturated compared to other J. Herbin inks.

For a larger photo click here.

I used a Rotring ArtPen with 1.5 italic nib for the calligraphy, and my white Schneider Base with a firm medium nib for my written review. The grid notebook is from Saizen, which took the inking very well. There is no feathering and bleed for both of the pens I used. Notice the difference in color and shading for the two pens.

The poem I wrote using the 1.5 italic nib looks a brighter red, with more evident orange hues.

The text I wrote using the medium nib looks a darker red, though.

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And now here are some macro shots. I hope the images below captured the gold in the letters I wrote, especially where more ink was placed on paper.  

Below is the 1670 ink in comparison with other red inks: Diamine Poppy Red (dries a bright red), Camel Scarlet Red (dries a pinkish red), Parker Super Quink Red (dries a pale red), J. Herbin Rouge Opera (not a true red, but dries a beautiful rose red), and Diamine Oxblood (a dark, dark blood-red color). The 1670 ink is the stand-out color in the group, its reddish somewhat brownish-earthy-golden color is a winner!

I mentioned earlier that the 1670 ink is a highly saturated ink. This may be a problem among left-hand writers because this property makes it such a slow-drying ink. I used the Base pen on Rhodia paper for this test, and though several factors may have contributed to drying time, the 1670 is undeniably a slow-drying ink to be 'almost dry' at 1 minute 30 seconds.

I tried writing with the 1670 ink on different papers from several notebooks I got. Below are several pictures of them.

I am so in love with this ink I have been using it on three different pens since I got it. I love the color, shading and the tiny gold flecks I see when I look closely at the dried ink on paper. But this is a limited edition ink, said to be produced only this year, and I hope that J. Herbin will include this ink into their regular production.

Aside from the 1670 Anniversary ink, J. Herbin also offers 30 more inks in beautiful colors. These water-based inks are non-toxic, have neutral pH and manufactured using natural dyes. Dowload a printable PDF of the J. Herbin fountain pen ink swatches here.

A 50ml bottle of the 1670 Anniversary ink sells for US$20 at the Goulet Pen Company, and will soon be available at Scribe Writing Essentials here in the Philippines. (I have no affiliation with either companies, though.)

The 1670 Anniversary ink used in this review is courtesy of Exaclair, Inc. through Karen Doherty, as well as the Rhodia pad. Daycraft notebook courtesy of Foreal Lee of Daycraft, and Reecovid notepad courtesy of Ingrid Savill of Reecovid. The Pukka notebook and two pens used in this review all belong to my personal collection.

Notebook Review: Reecovid Notepad

'recycled, not virgin'

-  reecovid (recovered) notepads, great for emergencies!

Sometime in June, I received a comment on my blog from a lady in the United Kingdom, Ingrid Savill, asking me if I am willing to write a review of one of their notepads. Hm. A notepad? Great! A month later, I received my reecovid (recovered) notepad, the first paper product made from 100% post consumer waste to join my growing collection.   

Ingrid sent me a Natalie notepad, and I just love the cover design! I love the green, blue and purple floral, mandala-like design. Natalie is one of the six beautifully-designed refillable A5 notepads of reecovid. The cover design of these notepads is based on the female symbol evolving into a flower, and all six notepads are named after environmentally-conscious women. It also has an elastic strap like most notebooks, but what keeps reecovid's elastic strap different from the rest is that it is a genuine bra strap and it has a unique bra strap adjuster! Love it! :)

The reecovid logo is printed on the lower left part of the cover, near the spine.

On the upper part of the cover, near the spine, is the company's slogan, 'Waste, Not Chaste.' This became their slogan after the 'Recycled, Not Virgin' thing.

The notepad opens to such a simple, but elegantly-designed inside cover page printed with the word 'notepad' at the center of the page and the reecovid logo at the bottom. 

A closer look at the inside cover page.

At the back of the inside cover page is where one can write her name in beautiful calligraphy. :) (But of course, that's just me.)

The paper used in reecovid notepads are 100% recycled, white, uncoated paper. And this raised my curiosity: can recycled paper stand up to fountain pen inks?

As a fountain pen user, pen and ink tests is a must for each and every paper product I get. In the photo above, it is quite obvious that I used a lot of pens. I used my calligraphy pens, and also most of my beloved Schneiders, Sheaffers, Walitys, and Parkers.

This photo shows the calligraphy pens I used to test reecovid's paper. From the top, beginning with the title: Lamy Vista with 1.1mm cursive italic nib inked with J. Herbin Rouille D'Ancre; Lamy Joy with 1.5mm cursive italic nib inked with Diamine Chocolate; Schenider Creativ pens with J. Herbin Poussiére de Lune; Rotring ArtPen with 1.5 crisp italic nib inked with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage; Osmiroid 65 with a B2 nib inked with Diamine Woodland Green; and Sheaffer NoNonsense with a fine italic nib inked with Diamine Burnt Sienna.

Here are the round nibs and their inks: Schneider Base pens with J. Herbin Rouge Opera, Diamine Turquoise and  Aurora Blue; Lamy Safari with J. Herbin Diabolo Menthé; Sheaffer NoNonsense pens with Caran d'Ache Saffron, Waterman Purple and Inoxcrom Blue; Sheaffer Statesman with Waterman Havana Brown; Sheaffer TipDip with Cross Blue; Thein with Private Reserve Copper Burst; Sheaffer CP with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage; Wality pens with Lamy Black, Lamy Blue and Woodland Green; and Inoxcrom pen with J. Herbin Poussiére de Lune.

Here are more round nibs. Parkers on parade: Rialto with Mont Blanc Bordeaux, Jotter with Diamine Royal Blue, 25 with Penman Ruby, 45 with Diamine Majestic Blue and 51 Special with Aurora Blue. Watermans: Kultur with Diamine Poppy Red and Phileas with MB Bordeaux. Haolilai with Diamine Orange, Pilot 78G and Rotring 600 with Iroshizuku Kiri-same.

That's a lot of pen and ink combinations! And the verdict? See photo below:

No feathering on almost all the inks used, but Kiri-same bled badly. Notice the bleed at the bottom of the page. But that's fine.

Now here are some more macro shots of several ink colors on reecovid paper:

Both photos above are written with the Sheaffer NN with a fine italic pen. Fantastic!

Now here is Lamy and Diamine. Chocolatey. :)

But wait, there's more! Here is ORANGE.

GREEN.

And BLUES.

I couldn't resist taking a photo (and posting it) of the back cover. So here it is. :)

reecovid notepads are excellent products. Here are the other features of these gorgeous notepads: 

• refillable hard cover binder with biodegradable laminate;
• 2DD rings metal mechanism for use with a standard hole punch;
• 216 pages of 100% recycled, white, uncoated paper;
• ruled lines; and
• available in A5 size

Despite all these, I still wish this notepad had a pocket somewhere. And a page marker. But, I love this product from reecovid. And I will use it because it's an excellent product. (Hint: I love the fact that the paper can take most of my fountain pen inks.)

reecovid notepads are available for online purchase through their website at http://www.reecovid.co.uk/. They are also on Facebook (reecovid) and Twitter (reecovid), so updates come faster if we 'like' and 'follow' them.