Armed Notebook Revolver Cover

Every year I do an “Editors Choice” list of the best new office supply products, which made me wonder if I should do a “worst of” list as well.  I probably won’t but if I were to do one, I am pretty sure this series of “Armed Notebooks” that includes a revolver, knife and grenade cover might make the list.

Armed Notebook Revolver Inside

Now before you jump to any conclusions, I’m personally a believer that people should own and know how to use guns, and I have been shooting several times myself.  With that said, I just see that this notebook as something that could potentially get people in trouble.  I’m pretty sure this would not be good to travel with, unless you would actually enjoy spending some extra time with our friends at the TSA, and I’m most certain that showing up with this for work or school will result in you taking some unexpected vacation time.

Armed Notebook Writing Sample

Regardless of my personal opinion on the whole concept of the Armed Notebooks, I will say that they look kind of cool.  The 3D revolver, grenade, and knife all look very realistic and even though they are all black they do kind of jump out at you.  I’m not sure why there is a metal ring sticking out of them other than on the grenade one because that makes it look like you can pull the pin.  The drawback though to this three dimensional cover design is that you cant flip the cover back and write in the notebook very well because it does not lay flat.  Surprisingly enough, the paper actually dealt pretty well with fountain pen ink, although in the writing sample I forgot the letter “k” in “ink” up there, so don’t hold that against me, I was too lazy to rescan it once I realized it.

Overall if you are looking for a very unique notebook or if you know someone in the military or who is into weapons of any sort, these “Armed Notebooks are probably a nice little gift.  I will also add though that the 3D covers are hollow underneath so stacking anything on these will not really work, and could possibly damage the cover since it is not the thickest plastic around.  If you do pick one up, just try not to do something stupid with it, but I know that somewhere out there that will happen, so don’t be that guy…or girl.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

Pottery Barn Bedford Desk and Technology Hutch with Herman Miller Embody Chair

With my recent move I found myself in search of a new desk for my home office set up, which was exciting because I’ve never had the opportunity to review a desk for the site.  After about a month and a half of research I finally decided on the Bedford Desk from Pottery Barn.  In addition to the desk, you can also see my Herman Miller Embody Chair in that picture up there.

Pottery Barn Bedford Modular Desk with Technology Hutch

The desk itself comes in a variety of colors and formats that you can mix and match with.  I chose the rectangular desk with one 2 drawer file cabinet and one 3 drawer file cabinet.  The 2 drawer file cabinet (on the left) has two large drawers that can hold either legal or letter size hanging files, while the 3 drawer file cabinet (on the right) has one large drawer for hanging files on the bottom, and two regular sized drawers for loose items above it.  Besides these options, you can also get a cabinet that holds a computer tower, or you can get book shelf sides as well.  In addition to the rectangular version of the Bedford Modular Desk, you can also get an L Shaped version of the Bedford Desk with the same options for the side storage compartments.   It is also important to note that the “Technologh Hutch” on top of the desk is a separately priced piece and it just rests on top of the desk with nothing to secure it.

Pottery Barn Bedford Desk with 3 Drawer Cabinet

Above is a quick shot of the 3 drawer file cabinet.  You cant really tell from this angle, but the top flat part of the desk actually hangs over the front face of the drawers by about 4.5″ which does make using the top drawer on this side slightly awkward since it cuts off access to some of the inside of the drawer when it is open.  As I mentioned, this is a modular desk, so the top part of the desk just lays on top of the two side cabinets, but the top is framed underneath so its a pretty snug fit and it is also heavy enough that it does not slide around at all.  The drawers on each of the side cabinets are very sturdy and ride smoothly on their rails, unlike many of the cheaper desks I saw in person before deciding to buy this.

Pottery Barn Bedford Desk and Technologh Hutch Slide Out Drawer

The Technology Hutch has some horizontal and vertical slots for notebooks, bills, and whatever else you can think of to store in there.  It also has a sliding drawer and below it tucked away in the back is a power strip with 2 plugs, 2 data jacks, and an on/off rocker switch.  My only issues with the desk as a whole come with the Technology Hutch.  My first issue is that because it just sits on top of the desk with some rubber feet, the hutch will slide when you plug in or unplug an item from the built in power strip if you are not careful.  My second issue is with the small (and I stress small) metal pull loop that is on the front of the drawer.  I think for an adult male I have average size hands, so it is a bit disappointing that the loop on the pull isn’t even big enough to fit my pinkie finger in it comfortably to pull it out.  Lastly, it would have been nice if the drawer had some sort of rails to rest on so it was a little more firm and secure when you slide it out.

Pottery Barn Bedford Desk and Technologh Hutch

Overall, the Bedford Desk from Pottery Barn is a very solidly constructed unit, and it looks great.  Delivery of the product also went very well, as it arrived mostly pre-assembled in four packages with lots of packing materials to ensure that there was no damage done during the delivery.  In comparison to many of the other desks I looked at, I am confident that this was the best option in this price range out there, and am very satisfied with the purchase.  One item that you see next to the desk in this photo that I had to buy separately is the black Winsome Wood End Table that you see on the left of the desk.  Its a fairly sturdy item which matches the desk nicely, and I needed it because my printer that you see in the photo (an Epson Artisan 800 series) didn’t fit on the desk once I added the technology hutch.  I really like the modular design of this desk because even if I move one day and no longer want this as a desk, I’ve got the option of having two free standing file cabinets that can also function as a printer stand.  Although the desk was slightly more expensive than I had originally planned on, I think its a great long term investment in some nice furniture that will last for quite some time.

One last bit of advice if you do decide to pick this up, do yourself a favor and check out the pricing carefully.  Although they have a pre-configured option that looks exactly like mine (minus the hutch), for some reason it costs $50 more if you add that one to your cart instead of selecting the appropriate pieces individually.  When I called to ask them about this, the customer service rep thought I was crazy, until she tried it herself and saw exactly what I was seeing.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

I spent the day today at the 2012 National Stationery Show checking out some new office supply related items from all kinds of different vendors, so I wanted to share some of them with you quickly here today.

Overall I have to say there was not really a ton of new stuff to be seen at the show this year as compared to previous years and I felt like there were fewer of the vendors I typically see there.

Miro Journal Display

One of the brand new items that I came across were the line of Miro journals and notebooks.  The journals that you see pictured above looked great in person for the simple fact that they have that nicely contrasted coloring on the edges of the paper.  They felt great in terms of the smoothness of the paper and their covers seemed pretty sturdy as well.

Miro Notebook Chalkboard Display

In addition to the Miro journals, they also have these coil bound notebooks with super soft (but sill pretty sturdy) feeling covers.  These only come in black and red.

Miro Notebook Displays

One more shot of the Miro journal and notebook display.  I am expecting to get some samples of their notebooks and journals sometime soon, so once I do I will be sure to share the reviews here with you.

Moleskine Pens in Colors

It seems that Moleskine always has some exciting new products to put on display at the National Stationery Show.  Today I saw these see through Moleskine pens that look like they will come in pink, green, orange, and yellow.  They are essentially the same shades of those colors that you would associate with highlighters, making these potentially good study aids.

Moleskine Snoopy Boxed Set

The thing that caught my eye the most at the Moleskine booth (besides the incredibly nice girl that answered my question about these boxed sets)  were these boxed sets of product that they are coming out with.  This is a set of Peanuts themed journals, post cards, and stickers.  They look very well done and as you can see there is also a Le Petit Prince version as well.

Moleskine Snoopy Boxed Set Notebooks

Here is a peek at some of the journals from the Moleskine Peanuts Boxed set.  I think these will probably be a big hit based on how nicely they were presented here at the show, and how well the previous Peanuts branded Moleskine stuff seemed to do.

Writersblok Woodpecker Notes

The last place I saw that had some new and interesting stuff was at the Writersblok booth with their Woodpecker Notes line of journals.  Each of these journals has a textured cover depicting a different type of tree.  The imagery on each is fantastic and vivid with such great texture to it as well.

Writers Blok Red Thread Notebooks

Writersblok also has this line of Red Thread notebooks which look like those envelopes that wrap a red thread (see what they did there) around two red cardboard circles to close the flap of the envelope.  These notebooks are pretty solid feeling,a s the covers are pretty thick and sturdy, and they also have a very chunky texture to them, which unfortunately does not show up well with my amateur photography.

There are a few other items that I don’t have pictured here that I hope to review over the next few days.  Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the stuff that wont be released until later this year, it is always fun to get to go to the National Stationery Show to get to see some of this stuff before it is officially out.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite Open Bottle

The premium line of Pelikan Fountain Pen ink, branded with the name Edelstein has been an instant favorite ever since I first tried the Aventurine color back in early 2011.  I recently saw on the Goldspot.com website that they came out with a new color, Tanzanite which is essentially a blue black shade…so now we have one of my favorite inks also in my favorite color, making it a no brainer of a purchase.  For full disclosure this purchase came with a small bloggers discount from our friends over at Goldspot.

Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite

One of the great things about the Pelikan Edelstein line of fountain pen ink is the 50ml glass bottle that they come in.  Each glass bottle has its own unique shape to it, and the way that the ink sits encased inside kind of floating there has such a great visual appeal.  Because I tend to like darker colors for ink, its hard to see here, but it really does have such a vibrant look to it, the first and main photo in this review showing the uncapped bottle are probably better representations of how vivid the color is.

Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite Box

Even the box that the Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite comes in looks great.  The right hand corner of the box is kind of scalloped out and indicates the color of the ink.  Additionally you can see that the word “Edelstein” written in an embossed metallic silver font has a gemstone dotting the “i” which reinforces the branding around the fact that these are all named after gemstones…hence the edelstein name which means gemstone in German.

Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite Writing Sample

Each of the Edelstien inks have special ingredients designed to help care for your fountain pen and also provide for an extra smooth writing experience.  So far my writing experience with any of the Pelikan Edelstein ink (including the tanzanite now) has been nothing short of stellar.  There is such a smooth and consistent flow of the ink that comes from the nib when I use this ink that it really does make it seem like the couple of extra dollars for this premium fountain pen ink is really worth it.  In all of my writing with this color and the other colors, I have yet to see any feathering and/or bleeding and have only seen very minor show through to the other side of the paper.

Besides the super smooth feel, there is also the fact that the color is so great.  On a blue black ink like the tanzanite, it doesn’t usually come out on paper as a very vivid ink, however it does have its own very intricate and distinctive look to it.  This ink looks slightly different than some of the other blue blacks I’ve used, as it has more of a stone gray hue to it in my writing sample above.  You can see a difference between writing with it where I used a Pelikan M215 with a fine nib, as compared to the q-tip swab of ink I laid down on the paper where you can see more of the blue shade coming out.  I would imagine that using a wider nib like a medium or bold would get a similar effect, but since I don’t own any fountain pens with larger nibs like that I was not able to test it out.

Overall I’m a huge fan of the Pelikan Edelstein Topaz fountain pen ink because of its outstanding and consistent performance, and the fact that it is one of my favorite ink colors…not to mention the cool looking and elegant bottle that I enjoy having displayed on my desk.  If you don’t like blue black, I highly recommend trying one of the other various colors in the Pelikan Edelstein line to experience the super smooth and well behaved performance of this ink.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

The Doane Paper Ideal Journal

Time to announce the winner of our Doane Paper Idea Journal…lots of entrants for this one which is not surprising considering how popular and how awesome Doane Paper is.

The winner was:

Thanks to everyone for entering and spreading the word about this.  If you are Joni,  just leave a comment here to claim your prize, and use the About/Contact link on the top of the page to email us your shipping info.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Head On

So the other day I shared a review of the Sailor Professional Gear Imperial with you which is the all black fountain that even has all black metal accents and nib.  For me, the all black look is always something that I like, so the first half of the review focused more on the looks of the pen itself, and today we will take a look at the actual writing experience.  Just as a reminder, this pen was purchased from our friends at Goldspot with a slight bloggers discount.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial fine Nib Writing Sample on Doane Paper

This pen has an extra fine nib which for a Japanese fountain pen is actually really narrow as compared to nibs from other European manufacturers.  The above writing sample shows a comparison of the Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Fine Nib next to multiple Gel Ink Pens and Ballpoints ranging from .18mm to .7mm as well as some other non-Japanese Extra Fine fountain pen nibs.

Personally I thought that the Pilot G-Tec-C was the closest of the bunch to the writing experience as compared to the Sailor Professional Gear.  They both laid down similar width lines, and both had a similar silky smooth feel as they glided across the surface of the paper.  The Sailor Professional Gear is a very nicely balanced pen and it is comfortable in the hand to grip which makes it fantastic for even the longest of writing sessions.  I managed to use it to take about 4 pages of notes the other day at work and not once did I find any discomfort or fatigue with the pen.  Obviously some of the smooth writing experience can be chalked up to good quality ink and paper, but even having tried this pen on a few different papers and with one other ink, the writing experience remained very impressive.

In the writing sample above you can see that even when flipping the pen over and writing with the back of the nib, it laid down a very clean and consistent line.  Often if you write with that side of the nib on a fountain pen, the line breaks a bit and you get a very scratchy feel.  Definitely not the case with the Sailor Professional Gear Imperial.  Just like with the front side of the nib, its very smooth and very consistent…mind you not AS smooth as the front of the nib, but still impressive.

Many people on lots of the pen related blogs and message boards that I read talk about two different things that I think this pen addresses:

1. Fine and Extra Fine fountain pen nibs are inconsistent across manufactures – Now while this is a true statement, it is easy to see that it is geographically related in that Japanese pens tend to have more narrow nibs in comparison to their European counterparts.  For a close comparison, click on the photo above and you can see that the EF nibs on both the Lamy Studio and Pelikan M205 are both noticeable wider than that of the Sailor Professional Gear Fine nib.

2. Fine nibs are scratchy – While this generally comes down to a personal preference, I don’t feel this nib as being any different than the Lamy Studio or Pelikan M205 that they were compared to above.  Now this doesnt mean that you might not think they are still scratchy, however it is just a relative comparison to the two.  Quite honestly I wish this pen came in an EF nib beccause for how smooth it is, I can definitely see going down even one more size and probably not suffering any degradation in the writing experience.

Overall this is a fountain pen that is going to be a staple in my rotation for a long time to come.  In addition to the pure good looks of this pen, it just writes like no other fountain pen I’ve used before, and it comes the closest I’ve seen yet to that super narrow line that I enjoy getting from my sub .5mm gel ink pens.  If the money isn’t an issue, I honestly cant imagine why someone would not absolutely love writing with the Sailor Professional Gear Imperial.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

METAPHYS Notebook Cover

If you missed the review of our Metaphys Pocket Notebook, head on over and check it out.  Chances are if you are here today though you probably entered the contest to win it, so without further delay….

Charles Hadden was the winner with this comment…

And just to prove that we didn’t just pick him because he asked so nicely:

If you are Charles, use the About/Contact link at the top of the page to contact us with your mailing address, and also leave a comment on this thread letting us know that you are claiming your prize.  Thanks as always to everyone that entered and spread the word about the contest.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

The Doane Paper Ideal Journal

So as I’ve mentioned a few times over the past couple of weeks, I’ve recently moved, and if there is one thing you realize when you move is that you have too much stuff.  I stumbled across a few “extra” Doane Paper Idea Journals, so I thought I’d share the wealth with one of them.

I really love this notebook and I’m kind of annoyed that I just found them now and have not been using them, but thats what happens when I have so many notebooks around to test and review.  Check out our Doane Paper Idea Journal Review and go ahead and enter to win your own:

Rules are the same as usual, but here is a reminder:

Rules:

• Contest is open to US residents only
• Winner will be selected by using the random # generator at Random.org
• Each entry method requires a separate comment, do not combine your comments into one comment
• You will have until 10 PM on Tuesday May 15th  to complete your entries
• Winner will be announced on Wed., May1 6th

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

The All Black Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Fountain Pen in Box with Cap On

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I picked up a brand new fountain pen that I was pretty excited about, so today I’ve got a review of that fountain pen for you.  It is the all black Sailor Professional Gear Imperial that I picked up from our friends over at Goldspot.com with a slight bloggers discount.  Generally I don’t like to mention prices since they tend to change, and because different people have different views of “expensive” vs. “affordable” but it is definitely safe to say I won’t be tagging this pen in the beginner fountain pen category.  This will be part one of two, and while this part of the review takes a look at the aesthetics of the pen, the second part will focus on the actual writing quality and experience.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Open Box Uncapped

I’m pretty much a sucker for anything all black, and I had been wanting a Sailor fountain pen for quite a while, so this pen was pretty much the perfect storm for me.  As you can see in the previous photo, not only is the body of the pen black, but all of the metal accents from the clip down to the nib are also all black….and to top it all off, it comes with black ink, in a black box with black satin-like lining.  I would imagine that if a ninja was going to use  a fountain pen, this would probably be the only logical choice.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Cap and Clip

A close look at the ring on the cap shows the imprinted “Sailor Japan Founded 1911″ text around it, and the clip has a very nice and subtle stepped line that runs down the length of it.  The thing that makes this black pen even more different though is that matte or non-gloss finish of the entire body instead of the usual high-gloss finish that you see on many pens.  The Interesting thing about that though is that you do still manage to get finger prints on it left by the oil from your hands and fingers.  As with any other pen though, the fingerprints can be buffed away with a soft tissue or towel.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Nib and Cap

If you take a close look at the nib in this picture you can see that even for a fine point, it is very narrow as compared to other fine and even extra fine nibs that you may have seen.  The second part of this review that I will post on Wednesday will focus on the writing sample and compare it to some other fine or extra fine nibs from other manufacturers.  Besides the size of the 21kt  nib, you can also see in the larger picture how intricate the artwork on the nib is.  Depending on the lighting situation and the angle that you hold the pen at, the nib (and other black metal accents) can range anywhere from having a light silvery gray tone all the way to looking pretty dark black.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Head On

Above is a second shot to show how narrow the nib is and that gives a better view of the nice black color of the nib.  The pen measures almost exactly 5″ long with the cap closed and about 5 15/16″ with the cap posted.  Although you can see in all of the photos, the cap is a threaded cap that just twists on and off pretty easily.

Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Top Down

The only part of the pen that isn’t black is the sailor logo and circle around it on the top of the cap.  I’m not sure if this was an oversight or on purpose due to some strict branding rules about the logo, but it would have been nice if this had the same look as the rest of the metal accents on the pen…not that this part is actually metal, but in my opinion, it should have been at least made to look like the other parts.  Obviously this is an incredibly minor thing, but it is something I noticed and does bug me a little bit.  Regardless of that minor visual design flaw, I absolutely love the look of this pen, as well as the feel of the matte black body.  As I mentioned earlier, the second part of this review on Wednesday will focus on the writing sample and experience as well as a comparison to some other nibs of similar sizes.

© 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.