Welcome to Issue#35.

In this issue, we look at what happens when I get my hands on a grail pen, the benefit of a hoarding habit, and a beautiful fountain pen.

I’ve written about grail pens earlier. At that time, I didn’t think I would have an idea of a grail pen, let alone possess one, anywhere in the near future. In the short time of a little over 13 months, that has completely changed.

I started thinking of the elements that would go into a grail pen for me, and the more I explored the world of fountain pens, the more the idea of a unique pen in a particular way took shape. It iterated in my head a lot before it took a specific shape, and I settled on an ebonite pen from Santini Italia.

As I settled in for a long wait - apart from the obvious issue of the cost, getting a pen from Italy to India is not a simple thing. While I was figuring things out, I had an extraordinary stroke of luck. A fellow FP enthusiast whom I trust was looking to sell his ebonite Santini Italia pen. It was pretty much what I had wanted, and when I messaged him about it, the price was really reasonable.

In quick time, a grail pen which I was totally unprepared for was in my hands.

I haven’t experienced the pen enough to say anything substantive about it yet, so I will leave you with a few pictures of how beautiful it is.

You know how it is when a dog chases a car, but when the car stops, it has absolutely no idea what to do? I was a bit like that with the grail pen. I am still getting used to the idea that it is here, and I am getting used to writing with such a precious pen.

Okay okay, it’s not really a franken-ink in the real sense. If a frankenpen is one that is constructed out of parts from more than one (preferably more than two) fountain pens, a franken ink is one that is made by mixing more than one or two inks. But that is not what I want to share with you.

Bril inks are an extremely affordable brand of inks from India - you can get three 50ml bottles for the equivalent of less than 1 US dollar. The inks are quite well-behaved (except for one - Laurel Rose, which is a bit of a stainer), and are a staple with most India fountain pen enthusiasts. Like everyone, I have an assortment of Bril ink bottles in different colours.

Last week, I was swatching the Bril Turquoise Blue, when I damaged the cap of the bottle, and it was no longer closing properly. Now I had 50 ml of ink and needed another bottle to put it in. This is when an accident from a couple of years ago, and my habit of hoarding random things came in handy. The accident was that a bottle of Iroshizuku syo-ro that was shipped to me wasn’t properly sealed, leading to the entire parcel being coated in teal ink, and the bottle being completely empty by the time it reached me. But my hoarding habit didn’t let me throw or give away the bottle - I washed it and put it away.

I transferred the Bril Turquoise Blue ink into the empty Iroshizuku bottle. I (somewhat) carefully transferred the paper label from the Bril bottle to the Iroshizuku bottle, and voila! I had a franken-ink! Or at least, old ink in an old bottle! Here is the end result for your viewing pleasure:

I really love how the label works on the Iro bottle!

We had our monthly FP club meeting today, and as usual, Harish G had something beautiful for us to experience.

It was the Montblanc Donation Pen Sir Georg Solti Limited Edition pen with some beautiful details. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Share your take on fountain pens and related things in one (or more!) of our upcoming issues.

Any and all content you share will belong to you and will be credited to your name (or a pen name of your choice) and linked to any of your online profiles. Ideal content would be a write-up between 200 and 400 words with 1 to 5 images.

Here are a few things that can go in the Fountain Pen Weekly:

• Pen / ink / paper ownership experience

• Favorites in FP, ink, paper etc.

• Your social handles with your FP content - Insta, FB, Twitter, Reddit

• Any FP-related content you want to call out - articles, podcasts, videos.

If you have any other ideas as well, do share, and I will be happy to think about it.

That’s all from me this week.

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