In 1980, Mr. Furrier was working for a tree trimming company when his childhood friend and neighbor, Teddy Vandewalle, told him that his father, Ed, was looking to train someone to fix typewriters at his shop in the Boston area. “He knew I was a tinkerer and just thought it would be a natural fit,” Mr. Furrier recalled.
By the end of his first day, Mr. Furrier knew he had found his calling. He spent his first week disassembling and then reassembling a portable Smith Corona and was in typewriter heaven.
What a lovely little profile—with some great photos and videos.
I always felt a sense of relief when I turned in my test, dropping it on the desk and exiting room. I don’t remember trying to check on how well I did by looking up details. I couldn’t change the result so I waited for the verdict.
Those of us of a certain age remember essay portions of exams taken this way. This sure brought me back.
I took the occasion of Shawn’s deciding to update his portion of the What We Use page to update mine (which had not been done since 2018!). I’ve found that I’ve simplified quite a bit since then.
At the end of the first day of last year’s California Pen Show, because I had about $600 left in my budget for the weekend, I impulse-bought a Sailor Cylint. Listen: it’s a fine pen. Really. It’s shiny, sleek, classy, very black. It feels good in the hand. It has a nice ionized 21k gold nib. It writes well.
And I’ve regretted buying it ever since.
While it’s a perfectly good pen, it turns out it’s not for me. Two years into this hobby, I’m finally accepting that I’m not a Sailor guy. I’ve bought three very different Sailors now, and I never use any of them (in fact, I’m looking to sell them all).
At that same show, I bought a Montblanc 146 in Glacier Blue, and I love it. For months, I used it nearly every day. The only reason I’ve been using it less the last few months is because late last year I went to the Wes Anderson-designed Montblanc pop-up on Rodeo Drive and bought an 100th Anniversary Origins Edition 149, which I use all the time, and which was the only pen I bought between February of last year and February of this year. Turns out, I’m a Montblanc guy, not a Sailor guy. Trust me: my wallet wishes it were the other way.
It’s not because I personally find it boring that I’ve for the last year regretted purchasing the Sailor Cylint, though. I’ve regretted it because I bought it on the first day of the three-day show, and on the last day of the show, I fell in love with another pen. I don’t remember now exactly what it was, but it was red and vintage and restored by the wonderful Myk Daigle, who had added to it a handmade sterling silver snake clip made by Andy Beliveau (who has no web presence). Man, I wanted that pen. I kept returning to Myk’s booth to stare at it, hold it, write with it. But it was $300, and I had nothing left in the budget—because I had impulse-bought a pen I would go on to not love.
Fast-forward to this year’s California Pen Show just this past weekend. I had a much smaller budget than I did last year: about $300. After first spotting, trying out, and then mourning one of my grail pens (the Montblanc Homage to Victor Hugo, which having tried in person I now know I do really like and will acquire someday), I made a beeline for Myk Daigle’s booth. I’m not sure whether Myk remembered me, but he remembered the pen I didn’t buy last year. Sure enough, that pen was gone. No surprise there. But wait! He did have one—and only one—Andy Beliveau clip with him. Not a snake, but a beautiful mermaid.
Instantly, this mermaid clip called to me even more strongly than the snake clip had. Snakes and pens go hand in hand, and they’re pretty easy to find. But mermaids?! Listen: I know something can’t be more unique on account of “unique” being an absolute adjective, but in a way, this mermaid clip is even more unique than the snake clip, because the snake clip, being handmade, was unique, while the mermaid clip is both unique and a rare thing to see on a pen. End of grammar digression.
Needless to say, I was going to buy that clip. All it needed was a pen to live on.
So Myk helped me find my first truly vintage pen (I have a couple of pens that were made in the 1980s), a Conklin Crescent Filler. After doing some research, I’ve been able to narrow down the manufacturing period to sometime between 1913 and 1920. This pen is over 100 years old! And since it was just recently restored by Myk, it of course writes beautifully, with a lovely flexible gold nib that, as a lefty overwriter, I can unfortunately take only limited advantage of.
The clip cost me $60, the pen was $220, and I was able to get a bottle of Waterman Tender Purple and a pack of Galen pocket notebooks with my remaining cash (okay, I went like $10 over budget, all told).
I wasn’t sure I was going to be a vintage pen guy. I like big, girthy pens, and vintage pens are rarely if ever those. I also like modern pens that have a sleek, classy look, like my Pilot Vanishing Point and my 100th Anniversary 149. But it turns out I don’t like all sleek, classy, modern pens—sorry, Sailor—and I should not impulse-buy them. It also turns out that I do like vintage pens—or at least, I like this one. A lot. So far, I can hardly put it down.
And I have a feeling my vintage pen journey is just beginning.
At the end of every year, I publish a photo on Instagram cataloging the Field Notes notebooks I used over the previous 12 months. Here is the most recent picture.
Every year, I get questions about this. I wrote a bit about the topic in 2014, but I thought I’d do it again here. So, uhhhh, here’s an FAQ.
Super fascinating.Lots of interesting workflow details. I love getting a look into what and how other people do things.
Delightfully simple and simply delightful, Paper Apps™ are a fun, smart alternative to screen time. Check out our solo games like DUNGEON, GALAXY and GOLF, as well as gamified tools like TO•DO and NUTRI•TRACK. For the full experience, we recommend grabbing a couple of Pencil Dice as well!
Video Tour: Mike’s Everyday Sketchnotes by Mike Rohde
Sketchnotes don’t need to be beautiful to be useful. Watch as I walk through my bullet journal in this 21-minute video and share practical examples of everyday sketchnotes.
