The Diplomat Aero and the Lochby Field Journal

After last month's lengthy post about ol' Edgar Blankenship, I thought I'd steer the Busted Nib back onto pens, with a brief post about some REALLY nice additions to my pen and journal addiction. Meet the newest pen on my desk: the Diplomat Aero!

This was a surprise gift from a dear friend in New Zealand, along with that nifty Washi tape you see pictured there, as well as a few other goodies. I'm long overdue in sharing pics of it here at the Busted Nib. This nib is far from "busted", though! The smooth steel Medium nib writes very, very smoothly, and that striking red color makes it stand out on my desk or in my shirt pocket. These pens are made in Germany, and are of an all-metal construction. The fluted design is made to invoke images of the old German zeppelin airships of long ago.

The box it comes in is nothing less than luxurious. The sliding top, seen in the top of this photo, is also made of metal. You can rest assured that it is well protected from damage while being shipped in a pen box that sturdy! I've also been filling it with Sheaffer Skrip Red ink--a nice match for that bold red color--that was sent along with it. The pen pushes to post, and has a nice solid heft to it.

Here is a modest writing sample.

You may have to click the above image to get a better look at the writing sample. These photos, as you can see by the date stamp from my digital camera, were taken over a month ago...it's been a busy at work lately (lots and lots of training new people) and I've been coming home too brain-dead to upload anything. Your generous patience is noted and appreciated. 😊

My friend in NZ sent this nice Black & Red notebook from Optik Paper along with that gorgeous pen, and those clever, dark red curly-que paper clips were also a nice touch. By the way: those make handy bookmarks for one's planner or journal!

Here is a close-up picture of it's steel Medium nib. This is a nicely-flowing nib & feed that writes wetly and, as like I mentioned, the nib is nice and smooth. I'm not sure if Diplomat makes their own nibs, or gets them from Jowo or Bock, but I was quite impressed indeed with it the first time I used it. I'll also mention that the metal threads that hold the grip section into the pen's barrel are very precisely machined. They are also "big" enough that you'd have to try very hard to accidentally cross-thread it when putting the pen back together after filling or cleaning it. Diplomat spared no effort in the Quality Control department when they machined these pen barrels.

The Sheaffer Skrip ink was also a win. This was my first experience with Sheaffer ink, and just in case this didn't work out, it was also sent with some Kaweco Ruby Red ink cartridges. I am well equipped with red ink. 😃

I'm going to take a brief moment off the subject here and relate to you how unhelpful The Busted Nib's office staff is right now. Molly, my Aussie Shepherd/Sheltie mix, is haranguing me for belly-scratches right now while Maggie, my Assistant Editor, is parked on the other end of my sofa while I'm typing this. She is curled up and snoring like an asthmatic giraffe. (Ever heard a giraffe snore? Me neither, but with a neck like that, I bet it's quite loud.) Sleeping! Actually sleeping on the job! Outrageous. Be assured, this is going in her personnel file.

Anyway...I also want to show off my newest notebook. After several long weeks of being out of stock thanks to the damage the pandemic has had on international shipping and "supply chains" (a term that harkens back to my past life as an ocean cargo shipping rep at a certain loathsome & detestable shipping company that shall remain nameless), the Lochby company now has their Field Journals back in stock at long last.

The nice thing about this for me was the timing in which I found out about them. Earlier this summer I'd been thinking, "I really wish there was a nice notebook system out there, with an old-world or vintage style (i.e. without cartoon kittens or the word "tactical" involved) that would accept more than one thinner, A5-sized soft-cover notebook the way a Midori Traveler's Notebook does...using sturdy cords or other apparatus to hold them into the notebook cover's spine. This way, one could use several "thinner" notebooks at once.

(Disclaimer: I'm not hating on cartoon kittens OR tactical things. Who doesn't like kittens? 😼 And I've got a "tactical" themed item or two my-own-self, which you'll see in a moment. I'm just this big nerd who thinks fondly of nostalgia...I just didn't want tactical kittens or cartoon camo kevlar in my new notebook.)

By "thinner", I mean inexpensive A5 notebooks with 48 to 96 pages or so, like the Midori Color Paper Notebooks I've been picking up now & then from Jet Pens:

...or the rather luxurious Clairefontaine 1951 notebooks that have the vintage look I love while using that extraordinary paper of theirs...and carry them all at once in the same A5-sized folio or journal.

Then, perhaps 2-3 days later, after arriving at this brilliant epiphany of what I wanted in a notebook, I quite accidentally stumbled across Lochby.

Matched with my TWO Retro 51 rollerball pens! Thank you, Dayna!!

That's it, in the soft brown waxed-canvas material (despite my lousy photography, that is a nice shoe-leather brown; not a washed-out tan color...I really should get my photographer brother to help me with this stuff) on the right, with the thoughtful addition of a pen loop. It's original predecessor is on the left. It's got that more tactical look, and I still like it too; rest assured.

This company was formerly known as Bond Travel Gear before they transitioned from carrying products that have that "tactical" feel to a more "polite society" look. I presume that's the reason for the name change. As you can see, instead of the Lochby's classy looking strap & buckle closure, it used a sturdy YKK zipper with that blaze-orange zipper pull. It was made of a more rugged nylon fabric that was also available in desert tan, camouflage, and other "manly colors" at the time. It's quite sturdy, and thus ideal for taking with you on backcountry trips in the wilderness where it's contents would admittedly be better protected from the elements. But on trips about town, in a cafe or at the office, the Lochby reinvention of that notebook has much more style & vintage appeal.

Thanks to another exceedingly generous birthday gift, I have a superb Retro 51 50th anniversary Apollo 13 Moon Landing limited edition rollerball pen that matches my original Bond Travel Gear notebook quite nicely indeed, while my more vintage-ish "Betsy Ross" red, white & blue one is a fine companion to my new Lochby upgrade. I love my Retro 51 pens! I also have been keeping a TWSBI "Diamond" 580 fountain pen in that pen loop...an addition whose absence was keenly felt in the original Bond Travel Gear version.

The red bit at the top of the photo is just my cheap kitchen tablecloth.

Here's a nice touch: Lochby puts a wax seal (with real melted wax; that's not a "sticker" or decal) on all of their shipping packages with the image of their bumblebee logo on it in a hexagonal stamp. The inside of the Lochby Field Journal is made of tear-resistant fabric that also features that pattern. I have a theory about this. If the nice folks at Lochby ever happen to see this, let me know if I'm right or wrong: Lochby is based in Florida. As it happens, so is Nostalgic Impressions, the company I get my own custom wax seals from. What do you want to bet that Lochby got that custom bumblebee wax seal from them? I hold both companies in very high regard, and it would warm my nerdy, geeky heart to find out that they've done business with one another for these fine products of theirs. It'd be like finding out that Superman gets his spare capes from Wayne Enterprises. 😁

Here's the inside of what has now become my beloved new Every Day Carry notebook. You can see that hexagonal tear-resistant fabric lining the inside of it. It comes with the thoughtful addition of a couple of color-matching ribbon bookmarks attached to the spine, and you can see where I've stuck a Clairefontaine 1911 notebook into it and "artfully" tossed some paperclips on the cover like confetti to fool you into thinking I'm creative. Tucked into the inside front pocket is a stencil I use for drawing circles & squares and such into bullet journals, and a blank greeting card & envelope just because you never know when you'll need one, being a pen nerd.

It comes with one A5 sized Lochby dot-grid notebook in fantastic Tomoe River 52gsm paper which others have already reviewed online better than I can. I'm using it as my bullet-journal-style planner. I had some fun Washi tape from Michaels decorated in the names of each day of the week which I used for this. As you can see, Molly (the Busted Nib's Chief Kitchen Floor Cleanup Technician in charge of disposing of accidentally-dropped food. who is STILL pestering me) is currently on a medication schedule. Lochby has now played a part in keeping her medicated. 😊

The bottom line is that this gorgeous journal can hold several soft cover notebooks at once which can be used for different "subjects". Currently, I've got three of them in this thing, and it doesn't "over-stuff" the journal. (I've stuck a "Seal of Awesomeness" sticker on the cover of the notebook it came with. Thank you for that as well, Dayna!) I can swap them out whenever I feel like it. By comparison, here's the inside of my original Bond Travel Gear notebook rig, which is still quite useful as well:

Both of these things have a large inside pocket in the front cover that will comfortably hold a 7" electronic tablet, like my Kindle (as shown here). I've also got a paperboard sheet of blotting paper stuck in there, and a Storyboard pocket notebook (which has a lunar theme on the cover, like my pen does) as well. I've used up the original, large hardcover notebook it first came with, and have now matched it with a nice Red & Black softcover notebook from Optik Paper in the UK. Those red, curly paperclips live in the velcro-closure mesh pocket inside the front cover for when I happen to need one. With the reduced bulk of a softcover notebook, there's still plenty of room in it for my Kindle and a pen without having to fight to get the zipper closed.

I hope this hasn't been too self-serving while I brag about my favorite pens and journals. Many of these items were birthday gifts from what are easily the best pen-pals in the whole wide world...this includes EVERYONE who is currently reading this. All of you are awesome! Let me know what your own favorite "Every Day Carry" notebook is in the comments, as well as any suggestions for what a daily-carry notebook can be used for aside from a scheduling planner. Perhaps a meal planner, if you're on a special diet to avoid high blood sugar? A grateful shout-out goes out to Howard in Virginia for the very helpful cookbooks he sent for that:

I love those books! Also, that jar with the green lid is full of delicious tea samples from "Shiny Blue Fish" who has impeccable taste. I'm hoping she won't notice the tall bottle of organic, yet still not ideally healthy, olive oil sitting behind it. 😃 If anyone else has a lovely Diplomat Aero pen, please chime in with your thoughts on them, too! Take care and I'll see you at the mailbox!