The Faber Castell Loom!

Have a look at the newest member of John's pen-family!

I have a dear friend in New Zealand named Barbara who knows more about fountain pens than I could learn in two lifetimes, and she just sent me a care package by way of Cult Pens in the U.K. Those folks are AMAZING by the way; this was my first ever experience with them and it will not be the last. Under the present circumstances, one would think that international mail service would suffer mightily (and it has), and yet they got this to me in rural Missouri, all the way from Tiverton in the Southwestern U.K. (I "googled" it; it looks gorgeous there), REALLY fast.

Cult Pen's website says of their staff: "In line with our environmental policy, all our staff are free-range, though not necessarily organic. May contain nuts." I think even one of their staff is a trusty dog named "Herbert J. Spaniel", judging by the names listed in their "About Us" page. Cult Pens, if you're listening bu any chance, you left out "we are also super duper amazing". You should add that bit. 😊

But I digress...Barbara sent me a gift box from those nice folks to offer me a bit of cheer. She also knew that I had a Faber Castell Loom pen on my radar & hadn't got around to getting one yet, so she surprised me with one!

The goodies she sent included a Faber Castell Loom with the very rugged and manly metallic olive green cap and chrome body (they come in different colors), it's matching ball point pen companion, and in keeping with the olive green theme, she included a couple of boxes of Faber Castell Olive Green ink cartridges, a travelling pen case (love that thing!), and some notebooks with green covers. The first notebook is a Rhodia soft cover Goal Book, which I'm really going to enjoy, then an Italian eco-friendly, responsibly-sourced Fabrienne blank notebook, and then that wonderfully vintage-esque Clairefontaine 1951 journal...love those things!...all of which are in my favorite A5 size.

I'm making real good progress in filling up my Bond Travel Gear A5 journal (which now seems to have been renamed Lochby, after the owner discovered the joy of fountain pens for himself; I just now found that out) since I use it as a sort of "bullet journal" planner kit. Using it for that has been great practice for streamlining how I use one of those do-it-yourself style bullet-journal planners. I've been accurately informed that bullet journaling has become a sort of competitive art form; mine is a bit more functional, but still with a bit of personal style...and the Goal Book is pretty darned IDEAL for this once I've filled up that Bond Gear book.

Pardon my really amateur "photography", but you can get a better look at these photos by clicking on them if you like, which will give you a great view of the unsightly fingerprints I failed to wipe off of them. I like how the grip sections on these pens are textured with those "rings" that offer a bit of purchase for your fingers. The Loom is a cartridge converter pen, and uses a Standard International Converter or Standard International Cartridges. The cap snaps to close, nice and solidly. The ball point pen just twists to open; it's been going to work with me lately for use at the call center cubicle I work in. I think Faber Castell calls this a "piano grip"? Correct me if I'm wrong on that one.

Also, I love how it posts. When you slip the cap onto the back of the pen, the last few millimeters will suddenly "firm up" and grip the back of your pen quite solidly when you push it into place to post it for writing. The pen can also be used un-posted, but I don't find it at all "back heavy" when using it with the cap posted. It is perfectly comfortable to use, either way. Also, if you have somewhat bigger hands...you know, not big, huge, hairy, calloused, John Henry The Steel Drivin' Man Yeti-hands, but, like, just slightly bigger than average yet perfectly normal and attractive man-hands...then the girthier barrel and section of this pen are a comfort and are easy to grasp.

The pen box is quite functional, and comes in a white sleeve (shown next to the box).

It also came with an empty cartridge, as pictured above there, "installed" inside the pen when I got it, along with a black ink cartridge. I've never had a pen come with an empty cartridge in it before. Is this just for shipping purposes? Or are you meant to fill it with any ink you want via a syringe, in case you don't have a converter (which it doesn't come with...but I had a spare, never-used Standard International Converter via Goulet Pens languishing for years in my "box o' pen parts"; at long last it now has a pen to live in) or something? But if you don't have a converter, why would you still happen to have an ink syringe? Oh, the philosophical quandaries this poses...

The pen case Barbara sent me added a further bit of fun! I must say, this made me happier than is normal for a sane person. 😊 It holds several pens and pencils at once, that zipper on it is quite solid, and still leaves room for other bric-a-brac like an eraser, a coiled up set of earbuds & charging cable for one's phone, some capped pencils (like my Faber Castell 2B & darker wooden pencils with the aluminum caps on them that I got from Jet Pens), and even my little Pineider travelling inkwell. That thing is going to be a constant companion of mine on any road trip where I drag my journal and a stack of blank post cards with me from now on.

That, is once the "Nib-Mobile" is finally paid off and I can afford both a road trip vacation, *and* another catastrophic vehicle repair cost at the same time...not making that mistake again... I just had yet another significant electrical system failure in it that involved a tow truck and me bumming rides to work & back from my helpful brother while it waited for a new starter. Then I got a factory recall notice in the mail from Hyundai at long last, explaining why... (sigh) but I digress.

The pen has a stainless steel Broad nib that writes smoothly and consistently. I don't have too many broad nibs; this is in fact only my 2nd one...the first one being a Lamy Broad nib I bought a couple of years ago while experimenting with different nibs on my Lamy Safari "Vista" Demonstrator pen. The Loom needed a bit of cleaning at first to remove what I assume was residual machining oil from the factory so the ink would flow properly, then it took off like a pro...

You are meant to ignore the false-start in that writing sample where I botched the first attempt to write "The quick brown fox" at the top of it, there. I thought I'd properly cropped it out, but clearly failed, and just now noticed, like a total rube, but am too lazy to re-photo now, ha ha. Here's a close-up, cropped properly. You saw nothing.

Here's a writing sample with the Loom, using that FC Olive Green ink, followed by a quick jot from it's ball point companion. (That obnoxious fox is SO going to get his come-uppins's. Just you wait.) That ink has some nice shading. The nib is quite solid, with no flex to it, but that's not a concern for me. It's fairly wet too, as you can see by my oh-so-scientific-type demonstration; not copied from the review styles of other, better online pen reviewers AT ALL.

Blatant errors here, like me forgetting to crop out my first "The quick brown fox oops" bit of handwriting up there, are entirely my own fault... Assistant Editor Maggie normally takes care of that, but she had to go to the vet earlier today with a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) and is a bit too tired to do any editing. This is her 3rd one of those painful infections since I moved into this apartment building...she has taken a six day today. Her employee medical plan is pretty competitive. It has to be, given that I only pay her in dog biscuits. She wasn't here to catch my mistakes, and she has trouble holding the camera anyway. It's still a better job than Assistant Kitchen Floor Cleanup Technician Molly does; that dog can't even read.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Barbara! I *love* this pen, and I'm really enjoying the prospect of looking for uses for these notebooks! I also have a big, rather bulky Lihit Labs pen case that I don't always want to grab and drag around with me because of it's size. This Rhodia Pencil Case is both practical and cheerful. I happily welcome any words of wisdom in the comments on what uses you folks put notebooks to. I have a weakness for these lovely A5 notebooks!

I'm working on another post in the near future regarding a story about my great-grandfather who had occasion to shoot a bank robber. It was an "old west small town Main Street-style" affair that took place during the Prohibition era. I know it's a bit off topic, but I hope you'll like it. I happened to find it my old original copy of it archived in the old blog I used to help edit for an old friend of mine when I wrote it ages ago, complete with photos that my dad had dug up from the archives of the small town library where it originally happened. All of the research for it came from him. More to follow. Thank you again, and I'll see you at the mailbox!