SusieG Studio

I believe the last time I posted about my fountain pens was back in January of this year. I had a few pens that I carried over from the end of 2025 and used them for mostly journal writing. I wanted to do a quick post to show my blog readers that fountain pens are still part of my everyday life. More so for writing and less for sketching.

I currently have a few fountain pens sitting on my studio desk. Here are the four that are currently inked and actively used.

The two on the left side are my Pilot Custom Heritage 92 pens. The pens were in my Pilot pen case and as time went on, they were forgotten. I decided to fill them with ink and see what I’ve been missing. They are both piston filling pens that hold a decent amount of ink. They each have a 14k gold nib. The clear pen has a fine nib and the transparent blue pen has a medium nib. I forgot how nice they write and how well they feel in my hands. Here’s a good-to-know fun fact. The Custom Heritage 92 is the only Pilot model that has the piston filling capability. No, I’m not enabling.

My clear Pilot pen is filled with Van Diemen’s Devils Kitchen. My blue Pilot pen is filled with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin Kai.

The two pens on the right are my recent purchases from the last three years or so. They were purchased while I was at the local pen show. The beautiful swirls of green/yellow/pinky pen is the Franklin-Christoph 02 Intrinsic pen with an F-C Nagahara Cursive Italic medium nib. The pen on the right is the Zodiac Cancer model in Primary Manipulation 5 with an F-C Nagahara Cursive Italic fine nib.

My F-C 02 pen is filled with Colorverse Brane. My Zodiac pen is filled with Colorverse Lucky Cosmos.

I should mention these are the only four fountain pens I have filled with ink in 2026. Hard to believe, right? Here are the inky entries in my Currently Inked Journal.

As I mentioned earlier at the beginning of this blog post, I’ve had pens (5) already inked at the end of 2025 that I’ve carried over into 2026 and continued to write with them until they ran out of ink or dried up from lack of use. Here are my inky entries at the end of 2025.

Let me take a moment to explain how my Currently Inked Journal works. I created this log/journal back in 2020. Yes, that was six (6) years ago and I’m still using the same journal. I used this system to keep track of my fountain pens and the ink I used in them.

When I fill my fountain pen with ink, I write any entry that includes the name of the pen and the model and sometimes the blank used to make the pen. The next line is the nib I’m using in the pen. The last line is the name of the ink. At the end of this line I write in the date.

After I use up the ink in my pen and give it a good cleaning, I make a notation in my journal by drawing a square and writing the date.

My inky journal has worked well over the last six (6) years. I’ve enjoyed using this system as I can see what pens I’ve used and how the nib writes. Also, I can see the inks I’ve used and matched with my pens. I can also see which pens were frequently used over the years as well as my colorful inks.

Probably the most important reason for me to use and keep up with this journal system is to keep track of my pens. I’ve had a few pens that I’ve kept inked for several years and were forgotten. You know. Misplaced. Placed in a pen/pencil cup. Thrown in a drawer and eventually pushed towards the back of drawer. I know I’m not the only one.

One long forgotten pen was a Platinum Preppy with Carbon ink. I ended up throwing away the expired and dirty ink cartridge. The nib unit cleaned up well after several days of soaking in a water bath with water changed several times. I guess it wanted a spa week and made for a good science experiment.

Journal: GLP Creations – The Author, A5 size, Tomoe River paper, 192 pages

Pens: Pilot Custom Heritage 92 with Fine and Medium nibs. Franklin-Christoph 02 Intrinsic Prototype with Franklin-Christoph Nagahara Medium Cursive Italic nib. Zodiac Cancer model in PM 5 with Franklin-Christoph Nagahara Fine Cursive Italic nib