About Nib & Notebook
A site about buying a first fountain pen, an ink that behaves, and paper that will not bleed.
What we do not do, first
We have not hands-on tested the pens, inks or notebooks on this site. There is no test bench here, no drawer of samples, no panel of reviewers and no lab. We do not receive free products, we do not accept payment for placement, and nobody has ever asked us to write about anything.
That is stated first because everyone else in this category leads with the opposite claim, and because it is the single most useful thing you can know about a source. If a site tells you it tested twenty notebooks, ask where the data is.
What we do instead
We compile what manufacturers actually publish, and we cite every figure to the page we read it on. We check compatibility documentation, so that the converter we recommend fits the pen we recommend it for. We track prices daily from a live feed, so that no number on this site is a number somebody typed once. And where a maker publishes nothing — which is startlingly often in this category — we write “not published” rather than filling the gap.
That last part is the whole method. Almost no pen maker states a nib width in millimeters. Several well-regarded notebooks state no paper weight at all. A site that presents a tidy cross-brand comparison table is filling those gaps with something, and it is worth knowing what. The full version is on how we choose.
Who writes it
Scooter M. — an enthusiast. Someone genuinely interested in this, who reads the manuals, compiles the published specifications and does the arithmetic. No lab coat, no test bench, and no drawer of pens I am pretending to have used for a decade.
I hold no certifications relevant to stationery, because none exist that would mean anything. I am not a calligrapher, a nib grinder or a retailer. What I am is careful about sources, and consistent about saying when there are not any.
Who this site is for
Someone standing in front of a wall of pens who does not know what “EF” means and is worried about wasting money. Every page here is written for that person: the first pen, the first ink, the first notebook, and the reasoning behind each.
If you are a collector comparing gold nib grinds, this is not your site, and there are excellent ones that are.
How it makes money
Nib & Notebook earns a commission when you buy through a link here, at no extra cost to you. That is the only way the site earns anything. Commission does not influence what we recommend or the order we recommend it in — and you will notice that our answer to “are fountain pens worth it” is to spend under ten dollars finding out rather than to buy the expensive pen. The full disclosure sets it out.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and change the page’s updated date. Write to info@nibandnotebook.com or use the contact form. Our editorial policy explains how corrections are handled.
Published by
Nib & Notebook is published by Slate Mill Group.