Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · July 25, 2026
A few years ago, I handed my Pilot Metropolitan to a friend across a coffee shop table. She picked it up, wrote three words, and frowned. “It feels scratchy,” she said. “Mine writes so much smoother.” Her pen? A Lamy Safari with a labeled medium nib. Mine? Also labeled medium. That moment is exactly why … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 24, 2026
There’s a moment that arrives for every serious pen enthusiast. You’ve filled a few notebooks with your my under-$50 picks. You understand how a decent nib feels. You know the difference between a ballpoint and a real fountain pen. And suddenly, none of those pens feel like enough anymore. That’s when the question shifts from … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 24, 2026
You’ve just unwrapped a Lamy 2000, or perhaps a Pelikan M400 graduation gift—or you’re about to give one. The fountain pen is gorgeous. Metal-barrel, perfectly weighted, the kind of pen that makes writing feel intentional. Then you reach for a pencil to sketch a quick note beside it, and out comes a plastic throwaway from … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 24, 2026
The best Parker 51 antique shop find I ever made cost me eight dollars and smelled faintly of old rubber and dust. It was sitting loose in a flat wooden drawer at a shop in Mineral Point, Wisconsin — the kind of place where a display case of arrowheads shares a wall with 1970s Reader’s … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 22, 2026
Here’s something I got badly wrong early in my collecting life: I assumed any fountain pen ink would turn waterproof if I just let it dry long enough. I was wrong — spectacularly, expensively wrong. I’d written a full page of tasting notes at a watch auction preview using what I thought was a “durable” … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 11, 2026
The debate over fountain pen converter vs cartridge sounds simple on the surface. Pick one, fill it, write. But after a decade of collecting everything from a $15 Pilot Metropolitan to a vintage Montblanc 149 with a broad flex nib, I can tell you this choice matters far more than most beginners realize. It affects … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 10, 2026
The first time I picked up a scratchy fountain pen, I assumed something was broken. I’d just started collecting seriously, and my new Pilot Metropolitan was catching on every upstroke like sandpaper on silk. I almost returned it. What I didn’t know yet is that tuning and smoothing a scratchy nib is one of the … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 8, 2026
The most common question I get from new fountain pen owners isn’t about nibs or inks — it’s about clogs. Specifically, why their pen stopped writing after sitting for two weeks. I’ve been there. Learning how to clean a fountain pen and prevent clogs properly changed everything about how I interact with my collection. Before … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 6, 2026
I used to stuff pens into my jacket pocket like a disorganized grad student. Clips tangled. Caps fell off inside my bag. One morning I pulled out my Pilot Custom 74 to find the nib had caught on a notebook spiral and bent clean sideways. That was a $120 mistake I will never make again. … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 4, 2026
I still remember the first fountain pen I bought for under $50. I was convinced it would feel cheap, skip constantly, and end up in a drawer within a week. That’s the misconception I hear most from new journalers and writers: that a decent fountain pen requires a triple-digit budget. After a decade of collecting, … Read more