Welcome to Volume 10 of Meeting Notes. This volume encompasses December 05 through July 06. This is the last book from the archives, so were almost caught up to real time. Unfortunately, these four images are all I have scanned in from Vol 10 so far but I intend to do more this weekend.

Labels: meeting_notes, sketches

It's been awhile since I've done a fountain pen review so I figured I'd better get back on the wagon as I've got a back load of some great (and a not so great) pens to review. I'll start out with my most recent acquisition an Extra Fine Chili Red Cross ATX Bahia.

I purchased this pen on clearance from Swisher Pens because I had read some positive reviews online. Overall I'm very pleased with this pen, but I do have a few minor complaints. So let's break it down.

Design:
I tend to like modern pens with clean styling and this one fits the bill. I also tend to go for steel or black pens so with this one I decided to go a little crazy and add a little color to my pen case. In this case I went for the Chili Red which is a maroon-ish color with a bit of a sparkly finish with matte metal on the clip and grip sections. When I first got the pen the cap was so tight that it really took a lot of effort to remove, but it has loosened a bit with wear so now it's not a problem. Overall a nicely designed pen.



Nib:
The ATX comes with a steel nib that ranges from XF to B. I went with XF, and here in lies my first complaint: it ain't no XF. It's really more like a fat Fine nib. Apart from size (which I'm getting used to), I really have no issue. It's a super smooth and wet writer that glides across the paper. I really enjoy sketching with this pen so it might end up being used more for that than for writing. As a matter of fact, the robots below were done with this pen.



Fill:
This pen is a cartridge/convertor filler and a convertor is included in the box so do not order an extra one like I did. And this is my other complaint, and one I've made before: PROPRIETARY CARTRIDGES (yargh!). This is very annoying. But I won't get into that again.



So overall I'm pleased with this pen, but I guess if I'm looking for a true XF nib I will have to restrict myself to the Asian pen companies, at least they know what XF should mean. However if your handwriting is bigger that mine than I would definitely recommend this pen. It's a pleasure to write with.

Labels: fountain_pens, reviews

So I haven't gotten around to uploading (or indeed even finish scanning) Vol. 10 of Meeting Notes, so in it's place I offer another installment of From The Sketchbook.

So here are some evil robots:

Labels: robots, sketchbook, sketches