Sailor Royal Tangerine 1911

A new North American exclusive from Sailor! Following the Fresca and the Anchor Grey, the latest pen from Sailor is the Royal Tangerine 1911, a warm and delicious red orange. It's always a thrill to see these new Sailors coming in - we're well into this new era of North American exclusives and new ink flowing from Sailor, and these pens are always beauties. It's available in the Standard (smaller) and Large sizes, and across all nib sizes - if we're out of stock now, as I think a few have already sold (we've had people waiting for these for a while), we'll be getting them back in stock soon. And the best part is those gorgeous Sailor nibs! I think Sailor must make some of my favourite nibs of all time, which seem to have just the right feel on the page. And! As a bonus! I got my pen in as well! I've long been harassing Jon to order me in one of the last of the Sailor Highlighter sets. It's meant to be used (shockingly) as a highlighter, so it has a music nib, and comes with a matching yellow highlighter ink, which is truly quite fluorescent. For my relative meager highlighting needs, I use Preppy Highlighters, and I enjoy the slightly coarse feel of the felt tip across my catalogues and price lists. I used to just use whatever pen I had laying around, but over time my pricelists have begun looking like Caleb has been using them for his artwork, and there have been a number of times Jon or I have been puzzling over what exactly those numbers are under my scrawls. And so, I now use highlighters (most of the time). In any case, I wanted this pen mainly because of its neon shade. I'm not even really a music nib person, so I might swap around a nib from one of my other Sailors, although I'm enjoying my music nib for now. I've filled with it with Sailor BunguBox L'Amant, a bright purple. Normally I like to use Rohrer and Klingner Cassia for my neon yellow green pens, but you need a Sailor ink for an inaugural Sailor fill. I'm not exactly sure what I will do with the highlighter ink - perhaps I will end up putting into a Parallel Pen or something, or even just a broad and use it to circle product codes or make notes. If I ever use up my Preppy highlighter cartridges, maybe I'll refill. I'm not sure what exactly about this colour appeals to me so much. I remember Lamy releasing their Neon Yellow Safari in 2013, and really bonding with customers who also felt this natural draw to such a bright colour - cyclists joking they could use it as a light reflector, cops joking about their "stealth" by wearing it in their vests (I laughed awkwardly at that one). TWSBI is releasing a yellow-green ECO-T soon, and I just can't wait. Any day a new shipment from Sailor arrives is a good day - Sailor inks are a real favourite in the shop, and I know we always have a list of special order Sailors. It's becoming more and more exciting as Sailor produces these new colours and inks - a good time to work in a pen shop, these days.  

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  And, even more exciting news! I was at the library and was casually browsing through Monocle's Guide to Toronto, and look what I stumbled across!   In particular, I love the euphemistic "a little off the beaten track," fitting for both our shop's physical location and the trajectory of our life. Also note, it's "Liz and Jon Chan" rather than "Jon and Liz Chan" - something he and I have been secretly competing about while ostensibly saying neither of us care. (He wins probably around 90% of the time, if anyone's keeping score.) I'm thrilled to have our article next to Knife from our old Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood on Dundas West. It was walking distance from our old shop - I've purchased a few gifts for Jon from there, and our kitchen knife is from there as well - although I think they've recently moved down the street, just a few hundred meters west, closer to Porchetta, whose sandwiches are excellent. I literally haven't had a Porchetta sandwich in years, and I'm still thinking about them, that's how good they are.