If you love objects that combine beauty and utility, this is as good a reason as any to cultivate your own analog office.

Many office supplies are pure tools, like a flathead screwdriver is a tool: they are either well-made for their purpose, or they frustrate the user with materials or product designs that don’t hold up to the job. In Office Supply Land, this means things like staplers.

But then we have the category of items I jokingly call “desk jewelry.” Like wristwatches, these items quickly evolve into decorative objects, valued for aesthetics as well as function.

Think fountain pens, fountain pen ink bottles, ink blotters; paper weights; planners, notebooks, and journal covers.

And, think letter openers.

Like ink blotters, these items often swanned around on top of people’s desks, rather than slumbering in the drawer next to the yellowing box of staples.

If you want an inexpensive, purely functional letter opener, get a plastic letter opener with a razor blade. These work very well.

But if you want some desk jewelry, if you want to handle something that is both beautiful and useful — and occasionally dangerous — shop around for an old-fashioned letter opener.

REFERENCES

“Lethal Letter Opener” (no date) TV Tropes. Available at: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LethalLetterOpener (Accessed: 20 October 2022).

If you think with paper and write a lot, consider using a fountain pen*. Modern pens strain your wrist and hand far more than fountain pens.

Fountain Pens vs Ballpoint Pens, Rollerball Pens, Gel Pens

Josh Giesbrecht, in his Atlantic article “How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive,” wrote about why he switched to fountain pens:

A lifetime writing with the ballpoint and minor variations on the concept (gel pens, rollerballs) left me unprepared for how completely different a fountain pen would feel. Its thin ink immediately leaves a mark on paper with even the slightest, pressure-free touch to the surface. My writing suddenly grew extra lines, appearing between what used to be separate pen strokes. My hand, trained by the ballpoint, expected that lessening the pressure from the pen was enough to stop writing, but I found I had to lift it clear off the paper entirely. Once I started to adjust to this change, however, it felt like a godsend; a less-firm press on the page also meant less strain on my hand. (…) My experience with fountain pens suggests a new answer. Perhaps it’s not digital technology that hindered my handwriting, but the technology that I was holding as I put pen to paper.

Like watches, fountain pens quickly morph from tools into (desk) jewelry or collector’s items.

Therefore, like watches, you can pay as much as you are willing to pay for a fountain pen… but they do not have to be expensive.

How to Try Out Fountain Pens and Fountain Pen Friendly Paper for Under $10

As of this writing, you can buy three Pilot Varsity (a.k.a. VPen) disposable fountain pens on Amazon for $7.99. I’ve seen single Pilot Varsity pens listed for $3.00.

Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens work reliably* * as writing tools. If you’ve never used a fountain pen, I think these are just dandy to experiment with. They are low cost, have plenty of ink, and you can test to see if you even enjoy writing with a fountain pen.

On the right paper, fountain pens flow. Your thoughts can flow with them. On the wrong paper, fountain pens scritch and scratch; the opposite of flow.

Look for paper with a smooth finish. To do this on a budget, go to your local discount store and buy a composition notebook made in Vietnam. In my neck of the woods, I find these for less than one dollar. Comp books made in Vietnam tend to have nicer paper.

You can also buy non-disposable fountain pens without paying a fortune.

Here is a beginner’s guide to using a fountain pen. Lots of other good videos and guides to fountain pens on the JetPens* * * site as well.

NOTES

* The big drawback? If anyone knows of a fountain pen and ink combo that works well for left-handed folks, let me know. (If you’re left-handed and you’re writing in a language that goes left to right (rather than, say, Hebrew), the ink smears. Lefties writing in English need quick-dry ink.)

* * Since I have loved fountain pens for coughty-cough years, I do have pens that are not disposable. But I still use Pilot Varsity pens for some things.

* * * I wish they paid me to promote them, but nope! I pay them… Anna’s Fun Money often wanders to jetpens.com.

REFERENCES

Giesbrecht, J. (2015) How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive, The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballpoint-pens-object-lesson-history-handwriting/402205/ (Accessed: 15 September 2022).

The Beginner’s Guide to Fountain Pens | JetPens (no date). Available at: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Fountain-Pens/pt/927 (Accessed: 23 September 2022).

A public service announcement for fountain pen friends: one piece of blotter paper might last you 20 years.

I bought an old rocker blotter about 20 years ago which still had a sheet of blotting paper in it, and just kept using the old blue blotter paper sheet it came with. (Which was already well used.)

YMMV of course! I tend to let my paper air dry, rather than use blotter paper.

I bought NEW blotter paper* about a year ago. Check it out: still going strong!

This second vintage rocker blotter is literally window dressing. I love green milk glass. (I’m guessing it’s from the 1930s; Scottish terriers and milk glass were both very popular in the U.S. then.)

So. I have two rocker blotters. Two.

Two is not a collection.

If I get that extremely lovely 19th c cobalt blue glass one at the antique shop down the street, then I’ll have three. But I am not going to do that, because I am NOT not not not not NOT, I tell you** , having a rocker blotter collection.

Budgets and shelf space mean we must make choices, and I do not need a rocker blotter collection.

And: collections don’t start until you hit the number three.

This is the Law of Three. Once you have three of something, when you do not need three, it becomes a collection. This is true for cats***, this is true for old cars you’re keeping for parts, and it is true for rocker blotters.

So I am NOT having a rocker blotter collection.

There.

I said it on the internet, so it must be true.

P.S. Nice article here about actually using blotting paper, instead of white-knuckling the urge to buy another old rocker blotter.

REFERENCES

Link to Dorothy and Toto photo – File:The Wizard of Oz Judy Garland Terry 1939.jpg - Wikipedia (no date). Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wizard_of_Oz_Judy_Garland_Terry_1939.jpg (Accessed: 18 July 2022).

Bosley, J. (2019) How To Use Fountain Pen Blotting Paper, Fountain Pen Love. Available at: https://fountainpenlove.com/how-to/how-to-use-fountain-pen-blotting-paper/ (Accessed: 18 July 2022).

NOTES

* The two questions I’m pretty sure my kids will be asking after my earthly sojourn is done: “What IS this? Why did she keep that?”

** Okay, I’m telling me. Again.

*** Although I can think of many situations where one might need three cats. Maybe you’re opening a cat café, and they need to work in shifts.