The year was 1969. Humanity made its giant leap when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The Beatles walked across a zebra crossing and recorded their last album in Abbey Road. In a computer lab in California, the first message was sent over a network we now call the internet. In a year of giant leaps, Sailor introduced the Mini with a 21 karat nib.

What qualifies as 'ideal' is entirely a matter of preference. I've used multiple pen cases over the years. In the process, I've noticed a consistent set of characteristics in my preferred ones. Perhaps it could guide others in their search for a case. Here's what I have in mind.

The shitajiki will never take center stage in your everyday writing. But it is one of those things you take for granted until it's gone: a wallet you've carried for a decade, the corner store that stocks the one brand of canned fish you like.

Whenever an expensive fountain pen employs a cartridge/converter (C/C) system, criticism tends to follow. It is an understandable sentiment. Whether it is actually a failure is another matter.

For many people, these qualities are what make the King Profit great. For me, it is what made it the pen that haunted my collection.

I love Komeda's Coffee. It is one of the places I most reach for my fountain pen.

Kiyoshi Kato started his career digging up his backyard. He ended it having ascended heights few ever will. He’s a Spaceman.

To experience more, you acquire more. It is a logic that is hard to argue with. The Pelikan 400NN taught me there is another way. Ironically, it did so by being a purchase.

The advantages of ebonite feeds are real, but so are their demands. It is worth being honest about what exactly is being admired.

From what I've observed, manufacturers work from one of three philosophies when designing ink bottles.

I imagine that when my parents explained the stationery was for their child, the staff pictured an actual child. Not a grown adult with opinions about optimal paper texture. An actual child, small and sticky-fingered. The evidence supports this.

If I received a note written on this memo pad, I'd probably hesitate before discarding it, even after the information stopped being useful.

It’s hard to tell which part is most implausible: the years-long queue, the nitrocellulose, the true sepia ink, or the fact that one of the world’s largest companies made room for him.

There’s a certain appeal to Nakaya that’s hard to describe. At its essence, a Nakaya is a Platinum 3776. But far from it, it is.

Those of us who had years to accumulate our gold nibs should be careful not to develop the posture of boomer homeowners: confusing “I bought early” with “I earned it.”

As the anecdote goes, the scene takes place inside Pilot’s headquarters in Tokyo. A meeting of executives. A new Capless model being introduced.

Traveler’s Company, a division of Midori, has built a remarkably loyal following around a single product: the Traveler’s Notebook.