A while back, the good people at the excellent Quo Vadis blog wrote about a question online retailers hear all the time: What’s the deal with shipping charges?

Hopefully they won’t mind if we follow in their footsteps because our customers outside the UK often want to know the same thing.

Let me just start by saying that shipping charges are as much a point of frustration for us as they are for you. The whole idea behind Tiger Pens is to offer great pens at great prices. Anything that adds to the cost of our pens – and inconveniences our customers – is a hindrance we don’t want.

Unfortunately, shipping charges are a necessary evil.

Here’s why:

In the UK, our shipping options are more limited than they might be in the US, as private carriers are, to be frank, prohibitively expensive. If we could find a cost-effective private shipper along the lines of UPS or FedEx to deliver to our customers outside of the UK, we would, but so far, no luck in that regard.

What we’re left with is Royal Mail, which is sort of like the US Postal Service, but with more labor strikes.

Royal Mail gives us two options for shipping internationally, such as to customers in the US. One is shipping with tracking for £10 (roughly US$16). The other is shipping without tracking for slightly cheaper.

As Pete the Pen Warrior, owner and operator of Tiger Pens, says:

We do not use this as there is no proof to the customer that we have posted it, and if the items go missing, we cannot claim any compensation. As a reputable company, we do not believe that this is in either ours or the customer’s interest.

So, we ship all orders via Royal Mail, charging £7.50 in the UK and £10 for international. There is no profit for us in the shipping charges, and when you factor in handling and some additional shipping-related expenses, it actually results in a slight loss.

(We offer free shipping in the UK on orders over £10.)

So while we would love for our many fans in the US and abroad to visit our site and order just a few refills or a couple pens at a time, as our UK customers do, we know this is not feasible for most of you. As much as it pains us, the only thing we can suggest at this point is to wait until you have a large enough order to make the cost of shipping worth it…if and until there is a better solution.

We value all of you who visit the blog, like us on FB and interact with us on Twitter. Please know that we will continue searching for ways to offer you the best possible values on all your favorite pens.

And by all means, if you have any thoughts or suggestions on delivery in general or shipping charges in particular, let us know!

OK, we’re understanding people, we really are. But the Guardian has published a piece that puts forth the idea students are so unused to writing by hand that it stresses them out to do so on exams.

C’mon…seriously?

From the Guardian:

For the moment it seems that the pen and paper are here to stay, but examiners are aware of the strain written tests place upon students. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, English tutor at Oxford University, says: “Inevitably, anxiety is sometimes voiced that students are now so used to typing they can’t cope with a three-hour handwritten exam.”

Students use keyboards almost exclusively for classwork, then are required to use pens and/or pencils on written essays during exam times. Apparently, that makes their hands hurt and slows down their ability to answer questions.

Writer Rebecca Ratcliffe says:

In the run-up to my undergraduate exams, I was advised by tutors to practice speedy handwriting. Some even claimed that candidates can’t write as much these days as their counterparts did in previous years, though no data is available to prove this.

UK school officials have suggested doing away with handwritten portions of tests, while some schools have given students the options of using laptops (although few students seem to take that choice, according to the Guardian).

Yes, writer’s cramp is real. We’ve all experienced it. Usually, it’s a result of practicing the ‘death grip,’ either from bad penmanship habits or from using a cheap ballpoint that doesn’t write smoothly.

And yes, writing by hand does require a bit of a different mental process than keyboarding. Research has consistently shown the two activities engage different areas of the brain.

(Oh, and there may also be a link between good handwriting and better grades.)

But has it really gotten to the point where it’s simply too much to pick up a pen for a few hours of test-taking?

Instead of abandoning a fundamental form of communication – one that is going to persist in one form or another until the end of time – there might be some better solutions. Such as encouraging students to handwrite some work throughout the school year. Or teaching them how to write properly in the first place. Or even just using ergonomic pens.

They’re students, after all. Writing is a basic part of education.

Years ago, when I was just starting out as a newspaper reporter, I worked at a paper run by publisher Dave Lawrence. Although he was in charge of a large, busy daily metro newspaper, he often took to the time to send out handwritten notes when someone’s work particularly pleased him.

They arrived in stiff, yellow inter-office memo envelopes, closed by a string, and were known around the newsroom as ‘Dave Raves.’

I’d been at the paper for a few months, working the night desk, and was pretty sure he had no idea who I was. A couple of my stories had made the front page, but mostly I wrote minor briefs and obituaries that got tucked away in the back sections.

And then one day, I came in to work and found, in my mailbox, one of those little envelopes from the publisher’s office. It was a handwritten ‘Dave Rave’ praising an obit I’d recently written about a local cartoonist.

That note meant the world to me.

I was young, just starting out, and not too sure of myself yet, but getting a note like that from the boss was a sign that maybe I wasn’t going to suck at the job. With nothing more than a short sentence, he’d given me a shot of confidence that both pushed and carried me on into my career as a writer.

The note came to mind recently when I read an article in the Washington Post about Greg Gardner, an executive with Sunnyvale, Calif-based NetApp. When he gets a chance to work with one of the company’s 11,500 employees, he takes the time to send out a handwritten thank-you card acknowledging them.

Gardner began writing thank-you notes during his 30 years in the Army. He prefers to write them with a fountain pen he’s had since the 1980s.

“When the conditions are right — when I’m at home at my desk, I take out that lovely pen,” he said. “But that’s not the only thing I use. I’ll scribble away with a ballpoint if that’s all I’ve got.”

Along the way, Gardner has set a few ground rules for himself: Notes must offer only praise, should be handwritten, and must go out within 24 hours.

The notes are just a couple of lines, and he only writes one or two a month – usually after working with someone face-to-face – but they’re the kind of thing no one expects and everyone loves. The few minutes it takes for him to write the note, slip into an envelope and deliver it is nothing compared to the tremendous impact on morale.

According to the article, he even recently ran into a soldier who had been under his command when he was an Army officer. The soldier had kept the notes he’d received from Gardner and compiled them in a book. Obviously, they were important to him.

Who wouldn’t want a boss like that?

Last week on Twitter, @Elizabeth24407 from London reported that she’d come in to work and discovered a handwritten note and a brand-new Parker Pen from her manager, reminding her that she is a “star.”

Understandably, it made her day.

So, for you bosses out there, consider writing a little note once in a while. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a few lines, relatively neat. It will likely mean much more than you know.

Schools across the United States are phasing out cursive handwriting, making it a hot topic of debate among educators, students and researchers.

So, CNN has responded with a brilliant series of articles about handwriting, all linked to a “cultural census” the network is taking that asks everyday people to submit samples of their own handwriting for review and public display.

(Look below to see what we’re doing to encourage our readers to participate.)

According to one of the CNN handwriting articles:

Forty out of 50 states in the United States have adopted the Common Core curriculum, which phases out cursive writing in the classroom, for their public schools. According to its mission statement, Common Core seeks to teach skills that are “robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.” In Common Core, the time formerly devoted to teaching cursive is spent on learning to type and other digital skills.

Obviously, this is not going over well with many teachers and even some parents, who grew up learning cursive and believe it to be a skill kids still need.

Besides, there has been considerable research in the last few years showing that writing by hand helps children learn to communicate effectively and is important in the development of cognitive skills.

From CNN:

“Will a simple handwritten note look like hieroglyphics to the next generation?”

So wrote second-grade teacher Anthony McGrann on his Seattle-based education blog, Seconds. The post, which argued that cursive handwriting should continue to be taught in schools, garnered more than 500 comments….

…educators like McGrann feel cursive is more than a traditional style of writing. They believe it has intrinsic value for learning and self-expression.

“For struggling writers, cursive allows them to be more fluent and thus lets their ideas flow on the page more readily … some students have more ideas in their heads than they can (print) on paper,” says McGrann. “If you integrate penmanship with other literacy activities, the formation of letters really does make a difference in the way kids retain information.”

As part of its handwriting “census,” CNN analyzed the 268 handwriting samples it had received as of Aug. 24. Fewer than 30 percent had been written in cursive. The majority were either printed or written in a combination of printing and cursive.

That’s interesting, given that a prominent American handwriting expert claimed recently that the “fastest and most legible hand writers avoid cursive.”

To collect the writing samples, CNN asked visitors to its website to write the line “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” then submit a photo of it. You can still get in on the handwriting census, if you’d like. All you have to do is register for an iReport account and upload your photo to CNN.

The samples are definitely worth browsing through, both for a look at the various handwriting styles and because some submitters also included photos of their pens, like FLJeepGuy, who used a Visconti Art Nouveau fountain pen.

Meanwhile, there are other fascinating articles to read in the handwriting series, including a piece by Michael Saba that looked at the evolution of English script, beginning with its roots as a monastic discipline.

It’s really great to see that a news outlet like CNN is not only reporting on developments in handwriting, but is also pushing the national and international conversation about it. Even greater is the fact that people are responding and actually taking the time to share their thoughts about it.

Readers, we’d love for you to join in on this CNN project.

In fact, if you do, send us a copy of the handwriting sample (preferrably with your favorite pen in the photo). We’ll number the submissions and post them on our site. Then, at the end of the month, we’ll randomly select one submission to receive a special gift.

As I sat doodling around an article about vintage dresses, I wondered if any of the latest inventions in the pen world might become collectable or vintage in years to come.

There appear to be differing views as to when the so called Golden Age of Pens was.  Some suggest it was between 1880 & the 1930′s, others in the 1920′s.  What isn’t doubted is the fact that there were many manufacturers competing to create innovative designs.  However, as we all know all good things must come to an end & by the time of the great depression many had gone out of business.

It would seem that mass production of fountain pens started post war, although by then there were just a handful of companies.  The mid 40′s saw the beginning of the ballpoint.  Although this new invention did have problems with leakage in the early days, the teething problems were soon resolved.  By the time the 50′s arrived the ballpoint had pretty much displaced the fountain pen & become standard technology thanks to the Bic pen company.

No doubt advances in technology will continue, the 80′s saw the inception of the rollerball.  A pen reported to have been created to be as convenient as a ballpoint but with the smooth wet ink effect of a fountain pen.

More recently, the Zebra Expandz collection made an appearance, this was made to hide the tip once the barrel is retracted.  It’s available in a variety of colours, including that eye catching pink & black zebra print.

Then there is the Cross Edge, a capless rollerball that can be converted into a ballpoint should you choose to change the refill.  Pencils have also been a source of innovation. The Rotring Rapid Pro is a nice looking chrome mechanical pencil with a push mechanism & a useful built in sharpener.

The age to which the term vintage or antique applies seems to depend on the commodity.  Clothing as recent as the 80′s for instance has been labelled this way.  In the world of pens, those with an interest in collectables will as a rule, say anything pre 1965 is vintage.

Who knows if one of our favourites will become an antique of the future, with so many different types of collectors out there, from the investor, hoping to make a small fortune one fine day, to the hoarder that squirrels away just about every pen out there, we will just have to wait to find out.

One thing’s for sure in the famous words of Ray Evans “Que Sera Sera”

Our Good friends at Staedtler recently gave us a fantastic Ipod Nano 8GB to give away as part of a promotion.

Anybody who spent over £20.00 on Staedtler writing instruments in the Tiger Pens Store was automatically entered into a free prize draw with a chance of winning this great prize.

The promotion ended on the 17 July 2011 and the lucky winner of the Ipod Nano 8GB was N. Smith from Worcestershire.

We would like to thank Staedtler for giving this great prize and offer our congratulations to the winner.

Visit the Tiger Pens online store for more great offers and promotions we have some fantastic deals not available anywhere else.

Over the past few years the simple shape of pens and pencils has been evolving as there has been greater consideration that humans are not all the same. At the simplest level there are right-handed people and there are those who favour the left-hand and instruments and tools such as scissors have been adapted to cope with the demands of both.

This has extended to children learning to write. Since right-handers are the majority, teaching in the past has always concentrated upon a style that suits them and we have all seen left –handed people writing in the most contorted positions to achieve the same result.

The main problem for those who write left-handed is that as English is written from right to left, they end up pushing the nib or ballpoint along the paper whereas for right-handers, the nib naturally flows away from them and there is no great pressure in writing.

The introduction of Stabilo ‘S Move Easy Left-Handed Rollerball has been an exciting development in pen design for left-handers particularly The company studied the most comfortable and efficient position for the left-hand to write most effectively and moulded the pen body to fit the position exactlythen moulding the pen body to exactly.

But it is not only about helping left-handed children or adults to write comfortably or clearly. We know that computer users can suffer from Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) and this is a recognised injury but consider those who might suffer from Arthritis, Tendonitis or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and the difficulty they face using a pen.

To alleviate the problem there is the Yoropen that was designed specifically for comfortable and stress free writing. Its angled head makes it easier for the user to see what he is writing and there is a finger support that prevents the fingers slipping down the pen so that a more relaxed grip is used.

Just recently we noted another design on a pen that at present appears to only be available is the US and that is the EzGgrip developed by Dexterity Technologies Corporation (www.dextek.com) As the name suggests it is very easy to grip and you only use one finger for writing pressure instead of the usual three squeezing and pushing sideways and down creating a very light touch  helping considerably those whose suffer from the painful problems mentioned earlier. One student user of the pen sated that it helped his ‘’ Quasimodian callous from constant note-taking’ – no we don’t know what he meant but is sounds painful!!!

It seems that the shape of pens will never be simple again and we would be delighted to hear from anybody who has found writing painful and difficult and used one of the pens discussed to tell us what they thought.

Glenn’s pens is a website which started out as a source of information for people looking for fountain pen stores and which of these stores he regarded as a great pen store.

Since its humble beginnings providing reviews on pen stores it has exploded into a unique resource with store reviews from Glenn and other fountain pen enthusiasts from all over the world.

Not only does the site have a wealth of information in relation to pen stores but also fountain pen ink as well as the actual pen companies themselves.

Glenn has kindly allowed me to conduct an interview with him to find out more about the man behind www.glennspenns.com

1. Glenn It’s clear that your love affair with fountain pens has been a long one, can you remember when and why it started?

When I was in school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I was in the last year where students had to use an ink pen at elementary school. In fact, the year I went into the grade where we graduated from pencil to pen was the year the school took out the ink bottles and dip pens and we all had to go out and buy a Sheaffer cartridge pen. Later when I worked at the Hudson’s Bay Company in Edmonton, over the lunch hour and during major sales events, the office staff was assigned to work in one of the sales departments. I picked the pen department! From there is has been what seems to be non-stop acquisition.

2. Your site has the great statement ‘Your pen, an expression of you’ and suggests that there are very few occasions when you do not use a fountain pen but there must be times. When is this likely?

The very odd time I have to use a ballpoint – with some forms made out of paper that is not conducive to a fountain pen, and to address some shipping envelopes where ball point ink is the safest way to ensure what is written will be on the shipping label as the package makes it way through the postal/courier system.

3. Can you tell us how many pens you own?

I think not that many compared to some collectors, but about 150 pens.

4. Are there any of these that you view as an investment and would not use?

No, absolutely not. I acquire a pen to use it. Even the pens that can’t be replaced, and are considered quite expensive in my books ($1000) are used on a rotating basis.

5. Do you have an out and out favourite? You mention that you are always drawn back to Watermans so I assume it is one of these.

I have a number of Waterman pens that I use on a regular basis, and my OMAS pens seem to be the pen cases I carry in by briefcase on a regular basis. I have a couple of Visconti pens that always seem to be on my desk at home ready for use.

6. You seem to have a leaning towards the Italian pen manufacturers, is this solely because of your love of all things Mediterranean as disclosed on one of your sites or is there another reason?
I like the Italian lines like Stipula, OMAS, Aurora and Montegrappa because they make fairly good pens, and they produce pens with classic looks. They each have models that would not appeal to me, but some of their main production lines are real classics.

7. What do you think of the flourishing market in fountain pens from China? It does make fountain pens more accessible and that must be good.

I have somewhat mixed feels over pens produced in China. I bought a couple and found the nibs to be rough and basically unusable. Also, the finishing on some of the lines that I have acquired are below the standard to what I find with Waterman or OMAS, Visconti or Montegrappa. On the other hand, I have bought some of the Laban Mento’s (I have six of them) and their nibs are smooth and the pen of reasonable construction.

8. Many schools are moving away from using fountain pens for other instruments, including one school I read about who are supplying iPads to their pupils. How would you encourage greater use of fountain pens?

I almost think the pen is a thing of the past when it comes to students in the school system. I wrote about this in one of my columns. My nephew was visiting to attend a wedding. When it can to signing a car, he had big block printing rather than a style of writing. When I talked to him about his lack of ability to actually write, he explained that students hardly pick up a pen anymore in school. They have PCs, they take notes on the PC, prepare papers etc.

This coupled with the loss of social manners – sending a card to say thanks for a gift, or sending a card period all lead to a loss of the need to actually write.

On the card thing, ask someone who have had an event in their life (death of family or friend, wedding or anniversary). They tell me they never realized the difference getting a written card meant over the e-mail until they got a card for something important in their life.

I think that is what will drive people to actually write. When they want to communicate their personal feelings to someone.

Encourage people to write? I send hand written cards to thank people for dinner events, on their birthday, to say thanks etc. I know from the feedback I get, receiving a hand-written card makes a difference.

9. A good quality ink is a necessity but you do not seem to favour one type or brand in particular, any particular reason for this?

Waterman.

I try so many inks, and their popularity with me comes and goes. But if I have a precious celluloid pen, I will only use Waterman Blue or Waterman Blue Black in the pen.  Consistently, Waterman has good flow, regardless of the brand, and it is a relatively safe ink in terms of staining.

10. Does the quality of the paper matter for you?

Absolutely. At my office I order a speciality paper and use it for making my own personal business notes paper. For my personal writings or my travel journal I tend to use Clairefontaine paper/books.

11. In one blog post, you state that it all comes down to the nib” and then talk about your nib box.  Would you tell us more about this?

Ah, my nib box. I enjoy pens where the nib section simply screws out of the pen, and I can change the nib myself – as opposed to heat sealed units that have to be sent back to the factory service centre.

Often I may have to buy a pen with a medium nib, and then later I place an order for a Stub nib. Do this a few times and you end up with a collection of nib sections for various pens (Waterman, Pelikan, Dupont etc.) So I have a box that was originally made to hold cufflinks (lots of small felt-lined sections) and in each of the sections I have spare nib sections for my pens. When I find the Broad nib for the Edson too big, when I have an Oblique, Stub or Medium and I can slot in for use.

12. For anybody buying their first serious pen, what would say are main things to consider?

Set yourself a price point. You should feel comfortable with the amount you pay for pen. When you try out a pen, try some below and just above the price point you start with. You can make your mind up whether the particular pen is worth going higher or not. You may also be surprised that there can be good options at lower prices than you first imaged.

Try the pen. If a store does not want you to dip a pen in ink to try it out, simply leave. That is not a real pen store.

Hold the pen, and write something out on paper. Don’t just draw a line or two on a small scratch pad. As you write a sentence what to see how you are holding the pen. A good sales person will be able to give you advice if the pen is too small or large for your hand. If the pen does not sit at an angle to the paper, then it will never be a smooth glide across the paper when you write.

Think about how you want to use the pen. Do you want to try different inks in terms of colour etc. Make sure you have a pen with a convertor. If it is your only pen, and you will be using it away from a desk/office set up, then a piston pen will mean you could run out of ink and have no way of filling up. A pen with cartridges may be a good option.

Feel the various parts of the pen. Is the clip firmly attached to the cap? What is the screwing mechanism of the cap to the body? Plastic onto plastic? Metal into metal?

Can you post the cap onto the pen body? If the pen is round, without a cap posted the chance of it rolling off the desk onto the floor is relatively high. When you post the cap, is it secure?

13. Thanks Glenn I really appreciate you taking the time to participate in this interview.

If you already own a fountain pen or are thinking of buying one check out Glenn’s pens at www.glennspens .com

Penthusiasts and journalers got a little nod from the Telegraph the other day with a sprawling article about how stationery shops are flourishing, despite the digital revolution.

In an age dominated by the dizzying proliferation of digital communications, of iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys, Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS and hundreds of other technologies, the simplicity of pen and paper suddenly commands a timeless attraction.

Ancient communication technologies are current like never before. Boutique stationers like RSVP and The Paperie in Chester are thriving: people haven’t stopped handwriting today any more than they eat lunch in pill form or commute to work in electric maglev cars.

The article, “How Twitter made handwriting cool,” covers the popularity of Moleskine and Field Notes notebooks, among others, and reveals interesting details such as the fact that Moleskine sold 12 million journals last year and expects to sell 14 million this year. It also explains why some journal-making companies think they’re benefiting from the reliance on tech.

Stuart Kirby, of the British company JOTTRR, offers notebooks with radiused, numbered pages, alternately lined and blank, plus perforated, pull-out grid leaves and elastic fasteners with yellow, fuchsia or black covers. JOTTRRs have been ‘flying off the shelves’ according to Young.

For Kirby, a self-confessed hard-core notebook user, they are the chance to capture something in a different way. Rather than diminishing the importance of the notebook, he says, digital has enhanced it.

‘In the digital age there is so much information, but using notebooks is a very different process to writing on a screen – you go back over notes, cross things out, amend and review. You remember it,’ Kirby says. Indeed, there are endless scientific studies proving that taking the time to form a letter – instead of just hitting a key – promotes neural activity, creativity, memory and fine motor skills.

While the article probably was one of those over-reaching trend pieces that tries to prove a new movement is afoot by trotting out a few isolated bits of anecdotal evidence, it still scored with us for a few reasons.

One, the heart of it was true: There is still a large community of those of us who will always enjoy the experience of communicating with the handwritten word. Two, it managed to articulate the emotional and tactile satisfaction we all get from writing on paper. And three, it mentioned one of our favourite blogs, Dave’s Mechanical Pencils, as the authoritative source for all pencil-related information. (Congrats on getting some well-deserved recognition!)

This is how the writer closed it out:

Notebookers and stationery fetishists stand firmly on one side of a modern social divide, representing intimacy and privacy; on the other side is the compulsive self-exposure of social networking, commenting and blogging. More reflective and considered than the digital diarrhoea of status updates, comments and tweets, less coldly perfunctory than emails and texts pecked out on an iPhone, iPad or BlackBerry, the vogue for notemaking returns writing to an act of expression instead of communication.

What do you think?

It has never been the intention of this blog to enter the political arena by commenting on events or offering an opinion other than the quality of a pen or a pencil. However, as we enter the period where stores are pushing their ‘back to school’ lines, a couple of articles caught our eye and we thought they might be of interest to our readers.

In Edmonton , a lady wrote a letter to her local newspaper listing the supplies that her family had been requested to supply for her grandson to take with him to Grade 1 class. The list included six white erasers, 12 glue sticks, 24 HB pencils, two sets of 24 wax crayons, as well as 24 pencil crayons and 12 felt markers, among other things such as scribblers, Duo-tangs, scissors (Fiskars), Kleenex and Ziploc bags.

The cost of these items amounted to $100(£70) and she made the point that not only was this putting major strain upon the household budget but that “excessive number of erasers, glue sticks, and pencils simply encourages waste, which is not a lesson that we want children to learn”.

On a less serious note, I would also suggest that this type of requirement is likely to be the foundation for the spending many of us incur throughout our lives for our love of pens and pencils!

It crossed my mind however, that if everybody was being asked to provide the same for their child, it might be an idea for the parents to get together and combine an order and buy bulk. I have no doubt that there would be discounts they could get.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also spotted this article about the KidSmart Free Store down in St Louis. Apparently there are more than 90,000 students in St. Louis who cannot afford basic school supplies and KidSmart helps by providing supplies free of charge.

Donations from individuals and businesses help keep the shelves stocked with everything from crayons, markers and glue to business surplus items such as binders, envelopes and promotional items. Once a month, supplies are distributed through teachers who in turn pass the materials directly to the kids in need. To qualify schools have to meet a requirement of having a minimum level of children on schemes like the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program