Oliver Taylor shows us his Daily Carry Pens

By On · 21 Comments · In Daily Carry Pens

If you spend much time in fountain pen forums, you’ll likely know Oliver Taylor as Minislot. Oliver is fifteen years old, lives in England, and is a bona fide Fountain Pen Geek!

In his own words:

I’ve been collecting and using fountain pens for two years. I own 15 pens. My favorite is the Parker Frontier. My Grail Pen would be a Visconti Van Gogh Starry Night with a Fine nib.

Of the fifteen pens in his collection, Oliver does a “chop and change about fortnightly,” carrying three pens to classes on any given day. As his school only allows the use of black ink, he uses Diamine Onyx Black or black Kaweco cartridges.

Oliver very kindly presents us with his entire collection (minus one, mysteriously missing). A feast for your eyes:

Oliver Taylor Daily Carry

From Left to Right:

  1. Parker Frontier in Translucent Blue w/ Medium Nib
  2. Manuscript Italic Calligraphy Pen
  3. Hero 616 Standard in Maroon
  4. Hero 616 Jumbo in Green
  5. Sheaffer 300 in Black with Chrome Trim w/ Medium Nib
  6. Parker Vector Flighter w/ Medium Nib
  7. Huashilai
  8. Sainsbury’s (UK Supermarket) Cartridge Pen
  9. Parker Frontier Flighter w/ Medium Nib
  10. Baoer 79 in Black
  11. Montblanc Vintage 450x with Extra Fine Nib
  12. Kaweco Sport Demonstrater w/ Fine Nib
  13. Reform 1745
  14. Lamy Safari in White w/ Medium Nib

Daily Carry Please Note

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  • Andrew

    Well, I know that it isn’t a white mountain. Perhaps it should be flying an airplane?

  • John Grey

    I’ve had a look, but I’m finding it hard to put an extra fine point to it…

  • ccb

    No mountai in a jinhao

  • Chris Wright

    In France, you’d take a promenade under les etoiles to find the missing plume.

  • http://www.facebook.com/oliver.taylor.712 Oliver Taylor

    Sorry, but there wasn’t one missing. I actually keep forgetting and remembering to count the fact I have 2 of each Hero.
    P.s. I thank all again copiously.

    • David

      Hi Oliver,

      Oh… the 78G. So – I have something to say about that; bear with me here…

      Start with the black 78G (my preference). Get the B-nib (actually stubbish at around 1.0mm – very nice). The fine nib is (like most Asian/Japanese) pens finer than your usual “Western” fine nib. The fine is too fine for me and can get scratchy – and I’ve found them to be a bit inconsistent between different 78G’s. So unless you get the B-nib, I recommend get an M-nib to start with. But I stand by my recommendation to get the B nib, it may be your introduction to the likes of stub/italic-like nibs.

      Buy a 78G here (not affiliated): stationeryart DOT com – $7.45 USD, ships from Hong Kong, not fake, shipping via Hong Kong Post is quite cheap, but will take a week or so. They take PayPal. For a little more, you can get shipping with tracking. Personally, I am a satisfied customer from this seller. Note the URL above is “stationeryart”, NOT “stationaryart” (replace “a” with “e” from common spelling).

      While you are at it, get some Pilot blue ink. Wonderful stuff. If anything buy a box of cartridges for the 78G. You’ll have some ink, plus you can refill the cartridges with any ink you like (the above seller also sells bottled Namiki/Pilot ink from time to time, but alas – recently not the large bottles from Japan). The 78G does not take standard “International” sized cartridges, only Pilot-proprietary sized cartridges.

      Another suggestion. Also pick up a box of colorful cartridges for the Pilot Parallel Pen. The Parallel Pen is a calligraphy pen. But although Pilot says on the box to NOT use the parallel pen ink in other pens, I have used the parallel pen cartridges in my 78G pens for a long time with no negative results. Plus, the parallel pen cartridges I have purchased have a metal ball inside to mix/enhance ink-flow. The regular Pilot cartridges have a plastic ball. So I refill the parallel pen cartridges.

      There is a 12-color parallel pen sampler ink pack for $2.99 from the above mentioned seller. Single color parallel pen boxes have 6 cartridges for $1.00 (get blue). I am partial to the sepia and turquoise parallel pen cartridge colors.

      Note, I have ONLY used the parallel pen cartridges in the 78G pens, no guarantee what will happen if you dump the ink into another brand of pen.

      A word about the converter that comes with the 78G. I have found it to be next to useless (unless they’ve redesigned it lately). You can’t see the ink level (opaque sac), and it has an obsessive affinity for ink, which hampers proper ink flow. I just dump the converter and refill cartridges. The converter that comes with the 78G seems to be specific to the 78G, unlike the CON-XX Pilot converters. But I may be wrong here.

      As someone that owns FP’s worth more than I would like to admit, to the cheapest possible (78G is a strong candidate); I use my 78G’s often. Especially when testing new inks. It is also a nice pen to work with if you want to try nib-smoothing.

      On the down-side, the 78G is a relatively small pen. unless your hand is child-size, you need to always write with the pen posted. Also, the nice “gold” cap bands on the 78G are actually “painted” on. The cap bands and the word “Japan” will scratch or wear away after a month or two of rigorous daily use. When that happens, you can use the likes of a polishing cloth or polishing compound to remove what’s left of the bands without harming the gloss on the barrel. But the gold tone bands will be missed.

      Do let us know how it goes, if and when you get your 78G(s)…

      Best Regards, David in Jakarta

      • http://www.facebook.com/oliver.taylor.712 Oliver Taylor

        Thanks for the great advice, I do need a bottle of some blue ink.
        (I currently have four different bottles of ink in total).

      • Guest

        When referring to writing and office materials, stationery is the correct spelling.

  • http://www.facebook.com/will.platt.39 Will Platt

    Great to know someone else my age is really in to this! I would send my daily carry photo in, but my collection is different. I prefer buying a few really nice pens rather than a bunch of under $100 pens. Maybe when I get to 6 pens :)

    • Stephen Brown

      More than one is a collection, right :-) ?

      • http://www.facebook.com/will.platt.39 Will Platt

        maybe. THREE pens came today so now I might send mine in :)

  • Ns_Zhivago

    Another mis-identification? Haow does Eric keep making these mistakes?

    • Stephen Brown

      Yeah, he’s done that 450x now!

  • http://www.facebook.com/brumario Brumario Castilla Ramos

    Hi, please, tell me something about your Huashilai pen, how it writes?

    • http://www.facebook.com/oliver.taylor.712 Oliver Taylor

      It is the Huashilai 8, it is a reliable C/C filler and I like it for desk use. Has a satisfyingly wet, almost broad line that gives an impression that matches the look of the pen.
      It’s alot heavier than a genuine parker, so not an ideal pocket pen of course.
      But for around £5 it’s a good deal. (NO AFFILIATION)

  • Stephen Brown

    Nice set of pens, Oliver! How are you liking that Reform 1745? I’m considering getting one.

  • ArtJourney

    Jinhao I think the mislabeled one is the Sainsbury’s pen… Looks like a Tesco’s one to me {grin}

    • http://www.facebook.com/oliver.taylor.712 Oliver Taylor

      Actually, in a mildly related note. Both Tesco and WH Smiths (British stationers/Newsagents) sell the sainsbury’s pen with little to no variation.

  • Maja

    Nice selection of fountain pens, Oliver! I only had one FP when I was your age (Sheaffer NoNonsense) so I know my 15-year-old self would have been jealous :) Thanks for sharing your Daily Carry with us on FPGeeks!

  • picautomaton

    I have a montblank similar to the one in the picture.

  • Breck

    It is refreshing and somehow consoling to see someone whose pen collection is not comprised of hundred and multiple hundreds dollar pens. If misery loves company, so does poverty.