Fountain pens are joys. Mister Smooth (MS) is a simple pen. Cheap and reliable. Iridium nib/German. The gold coloured grip section used to be black. When noticing the gold colour under the black from wear and tear I decided to seek a uniform metal and fine wire wool use brought this finish. I would never do this on an expensive vintage pen. Or new one for that matter. Was I considering that this MS pen seemed in need of a bit of individuality? No. I love the feel of the Kaweko Brass Sport and this now has a similar feel when holding the grip section. I imagine that this is a simple generic mass produced pen. I have a few of these unnamed pens. The MS is stamped on the clip and highlight painted in gold. I think MS means Medium schräg (oblique, aslant) and indeed it does slant slightly from right to left.  The pen is lightweight plastic and feels like it could break at the drop of a hat.

I am no pen expert. No pen snob. What is required from a pen is not the rich and aesthetic value. It’s simply friendship value. There to write both any old nonsense or serious thought and create some therapy. Interestingly. If I need to write down something really quickly (shopping list item, phone number, a daily to do list) then the MS is mostly the first grab from the Summers’ man bag choice of 15 pens. Sits on the right side of a reimagined and utilised ‘glasses leather case’ in front pocket with four other pens alongside.  Serious thoughts? The Montblanc or similar. Lyrics? An italic usually.

Here is a bit of writing with the MS. I do wish it had been a daily presence when I was a nurse. Writing in the patients’ notes would have been perfect for it. It’s so light in weight and yet robust in delivering. 

After thought: 

Writing feels so cathartic. It’s has a gentle presence. Not like the clack, clack, clack, clack…ping of the old typewriter. Or the tap, tap, tap, scroll of an iPad screen being finger prodded. It has it’s own tune. Depending on the nib and paper used. Probably why handmade papers are so aesthetically and aurally pleasing. The side of your hand brushing over the paper, left to right, as you sweep words onto the page. Even wallpaper scraps produce sounds too. The nib creating words of their own. Depending on which letters they write. The ‘Diddly-Dee, Diddly-Dee’ of a double ‘ee’. The Whum-Whum-Schweep of a dull straight line to circle to end flourish of the letter ‘g’. Do musicians hear tunes in everyday things? Our washing machine, in it’s slow spin cycle, sings ‘Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy’ over and over. 

Please tap on above images to enlarge.

Above? The images are a mix of tranquility, hush, melodious and cacophony of sound. Either from a photographic memory bringing back nightfall hush amongst the dunes. The lap of water within the sound of gentle breeze on a lakeside. The thunder of a waterfall against ragged rock. The actual activity of putting pen on paper and writing a singular word or full sentence creatively writes out your own scratch tune. Unlike the photographic examples of non-word noises from places and objects bringing musical sounds. This analogy is simply how your musical mind works and develops small catalogues of information over a day.

Recently , my birthday was a busy day of activities. From waking up to falling asleep you are consistently experiencing small tuneful sound events. Not brash straight up noise but notes within noise. The rasping rip of opening a few cards or paper on presents; answering different device alarms on phone/FaceTime/text/iPad calls from family and friends; chopping, slicing and clattering sounds when organising food preparations and other needs for a local trip in the VeeDub; sitting in amongst the dripping sounds of drizzle rain with family and friends; windscreen wiper repetitive drum rhythm tune when going home; and ongoing phone calls, texts, Facebook messages, FaceTime conversations of sighs, laughter, low frequencies, high frequencies and breathing; your new iPad keyboard ‘lets you know your tapping’ sound that you hunt instructions for in how to silence your keyboard’s click, click, click.  

Actually, why is there an ‘I need to know I’m typing by giving me a tapping sound’ option capability on a keypad? On top of your own finger tapping screen noise. So decide to pick up the MS pen and write on paper. Nicer to have this…….Type of Non-Silence! The pleasant gentle thrum of nib on paper is one which is most welcome.