A Belated 2025 Wrap-up
What do you mean it's almost February?
I don't know what happened to 2025 but it's already long over and 2026 has come barrelling through the front door like an overzealous first-footer. I think it'd been a decent enough year, although my posts here have unfortunately been few and far between. I hope that this year will be better on that front.
My pen acquisitions reduced ever-so-slightly down from 69 in 2024 to 65 in 2025, 4 of which were gifts and 1 was a giveaway win. Inks were down a fair bit this year from 170 in 2024 to just 136; 46 of which were 10ml mini bottles from the Cult Pens Ink Subscription (R.I.P.), and 16 were samples. I imagine there would have been a fair bit more in the way of samples had the Edinburgh Pelikan Hub gone ahead, but it sadly fell through.
Neither of these reductions were conscious efforts on my part, it just sort of happened. But hey, a reduction is a reduction; I'm not going to complain about that! I'd very much like for that trend to continue going into 2026, but we'll need to wait and see how that pans out.
With that out of the way, what were my stand-out stationery items from 2025? These aren't ranked so I've just listed them alphabetically.
Top Pens
Asvine | C80
This pen continues to blow me away. It feels far more like a pen in the £200 range from a small maker than it does a £30 mass-produced Chinese pen. The acrylic is gorgeous, the finish is flawless, the #8 steel stub nib is an absolute banger, and it seals wonderfully. Sure, the V800 might be a better pen on paper with a filling system I much prefer, but the look and feel of the C80 easily beats it out for me.
John Garnham | JG8
Technically I got this pen sans nib in 2024 from John himself, but it was only made whole in 2025 so I'm counting it from then. I originally planned to complete it with a titanium #8 Bock nib, but the price of said nib had me holding off. Then out of nowhere, Bock started making steel versions, so I grabbed one from fpnibs.com with my logo engraved on it, a sandblasted finish, a fine cursive italic grind, and a flow hack for the feed. I can't get enough of this pen! It's constantly inked with Diamine Winterberry which matches perfectly with the gorgeous Conway Stewart Red Stardust acrylic, and the fine cursive italic nib gives a flair to my small writing that I've never had before.
Nahvalur | Voyage | Cherry Blossom
Nahvalur's Voyage range had been of interest to me for a while, but I hadn't quite found the perfect one. They're essentially the old Nautilus style but using acrylic resins instead of ebonite. With the Cherry Blossom edition they started to modify the clip to match the theme, making them stand out even more from their Nautilus roots.
This model is adorned with two small rose gold cherry blossom flowers, which are set off beautifully against the sparkling resin that ranges from dark blue to white, with hints of pink throughout. It's a delicately beautiful pen that fits perfectly in my hand and writes as wonderfully as I've come to expect from Nahvalur pens.
Spoke Design | Roady Model 2
I'd been looking for a "normal" pen to live next to my Namisu N2 Ti on my Passport-size Traveller's Notebook. I tried a few different ones, but nothing really felt right. Until I tried the Roady. The Roady is about the size of a Kaweco Sport, so it fits perfectly on the side of the TN. It's made up of an anodised aluminium cap and a titanium section with a steel nose cone. There are two things that really set this pen apart from others I've tried. I'll go into this a little more in a future post, but to summarise: The magnetic capping & posting system has the most satisfying *"clunk"* as the magnets pull the cap into place that I've ever experienced, and the little ring they put in front of the spring on the refill which completely eliminates tip wiggle and rattle. It comes with a Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 refill, which is great, but I replaced mine with the Ohto PG-105NP Needlepoint, which is my favourite of all the Parker-style refills.
My mother's jonesing for a purple version after falling in love with mine, so Brad if you're reading this, please make more!
Waterman | Phileas
I'm somewhat reluctant to recommend a pen that can only be bought second-hand, but it's too good not to mention. I stumbled across this one on eBay & was immediately taken by the Art Deco styling and the striking black and red colourway. It's a shame these have been discontinued as it's a real workhorse of a pen, which makes sense considering this was essentially a school pen. If you're not as keen on the Art Deco styling, the Kultur (mostly discontinued, but you can still sometimes find stock) is a simplified version that came in some great colours, including colour-shifting paint jobs that I absolutely plan on picking up at some point.
Top Inks
Robert Oster × The Pen Addict | Fire on Fire on Fire
There was no way an orange ink didn't show up on this list, and this has been my favourite of the year. Fire on Fire was already a great sheening ink, but adding a coppery shimmer to the mix puts it on another level.
Sailor | Shikiori | Yuki-Usagi
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the inks are chromashaders. My love for them is only growing stronger. Yuki-Usagi is a blue-grey ink with chocolatey-brown coming through, something that I hadn't seen from any other inks before. It looks amazing in writing and is dark enough to easily be an every day work appropriate ink.
Sailor | Yurameku | Amamoyoi
Amamoyoi is another knockout chromashader from Sailor, this time featuring a green base with yellow-ish pinks coming through. I'm not much of a green ink fan (other than Taccia Sabimidori ❤️), but this ink has a lot of character and I've been loving it in every pen I've inked up with it.
Tono & Lims × Bestpen | Friendship | Space Sunset
Tono & Lims brought out a couple of great chromashaders last year, with my favourite being Space Sunset. It features a somewhat pale peachy-orange base with turquoise appearing, but is still dark enough to be completely legible.
Wearingeul | World Literature Collection | The Sorrows of Young Werther
It was a toss-up between Ugly Duckling and The Sorrows of Young Werther for this spot, but Werther won out in the end. It's another blue-grey, but slightly lighter than Yuki-Usagi and with greenish-yellows coming through instead of brown. I'd say Wearingeul are one of the most interesting ink makers around at the moment. It's rare for them to release an ink that doesn't end up on my wishlist.
Honourable Mentions
Diamine | Forever | "Hot Yellow" Mix
With the release of the Diamine Forever ink line this year I was hoping to find an orange-red along the lines of a waterproof Blaze Orange. Coral Blaze was close-ish, but a bit too pinkish, especially as it dried. So I decided I'd try to mix my own version using a combination of Coral Blaze, Solar Yellow, and Hot Magenta. The 2 mixes I like the most were what I dubbed "Hot Yellow" (3:5 Hot Magenta to Solar Yellow) and "Solar Blaze" (3:1 Coral Blaze to Solar Yellow). Solar Blaze not only has the best name, but is precisely my favourite shade of orange. Sadly, there was zero shading with it, something that made Blaze Orange such a great ink. There was something about having Coral Blaze in a mix which just killed any shading for some reason. Hot Yellow, on the other hand, is extremely close to my perfect shade while also having lovely shading. The only reason it's not in my Top Inks is because it's not something you can buy, but feel free to mix it yourself!
Fine Writing International × Galen Leather | Pencket
This was the second-last pen I picked up last year, but it didn't take long for me to completely fall for it. The FWI Pencket has been around for at least a few years now, but it really came to light for many people when Esterbrook launched the Niblet—a clone of the Pencket that's three times the price and which FWI had no involvement with. This amber version was made in collaboration with Galen Leather and released on Fountain Pen Day this year. I love the warm rose gold trim against the amber resin, the writing experience is fantastic, and the threads are among the smoothest I've ever used, making even uncapping a joy. I love it!
Hightide | Penco | Bucket Pouch
The only non-pen item in this list, but it's been so useful to me that it deserves a shout-out. Since I use crutches to get about, it can be tricky to move lots of items to other rooms without having to take 10 trips to do so. This makes that task so much easier for me. I mainly use this for carrying all the bits and pieces that I use for ink swatching from my room to the kitchen, but I've also used it for storing medications when I went on holiday. I have a little Nite Ize locking carabiner attached to the D ring so that I can easily hook it to my bag or a belt loop, freeing up my hands. It's such a useful and versatile little pouch, and it's able to fit even extra large pens like...
Jun Lai | 930
The release of the 930 was a big deal last year. An 18k gold version had already been kicking about on Jun Lai's eye-wateringly expensive ebonite 900 models, but as far as I'm aware, this was China's first steel #9 nib, and the first to bring it to the rest of the world at such a low price. It's essentially a 630 on steroids, and that was a BIG PEN in its own right. I still prefer the Kanwrite Mammoth, but I think the 930 is deserving of some recognition.
Kaweco | AC Sport | Orange
Another discontinued pen, but it's one I've been trying to track down for years. After a tip on Mastodon I found a Spanish store with it in stock for a decent price, so I jumped on it. I'm happy to finally have one, as the orange and grey with white text is my perfect colour combo. It's *very* light, only a few milligrams heavier than the AL Sport RAW. I tend to prefer heavier models like the Steel Sport, but it does have the bonus of being more comfortable for longer sessions.
Final thoughts
And that's my favourite stationery from 2025! I had considered titling this post "How Much Paper Is Too Much Paper?" to keep the pattern from previous years going, but I decided against it. I did buy *a lot* of notepads, notebooks, and loose leafs last year as I wanted to try out lots of different paper types, but I've yet to properly test them out so I wouldn't be able to give any meaningful comments on them. Maybe next year. Of the paper that I *did* use extensively in 2025, LIFE Noble Note remains on top, followed by OG Tomoe River 52gm^2^ in 2nd place and Midori MD in 3rd.
What about my intentions from last year? Well, I didn't get my 743 or 1911L (although the later has been somewhat achieved in 2026 already and even made a small cameo in one of these photos). Sadly, PenBBS seem to have given up on Lunar New Year pens, but Hongdian have been doing a great job on that front in their stead. As for nibs, I got a fine cursive italic grind for the JG8 as shown above, as well as two stacked nibs. One was in the Endless Phantom, the other was a #6 size stacked nib from China that was far higher quality than the price would suggest.
This year I—once again—want to get my 743 FA, as well as visit my first pen show. As long as I'm sensible with my spending this year, I feel they both have a higher chance of happening than ever.
What have been your favourite stationery items that you picked up in 2025? Feel free to leave a comment here or over on Mastodon.