Cool Stuff, Great Stories: Birmingham Pen Company
The story of Inkwell Whiskey is deeply tied to the story of my love of writing. In my mind and heart, the act of drinking a whiskey and the act of telling a story are tied neck and neck for the best things one can do over the course of an evening. And just like the quality of the whiskey and the glass and even the ice enhances the act of enjoying a drink, the quality of paper and ink and pen enhances the act of writing.
I’ll save a walkthrough of my collection of typewriters for another time and for the moment stick to handwriting. For workhorse day to day scratching I’m a fan of the Pilot G2 0.38mm and Hi-Tec 0.3mm. Both of these pens have served me incredibly well for a long time, but every now and then you sit down and want to feel like you’re doing something substantial, artistic, epic. There’s a timelessness to the act of writing that a plastic rollerball, no matter how smooth-writing, just doesn’t capture properly.
Thus, when a Facebook ad informed me that there were two brothers in Pennsylvania were making pens and inks their own way, I was incredibly intrigued. Nothing makes me more excited than finding people who took an interest, grew it into a passion, and then launched it into a business. After all, my friend Arthur and I put our heads together to start making spirits our own way, so I felt an immediate kinship.
After a decade of contracting their products out with manufacturers around the world, they began making their own pens internally in 2018. I spent literally years admiring their pens, never pulling the trigger. It wasn’t until they released their Ironside collection, full metal fountain pens completely made in house to order, that I finally dove in. After all, I was on the cusp of finally launching Inkwell Whiskey, and it just felt like kismet.
Were my expectations, built up over years of longingly perusing their web site, met? Well, mere weeks later when they released a Raven variant that was all black, I ordered it without a single moment of hesitation. The mere act of opening a Birmingham Pen package is enough to let you know how much this company, these people, care about ever bit of the act of writing. Their packaging is immaculate and each package actually tells you which side to open for the best experience of unpacking. A lot of times we buy things as gifts to ourselves, but Birmingham is one of the few places that seems to understand that.
The pens themselves are perfectly machined, with each component feeling smoothly integrated into the whole. You pick up this hefty all-metal instrument and you’re driven to admire it. These guys know what they are doing. And the ink! Lord. If I could think of one knock against this company it’s that they have so many colors of ink! You start to despair a little bit that you’ll never have reason or time enough to try them all. Legitimately the hardest part of putting in my first order was choosing my inks—I had to solicit the input of quite a few friends. Luckily, everyone one that I’ve put to paper thus far has been smooth, bold, and beautiful.
Whats more, my passion for these pens didn’t just translate to me buying a second one; Arthur also ended up grabbing one for himself. The quality of these pens was just that undeniable. Any time I pull one of my Birmingham pens out among company, they can’t say enough about the beauty of the writing instrument, which requires a bit of a story on my part to explain where it came from and why I had to have it.
A pen that doesn’t just help you tell a story but demands one of its own? That is a damn fine pen. And it’s the pen I trusted to hand-ink the proof on each bottle of Inkwell Unaged Corn Whiskey and Inkwell Wheated Red Corn Boubon.
