Analog Defaults
Analog Defaults
Inspired by Brad Dowdy, The Pen Addict, here are the daily drivers that currently take up way too much space on my desk and in my messenger bag.
UPDATED September 15, 2026
I had to pare down what all I was carrying; the amount of stuff I had listed was ridiculous. Now, bear in mind, I still have multiple Rickshaw Sinclairs and Lochby Quatros filled with all manner of writing instruments in my messenger bag, but I do that because I like to give myself some choices, at least that's what I tell myself.
Anyway, here's the current rundown.
In The Office
I have a Lochby Duo that houses my office dailies, it includes the following:
Mechanical Pencils
(Yes, they have their own section)
I have been a pencil nerd since I was four, so...Jesus Christ...47 years ago. Mechanical, woodcase, yes please, I'll take them all, except those newspaper pencils and a Staedtler Wopex, get that shit out of here. Here's a list of the mechs that currently reside in my Rickshaw x Nock Co. Brasstown:
- Spoke Model 8, 0.5mm
- Spoke Model 7, 0.9mm
- Spoke LeadStream, 0.5mm
- Retro 51 HEX-O-MATIC, 0.7mm
- Uni Kuru Toga Dive, 0.5mm
- Uni Kuru Toga Wood, 0.5mm
- Uni Kuru Toga Metal, 0.5mm
- Uni Kuru Toga Metal, 0.5mm
- Tombow Fumi, 0.5mm
- Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr. 2 Bauhaus Edition, 0.7mm
- KAYOU+ Aimvision Pro, 0.5mm
- LUDDITE TechDraw2, 0.5mm
- Platinum Pro-Use 171 Matte Black, 0.5mm
- Tactile Turn Titanium, 0.5mm
- Pentel Orenz Metal Grip, 0.5 mm, Matte Beige 10th Anniversary Limited Edition
- Scripto CB300Y Academic U.N.I.O.N, 0.5mm
- Kaweco SketchUp, 5.6mm
And then there are my babies, the mechanical pencils I have had for forty years.
This is nowhere near my entire mechanical pencil collection, just what I carry with me to the office. And yes, I do actually use a different one every day.
I have a problem.
Notebook
For the past couple of decades, my journaling was confined to Field Notes, A5 Leuchtturms, various legal pads, mainly TOPS Docket Gold, and sketchbooks of all shapes and sizes. When I began my brief foray into education in the mid 1990s, I used a Franklin Planner. It was a zippered, seven ring binder in black leather and I thought I was so sophisticated toting that thing around. I carried it everywhere and it still got a lot of use when I decided to switch careers and move into broadcasting. I lost it while stage managing for SXSW.
A couple of years ago, life brought me back to my love of all things stationery. I knew I wanted to find a journaling system beyond all the notebooks I had strewn about and took a look at the big ones: Plotter, Traveler's Company, Roterfaden, Filofax, and hey, Franklin was still around! The one that caught my eye though was a newer company, Lochby. I quickly grabbed a Mini Field Journal as it fit the Field Notes and Doane Utility Notebooks I was used to, and my son gave me the A5 Field Folio for Christmas.
I really enjoyed using them, but because I was loading them with full notebooks, I became discouraged that I was never going to fill them. And, despite their relatively small size, they were heavy with all those notebooks, that's when, a few months ago, I started giving Plotter some serious thought.
Then Lochby sent out an email...
- By Lochby Field Binder A6 w/Life Noble R100 Grid, MD Paper Plain, & Doane Grid.
I love this thing!
As beautiful as the Plotter notebooks are, Lochby's aesthetics grabbed me. Their product line looks like something that would be produced by Filson, Eddie Bauer, or even Simms, you know, a journal where you can jot down all your fly fishing lies.
Paper
I have always gone out of my way to use good paper whenever possible, even before my plunge down the fountain pen rabbit hole. As I painfully pointed out, I am a pencil nerd, a leadhead if you will, therefore, I looked for paper that showed off the differences in graphite hardness and held up to colored pencils, Conté crayons, and vine charcoal. I used all manner of heavier paper for sketching, drawing, painting, etc., and would even splurge for the "nicer" paper at the office supply store to write on. Then, in 2010, I had a work trip to Japan.
My counterpart at our Yokohama office saw that I was writing on a legal pad and asked if I had tried Life Noble paper while handing me a sheet of what I assumed was basic graph paper, I was wrong. Here I was thinking I was hot shit because I was using a Docket Gold pad and the guy I'd only exchanged emails with over the past few years hands me this manna from the paper gods. Needless to say, I bought a stack of these glorious notebooks. Hiroshi, you bastard, do you know how much I've spent on paper since you handed me that sheet?!
Here is what I use day in and day out.
- Maruman Spiral Note 5mm Grid
- Life Noble A4 Notebook 5mm Grid (not pictured)
- Life Noble R100 Grid
- Doane Utility Notebook (kept in a homemade, leather cover)
Bags & Packs
Over the past couple of decades, my office bag has been a mix of Osprey Backpacks, and a Timbuk2 Messenger. About a year ago, I started carrying a custom Rickshaw Zero Mesenger that I proceeded to fill with multiple Rickshaw Sinclairs, Lochby Quatros, Lihit Lab cases, a vintage bank bag, and way too many notebooks and sketchbooks. My shoulder hated me, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to carry a Great Tailed Grackle inspired, messenger!
All that being said, I finally wised up (Thank you multiple, useless degrees!) and opted to carry something smaller.
So far, it has served me well. I swap out pen/pencil cases as needed and with my new notebook, I have cut way down on the bulk. If anything, I would love to see Lochby bump up to a slightly larger size, around the equivalent of a Timbuk2 Medium Messenger, but no larger, my shoulder can't handle that again!
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