I purchased the Prometheus Writes when it came out and carried my stonewashed Alpha Ti daily since it arrived in October 2013. Truthfully I’m not a huge fan of how the Montblanc refills write — the Fineliner fiber tip has a terrible feel (to me — I write HARD) and the Rollerball skips a bit, especially on thermal paper for credit card receipts. But I love the feel, the fiddle factor, and the heft of the pen. After I got it it was the only pen I carried, at work, clipped to the back pocket of my jeans, flying, on the range, camping, wherever.

In October 2014 it went missing after a business trip.

I searched, I looked, I tore my house apart, and I couldn’t find it. I thought it had made it home from the trip but nothing I did turned it up. I told myself every day that I would find it; I checked, double-checked, and triple checked.

The whole thing started to really tick me off. It felt like a hole in my head. What the heck did I do with my favourite pen? Why couldn’t I find the dang thing? My god, it goes for $240 now!

If only I could remember where I had it last. If only I cleaned my home office. If only I looked in the exact right place, I could find it. If I search my luggage one more time, I’ll find it. Only I didn’t.

After a while I realized that I wasn’t going to find it. I bought another Zebra F-701 and carried that. As an inexpensive pen goes, it’s good, but every time I picked it up it reminded me of how enjoyable it was to handle the Alpha Ti.

Slowly I realized that it was time to find a new pen. Replacing the Alpha Ti at $240 was a bit of a stretch. I posted a thread (http://edcforums.com/threads/titanium-pen.126053/) asking for advice and ended up with a Maxmadco titanium bolt action. I’ve been carrying it for about a month and a half and love it.

Yesterday, I was dressing for a customer meeting and took out a shirt I don’t wear very often — I needed to get to the dry cleaners to pick up my shirts, but didn’t have time before the meeting. In the pocket of that shirt was the Alpha Ti! I remember putting it on, heading out the door, getting a call that that day’s appointment had been cancelled, putting the shirt back on the hanger in the closet, and wearing a T-shirt and sweats for the rest of the day. Apparently, I left the pen in the pocket in late October and didn’t wear that shirt again until yesterday.

I’m still glad I got the Maxmadco, though.