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Clamps McGraw posted:Am I the only broad nib lover here Only if the nib is at least a bit stubby, and not just a uniform blob 
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May 15, 2014 20:31
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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| # ? May 12, 2024 04:32 |
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blowfish posted:Only if the nib is at least a bit stubby, and not just a uniform blob Yeah, this. I have italic or stub nibs in all but one of my currently-inked pens but like to keep at least one around with a smaller nib if I need to fill out a form or something.
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May 15, 2014 20:45
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ACRE & EQUAT posted:Hey, what's the cheapest way to get a 1.5mm nib on a metropolitan? You can get a 1.1 nib from a Plumix or 78G but I'm not aware of any larger options outside grinding your own.
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May 15, 2014 23:06
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Clamps McGraw posted:Am I the only broad nib lover here
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May 15, 2014 23:22
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Remora posted:Are you looking for a pen, ink, what? Looking for ink preferably.
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May 16, 2014 01:22
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teraflame posted:Looking for ink preferably. I have almost full bottles of Waterman Mysterious Blue and Diamine Syrah, if those strike your fancy.
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May 16, 2014 01:59
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Remora posted:I have almost full bottles of Waterman Mysterious Blue and Diamine Syrah, if those strike your fancy. Hmm not really. Would you have any pens you're willing to trade?
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May 18, 2014 05:26
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Ah hell, I think I kinda screwed up my Pilot CON-50 converter. I just got a new nib for my VP, so I took out the old one and cleaned it out a few days ago. I just took a look at the converter and it looks like there's some mold in there or something. It's one of the newer ones with the little metal widget in there, so I couldn't really fit anything into the converter to scrape it out. Disassembling the converter requires you to basically twist the metal sleeve hard enough that you break the glue, and then it moves freely. Well, I couldn't get the sleeve off, so I tried putting some Goo Gone on the converter to see if it could work its way into the glue. It didn't really help, and now the plastic surface of the converter is foggy and rough instead of smooth and clear like it used to be. Moral of the story: be really careful whenever you're using Goo Gone around plastic. 
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May 18, 2014 07:54
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Switch to cartridge, they hold more anyway.
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May 18, 2014 16:50
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teraflame posted:Switch to cartridge, they hold more anyway. I was screwing around with some Pilot cartridges the other day and discovered that the monster CON-70 actually holds more ink than a drat cartridge. The 70 really is nuts if you have a pen that accepts it. The Goulets seem to come to the same conclusion here: http://www.inknouveau.com/2013/08/pilot-converter-ink-capacities.html
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May 18, 2014 16:59
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teraflame posted:Hmm not really. Would you have any pens you're willing to trade? Nah, thanks anyway though.
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May 18, 2014 17:44
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Goddamn. I've been using my fine nib Metro for the last week or so and I absolutely love it. A good bit of my daily writing is Chinese on crappy paper, and now I can keep things nice and microscopic. One thing I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned is that the Metro's cap fits pretty snugly and takes a little force to remove. One of the reasons I didn't get one of these in the first place is because I was super paranoid about having a non-screwcap pen full of bulletproof ink as a daily carry, but I don't really see an accident happening with this.
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May 18, 2014 18:39
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^^ I'm tempted to get one of those now. I have the Medium but I think I want a finer line. It's either the Metro or save up for a TWSBI 580. Does anyone have good resources for working on handwriting? A link to Italic handwriting was posted a bit ago, but I'm looking for other styles/types and other good resources.
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May 18, 2014 20:40
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For general improvement and technique, Mills Modern Business Penmanship is great. It is found on the IAMPETH website but it looks like the site is down so just google it.
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May 18, 2014 20:48
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rio posted:For general improvement and technique, Mills Modern Business Penmanship is great. It is found on the IAMPETH website but it looks like the site is down so just google it. It looks like they up their set really poorly -- it's trying to redirect to localhost!
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May 18, 2014 23:18
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Solumin posted:It looks like they up their set really poorly -- it's trying to redirect to localhost! "It works fine for me!" -IT guy
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May 18, 2014 23:41
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Meldonox posted:A good bit of my daily writing is Chinese on crappy paper, and now I can keep things nice and microscopic. I just signed up for a Mandarin class this fall. Do you think a TWSBI F nib would be fine enough to use for writing hanzi?
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May 19, 2014 14:54
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milpreve posted:I just signed up for a Mandarin class this fall. Do you think a TWSBI F nib would be fine enough to use for writing hanzi? With good paper, probably. If in doubt, use an EF since TWSBI nibs are made in Germany.
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May 19, 2014 14:58
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Depends on the size of your handwriting too. I have to make a conscious effort to take up more than half the height of a line and to keep things a sensible width. If I'm writing larger and using a well behaved ink my TWSBI medium works, it just starts getting a little messy if I'm writing a character with a lot of strokes in a small area.
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May 19, 2014 15:24
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milpreve posted:I just signed up for a Mandarin class this fall. Do you think a TWSBI F nib would be fine enough to use for writing hanzi? I started with a TWSBI F and had adjusted it to get a pretty narrow line, which worked fine whenever I was using an ink that bled very little on the crappier paper I find myself having to use, although I still had to write fairly large. I was using Noodler's Black, at that time. I swapped inks to Platinum Carbon Black which bleeds substantially more on cheap copying paper, and picked up an EF nib while I was at it. Out of the box it was super wet (wrote a way bolder line than the F), so I did more adjusting and now it's actually quite fine. With the Platinum Black on the cheap copy paper the line width is similar to the F & Noodler's Black. On good paper where the ink behaves better it is notably finer than the F ever was, but still not quite into .3-.5mm rollerball territory. I'd suspect with an even better behaved ink than those two & nicer paper, the EF TWSBI still wouldn't quite be approaching microscopic Asian pen levels, but it'd totally fine if you weren't trying to write super tiny. May require nib adjustment though. End result is a bit of a compromise, I tend to like a somewhat thicker line for writing in English but I swap written languages often enough that changing pens would be kind of a hassle. Happy with the end result though, especially the move to the PCB. Not quite as black black, but the sheen is pretty and I no longer have to deal with that surface residue Noodler's Black leaves behind, which mucked with stuff written in well-worn journals and pocket notebooks. Unrelated: Also picked up the TWSBI inkwell, which I did not know existed until the most recent order. That thing is super great.
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May 19, 2014 16:08
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Grand Fromage posted:I added spoilers to your thread title I hope you enjoy it A bit off topic, but Grand Fromage's Greco-Roman history thread is pretty much one of the greatest things ever. Back to pen talk....the other day some gentle-goon linked some kind of sonic-cleaner doo-hicky that can be used to clean pens. My fiancee saw that and is chomping at the bit to get one, because she needs a jewelry cleaner. 1) What kind of liquid do you use in that thing, if you are cleaning pens? 2) If I use it for cleaning both pens and jewelry (presumably I pour out the jewelry cleaning fluid and put in some kind of pen cleaner) do I risk potentially damaging my pens due to chemicals in the jewelry cleaner?
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May 19, 2014 19:44
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You would only use water in the cleaner for fountain pens, maybe with a couple drops of dish soap I guess. I have no idea what's in jewellery cleaner, but I wouldn't recommend using it on pens. You should wash the thing out thoroughly if you're putting pens in it after some jewellery has been cleaned in it.
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May 19, 2014 19:53
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laertes22 posted:A bit off topic, but Grand Fromage's Greco-Roman history thread is pretty much one of the greatest things ever. You can use plain water (or distilled water if your tap water is particularly hard), but I've also added soap or ammonia to it for particularly stubbourn inks. Water alone will usually do the trick for most jobs though, since the sonic action really helps break up and shake loose the ink. If you use it for jewellery as well, I would recommend reading the instructions carefully, as well as anything on your jewellery cleaning solution about how to wash it out/clean it up. If nothing is listed, I'd rinse out the cleaner twice with fresh water when swapping between tasks.
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May 19, 2014 21:29
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Don't ever use metal cleaning solutions (like jewellery cleaning fluid) on your pen. There's a good chance it will absolutely gently caress up your nib. Water and soap only unless you absolutely one hundred percent know something is safe to use. And rinse out your cleaner thoroughly if you're also cleaning jewellery in it beforehand.
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May 20, 2014 02:48
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laertes22 posted:A bit off topic, but Grand Fromage's Greco-Roman history thread is pretty much one of the greatest things ever. I use water with a splash of ammonia and sometimes a few drops of dish soap to clean both pens and jewelery, it works fine. The vibration action is doing most of the work, the additives just help dissolve the ink/dirt and let it diffuse away from the item.
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May 20, 2014 23:52
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May 21, 2014 09:27
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By the way, if you take lots of notes and don't want to lug around heavy stacks of paper, I recommend Q-Connect bank paper. It's 50gsm-ish printer paper which while not the smoothest paper ever is surprisingly ink friendly with no bleed through. The luxury version is Tomoe River paper, which is extremely ink friendly and very smooth for comfortable writing.
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May 21, 2014 14:05
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Just popping in to say I think I may soon become a covert to the fountain pen. I saw this thread and glanced at it now and again and then the other day I was writing in my lab notebook at work and my hand was starting to kill me. I decided I might as well give these things a shot as I read they wrote really smooth and effortlessly. I only bought a few of those disposable ones to get a feel for it and i must say I absolutely love them! My only issue seems to be sometimes the ink flow arbitrarily stops. I suspect it is a mixture of amateur technique and poor quality ink but can anyone offer sine tips besides shaking it wildly and pressing a little harder? I know the second is a big no-no for ~real~ pens so I don't want to develop a bad habit that will cost me dearly in the future.
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May 21, 2014 17:01
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Crazyeyes posted:My only issue seems to be sometimes the ink flow arbitrarily stops. I suspect it is a mixture of amateur technique and poor quality ink but can anyone offer sine tips besides shaking it wildly and pressing a little harder? I know the second is a big no-no for ~real~ pens so I don't want to develop a bad habit that will cost me dearly in the future. If it's starting hard after a pause, the ink may be drying on the nib. I have this problem sometimes with certain ink/nib combos. The answer is to have a damp cloth... or just lick it. Ink, surprisingly, doesn't taste too bad. If it's more an issue of in the middle of words, pay attention to if it's upstrokes or what, and watch your hand. You're probably rotating the nib slightly off the point, and the ink won't flow without being drawn by the paper. Years of calligraphy and a preference for stub nibs made this less of a problem for me, but I know it can be an issue. Try writing for a while with a calligraphy pen, or get a Pilot Plumix, to practice handwriting with if you can't control the rotation. Flat nibs make it really hard to rotate.
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May 21, 2014 17:25
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Crazyeyes posted:Just popping in to say I think I may soon become a covert to the fountain pen. I saw this thread and glanced at it now and again and then the other day I was writing in my lab notebook at work and my hand was starting to kill me. I decided I might as well give these things a shot as I read they wrote really smooth and effortlessly. I only bought a few of those disposable ones to get a feel for it and i must say I absolutely love them! It's less of a problem with "~real~ pens". I assume you got the Pilot Varsities, and yeah, those can be iffy sometimes depending on some things. Problems like that go away almost entirely with a more permanent pen paired with a good ink. It can still happen though if you pause for a long time. Like if you think you won't be taking notes for a minute or two then cap the pen As for recommendations...well the thread title, just, do that. It really is the answer like every loving time unless you want like a super thin line, or an italic one, but you can still get a separate nib/pen and swap it. Otherwise a VP is really nice since it's easy to just click it and prevent the nib from drying out, but it has lovely ink capacity, so a lot of writing would drain it. The TWSBI 700 Vac has a monstrous capacity, loads of nib options, and is pretty nice when you get used to it (unscrew the stopper, give it a shake, write forever).
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May 21, 2014 18:00
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The Metro is really a great starter pen, it looks nice, writes nice, and is inexpensive. If you want a very fine line the F nib on the Metro is smoother than the one on the Varsities I assume you have (I don't know of any other readily available disposable fountain pens). Think I'm gonna get a con-50 converter for mine both because I like the one I put in my Kakuno, and the con-20 has been sweating ink if it's been a while since it was last inked.
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May 21, 2014 18:35
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pienipple posted:The Metro is really a great starter pen, it looks nice, writes nice, and is inexpensive. If you want a very fine line the F nib on the Metro is smoother than the one on the Varsities I assume you have (I don't know of any other readily available disposable fountain pens). I actually found Bic brand disposable ones at Staples. Also just ordered the metro. I have terrible impulse control.
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May 21, 2014 19:47
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You always buy the Metro first so you can decide if you actually want to use fountain pens. Then it's all downhill from there as you begin to accumulate a collection of exotic stub nibs, vintage pens older than your grandma and pens with barrels hand-carved by a Japanese ascetic on a remote mountainside. Soon you're broke, your spouse has left you and you're drinking the dregs of your Herbin to stay alive. Metro. Not even once.
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May 21, 2014 19:56
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Too late!!! A colleague was selling off some odds and sods before moving countries - just household stuff, mainly - but the wife shouted over 'Do you want some ink?' Oh course I do. So for about US$8 I grabbed a bottle and a half of Mont Blanc ink, both the same colour, Bordeaux. I wouldn't have chosen the colour myself, but I'm not going to look a gift horse. It seems to write well enough, but I've got some letters to write this weekend, and will give it a proper try out. 
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May 22, 2014 06:49
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You sons of bitches. Just ordered my second Pilot Metro. This time a fine nib, in black. And a handful of sexy looking ink samples. Sigh.
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May 22, 2014 08:03
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Teach posted:Too late!!! Even if you can't stand the ink those little shoe-shaped bottles are great as ink wells! I think the colour is nice though, so good haul. EnsGDT posted:You sons of bitches. Just ordered my second Pilot Metro. This time a fine nib, in black. And a handful of sexy looking ink samples. Sigh. 
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May 22, 2014 14:07
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Jinhao success! I ordered one from eBay, and it writes beautifully. It's comparable to my Metro M nib, but I'll be changing it for a stub soon. I've got De Atrementis Frankincense in it, which is a lovely color and a mild, pleasant scent. I also love the huge converter it came with! For $5, I'm a happy girl. It's heavy, though, and I wish it was white with gold trim instead of silver, but it was $5 so I'm not complaining.
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May 22, 2014 14:47
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Welp. In my move out of uni housing, it seems I lost my Lamy Safari. In some ways I'm alright with it, though, in that I was gearing to get a replacement, anyway. My main issue with the Safari was the ink capacity. I used a converter instead of the throwaway cartridges, and I was really disappointed in how little ink it held - most times I'd run out within five days. Does the pilot metro hold more ink? The body looks much larger from photos, but that doesn't mean the cartridge is going to be any bigger, I suppose :V
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May 24, 2014 00:37
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If you want massive ink capacity, get a piston fill pen. Essentially, the entire barrel of the pen is one giant converter. TWSBI is a good starting point at around $50 for a pen. Not sure if there are any cheaper piston fill options.
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May 24, 2014 00:42
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| # ? May 12, 2024 04:32 |
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404notfound posted:If you want massive ink capacity, get a piston fill pen. Essentially, the entire barrel of the pen is one giant converter. TWSBI is a good starting point at around $50 for a pen. Not sure if there are any cheaper piston fill options. There are the Noodlers pens, but I don't think it's fair to call it "an option". A TWSBI on the other hand, that's a drat fine pen.
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May 24, 2014 03:01
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