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The default cartridge that came with my Metro is darn need out. It looks like there's only 5-6mm worth of ink left in it. I think I've only had it for like two weeks. Is this normal ink usage if I'm using it on or close to daily? Or should I be concerned about a leak somewhere?
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Oct 25, 2017 02:45
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| # ? May 25, 2024 23:42 |
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My knee-jerk reaction is that if a Pilot cartridge lasts you two weeks with daily use, you've discovered some kind of magical ink-sipping pen. Fine nib? What do you consider "daily use"?
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Oct 25, 2017 03:04
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Remora posted:My knee-jerk reaction is that if a Pilot cartridge lasts you two weeks with daily use, you've discovered some kind of magical ink-sipping pen. Yep, fine nib. Daily use... okay, five days a week of at least two sides of one page 8.5x11, at least two - usually three - sides of A5. I do like the idea of trying a bunch of inks, though, and I've already got some blunt tip syringes for putty application in model building, so I'm ready to flush and clean and reload away.
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Oct 25, 2017 03:27
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Yeah, fountain pen ink goes really fast if you're used to roller balls or whatever. maybe just grab a converter and refill with ink, I think that's easier to do at work when you run out and you're not 'that guy that has blunt syringes at his desk for some reason'
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Oct 25, 2017 03:37
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I've got a converter so we're good. I only paid for my ink samplers this AM. I'm gonna miss my Metro until they arrive. The level is basically zero after a 1.3 A5 page journal entry.
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Oct 25, 2017 03:50
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This is the fountain pen thread. The solution is to buy more fountain pens. (I keep two at work.)
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Oct 25, 2017 04:10
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I bring ten pens to work every day, usually one inked in black,3 blue, 3 red, and then some mix of purple, green and orange.
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Oct 25, 2017 04:14
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I can only keep one pen inked at my desk and one to carry with me at any given moment. Call it obsession with finishing a fill.
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Oct 25, 2017 06:53
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howe_sam posted:I bring ten pens to work every day[...] On your person or in a briefcase please ?
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Oct 25, 2017 15:52
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VelociBacon posted:On your person or in a briefcase please ? Pen case. I also try to only have ten pens inked at any one time.
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Oct 25, 2017 16:04
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howe_sam posted:Pen case. I also try to only have ten pens inked at any one time. I never carry more than three, but I too have found that only having ten pens inked at a time is a good habit. 
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Oct 25, 2017 16:12
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howe_sam posted:Pen case. I also try to only have ten pens inked at any one time. On the one hand I can't fathom schlepping ten pens around. On the other hand, there are some really cool fountain pens out there. Speaking of which, other than what a quick googling yields, does anyone know anything about the Newark Pen Company/Secretary Pen Company of Newark? I love bits and pieces of Newark history and would love a pen from them, and it seems that it's Ebay or nothing, and I should be prepared to take it to Fountain Pen Hospital for reconditioning. Edit:  Okay yeah I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.
MJP fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Oct 25, 2017 |
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Oct 25, 2017 16:13
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Yo gently caress clips, in Joisey we wear our pens on CHAINS  edit: I assume you've seen the paragraph or so on the Newark Pen Company at Richard Binder's site? Probably nothing there you didn't already find elsewhere, but it's interesting. Trustworthy fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Oct 25, 2017 |
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Oct 25, 2017 17:09
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MJP posted:On the one hand I can't fathom schlepping ten pens around. On the other hand, there are some really cool fountain pens out there. It's not that cumbersome. I have an Aston case that isn't much bigger than an A5 notebook, I just toss it, and my notebooks, in my laptop bag every morning, and and off I go.
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Oct 25, 2017 21:29
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I keep a VP in blue black, a Lamy Al Star ballpoint and usually one or two in whatever color I feel like for the day. The VP is a constant carry.
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Oct 25, 2017 21:31
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I always keep one pen in my pants pocket along with my passport TN (which is also my wallet). Which pen that is rotates--but something I don't mind getting dinged up/losing--right now it's a black Jinhao 159 with Parker Brilliant Black. If it's a weekday, I also usually have at least two more in my shirt pocket--one with red ink and another with something a bit different. Right now that's a Wing Sung 3008 with Noodler's Nikita and my VP with Tsukushi. I also have a pencil case in my bag with my Safari mechanical pencil, an eraser, a 6" brass ruler and a Pilot Precise V5 (for forms, bad paper, whatever) along with a full-sized TN. Given how much other random stuff I toss into my bag, a bigger pen case doesn't seem all that unreasonable, though I can't imagine keeping that many pens inked up all the time just because I think at least half would dry up before I got through even most of a fill.
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Oct 25, 2017 21:54
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Do you find the passport TN works well as a wallet? I thought of doing the same but it feels like it would be a bit bulky, and I have a full size one that I keep in my backpack as well, so having two would seem redundant.
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Oct 25, 2017 23:38
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Heath posted:Do you find the passport TN works well as a wallet? I thought of doing the same but it feels like it would be a bit bulky, and I have a full size one that I keep in my backpack as well, so having two would seem redundant. It's pretty perfect with just one notebook and one of the plastic card/pocket inserts. It's actually thinner than my last wallet since the cards are more spread out and only about 3/4" taller and wider. The little plastic thingy on the zipper pouch broke off after about 8 months but I just treat that pouch like a ziploc baggie now and it still works fine for a glasses cleaning cloth, a band-aid, and my fishing license. I was actually worried about the redundancy as well, but it's really not at all. The small notebook ends up being where my shopping list or short notes go--basically replacing mountains of sticky notes--and it's great to literally always have paper with me to jot down an idea or sketch out a quick plan for something I want to build while I'm standing in Lowes trying to decide if something is physically possible. My full size notebook, on the other hand, is where I keep my bullet journal and, even though I usually have it with me in my bag, it's not something I bring to the farmers market or the store or whatever. I actually used to carry a pocket-sized moleskine for a similar reason but I got tired of how hosed up the spines would get before I got even halfway through one and I'd end up leaving it at home which defeated the purpose entirely. With the thinness of the inserts in the TN plus the leather cover, it stays in much better/more usable condition. Plus, I've never been complimented on a wallet before I started using this one--you know how your TN looks after you've carried it around a while and the leather takes on a really nice character? It's like that.
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Oct 26, 2017 00:04
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I have 10 pens inked on my desk right now, but I only bring 1 to work, either my Pilot CH912 or MB149. Depends on how much writing I have to do. Edit: Also, new Delta, one of the MarteModena "DolceVita" specials. Boy this pen is about 10 steps down from many of my other Deltas. Not bad for what I paid, though. 
grack fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 26, 2017 |
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Oct 26, 2017 00:54
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That barrel's a neat looking blue material
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Oct 26, 2017 01:43
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I limit myself to two pens, MAYBE a third. I always have my work Lamy Al-Star inked with something blue, and it lives on my work lanyard. My home desk pen rotates quite a bit. Sometimes a second desk pen appears if I need to write a card and whatever I have inked currently just won't do. If I don't limit myself I end up with half my collection inked and slowly drying out as I just don't write enough to go through the ink quickly enough.
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Oct 26, 2017 01:52
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I keep 5 pens inked at any time cause that's how many fit in my pen roll.
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Oct 26, 2017 10:06
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grack posted:I have 10 pens inked on my desk right now, but I only bring 1 to work, either my Pilot CH912 or MB149. Depends on how much writing I have to do. That reminds me a great deal of my m600.
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Oct 26, 2017 12:05
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I went to Fountain Pen Hospital over my lunch break and holy shiiiiiiiiit there are really cool pens there. Photos don't do the textures on some of these justice, and maybe one day I'll have the disposable income for a really cool $800 pen. I was giving real thought to just buying some ink until my Goulet order arrives tomorrow, because alas, my Metro finally exhausted its default cartridge. The tomorrow turned into today, so that's good, but what a freaking nifty place. They were really nice to my plebian scrublord rear end when I asked the guy by the Waterman case about the Phileas (I still think that's the one I bought forever ago but wanted to get my hands on it to feel first) and I got to drool at the Sheaffer Ferrari pen.  I also got some intel on the Newark Pen Company pens. Low-end but there's one on Ebay that the vintage pen guy thought was a plug filler. The seller's going to send me some photos of the sac and check on the filler type but if nothing else, it's wicked cheap and I'd love to see if it's something I could fix myself. Who knows? Also melodicwaffle, the 616 cap just arrived. Thank you! I still wanna pay you back for costs and a little extra for the trouble. Edit: is it just me or is it a bitch to fill the Hero 616 using the built-in metal part of the converter? I just took that part off and squeezed the bulb directly. I also keep having to wipe down the nib, there's ink all up in the crevasses. If I flick it even after I gave it a good rub down there's still blobs of ink that splat onto paper towels. Hopefully it'll be easier with the Metro, it doesn't have that recessed nib for the ink to hide. MJP fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Oct 26, 2017 |
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Oct 26, 2017 19:24
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Update on walnut ink: All the recipes say to boil it till it’s the strength you want. What the recipes don’t tell you is that the dye, juglone, has lousy solubility in water. A saturated solution at room temperature is a faint tan on the page. For dip pen use, you can accept this and boil it past saturation. Shake or stir the ink before use. For fountain pens, that doesn’t work so well. My plan now is to use ten to fifteen percent ethyl alcohol and see how much stronger I can make the solution then. Papers say ethanol dissolves juglone far better than water (though I could not find quantitative data) and has better plastics compatibility than the alternatives. e: Also, none of the recipes suggest boiling the walnut husks multiple times but there’s a lot of juglone left in the grounds after one bath and filtration so it’s worth doing. MJP posted:Edit: is it just me or is it a bitch to fill the Hero 616 using the built-in metal part of the converter? I just took that part off and squeezed the bulb directly. I also keep having to wipe down the nib, there's ink all up in the crevasses. If I flick it even after I gave it a good rub down there's still blobs of ink that splat onto paper towels. I was not impressed with the Hero 616. The Hero 565 is a similar design and I like it enough to carry it sometimes. It’s a clone of the Sheaffer Pen For Men rather than the Parker 51. Platystemon fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Oct 27, 2017 |
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Oct 27, 2017 06:37
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MJP posted:
There aren't really crevasses for the ink to get into, though? But just to be clear, you aren't sticking the entire section into the ink, right? The metal thing's fine, it just takes like 8 squeezes (it's not like a button-filler or whatever where you squeeze once and then wait 20 seconds) But even a half-full converter lasts forever in one of those, so it's not a huge thing to worry about either way. Also, don't flick fountain pens if you don't want a mess.
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Oct 27, 2017 07:15
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Platystemon posted:Update on walnut ink: Thanks for the trip report. Make iron gall next!
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Oct 27, 2017 14:15
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Zenostein posted:There aren't really crevasses for the ink to get into, though? But just to be clear, you aren't sticking the entire section into the ink, right? I guess I'm just paranoid that the grip section has that little protrusion over the nib. So far it hasn't leaked out of the cap and I wrote with it last night. Not a keeper simply because I don't like the feel, and it had some hard starts. But hey, good for ink testing. It was a flick onto paper towels just because I was concerned about excess. So far so good. My Metro dried successfully overnight and I started using Diamine Aqua Lagoon. Oh man, that's a pretty ink. Matches the pen too. This is addicting. Moving to another question - if a pen has no visible ink sac, and this is all that the seller can see, am I looking at some kind of very different filling mechanism or is it just AWOL sac, hopefully source another? It's for a pen whose manufacturer went out of business in the 40s and it's only $5, but it's got a really nice design. If it's not a bitch to repair I'd be cool taking a shot at it. Here's what the seller sent me. There's no lever on the pen itself so it's not a lever fill. Newark Pen Company, model unknown. 
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Oct 27, 2017 15:44
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It's my best friends 30th coming up soon and he loves both pens and antiques, so I restored this 1946 Vacumatic for him today.   
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Oct 28, 2017 05:37
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drat that is pretty.
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Oct 28, 2017 05:40
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Given the apparent age of that pen, it might be an eyedropper filler.
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Oct 28, 2017 07:32
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That’s a gorgeous restoration. And yeah, I was going to say eyedropper too. If the inside of it is completely empty what else could it be?
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Oct 28, 2017 08:48
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Trustworthy posted:Thanks for the trip report. Make iron gall next! So the ethanol works. I was able to fully dissolve the juglone (dye) in maybe a fifth the volume of fluid (not at all exact numbers). Then I needed to increase flow, so I added glycerin. Right now the test vial is a quarter glycerin by volume. That seems like a lot, but it also seems to work. I should also try detergent for comparison. Testing will continue. As for iron gall ink: I’ll make it eventually for historical interest. I wanted to make iron gall ink before I knew walnut ink existed. I decided to make walnut ink in large part because no one sells ink that is made from real walnuts and is suitable for fountain pens. The next ink I will be working on is pokeberry ink. I have some fresh berries in my refrigerator right now. I don’t know that I can make it work in a fountain pen—it’s basically straight fruit juice—but the colour is gorgeous.  (not my image) Platystemon fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Oct 28, 2017 |
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Oct 28, 2017 08:59
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Megabound posted:It's my best friends 30th coming up soon and he loves both pens and antiques, so I restored this 1946 Vacumatic for him today. That's freaking beautiful. What's the restoration process like on old pens? I'm curious.
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Oct 29, 2017 14:02
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MJP posted:That's freaking beautiful. It's fairly simple with most pens. No more than a thorough clean, replacing a latex sac, polish and wax. The most popular filling systems were lever and button fillers. Once you get into snorkels, Vacumatics, piston fillers and touchdowns you start to need specialised tools, gaskets and other parts.
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Oct 29, 2017 22:10
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Hello thread here's my Monday morning FP story. Found a Hero 616 (I think) that I'd not used before. Filled it with Parker Quink and wrote a few notes with it, then wondered why I had blobs of blue on my computer/phone/arm/table. So straight in the bin it goes. I think I've only got one main requirement for a pen, that it put ink where I want it to go and nowhere else, and this doesn't meet the standard. I've never had a pen so willing to give up its ink. 
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Oct 30, 2017 07:19
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Good ol' Chinesium :-/
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Oct 30, 2017 15:36
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I got one of those Wing Sung 698 demonstrator piston fillers and it is pretty great for $16. I don't have a TWSBI to compare to, but the only complaint I have is that this thing can't post the cap. I got the 0.5mm nib, it is a nice medium that isn't too thick.
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Oct 30, 2017 18:44
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The design was actually changed to prevent the cap from being posted. With the first version it was possible to accidentally back the piston out of the body when posting.
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Oct 30, 2017 18:50
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| # ? May 25, 2024 23:42 |
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Peripherally related, but worth an ask: is there a thread-preferred method of improving lovely handwriting? Mine sucks. A lot. Always has. Grew up during penmanship classes and didn't do well, even with a handwriting tutor. I started typing my assignments in 1996, and I never looked back. I don't even know how I did well enough on handwriting-only college exams. If I'm getting into pens I'd like to get good enough at writing to participate in the fun parts of using them. I've got this one book but if there's exercises or practices other than writing every day (I'm taking notes for cert exams as well as keeping a journal) I'd love to look into them.
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Oct 30, 2017 19:06
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