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Remora posted:I don't know what the polite way to express this concern is, so I'm just going to try my best here. I'll nuke this whole post if I'm wrong, I'm not trying to stir poo poo. Now that being said, the GPC is aggressively apolitical. Whether that's because they don't want to piss off the right or the left I don't know, but given the Goulet's deep Catholicism(I think), their tendency to "respect are troops" and a fairly not diverse workforce it's a safe bet they weren't voting for Bernie.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:15
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If you're looking for a small business owned by reasonably orthodox Christians to actively promote Pride, you're probably gonna have a bad time. That said they almost certainly mean nothing by promoting the Harry Potter pens other than that they want people to buy the Harry Potter pens.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:17
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The only thing that slightly sticks out to me is the "all lives matter"-esque statement, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of not realizing how loaded saying something like that has become, since on the surface it seems like a nice sentiment. "Hey, yeah, all lives do matter!" That said,Heath posted:You're literally looking for something to be upset about. It's not crazy, but it's not productive, either. It's just a company that sells pens. If it turns out they're donating to anti-LGBT groups or something, then this stuff is worth circling back to. But we're in a period of very heightened social awareness at the moment, and everybody is a little on edge. Let's not jump down the throat of any company that doesn't post a black square or change their logo to be a rainbow just yet. vvvv I don't follow them on social media too closely, but seeing the full context of that makes me feel a lot better. I think their hearts are in the right place, even if you don't agree with the religious foundations of the business 404notfound fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Jul 2, 2020 00:25
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The actual statement was a little better than "all lives matter" https://twitter.com/GouletPens/status/1268571243047014401 They've also subsequently highlighted a POC calligraphy group and were closed for Juneteenth. So could be worse, could be better 
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Jul 2, 2020 00:33
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People really seem to be looking for something to be pissed off about with them. I left their FB fan group after more than one (completely idiotic, IMO) drama bomb over people posting caligraphied bible quotes. And I say this as someone allergic to religion. They sell pens. They have great customer service and seem to be stand up people. One can't really ask for much more in 2020 hellworld.
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Jul 2, 2020 02:50
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I understand being worried that you might accidentally be giving money to transphobes, but tbqh if they were outright hateful bigots I don't think they'd be subtle. See also: Noodler's Q-anon inks. Fountain pens are not a hobby where you have to hide your hate, unfortunately.
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Jul 2, 2020 02:55
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The only thing that gets me is that they had a disclaimer for the game of thrones pens about how they didn't necessarily reflect the values of goulet but nothing for the Harry Potter ones. Granted, I doubt Rowling is more than maybe passingly aware that these pens were even made and almost certainly had no direct part in their creation. Edit: oh god did noodlers really make a qanon ink
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Jul 2, 2020 02:55
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Noodler's is the one thing where he could make a Qanon ink and I'd be like gently caress yeah that's the dumbest poo poo I've ever heard of I will take one please Still pissed I missed out on Berning Red Edit: are you talking about Q-E'ternity? Because that's not a reference to Qanon Heath fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Jul 2, 2020 02:57
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Noodlers feels more Art Bell crazy and less Alex Jones crazy.
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Jul 2, 2020 03:00
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Heath posted:Noodler's is the one thing where he could make a Qanon ink and I'd be like gently caress yeah that's the dumbest poo poo I've ever heard of I will take one please loving 
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Jul 2, 2020 03:10
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Sorry for threadshitting. Edited my post. Like I said, something happened in my real life not too long ago and I'm a bit on edge about this kind of thing.
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Jul 2, 2020 04:05
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 gently caress you guys. Now I end up writing some sort of strange handwriting (how can I still remember this? It has been ages.. ) on fancy paper with red inks, instead of drinking my beer. It is weird how I can not write normally with these pens.
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Jul 3, 2020 19:10
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For the longest time I could literally only remember how to write my name in cursive but a few weeks into *really* using my pens the knowledge just... reappeared like it was never gone. Brains are weird. Good choice with the Moonman m2! I absolutely adore those pens. If the nib ever gives you trouble or you'd like to change size you should know that jowo nibs will fit perfectly and work wonderfully.
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Jul 4, 2020 12:16
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Letmebefrank posted:
Nor should you
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Jul 4, 2020 16:56
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For economic reasons I am on the cheaper end of the hobby: that is, I buy cheap old poo poo that looks fixable, then have a go making the pens work correctly. Sometimes I get things that are in near perfect condition apart from needing a clean-up or a sac, and sometimes... I get this Montblanc 22. It was being sold "as is" (that is, a crapshoot in terms of if it will work or not). On arrival, it turned out that someone had: a) glued the pen hood (which usually is screwed on and can be easily removed for cleaning) to the body. Whatever glue they used also dissolved part of the ink visor plastic, though the damage was minor, thankfully. b) overtightened the piston. A lot. A "had to use two pairs of pliers to get it to unstuck" lot. Fortunately the piston was not damaged in the process, and works fine. But it had come out of the back of the pen just by me trying to get it to move using my hands, which is no good signal, either: it is friction fit, but usually sits real tight. Turns out there's also a hairline crack in the barrel, probably from someone's past attempts at getting the piston to move, and that's what allowed it to come out. c) used blue ink. Not washed it. Then used black ink. Then proceeded to forget the pen, ink still inside. I soaked it for around eight hours just to get the hood to move, changed the water six times, and when it opened there was still an unordinate amount of blue-black goo there. The ink visor, whick usually does not even touch the ink, was drenched in it. There was ink inside the piston mechanism, which also should not be there. I have never seen so much dried ink on a pen. I suspected that there must be a leak somewhere, seemed consistent with the randomly glued hood and the ink on inappropiate places. But after a thorough cleaning of the window, the insides and the piston, I have not seen any misplaced ink, so now I am leaning towards "put the pen on an inkwell way too deep and got ink inside the window, that they then couldn't get out because they had glued it for mysterious reasons". It took a good amount of work, and I wasn't even sure it'd pay off, but now it works perfectly. There's slight damage to the ink window, but the piston, once cleaned and well lubricated with silicone oil, works perfectly and is very, very soft. The hairline crack does not leak ink because it's sealed by the piston mechanism (that is, no ink gets there anyway), but I filled it in with epoxy resin just to be sure. The nib also works like a charm - a medium point, a bit flexible, and an absolute delight to write with. Easily the best part of those old MB's. But poo poo, how someone could treat what wasn't a cheap pen by any means (the 22 was, on the 60's, part of the medium-range line, second only to the Meisterstucks, and brought to compete with the Parker 51) in such a destructive way as to cause that amount of damage... maybe I was just brought up to be careful with my stuff, but it just boggles my mind. Sometimes you see accidental damage: I also own a MB 12 Meisterstuck that had never been inked, but whose cap had multiple cracks from, apparently, having been stepped on. Sometimes things break and are glued back with cellotape, filling systems are fixed with whatever the repairer had on hand, or nibs fall and get bent. But this was no accident, this was just an unending stream of carelessness 
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Jul 4, 2020 19:47
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So apparently Tomoe River paper is different now? Trying to decide if I should be sad about this or not.
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Jul 7, 2020 17:30
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my inbox hasn’t seen a single minute’s reprieve since I published that newsletter
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Jul 7, 2020 20:21
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Just tell me it's going to be alright
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Jul 7, 2020 20:40
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Refilled my Preppy's cartridge last night - bit of a pain! I think I prefer converters just for the ease. The capacity is a bit of a bummer on them though, but I guess that just means I need a TWSBI next 
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Jul 9, 2020 08:34
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Blunt tip cannula is the way to go
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Jul 9, 2020 09:27
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Heath posted:Blunt tip cannula is the way to go Did it with a blunt syringe. It wasn't actually too difficult, but it was just long winded compared to "dip, twist". Took a good few minutes of washing out the preppy with a bulb thing, cleaning the cartridge with a syringe, refilling with the syringe, making sure to clean everything up because I got Diamine Grape everywhere, and then having issues with the feed being full of water still 
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Jul 9, 2020 09:49
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imo part of the fun of fountain pens is all the paraphernalia and extra work that goes into it
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Jul 9, 2020 16:48
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Also once I got in the habit of just refilling syringes I kinda found it a lot less hassle, and a lot cleaner, than using converters. That, plus extra capacity, and I doubt I'll bother with converters in the future.
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Jul 9, 2020 19:30
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I can't speak for the Preppy ones but the Pilot converters have a nice wide mouth on them that makes them easy to fill.
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Jul 9, 2020 19:38
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I have screw-style converters in the majority of my pens. They are easy to use. I have a couple of squeeze-style ones, too. I also bought a variety pack of syringes from Amazon, and that covers everything else.
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Jul 9, 2020 21:30
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Amazon? Pfft. The real fountain pen enthusiast buys their syringes from the sketchiest pharmacies, in the dead of night, looking like they haven't slept in three days.
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Jul 9, 2020 23:18
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so is this the best place to ask about pencils and mechanical pencils or would that be mccoying onto hatfield land?
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Jul 10, 2020 01:41
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The only verboten topic is ballpoints. A good mechanical pencil is the natural cousin of the fountain pen. Really though any writing topic is welcome, what expensive pencil are you considering, and why is it a rOtring?
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Jul 10, 2020 01:49
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alrighty. i'm...not really considering an expensive pencil. i've just used the cheap bic mechanicals all my life and was wondering what i was missing out on. i'm not looking to spend a crazy amount or anything, but just curious why my life might be empty. i'm on my last bic and just got curious, i guess. i only write with them, no drawing or anything. one thing that really, really annoys me is an eraser that less erases and more blurs/smudges the graphite. some of the blurs are ok about this, but many are bad. not sure what else i should add here?
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Jul 10, 2020 01:56
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Buy a Rotring 600 in whatever thickness you like and never buy another pencil again.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:01
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I use a 0.3 aluminum kuru toga and it's ruined me for all other mechanical pencils.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:04
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Honestly, if you're just writing, a plain ol' Bic is going to be just fine for 99% of what you would do. It depends on what you're looking for in a writing instrument. Since this is the fountain pen thread, obviously aesthetics are a key consideration. Some pencils can be a lot meatier and have bigger padded grips that are good for larger hands or longer writing sessions. I personally have a rOtring 800 that has a retractable "nib" that I quite like - it's much heavier than most, being made of metal, and it feels very solid in the hand and reduces feedback as a result (feedback being the shaking or 'ringing' in the body of the pencil caused by the drag of friction from writing.) That's a pencil meant for drafting, so keeping a straight line is important. If that matters to you, consider a metal pencil. . I think the biggest consideration with a pencil is actually the eraser. A lot of mechanical pencils have garbage erasers, and you're better off keeping a separate eraser of high quality like an ArtGum or something. Especially if your eraser is capped, because having to pull the cap off constantly and risk losing it is a pain.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:04
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thanks for the tips. yea, eraser really would be the key thing, right? are the rotring or kuru toga known for theirs? or is it really just one of those situations where i should get a separate eraser? also, looking at a comparison of graphite widths now, i'd say something thicker would be nice. .9mm looks best to me. .7 works, but .9mm would be great. sadly it does not look like rotring makes one for that width.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:13
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abelwingnut posted:alrighty. The biggest thing in a nice mechanical pencil is how it feels to write with it. A good pencil should encourage you to hold it correctly, be easy to hold, not slippery, have a pleasant weight, and be comfortable to write with. It's much easier to hold just about any nice mechanical pencil than a disposable Bic one. You should also consider the lead size you like - most mechanical pencils in the US use 0.7mm lead, which is okay, but I prefer 0.5mm as do many others. This does make it slightly harder to find lead, although in my experience 0.5mm lead is still available at most office supply stores, though not supermarkets. Some good mechanical pencils I can personally recommend are:
Also worth mentioning is the Uni Kuru Toga line, which automatically rotates the lead to keep the point sharp. Some people don't like that effect. Up to you. Most nice mechanical pencils have tiny erasers. They're usually okay quality, but even if you remember to buy refills, carrying and switching them is a pain. I recommend buying a reloadable, retractable eraser, the ones shaped like pens are very convenient and work much better than any eraser built into a pencil. Edit: Just saw your post, the Graph Gear comes in 0.9mm Arcsech fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jul 10, 2020 |
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Jul 10, 2020 02:21
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I'm an artist rather than a writer really but if you haven't tried a kneaded eraser I can recommend them. They lift the graphite off into themselves and you don't get shavings or blurring, just a steadily dirtier eraser. Might be worth grabbing a cheap one and trying it out.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:24
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I've had good experiences with the SumoGrip for the cheaper end
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Jul 10, 2020 02:43
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thanks for the suggestions. will check them out and pull the trigger on a combo soon enough.
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Jul 10, 2020 02:58
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Office Depot/Max's house brand, Tul (not looking up how to do the umlaut), makes really good mechanical pencils. The body is entirely ... rubberized, I think? It's soft and feels good and comes in many colors. I bought like 10 to hand around the table when I DM and people get disappointed if I forget them.
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Jul 10, 2020 03:00
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HopperUK posted:I'm an artist rather than a writer really but if you haven't tried a kneaded eraser I can recommend them. They lift the graphite off into themselves and you don't get shavings or blurring, just a steadily dirtier eraser. Might be worth grabbing a cheap one and trying it out. seconding kneaded erasers. best part is the lack of crumbs, and being able to shape the eraser to work precisely
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Jul 10, 2020 03:51
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Pentel makes excellent mechanical pencils as well. Their Sharp and Graphgear 500 series got me through art school and their erasers are the same polymer that's used in high-quality artist erasers. Comedy option is a Pentel Kerry:  It's a pencil styled to look like a fountain pen!
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Jul 10, 2020 03:55
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