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Every time I see a posted Lamy Al-Star I get all hosed up by it. The few times I've tried it, it feels horrifically unbalanced and wobbly, and then it scuffed up the finish on the end of the pen. Why would you do this
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Aug 6, 2020 19:36
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| # ? May 29, 2024 06:37 |
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Today I learned that Lamy is selling a set of four Dialogs for 27 grand, and just goddamn.
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Aug 6, 2020 19:45
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Fountain pens! Sometimes I talk about pens to non-pen people and prestige pens come up, and it's one of those things I wonder about whether FPs would have continued to be produced at all if not for the prestige "whale" market of wealthy assholes. Then again, they've had a much bigger and contiguous presence in the world outside of the US in the intervening decades since the ballpoint took over as the writing utensil of choice, so maybe my viewpoint is skewed. The unfortunate thing is that the super expensive luxury ones are the ones people tend to focus on because they're so outlandish - even low end pens are outlandishly expensive to someone who writes with Bic ballpoints or pencils primarily, so to have a swathe of pens priced like a car but with no obvious material benefit over a .50 cent ballpoint tends to slant the perception of the hobby. How often do these luxury pens sell, I wonder? The profit margins on them are probably immense, but how many of them actually find their way into the hands of a human being who uses it on a regular basis? Or even just carries the thing around like a piece of jewelry? How many of them only get pulled out for signatures? Especially ones that have a more, uh, specific aesthetic appeal, like the Stallone Chaos pen. I know stores like Goulet carry at least a couple of very high end prestige pens, and I wonder how long they sit on the shelf in the warehouse. It seems like a big investment for something that could so just disappear or get lost or damaged so easily.
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Aug 6, 2020 20:40
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I do think the low end fountain pens would have survived even of the likes of Mont Blanc went under. Lots of people still hate the ten pence cheap biros and will pay a significant premium to get a nice rollerball pen. When you get into the realm of £5 disposable pens a £20-£50 fountain pen that is refillable with cheap ink makes sense both financially and ecologically. Fountain pens are like the watch market, yes a £5 watch will do everything a £50-£100 one will but the more expensive one will be a much better experience and last a lot longer. Then you get to the £1kplus watches and it becomes as much about how much you pay as any real quality. I'm not saying a Rolex isn't a fine piece of mechanical engineering but it is massively overpriced for its complexity and manufacturing costs.
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Aug 6, 2020 20:50
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Right, it just makes talking to people about it an interesting discussion. People are shocked that there are quality fountain pens that are priced cheaper than a good rollerball. Do any of you in the US ever seen fountain pens at, say, grocery stores or places like Staples? I know some people have seen the trash Zebra ones around, but I've yet to spot anything like a Metro. I see plenty of cheap ones marketed as "calligraphy" sets with a pen and a few swappable nibs, but I don't count those.
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Aug 6, 2020 20:55
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My local Office Depot has Cross fountain pens in stock from time to time.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:01
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Heath posted:Right, it just makes talking to people about it an interesting discussion. People are shocked that there are quality fountain pens that are priced cheaper than a good rollerball. I'm in the US, and my first fountain pen experience was with a disposable Pilot Varsity purchased from Staples about 10 years ago. I was working in a laboratory at the time and had to take tons of handwritten notes in journals, and I was blown away at how easily everything just flowed onto the page compared to a lovely BIC rollerball.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:02
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Meijer, a midwest less-lovely Walmart, stocks Pilot MRs in with their nicer notebooks and journals.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:09
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plester1 posted:I'm in the US, and my first fountain pen experience was with a disposable Pilot Varsity purchased from Staples about 10 years ago. I was working in a laboratory at the time and had to take tons of handwritten notes in journals, and I was blown away at how easily everything just flowed onto the page compared to a lovely BIC rollerball. My first fountain pen experience was also a Pilot Varsity. I hated it; I had ink all over my fingers and the feathering was insane. It ended up leaking and ruining a pocket, probably because I had it in upside down. That was also over ten years ago and I hadn't done any research on what these things did, what kind of paper works with them, etc.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:15
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Remora posted:Meijer, a midwest less-lovely Walmart, stocks Pilot MRs in with their nicer notebooks and journals. Ha, I'll have to see if my Meijers has any when I go buy groceries this weekend.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:16
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Staples sells Sheaffer and Cross fountain pens in my area. I've even bought a couple. Speaking of Cross, I had a bunch of Amazon GCs burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought a Peerless for what seemed like a suspiciously low price. Like, $245 CDN when list price is $750. Showed up today and guess what - I actually got a Cross Peerless fountain pen. It is... interesting? I'll put some pics up later.
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Aug 6, 2020 21:35
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A Cross Peerless vs what? I'm not familiar with it
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Aug 6, 2020 21:57
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Heath posted:A Cross Peerless vs what? I'm not familiar with it It was listed as a ball pen instead of the fountain pen, but the description was for the fountain pen. Edit: Nib shot. The nib for the Peerless is made by Sailor 
grack fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Aug 6, 2020 |
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Aug 6, 2020 22:38
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Does anyone have experience with mold on pens and/or ink? I just took out my FPR Himalaya V2 to mess around with it. When I left it months ago it was inked with Noodler's Whaler's Sepia. I took the cap off the pen and noticed a collection of fuzzy green-grey spots on the feed and immediately went to clean it up. Is this likely to be just a freak occurrence or should I be worried? I didn't dip it in any ink or anything after I noticed it. This is the first time I've noticed any thing of the like on any pens and it has me worried for my inks... Edit: I checked the bottle of Noodlers and it LOOKS clean but its hard to tell since its so dark. Sankis fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Aug 7, 2020 |
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Aug 7, 2020 07:28
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I had that happen with Nightshade. I just dumped the bottle and bleached it. So now I have an empty bottle. I wouldn't put it in any pens. I ended up getting mold in two pens (which were filled with other inks) so somehow I think the mold got in there from the antique box I was keeping them in. I was able to get them clean by running them in an ultrasonic with some disinfectant. It's a pain in the rear end.
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Aug 7, 2020 07:34
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grack posted:Staples sells Sheaffer and Cross fountain pens in my area. I've even bought a couple. I don't think the Peerless line has any pens with an MSRP anywhere close to that. You propably paid full price. E: DID YOU BUY THE DARTH VADER PEN?!?
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Aug 7, 2020 09:25
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It's finally here - Parker Vacumatic (1940).
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Aug 7, 2020 13:47
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gschmidl posted:It's finally here - Parker Vacumatic (1940). Hey, nice! It has the original arrow nib, too. The one I have that still has the arrow is a terrific writer, most buttery nib I've seen this side of Montblanc. Is it restored or are you putting in the work?
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Aug 7, 2020 15:04
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Jiru posted:Hey, nice! It has the original arrow nib, too. The one I have that still has the arrow is a terrific writer, most buttery nib I've seen this side of Montblanc. Is it restored or are you putting in the work? Fully restored by the seller. It works great and looks really nice. e: https://afrevapens.com/for-sale/. I have zero complaints. gschmidl fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Aug 7, 2020 |
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Aug 7, 2020 15:21
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I don't think the Peerless line has any pens with an MSRP anywhere close to that. You propably paid full price.  Cross Canada website
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Aug 7, 2020 18:05
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Got my TWSBI ECO. It's insane not only in how much ink this thing holds, but in how easy it was to fill it. I thought I was living the good life when I figured out how to refill cartridges so I didn't have to deal with Pilot's converters, but this is a whole lot better. It just works.
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Aug 7, 2020 23:55
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Were you the one asking about the round grip? Do you like that better?
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Aug 8, 2020 00:10
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Heath posted:Were you the one asking about the round grip? Do you like that better? I was. It's everything I hoped the LAMY Safari would be.
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Aug 8, 2020 00:51
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I think for most people the Eco is a better buy unless you really like the look of the Safari/Al-Star or you want swappable nibs. I personally got the Eco and ended up giving it away because I liked the Lamy better.  however I do have a Vac 700R that I love.
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Aug 8, 2020 01:02
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Have any of you by chance tried to buy an Italix pen? The reviews are good, I'm eager to get my hands on an oblique, but the website looks like a mess of horrid unsecure jank, and I am afraid to put my data anywhere near it.
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Aug 8, 2020 16:29
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You can use Paypal checkout if you're worried about it, but Italix/MrPen is legitimate
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Aug 8, 2020 16:43
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Their website is horrifying but I can confirm that their oblique nibs are wonderful.
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Aug 8, 2020 18:26
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 Cross Wanderlust Antelope, found it at a clearance sale marked down to 45€, so I went for it. Probably not to the taste of everyone, but I am a sucker for colorful pens and I really like the red tones on this one. Writes well and smoothly too, though I think there's a slight bit of feedback in upward strokes. It is also really, really thin and not so long either, it reminds me of vintage pens on that regard. That doesn't bother me as I am used to it (bigger pens bug me more) but I can see someone being put off by the size.
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Aug 11, 2020 18:03
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I don't really write much apart from shopping lists and crosswords but I was going to buy a metro to see what all the fuss is about. Instead I ended up getting a $2 pen from Daiso, and it seems like a really nice pen, even thought it's a disposable price it takes cartridges. I might have to get a metro just so I have something to compare it to but it feels nicer than using a ballpoint. Unfortunately anything that's even remotely a prestige pen isn't in my budget for the near future.
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Aug 12, 2020 07:58
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Is it a Platinum Preppy? Those are great pens for the price. If you want something with more heft, Jinhao makes a lot of affordable metal body pens. They're not great pens, but they're solid, especially for the price. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0194DD1MM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Rr6mFb7J1G55Q
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Aug 12, 2020 09:13
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The Sausages posted:I don't really write much apart from shopping lists and crosswords but I was going to buy a metro to see what all the fuss is about. Instead I ended up getting a $2 pen from Daiso, and it seems like a really nice pen, even thought it's a disposable price it takes cartridges. I might have to get a metro just so I have something to compare it to but it feels nicer than using a ballpoint. Unfortunately anything that's even remotely a prestige pen isn't in my budget for the near future. Doesn't need to be prestige as long as you like how it writes. I've only tried the Euro-Metro but it writes very nicely for that price point.
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Aug 12, 2020 09:15
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Jinhaos become quite nice pens with the addition of a $15 aftermarket nib.
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Aug 12, 2020 13:49
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Speaking of quite nice, the $3 not-Twsbi vacupen I ordered from Aliexpress arrived today...
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Aug 12, 2020 21:17
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The one thing that my new fountain pen obsession has made me want the most is more shirts with breast pockets. I didn't realize how many I owned without them until now.
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Aug 12, 2020 23:19
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Who was it who bought a wax stamp for sealing letters? I just got my custom one from Artisaire. Maybe we can exchange ridiculous letters.
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Aug 13, 2020 19:14
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I can't remember if it was here, but someone had one with the YoRHa symbol that looked great
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Aug 13, 2020 19:20
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I have a wax stamp and inkpads I use whenever I need to be extra with a piece of printed material. I do this thing where I give people who help me out a nice piece of cardstock with calligraphy and a wax stamp that they can turn in to make me shut up about anything. One of my friends keeps his in his wallet at all times, just in case. Only one has ever been used, but they are prized in my circles.
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Aug 13, 2020 23:05
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Has anyone else tried these inks? I got them the other day and I'm really enjoying them. They're from the Kala Nostalgia Neon line. I think they're South Korean? I bought four of the eight they have in the line. They also have neon purple, neon violet, neon yellow, and neon orange. I believe they're pigment based but are made for Fountain Pens and seem to work well, though I suspect it will take a little bit extra effort to clean. That said, they're still being relegated to my cheaper Jinhaos and the like at the moment. So far I've tried three of the four that I bought and I really, really like them so far. The Neon Blue (Broad JoWo nib)  Neon Green (1.5 JoWo stub nib)  Neon Red (FPR Himalaya V2 with flex nib)  (I don't want to make another thing for the red ink so here's cyberpunk rasputin) I've yet to try the pink but I expect it'll be great too. One thing that i can't really show off is the sort of semi-gloss sheen that areas where a lot of ink was put down. I'm really liking them so far. Of the three pens and nibs I have the ink in, it definitely seems to work best with the flex and broad. The stub nib spreads the ink so far apart that it can seem almost like a highlighter. It's cool having bottles of ink that don't just look like a dark indistinguishable liquid in the bottle. Sankis fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Aug 14, 2020 |
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Aug 14, 2020 11:37
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I like the look of that blue for sure.
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Aug 14, 2020 17:46
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| # ? May 29, 2024 06:37 |
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I may regret it later, but here's the pink in my Pelikan M200 with a broad nib. One thing to note is that the lighting in my room is garbage. It's like the equivalent of a single 60w 'warm' lightbulb in a corner. I decided to change the bulb to "daylight" and get a bit closer to the light and the color REALLY pops.  Here's the other colors in the same lighting.   
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Aug 15, 2020 09:41
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