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sb hermit posted:Nice choices. TWSBI Eco and Pilot Metropolitan are probably the only two pens I can unreservedly recommend to new pen users. My Eco always writes smooth and the Metro has a small reservoir but has a classic look and is really easy to clean. Yeah I'm pretty satisfied with my lineup. I wouldn't mind having fancier pens but I much lean toward function over form, so these are fine for now. My laptops are beat-to-poo poo thinkpads, for example. It's a pretty cheap lineup but it's nice knowing I have pens that can take some abuse and still treat me well. One of these days I'll save up for one of those midrange gold-nibbed pens.
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May 15, 2023 23:03
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sb hermit posted:How's the Safari? It's good. I like writing with it without the cap on the back, it feels balanced better when just the pen. It's a fine nib and whether it's scratchy or not depends on the paper I'm writing on. In the Traveler's Notebook it's nice and smooth, on the moleskin it's a little scratchy, doesn't seem to correlate between cheap or expensive paper.
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May 15, 2023 23:11
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Crain posted:It's good. I like writing with it without the cap on the back, it feels balanced better when just the pen. It's a fine nib and whether it's scratchy or not depends on the paper I'm writing on. In the Traveler's Notebook it's nice and smooth, on the moleskin it's a little scratchy, doesn't seem to correlate between cheap or expensive paper. Nice. The Safari has a reputation in this thread for being a hit or miss and I'm glad you got s hit.
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May 16, 2023 00:08
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Incidentally, I also picked up a Safari in Medium and it's a little scratchy on Rhodia, so that's concerning, but I haven't had a good close look at the nib so it could be just a little misaligned. Flow and everything else seems fine with Kaweco pearl black in it.
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May 16, 2023 01:05
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Doctor Hospital posted:Incidentally, I also picked up a Safari in Medium and it's a little scratchy on Rhodia, so that's concerning, but I haven't had a good close look at the nib so it could be just a little misaligned. Flow and everything else seems fine with Kaweco pearl black in it. In my experience all Safaris are just Like That.
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May 16, 2023 02:01
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My M nib on the Safari just about glides on the page. The only smoother pen I have is an old Delta of my dad's we dug up recently, but I don't carry that daily obviously. The Lamy F nib offers a bit more scratchiness but is pretty compatible with the lovely paper I have at work and is legit fairly smooth on that as well. Doesn't bring out the full depth of Tsuki-yo though. My newer candidate for daily carry is a Sailor Profit Jr, which looks pretty nice, is pocketable and the supposedly MF nib writes thinner than the Lamy F. Pretty nice results on office paper, but I feel like I need to press at least a bit to prevent skips. Descending cursive letters especially seem to offend it. Welp, hope I don't break it.
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May 16, 2023 10:44
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Any recommendations for a good brush pen? Might be fun to use
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May 16, 2023 12:19
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SixteenShells posted:1 for work (TWSBI Eco with black ink), 2 for art (TWSBI Eco and a Pilot Metro, with grey and red inks). Plus two brush pens with black and grey. I used to keep Safari's with Red and Blue around but i found I wasn't using them enough to get through a full converter's worth before it dried up significantly. Just have to ask, what brush pens do you use for fp ink and how do you like them? I use a kuratake sable with carbon black but it is expensive and has some limits, such as availability. Xun posted:Any recommendations for a good brush pen? Might be fun to use Well, that one but it seems like kuratake also as some nylon brush pens . They seem to accept diplomat standard converters, at least that is what is in the no50 . https://www.jetpens.com/Kuretake-Fountain-Brush-Pens/ct/569 Keetron fucked around with this message at 13:48 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 13:43
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mortons stork posted:My M nib on the Safari just about glides on the page. The only smoother pen I have is an old Delta of my dad's we dug up recently, but I don't carry that daily obviously. Japanese pens generally tend to run about one nib size smaller than their western counterparts, so a Japanese fine will write more like a western extra-fine, a medium will write like a fine, and so forth. There's some speculation that this is why Japanese inks tend to flow wetter as the small nib sizes write better with an ink that'll flow easily. Its also important to keep in mind that when a company labels something a "fine" or "medium" on their nibs, they're only referring to a comparison between their own nibs, not some kind of international standard. A Pelikan medium will write broader than a kaweco medium, for instance. Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 14:20 on May 16, 2023 |
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May 16, 2023 14:05
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Chip McFuck posted:Japanese pens generally tend to run about one nib size smaller than their western counterparts, so a Japanese fine will write more like a western extra-fine, a medium will write like a fine, and so forth. There's some speculation that this is why Japanese inks tend to flow wetter as the small nib sizes write better with an ink that'll flow easily. With some manufacturers (looking at you Lamy), it is also more of a guideline and can change pen to pen. Japanese inks are the best inks.
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May 16, 2023 15:15
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Chip McFuck posted:Japanese pens generally tend to run about one nib size smaller than their western counterparts, so a Japanese fine will write more like a western extra-fine, a medium will write like a fine, and so forth. There's some speculation that this is why Japanese inks tend to flow wetter as the small nib sizes write better with an ink that'll flow easily. I had read about the Japanese nibs and figured the lower-end pens would fit my needs of a) writing well, even pleasantly, on most kinds of paper and b) not being worth shedding copious tears (although €30 is still a significant sum to just lose) in case of loss/breakage I was still unprepared with how thin the Sailor FM actually is. But there not being an international frame of reference for nibs is good to know! I would never have figured it out and chalked it down to QA on single nibs otherwise.
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May 16, 2023 16:05
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Are you guys telling me there are brush pens that can use fountain pen ink... ? Are they good?
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May 16, 2023 16:54
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There are a couple of pens that have switchable feeds and some include the brush attachment. Most Chinese pens have the option, some random pen I got from Aliexpress had one included. My Dad and I will list our inked pens. The last inventory I did of pens, some of which were down to last drops but I still counted, I had 38 inked. This includes my pen roll of nice pens, loose pens I carry in my backpack, and 5 Varsities that I've refilled with different inks.
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May 16, 2023 17:47
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I have purchased another Delta Thank you, that is all
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May 16, 2023 17:51
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Thinking about this a bit more, I recall putting india ink in a water brush, like the ones you use with watercolors but that did not work as well as I wanted. I was looking for waterproof greys to use as shadows and accents on drawings that I made with carbon black anyway. In the end I went with faber castell pitt pens but that still smears. Maybe I should try a water brush with diluted carbon black...
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May 16, 2023 19:36
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I have a really fun $9~ Kuretake brush pen that supposedly takes Platinum converters but I haven't finished the basic black cartidge I put in it. Might take me a few months to use it all up I forgot about for like 5 months and it did not dry out even a little so that was nice
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May 16, 2023 20:33
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I had this pentel brush pen, and it worked perfectly nicely. Unfortunately it went walkabout at some point. Just last week I got one of these ??? brush pens off ali. It also works perfectly fine, although I feel like it doesn't come to quite as fine a point as the pentel did; however this could be a difference between the (supposedly) carbon black ink the pentel came with vs. the pilot black (fountain) that I put in this new one. To be honest, I don't think there's going to be much of a performance difference between brush pens/water brushes. Provided they have actual bristles and aren't just a soft felt point, they're probably all going to perform more or less the same, with maybe a little difference in responsiveness and the bulk of the difference being how well the body feels in your hand. But I'm also not an artist or anything, I just use these to badly scrawl things. I also picked up a Jinhao 80. It very much looks like a lamy 2000, until you see the section, and it also uses that lamy-esque squared nib you see on a lot of chinese pens these days. It's absurdly light and slightly unbalanced posted, but it writes rather nicely. Probably the most interesting thing is that the nibs aren't just lamy-like, they're sized the same way; I got an EF and it's putting out a line about the same as my F Prera.
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May 16, 2023 23:00
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Keetron posted:Just have to ask, what brush pens do you use for fp ink and how do you like them? The Pentel pocket and the Pentel refillable. they're just cheap synthetic bristle pens, i'm not actually good at art, so I don't spring for the good brushes. I use Noodler's Lexington Gray in one, it works great, and I plan to use Noodler's Heart of Darkness in the other once the cartridge it came with runs out. Edit: Oh yeah the second part. They're fun to use! I don't know what I'm doing but I enjoy doing it. I was doing a roleplay journal last year when I played Elden Ring and using them for sketches and whatnot. They haven't given me any ink issues so far, but even if they do, they're cheap. SixteenShells fucked around with this message at 16:21 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 16:18
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SixteenShells posted:The Pentel pocket and the Pentel refillable. they're just cheap synthetic bristle pens, i'm not actually good at art, so I don't spring for the good brushes. I use Noodler's Lexington Gray in one, it works great, and I plan to use Noodler's Heart of Darkness in the other once the cartridge it came with runs out. I am familair with the pentel pocket brush, did you just use it until the cartridge was empty and then filled it with a blunt syringe or did you get a converter for it? And the pentel pocket brush is really good value for money and the favorite tool (at least for a while) of the late Kim Jung Gi.
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May 17, 2023 18:38
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Keetron posted:I am familair with the pentel pocket brush, did you just use it until the cartridge was empty and then filled it with a blunt syringe or did you get a converter for it? And the pentel pocket brush is really good value for money and the favorite tool (at least for a while) of the late Kim Jung Gi. Yeah I just flushed the cartridge out real good with a blunt syringe, but I was going black->grey. Might be dicier to change colors too.
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May 17, 2023 18:47
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SixteenShells posted:Yeah I just flushed the cartridge out real good with a blunt syringe, but I was going black->grey. Might be dicier to change colors too. Found the solution on Ali Express, there are some knock off brush pens that take converters, from various brands including jinhao. In a few months I'll have some of that in time for summer holiday, I can fill them with the greys I have from Herbin and we'll see. I'll keep ya'll updated.
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May 17, 2023 20:54
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Well, I just bought something I'll be seeing in 9-12 months. 
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May 18, 2023 10:57
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gschmidl posted:Well, I just bought something I'll be seeing in 9-12 months. Don't worry, you only really need one kidney
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May 18, 2023 16:02
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grack posted:Don't worry, you only really need one kidney Amazingly, they take a 40% deposit, rest payable when it shows up there, so I can re-grow that part of the kidney until then. That's how that works, right?
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May 18, 2023 16:07
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gschmidl posted:Amazingly, they take a 40% deposit, rest payable when it shows up there, so I can re-grow that part of the kidney until then. That's how that works, right? That's what I tell all of the people I steal the kidneys from. Also, I got another Delta last night! Hooray!  A Serena in a lovely blue grack fucked around with this message at 16:56 on May 19, 2023 |
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May 19, 2023 16:49
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Looking for recommendations on a nice fountain pen that can be engraved. Budget maybe $150-$250. Last time I checked the thread years ago I ended up with a Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen from https://www.gouletpens.com and I loved it. But I'm looking for something fancier (silver or gold maybe) that can be engraved. It's for a special occasion 
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May 20, 2023 19:36
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Would it be mostly a show piece or would it get use? It looks like goldspot pens does engraving and of their engravable pens in your price range I saw these https://goldspot.com/products/caran-dache-ecridor-retro-silver-plated-fine-point-fountain-pen https://goldspot.com/products/diplomat-aero-felt-pen-factory https://goldspot.com/products/waterman-expert-fountain-pen-in-black-with-gold-trim https://goldspot.com/products/parker-sonnet-black-lacquer-gt-fp-fountain-pen-m Of those, someone who is older or passingly familiar with pens has probably heard of Parker or Waterman as they were big (now formerly) American brands. They also cater a fair bit to the "My dad just got the big promotion and we need a cool gift for his desk" crowd. Penwise, I've heard iffy things on the QA for both modern iterations of these brands Diplomat at its mid-high end is pretty solid from what I hear. I have no idea about Caran D'Ache
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May 20, 2023 21:27
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Sankis posted:Would it be mostly a show piece or would it get use? This is a wonderful resource, thank you! The pen would get daily use, but not as a workhorse of writing everything going on that day. That said, I do want some QA, I don't wanna gift something that breaks soon or is a pain in the rear end lol.
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May 20, 2023 22:13
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When I say QA I don't necessarily mean the build of it it's more of a nib thing. Though someone else can speak to those brands better.
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May 20, 2023 22:15
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I have yet to see a new Parker Sonnet that wrote properly out of the box. Caran D'Ache, Waterman and Diplomat all make very good pens in the $100-200 range, though I would rate Diplomat and Caran D'Ache a touch higher in terms of fit and finish. Waterman pens are also picky bitches about converters.
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May 20, 2023 22:30
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grack posted:I have yet to see a new Parker Sonnet that wrote properly out of the box. Aren't Waterman converters proprietary? I know they're Parker-style but didn't think they're compatible with each other. Edit: Throw in another recommendation for Diplomat. Never had a pen of theirs that didn't write really well. If you don't mind a mix of resin and metal, Aurora also makes some nice metal-capped pens in that price range that look really classic as well. A black and silver Ipsilon would be a really nice gift. Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 02:06 on May 21, 2023 |
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May 21, 2023 01:52
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The post is the same size as standard international, and generic cartridges will work. However, Waterman converters are slightly smaller than the Schmidt K5, meaning you can't use the latter in anything but Waterman's cheapest pens.
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May 21, 2023 02:49
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I filled my TWSBI Eco with FWP's Open Sea Atrium and good Lord it's lovely. It's hard to photograph the glittery movement of the ink but it's incredible, I assure you.
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May 21, 2023 19:59
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That looks like amazing fun!
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May 21, 2023 20:10
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ooooo that looks pretty! side tangent I go back and forth on demonstrator pens - I find a closed pen barrel just looks nicer somehow to my eye, the demonstrators remind me of see-through plastic kids electronics from the 90s/00s. But the utility you get from seeing how much ink you have left, and the opportunity to really showcase a beautiful ink before it even hits the page? you just can't get that otherwise. And the slowly building anticipation from seeing the reservoir slowly deplete over time, gauging how long you can push it before you should clean and refill - it's very engaging.
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May 22, 2023 16:56
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SixteenShells posted:ooooo that looks pretty! You might find a sweet spot in pens with ink windows (e.g., Lamy Safari, Lamy 2000, some Pelikans, Sailor Realo).
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May 22, 2023 17:02
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Muir posted:You might find a sweet spot in pens with ink windows (e.g., Lamy Safari, Lamy 2000, some Pelikans, Sailor Realo). I've got a couple Safari's bouncing around and you're right, the ink window's pretty sweet. I'm a little burned on the Safari caps wearing out, but I should give those others a look, thanks for the recs!
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May 22, 2023 17:07
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SixteenShells posted:ooooo that looks pretty! That's a plus for me, OP. But yes, I agree it's hard to find an elegant demonstrator. Ink windows serve a good middle ground.
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May 22, 2023 17:26
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I love being able to see the ink sloshing around in the Diamond 580 I have. The faceted barrel helps, I think.
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May 22, 2023 17:51
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I can confirm, ink window on the safari owns. I can tell if I'm gonna run out today, sometimes if I flip it I can estimate how many days I got left. The Sailor writes absolutely wonderfully but having to unscrew the body to see how much juice I got left is a pain. Definitely want to get myself an Eco soon! 
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May 22, 2023 18:15
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