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DurianGray posted:You also might be aware of this already, but the paper you use can make a pretty big difference too, especially with how some inks will actually look when they dry, whether they feather or not, etc. You can get different effects with slower-drying paper vs. more absorbent paper, for instance. I noticed this on an Oxford notebook I got for my everyday use, which is pretty good quality and fountain pen friendly. The paper is very bright white, won't let ink bleed, no feathering. Color comes out totally different over there. Heath posted:Generally speaking, a finer tip will do better on less absorbent paper. Tomoe River is good, but I like Rhodia for a nice balance between cost and FP friendliness. Oh yes, that was why I was initially recommended to use fine tips and possibly use Japanese pens, since they perform well on most paper and I would have initially balked at getting the pricier, higher quality notebooks everyone keeps talking about. I have yet to try Rhodia, but I am getting myself a Midori notebook with my next haul, as soon as I run out of space in my current journal.
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Jul 26, 2023 11:44
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Dad Hominem posted:As a very general rule of thumb you can stick to inks made by pen manufacturers that existed in the sac era. Waterman is a pretty safe bet. This will limit your ink choices but you can do more research on particular other inks if you're interested in them. Sankis posted:When I use old pens I try to opt for something that existed during the era to be safe (or if it's going to destroy my pen, historically accurate) which tends to mean I just use some Parker Quink since it's been in production for like 90 years and not destroying pens and being an alright black is sort of its thing Thank you for the advice. I actually have a bottle of Quink, although it's about ten years old. I think the pen was refurbished about that many years ago as well. I'll ink it up and see how it goes!
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Jul 26, 2023 14:33
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Make sure the ink doesn't have any sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
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Jul 27, 2023 04:04
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Bought my next pen as a treat, to myself. Went with a Kaweco AL sport in red, though the shop also had a Ruby one with a gold nib and accents which was tempting, but like $30 more. It's so much smoother than the Lamy Safari, and my Sailor Virginia ink flows and looks much better on the page from it. Aw_shit_here_we_go_again.png
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Jul 27, 2023 13:58
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I like to do loose watercolor sketches of landscapes, people, cats sleeping, whatever on 5x7 cards. I have been using COPIC multiliners for the sketch part but I think I want to try a fountain pen. I am attracted to the idea because I like the idea of using less pressure to make a mark compared to a COPIC multiliner or whatever. The ink needs to be waterproof and ideally dries pretty quickly. Is the extra-fine tipped LAMY Safari still a go-to lower-priced option for my use case? Which ink should I pair with it if so?
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Jul 28, 2023 00:58
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I've done watercolor over fountain pen ink before. I can definitely vouch for the De Atramentis Document inks for waterproof (and they come in colors other than black if you want some non-monochrome options). I haven't personally used a Lamy to sketch with (I have a weird grip and the triangle shaped barrel doesn't feel comfortable) but I have a friend who uses them all the time for sketching. I do find the Sailor Fude De Mannen really fun to sketch with though. It's pretty popular in urban sketching circles. It has a sort of angled nib with a big flat side, so you can get a lot of interesting line variation out of it. It's also pretty cheap, about $10 on Amazon right now looks like.
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Jul 28, 2023 01:07
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When I was in art school, the go to fountain pen for drawing was the Platinum Preppy or desk pen. They have great nibs and they're cheap so you don't feel bad if you lose one. The cartridges they come with are filled with Platinum's Carbon Black ink, which is pretty much the art-making black ink for fountain or dip pens. Its waterproof and bonds with paper like a champ.
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Jul 28, 2023 01:39
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Platinum brought back the desk pen and gave it a normal-ish cap
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Jul 28, 2023 02:29
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Wife bought me the Noodler Air Corps that I wanted forever for my birthday and I’ve decided it is a good time to clean my TWSBI ALR. Is there a good video guide on how to clean and lube them?
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Jul 29, 2023 10:19
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1024x768 posted:I like to do loose watercolor sketches of landscapes, people, cats sleeping, whatever on 5x7 cards. I have been using COPIC multiliners for the sketch part but I think I want to try a fountain pen. I am attracted to the idea because I like the idea of using less pressure to make a mark compared to a COPIC multiliner or whatever. The ink needs to be waterproof and ideally dries pretty quickly. When doing watercolors, I use almost exclusively Platinum Carbon black and had to start a new bottle a month or so ago. The ink goes in a TWSBI 580 fountain pen and in a kuretaki brush pen. Both hold up well and do not clog. The only pen that gave me trouble with the Platinum ink was a Lamy, the cap does not close well so the ink dried out and that was a bitch to clean. Drying time can vary from 10 to 30 seconds, depending on how thick you put it on.
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Jul 29, 2023 21:03
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howe_sam posted:Wanna see Platinum make some nibs? That is a small and unsightly building?
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Jul 29, 2023 21:12
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There's also Platinum Pigment Brun Sepia, which is basically a sepia version of Carbon Black. It's great for watercolor purposes too
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Jul 29, 2023 21:48
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It's also pretty fun to use non-waterfast inks for pseudo-watercolor. You have to be more careful because they'll not bond as well until they're dry, but you can get some neat effects, especially as detailing over actual paints.
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Jul 30, 2023 08:00
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Pelikan's bringing back the free ink this year for the Hubs 
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Jul 31, 2023 01:19
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Does anyone have any experience with the Platinum 3776 Oshino, or the 3776s in general? I'm already going to get one but I was curious if I should expect it to write dry out of the box (like my Platinum Procyon did) and how it compares to an equivalent 14k Sailor nib in width and feedback. I was going to get a medium nib.
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Aug 5, 2023 04:57
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manglar posted:Does anyone have any experience with the Platinum 3776 Oshino, or the 3776s in general? I'm already going to get one but I was curious if I should expect it to write dry out of the box (like my Platinum Procyon did) and how it compares to an equivalent 14k Sailor nib in width and feedback. I was going to get a medium nib. Sailor is nice but I found platinum to be a different type of feedback. I have a platinum 3776 in broad and it's one of my favorites to write with. The feedback is almost like writing with a pencil. Sounds weird but it's great to write with. It doesn't catch on the paper or anything. It's very smooth. Big fan. E: not to take away from Sailor. Also one of my favorite pens to write with.
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Aug 5, 2023 05:06
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Lowness 72 posted:Sailor is nice but I found platinum to be a different type of feedback. I have a platinum 3776 in broad and it's one of my favorites to write with. The feedback is almost like writing with a pencil. Sounds weird but it's great to write with. It doesn't catch on the paper or anything. It's very smooth. Big fan. I get what you mean - my Sailor Profit Light has feedback in its medium nib and it has a distinct sound, but it's not as pencil-y as the Sheaffer Cadet that has my favorite steel nib. I feel the point and slight resistance of the Sailor nib against the paper but it's ultimately still very smooth, whereas the Sheaffer distinctly transfers much more of its vibration to my hand and it feels more like a pencil. I always know exactly where the point of the Sheaffer is thanks to the feedback.
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Aug 5, 2023 05:41
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I think of the smoothness continuum going Sailor (pencil-like) -- Platinum -- Pilot (glassy smooth). I don't like the pencil-like feedback but many do. I briefly had a 3776 but sold it on as I prefer the very smooth Pilot feel, but it was a good pen otherwise.
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Aug 5, 2023 17:35
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Yesterday, talking to someone born in the 30s. "Wanna hear something interesting?" "Sure." "I'm using a fountain pen" "... Where do you get the ink?!"
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Aug 5, 2023 21:27
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Huh, maybe the person stopped using a fountain pen in the 60s and just assumed that fountain pens and supplies went the way of the dodo.
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Aug 6, 2023 18:57
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There are people in my particular field who use a fountain pen for the personal flair and I do recognize a fountain pen user when their paperwork comes up on my desk, but outside that they are staggeringly rare. An older colleague of mine, who grew up in the times when they were still ubiquitous, was extremely surprised at seeing mine and asked where do I get my ink and isn't it horribly expensive? So yeah the ballpoint pen revolution really did a number on our collective approach to writing. I learned to write with ballpoints in school and continued throughout my adulthood and what I understood very early on was that writing is about pain. Wish it hadn't been.
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Aug 6, 2023 19:30
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Huh, maybe the person stopped using a fountain pen in the 60s and just assumed that fountain pens and supplies went the way of the dodo. Most people probably walk into the pen aisle in whatever shop, grab whatever pen they're used to, and then move on. They don't look around and marvel at the fact that staples has bottles of quink or whatever.
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Aug 6, 2023 19:35
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Zenostein posted:Most people probably walk into the pen aisle in whatever shop, grab whatever pen they're used to, and then move on. They don't look around and marvel at the fact that staples has bottles of quink or whatever. They're usually not especially prominently displayed, either.
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Aug 6, 2023 19:44
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Heath posted:They're usually not especially prominently displayed, either. Probably the most prominently displayed things (before they suddenly started putting cheap cross/parkers out on shelves a decade or so ago) would've been parker/aurora/cross cartridges with the other pen refills. Definitely not something that would stand out unless you were looking for them, besides perhaps noticing that they're different from the regular metal pen inserts.
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Aug 6, 2023 19:48
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I would like to thank this thread: I ended up making a pen friend at a convention I was selling merch at- I needed a pen, and he pulled out a one I recognized (maybe it was a Lamy- I slept since then) and he was just pleased as punch that I noticed. It was kinda sweet. Edit: the hobby has also been pretty good for my arthritic hands in regards to writing, since they're very smooth to write with and have big barrels. I actually genuinely think they'd be better for a lot of people like me that draw or otherwise stress their hands for a living. My left hand is coming along really good, too! DicktheCat fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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Aug 9, 2023 01:23
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DicktheCat posted:Edit: the hobby has also been pretty good for my arthritic hands in regards to writing, since they're very smooth to write with and have big barrels. Yes! Part of what got me into them was that I had started getting tendonitis in college, and it was so much easier to take notes with something that I knew I didn't need to (and shouldn't!) put much pressure on. The bigger barrel size (especially compared to most ball points or pencils) was also a big help.
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Aug 9, 2023 03:14
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Hello, thread. I have slowly been getting into fountain pens over the last few years after an impulse purchase of a Kaweco Perkeo. A wonderful brass-body Traveler pocket pen and a lovely Parker Vector came next, plus a gifted Eco. All F nibs to this point. Things have been accelerating over the past couple of months. A friend's dad whose special interest is pens recommended I find a restored vintage Waterman with a flex nib, which led me to eBay, which led me to said Waterman - plus a matched pair of 70's Lady Sheaffer fountain and ballpoint with a really cool pattern, another mystery Sheaffer (M nib, and SO SMOOVE), and now some bids on a few other things. Also a couple of Jinhao X159s are on the way that I'm going to set up with a gold broad and a silver 1.1 stub from Anderson. Everything has been <=$30 per purchase (um, except the inks, but we don't count those, right?) but I have to stop hitting the serotonin button for a while before I pen myself out of house and home. I would like to ask for some thread wisdom. The Vector has recently become scratchy as hell, like pulling up paper, and very very dry. It didn't write like that when I bought it, but I don't remember dropping it or anything so idk what's going on there other than that the nib's hosed. My question is whether there are any good nibs I can replace it with. They sell replacement assemblies but they're half the price of the pen and that seems ridiculous. I wouldn't mind testing out an italic or music nib if that's a possibility, though. Any thoughts?
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Aug 9, 2023 04:05
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CK07 posted:Everything has been <=$30 per purchase (um, except the inks, but we don't count those, right?) correct
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Aug 9, 2023 04:14
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CK07 posted:Hello, thread. I have slowly been getting into fountain pens over the last few years after an impulse purchase of a Kaweco Perkeo. A wonderful brass-body Traveler pocket pen and a lovely Parker Vector came next, plus a gifted Eco. All F nibs to this point. Congrats on starting your pen journey! Soon you'll be looking at $100 pens and thinking, 'Well, thats not such a bad price...' Without seeing the nib in person, it can be hard to diagnose why a nib started to become scratchy. Did you switch to a much dryer ink? A wet ink will write more smoothly than a dry one. If its not that, do you have access to a loupe or magnifying glass? It could be that the nibs tines got a little out of alignment and aren't delivering ink to the page as well as they should. Try checking this link for tips on diagnosing nibs. If you look at it and decide to get another nib, it is possible to put a #5.5 size nib in the Vector's nib housing which will open you up to a ton of new point sizes. A kanwrite nib should only cost a couple bucks and you can remove the old nib by following this video: https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/ramle2/how_to_remove_the_parker_vector_fp_feed_and_nib/. Then its just a matter of aligning the new nib with the feed and pushing it back in. Also, did you mean the Jinhao 159? They take #6 size nibs, but the x159 uses a larger #8 size nib which would be incompatable with anything smaller.
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Aug 9, 2023 05:07
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Chip McFuck posted:Congrats on starting your pen journey! Soon you'll be looking at $100 pens and thinking, 'Well, thats not such a bad price...' quote:Without seeing the nib in person, it can be hard to diagnose why a nib started to become scratchy. Did you switch to a much dryer ink? A wet ink will write more smoothly than a dry one. I haven't used it in so long that I don't recall what I had in it before, but I believe I loaded the converter this time with an orange FWP ink, Main St. Marmalade. (it's pretty ugly imo but I was going to use it for penmanship practice). I don't think I have enough experience to say whether FWP tends to be on the drier side, but it hasn't been a problem for me in other pens. quote:If its not that, do you have access to a loupe or magnifying glass? It could be that the nibs tines got a little out of alignment and aren't delivering ink to the page as well as they should. Try checking this link for tips on diagnosing nibs. quote:If you look at it and decide to get another nib, it is possible to put a #5.5 size nib in the Vector's nib housing which will open you up to a ton of new point sizes. A kanwrite nib should only cost a couple bucks and you can remove the old nib by following this video: https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/ramle2/how_to_remove_the_parker_vector_fp_feed_and_nib/. Then its just a matter of aligning the new nib with the feed and pushing it back in. There's the hot tip, thank you! quote:Also, did you mean the Jinhao 159? They take #6 size nibs, but the x159 uses a larger #8 size nib which would be incompatable with anything smaller.  Back to eBay, I guess. I though I ordered 159s but I didn't know there was such a thing as an x159. This is like the third time I've made a mistake like this. Hopefully this will be the lesson that sticks. At least the pens are cheap. I'll give one of the x159s to my dad, he's got monster mitts but is likely to lose a pen within days. Thanks so much for your expert knowledge.
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Aug 9, 2023 05:27
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It's been a month past the estimated delivery date and my Meisterstuck 121 disappeared into the mail between Austria and the US. Mein herz brennt tinte für mein stift
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Aug 9, 2023 06:18
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CK07 posted:This is like learning that my biological maternal uncle was bald. I know what it means, I know it's inevitable, but I'm going to ignore the truth as long as possible. If it’s been so long you’ve forgotten what ink is in the pen, I’d suggest flushing and cleaning it out as a starting place.
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Aug 9, 2023 12:23
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I know I cleaned it before I stored it, but I'll try this anyway. Thanks.
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Aug 9, 2023 13:54
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My new Delta needs a sammich Skinnier than a #2 pencil, but I love all my weird Delta children
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Aug 10, 2023 21:30
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grack posted:My new Delta needs a sammich Ooh, I like that. Sleek.
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Aug 11, 2023 01:01
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grack posted:My new Delta needs a sammich What was going on in Italy? Why did they make this pen so skinny?
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Aug 12, 2023 03:57
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manglar posted:What was going on in Italy? Why did they make this pen so skinny? They mixed up their pen body extruders and their pasta extruders.
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Aug 12, 2023 04:18
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The pen was made in the 80's when super skinny pens were in fashion. It was also made by Reform or Elysee in Germany and rebranded by Delta. This model is from the very earliest days when Delta had limited production capacity.
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Aug 12, 2023 06:28
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TWSBI out out a 580ALR in Sunset Yellow and I was looking forward to completing my set of all seven colors, but honestly, the pictures make it look way closer to orange.
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Aug 12, 2023 17:25
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grack posted:The pen was made in the 80's when super skinny pens were in fashion. It's a pretty neat pen. How do you fill it? Is it standard cartridge/converter or something weird? I say this because it reminds me of the "slimline" Sheaffer Targas. Those are cool and old Sheaffer nibs are always great, but the compromise to get them to be skinnier than a regular Targa (which is already skinny by today's standards) was that they require specially-sized cartridges or a specific converter. The neck size is incompatible with regular Sheaffer cartridges, and naturally the slim cartridges and matching converters are out of production. 
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Aug 12, 2023 19:54
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