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it's a neat exercise to do like... once? just so you have that experience under your belt and you can better reason about how your pen functions.
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Jan 19, 2024 17:59
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One can buy like 6-8 Jinhaos from aliexpress for the price of the ahab, choose the three that are at least decent, then go to town tuning the nibs to have three pretty good pens. Not sure exactly what market the Ahab is for. Back when I was taking notes by hand every day and rotating pens regularly, the goulet pen tuning kit and a few minutes per pen turned most of my chinapen collection from meh to pretty drat usable.
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Jan 19, 2024 19:26
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Ooh, got something pretty in today. I need to figure out how to take decent pictures of the damned thing, but I got a Pilot Justus 95 Stripe with an adjustable nib. Very interesting
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Jan 19, 2024 22:21
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I've wanted one of those for ages. It's such a weird seeming, though cool, pen
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Jan 20, 2024 00:14
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cruft posted:Oh, hey, I've got an Ahab I'm never gonna use! Want it, cool av OP? Goon discount: $0 That's an incredibly generous offer and I can't imagine I'd beat that price anywhere else! Is the green/white one second from the top available?
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Jan 20, 2024 01:28
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and also you're gonna want to tweak the nib immediately anyway.
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tangy yet delightful posted:That's an incredibly generous offer and I can't imagine I'd beat that price anywhere else! Is the green/white one second from the top available? Haha, that's the Ahab with the flexible nib. PM me your address and I'll mail it to you. I think if you're doing calligraphy this might be a pretty swell pen. You probably don't need the ink to last for months, and you probably don't care if you can get an extra-fine line on cheap paper.
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Jan 20, 2024 16:16
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Is that ebonite pen still available? I'm interested
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Jan 20, 2024 18:13
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grack posted:Is that ebonite pen still available? I'm interested I said I'd give it to someone if nobody else expressed interest, but you just did that, so it's yours if you PM me your address! Still available: * Red piston fill * Turquoise piston fill with the repaired screw * Clear fountain pen rollerball
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Jan 20, 2024 19:07
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cruft posted:I said I'd give it to someone if nobody else expressed interest, but you just did that, so it's yours if you PM me your address! I've never owned a piston filler before. Can I get dibs on that, if no one else has? Edit: Which ever of the two is the most piston filler newbie friendly.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:37
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cruft posted:I said I'd give it to someone if nobody else expressed interest, but you just did that, so it's yours if you PM me your address! I'd like the turquoise one, but I don't have pms. Mad Hamish posted:Just how much fiddling do they require, anyway? Like, what counts as fiddling? There's a few degrees of fiddling you can do. The most basic one is just pulling the nib and feed and adjusting the distance between the tips of them. Further away is drier, generally. If it's a flexible steel nib, that also means it'll flex more (and probably railroad a ton). This is the fiddling the little infosheet you'd get with the pen says to do, and generally you'd just find a suitable setting, and then note the number of fins you can see on the feed, in case you want to take the nib and feed out later for cleaning or whatever. It's easy, there's usually a slot in the section for the nib, you just have to worry about having the feed centered right, and your hands will be covered in ink. Next is heat-seating the feed. I never felt the need to do this to anything, so as far as I know it's a bit like moulding a mouthguard, but for the feed in relation to the nib, rather than a mouthguard to your teeth. Since I never looked into it, I have no idea how it works to not just end up too tight and not let any ink through. But people seem to swear by it, and I can see why it might be necessary if you've got a hand-cut feed or something. The last level of fiddling involves cutting into the body of the nib. Removing material from below the shoulders makes it more flexible, sensible enough. Personally, I'd sooner just go to an art store and buy some nice thin steel dip nibs and use those, rather than spend ages dremelling bits out of the markedly thicker stainless nib in an attempt to make it as flexible as a gold or thin steel one is. But it does seem to work, to a point. I doubt you're going to end up with anything quite as flexible, though. Incidentally, thinking of all this reminded me that this tiny FPR pen I have also wants a degree of fiddling (it's also a bit more flexible, because it's got a smaller nib, I guess). I haven't heard anyone mention FPR in ages though — did people just get tired of the novelty of a pen that smells weird until you leave it in a windowsill for a week, or what?
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Jan 21, 2024 00:20
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I like my FPR pen but I suspect part of it is just Chinese pens getting incredibly good in the past few years. They're fine pens but that price range has gotten way more solid and reliable overall.
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Jan 21, 2024 08:41
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Zenostein posted:I'd like the turquoise one, but I don't have pms. Let's fix that! Send an email to somethingawful.lent598@passmail.net and we'll get you taken care of. Anybody want the fountain pen rollerball? It's quirky!
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Jan 21, 2024 16:33
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cruft posted:Let's fix that! Send an email to somethingawful.lent598@passmail.net and we'll get you taken care of. Has anyone grabbed the red piston filler? I'd love to own a piston filling pen!
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Jan 21, 2024 17:12
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Dolemite posted:Has anyone grabbed the red piston filler? I'd love to own a piston filling pen! The only thing nobody has requested at this point is the rollerball. But not everybody has sent me their address, so PM me yours and who knows, maybe you'll get a pen. I'll try to mail things out before Saturday, but I will advise everybody to not hold their breath. If I asked you to PM me your address and you haven't done that yet, do that, or Dolemite here gets your pen!
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Jan 22, 2024 23:50
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I'll just PM you my address 20 times.
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Jan 23, 2024 00:33
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cruft posted:Let's fix that! Send an email to somethingawful.lent598@passmail.net and we'll get you taken care of. Alright, mail sent. Thanks again! Sankis posted:I like my FPR pen but I suspect part of it is just Chinese pens getting incredibly good in the past few years. They're fine pens but that price range has gotten way more solid and reliable overall. That's a good point, I'd forgotten they were also generally liked for being cheap. I guess after the few months where people cared about  vegetal resin they didn't have terribly much going for them beyond being cheap and offering "flexible" nibs. And most of their pens aren't really cheap, either. Certainly not compared to aliexpress prices. Although now that I've looked, they do have a nicely wide range of nib options, so that's neat.
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Jan 23, 2024 02:11
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cruft posted:The only thing nobody has requested at this point is the rollerball. But not everybody has sent me their address, so PM me yours and who knows, maybe you'll get a pen. PM'd. Pretty stoked to try a rollerball. Mega thanks!
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Jan 23, 2024 02:18
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Recently received a Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with an SM nib and a Custom 743 with an SM nib. The nibs are awesome, juicy, supple, smooth. However, the 912 has trouble with starting and I was wondering if it is the kon-peki I put in or something else. Anyone has experience with Pilot pens doing this? It is the first time I encounter this in the half dozen or so Pilots I own by now. edit: it seems the pen heard me and has been acting flawless since posting this. Keetron fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Jan 24, 2024 |
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Jan 24, 2024 09:36
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Keetron posted:Recently received a Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with an SM nib and a Custom 743 with an SM nib. Pilot Iroshizuku inks are probably the best behaved inks out there, I wouldn't blame the Kon-Peki. Could just be residual oils or particles from the nib fabrication process that needed clearing out.
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Jan 24, 2024 17:51
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If it was a new pen you probably just needed to rinse it out. You've probably gone through enough ink that it essentially cleaned itself.
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Jan 24, 2024 18:45
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Thank you both, that was probably it. The pen is really nice and juicy, the SM nibs write wet as can be without gushing. Absolutely how I like it, it makes for awesome shading on the right paper.
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Jan 24, 2024 19:46
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Been getting into journaling so I've been on a stationary kick and I kinda just went "Yaknow, I have a tenner spare to me, why not pick up the most no name Helix Oxford fountain pen and a box of cartridges and see where this takes me." I think this has been the best writing experience in my journal I've had. Real "Rick and Morty, perfectly flat surface" kinda energy. ConanThe3rd fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Jan 28, 2024 |
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Jan 28, 2024 12:01
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I promise I will get y'all's pens shipped out. It's just a weird time right now.
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Jan 30, 2024 20:58
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stealie72 posted:One can buy like 6-8 Jinhaos from aliexpress for the price of the ahab, choose the three that are at least decent, then go to town tuning the nibs to have three pretty good pens. TBH all the pens I've bought from Noodlers ended up broken, not working very well. So I thought they have been pretty bad value for money. Ink is good though. My overall best pen was the pilot metro until I dropped it and it broke. I've never tried the more expensive pens and I honestly never will put that kind of money into a pen.
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Feb 2, 2024 05:37
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The Metro punches so far above its weight even still.
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Feb 2, 2024 07:16
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The Metro is an amazing cheap pen and it really makes me wish Pilot had like, any mid-grade pens.
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Feb 2, 2024 07:28
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Looking at the amount of money I spent on pens and lego, I am so bad with money that mid grade pens would be nothing but a gateway drug.
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Feb 2, 2024 09:49
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How are we defining mid-range? I'd say the Prera definitely counts, and depending on where you're shopping maybe the decimo/VP/Custom 74 as well.
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Feb 2, 2024 15:07
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You can get the steel nib Capless/Vanishing Point pens pretty reasonably on eBay. They're on par with the gold nib ones imo, and the bodies are identical so you can just get a gold nib assembly and swap it out. I have a steel Fine and a gold stub that I swap out occasionally. Edit: this is the one I have and it's an excellent price for it, even with the shipping
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Feb 2, 2024 17:04
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I think of midrange as "more than thirty bucks but doesn't come with a gold nib option". Definitely will be disappointed if it's lost, but it's not the end of the world.
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Feb 2, 2024 17:20
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SixteenShells posted:I think of midrange as "more than thirty bucks but doesn't come with a gold nib option". Definitely will be disappointed if it's lost, but it's not the end of the world. twsbi eco is about that price, I believe
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Feb 2, 2024 17:46
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sb hermit posted:twsbi eco is about that price, I believe For some reason I had it in my head they were in the $50 range (might have been thinking of the limited run colors) but yeah, I love my Ecos. Great middle point in price and quality. Also my criteria do include the Preras - I haven't handled one more than once or twice but I think they're fine pens. Low side of mid, but I think still mid.
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Feb 2, 2024 17:54
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Sankis posted:I like my FPR pen but I suspect part of it is just Chinese pens getting incredibly good in the past few years. They're fine pens but that price range has gotten way more solid and reliable overall. I got a few chinese pens recently - a piston filler (asvine v126 in F) and a capless (majohn a2 in EF) - they work surprisingly well! Of course, YMMV for anyone considering a purchase.
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Feb 2, 2024 18:21
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sb hermit posted:I got a few chinese pens recently - a piston filler (asvine v126 in F) and a capless (majohn a2 in EF) - they work surprisingly well! Of course, YMMV for anyone considering a purchase. kind of like a delta?
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Feb 2, 2024 20:44
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TWSBI is a good example but for midrange I was envisioning the Diamond 580 ALR: something with a Metropolitan's steel nib, but bigger, with a sturdier cap and a piston fill.
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Feb 2, 2024 21:18
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Someone mentioned Delta and I appear. I haven't bought any Deltas in a bit because I can't find any good Deltas for reasonable prices Deltas DELTAS
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Feb 3, 2024 00:53
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What do you think of the revived Delta, grack? Seems like they're going for a more mid-range market than their previous offerings.
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Feb 3, 2024 01:06
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Rand Brittain posted:The Metro is an amazing cheap pen and it really makes me wish Pilot had like, any mid-grade pens. If you're absolutely dead-set on buying a pilot for between $50–$100, there's the cavalier, if you can find someplace that has them. The prera's real nice though.
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Feb 3, 2024 01:50
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Chip McFuck posted:What do you think of the revived Delta, grack? Seems like they're going for a more mid-range market than their previous offerings. Trash. I've tried three of the new models and they all had awful nibs. In fact, two of the three I tried were pens that someone gave me to adjust because they were awful out of the box. Maybe I'll work on some secondary collections for a while.
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Feb 3, 2024 01:53
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| # ? May 24, 2024 08:31 |
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TWSBI is what immediately pops into my head for mid-range stuff. Good quality steel nibs, integrated filling mechanisms, great capacity, and totally user-serviceable. They pretty much all punch above their weight, except for maybe the GO, but that's really their budget option.
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Feb 3, 2024 04:35
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