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Heath posted:Is there a preferred Noodler's red? I really love Black Swan in English Roses except that it's got some very long dry times on nice paper. Is there anything that's as friendly as Heart of Darkness? That stuff is basically a perfect ink. Not Noodler's, but Diamine makes two reds that I really like right now, Ancient Copper (they call it a brown) and Oxblood. But you probably already know about those.
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Nov 20, 2019 17:22
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Not Noodler's, but Diamine makes two reds that I really like right now, Ancient Copper (they call it a brown) and Oxblood. But you probably already know about those. I mean, depending on the paper Ancient Copper can definitely look brown. I used it for a while and the color varied a lot from a kind of rusty red to caramel-y brown to, well, copper-y orange when it dried, depending on what I was writing on. I'd call that a feature rather than a bug personally, though
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Nov 20, 2019 17:34
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Not Noodler's, but Diamine makes two reds that I really like right now, Ancient Copper (they call it a brown) and Oxblood. But you probably already know about those. I done away with almost all my pens but 2 metros. I done away all my inks but Ancient Copper and Oxblood.
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Nov 20, 2019 18:05
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Diamine Matador is also good.
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Nov 20, 2019 22:32
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https://twitter.com/GouletPens/status/1197623800650711041 Goulet just put out these pens and they look really cool. Are they likely to be any good?
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Nov 21, 2019 23:40
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Edison makes good pens, I'm sure they'll be fine.
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Nov 22, 2019 00:56
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inklesspen posted:https://twitter.com/GouletPens/status/1197623800650711041 I love my Edisons. These will be quality pens for sure.
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Nov 22, 2019 01:27
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 Don't forget to sign up for the Secret Santa! Stationery Targets 4 is open.
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Nov 22, 2019 01:30
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inklesspen posted:https://twitter.com/GouletPens/status/1197623800650711041 Most smaller pen companies tend to just use rebranded jowo or bock nibs. The main appeal is really then whether you like the body, filling mechanism, etc. It's not to say the nibs will be bad, they're actually probably quite good, but there's generally not much unique about the nibs. That said, if one is of interest you can probably be pretty sure it'll alreast write well. I've also heard good things about Edison in general so there's that too. Really the only entry to low-mid level brands I'd recommend approaching with an abundance of caution is monteverde and (modern) Conklin..
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Nov 22, 2019 02:26
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Heath posted:Is there a preferred Noodler's red? I really love Black Swan in English Roses except that it's got some very long dry times on nice paper. Is there anything that's as friendly as Heart of Darkness? That stuff is basically a perfect ink. Empire Red is alright, but it seems to be really fussy in finer-nibbed pens like my MUJI. I find that if I haven't written with it for a day or longer, it needs a squeeze on the cartridge and benefits from priming the pen with some Parallel ink on to the nib. The four red lines under the green 2.4mm lines are with it, although the first line has a bunch of the Parallel red as part of it, and I didn't squeeze the cartridge until the second line frustrated me.  It works fine in the Platinum Preppy medium and my Sheaffer pens with wider nibs though.
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Nov 23, 2019 18:51
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 Finally got myself a new pen. I'd been circling picking up a Pineider faux-Arco for a while, and when I saw that Chatterly had an even more limited rose gold version at a nice price I had to pull the trigger. I haven't used it a lot yet, but so far it's nice.
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Nov 25, 2019 20:48
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Just did my first usage of the converter that comes with the Pilot Metro. Luckily I didn't get any weird ink stains (I got some yesterday at work, but that's a whole different thing) and I love it. Used a Diamine Imperial Purple and it's the exact purple color that I like. One thing I noticed is that all writing/drawing ends up a lot thinner than the black cartridge that came with the metro. I like it, but I'm wondering if that makes sense for different inks to have a different consistency*? *I am very new to all this.
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Nov 26, 2019 00:50
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That's generally described in a few different ways. Depending on who you're talking to, it could be that the purple ink has a "drier" flow than the black does, or it could be that it doesn't soak into the paper as readily. Some inks will dump right into the paper, others will sit on top of it longer and give a finer line. Paper quality matters too - generally speaking, a cheaper paper will be more fibrous and tend to soak up more ink, and the line will "bleed" or "feather" a bit more than it would on nicer paper. Some inks will look absolutely gorgeous on one type of paper and look like total poo poo on another, while others will look good on nice paper, but won't dry as quickly, so they don't soak in and are vulnerable to being smeared. That same ink might work well on cheap paper because it tends to not feather as badly. Most of the time inks from a specific brand will behave mostly the same as any other ink from that brand, with the major exception being Noodler's inks, since they cover such a wide range of purposes and properties that may make an ink attractive even if it isn't the best behaved.
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Nov 26, 2019 01:06
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Fartington Butts posted:Just did my first usage of the converter that comes with the Pilot Metro. Luckily I didn't get any weird ink stains (I got some yesterday at work, but that's a whole different thing) and I love it. Used a Diamine Imperial Purple and it's the exact purple color that I like. Yep, ink is about more than just color, and you'll find inks where your nib will feel scratchy, or like it's gliding. Or the ink will dry super fast or slow. I just washed an ink out of my pen because the nib kept drying out if I paused for 10 seconds. Edit. If you want to try out a bunch of different inks, join the stationary secret santa and there's a good chance you'll get some ink samples. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3903619 Or buy a sampler pack from Goulet or another fountain pen shop. Giant Metal Robot fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Nov 26, 2019 |
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Nov 26, 2019 01:07
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I bought another Delta.
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Nov 26, 2019 18:45
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My brother in law has expressed some interest in fountain pens, and I'd like to get him a nice-ish one along with a bottle of ink. He's got a couple of FPs already, but they're both mass-produced brands I've never heard of that he grabbed off a random Amazon search and neither writes very well at all. It's been a while since I got into FPs, what are the go-to beginner pens, if I'm looking to spend maybe $40-50 with ink? Are the Metro, Safari, and TWSBI Eco still the standby entry-level pens, or is there something else out there I should consider?
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Nov 26, 2019 19:16
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Get a Metro. Comes in stub, medium, or fine - any idea which of those he'd prefer?
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Nov 26, 2019 19:18
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TWSBI ECO demonstrators are about $30 and are cooler and better than a Metro unless you want a stuffy traditional looking pen. (in my opinion of course)
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Nov 26, 2019 20:12
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How did the TWSBI Go end up being? Is it just an Eco with a different fill mechanism?
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Nov 26, 2019 21:59
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Personally I really like mine. The nib is surprisingly decent for a cheap pen, which continues to impress my older coworker who finds all his older pens with fine nibs to be insufferably scratchy.
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Nov 26, 2019 22:20
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RichterIX posted:How did the TWSBI Go end up being? Is it just an Eco with a different fill mechanism? The TWSBI Go is great, but it's not just an Eco with a different fill mechanism. The Go has a more curved geometry, where the Eco is basically a straight cylinder. The Go also has a slightly larger overall diameter and shorter overall length. The cap on the Go is the clicky type, not a screw-on, and does not have a clip. The Go also feels like it's made out of a different material, like a softer plastic instead of the hard plastic Eco.
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Nov 27, 2019 00:07
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The Go is made of softer plastic and thus slightly less likely to shatter in to a thousand pieces and fire a cloud of razor-sharp shrapnel at your eyes. Slightly
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Nov 27, 2019 02:07
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grack posted:The Go is made of softer plastic and thus slightly less likely to shatter in to a thousand pieces and fire a cloud of razor-sharp shrapnel at your eyes. You seem to have experience with this which is weird because you would never cheat on your Deltas???
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Nov 27, 2019 04:34
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Lowness 72 posted:You seem to have experience with this which is weird because you would never cheat on your Deltas??? I've handled a Go at a local pen shop. Bastard, trying to drive a wedge between me and my Deltas.
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Nov 27, 2019 06:15
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Cool, thanks. It's been hard to tell from pictures about the shape, I think I prefer the straighter lines of the Eco. I already have a 580 which I love but the 1.1 stub makes it annoying to use on things that aren't my own notebooks.
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Nov 27, 2019 16:54
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RichterIX posted:Cool, thanks. It's been hard to tell from pictures about the shape, I think I prefer the straighter lines of the Eco. I already have a 580 which I love but the 1.1 stub makes it annoying to use on things that aren't my own notebooks. I really dislike the feel of my Go -- both the feeling of the plastic and it's shape. Ecos and 580s are much better in the hand, to my mind. On the other hand, the filling mechanism is neat and it holds a lot of ink.
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Nov 28, 2019 00:40
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MohShuvuu posted:Are there cheaper 1.1 stub alternatives for the TWSBI 580 ALR? $20 for a nib seems a bit steep. Twsbi includes the section in addition to the nib itself, right?
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Nov 28, 2019 14:44
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$20 for a replacement German nib is actually about market price these days.
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Nov 28, 2019 18:05
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 Gorgeous transparent red and black celluloid layering on a Surgens fountain pen (circa 1950). For what little I have been able to gather, Surgens was part of a group of small Italian penmakers which made and sold celluloid for first-line brands, and occasionally put up models of their own for sale. While not going so low as to be completely nameless, the pen has no delusions of grandeur either: the clip and band are straight-up brass with no traces of having ever been gold-plated, and while they seem to have also made their own nibs, most of the examples that I could find on the Internet seem to mount cheap third-party nibs. In this case, it has a steel Becquer nib, which was made by another small pen merchant in Madrid; it seems to be another case in which importing the structure and monting the nib in-situ was more profitable. In short, not at all a pen in which you'd expect to find such pretty (and sturdy!) celluloid work, but they clearly played to their strengths there. Below, a shot of how the pen looks under normal light (after some polishing work). It shows as mostly black with the occasional red streak appearing under the light, it is a rather elegant effect. 
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Dec 4, 2019 14:54
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Last chance to sign up for the Fountain Pen Secret Santa! Sign-ups are closing Friday night at midnight PST.
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Dec 13, 2019 01:12
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Is there the equivalent of a lego minifigure grab bag for pens? A dozen collectible pens, and you're basically doing a roulette for which one you get. One of the people on my list has expressed an unexpected desire for quality pens but also really loves kind of kitschy stuff like randomized collectibles and if I could combine the two that'd make me happy and be a fun surprise. Otherwise I'm probably just going to get them a Lamy like the one I've got, because it writes really well in all kinds of weather and has made it through two years of daily use.
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Dec 13, 2019 02:30
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I got a spare parts Parker 45 flighter to fix the one I had, which had a broken end knob and had lost the plating in the mid metal ring. When I bought the second 45, I knew the nib was messed up, but I didn't care since the one I had writes great. When it arrived, well... see if you can spot the penhack (new cap on the left, old and correct cap on the right): Yep, someone got the clip and upper jewel torn up from the cap. And then, they reattached it by... cutting two slits on the metal cap by the old clip, neatly rolling the spare steel under the clip (whick I am sure took some tools and skill to do, the metal is hard) and then putting clip and jewel back by, apparently, using a hammer to secure it inside the metal cap. It "works" in that the clip is firm, but the inner blind cap gets displaced by 5mm or so. So the pen no longer closes completely, because the nib touches the inner blind cap before the cap can reach the metal ring that makes it click. It still closes, just not fully. Well, unless...  ... unless you apply the right amount of force, of course  (this was a 14k gold nib, by the way, not a steel-plated one).So I got a complete Parker 45, with the gold trim parts, converter and barrel from this one and the metal cap and nib from the older one. And I got a bunch of broken parts: a metal trim jewel and arrow, a messed-up cap, a squished nib, a flaky cap ring and a barrel without a knob. So I decided to mess around a bit with them, and...  ... I ended up putting together which may very well be the worst Parker 45 out there (pictured, under the restored one). I hammered the blind cap back to where it should be, so now it closes, though it has a black part sticking out on the top because the steel under it has been deformed. The flaky ring was polished to remove (most of) the metal plating, so it's now brass-coloured. The missing knob was replaced with a custom-made FIMO one, though it still needs a bit of sanding up.  The nib took a bit of work: I ended up having to shave the hard rubber feeder down a bit so there'd be enough space for the point to stick up. Iridiums are gone (one of them was missing from the beginning anyway) and the entire thing was straightened, the point rolled down a bit and and sanded up with sandpaper until I got a smooth, regular shape. It'll wear up since it's just gold with no tipping, but I think it should remain a smooth writer even if it gets a bit broader with time.  And they both write
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Dec 21, 2019 14:50
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Hey there, been checking out this thread and now I am also slowly starting to have that thought of "maybe I should get a fountain pen". I barely write except for work and my handwriting with them in school was atrocious but might be fun just for the sake of trying it out again. So, I got no idea what kinda pen to look for though. I know I want a Pelikan for a couple reasons, but I don't actually know what they got available and such to make a informed decision. I do know that goons here apparently like the M800 a lot if I am not wrong but that's about it. If anyone got any suggestions I'd love to hear them
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Dec 23, 2019 10:20
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If haven't tried a fountain pen yet I would not just jump into buying a very premium pen because if you don't like the style of writing or the upkeep you need to do it will just sit on the shelf or you will take a massive financial hit selling it. Try a budget Pilot or Parker first to see how it goes, yes they won't be as smooth but you get all the experiance, both good and bad, without having to spend a lot of money. If you know you like fountain pens then you can start looking at higher end pens. If not then a number of pen makers make very good rollerball versions of pens. I know Parker dosen't get much love here but that could just be an availability thing as Pilots are harder to find in Britain. The non-premium versons of the IM and Urban can be found for under £20 and look classy. Lamy is a go too for the cheap end but but not fit the look.
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Dec 23, 2019 11:35
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Yeah I have one of the IMs and it’s a good starter pen, on a par with the metro imo.
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Dec 23, 2019 12:40
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Try a twsbi eco. That's a good first pen.
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Dec 23, 2019 13:44
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An eco is especially good choice if you're interested in a Pelikan since they're both piston fillers so it's a cheap introduction to that style of pen.
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Dec 23, 2019 15:58
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Greader posted:Hey there, been checking out this thread and now I am also slowly starting to have that thought of "maybe I should get a fountain pen". I barely write except for work and my handwriting with them in school was atrocious but might be fun just for the sake of trying it out again. Having just started using fountain pens, I've tried out the ~$15 Pilot Metros and the ~$30 TWSBI Ecos and they felt good, but - I kid you not - so far my favorite pen right now is ~$4-5 Platinum Preppy. The Preppy comes with a converter so you don't have to mess with anything right off the bat. I love a super fine pen, and it's Japanese, so it fits the bill there, and since it's so cheap you could get a few different nib sizes to see what kind you like before buying more expensive pens. It's very lightweight plastic, which I found out I really like over the metal pens, even relatively light ones like the Metro. I also followed very simple instructions to seal the Preppy so I could put my own inks in it via eyedropper rather than using a converter, and doing this allows it to hold an absolute ton of ink, so the pen has the capability of writing for ages before needing a refill.
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Dec 23, 2019 17:27
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Greader posted:Hey there, been checking out this thread and now I am also slowly starting to have that thought of "maybe I should get a fountain pen". I barely write except for work and my handwriting with them in school was atrocious but might be fun just for the sake of trying it out again. If you're already considering the M800 maybe you can hop in at the shallow end and try a M200.
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Dec 23, 2019 17:50
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The Preppy is a hella good pen. The body is cheap but the nib is the same one you would get on a higher-level Platinum pen and thus is quite good.
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Dec 23, 2019 18:17
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