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Feb 7, 2013 06:13
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I accidentally ended up with a bottle of Baystate Blue (ordered Black, it was in the box for Black) and liked it well enough I just kept it. It was on Amazon, I probably should have sent a heads up that the ink was mixed up but I never got around to it. So that got me all set for bright blue but I'm still working through some blue-black samples and also trying to decide on which flavor of black ink I want to stick with. I'm more interested in having a bunch of shades of ink that I use in cheap pens than in collecting expensive pens, honestly. I like having non-black shades because I often have to write comments on documents sent to me for review (or will comment on my own documents for editing purposes) and it's nice to have something that will stand out. At work I write on sticky notes, yellow legal pads, and cheap copy paper. I don't think I'd know what to do with nice paper. The absolute worst paper I have written on was a pad of sticky notes with Baystate Blue in a Guanleming 2001. It feathered so badly it looked like I had soaked the paper before writing on it.
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Feb 14, 2013 05:02
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I finally broke out my sample of Noodler's Antietam. I...am probably gonna have to buy a bottle of this.  edit: I like to dillute my samples after testing them out full strength to make them go a little farther. I've been using this ink dilluted pretty heavily on a yellow notepad and the result is this gorgeous dark peach color. I may regret it when I have to go back and read these notes, but for now I'm having a lot of fun writing a bunch of boring work stuff. Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 05:06
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I was looking at the Vac700 last night, and also looking at the Mini. I don't have any pens with an EF nib at the moment either and that looked like a good option with the Mini to have something to use with the pocket notebook I keep in my bag, but my pen budget tends to linger in the "under $20" range so I just keep thinking "man I could buy a lot of ink with that money instead..." 
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Feb 27, 2013 22:53
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What are your thoughts on posting caps? I thought it was weird to write with a pen without having the cap posted for a long time, not in the least because "how else am I supposed to keep track of that thing?" But recently I've been writing with my pens without posting and I...think I'm ok with it. Also if you don't post, what do you do with the cap? I've been standing it up on my desk, it seems more deliberate that way than just tossing it down anywhere and having it get shuffled underneath some papers or something.
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Mar 18, 2013 18:53
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I first got really interested in fountain pens about 10 years ago, but didn't have the resources (access, funds, knowledge) to do more than pick up a couple of busted flea-market pens, a dip pen drawing set, and some sort of crappy thing that leaked and was semi-disposable. Running across the previous iteration of this thread rekindled that interest and all the links that have been posted have been really helpful. I'm still restricting myself to cheap pens at the moment but I've learned a little more about what I want and expect out of a pen with each one without making myself completely broke. I never imagined that I'd become a person who watched videos on youtube about pens though. 
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Mar 19, 2013 00:31
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Xovaan posted:If you guys are looking for bulletproof inks, I'm thinking of tossing up an SA Mart thread for my Bad Blue Heron and Eternal Hunter Green inks since I can't get the Blue Heron to write well in my Lamy and I wanna try a Pilot green for my pens next. If there's interest I'll do it. I'm interested! I was thinking about buying a bottle of Bad Blue Heron because I got a sample and really liked the color.
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Mar 21, 2013 19:26
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I felt like the Chinese pens I bought were a good place to get started, if nothing else to learn what I didn't like in a pen. Having virtually no worth also meant that if I wanted to take them apart or gently caress around with the nibs, no great loss if I screwed them up. I actually got one of them writing a lot better after spending a little time on it with a nail buffer, although it's probably horribly screwed up and I just don't know it. 
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Apr 2, 2013 06:37
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The one I have I mostly just use for trying out ink samples because it's quicker and easier than cleaning out a regular pen. I wouldn't want to write with it for any length of time at all.
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Apr 7, 2013 06:11
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What do y'all keep your pens and pen accessories in? I'm starting to accumulate some quantity of "pen stuff" like extra converters (I don't like the squeezy ones so I always swap them out) and the like. Right now I just have my small items in an empty Altoids tin, and the pens that aren't currently in use are stuffed in the box my Metropolitan came in. As long as I don't get anything new, this is working OK but we all know that's unlikely so I need to figure out a better storage solution. I keep all my pen stuff at work in my desk so I've been looking at things like roll-up pen cases on JetPens because I don't really have room for a big box or anything.
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May 14, 2013 17:36
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Thanks for the case ideas. I'd love to get one of those leather cases but they're a little outside what I'm willing to spend. I finally decided to get a small zippered case that I'll be able to drop into my bag and carry around if needed.
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May 15, 2013 23:21
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I got to chat a little about fountain pens with one of the just-graduated students who volunteers with our agency today.  He's planning to use them for note taking in college so I gave him some links and pulled out my tiny collection of sub- pens for him to try out, because he was using a Zebra V-301 and having problems with it skipping.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:49
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I bought a Pilot Plumix as an inexpensive way to try out an italic nib as an everyday writer. I like writing with it, but I absolutely hate the cap. So I was really excited to learn that I can put the nib on my Metro, which I just finished doing. 
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Jun 17, 2013 17:56
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protip: don't wave away a fly with a fountain pen in your hand 
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Jun 21, 2013 16:27
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Inksplosion. I made blue splatters all the way across my desk, on my monitor, and finally up the wall.
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Jun 21, 2013 17:49
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Is it possible to get one of the Noodler's flex nibs (or some other flex nib I dunno) that will fit in a regular Noodler's piston-fill pen? (I'm never exactly sure what to call this one, it's the one without a cool name I guess?). I don't really want ANOTHER pen but I do want to play with a flex nib. edit: Looking at Noodler's site this pen uses a #2 nib, so I could potentially just scour the internet for any #2 flex nib right? Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jul 16, 2013 |
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Jul 16, 2013 20:32
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A Plumix is like $8 though, so even if you're just buying it for the nib it isn't that bad. I'm using the nib from one in my Metro and it was definitely worth swapping them out.
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Jul 26, 2013 17:22
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I use a syringe for ink all the time, mostly for cartridge refils but also to fill up eyedropper pens or put ink into vials for travel so I'm not toting a whole bottle around. They're a handy thing to have around. I have a beater pen that I'd like to pull the nib off of -- it leaks and is too damaged to bother with fixing, and as far as I can tell it's just a low-end old pen with a surprisingly flexible steel nib -- but I suspect that it's all glued together because nothing unscrews to come apart. What will be the best way to loosen this thing up, especially if I don't really give a poo poo about saving any of the rest of it? Hairdryer? Heat gun? Open flame? A hammer? 
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Aug 7, 2013 23:52
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:If you're ever going to own or work on vintage pens, a heat gun will be invaluable. I don't know how else to describe it since that's what it does 
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Aug 8, 2013 06:24
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This isn't a modern pen. poo poo's old, yo.
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Aug 8, 2013 07:52
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I'm using Bad Black Moccasin as my main black ink, it isn't quite as flat/dark as some of the other black inks so be aware of that. I picked up a bunch of samples and preferred it over some of the others.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:54
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I have about 10 samples of various blue-blacks/dark blues (I do lean toward the more tealish/greenish ones) that I'm slowly working through. It'll probably be a while before I see all of them since I'm reusing a cartridge and getting a full fill each time so I can write with each one for a while and really get a feel for it. The list: Diamine Denim Diamine Twilight Noodler's 54th Massachusetts Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black Noodler's Blue Black Noodler's Navy Noodler's Q'Ternity Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (Moonlight) Private Reserve Ebony Blue Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris So far I've used 54th Massachusetts and Verdigris, and I will suggest the latter if you really like 54th Mass but want something with less green. They are very similar but the Verdigris is slightly more blue.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:57
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Lord Girlyman posted:A little far back, but I look forward to hearing what goons have to say on Q'Ternity. An ultra quick drying blue-black is something that I ache for dearly. I'll use that one next then and see if I can form some sort of useful opinion. For my own purposes I am really just looking at color, shading (because I write with a big ole fat italic nib and shading is fun), and if it behaves reasonably well on the various lovely papers I use at work.
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Sep 7, 2013 06:26
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Meldonox posted:I have a Preppy I plan on converting once the cartridge it came with runs out, but I'm terrified of it doing something like that. If I had more confidence with it I'd use it instead of my 580 and Safari for my boring colors, but my black and blue-black are Noodler's bulletproof monstrosities. As much as I like 54th Mass I don't know if I want to commit my 580 to it. I keep an eyedropper Preppy full of Baystate Blue. Converting is so easy and it holds a gob of ink, but as was suggested earlier it just sits on my desk and never travels anywhere. The Pilot 78G is also an easy eyedropper conversion and has a screw-on cap that seals up pretty tight. PlushCow posted:Months ago I thought it was silly to spend $20 on just one pen, ONE PEN, I could get a box of ballpoints with that, but now spending $100+ on a pen and some inks I just don't know sometimes! Y'know I still don't feel the need to spend a huge amount of money on a pen. I'd say $50 would be my upper limit for a new pen; when I'm browsing websites I lose interest and stop looking once I get much over that price point. If I was going to pay the big bucks it would probably be to get something vintage. Although speaking of new pens I've been thinking about getting a Kaweco Sport to use primarily as a purse pen. Does anyone know how well they do in a bag being jostled around? (since that seems to be kinda what they're made for...) Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Sep 14, 2013 |
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Sep 13, 2013 23:22
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aldantefax posted:poo poo. Iroshizuku inks are 20 bucks on Amazon right now and I have Prime. I'm gonna get that Tsuki-yo, but what else? Yama-budo? Asa-gao? Oh poo poo! I had some reward points hoarded up that were crying out to be used on ink so I got Tsuki-yo, Shin-Ryoku, Fuyu-Gaki, Fuyu-Syogun, and Tsukushi. edit: Since I said I'd use Q'Ternity next, here is a scan and a photo. Paper is cheap graph paper (the only large paper I had that wasn't yellow) and a generic unlined journal that I'm using as an ink journal. The 1 second checkmark smeared slightly but I don't think it showed up on the scan, and just for giggles I ran a wet finger across the scribbled lines but it started messing up the paper so I didn't take that any further. The journal photo washed the colors out pretty bad because the light in my office is kind of awful, so that image has been edited to try and show a true representation of each color but I was not that successful. To my eye in person they are much closer together with that greenish-blue dark spruce color; Verdigris is slightly more blue, and 54th/QT are similar but QT is the darkest of the bunch. Also it stinks a bit.  
Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Sep 24, 2013 |
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Sep 24, 2013 17:50
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Buy a Pilot Plumix for $7, yank the nibs out and swap them.
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Sep 24, 2013 21:45
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I decided to use JetPens' 40% off on various notebooks code to try out a bunch of different ones. Mainly I really wanted one of those Rhodia meeting books, because I take notes for meetings all the time and that looked like it would have a lot of utility for me and would help me keep all my meeting minutes and notes in one place. Just for everyday notes and idle scribbles I have a hard time justifying Rhodia prices though.
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Oct 8, 2013 18:25
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I had a couple of things wishlisted so thanks for the heads up, just put in an order.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:42
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I ended up with a bottle of BSB accidentally (it was supposed to be Black) and I just keep it in an eyedropper Preppy. If it stains or otherwise ruins it, whatever I'll replace it with another Preppy. I didn't plan on buying it but it's a great blue and I liked it well enough that I didn't care about the mistake. As long as I can keep buying sub-$20 pens that write perfectly well I will spend all my penbux on inks instead.
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Nov 14, 2013 20:52
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I had an accident filling one of my pens and walked around with green fingers for like three days because that poo poo would NOT come off. I'm usually a little inky around the fingertips but this was bad because it had run down between all of my fingers and across my palm; I'd pretty much spilled it everywhere and was more concerned with cleaning up the pen and the sink before I washed it off my hand so it had time to really set up.
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Nov 23, 2013 01:12
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One of my coworkers had her 5 year old at the office and was letting him sort of free-range around while we worked on some stuff. I had one of my pens in the room where we were working and didn't notice that he'd slipped around and grabbed it off the desk. Fortunately it was my Konrad and the cap was screwed on nice and tight, so it wasn't the disaster it could have been. Unfortunately those caps have a screw-on end and I don't know if the clip was keeping it from sealing or what, but after he completely filled the cap with ink by shaking the pen it leaked a bit so he ended up with red hands, his mom got red hands taking it away from him, and he splattered some on the carpet. When I was cleaning it up he saw the dismantled pen and thought it was broken and apologized for taking it. My coworker said that was the most serious apology she has ever heard out of him.
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Dec 4, 2013 23:43
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His Divine Shadow posted:Anyone else using a Pilot Parallel with 6mm wide nib for a highligther? I don't but that's the plan. I would if possible move the nib to some other pen as the standard body is quite ugly. I was planning on doing this, but I ended up getting one of those really wide italic Goulet nibs and I'm going to try it with some flourescent ink in my Konrad. If I need a dedicated highlighter more often (or if the Konrad-as-highlighter doesn't work out as well in reality as it does in my head) I'll probably pick up a Parallel. The 6mm seemed really wide though, when I was looking at them previously I probably would have picked one of the smaller ones. Everything Burrito fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 18:50
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Soricidus posted:Paper makes a huge difference. Rhodia/Clairefontaine are the usual ones people suggest. I'm quite fond of Black n' Red notebooks myself. This in turn leads to needing to buy some of that pink blotter paper and then maybe some desk accessories like a fine handcrafted wood blotter
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Jan 24, 2014 20:28
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If I need to carry ink around I just use one of those little plastic sample vials. Have never seen much need to pay $15+ for a special bottle or inkwell when those work just fine -- other than the style factor since the vials are not sexy at all. There's not even much to clean up if I carry a pen with a converter and fill it straight from the vial vs sucking it through the pen. I bought a big bag of them for pretty cheap, they're also handy for mixing colors or dilluting.
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Feb 1, 2014 19:30
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Just a note about nibs and Metros: you can spend $7 or so and pick up a Plumix and swap its italic nib onto your Metro if you want something other than fine or medium. That's what I have on mine right now.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:31
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I think I'm finally gonna have to toss the Preppy I was using for BSB. Not sure if the ink gummed it up or what but recently it's gotten to where it won't start and skips all the time. I'll probably give it one last good cleaning and see if that clears up the problem and if not, oh well. It wrote pretty well when it worked and saved my other pens from being stained so it has served its purpose.
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Feb 6, 2014 03:30
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Minenfeld! posted:As nice as BSB is, I've never found it worth the headache to use over other blue inks. I'm currently enamored with Noodler's Henry Hudson Blue, Air-Corps Blue Black and Pelikan's Royal Blue. Give me a well-behaved and benign ink any day. I didn't actually buy it on purpose. It was supposed to be a bottle of Noodler's Black but I liked it well enough that it wasn't worth the trouble of sending it back. It's a nice color but I don't think I would buy it intentionally. I'll take some ammonia with me to work tomorrow; all my pens are at work but my cleaning supplies are at home which is a little inconvenient. I have another pen I've been meaning to clean out and put away because I have too many inked currently so I need some anyway.
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Feb 6, 2014 06:32
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Solkanar512 posted:Try some diluted ammonia. I had BSB dried to the feed of my Vac 700 and it cleaned it right off. That worked, looks like I'll get more use out of my $4 than expected. I had to pull the whole nib & feed to get at whatever was clogging it up.
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Feb 6, 2014 22:22
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A pretty inexpensive option for an italic pen that is an easy conversion to eyedropper fill is the Sheaffer No-Nonsense. They are/were sold in calligraphy sets and if you want the whole set you can get the pen plus all 3 nibs for like $10-$15 on ebay. I've heard the newer ones are to be avoided so stick to the vintage sets. I have one that I guesstimate is from the 80s(mostly based on when I got it, which was forever ago at a flea market when I was in high school) that was my very first fountain pen. It writes great but has always been a bit leaky even when I was using cartridges so it's probably not that suitable for carrying around. I keep it on my desk and I've left it for weeks without writing with it and it has never dried up. The barrel is pretty large so it holds a ton of ink. I like to use it for addressing envelopes at work. It's the second one from the right in this photo: 
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Feb 12, 2014 00:14
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milpreve posted:What is the last pen (right-most) in the photo? Unmarked hard rubber so beyond that...I have no idea. Got it from ebay for about $25, has a gold flex nib and is pretty neat to write with. I decided I wanted a vintage pen and didn't want to deal with moving parts -- either I'd have to look at something refurbished which was then out of my price range or gamble on an unrestored pen writing at all, so I decided to only look at black hard rubber eyedroppers and found that one. I also got a Waterman #12 at around the same time that I keep put away for now because I'm more comfortable loving around with the mystery cheap one. Here's the unmarked pen (not great photos, sorry):   And the Waterman next to a Konrad: 
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Feb 12, 2014 05:13
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