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delpheye posted:Is there a resource out there for learning about said adjustments? I have no problem tinkering with a thing. In fact, I like it. I build everything I can from parts, so having to learn about the parts of the pen and how they interact with each other is ok with me. Well it's too late now, but I was going to suggest just going for a Pilot Metro, although they've seemingly gone up in price. However the Pilot 78G hasn't. So maybe keep those in mind as you work your way up, but really the TWSBIs are great, just a lot more costly, granted not as much as say a Sailor, Pelikan M800, or Mont Blanc.
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Jun 14, 2013 21:08
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Teach posted:I filled it immediately with some violet Winsor Newton Calligraphy ink, and the pen hated it. It dropped one in three downstrokes, and I was a bit disappointed, but I quickly (and simply) removed the ink reservoir, cleaned it through, and refilled it with Parker Quink (I know, I know, a temporary measure) and it's been fine since then. Calligraphy ink is bad for fountain pens, Quink is fine. Honestly there's nothing wrong with it, don't know why you're acting like it's stigmatized or something.
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Jun 18, 2013 15:03
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JP Money posted:Even with an EF nib my Safari uses its ink supply quite fast. I can only write a few pages max before I see a noticeable loss of ink. That seems crazy to me since I get at least 7 pages of notes out of my Safari with a 1.5 italic nib. Which is okay, but compared to the pens I have that have integrated filling systems it's not much. Hell I'm not even sure how many pages I can get out of my TWSBIs (haven't really come close to making a dent in the Vac's ink reservoir yet despite writing 6 full pages with it. Actually there is a dent now that I check, I had managed to get a completely full fill with it, could only see the smallest of bubbles if you tilted the pen, and now it has like 2 mm of space between the ink and one end. Edit: Just remembered that I also used it for the pen pal letter I wrote and that was like 5 pages itself.
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Jun 24, 2013 15:25
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JP Money posted:I'm not saying that I only get 4 or 5 pages or something. I'm just saying that it seems to run out very quick and often after I write 2 or 3 pages I start to notice how much ink has been used up. They probably can't shorten the handle since that's what the plunger screws up into. They could make the whole thing longer, but I think they use the converter for several Lamy pens, and they'd have to produce a few converter models to cover the different sized pens. This is just a one-size-fits-all thing.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:17
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Ina-Ho is a little odd, I was expecting a light brown, but it really is more of a gold. I like it better now that I've started putting it in the flex nib I have since it can have some decent variation. I also got that color with Chiku-Rin which can get really bright to the point of almost being unreadable with a fine nib, but works out stupid well with my Apple Green Safari with italic nib. Right now I have it in a fine nib and it's weird watching it dry because before it's dry you can't hardly see it, so you sorta watch words appear on paper in a delay. Here's an old picture from when I got those inks:  Sometimes I think my Syo-Ro might've been mislabeled as it seems to be lacking green. Also I've been thinking of mixing these, but I'm not sure which ones or how much, so I'll probably have to do some experimenting later to see if it'll work out at all.
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Jun 28, 2013 15:33
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saphron posted:I've tended toward bulletproof inks for everyday writing because I have a terrible tendency to knock over liquids (water, coffee, tea, beer) while I'm working, and to do it over the most important papers/work notes on my desk currently. Oops. For $37 I'm in. It looks decent enough and I've been sorta wanting to get a chrome pen like that. Edit: Great, now I've searched 'fountain pens' on Kickstarter and I'm trying to not buy one of these stone cut pens. Edit2: Screw it, it's my birthday next month when that last one is funded and a pen in banded malachite looks awesome. Brightman fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 20:41
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DurianGray posted:It looks pretty decent. I wouldn't be opposed to possibly getting one after the full production line comes out and people have had a chance to actually use them and evaluate them (and they turn out to be good). Dropping $40~ on a pen that I know nothing about and that has no user reviews doesn't sit well with my budget, personally, but I'm poor. I think they're comparing it to Parker and Mont Blanc because they're claiming to be using the same manufacturer that they use. I'll be sure to let you guys know how they are whenever I get those pens.
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Jun 28, 2013 22:59
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Solkanar512 posted:Screw you for telling us all about the existence of stone pens. Sorry about that, I got hit by the other kickstarter being posted and then thinking "what if there are more?". If I had the money I'd buy a bunch of different stone pens, but I guess I can do it later since the guy is setting up a online store for this with what looks like similar prices. Also he already replied to my message about what kind of pen, metal, and stone I wanted and said he'd put it in the queue and I'm beginning to think his delivery estimate of July isn't too far off. Actually the person I'm more wondering about for this is RustedChrome, can he pass up a banded malachite pen? What about one made of jade? Or gaspeite? More green pens for the green pen god  I'm a bad person.
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Jun 29, 2013 06:47
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The arguments against the Visionnaire (and also me remembering that TWSBI is making a chrome pen) have convinced me to drop that pledge. This also helps me justify the stone pen a bit more.RustedChrome posted:I certainly looked closely at those. I like the stone idea, but the shape and chrome hardware really turn me away. Somehow it reminds me of bed rails from a cheesy Las Vegas love suite, not that I frequent such places. Fair enough. It also looks like it's designed to let you screw the cap on to the end to post it, and I don't usually post, but we'll see how the balance works out. I really don't like the looks of the ballpoints and rollerballs at all, the grips are shaped oddly in my opinion.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:15
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That stone pen kickstarter guy put out two updates recently and apparently he's just cranking out pens now. This might be the first thing I backed that I actually got on time...well a lot of the video games still have a shot I guess. Also I'm now fairly tempted to get one of those Goulet italic nibs for my Vac 700, but I think I'll wait until we get some first hand impressions in here.
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Jul 9, 2013 14:50
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Solkanar512 posted:I have a Goulet two tone nib in Fine for my Sapphire Vac 700, and it's sexy as all hell. Just note that they are incredibly wet, say western size+1, but they fit perfectly. But man does the gold look great with the blue! Yeah, you said it was having nib creep happen from the base though. Did that stop or was it just that one ink or something? Also I'm really just interested in grabbing an italic, so I sorta want to see if those check out as well.
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Jul 9, 2013 17:35
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Solkanar512 posted:I found that not having the stop open all the time got rid of the nib creep at the base. Oh, well yeah you're not supposed to leave the stop open unless you're writing a lot. I usually just write until it dries up, open the stop and give it a quick downward shake, and then close it back up when I'm done writing. So far this hasn't caused any problems. When switching out the nib like that can you just wait for it to dry out when the stopper is closed? I still haven't switched out the stock nib with the Jowo they had taped to the side.
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Jul 9, 2013 20:46
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I got my mom a Pelikan M150 and some Iroshizuku ink, Kon-Peki, for her birthday a few days ago. The pen is a lot smaller than I imagine, looks like a normal throw-away ballpoint at first glance to me, really thin, especially considering it has a built-in filling system. It's apparently just slightly smaller than the M200, so that pen is also smaller than I thought it was, with the M800 being more what I thought those were like. This being said the thing writes wonderfully, super smooth, on par with, or maybe even better than, my Sailor 1911. The ink is a really nice blue too, it's like cerulean and shades nicely. If you're into blue inks I'd say it's worth a look.
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Jul 15, 2013 20:19
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laertes22 posted:How does HoD do with regular, cheap notebook paper. Noodler's Black and X feather have behaved really well on cheap paper. However, I was curious if HoD had any issues with feathering, bleeding through, etc. I use it in my TWSBI with a fine nib at work on normal notebook paper all the drat time. Doesn't feather that much, at least nothing noticeable, honestly looking at some of the thicker lines I'd be inclined to say it just isn't feathering. Also dry time seems to be instant for me, 1 second and no smears, but that might be the fine nib at work there. Perhaps there's batch variance in the ink or the Office Depot notebooks that are in the supply closet here use really good paper. Not an Anthem posted:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/730727524/visionnaire-fine-writing-instruments-0?ref=home_popular Brightman fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Jul 18, 2013 |
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Jul 18, 2013 15:32
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xilixliadon posted:Are there any pens that should not have Quink put in them? I just got a bottle as an impulse buy at staples, since it's under ten bucks, and I'm wondering if it was worth it. In other news, I got a metropolitan, very smooth! I filled it with a green-black ink mix, and it is beautiful! I haven't heard anything about Quink doing damage, also it's not a bad ink by any means, just really basic: black, quick drying. Hell one of my better behaved inks was like 8 bucks I think. Sometimes I get nib creep with it, but it hasn't stained anything at all and it's a pretty vibrant blue-green.
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Jul 26, 2013 18:09
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Econosaurus posted:Any recommendations for nice pens in the $50-150 range? Well poo poo, clicked reply and noticed that everyone already jumped all over this. It is basically the sweet spot price-range wise for good pens. So any TWSBI, the Montverde Invincias, Pilot Vanishing Point, Namiki Falcon, Lamy CP1, Pelikan M150, Lamy 2000, Sailor 1911M, maybe one of the Pilot Custom pens, etc. For practical get something like the TWSBI 580 or the Lamy 2000, for fancy get something with a gold nib. Hell you could probably find a vintage Parker 51 in that range too.
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Aug 13, 2013 19:57
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GabrielAisling posted:Are there any pens in the $30-$50 range that either have an italic nib or can take a separate italic nib, and are prettier than a lamy pen? I have a Lamy Joy with a 1.1 steel nib. It writes as well as I expect it to, not as beautifully as a very nice, expensive pen, but well enough for my use. Thing is, even after having it for six months, I still think it's the ugliest thing. I don't like any of the Lamy designs, though. The Joy is a Safari with a longer body, the 2000 looks like it was extruded from a 3D printer. The caps on their lower-end pens are the ugliest. You can get a TWSBI 580 with an italic nib for $55 on Goulet Pens, and you can get a Goulet Italic Nib and swap it into a pen that uses #6 nibs like a Noodler Ahad or Konrad, $15 for the nib and $20 for those pens.
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Aug 13, 2013 21:19
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Kessel posted:The 2k actually has a gold nib! Plated with platinum. Opps, I've only ever just looked at it before. Well poo poo, now I sorta want one too, except I don't really care for hooded nibs.
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Aug 14, 2013 14:15
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laertes22 posted:I think I am leaning towards a Pilot/Namiki, as I was just blown out of the water by the Pilot Metropolitan. Can someone talk about the Pilot Vanishing Point vs. the Namiki Falcon? I think they both run about $130. You can generally find a VP for around $99 sometimes, mostly on eBay I think. I haven't used the Falcon, but a big difference is it has a flex nib. Someone that actually has one or has used one will need to pipe up about how well that works though. The Pilot VP is great to write with, and the click-pen gimmick is handy, albeit can make the nib a bit dry sometimes after prolonged periods of not being used (like a few days to a week). I like the aesthetic of the VP a lot too, but some people are turned off by it or dislike the clip-grip deal. The capacity is also generally annoyingly small due to the Con-50 converter, but it can be swapped out for a Con-20 or you could use a cartridge and syringe...actually I really should start doing that with it I think. Overall it's a really smooth writer with an unique look. Edit: Looks like the VPs are 140 on the main pen sites, but they're only 108 on Amazon. Brightman fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 15:22
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JP Money posted:My roommate is from Japan so when he goes home at christmas I'm definitely forcing him into getting me several bottles of Iroshizuku I think. I shouldn't have made it sound like I was underwhelmed with the Tsuki-yo - it's a beautiful ink and I really love the darker notes in it. I think it would have a more dramatic shift in color with a broader nib but it still looks very nice as it is. The ink smuggling plan did not pan out sadly. If you manage to get an italic nib that Tsuki-yo will probably look and shade great in it. I know the Iroshizuku inks I have that I've used in my 1.5 italic Lamy shade really well, although Chiku-Rin is pretty much just always bright-as-hell-green.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:27
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Red-Leg Scissorman posted:Ah, that makes sense. Perfect then, I'm all set to go. Unless the HoD bottle changed recently this will probably be hard as balls to do after some of the ink has been used up since it has such a narrow opening. You might want to consider getting an inkwell for it, or maybe just another color altogether for the Metro and any other pens you may get in the future. TWSBI makes really nice inkwells, but finding an empty bottle somewhere like eBay would be much cheaper, plus then you could get the one that looks like a shoe 
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Sep 6, 2013 15:29
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Edmond Dantes posted:I just stepped into a hell of a rabbit hole with that first purchase, didn't I? Pretty much. If you don't have disposable income it might not be so bad, if you do though it might be a good idea to start looking for a decent quality pen chest. I'm quite thankful that the same thing didn't happen to me with the wet shaving thread. Granted I don't think a bunch of people in that thread have more than say 3 razors and a lot, like me, probably just have 1.
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Sep 6, 2013 21:38
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Xun posted:My lamy safari has a weird "blot" of ink on the top of the nib, right on the line. I can't seem to get rid of it, is that normal? That is called Nib Creep and is "normal" but typically thought of as aesthetically off-putting. Using a different ink may cause that not to happen. I generally don't have issues with Iroshizuku inks and nib creep for instance, whereas HoD will do it sometimes, and my Diamine ink seems to do it all the drat time.
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Sep 9, 2013 20:42
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What's better than pen delivery day? Surprise pen delivery day! The stone pen from Kickstarter that I completely forgot about, or rather I wasn't expecting because I thought the guy was doing updates for every shipment prior to them going out, came in yesterday.  Pen is made from banded malachite with gold trim, the cap screws onto the end if you wanna go crazy and post it but doing so ruins the balance horribly. The nib is a pretty meh "Iridium Point Germany" one though, fairly scratchy, but the pen looks great and I'm pretty sure I can switch the nib out (it's either a #5 or #6 size nib, thinking a #5). There's a chance it might get better after a bit of breaking in, it isn't so scratchy if I write lightly with it, also has a bit of flex in it but I'm going to try avoid doing that too much.
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Sep 10, 2013 20:47
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aldantefax posted:Are these being sold normally post-kickstarter? That looks fantastic! Yeah, the Kickstarter was mainly to pay off the equipment he bought and to see if there was sufficient interest. His normal site is Visage Pens, but it's under construction still and will probably be up in a few months once he's burned through all the Kickstarter orders and such. Both sites have some more stone pen porn on them by the way, especially the Kickstarter updates.
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Sep 10, 2013 21:28
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lady flash posted:I've had preppy's for going on 3 years and I only have one cracked barrel that I did while screwing it closed after a fill.  Scotch tape, why didn't I think of that? I've just been careful with the cap on mine since it cracked, it will maintain the seal or whatever so long as it doesn't get moved too much.
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Sep 12, 2013 15:24
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PlushCow posted:I bought my first fountain pen, a Lamy Safari, a few months ago and am looking to upgrade. I want something with a larger capacity, and the TWSBI 580 looks good to me but do those here that have one find the twisting end tight enough not to turn around itself jostling semi-loose in a backpack and make a mess? What size nib do you use? For nib comparisons Goulet Pens has this tool that shows you how each pen writes with each nib: Nib Nook If you really want to go in for insane capacity I might recommend the Vac 700. drat thing never seems to run out of ink. Only thing I have with a better capacity than that is the Preppy Eyedropper that comes with HoD, and actually I'm not sure of that since my Vac has a finer nib than the Preppy and so far I haven't had to refill it.
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Sep 13, 2013 04:55
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SnakesRevenge posted:I'm almost sure that the 580 holds just a bit more ink than the Vac 700, due to the width of the barrel and the rod inside. Yeah I just have an old 530, and also the nib on my vac is EF so of course it goes forever. I think the capacity on a vac 2.1 ml, so if it out does that the 580 would definitely be the pen to get in this case.
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Sep 13, 2013 06:04
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Got some syringes, so I mixed some inks. Syo-Ro translates to something like Dew on Pine Needles, apparently if you mix it half and half with Chiku-Rin and add in several drops of HoD it turns it into just Pine Needles. I also used the syringes and a can of air to clean out the pen my grandma gave me recently that's from the 40s or 50s. It's some Sheaffer model that's light purple with a gold mesh all over it, takes cartridges, which it still had an empty one, so clean that out and loaded it up with the Pine ink I just made. Writes like a nail unfortunately, but it does write. Actually looking into Sheaffer vintage pens it looks like a 60s pen with a Triumph nib.
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Sep 14, 2013 00:46
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:Might be a Skripsert - did she have a case for it or have it as part of a matched pair? No case, and I don't remember if it was a pair, but if it was she doesn't have it's match anymore. I remember her saying it was a graduation gift from her brother. I sorta wonder if the reason I'm having trouble writing with it is because she wrote with it so much that it's used to however she writes. Oh, looked up Skripsert just now and that's it. It's a Lady Sheaffer Skripsert VI made sometime between 1958 and 1964, the cartridges were Skrip ink so that's where the name comes from. An ad for the pens says this one had a silver nib, but I think it might mean color-wise because nothing else seems to make mention of that and the nib itself just says "Sheaffer Made in USA". Looks like it cost 10 bucks back in the day and goes for about 60~75 now, I'll have to let her know, she'd probably get a kick out of that. Actually it's like 60 for the pen and 85 for the set, but yeah, the mechanical pencil is missing.
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Sep 15, 2013 10:18
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Kessel posted:Basically stop leaving your pens inked for months on end without using them~ I really need to stop inking pens. I have 5 inked right now I think...6 if you count the Preppy Eyedropper that's always inked with HoD. Also I might have a pen that needs to be cleaned still. I can usually manage 3 inked pens and cycle them, but 2 of the ones currently inked have scratchy nibs I don't like; the vintage Sheaffer and the stone mason pen made with a kit. Speaking of which anyone know of a good place to get a #5 nib that is either golden or two toned? Doesn't matter if it's just golden in color, as long as it writes well, I just want it to match the pen's existing trim.
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Sep 25, 2013 16:07
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SnakesRevenge posted:Heads up, the Goulet Pen Company just hit 5000 likes on Facebook and are offering a free bottle of Noodler's ink with a purchase of $25 or more with promo code FB5000. I'd like to point out that the bottle of ink is 54th Massachusetts, everyone just gets that one for using the code. At least that's what the person on Goulet's chat told me after I had tried to get some notebooks and another color of Noodler's.
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Oct 9, 2013 21:07
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lady flash posted:In the facebook post comments they say it's their decision so I wonder if everyone is getting 54th or... The chat I had with them seemed to imply that everyone was getting it, yeah. I did ask three questions though, "Can you tell me which one it is? Is everyone getting the same ink? What color is it?" to which they replied "Yes, 54th Mass", paraphrased of course, but I suppose there's a weird chance that they were just saying yes to the first question and not the first two. Like maybe the color switched based on the hour or they could see my specific order at the time. I passed on it myself, I already have a few other notebooks to fill, and I find 54th Mass to be really close to a few inks I already have access to.
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Oct 10, 2013 15:49
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Vitamins posted:Definitely make use of the warranty. There is no way that pen should be doing stuff like that. Seconded. I got that pen for my mom for her birthday this year and it was smooth as butter and really well behaved.
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Oct 22, 2013 20:14
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dino. posted:So I got a little too excited when the Dragon's Napalm came in. While filling the pen, I got ink on my fingers. What do I do? Option 1: Find some flesh toned ink and get that on your inky fingers til they match the other ones. Option 2: Get a bag of Chee-tos and eat them until your other fingers match the inky ones. Option 3: Forget about it and if anyone asks become really freaked out about this strange stuff on your fingers.
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Nov 22, 2013 22:16
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Lord Girlyman posted:I've never had that problem on my metro. What ink(s) are you using with it? I have a Jinhao x450, it is broken. It wrote okay, not great, but I got it off eBay for like 5 bucks including shipping. The way it broke was the body became detached from the rest of it, so when you try to uncap it, you just pull the body off and can't ever get to the pen. If that doesn't happen you'll have an okay pen, but the Metro is much, much better. Actually you got a different nib, so I don't know about all that, so just be careful about the body coming undone I guess.
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Dec 9, 2013 15:48
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angerbeet posted:You might as well get some blunt tip syringes, they're cheap and you slightly reduce ruining your shirt. These are good syringes for pen/ink purposes, the only problem I have is that you only need like 3 of them, 1 if you want to rinse it a lot. So now my pen chest's bottom drawer is filled with syringes, and that's not weird  What is weird is that I either know that couple in the review and they used a false name for the review, or there are two couples out there filling gummy bears with vodka. Probably more cool than weird really, also probably more than two couples, especially now with that review there.
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Dec 11, 2013 16:18
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Drythe posted:What's a fun color I can use to make my notes at work look less bland and boring? I like heart of darkness but sometimes I want something not black. Iroshizuku anything almost. I really like Kon-Peki (Cerulean) and Syo-Ro (Turquoise), but the crowd favorite is Tsuki-Yo(Teal) by a fair margin (that link has all the others in it too). It's pricier than Noodler's but much more behaved, well usually, that can vary with different pens and such of course. Diamine Steel-Blue has also grown on me, it's really like a bright as gently caress teal, but I think it works out really well in thin nibs, while also shading well in stubs.
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Dec 12, 2013 20:07
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QuantumNinja posted:Awesome, thanks! I know someone IRL who does the fountain pen thing and he's gonna let me try this TWSBI 580 with an EF tip on Thursday. I've got a TWSBI Vac 700 with EF nib that is definitely as thin as a .5 G2, and hey, the Nib Nook on Goulet actually has the G2 in it, so if you want to you can go hog wild comparing pen nibs to your G2. Looking at that it's hard for me to tell if there's a noticeable difference between the .5 G2 and the F and EF TWSBI nibs, but the Lamy for instance is slightly thicker even at EF, so sticking with an Asian pen for this is probably the way to go.
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Jan 15, 2014 16:29
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I think most of the crowd favorites don't have that problem, at least in my experience Lamys and the Pilot Metro don't leak, but I keep them in a shirt pocket, so if they're getting turned upside down in a coat pocket then maybe, but I sorta doubt it. A Lamy Safari would be pretty easy to find in an italic. What pens were you having that problem with?
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Jan 21, 2014 17:41
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