Reply With QuoteSuperb link thanksOriginally Posted by soapy
As they are cheaper than half price I bought a silver and a black :)
I have found Clarfontaine or Rhodia to be the best for no bleed.
Superb link thanks
As they are cheaper than half price I bought a silver and a black :)
mines the copper looking version, I hope it will get some patina like my key ring torches and that.
at that price its rude not to buy one, make an excellent present for a young lad as well.
doctor's style writing [blame the knackered hands]
I am also using good quality pencils,particular when planning journeys [so I can alter times,routes or destinations in my travel notebook].
the nicest writer I found was the Rolls Royce pencils given away at Goodwood.
I phoned them the other week and they sent me a few more, without trying to sell me a car [good job I don't have that money]
I can spare one if anyone would like to try one?
I use these moleskins when travelling and using pencils as they are light and easy to fit in my bag when weight is important.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/8...rch_detailpage
My favourite pencils are Palomino Blackwings. I have the originals, Pearl, 602, 712 and 211 (I have a pencil subscription!)
Getting back to fountain pens I've bought a few since my last post:
TWSBI 580AL Orange
TWSBI Eco
Lamy 2000
Pelikan M200 Café Crème
Kaweco AL-Sport
Franklin-Christoph Model 20 with Masuyama MCI nib
Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black
Pilot Capless (Stormtrooper model)
Last edited by Phil Lee; 30th November 2015 at 18:03.
how are those Pelikans I have quite a vintage one myself
I find my two Pelikans a little wet and wide. My favourite pens are my Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black with an H-F nib and the Pilot Capless with an F nib
Thanks and which of those Palominos is best for writing, the one I purchased was soft and seemed more for sketching?
I also bought an vintage ink bottle and was going to try using a feather to write I seem to remember doing that at school.
I'd go with the 602 or 211. They are the firmest. The Pearl and 725 share the same softer core. The Blackwing is between the Pearl and 602. I have more Palominos then I will ever use with a box of 12 arriving each quarter. If you want, I could send you a 602.
Since I last visited this thread I added the following to my everyday use collection:
TWSBI 580 with a 1.1 stub
TWSBI 580Al Blue with a broad nib (not too wide for every day use)
Visconti Van Gogh Portrait fine nib (I think Visconti's come up a bit on the wide and wet side)
Visconti Wall Street fine nib again
Sailor Procolour with fine nib (its very fine and didn't think I'd like it but its great to use on paper that bleeds)
On the ink front I've discovered Aurora Black and Iroshizuku Yama-Budo which is a glorious colour.
And I've got a Franklin-Christoph case that holds 20 pens - it has 4 slots free so need to buy a few more pens, lusting after a green stripy Pelikan at the moment.
this year I thought a bit of effort while writing the Christmas cards was in order.
turned on smooth radio Christmas songs, loaded my Waterman with a lovely majestic blue ink [blue/black].
I managed to cover both hands with ink, then I smudged the first card so had to throw it away.
I got there in the end, there is a lot more satisfaction using a fountain pen.
I do like this black Waterman it writes very smooth
OK I cheated and used biro on the envelopes just in case they smudged.
how do you do it?
Try Pelikan ink soapy rather than Waterman, beautiful to write with especially when writing something a bit special.
I will one day it was Diamine I was using
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...majestic-blue/
I bought 5 different small bottles to try including yellow
I love the 1980/90's Parker Duofold Centennials; great size, smooth nibs and comfortable to write with. Pick one up on eBay - if you don't like it flip it and you'll get most of your money back. If you do, it's a great writer for life
Pelikan ink doesn't work with every fountain pen - it made my Montblanc leak like a leaky thing, it definitely works best with Montblanc ink. I do, however, use Pelikan permanent (turquoise) in a Cross pen for writing the envelopes, but if you get it on your hands you need a pumice stone to get it off.
My Platinum 3776 finally arrived from Japan the other day, and what a disappointment. I opened the box and looked at the nib with a loupe. Beautiful. The quality is lovely and although I thought it did look rather large I was very keen to see how it writes. I used the supplied Platinum cartridge until I can purchase a suitable converter, but it took ages before the ink would flow. Eventually the ink did flow. Boy did it flow! The line it writes is massive. :-(
For a long while I've used "Fine" nibbed fountain pens as I have small handwriting. When I ordered a Sailor 1911 some years ago I discovered to my cost the tendency for Japanese nibs to be smaller than the Western equivalents. Anyway, my "Fine" Sailor nib was unusable (for me) so I managed to get it changed for a "Medium", which writes like most of my other fine nibs. More recently I've started to enjoy medium, wetter nibs, so when I ordered my Platinum 3776 I ordered it with a "Coarse" nib which I took to be a Japanese broad, i.e. a European medium equivalent. Well believe me the nib, although beautifully finished, is huge, so for the time being the pen has had the cartridge removed, been flushed through and is back in its box where I think it'll stay for some time.
Just posting this as a warning for anyone else who's tempted to order a Platinum 3776 with a "Coarse" nib thinking it'll be like a European "Medium".
Coarse is a double broad nib so is going to be very wide, even by Japanese standards. Platinum do two mediums - regular and soft medium.
Goulet have a nice resource called the nib nook where you can see samples of different nibs and compare with different brands. http://www.gouletpens.com/nib-nook
The 3776 medium isn't noticeably different to most European or US mediums I've owned.
I must admit, when I saw it I thought I may have made an error of judgement in assuming coarse = broad! Oops.
Useful to know, for when I try to purchase one I can use! Thanks.
Have been trying out the 3776 with a M nib from Mark - is quite nice to write with, definitely finer than the MB 149 M nib it has replaced. That was left on a train, and will probably never be seen again :(
I have a Lamy safari with a B nib, writes a lot thicker but without being italic. The pilot with the F nib from Japan is very fine though, perhaps a little too fine.
Preview
Inky heads up
after I bought a parker converter thinking they where the same for all pens [it don't fit my watermans if anyone wants to swap].
I bought a lot of cartridges instead, these are a big box plus 6 free when I asked him he sent me the free ones I liked.
At the moment I am trying Mediterranean blue [quite a bright blue to cheer up these winter days] and blue/black
other colours available
free delivery was nice and quick as well
£4.99
Buy it now
DIAMINE INK MEDITERRANEAN BLUE 18 Pack Cartridges. **PLUS 6 EXTRA FREE**
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIAMINE-IN...8AAOSwL7VWm7PU
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIAMINE-IN...8AAOSwL7VWm7PU
wrong link but I cant edit try this one.
I really like Diamine ink, especially their small 30ml bottles. Have about 12 colours on my desk
Today I'm writing with my new Pilot VP (a late xmas pressie) using Demin Blue, delivered today I also have Dragon Red and Sherwood Green to try out
I tried putting inks in my pens that matched the pens body colour for a short while.
I also bought some Lamy Day-Glo yellow cartridges, they don't fit my waterman's either, I detect a pattern of thoughtlessness on my part.
One of my favourite inks is Diamine Ancient Copper. I have a few of the 30ml bottles too.
Thats was the first Diamine ink I bought, and it still my favourite colour. It lives in a TWSBI 580AL Orange.
Waterman will take any international standard cartridges (both short and long) but Lamy are a different design and will only fit Lamy pens - seems like a good excuse to pick up a cheap Safari to me ;) You can never have too many pens!
Thanks it was the crazy colour I was drawn to.
Going to check out that ancient copper now.
Thanks for the heads up.
Umber, Orange and Oxblood ordered!
Oh, and I've ordered a bottle of the Ancient Copper from a different source after the recommendations here.
Just been looking in my pen case at my Carbon Fibre Dunhill,Elysee laquered and Mont Blanc Classic all unused. Don't need to use a fountain pen - bloody PCs! Anyway, whats the opion on the Parker 4th way pens (I think that's the name). Vey convenient and nice writers (imo)
I'm now down to two fountain pens from a peak of sixteen: an Edison Herald and a Platinum Plasir (which is actually very good for under £10). The pen I like using most at the moment is a Zebra Z-Grip Mini, which I got from Cult Pens for 40p.
interesting choice
Umber, Orange and Oxblood ordered!
you cant buy oxblood boot polish any more they had to change the name
The pens I'm using today are:
Pilot Capless Black and White (Stormtrooper) F with Sailor Tokiwa-Matsu ink
Sailor 1911 Professional Gear Imperial Black HF with Sailor Yama-Dori ink
TWSBI 580AL Orange F with Diamine Ancient Copper ink
This year I'm using a Hobonichi Techo A5 Cousin Avec as my everyday journal and planner.
Last edited by Phil Lee; 2nd February 2016 at 17:18.
Well, I have some nice blue, black and brown already, so I thought I'd try something a little different. One can never have too many ink colours to choose from! :-)
I didn't know that by the way ... about the boot polish.
Interesting thread.
I just got my first fountain pen, a Lamy Studio. It's quite nice, although I wouldn't have minded if it where a bit heavier.
It won't be your last!
Catastrophically broke my Pelikan M800 today (it fell off my desk along with a hardback A4 notebook which managed to fall on it in such a way that the pen actually snapped), which was very distressing. Also very distressing was how much a replacement costs compared to when I bought mine 11 years ago! (Happily, a home insurance claim has covered most of it.) It's probably my favourite pen to write with.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Haha I bet you're right!
Like how much my penmanship improves when writing with a fountain pen :)
Hi
Did you get the planner in the UK or from Japan direct? If so how bad were the shipping costs?
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt
I got the Techo direct from Hobonichi. The cost was as follows:
ID # Product Quantity / Price / Subtotal
00023937 Hobonichi Techo A5 avec Cousin Books Japanese(January Start) x 1 / 4104 yen / 4104 yen
00023986 Hobonichi Pencil Board(forA5Cousin) x 1 / 324 yen / 324 yen
Items Ordered : 2
Subtotal : 4428 yen
Tax : -328 yen
EMS Shipping : 2000 yen
Administrative Fee: 500 yen
Total : 6600 yen
That works out at around £39 total. I didn't have to pay any VAT on import.
One pen, nib, ink combo is never enough. My pen case holds 20 pens so it had to be filled, naturally! Bought a blue Visconti Salvador Dali a couple of weeks ago with the intention of selling my brown one, who am I trying to kid!
A gorgeous looking pen. I love it in blue. £285 from 'the bay'.
20 pens is quite a lot!
Hoping to get a Visconti one day as well :)
I've got a Montegrappa Reminiscence arriving on Friday having been held up in customs for the best part of a week. I guess it's a bit of an acquired taste but I've always loved it. Can't wait.
Nice pens but I would go with a fine nib if it's for daily use.
On a side note for daily use I have found a few Chinese pens very good, not exactly built to last but only cost a few quid if that (think postage cost more than the pen)
Visconti also do very nice ink by the way.
I have two of my Dad's Parker 51's both still in use (one everyday) for 50 years +. I have my Dad's retirement pen a Sheafer Legacy (gold tip), but it needs a service and I don't know where to get that done?
Last edited by wildheart; 5th February 2016 at 10:44.
Fine for Visconti's all the way, as I find they write wide and wet. I usually go for medium and wider with my pens. Picked up both of my Dali's recently off Ebay - for about 50% of retail price.
20 fountain pens are my every day carries, I have alot more pens of all descriptions!
Nice. I like 51s as well, although I find it's difficult to find fine nibs and the two I have from ebay are too broad for me.I have two of my Dad's Parker 51's both still in use (one everyday) for 50 years +. I have my Dad's retirement pen a Sheafer Legacy (gold tip), but it needs a service and I don't know where to get that done?
You could try vintagefountainpens.co.uk, I've had good service from them (him?) in the past.
Cheers I'll give them a try
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