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camino posted:The one thing I wanted to throw in on the last thread is about breaking TWSBI's. It seems to me that aside from the cap, they don't crack until you disassemble and reassemble them. I've seen a lot of people comment on this. With my next TWSBI, I'm not going to take it apart unless absolutely necessary. I have to think that that says more about the people taking the pens apart than the quality of the pens themselves. If someone's not careful it's very easy to overtighten parts of the pen, making the reasonably brittle plastic they use for them (PC?) more likely to crack. As it's marketed as a pen that you can take apart, it's possible that more people who wouldn't take a pen apart normally may be encouraged to, and thus if they don't know what they're doing break it. I'm not saying that a load of people don't know what they're doing with regards to pen repair, but I think it could be a factor in the seemingly high failure rate that may not entirely be down to production defects.
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Jan 31, 2013 17:36
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Ringo Star Get posted:What luck, just as I check my email, I get one saying it'll be coming in on the 19th Paper choice is a completely separate aspect of fountain pens. What works well with one may not work at all with another, and it's very dependent on what ink you use, the paper manufacturer, the pen, and whether saturn happens to be aligned with the galactic core or not. Generally, you want a heavier paper as that usually helps to stop the ink bleeding through to the back. It also helps if you get a relatively smooth textured paper as that guards against feathering, though if its too smooth then some pens wont write on it at all! I personally use Rhodia paper as its a good mix of affordability and gets good writing performance. I get very minor feathering with some wet pens but overall it's very well behaved. I've heard recommendations for Oxford paper pads which are very good with regards to bleedthrough, and the higher weight Pukka pads are good too. Black and Red are nice too. Moleskine used to be well regarded, but now there seems to be differences in quality between batches and some people get colossal feathering and breakdown of the paper surface so I'd steer clear. I've also heard good things about Clairfontaine too. If you don't want a paper pad, you can use regular 32lb HP A4 paper. There isn't a set type of paper any one person will get the most of, so you're best trying something you like and if it's suitable for your pens then stick with it.  So, heavier paper is generally better and recycled paper can feather very badly. Sorry it's not a very conclusive answer, but it's a question with a myriad of answers. My personal recommendation would be Rhodia
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Feb 13, 2013 19:01
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I ran out of my Rhodia pads today and went to buy more but they were out. Had to get a regular Pukka jotter and it bleeds and feathers so badly with this pen and ink. They were fine before! 
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Feb 13, 2013 20:01
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Generally, I've heard that if you can seal a pen adequately you can turn most of them into eyedroppers, the problem comes with sealing. It would depend on the pH and ingredients of the ink whether they would react with the metal bodies of the pens at all. I'd assume that being pretty non-reactive that anodised aluminium would be fine, but if you damage that coating on the inside of the pen somehow you'd put yourself at risk of ruining it. Also, if the ink has an ingredient that may attack the coating then you wouldn't want to use that. There are some pens that have plastic sleeves in the metal barrels which would be better for eyedropper conversions if you could seal them. As for metal barrels without a sleeve, I'd coat the inside with something like silicone grease which isn't dissolved by ink and would keep it off the metal parts completely. I can't imagine that having a mix of metals would make much difference. Sure you are open to the risk of galvanic corrosion but I think the odds of it happening in a pen are extremely slim. I don't think that many people have tested turning many pens into eyedroppers so I can't imagine that you'd find much info on it. If you're really set on converting the metro I'd say it's cheap enough to possibly sacrifice if it doesn't work out.
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Feb 15, 2013 18:58
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Arsenic Lupin posted:What's your favorite low-feathering ink? My signing pen is a big fat stub nib that uses lots of smeary ink, and my working/purse pen is a ringtop Waterman 52 1/2V. Both of them get used to write on a lot of papers that were designed for ballpoints. I need an ink that dries the second it's put on the paper, without, of course, drying in the nib. Does this miracle fluid exist? I've already tried Private Reserve Fast Dry with no joy. The fastest drying ink I have is Waterman Florida Blue, now called Serenity Blue. It's really well regarded as one of the best behaved inks out there.
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Feb 15, 2013 20:36
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GabrielAisling posted:Why are all the <$30 pens so ugly? Bulky, inelegant plastic bodies everywhere. Is something at least as nice looking as a $3 ballpoint really asking so much? Hell, even the Pilot Varsity I've been using is nicer looking than some of the pens I've seen today. What models of pens were you looking at? If you can say which ones you found ugly we might be able to point you in another direction for nice pens
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Feb 17, 2013 00:53
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Captain Postal posted:So I'm going away from my office for 6 weeks to work on a **secret project**. I've got the right ink, but what is the best way to transport it? Put the original bottle in a zip-lock bag in checked luggage? Surely there's a better way. I've heard people use a small Nalgene bottle as apparently they're pretty hard wearing, and put that in a ziplock in checked luggage. Are the Noodlers bottles glass? If so I wouldn't want to risk it in checked luggage and possibly having broken glass poke a hole in the ziplock you put it in.
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Feb 18, 2013 12:24
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Beezle Bug posted:If someone wanted to learn how to really slow down and learn how to write more carefully (in terms of how neat and expressive their handwriting is), what would be the least forgiving nib with the most potential? Basically not so much a beginner's pen as a pen with a learning curve that would really pay off when you get the hang of it is what I'm looking for. It seems like the majority of nuance would come from the nib but I'm not sure on that at this point. An italic gives a nice line variation. They're not particularly hard to use but they can give great looking handwriting with little effort. Lamy and TWSBI do some great italic nibs. For the most lavish and extravagant writing possible you'll want a full flex "wet noodle" nib. This is the kind of nib that would give the stereotypical 1700s ultra fancy cursive. And for those who aren't careful will make your writing look terrible  You'd definitely want to go vintage if you wanted a full flex as most pen makers dont produce them anymore. The Noodlers Ahab flex is kind of flexy, but I wouldn't call it a wet noodle. Some vintage Watermans seem to be the most commonly used pens with flexy nibs, but I couldn't give you a model name off the top of my head.
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Feb 21, 2013 21:47
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Otaku Alpha Male posted:Does anyone know an affordable set of inks that work in a fountain pen? For the most part, I'm planning to be using them in brush pens, but I figured that if they work in a pen, they will work in a brush pen, too. I know that windsor & newton have a set, but I'm looking for something cheaper. Too bad noodlers doesn't offer one. J. Herbin do a nice wooden box with 14 small bottles of ink in.
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Feb 24, 2013 19:17
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Reivax posted:The 616 jumbos from YC Pens and YesPen on eBay have been brilliant, quality wise. I mention specific sellers because apparently there's a roaring trade in knock-off 616s, which is part of the reason people have such contrasting opinions of the pen. So there's factories producing knock-offs of knock-off Parkers?  Has anyone here had any experience with Edison pens? I'm looking to get a custom Herald, and oh god all the combinations of colours is very overwhelming.
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Mar 6, 2013 21:42
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AnimalChin posted:I bought a cheapo sheaffer calligraphy set a couple of years ago and fell in love with fountain pens. The F and M stand for Fine and Medium respectively. They are the relative size of the line that the nib produces. This isn't the same as a stub. The F/M nibs have a round footprint thanks to the tipping material, so there is no line width variation depending on writing direction. However a stub is like a normal nib, but it has the writing footprint expanded horizontally, so you get some line variation between moving the pen forwards/backwards and left/right on the paper. An italic is the same concept as a stub, however the line variation is much more significant, so the left/right movement can be almost needle thin as the footprint is different. There's a good introduction to nib types here: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/nibs/primer.htm Does that Chinese pen write better if you press a little harder than normal? It may have a case of "baby bottom" which can be fixed by writing with it on some extremely fine abrasive. A brown paper bag sometimes works for this also. It could also have flow issues. You'll want to wash it through with some water with a couple drops of dish soap in it, it works better than just plain water. If you have some ammonia, washing that through in a 10:1 ratio of water to ammonia will help too. Without pulling the feed it's hard to say what's wrong with it, but at the end of the day it's unfortunately quite common for some cheapass Chinese pens just to not work for whatever reason.
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Mar 7, 2013 17:02
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AnimalChin posted:Are you sure? Ah right, I got confused but the picture helps a lot. They are indeed an italic/stub nib, however without actual markings on the nib I'm not sure if they're equivalent to 1.1mm or 1.5mm, although it is likely that they are, those being the most common italic widths. I'm glad your pen works! Seems to be just a case of baby bottom then Writing figure-8s over and over with the pen inked on brown paper should help to fix it.
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Mar 8, 2013 18:25
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GabrielAisling posted:It didn't feather at all, actually. I was just worried because the paper made the pen drag so much that it was too rough and mess up the nib. The most likely thing to happen is you'll get loose fibres from the paper clogging up the nib if you write on it a lot, but you can just pull those out. It shouldn't mess up the nib unless you write with too much pressure and knock the tines out of alignment.
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Mar 9, 2013 15:54
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AnimalChin posted:Is it possible to grind/sand down the nib to turn it into a stub? Yeah you can do whatever you want with a nib! Using very fine abrasive pads like Micromesh are really good for shaping nibs progressively, or I'm sure you could use something like a dremel to get something crude. As long as you've got the tools and a nib that you don't mind possibly wrecking then you can definitely try grinding them! You'd want to start with the cheapest pens you can get as it's pretty likely there'd be a few casualties early on but with practise there are a lot of people out there that can grind some great nibs
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Mar 9, 2013 18:45
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TopherCStone posted:I have a handful of vintage Esterbrooks and some others. The reason I don't use them more is that they are inconvenient and messy to fill, and no matter what I do I always get massive ink stains on my hands. I did play with a Namiki Vanishing Point at the Fountain Pen Hospital which was cool though. May I ask why you find them inconvenient/messy? If you have some paper towel around to blot the feed and wipe the pen after inking then you should have no reason to be getting ink everywhere. Lever fillers are easier to fill than C/Cs, but I guess everyone has their preferences.
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Mar 15, 2013 17:53
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Reivax posted:If you still have problems after SnakesRevenge's advice, you could try contacting Lamy customer support, they've been great to me in the past. I don't get the Noodlers pen hype either. Sure some of his inks are great, but why would anyone bother buying a $20 pen that may or may not work rather than a more expensive on that's almost guaranteed to work? They seem pretty poor quality for what they are, but I guess trying to make an affordable flex pen is pretty cool. Maybe it's because there's a lot of people that seem to like the Noodler dudes    attitude?
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Mar 16, 2013 19:12
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Reivax posted:The original pens are far cheaper too, work just as well. Maybe its the yank yellow peril fears? That's actually genius. Might have to buy a load of those Hero 10 packs and sort out the good pens, then sell them marked up for convenience. SnakesRevenge posted:He likes to claim that "the pen is the accessory to the ink", if that helps explain anything. He really just sees pens as a means to an end, whereas in here we tend to go gaga over a pen that's really nice and pleasant to write with. Yeah that makes sense. I just don't get why you'd buy an 'accessory' that actually may not fulfill it's purpose. But hey, I like being able to write with my pens, and am not really bothered about if I'm sticking it to the man by buying it.
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Mar 16, 2013 19:59
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Yeah the standard Parker converter will fit in it.
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Mar 18, 2013 16:32
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HolySwissCheese posted:In my quest for a dry-writing blue black that is cheap-paper friendly but has plenty of shading, I had finally settled on Pelikan Blue-Black. However, it turns out that it can no longer be imported to the US, and also it is partly an iron-gall ink, both of which were kind if a turnoff. Good luck, it's strange that you can't seem to get it in the US, I wonder why? Anyways, the most basic advice is usually to only do small batches at a time when mixing inks, as you don't know how the inks will react with one another. You might get weird goop forming which will completely wreck a pen if you try and use it. Please post you're results, I'm curious how the colour turns out! I like Pilot Blue-Black as a nice dark ink, very well behaved, but I've only seen it in cartridge form which is a bit frustrating.
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Mar 18, 2013 17:30
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I used to post caps on all my pens, but over time it cracked the cap of my Pelikan M400, so I stopped doing it as I didn't want to risk breaking anything else or scratching up the ends of my pens. Now I don't post at all, I just hold the cap in my left hand so I can keep track of it. Most of my pens are pretty well balanced without posting, but that depends on the size of your hands to some extent, posting my TWSBI just makes it top heavy and too unwieldy for me. The only pen I do post is my M90, because as a pocket pen it's too short to use for any long period of time unposted, and is designed to securely post to the barrel anyways.
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Mar 18, 2013 19:13
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We lure you in unsuspecting, then leave you confused when you end up with $50 in ink for a pen you've not bought yet 
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Mar 18, 2013 20:55
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aidoru posted:Anyone have good sites or books for learning different cursive styles? I just picked up an italic nib and I'm excited to get into a more defined cursive style. Just using the "basic" American school-taught cursive is a little boring now. Not sure if you have to be a member of FPN to view these pages, but the pinned threads at the top are a fantastic resource for those wanting to learn other cursive and calligraphic styles: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/forum/12-penmanship/
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Mar 21, 2013 19:36
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Dominoes posted:I bought a Lamy 2000 for my girlfriend. It won't write. Any ideas? There appears to be ink in it; it produces a very slight amount of ink sometimes. Did you flush it through with water before first filling it with ink? That sounds like it'd stop it working right out the box.
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Mar 21, 2013 21:52
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That's likely to be it then. Get a cup of cold water and add one drop of dish soap to it. Then flush the pen through a few times with it, rinse with clean water, and allow to dry for a bit and it should flow a lot better when inked.
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Mar 21, 2013 22:05
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Dominoes posted:How do you 'flush the pen' through the cup? ^^^ Sorry I didn't make that clear! Also, when you've flushed through with the soapy water, flush again with some plain cold water to get rid of all the soap residue. If you don't, you risk the pen leaking ink everywhere and that's seriously no fun!
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Mar 21, 2013 23:19
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Finally putting in an order for the custom Edison I mentioned a few pages ago.  However now I have the agonising wait for it to be made. I might have to buy some new inks to fill the void. 
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Mar 23, 2013 20:10
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SnakesRevenge posted:What did you snag again? I love the look of the emerald Hudson that Goulet Pens sells, but one of those pneumatic filler Beaumonts would be so cool! I was originally going to go for a Herald Grande, but looking at pictures of them they are absolutely huge, way too large for my hands. So I'm getting a Huron in a colour called Mottled Silver Amber. The pneumatic fillers look awesome so I've asked Brian if he can do one in the Huron, if not it'll be the bulb filler. I'll be sure to post pictures and a review when I get it, I've never seen an Edison in the flesh let alone know anyone else that has one so I'm really curious how it's going to turn out. But after reading reviews it looks like Brian makes a fantastic product.
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Mar 23, 2013 21:14
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I'm pretty sure they're just regular flexy dip pen nibs though? They don't seem to have any eyedropper components on them as far as I can tell. Also, reading that IAMPETH link, I had no idea the White House had it's own calligrapher, that's seriously awesome!
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Mar 25, 2013 11:42
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Well if you want qualitative data: it'll be much wider than your F on the downstroke, but will be thinner than your F on the lateral strokes As for feel, you may find that it drags more on the paper due to it having a bigger footprint than the F. I certainly found my 1.5mm TWSBI seemed to 'drag' more than my other nibs.
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Mar 28, 2013 17:34
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Yoshi Jjang posted:I just got my TWSBI Diamond 580 with 1.1 nib in the mail. I was excited to use it, but after the next day, it felt all scratchy against the paper and sometimes refuses to draw ink on some strokes. I don't see any obstruction in the nib. Everything should still be brand new. What could be happening? I hope I didn't do anything wrong. Like gwrtheyrn said, make sure the whole of the nib tip is contacting the paper when you write and it should be pretty smooth, same as my experience with TWSBI italics. Also, make sure that one tine isn't higher than the other, as if both aren't touching the paper then it wont write and will be very scratchy when moving the nib left/right on the paper. Like with all new pens, if you didn't flush through the pen first then please do that, as the machining process can leave oils and residue in the pens which can make them very temperamental and poor writers!
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Mar 28, 2013 20:03
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Noodlers eternal inks bind with cellulose, which makes them permanent on paper. It also makes them permanent on natural fibres like cotton, so you're screwed if you spill it on some clothes. Synthetics will survive though!
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Mar 29, 2013 15:02
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angerbot posted:Or, just stain the rest of the shirt and you've got a sweet new black top. It'll stay black forever too! Platinum Preppys are fantastic little pens for what they are, really cheap too! They're probably the best starter fountain pen you can get, so I wouldn't worry about it leaking everywhere!
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Mar 29, 2013 16:17
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Xovaan posted:(and the Hero actually cut my thumb and index fingers six times so deeply I almost needed gauze for the whole area) Uhhhh how did you manage that? 
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Mar 29, 2013 19:53
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Xovaan posted:The metal washer between the pen's head and the vacuum sack is sharper than my DE feather blades. Let's just leave it at that. I guess Superior Chinese Engineering can combine the aesthetics of a fountain pen with the utility of a straight razor... AnimalChin posted:In case anyone was wondering, the 3-in-1 fountain pen, butane lighter, flashlight from dealextreme is actually a 2-in-1 worthless lighter, worthless flashlight. There's no pen in that pen. ...but lighters and flashlights are taking it too far. Who knows, maybe in the future it'll be possible! Godspeed you crazy, cheapass engineering bastards 
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Mar 31, 2013 15:59
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Edison just released their cheapest pen yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HoYtllV52Q
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Apr 1, 2013 16:31
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For what it's worth, the Chinese pens I've bought have all been terrible wastes of money, your experience may vary. All this talk of ink makes me want to buy some more. I'd love to try those Pelikan Edelstein inks, if only for that bottle 
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Apr 1, 2013 20:48
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alakath posted:Are there any recommendations for good non-TWSBI ink pots? The Montblanc "shoe" style ink bottles are pretty highly regarded. They're very stable, got a wide opening, and have a little inner chamber to help fill the pen up more easily.
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Apr 4, 2013 20:50
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w00tmonger posted:I Bought some fountain pens when the last thread went up and Ive been loving hem, but I'm thinking about taking this poo poo to the next level. Without knowing what kind of pen you're looking for it's hard to say which ones would be good for you. Esterbrooks are one of the most commonly used vintage pens, and are relatively cheap and have a myriad of compatible nibs. Parker 51s are also extremely good pens, though a bit more expensive than the Esterbrooks for a good one. You're best off looking up old manufacturers and seeing what they made, unless you have something specific in mind? As for buying them, naturally you can find some in antique stores, and if you're lucky and know what you're looking at you can get some amazing deals thanks to the little knowledge most people have with regards to vintage pens. Ebay is also pretty good for a lot of vintage pens, though that comes with the usual risks of not seeing what you are buying in the flesh before you receive it. The German site Martini Auctions is also great for vintage pens, each manufacturer having its own vintage pen section. I know they'll ship to other countries in Europe, but I'm not sure if they'll ship to anywhere else however.
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Apr 5, 2013 19:09
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PC LOAD LETTER posted:Are there anything like glass nibs out there for ink filled fountain pens? Could've sworn they existed... They definitely exist, though they're usually very old and kind of hard to acquire. They pop up on ebay now and again. Vitamins fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Apr 6, 2013 |
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Apr 6, 2013 12:12
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 20:58 |
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My bad you're right, the description said eyedropper but looking at the photos there's no way to get ink into it. Seems it's just a dip pen! This however, is one with an internal ink reservoir!
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Apr 6, 2013 15:11
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