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That quill shop with the custom Pilot/Waverly nibs is selling Iroshizuku at 15 bucks a bottle; stock up and get some decent shipping and call it a day?
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Feb 5, 2014 04:47
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 18:21 |
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I dunno if anybody still gives a poo poo but the nice affordable Pilot Metropolitan is on sale at Massdrop (free signup required) as a two-pack for 24.99 + tax, free ground shipping to the US. You get a choice of fine or medium nib and get to pick from the old selection line of black/silver/gold with matte band. I can't for the life of me figure out what I did with my Metro when I moved, so now's a good time to double down (and get that fine tip too).
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Aug 1, 2014 22:51
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laertes22 posted:VAC700 is an amazing pen. It also holds an astounding amount of ink. I highly recommend it. I got a dude to modify the feed and put an Eversharp nib in my VAC 700 for the gold flex nib. Wonderful pen, but sometimes can take awhile to start up (not necessarily a hard starter, just takes awhile for feed saturation).
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Aug 5, 2014 22:29
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Lord Girlyman posted:I don't know what size you're looking for, but the Staples bagasse (Sustainable Earth?) notebooks are excellent. Super smooth, FP friendly, and cheap. We have the San Francisco pen show coming up at the end of the month, but I dunno if I'm going to be able to go mostly because I'm double booked! Then again, I might break down and buy all the pens and papers if I go, so maybe next year... Alright. People. Tell me about sugarcane-based papers. I heard they are cheap and incredible for more regular fountain pen use.
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Aug 7, 2014 05:46
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Kessel posted:I had the bagasse paper from Staples for a while. Never bled, even with watery inks and juicy nibs, and much cheaper than the normal recommendations of CF and even the Japanese papers. Neat! I think the bagasse paper I have seen before but never tried. Having tried some of that Tomoe River from a local pen posse, I can definitely say that's a pretty bangin' deal. I know people leverage group buys of that all the time to cover the overhead from shipping and then parcel it out and have notebooks and such made from it. Speaking of which - anybody wanna go in on that? 
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Aug 7, 2014 17:47
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neongrey posted:Out of curiosity, do they even make an EF Metro anywhere? I know the Japanese market has some offerings they don't sell over here in general. tl;dr: not for 15 bucks, no Nah, but if you had a pilot EF nib from something else (Prera, etc) you could theoretically pull it and slap it into a Metro with a bit of working. You can also get a nib ground down to EF maybe but at that point just buy a Prera with an EF.
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Aug 11, 2014 15:59
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Everything Burrito posted:I got a F Metro and figured out pretty quick that was the lower end of my tolerance for small nibs. I couldn't imagine writing with anything much finer, seems like it would feel like trying to scratch words out with the end of a needle. It depends on the purpose of what you're using the nib for and preference. Some people will like F, EF, or EEF for writing that requires some precision such as ledger work and small print writing (especially for East Asian characters, which is the overall reason why Japanese nibs are finer than Western nibs). Most fine nibs play nicer with a wider variety of papers - because there's less ink overall coming out of the nib/feed then the less saturation you're going to get on the paper. If you tend to jot down things on whatever's handy at the moment such as copy paper or run of the mill notepads then you're likely better off with a F nib for the sake of compatibility. For pretty much everything else, it all comes down to preference. Flex nibs for expressiveness in calligraphy, same with stub and broad nibs. I find that using a Medium can sometimes be fiddly with something I would otherwise have no problems on with a F nib; however, the amount of ink I get per stroke makes it feel much smoother for continuous writing. There is, of course, the hidden component of sentimental value - if a pen is enjoyable for other non-mechanical reasons then that tends to take the cake for selection. These are the pens over 300 bucks that tend to be art/display/jewelry pieces more than writing instruments - though, people like Leigh Reyes will whip out a custom-ordered pen from Spain that costs more than I see in a paycheck with an adjusted nib, and doodle with it when the need suits them, as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m47SseRglw e: as someone who got the rare chance to handle that Romillo pen that you see at the end of the video, that thing definitely feels like a lot of money, that's for sure!
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Aug 11, 2014 18:25
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Yo, I would for real be totally down with getting a Penpal chain going. They are moderately successful in some of the smaller cliques on FPN and FPGeeks and you can probably write about whatever's topically relevant (maybe if you get to know someone better you can write some more targeted things). There's something about writing and sending out a letter the old fashioned way, and if you have some kind of social pressure (in that your penpal is waiting for your letter) then that may be what you need/want as an excuse to whip out your very fancy poo poo. Otherwise, for your "cheaper" fountain pens I actually just carry em on me wherever I go so that I have something ready to write with for personal notes.
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Aug 17, 2014 17:20
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Landsknecht posted:Does anyone here dish out for really "nice" paper? I'm usually using stuff like rhodia pads, but I always see those high end stationery sets, but I really don't know if they're that great. Are they? (Stuff like crown mill and whatnot). I have a Life Noble notebook and a couple of Kokuyo notebooks, Apica, a Mnemosyne perforated book, Midori TN notebooks, and some Tomoe River from 2013. Let me tell you: Tomoe River is some fuckin' magic sorcery. How you get no-bleed, no-feather paper at 55g is beyond me.
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Aug 18, 2014 22:11
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milpreve posted:I' thinking of learning Round Hand or Spencerian, though I like Round better. Do I need a flex nib, is it drastically different if I use a stub? I'm thinking about buying a nice pen to celebrate my promotion to management, but I know a lot of vintage flexies are hit or miss at my price range (<$200). If you plan on practicing calligraphy you'll probably want to use that flex in order to get the full range of width variation, but I'd say get an offset calligraphy dip pen and get a shitload of ink and dip nibs. Vintage flexies are great if you can test them out beforehand.
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Aug 19, 2014 17:33
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I got this Massdrop group buy for some more Metros, but where the hell are they!? I think my next big ticket buy is going to be a Pilot Metal Falcon with a soft extra fine nib. The converter that it supports, the CON-70, is absolutely massive and a button filler, so it meets all my criteria of having a very fine nib (can make dots finer than a Rhodia pad!), huge ink capacity, and being a pleasure to write with (probably - I might have to stop by Maido in SF to see if they have one I can fiddle with). Here's Goulet demonstrating and comparing the pen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX1Ad2lSxtw edit: also an instrumental demonstration of only the Metal Falcon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-9LwJfGvQ4 aldantefax fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 8, 2014 17:23
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I have an Ahab that someone got me for a secret santa present last year and it works fine, but i didn't have any weird smells or cracked cap. It had a cool drawing that came with it too!
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Sep 9, 2014 17:32
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Think I'm getting this beauty on Saturday...Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with FA Nib
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Sep 16, 2014 22:33
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Solumin posted:Come join us in the rum thread! I don't need a new pen, either, but other than the Pilot Metros from Massdrop that I'm still waiting for I haven't purchased any new pens this year and my birthday's coming up. I thought about what I wanted out of a new pen, and came to the conclusion that I wanted high ink capacity, a fine nib, and a threaded cap. Supposedly, the feed is finicky on this pen, BUT the guy I am going to buy the pen from is a tinkerer and he has also offered to adjust the feed to make it more generous in ink flow. Combo that with the Falcon nib and I think it's a winner!
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Sep 17, 2014 00:17
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   Mmmmyep.
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Sep 22, 2014 18:36
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Korwen posted:The Vac 700 looks interesting, but the vacuum filling mechanism seems less appealing to me because you have to loosen the top for the ink to not lose flow, or so I've heard, but I like that they come in colors. Are the nibs that different between the mini/580/700 and are the 700's that much nicer to write with? They seem to get fairly universal praise. All TWSBI nibs are pretty much the same and interchangeable between pens, so the nib on your 580 or Mini will fit on your 700 (I own all three and I have swapped a nib between all three, same threads). However, I had someone put a vintage nib on my VAC-700 and adjust the feed, and it writes like a champ - it's a daily writer for me with fantastic ink capacity. If you can get your hands on a vintage #6 nib of some kind you can make the adjustment yourself, but you will certainly want to adjust the feed if you want the pen to keep up with your hijinks for flexing (a rigid vintage nib will likely have no problems at all writing with an unmodified feed). For short writing sessions there is a 'staging' chamber before ink enters the feed, so you don't really need to unscrew unless the 700 hasn't been in use for awhile. For longer writing sessions I have found I just unscrew the cap entirely to allow 100% free flow.
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Sep 22, 2014 19:19
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Solkanar512 posted:Wait, I thought the Diamond series was a #5 nib while the Vac (and maybe the Micarta as well) was a #6 nib. I can go back and swap between the 580 and the Mini when I get home tonight to verify. The primary limitation for nib swapping in a Mini and 580 is that while they can likely take a #6 nib no problem, you wouldn't be able to fit the cap back on because they are skinnier than the VAC. Dunno anything about the grinding down of a steel nib to make it more flexible so I'll defer to other people. There's probably threads on FPN and FPGeeks about doing it to some varying degree of success.
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Sep 22, 2014 19:39
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Hellbeard posted:Guys. This guy has a spencerian mod falcon from Mottishaw (nibs.com). Not a bad deal if you want a modern pen w/ some serious flex and very fine line (0.2mm).
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Sep 27, 2014 04:16
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Going to Maido today in San Francisco. I want a nice shady ink and some new stationery! gently caress! 
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Oct 3, 2014 19:46
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The Signo is a great pen, very free-flowing. Refills are pretty reasonable.
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Oct 3, 2014 22:22
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In more money-burning news I placed an order at Nanami Paper for a bunch of those A5 sized plastic writing pads (I got one of each to see how I liked the different textures). To date I think they're the only people domestically that stocks Maruzen Athena Sepia, and that poo poo is expensive. 45 bucks a bottle is no joke. They ship from City of Industry or Santa Barbara, so I'm looking forward to getting my stuff soon. i kind of want to buy it They are also part of the few (but growing) resellers that does Tomoe River notebooks. The dude I emailed at the place, Dave, said that they're expecting a version 2 of their "Seven Seas Notebook" in the last week of October, so if you're looking for a nice piece of stationery, this place might be up your alley.
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Oct 8, 2014 06:15
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Noctone posted:Prera is a vastly underrated pen imo, mine writes incredibly smoothly as well. No hard starts, no skipping, nada. Slides out of the cap very easily though. Permanently bent a nib when one slipped out of its cap and hit hard tile. :<
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Oct 31, 2014 20:57
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Thelonious Monk posted:The several Faber-Castell steel nibs I've used, all medium, are quite smooth writers if a bit wet. Yah they are absolute nails but I save the expressive flex writing for my Jinhao x450 with a noodler's flex nib jammed into it. I actually would say that the few that I've tried have been the smoothest steel nibs I've used. My first pen that brought me in was a Faber-Castell Loom with a piano black cap, and it owns. That's all I gotta say about that!
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Nov 13, 2014 03:05
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404notfound posted:I ordered on the 4th, but I also live about ten minutes away from JetPens. The last time I emailed about picking up an order in person, they were in Milpitas, but maybe I should check again now that they've moved to San Jose... I have asked this before, but their warehouse is somewhere other than here so you can't do local pickups for JetPens. The situation may have changed from mid-2013, but it depends on where they actually ship stuff out of - their office is just that around here and doesn't carry any local stock.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:02
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New year's a great time to get a new journal diary started with your pens. Here's a good guide to get started that got published today from the Art of Manliness!
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Jan 1, 2015 19:22
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Anybody stop into the LA Pen Show? The local SF pen posse is going nuts (as is their way).
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Feb 14, 2015 17:09
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Anybody familiar with this Bullet Journal junk? I like parts of it, so I'd like a notebook recommendation that's fountain pen friendly, dot grid (or graph works), numbered pages, pocket friendly (A5 or less). I guess the Leuchtturms are what was used for the official Kickstarter Bullet Journal, but any other recs are good!
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Mar 26, 2015 00:19
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I picked up a grip of inks from a goon in SA-Mart, so I'm looking forward to receiving them in a broken and muddled mess in the mail (USPS sucks, by the by). One of them is a near full bottle of Stormy Grey - gonna clean out the franken VAC 700 and drink deeply of that soon!
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Apr 6, 2015 04:08
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What paper are you using? The only one I have an in-person reference for is a swab of Yama-budo that I have in one of my Rhodias, and it looks pretty accurate. Also, for indoor light, are you using a daylight bulb or in-house lighting, etc.? Depends on how analytic you want to get, but if you're going for natural setting it should be fine.
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Apr 8, 2015 18:28
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Do I want to go down the Nakaya rabbit hole some time in the next two years?
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Apr 15, 2015 19:20
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Kessel posted:They'll probably raise their prices at some point in the next year or two, so Well, gently caress that noise then!
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Apr 15, 2015 19:55
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Anybody check out that blue-dyed Midori Traveler's Notebook that Goulet just sent an announcement about? Looks nice!
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Apr 16, 2015 00:48
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Vanishing Point Radens are...less expensive than I thought they'd be. I think I'll get one this year! Isn't the VP's main beef that the custom converter it has is kind of slim in terms of ink storage?
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Apr 19, 2015 23:59
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cobalt impurity posted:
Nibs.com quotes the water version at around 600 and the standard "burst" Raden pattern at around 300. I also saw that they have some Pelikan Raden limited edition pens - for a cool two grand. 600+ is pushing it but 300's pretty agreeable for me these days and I haven't bought a pen yet this year (though technically I did get one for free from Verdugo along with some inks).
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Apr 20, 2015 02:21
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Should be fine (Lie de The was one of the first bottled inks I bought!). It is not particularly wet of an ink, but it certainly should be flowing fine. Cleaning/drying your metro in that way should be fine, but if you have a bulb syringe around that you can fill up with water, you can purge the feed more reliably than with your posted method. Goulet has a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZ39gUiLB4 It's worth doing another cleaning just to make sure you have all the black out. You should otherwise be fine with the new ink.
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May 19, 2015 23:05
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Solkanar512 posted:It's one of my favorite pens. I have a blue one, and a stuck one of the gold plated goulet nibs in it and it looks great. I have the blue as well (a surprising and very awesome gift from the local pen posse last year) and I got it modified by a tinkering dude to use a Wahl Eversharp nib. Had to shave the feed channel in order to get the appropriate ink flow, but once it's properly going it can write for years. I have Stormy Grey inked up on it right now, fantastic!
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Jun 4, 2015 18:50
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My poor VAC 700 had its cap break. Thankfully, for the price of three bucks, I'm getting a replacement from TWSBI!
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Jun 23, 2015 19:27
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Speaking of Noodler's, I heard the announcement via Goulet that Tardiff's switching to plastic bottles due to glass supply issues. Better save your old bottles, I guess!
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Aug 20, 2015 02:22
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I'm just gonna throw this out there that if you want a visually arresting pen that borders on tacky in the "fancy" bracket to consider a pen with Raden inlay like the Vanishing Point Raden. Basically, if you find yourself looking at Nibs.com, you're in the "fancy" bracket, and 'normal' pen vendors for most everything else. http://www.nibs.com/PilotVPRaden.htm It's only 300 bucks for the cheapest one! Sorry, I'm projecting a bit here since I want to get one of these one day.
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Aug 21, 2015 16:24
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 18:21 |
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saphron posted:I tried the 1670 inks this past weekend at the SF pen show (which was super great by the way). If the trial pens were any indication, Emerald of Chivor was writing fine mid-afternoon when the others were clogged messes. I didn't end up helping out with the show, but I heard the ink sampling stations were the bee's knees and received well by everybody. Ricky and co. are getting some great feedback regarding the event.
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Sep 3, 2015 04:17
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