Pen/Ink/Paper Collecting Thread

Discussion in 'Random Thoughts' started by Dr. Higgs, Feb 22, 2016.

  1. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Thanks all, for now I'll just focus on getting three TWSBI Eco's. The nib set price was slightly disappointed, a few bucks more and I can get a full pen. So I'll get from them the Medium, Broad, and 1.1stub and see which one I like the most. Maybe a notebook is fine, but I'm so used to lines, not grids.

    Any recommend on the lower price ink that I stated from Waterman and Pilot?
     
  2. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    I'm a bit of a Noodler's ink fan. I wouldn't put it in my "nice" pens or any demonstrators I want to keep clean (rather aggressive inks), but you get a lot of ink for however much you pay. They're a decent value brand that generally performs well, especially the bulletproof line, but you need to be careful to clean your pens well if you use them because they're hypersaturated with colour.
     
  3. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Thanks! After reviewing it, I'll get two bottles of a black and a shade of blue from Pilot. Did some reading of them, and they have good reviews and they dry well. Of course anything is subject to change....
     
  4. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    NBB - noodler's (bulletproof) black is kinda the default waterproof black for a lot of people.

    Just be careful opening the bottle as nathan fils them right to the lip of the bottle, and being waterproof it stains like hell.
     
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Got the following in the mail:

    TWSBI Ecos in three pens: M, B, 1.1stub

    Pilot Ink Cesarean Blue and Black

    Thoughts:

    TWSBI M: Feels natural to me, rights smoothly for the most part. Feels close to a Pilot Metro Medium.

    TWSBI B: SMOOTH LIKE BUTTER. Slightly thicker font than the M, but my handwriting looks slightly worse. Kind of fun.

    TWSBI 1.1stub: Why this pen isn't writing like butter? Should the bigger nib help it move fluent? I do get the appeal of the bigger front, it shows off the Cesarean Blue ink quite well. I however think something is missing or I must be doing something wrong here.

    Pilot Inks: Doesn't dry as fast as I like, but the ink quality to me is high. I can see why people would get different color inks and try them out.

    Also I'm not the biggest fan of the piston system. Even when I ejected ink earlier back to the ink container, there were still some ink after a few ups/downs with the piston system.
     
  6. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    I don't remember if I've mentioned this before but TWSBI's stubs (which are almost italics really) are hit and miss. The 1.5mm I got years back had a bad case of baby's bottom (i.e. there was a gap in between tines that made it hard for ink to reach page) that I had to grind down. I vaguely recall other people reporting misaligned tines. I'm assuming you have a watch loupe— maybe you could inspect the nib tip to see if the tines really aren't balanced. Could also just be that they're too tightly pressed up against each other.

    A properly-tuned pen is designed to write under zero pressure. If you have to apply any pressure just go get it writing then that warrants investigation.

    Welcome to the wonderful world of piston fillers, haha. Definitely need to rinse cycle a few times for most inks.
     
  7. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    It explains a lot. I do think the 1.1stub is a miss, the Board feels lightly more thicker than I thought. The medium is good thou.

    I still prefer the feel of a Pilot Medium.
     
  8. ergopower

    ergopower Friend

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  9. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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  10. Sqveak

    Sqveak Friend

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  11. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Shit. Now I'm even more reluctant to part with the letter-size packets I have. Time to hoard I guess.
     
  12. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Aaaand I have 300 sheets of A5-sized Tomoe River cream-coloured paper en route now after paying way too much for em. I've always been very fond of that specific tone for the inks I use but damn if this one doesn't sting.

    As it turns out parent company Tomoegawa (hah) will continue making paper but will be moving production to a new machine, so there's just a pronounced risk that the product they'll be releasing moving forward won't live up to the highly-regarded 52GSM variant. Still have several dozen sets of correspondence-sized sheets but full hoarder-mode engaged.

    This feels like when Sailor discontinued those dwarf bottles and started selling tiny samplers that barely last a few weeks for the same price, ugh.
     
  13. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I've been a fountain pen nerd since the mid 90's, not surprised about the cross over with audiophiles (finicky, specialized, expensive, super awesome when everything comes together :D).

    I picked up some Tomoe River paper based on reading this thread (thanks Lyander) and was very impressed with the lack of feathering and bleed, especially considering how thin it is. My only concern is the smooth coating. I've noticed Claire Fontaine paper will eventually cause most pens to skip, I think that coating somehow has an impact on the ink flow. The Tomoe River coating doesn't seem as thick or excessive so it may not be an issue. Really I wouldn't notice anyways unless I got a notebook or something. For a single sheet I've never had Claire Fontaine cause skipping. But with Rhodia notebooks, it happens once in a while and I had to stop buying them. For general use I really like the Levenger Circa notebooks and their paper is good for fountain pens. Though the Tomoe River paper has them beat when it comes to the ink showing through on the other side.

    I like both modern and vintage pens. I have some vintage flex nibs but avoid using them because I'm self-taught and have messed up a few. Now I save my heavy-handed crappy calligraphy for dip nibs. Spending less than $5 per nib (sometimes less than $1!) means I never give a shit when I break it. And they're easily replaced unlike vintage nibs.

    It amazes me the number of modern feeds that are crap and strangle the air flow. This is often caused by the cartridge system using a tiny hole (notice how most Japanese pens have a much larger hole for their cartridges/converters). But even the Japanese flex pens will skip such as the Falcon. Especially when you have someone like Mottishaw or Minuskin add flex to it. It bugs me because the feed problem was solved over 100 years ago. Sheesh, get your head out of your asses, pen manufacturers. :mad: If you only use fine nibs you won't notice, possibly medium too. But if you like broad or very wet nibs, I hope you get a piston filler or something Japanese. Otherwise it will skip.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2021
  14. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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  15. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  16. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    A French consumer agency has found that nearly half of writing supplies tested in stores have chemicals that disrupt hormones and known carcinogens

    https://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/...ter-de-stylos-billes-aux-enfants_2179026.html

    The article is in French but the TLDR is that this primarily affects ball-point pens, highlighters, markers and colored pencils/crayons. This even includes high profile brands like Waterman. They advise not to buy ball-point pens for kids the coming school year and just have plain graphite pencils

    For people that aren’t familiar with the culture, pen & paper is widely used in France. I haven’t been to a single appointment where someone wasn’t using a planner and hardly a meeting where someone has a laptop instead of a notebook. Cursive is taught starting in kindergarten.

    This is all to say it’s a bigger deal here than other places. I did not see anything about fountain pens or bottled ink. This might boost sales for those products.
     
  17. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    What sort of ink and pen would be good for just regular documents? Filling out forms and stuff.
     
  18. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    My daily driver is a Pelikan M150 new black I dunno whether there is a French equivalent. Ink probably Pelikan will do but hey you live in the land of Herbin. With pens it is like with audio gear it is good to be able to control oneself. With pens I stopped with a Pilot.
     
  19. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I would recommend getting a nib on the dryer end of the spectrum to reduce bleed or other issues with random paper. So fine or extra fine. Japanese pens tend to run small with nib sizes so you could get away with a medium Pilot/Namiki for example.

    I really like the Pilot/Namiki ink, some great colors and really good flow. Pelikan and Sailor are my second favorite inks but there’s a ton out there I haven’t tried. I find the J Herbin stuff to be thin and not as flowing as I’d like. Also Noodlers should be avoided for various reasons including inconsistency in batches.
     
  20. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    As an addendum, my favorite workhorse pens:
    Pelikan (M800 holds so much ink)
    Pilot/Namiki (especially the vanishing point for convenience)
    Parker 51 (not a fan of modern Parker but vintage are often great)
    Sailor
    Aurora
     

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