Fountain Pens

When I started using Fountain Pens last year, I noted that there was something different about the quality of my writing. It seemed to have a different quality to it. At first, I couldn't figure out the reason for it. But as I kept writing I meditated on the subject. As I turned the idea around in my mind for a while, I came up with a few thoughts seemed to explain what I was both feeling and experiencing.

This is less of a check out my collection and more of a is there anything you would like to know more about, a state of the collection of pens I have accumulated over the more than three decades I have been using fountain pens. I don't have anything particularly special, so most of them are known, but there are a few interesting, less known ones.

I started using them not out of my own volition, but because it was mandatory in first grade. Then, when it wasn't anymore, I still stuck with them, because other pens didn't feel quite as nice, not as smooth, required much more pressure to write, and certainly didn't have the array of colors available to fountain pens. So while I didn't originally choose to use fountain pens, I absolutely chose to stick with them. I do occasionally use ballpoints (BIC cristal and M10) and various gel pens, when I have to, but this is very much occasional.

This is not all the pens I have ever had, I have broken, lost, sold and given away quite a few tens of them, this is only what I have today, minus a Wing Sung 601A which is in my lab right now, but I am not going to go get it because of the heat.. and it is not worth talking about too (not a particularly good pen).

I'll present the pens as:

[Brand] [Model name] [Nib size/style/cut] - [name of the colorway],

as expressed by the manufacturer or in the sales pages, in English (usually machine translated for Chinese brands), as available.

Top row, left to right:

• Pimio / Picasso 933 Avignon M - unknown
• Pimio / Picasso 902 Gentleman series M - Agathe red
• Pimio / Picasso 902 Gentleman series M - Black gold cap
• Pimio / Picasso 906 Athens Dynasty M - Blakc and gold
• Pimio / Picasso 916 Malaga EF - Red
• Pimio / Picasso 916 Malaga F - Muri gray
• Pimio / Picasso 916 Malaga SEF - Dawn red
• HongDian C1 Explorer F - Red
• HongDian 517D EF - Matte black and silver
• Jinhao 35 EF - Black
• Jinhao 911 EF - Black and gold
• Jinhao 20 EF - "C" (no further naming found for this color)
• Pilot kaküno EF - Gray
• Pilot Custom 74 F (14k) - unkown

Bottom row:

• Jinhao 100 Naginata & F nibs - Snowflake
• Jinhao 100 M - Black
• Jinhao 100 EF - Tofu
• Jinhao 95 F - Black and gold
• Jinhao 95 M - Red
• Jinhao 85 EF/0,38mm (hooded nib) - DYI colorway (barrel painted with the same paint as my motorcycle)
• Jinhao 85 F (open nib) - Black
• Jinhao 85 EF (hooded) - Blue
• Jinhao 85 EF (hooded) - Blue (same colorway, different batches, lighter is older by several years, difference not due to shifting color)
• Jinhao 75 F/0,5mm - Black red
• Jinhao 88 F - Red
• Jinhao 88 EF - Blue
• Hero 849 EF - Green (it's actually teal and rose gold)
• Pilot explorer M - Red

Top row:

• Platinum #3776 Music nib (14k) - Black (the feed has turned into dust, and no replacement parts are available as Platinum refuses to sell parts for repairs, and I am not paying for the shipping to Japan for a pen that costed my 11800¥)
• Parker Sonnet F (18k) and Cursive (18k) - Chiseled silver (or sterling silver I don't remember)
• Parker IM F (18k) - Black and gold trim
• Parker Duofold International F (18k) - Green tortoise shell and Rhodium (IIRC) trim
• Pilot 78G+ M - Green
• Pilot 78G+ F - Black
• Pilot kaküno F - Soft blue
• Hero 1079 Ultrafine/0,38mm - Black
• Hero 1079 Ultrafine/0,38mm - Yellow
• Hero P108 0,38mm (hooded) - Matte black
• Hero 616 F - Burgundy
• Hero 616 F - Yellow (yeah, I know)

Bottom row

• Unknown pen with generic nib and feed - (actual) Sandal wood
• Unknown pen with generic nib and feed - (actual) Rosewood
• Kaco Mellow EF - Red
• Kaco Retro EF/0,38mm (hooded) - Black
• No idea what this one is, same generic nib and feed as the wood pens
• "Vintage Hero pen" no further details (hooded nib)
• "Vintage Hero pen" no further details (hooded nib)
• Stonego unknown model with "KURM" branding on nib
• Stonego unkown model with "HUASHILAI" branded nib
• Unknown brand and model with generic "Iridium point" nib
• Lambitou 2053 Artistic pen - unknown
• Hero 616 F/0,5mm - Red

Left to right:

• Waterman Allure F - Chrome
• Waterman Kultur F - unknown
• Waterman Philéas M - Black and gold trim (smoothest steel nib I have ever used)
• Waterman Hémisphère M - unknown
• Waterman Charleston M (18k) and OF (18k) - Ivory

Left to right:

• Waterman Exception "slim" M - Black and gold trim
• Waterman Expert II F - Black and gold trim
• Waterman Apostrophe M - Black and gold trim
• Waterman Apostrophe M - Black and gold trim
• Waterman Apostrophe M - Black and gold trim

Feel free to ask whatever questions come to mind. Do note that I don't necessarily know everything about some of them, I can't even remember how I got some of them.

I have been nearly obsessed with finding a good set of Parker 51 clones. I've had several (from Jinhao and Junlai) that have been disappointing. While they had the look and filling mechanism that I wanted, many of them would fail in terms of writing well, or in drying out. What exacerbated these purchases was that they would all come up when searching for a “Hero 601” on Amazon, which is the pen I'd seen reviewed that was often praised.

I got inspired and decided to try out a few fountain pen inks the other day. I picked up Organics Studio's Nitrogen.

This is a popular saturated blue ink that has a lot of red sheen to it, looks almost like metallic foil when written on sufficiently ink-resistant paper.

I used it with a broad-nib TWSBI Eco. And in that, that, I agree. It does show a lot of sheen.

One really needs video to see the effect, since one needs to tilt it relative to a light source. A static image doesn't really convey the effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEsHNIn1c7w&t=1460s

But there were some big caveats.

It dries out very quickly on one's nib

My big surprise was how extremely quickly the ink dried on my nib, producing a delay until the ink is flowing and a hard start after just a short time out in the air without ink flowing. People do talk about this online, now that I've gone looking for it, but I wasn't aware of it when getting the ink, and I doubt I'd have gotten it if I'd known about this going into it. One can't just stop and think for very long without needing to start writing to keep the ink flowing. For me, this is frustrating, and really kills the appeal of the ink for me. None of my other inks do this.

One really needs ink-resistant paper to see sheen

Another thing that I hadn't anticipated

not having played around with inks with a lot of sheen prior to this

is that one really needs ink-resistant paper to see the sheen. On ordinary copy paper, it just looks like a blue ink. I knew that there would be a difference, but not that there would be no sheen. On an inexpensive composition notebook I've had sitting around for probably thirty years in my desk, it looks all right, if not quite as shiny as on Iroful paper.

This probably isn't a huge surprise to people who have used inks with sheen, and it's not going to be specific to this particular sheening ink. But I'd expected some sheen to still be visible on more absorbent paper, and it isn't.

It tends to smear and get on things

In the above video, Brian Goulet does mention this and how the ink is infamous for doing this

which I find puzzling, given how quickly it seems to dry out on the nib. So I was expecting to see this. But I still managed to get smearing and blue blotches on my hands multiple times, despite being careful. I haven't seen anything like this with the other inks I've used (though I don't have a huge collection, admittedly).

Other

It has a reputation for staining clear pens. I haven't tried cleaning it out after exhausting my current fill, so no first-hand experience with this, but I thought that I'd also mention this, in case someone runs across this post when considering the ink.

Summary

The ink is pretty, if one wants something with a lot of sheen. I don't dispute that. But it really is a pain in the neck to use.

I don't know of a good "Nitrogen alternative" that performs better, but I have to say that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they are aware of what they are getting into.

I don't recall any point in time where I had any interest in fountain pens. I was born well after the time of the fountain pen, and there weren't any relatives in my family that had any special attachments to fountain pens.

Are there any good modern lever fill pens? The only brand I can think of that is still making lever fill pens is Conway Stewart. Are there any others?

Four months ago I posted about this quirky pen I popped into my shopping cart on impulse one night while grabbing some supplies on Amazon.

Well, after that original post I didn't use the pen. I put it away in a case and I forgot about it. Recently, I bought a new, large pen case and moved most of my pens into that case. While I was doing so, I realized I had a bunch of pens that had been sitting around, inked, but unused, including this one.

Last night I pulled out ten pens (five Parker 51 clones, Lamy Safari, Hongdian M2 Brass, Hongdian C1, TWSBI Eco and this Wilknd) to clean out.

Of the pens I pulled out: 2 Parker 51 clones, the Lamy, and the Hongdian M2 Brass had dried out / failed to write. But the Wilknd, the one that was in the case the longest (except for the TWSBI and Lamy) worked immediately. After four months that pen was writing up a storm like I had just filled it and started using it.

Just goes to show: name brand isn't everything. Even the cheapest, no-name pen can perform as well as, and possibly better than a brand name pen.

Where do you recommend for pen purchases? In the past I've used Goulet but there was a post (maybe here?) awhile back about them that inclined me to not give them money any more.

Background : I teach a class about once a year and I like to gift my graduating students a pen because I find it unique and interesting - you don't see fountain pens much anymore. I usually go with a Lamy Safari (but am up for recommendations on similar starter pens; see bottom). In the past they (Lamy) sold a gift set that was the pen and 5 or so of the disposable cartridges in various colors (no Z28 included) and that was my go-to. They don't appear to sell that particular product anymore so I'd reverted to just the standalone Safari and including one extra disposable cartridge since I have quite a few but don't use them.

Preferably a US based distributor.

While we're at it, any suggestions for a good, comparable, starter pen besides the Lamy Safari? Around $30 USD is my max price range since some times I have up to 15 students and that gets... pricey : ) Main consideration is that it's a decent pen that won't frustrate new users but something nicer than a disposable (EG: Pilot Varsity).

This must have been a #mistake. LOL I picked up this 5 pack of Kokuyo Campus B5, 100 sheet #notebooks for $6 per book. Most places list an individual book for $10-$14 USD.

I'm using these books for my daily writing now. Mostly because of the price, compared to an Apica CD Premium #notebook priced at $16 dollars, the Campus seemed like a reasonable option. I've seen that Doodlebud has compared these against his Muji paper, and thought that it was comparable. But since I don't have access to Muji paper here, the Campus is the best option.

These do hold up to #fountainpen usage. While I mostly use a fine nib, I have used a medium and even a broad nib with it, and it's been good. I don't know if it would work well with a 1.1mm nib, but I may try it at some point.

Just refilled my Asvine V200 pens. I go through almost a full fill of #ink in them every 12–13 days. I didn't think I would be filling these #fountainpens as often as I am, but here we are... Guess I just #write that much with them.

Left to right these pens are filled with Diamine Jet Black, Oxford Blue, Aurora Borealis, Writer's Blood and Imperial Purple inks. To their right is the Jinhao x750 filled with Wordsworth & Black Lavender Purple.

It's a three-fer tonight. First is some #ink that I'd been wanting to post for a while now. A few months back I ordered three bottles of Wordsworth & Black in when I got it on special (three bottles for the price of two). While I posted the first two (Royal Blue and Racing Green), the third bottle took weeks to come in. Well, here it is: Lavender Purple. Definitely much stronger on the purple side than the lavender side -- but I still really like it.

And, then there's the pen. The other day when I was placing an order for some other stuff the Jinhao X750 #fountainpen showed up in my recommended list. And, for $8 USD, I couldn't say no. In fact, I added two of them to my cart (the other one is brushed stainless steel). I thought this one looked really cool. I have to say it's a pretty nice pen, cartridge converter, snap-on cap (really strong snap), there is a cap liner for a good seal. The converter came installed by default. Holds about .5-.75ml of ink.

Finally, a little quote for the night. Figured that a little Shel Silverstein was a nice break from the type Lavender quotes. ;)

Today I have for you the only Pelikan in the big box of pens. This is a 120 “school” pen from probably the early sixties. I think originally the nib was gold plated, but lots of pictures I found of this model, the gold wears off. I’m going to guess that is what happened here. The piston to fill the pen moves by turning the black end piece. I love how the clip is a pelican head and beak. It’s very gentle to fill compared with the piston actions of some of the other pens.

So, I noticed something odd the other day. I was writing in a notebook using my Asvine V126 with Diamine Writer's Blood. When I came home I grabbed by V200 with Writer's Blood to finish what I was writing, but the color / shading of the ink was very different. It was a lot darker and more saturated from the V200 vs the V126.

I compared the nibs under my loupe, but they seem to be mostly the same (ie, tines about the same width, no mis-alignment, etc.)

So, I decided to take things a step further and made the image in this message. Note both the Diamine Aurora Borealis and Writer's Blood seem to have quite different characteristics.

(I should mention: all pens were recently cleaned, and all filled at the same time from the same bottle(s) of ink...)

Anyone have any thoughts on why this would be the case?

Here are three Skylines. I was trying to get the light to show off the brown and blue pens’ tortoise shell. All three needed cleaning and new ink sacs. The brown one is still in process because I can’t get it apart no matter how hard I pull and I’m afraid to break it. The nibs on these are especially smooth and nice to write with, even when I’m making tiny letters. I’ll keep posting pens as I clean and restore the ones in this box I inherited. Ideas on how to live with, use, and store a dozen or so pens welcome. They are all turning out so well I want to rotate through using them but want to make sure they don’t get all dried out and broken between rotations.

Time for a tale of two inks, this time feature Wordsworth and Black Racing Green and Royal Blue.

So, let's start with something important: neither of these inks are accurately represented in their packaging. The Royal Blue box hints that there is more purple tones in it than the swab shows. But the shocking one is the Racing Green, it not only looks nothing like the representation on the box, but it isn't even close to a "racing green" (aka Rally Green). The box actually does look like "Racing Green".

And, I didn't include them, but the labels on the bottle are just as bad.

Honestly, Racing Green is so bad, I just flushed it out of my pen, and loaded it with Aurora Borealis instead.

The Royal Blue, despite the misrepresentation, is a pretty nice blue. It's a bit more saturated than the TWSBI Blue, and less purple than the Diamine Majestic Blue. I think it makes for a good alternative to the Oxford Blue which is my standard.

Question: has anyone done extensive testing on any fountain pen inks?

I don't mean the standard Mountain of Ink style, sample card, writing sample, etc. visual comparisons. (I'd like to call this subjective measurement, but chromatographic measurements aren't subjective if done in a controlled manner.)

I am thinking more objective testing: viscosity, density, flow rate @ a given line width, etc.

I was thinking about this type of testing tonight, and it seems to me that there are a lot of factors that would need to be controlled: temperature, air pressure / barometric pressure, nib consistency, friction (aka heat), etc. Given what I was thinking this could be an interesting experiment, if someone wanted to undertake controlling all the variables, and implementing the controls necessary for consistent results.

I was looking for a way to post my before picture as well, but couldn’t figure it out. The metal was dull and dirty, the rubber pen sac was cracked and hardened and, the pen was full of dried ink. I disassembled the pen, soaked it, polished the parts and fitted a new ink sac. I think it is a Whal Machine Turned pen from the 1920s.

When I write with it, the first few centimeters have no ink, then it flows. I gather this can be fixed, but I don’t want to press my luck with reshaping the nib and potentially breaking it.

I found a stash of old pens when cleaning out a relative’s house. So, maybe I’ll be able to share more of the ones I’m able to revive.

Trying out a little paper I wasn't familiar with: Maruman Mnemosyne.

The quote: “When all else fails, write what your heart tells you. You can’t depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus.” -- Mark Twain

• Pen: Asvine V126, Steel Nib
• Ink: Diamine Writer's Blood
• Paper: Maruman Mnemosyne

The paper did really well: no spidering, no bleed through. Of course, Writer's Blood isn't the wettest of inks. I'll try another pen / ink combo to see how well this paper fares.

So, I was ordering stuff from Amazon the other night... I'd come across this #pen a week or so ago, and I couldn't get the ink window out of my mind. It was cheap, so I wasn't expecting much - but I had to satisfy my curiosity.

This pen is from a company called Wilknd. Never heard of them, only other listing is for a fairly generic looking ballpoint pen.

What I received is actually a fairly respectable #fountainpen - especially for $15, compared to junk like Beiluner or Scrivenier.

Brass case, plated gold, fine nib (listing says 0.5mm, but it writes like an EF), interesting design (I don't recall seeing anything like this), a snap cap with a liner, installed syringe-style converter. I filled it with Hongdian Blue ink and tried writing a page -- enjoy my crappy penmanship. Lol.

#fountainpenfirstimpressions #fountainpenfun #penlife

I got this mint rOtring sec-o-mat set in a mixed lot of drawing equipment on eBay. I find the Isograph pens really elegant, but personally I only use Micronorm/Variant pens for my drawings, so I've decided to sell this on. Because these sets are quite rare, and because a new Isograph costs over €20, I figured a starting auction price of €140 seemed more than fair. If I'm lucky, this one will almost pay for the whole lot that I bought. Wish me luck!

So, I read an interview with Rick Wakeman from 2018 in the Daily Mail (My haven, Rick Wakeman) that he has a substantial collection of fountain pens: around 600 of them.

But doing a bit more research, I came across the above in a 1990 fan club newsletter.

So, I was trying to find an actual vintage version of the Conklin Crescent Filler (aka, the "profanity saver," according to Samuel Clemens) pen that was restored and in decent condition... But, I only found two, and they were well above where I wanted to be price-wise. So, I settled for the reproduction instead.

I have to say, even though it has a JoWo Omniflex Stainless Steel nib, it's a good writer. In fact, so good, that when it started acting up on me the other day it took me a few minutes before I realized the issue was that it was actually out of ink... I had actually written enough with it to go through a complete fill.

Amazon has a whole new group of scammers that have shown up... I mean, blurring out the writing on the cap and nib? $385 for a steel nib? #2 Pencil?

Not in the picture: they recommend alcohol based ink.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/52558086

Ever since I knew about the Vanishing Point, I've always wanted to try one. But I don't want the hassle of buying an expensive pen and having to sell it if I don't like it.

So ever since Majohn made the A1 and A2, I always wanted to buy them to try click fountain pens. I can only guess and lay out many ~~excuses~~ reasons why I waited until Jinhao's second shot at click fountain pens to get one. But not only that I gambled with 3!

But so far I am pleased with all three. Read that jinhao's model might have more QC variable what with some that dry out in minutes. Going with fine is perfectly fine for me.