Any Fountain Pen Writers?

[+Slowswift]

2 hours ago, Kasimir said:

I thought so, but I actually have a dry Pelikan, if you can believe it  And gold-nibbed, too. I figure it can't hurt to ask the nibmeister to increase the flow as a result

*gasp* I don't know if I can!

@Cyclops Interesting to hear you had that problem with the V301. It's never had issues for me.

[Cyclops]

32 minutes ago, Slowswift said:

@Cyclops Interesting to hear you had that problem with the V301. It's never had issues for me.

I'm letting it sit for a little while before trying again.  Hopefully it'll work just fine.  But if not, I'm thinking of replacing the ink with Oxblood.  Just because I have it.

[Cyclops]

The V301 is still acting up.  I'll re-ink it later.  I have quite a few others to use right now.

New question: What is y'all's grail pen?  Apologies if that's been asked before.  Mine is a Montegrappa Hemingway Fisherman.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Cyclops

[+Slowswift]

14 minutes ago, Cyclops said:

The V301 is still acting up.  I'll re-think it later.  I have quite a few others to use right now.

New question: What is y'all's grail pen?  Apologies if that's been asked before.  Mine is a Montegrappa Hemingway Fisherman.

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the new ink!

As for grail pens, probably either one of the nicer Nakayas, or a first edition Conid Minimalistica, which has a little pi symbol engraved on the clip (because it was released on Pi Day, which also happens to be my birthday). 

[Cyclops]

8 hours ago, Slowswift said:

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the new ink!

As for grail pens, probably either one of the nicer Nakayas, or a first edition Conid Minimalistica, which has a little pi symbol engraved on the clip (because it was released on Pi Day, which also happens to be my birthday). 

I'm partial to pie day (and it shows).  My b-day is on VE (Victory in Europe) Day.

[Kasimir]

12 hours ago, Slowswift said:

As for grail pens, probably either one of the nicer Nakayas, or a first edition Conid Minimalistica, which has a little pi symbol engraved on the clip (because it was released on Pi Day, which also happens to be my birthday). 

Echoing Slowswift - probably a Nakaya Piccolo in mizu-iro, the blue-green version. But I don't really know. Tempted to say Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl just because of how scarce these have become but I know that's not really what people mean by grail pen. Maybe I'm just not really feeling it right now.

[Cyclops]

I messed around a little with my new pens.  The Zebra V301 I wasn't impressed with.  I had to shake the thing down each time I wanted to use it.  So i emptied the ink cartridges and will be filling one with another ink.  I also had a deuce of a time cleaning the nib.  But hopefully a different ink will flow better.

And speaking of different inks, I have Noodler's Air-Corp Blue/Black and Baystate Blue on the way.  Should be here in the next few days.  T'would be nice if it were tomorrow.

[Kasimir]

21 hours ago, Cyclops said:

And speaking of different inks, I have Noodler's Air-Corp Blue/Black and Baystate Blue on the way.  Should be here in the next few days.  T'would be nice if it were tomorrow.

Great picks! BSB should be fun, just be careful with the pens you put it in!

[Cyclops]

7 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Great picks! BSB should be fun, just be careful with the pens you put it in!

Got my inks today.  I'm just gonna put the BSB in one of my cheapie pens.  Might try the Zebra V301.  It's really close to Monteverde's Horizon Blue, but a lot more ink for a little bit more money.

[Cyclops]

What inks are hi-lighter friendly?  Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and Eel Black aren't.  They both smeared under my yellow hi-lighter.  No biggie, it's just my handwritten manuscript which is just for me, but I'd like some ink that is, for just in case.

[Kasimir]

6 hours ago, Cyclops said:

What inks are hi-lighter friendly?  Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and Eel Black aren't.  They both smeared under my yellow hi-lighter.  No biggie, it's just my handwritten manuscript which is just for me, but I'd like some ink that is, for just in case.

A lot of it depends here, both on your type of ink and type of highlighter. Water-based highlighters tend to be the most sus choice if only because many fountain pen inks will run or smear with water. You'd want something fairly waterproof, in which case if you have Noodler's Heart of Darkness, Black, or Bulletproof, they might work. A friend recommended J. Herbin Perle Noire as well, and there's always pigment inks like Platinum Carbon Black but those need more maintenance.

I would say get samples and only commit to a bottle if it works, given your situation. Noodler's would be the most pocket friendly for where you are, too.

P.S. I've dropped a query as some members of my local pen groups do use highlighters with ink. If they give me any more solid recs, I'll let you know.

[+Slowswift]

So this weekend is General Conference for us Latter-day Saints, and one of the many reasons I love it is the opportunity to use my pens to take notes! There are five sessions, so I've used five pens: a Pelikan M120, Pilot Custom 823, LAMY 2000, Platinum 3776, and Sailor 1911. Feels good to actually use these things instead of just letting them sit in a drawer and collect dust, you know?

[Kasimir]

15 minutes ago, Slowswift said:

So this weekend is General Conference for us Latter-day Saints, and one of the many reasons I love it is the opportunity to use my pens to take notes! There are five sessions, so I've used five pens: a Pelikan M120, Pilot Custom 823, LAMY 2000, Platinum 3776, and Sailor 1911. Feels good to actually use these things instead of just letting them sit in a drawer and collect dust, you know?

Oh, absolutely!  Show us your loadout, or hell, just share it with us in terms of ink and nib loadout, I'm curious! I'll probably do my daily carry for the week in a while too  

[Cyclops]

6 hours ago, Kasimir said:

A lot of it depends here, both on your type of ink and type of highlighter. Water-based highlighters tend to be the most sus choice if only because many fountain pen inks will run or smear with water. You'd want something fairly waterproof, in which case if you have Noodler's Heart of Darkness, Black, or Bulletproof, they might work. A friend recommended J. Herbin Perle Noire as well, and there's always pigment inks like Platinum Carbon Black but those need more maintenance.

I would say get samples and only commit to a bottle if it works, given your situation. Noodler's would be the most pocket friendly for where you are, too.

P.S. I've dropped a query as some members of my local pen groups do use highlighters with ink. If they give me any more solid recs, I'll let you know.

The Noodler's Eel Black  is bulletproof, and it still smeared with the hi-lighter.

And I believe that Zebra V301 is going in the trash.  I emptied and cleaned out the ink carts.  I loaded one with Diamine Oxblood.  I had to shake it down many times the initial use.  Then about a half hour later I had to shake it down a lot again.  It's just not worth the effort to me.  And it was part of an $18 pen sampler from JetPens.  Oh, well.  The rest of them are still doing well.

And thanks for putting the word out.  'Preciate it. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Cyclops

[+Slowswift]

On 4/4/2021 at 0:47 PM, Kasimir said:

Oh, absolutely!  Show us your loadout, or hell, just share it with us in terms of ink and nib loadout, I'm curious! I'll probably do my daily carry for the week in a while too  

I'll see what I can throw together, but in the meantime I used these inks with the previous pens respectively: Birmingham Panther Blue, Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, J. Herbin Poussière de Lune, Platinum Aqua Emerald, and J. Herbin Rouille d'Ancre!

[Kasimir]

On 4/5/2021 at 4:13 AM, Cyclops said:

The Noodler's Eel Black  is bulletproof, and it still smeared with the hi-lighter.

H'okay. I spoke to a bunch of my pen groups and these are their findings:

• One of the users on my pen Discord is currently trying to find inks that work with highlighters. They've had the same experience as you - Noodlers' bulletproof inks will still smear, but good results with the Platinum iron galls and carbon black. Unfortunately, Plat inks are in the pricey side, as a fair warning.
• Local pen community has a series of recommendations: Guy #1 recommends you look at iron gall inks or registrar inks (document inks will work too), with the warning that these will need more maintenance in a pen.
• A cluster of people instead recommend that you get a fountain-pen friendly highlighter. To this end, they recommend Zebra mildliners, or gel or pencil highlighters instead. Water-based highlighters play merry Braize with fountain pens, really.
• Someone else tested with Sailor nano-pigments. No issue but again, pigment inks are going to be more fussy, require more maintenance, and more pricey. 
• Another person has a link to someone's experiments with fountain pens and highlighters.
• In this case, I am moderately pessimistic on Discord friend's suggestion of Herbin now. Perle Noire might be cheaper but the trend seems to be iron gall or pigment ink to work fine with highlighter, and it's neither.
   

On 4/6/2021 at 11:52 AM, Slowswift said:

I'll see what I can throw together, but in the meantime I used these inks with the previous pens respectively: Birmingham Panther Blue, Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, J. Herbin Poussière de Lune, Platinum Aqua Emerald, and J. Herbin Rouille d'Ancre!

Tsuki-yo! Tsuki-yo forever!  I'm going to get back with mine, but tsuki-yo is absolutely one of my favourites  

Edited April 7, 2021 by Kasimir

[+Slowswift]

5 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Tsuki-yo! Tsuki-yo forever!  I'm going to get back with mine, but tsuki-yo is absolutely one of my favourites

It's so prettyyyyy! I'm that guy who's interested in inks 'cause he likes the name, and I love the moon, so I'm glad Moonlight lives up to its name!  It really is one of the best I have. It's divine in the 823, too.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Slowswift

[Cyclops]

7 hours ago, Kasimir said:

 

• A cluster of people instead recommend that you get a fountain-pen friendly highlighter. To this end, they recommend Zebra mildliners, or gel or pencil highlighters instead. Water-based highlighters play merry Braize with fountain pens, really.

 

It would probably be cheaper to find an FP-friendly highlighter than to get all those other inks just to use my el-cheepo highlighter.  All I've been using it for so far is to highlight Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Cyclops

[Kasimir]

23 hours ago, Slowswift said:

It's so prettyyyyy! I'm that guy who's interested in inks 'cause he likes the name, and I love the moon, so I'm glad Moonlight lives up to its name!  It really is one of the best I have. It's divine in the 823, too.

I get this! I have a Pilot CH91 Tsuki-yo that's permanently inked with Tsuki-yo because why not?  Lovely name and the shading is amazing. Do you keep the same ink in your 823? Is it a hassle to clean out/swap?

Current EDC for the week: Lamy Safari Medium with a custom ink that my local pen group is testing out (it's close to Troublemaker Inks Abalone!), Sailor Pro Gear Night Blue Mini MF with Taccia Ukiyo-E Hinezu, Pelikan M205 Broad with Kyo-no-oto Hisoku, and a Delike Alpha EF with Kyo-no-oto Aonibi  Oh, testing out a PenBBS with a soft naginata togi grind, with Ink Institute Cat at Dusk. Very monochrome right now!

21 hours ago, Cyclops said:

It would probably be cheaper to find an FP-friendly highlighter than to get all those other inks just to use my el-cheepo highlighter.  All I've been using it for so far is to highlight Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.

If so, I'd agree. Trying to control for ink with a wet highlighter is really a pain.

[Cyclops]

Got my 4-pack of Wing Sung 3008 demonstrator pens today.  The top one is difficult to read.  It's Dark Energy by Colorverse.  It's apparently not a good ink for an EF nib.  The Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and Bulletproof Eel Black, as well as Diamine's Oxblood did just fine.  As a matter of fact, the 54th has done the best in an EF.  It's a pretty wet ink, and I write small.  And chicken-scratchy.

[+Slowswift]

10 hours ago, Kasimir said:

I get this! I have a Pilot CH91 Tsuki-yo that's permanently inked with Tsuki-yo because why not?  Lovely name and the shading is amazing. Do you keep the same ink in your 823? Is it a hassle to clean out/swap?

I think I audibly gasped when I heard there was a matching 91.  Unfortunately, the same review that made me aware of it also emphasized its small size, so...

I started with one fill each of Ku-jaku and Edelstein Moonstone before settling on Tsuki-yo, which I've used for the last few fills. It's not so much a hassle to clean, actually--you just cycle the vacuum filler until it runs clear, which is easy enough. The hassle is waiting for it to dry out.  

10 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Current EDC for the week: Lamy Safari Medium with a custom ink that my local pen group is testing out (it's close to Troublemaker Inks Abalone!), Sailor Pro Gear Night Blue Mini MF with Taccia Ukiyo-E Hinezu, Pelikan M205 Broad with Kyo-no-oto Hisoku, and a Delike Alpha EF with Kyo-no-oto Aonibi  Oh, testing out a PenBBS with a soft naginata togi grind, with Ink Institute Cat at Dusk. Very monochrome right now!

If my one bottle is anything to go by, Kyoto TAG makes a dang good ink. I got Moegiiro to go with my F-C, but Aonibi and Hisoku look lovely as well. I foresee more bottles in my future.  

Heard good things about Taccia. How is it?

Edited April 9, 2021 by Slowswift

[Kasimir]

15 hours ago, Slowswift said:

I think I audibly gasped when I heard there was a matching 91.  Unfortunately, the same review that made me aware of it also emphasized its small size, so...

Yeah, it's a bit smaller than the CH912, but it's about the same size as my Lamy Safari, so I haven't had too many problems. But I love pocket mini-pens, and also use a Hero 007 that's a bit too small (non-girthy?) so I'm not the most reliable source on this  

15 hours ago, Slowswift said:

I started with one fill each of Ku-jaku and Edelstein Moonstone before settling on Tsuki-yo, which I've used for the last few fills. It's not so much a hassle to clean, actually--you just cycle the vacuum filler until it runs clear, which is easy enough. The hassle is waiting for it to dry out.  

That's fair enough. I have a Wingsung 699 and PenBBS 268 but vacuum fillers continue to boggle my mind for the moment  I assume you have never needed to disassemble it, which is good, since that's usually a risk right there.

15 hours ago, Slowswift said:

If my one bottle is anything to go by, Kyoto TAG makes a dang good ink. I got Moegiiro to go with my F-C, but Aonibi and Hisoku look lovely as well. I foresee more bottles in my future.  

Just be a bit cautious with Kyoto TAG - their inks are fairly acidic and dry, so you may not want to let them sit too long in an especially valued pen  Hisoku is also nigh unreadable in anything that isn't at least a wet medium. Learned the hard way.

15 hours ago, Slowswift said:

Heard good things about Taccia. How is it?

Slightly dry, but has otherwise behaved fine - and I tend to use wet pens so that balances out  

[+Slowswift]

On 4/9/2021 at 3:20 PM, Kasimir said:

Yeah, it's a bit smaller than the CH912, but it's about the same size as my Lamy Safari, so I haven't had too many problems. But I love pocket mini-pens, and also use a Hero 007 that's a bit too small (non-girthy?) so I'm not the most reliable source on this  

I mean, I just got (and absolutely love) a Kaweco Sport, so I'm not entirely sure I know what I'm talking about either.  

On 4/9/2021 at 3:20 PM, Kasimir said:

That's fair enough. I have a Wingsung 699 and PenBBS 268 but vacuum fillers continue to boggle my mind for the moment  I assume you have never needed to disassemble it, which is good, since that's usually a risk right there.

Thank goodness I haven't. I'm terrified of breaking something and doing so voids the warranty (understandably, if annoyingly).

On 4/9/2021 at 3:20 PM, Kasimir said:

Just be a bit cautious with Kyoto TAG - their inks are fairly acidic and dry, so you may not want to let them sit too long in an especially valued pen  Hisoku is also nigh unreadable in anything that isn't at least a wet medium. Learned the hard way.

Good to know, thanks. (I keep hearing that Kyoto's inks are really dry, but that's been the opposite of my experience. I guess this F-C's just really, really wet?)

On 4/9/2021 at 3:20 PM, Kasimir said:

Slightly dry, but has otherwise behaved fine - and I tend to use wet pens so that balances out  

Glad to hear it! (At this point I'm just using parentheses for completeness' sake...)

[Kasimir]

On 4/9/2021 at 9:43 AM, Cyclops said:

Got my 4-pack of Wing Sung 3008 demonstrator pens today.  The top one is difficult to read.  It's Dark Energy by Colorverse.  It's apparently not a good ink for an EF nib.  The Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and Bulletproof Eel Black, as well as Diamine's Oxblood did just fine.  As a matter of fact, the 54th has done the best in an EF.  It's a pretty wet ink, and I write small.  And chicken-scratchy.

Looks good! Wingsung is honestly fairly value-for-money. Might be a flow issue with your first Wingsung too, I think, and likely a pen problem rather than the ink, though it won't help if Colorverse is dry and saturated. It looks more like it's skipping than the ink is light. You may want to check the nib/feed of the Wingsung, if you can. I remember there are apps to let you get a bit of magnification so you can check a nib with your phone, though I have to confess it's harder to do EF without a loupe. 

12 hours ago, Slowswift said:

Good to know, thanks. (I keep hearing that Kyoto's inks are really dry, but that's been the opposite of my experience. I guess this F-C's just really, really wet?)

Could be! Hard to say

FWIW, thought I'd let you all know as well: I've been having cracking issues with some of my F-C nib housing and on speaking to others in several pen communities, it looks like this has been an ongoing issue with JoWo nibs of late. (F-C nibs are essentially keyed JoWo.) After a lot of complaints from pen manufacturers, JoWo has put out this message:

Spoiler

More for your benefit, Slowswift, as none of Cyclops's pens sound like they currently use JoWo. If any of your housings cracked, you may want to talk to F-C to get it sorted. It's been an epidemic of cracked housings lately and I thought it was just me...

[Cyclops]

2 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Looks good! Wingsung is honestly fairly value-for-money. Might be a flow issue with your first Wingsung too, I think, and likely a pen problem rather than the ink, though it won't help if Colorverse is dry and saturated. It looks more like it's skipping than the ink is light. You may want to check the nib/feed of the Wingsung, if you can. I remember there are apps to let you get a bit of magnification so you can check a nib with your phone, though I have to confess it's harder to do EF without a loupe.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I decided it's most likely the nib.  I emptied the Colorverse, cleaned and dried the pen really good, then re-inked with Noodler's Air-Corp Blue/Black.  Same result.  I think I might try a razor blade between the tines.  But I also ordered replacement nibs just in case.