Kasimir

Oh, nice! The Hong Dians always look so good and I'm glad yours is writing just fine. I've been tempted by them on a few occasions but I've been holding out so far Good that the new EF nibs work fine though. Sometimes you really get duds and if you can't get it to write, best to just get another. Not really the sort of thing I'd take to a nibmeister given the price.

Ground one of my own nibs. Nothing fancy, just that it didn't work and was scratchy as all Braize when I got it, and I ground it so it writes 'as smooth as butter on glass' and actually writes now And the Pelikan arrived! The flow is as glorious as described and I am well-pleased

@Illwei: Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς Have fun, prepare for glory

Oh, another appreciator of Chinese fountain pens! Agreed with all of this - PenBBS is also a pretty good pen-maker, and the nibs can be swapped out (though Lamy nib-swapping is easier.) Depends on what you have in mind by a step up, really.

A dice roll? So uncivilised. I vote we put all three of them in a game, give them one kill item, and watch them fight to the death for the power to represent us

Do Illwei's powers work in a three-way tie though

I can neither confirm nor deny creating a three-way tie instead of breaking the two-way tie.

Really, guys. You create a two-way tie and leave a chance to make it three-way...?

Hi Dark Bro, I know you miss me already but I haven't even been retired a month Normally this is the point at which I'd nominate my bro Wyrm to prepare for glory but I've been told I'm retired and apparently this means I must also retire from antagonising Wyrm on a daily basis. So, uh, good luck with that, Old Wyrm, see you in Braize

The Urbain send their regards Seriously, only have good memories of playing with the Supreme Lynchmaster. Small world

I feel like the older you get, the more you learn life is about learning to bear the unbearable, even when you don't want to :/

Could be the feed as well, if it's clogged. But you have to be careful trying to run a razor along the feed. Easy to slip up and cut yourself instead, as I've done several times. I hesitate to guess baby's bottom and other nib issues without a look at it but I also imagine you've already checked for what you can. One of the replacements should hopefully do the trick. Nice! Colourverse is pricier so knowing Oxblood is very close makes me feel better about not going for Dark Energy I get this. Using all the currently-inked pens, let alone every pen, how does this work I do have an advantage over you since wet thicc nibs burn through ink faster, but

Much doubt. Recovery time needed. MR is still possible (which isn't the point right now anyway since your QF is ongoing) but LG rulesets ain't anywhere near ready, either.

This week: Lamy 2k BB: Papier Plume Bayou Nightfall Pelikan M205 B: Kyo-no-Oto Hisoku TWSBI Eco 1.1 Stub: Private Reserve Blue Suede Sailor Pro Gear Slim Mini Night Blue: Taccia Ukiyo-E Hinezu Platinum #3776 Coarse: Lennon Toolbar Watermelon As I said, I unabashedly go for thicc wet nibs a lot. This despite my handwriting being really small, to the point friends question repeatedly why I don't go UEF

Either too tight or misalignment would be my guess. Will need to check alignment either way, I'd reckon, because doing anything to increase tine-gap will also affect alignment. If it's scratchy when you write rather than 'feedbacky', that's definitely a warning sign. (Feedback: writes like a pencil.)

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. 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: 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...

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Memory of Storms Sometimes there are storms, waterfalls thundering from the iron-grey sky, endless Sometimes there are storms. I do not remember the blue, or birdsong I do not know if there will be tomorrow. Sometimes there are storms. Sometimes I dare dream of blue yonder. Sometimes I hear the nightingale singing.