Cyclops

NID: Iroshizuku Syo-ro (I've had the Cerulean Blue Eco for a few years now) I had a sample vial of it I got several years ago as a random 8-pack, but seldom used it. Then I inked that Eco and ran out. So now I won't run out anytime soon. I hope. Hopefully soon I can get another Pilot Metropolitan to add to my small collection (I'll have three at that point) and a bottle of Platinum Chou Kuro with my birthday money. (Yes, sometimes I'm still a kid and get some of that green stuff for b-days.)

On a more positive note, I seem to have finally fixed the problem of my olive wood Conklin All-American from drying out after sitting for even just 10 minutes. I tried lots of stuff; Infinity inks from Private Reserve; still dried out, just took a few minutes longer. Someone suggested wrapping the nib in saran wrap before capping; it drew most of the ink out of the converter. I put wood sealer on the barrel and cap, 2 or 3 coats; the nib mocked me by continuing to dry out. So I got all sorts of fed up, called it a piece of junk and the worst pen purchase I ever made (in the short time I've been using fountain pens), wrapped it up, wrote "Do Not Use Anymore; Complete Waste of Time and Money" on the paper sack, put it away, and didn't touch it (barely thought about it) for several months. Then one day when my wife asked if there was anything I wanted or needed from the store, I asked her to get me a jar/bottle of rubber cement. I got the pen back out and q-tipped some rubber cement all around the inside of the cap. Set it aside for about half an hour, then applied another coat. Inked the pen with Noodler's X-Feather Black. Got it to write properly then set it aside for a while. It wrote again after about 10-15 minutes. Set it aside again for half an hour. It wrote again. The big test would come after it sat all night. Guess what? It wrote first time I tried it. Now I'd like to get an o-ring to put where the barrel and grip section meet, just as an added protection against drying out. But so far, it's been working. And I'm glad; it cost too much to not be able to use.

Well, I am more than just a little disappointed in that Jinhao 10 retractable pen. After sitting unused for just a couple of hours, it was an extremely hard starter. Then I put a little silicone grease around the flap. No good; it still dries iut and is an extreme hard starter. Apparently these pens are a crapshoot as far as getting a good one is concerned. Some folks have nothing but good things to say about theirs; others have nothing but bad. I reckon that if I want a quality retractable fountain pen, I'll have to save my pennies and get a Pilot, possibly a Platinum. Majohn retractables are a bit more than the Jinhao, and much less than Pilots and Platinums, but I dont know if I want to chance that. I actually would like to get the other Jinhao that I was wanting. If that one works, I'd use it instead. But at least the Pilot would have the correct size EF nib in it. Oh, well. Things could always be worse, I suppose.

I got my Penn State pen back today (Tuesday, 4Nov). The guy bought a replacement nib in case he messed up the original. I finished cleaning out the original nib, as it still had a bit of ink in it from his testing, I suppose. Anyway, while it's drying, I installed the replacement and inked it with Platinum Carbon Black, amd wrote on a sheet of the HP Office20. The EF nib did a decent job, though it could stand to be a bit finer. The other ink I had in it before I sent it off was Diamine Celadon Cat, and it feathered a lot and really soaked into the papers I used it on. So I'll use the current inked nib til tomorrow, when the worked-on nib should be dried out.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many inks worked so well with the HP Office20.

I have a sample vial of Iroshizuku Syo-ro, a lighter blue. I like it. I have a whole slew of those inks in a couple of wishlists on Amazon and JetPens.

I don't know the first thing about nib grinding, and I don't have the required equipment anyway.

Here's the invite link to the Discord pen group for anyone interested. The handwritten chat is a subgroup of it. If you decide to join, my Discord screen name is TinMan. https://discord.gg/penposium

Someday I'll be able to get some TR, Rhodia, Clairefontaine, or other higher-end fountain pen-specific paper. Til then I have HP Office20, HP Copy and Print 20, and Hammermill Premium Inkjet & Laser 24lb. I spent a while writing on a sheet of each with my current line of inked pens, then went back and wrote a list for each folder (I color-copy a sheet of narrow-lined notebook paper onto these printer papers and keep them in separate folders) of which inks work best with what paper. Surprisingly, the HP Office20 has the longest list of my inks that work well with it. And my daily writing inks (Noodler's X-Feather Black and Platinum Carbon Black) are on that list. By the way, my Penn State retractable pen is on its way home. The guy who was going to grind it for me, a FB friend, couldn't get anything done with it. He's a noob at grinding, and that's partly why it took so long to try anything. But he's included the replacement innards he bought for it in case he messed up the original nib. But like I said, it's heading back home to Papa. I could send it to a pro, but it would cost almost 3 times what I paid for the pen. Also, if anyone's interested, there's a pen group on the Discord app, and a subgroup for a handwritten chat. All messages are exactly that: written by hand, with a fountain pen, photographed, and posted for the conversations. It's interesting. If any are interested, and not already involved with it, I'll post an invite link (if permitted). It's almost 3:00am, my legs are killing me, so I'm gonna go outside and smoke a cigar. Y'all have a good one.

I have quite a few others to use, the most-used one being my Grey Houndstooth Pilot Metropolitan, EF. With Platinum Carbon Black. Or my Eco, also EF, with Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro. Or my plain Black Pilot Metropolitan, EF, with Robert Oster Thunderstorm. Or... It's just aggravating to have to wait this long to get the blasted thing back.

It's been 3 months. One of those months has been spent waiting for the pen to be returned after being told it would be mailed back to me. Still waiting...

My Penn State pen is off to the grinder's. And now we wait...

It's purportedly an EF, but it writes like a Pilot M. So I'll be sending it to a friend who does a little side grinding. I told him I want a Pilot EF. I emptied and rinsed it out, so now to let it dry good before mailing it to him. The next one I want to get is a gradient green/yellow, one I will call my Oregon (Ducks) pen. Then a gradient green/white which were my high school colors.

NPD/NID I got a Jinhao 10 retractable, Ef; and a 30ml bottle of Diamine Celadon Cat. Jinhao's Chinese EF nibs are not the same as Pilot's Japanese. EF nibs. I have a friend who does nib grinding, so I'll see about getting that done. It writes smooth, just too broad for my taste. I call it my Penn State pen.

My first thought/suggestion is just make sure the ink cartridge is seated properly. If there is the slightest gap, more air will get in and ink will leak out.

A few years back, not long into my relatively recent pastorate, my unofficial associate became a fountain pen convert. I had a TWSBI Go EF that I really liked but really didn't at the same time. I was astounded and very pleased with how much ink it held. In a JOT brand composition notebook from Dollar (and a quarter) Tree, I wrote 92 pages before having to refill it. (And I write fairly small, especially with an EF nib.) But I didn't like the high level of feedback I was getting. So I asked him if he would like to have it. I had already given him a Pilot Petit and a Varsity, so that Go wasn't his first rodeo. It also wasn't his last, as I would give him a few more before I left that church. He seemed to really like them.

Lemome notebooks are good. I got a couple of them some time back from Amazon. The ones I have are cream colored paper, 180 pages, A5 size, college rule, hardcover, it's thicker paper but doesn't say what the GSM is. My personal favorite feature, as a lefty, is the pen loop on the soft spine, therefore on the left side of the notebook. I started a book manuscript in one using Diamine Writer's Blood. No bleeding and very little to no ghosting. It has the usual elastic closure band, pocket in the back, place-marker ribbon, and six stickers for page dividers. Another notebook I could/would highly recommend, if you can find any, is the MAGGIFT A5 journal/notebook. I found mine on flakebook marketplace about 2.5 years ago. Mine are 5mm dot grid notebooks, 256 pages, and again, no clue as to the gsm. As for paper, I like Hammermill Premium Inkjet and Laser paper, 24lb. It works well with a lot of inks I've thrown at it. If you like really thick paper, HP Premium32 is good. But it does take up quite a bit more space than regular 20lb paper. Hope this is at least a little bit of help. These are 20, 24, and 32lb papers. The difference is very noticeable. HP Office20, Hammermill Premium Inkjet and Laser, and HP Premium32.

So far I've not bought a single pen this year. Yet. But I've got my eye (the only working one I have) on a Jinhao 10 retractable. But I gotta wait for a bit first. Oh, well. I like the Platinum Preppy. Fine will work, but I much prefer the EF for as small and tight as I write. Kakunos are real good too. I have two, and will probably be getting more, all in EF. I also want to get the rest of the Metropolitan line, but that'll take a while. I have 2, so I'm only 12 (I think) shy of the whole set. Someday I'll have such a collection of pens, inks, notebooks, and paper, that I'll need a Wooton patent desk to store it all. At least for starters.

I have 2 as well. They were originally F, but are now both EF due to the power of swapping nibs with EF Penmanships. The Kakunos are also easy on my arthritis.

Money has been kinda tight of late, so I haven't bought any more pens or ink. And I'm down to my last box of Pilot Blue-Black carts (I've been going through them pretty quick for some reason). But I want my next purchase to be a TWSBI Eco in Irish Green. I just hope JetPens doesn't sell out first. I have the Cerulean Blue in EF. Now I want the Irish Green.

I've put my Pilot cartridge extension experiment/project on the back burner for now. I need to empty a few more of them before I start, so I'll have a wider margin for error. Thank you, that is all.

I know I can't be the only person on the planet who does this, but do any of you, or anyone you know, have 3 pens of progressively lighter weights inked all the same? I do it so I can keep writing, even when my arthritis begins complaining a bit, but I don't want to quit in the middle of what I'm doing. I have my Metropolitan, Kakuno, and Penmanship, all inked the same, for that purpose. Am I the only weird one (in that aspect) here?

Not sure yet, but thinking maybe to cut the top third off one, and bottom third off another, and then maybe use super glue gel to connect the two larger pieces. It might hold an amount of ink comparable to the big converter, but said converter won't fit my Metropolitan; it's too fat. But I need to be careful because I live a limited number of Pilot carts.

It's just something I wanted to try, I guess mainly because some say it can't be, or shouldn't be done. I'm a bit of a nonconformist.

So I can write for longer periods of time before refilling. A regular cartridge holds a lot more than a converter, that's for sure, but I'd still like to see if I can make a Franken-cartridge.