Cyclops

Somebody in a fountain pen group I'm in on MeWe brought up a point I hadn't thought of, and might not ever have. Where the pocket clip attaches to the wooden cap allows air inside. I had tried putting an o-ring at the base of the flip section, but it didn't help but just a little. So at the other person's suggestion, I dabbed some superglue gel in the space around the clip. I did it a couple of times, letting it dry and set for a while between applications. It has made more of a difference than anything else I've tried.

I have a few other inks besides Noodler's. I've got some from Diamine, Monteverde, Waterman, Colorverse (sample), Robert Oster (sample, so far), Private Reserve, Birmingham, Sailor (sample), and Pilot (sample). Or were you wanting an itemized list to make suggestions from?

I've not used any cartridges, just the included converter. And it's inked with Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin. Works just fine in my Pilot Metropolitan. Maybe I'll try a wetter ink like Noodler's 54th Massachusetts or Bad Belted Kingfisher. It's just really frustrating to buy a relatively expensive pen and it won't work properly.

I think I may have spoken too soon on the Conklin. If it sits for more than a day or two unused, it takes a twist of the converter to get it going again. I've about decided that I just have an expensive conversation piece. A shame, really. My Platinum Preppies and Jinhao 250s write better than the Conklin.

Last year I bought a Conklin All-American, olive wood, EF nib, and had nothing but trouble from it ever since. I was highly disappointed in it, and I wouldn't have gotten a full refund because it had been inked. No matter what I tried, the ink kept drying out. I flushed it real good (using a flush, not just water), I put a sealer on the wood because I thought maybe the wood was breathing too much. I wrapped the nib in saran wrap inside the cap. The flush and wood sealer did the most good, which wasn't a whole lot. The saran wrap just caused a big mess. Then I got hit by a bolt of lightning right out of the blue: At one point I had bought a 4-pack of o-rings for turning a few pens into eye-droppers. Never did, so o-rings and silicone grease sat unused. The idea that struck me was to put one of those o-rings on the grip section, rolled down to where it meets the wooden barrel. If you look closely, you can see the o-ring on there. Anyway, I screwed the cap back on and set it aside for a good 24 hours. And that o-ring seemed to do the trick. It's actually writing when I uncap it.

Being "financially challenged" as I am, I get JOT brand composition notebooks from Dollar (and a quarter) Tree to do a lot of my writing in. And the black and blue/black Preppy inks are pretty good for the cheap paper (as is Diamine's Aurora Borealis and Monteverde Horizon Blue).

Below is the 7-piece Preppy set I bought. The black one is the only one I've inked so far. Of course each pen comes with a cartridge of corresponding color to the pen itself. I really like the Preppy pens; they write a lot better than I would have expected for the price. I tried uploading a photo of my Wing Sung 3008s again, but it still wouldn't let me. Don't know what's going on with that. But in a previous post I said I thought I might make it to page 100 on one fill; well, it didn't quite. I got a few lines down on page 92 before the pen ran out. On another note, the Conklin I mentioned before is working a little better. I used an actual flush on it rather than just water. I also put a coat of sealer on the cap and barrel. It writes better than it did, not drying out after an hour of sitting, but could still be better. My Pilot Metropolitan is still my usual go-to for marathon writing.

Your question to admin seems to have been forgotten about. P2P transactions must not be all that frowned-upon.

I've been trying to upload at least one pic, that of one of my Wing Sung 3008 demonstrators. I bought a 4-pack of them off Amazon early last year (during my maiden voyage down the FP rabbit hole). I have to say that I am very impressed with the one I've been using. When I got them, I inked them all up with different colors to try out. Never ran one dry, always emptied, cleaned, and refilled qith something else. I always liked how they wrote; very smooth, even on less-than-ideal FP-friendly papers. Anyway, the one I'm using now, I filled with Diamine's Aurora Borealis, and writing in a JOT brand composition notebook. I've written 86 of the wide lined pages, and still could probably get to at least page 100. I'm going to buy some more if I can find them. They've been much more reliable than the much more expensive Conklin All-American. My Metropolitans, I'm glad to say, are still very reliable. I'll post a pic of the Wing Sung if my phone will allow it.

I got some ink from an individual here back in the wintertime. There were no problems or issues mentioned by anyone else.

Yes, the F is 03 and EF 02. Thanks for the info on the BB ink. Maybe after this cart is empty I'll try a wetter ink in it, maybe Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher or Diamine's Aurora Borealis.

If you don't mind me asking, what first drafts do you write by hand? I do manuscripts and sermon notes longhand for the first drafts. And welcome to the discussion. Change of subject: Has anyone experienced flow issues with a Platinum Preppy, EF? I have a cartridge in it right now, blue/black, and every so often I have to give a shake or two to get the ink going again. The Preppy I have in F nib, qith a black ink cartridge, has never had that problem. So is it the pen, or is the ink too dry to flow well? Inquiring minds want to know.

I have a Black Forest. As well as a Dark Blue Forest and a Silver Birch Forest. I like them; I just they were a little bigger around.

Is this thread dead now?

As I mentioned last month, I did get more of the JOT notebooks. I've also started using HP office20 paper for my pens. It works well, better than most of the other papers I've tried. Of course, HP Premium32 still beats it, but it also takes up a lot more space, and it has gotten up to almost $19 per ream. That's why I'm using what I have sparingly. In an FP group I'm in on either Flakebook or MeWe, someone mentioned Hammermill Premium Paper is really good for fountain pens. But it jumped from $8.64 on Amazon to right at 11 dollars. But Wally World has it for the $8.64 price, but 4 have to be purchased to get free shipping. And none of the stores in our area carry it. Otherwise, it would be cheaper to buy it from Amazon. Oh, well.

I really like them. They just might be my second-favorite FP, right behind my Pilot Metropolitans. I think the Preppy does just as well as the Pilot Kakuno, but for about half the price. Now I gotta get me a mahogany nib holder because my glass dpi pens write too big. I also have 14 more Metropolitans to get in order to have the whole set. But between new pens and theology books, I'll probably go broke soon.

NPD/NID Platinum Preppy in .2 EF nib, blue/black with extra carts of black and blue/black. Early last year I had bought a 5-pc sampler from JetPens, and a Preppy in .3 F nib was one of them. I like a Japanese Fine okay, but I much prefer the EF because I write so small. I like it. Also, not pens but pen-related, I have found that JOT brand composition notebooks are very FP-friendly, at least for the pens I've used in them. Buck and a quarter at Dollar (and a quarter) Tree. I've been using a few for writing and screenwriting tips and ideas, one for short film screenplays, and others for note-taking and writing, and will save my HP Premium32 for my manuscripts and letter writing. There's some ghosting, but almost no bleeding. I will be buying many more of these notebooks in the hopefully-near future.

My Diamine Wild Strawberry does that. Not quite that fast, but it does turn a darker red that looks like congealed blood when it dries. It's a nice bright red at first, and that's why I chose it for edits on sermons and manuscripts.

I HAD a Go. I gave it to one of the men in my congregation. It had too much feedback for my liking. But he seems to like it just fine.

I think the next TWSBI I look into will be the Eco. In EF, preferably.

I think I mentioned before that I wasn't as taken with the TWSBI Go as I thought I'd be. Too much feedback for my liking. So I have it to one of my congregants. He really likes it. So there's one fountain pen "convert," If you'll pardon the pun. And I may have another one soon. One of the ladies at church overheard us talking one Sunday after service, and said she'd like to try the FP experience to see if she might like it. So I'm going to give, or at least loan, her my Pilot Varsity in .3 nib. I bought a Pilot Kakuno in F nib, and I like it alright. I kinda wish I had gone for the EF nib, but it'll do as is. I also bought a bottle of Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher. Looks good. I'll be getting the other two "Bad" inks I don't have yet, Blue Heron and Green Gator. As far as full-time writers are concerned, I keep gravitating back to my Metropolitans. I have the Gray Houndstooth and Silver Python, both in F nib, so I have only 14 more styles to get. May as well get one if each, right? Several pens will most likely be re-homed. I just don't really use them. I read one time that author Joe Hill likes the Metropolitans, so I'll be in good company. Okay, that's enough.

I might just have to get some of that.

I'm sorry to hear that. Hope you feel better soon. I'm a ginormous sissy when it comes to headaches.

I got a few more things to feed my addiction...um...I mean...add to my collection. Pilot Kakuno (F), Waterman Audacious Red and Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher. The Red isn't as bold as I would have liked. And I suppose that if I had paid more attention, I'd have seen that the Kakuno didn't come with a pocket clip. Is there one available, like for the Kaweco Sport? The pipettes are 3ml, and came in a bag of 200. Because I'll not likely go thru all these in my lifetime if used only for my pens, I'll also be using them for other applications, such as getting the last bit of hot sauce from the bottom of the bottles and such. But they're more convenient for using on my pens than than the blunt-tipped syringes as they're much more easily and quickly cleaned. The paper is actually sold as flower pressing paper. I was looking for a cheaper alternative to J. Herbin blotter paper. Someone wrote a review on the Arnold Grummer paper, that it worked well for fountain pens. And it seems to work just fine. The sheets are larger than standard notebook or printer paper. I can get 2 full J. Herbin sheets with more left over from one sheet of the A.G. paper. The Kakuno purchase came about because I discovered that the large converter didn't fit my Metropolitan. Again, if I had read further, or just paid more attention to what I had read, I wouldn't have gotten that converter in the first place. But, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So I did the only reasonable thing I could: I bought a pen that the larger converter would fit. Even though it was the cheapest one they have. It's not inked yet, but I'll most likely be using the Kingfisher.

New Pen/Ink/Notebooks/And-Other-Pen-Stuff Day From Goulet: Pilot Metropolitan, F nib, Silver Python Notebook sampler, 7-piece Noodler's Red-Black ink And the obligatory Tootsie Roll Pop and sticker From JetPens: Fountain Pen-friendly correction tape Pilot's larger converter And the ever-present comic strip Decent haul today.