Pen, Ink & Paper
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You would own a Monte Verde, Mark.
I'll bet you like BENU, too. (This isn't a dig, I'd just bet they'd be up your street.)This is what I have currently inked up:
A Kaweco Liliput that I keep in my wallet. It's aluminum with a fully sealed cap so it absolutely never runs dry. I can leave it alone for months but it starts right up.
After that is my father-in-law's Mont Blanc. Were it not for his owning one, I never would have, but it was his, and so I use it. And I must say, the fucker is Old Reliable. It never gives hard starts, handles any kind of ink with no trouble, is easy to clean because it's a traveller, and doesn't run dry if you hold it for awhile without writing. It just works.
A Kaweco Skyline Sport Fox. I got this pen because it's the only pen I use Noodler's Fox with, which is a very strange ink: it's a permanent red, which are very hard to come by. The ink actually binds to the paper's celluloid molecules so once it's on there, it's on there. But red inks are aggressive AF and this one is even more so. So, I got a pen to match the ink and it's the only one that uses it.
A Lamy Aion. Like other Lamys, the nib has a distinctive sweet spot, but it happens to fit how I write, which is hard to come by as a leftie. It's got a snap cap so I usually reach for it during meetings.
The Liliput has a 1.1m italic on it, but other than that I only write with fines or extra fines. I don't like expensive pens, expensive, gimmicky ink or for that matter expensive paper; I want to write on an envelope if I have to without any bleed through. Plus, my handwriting just looks stupid with a medium or a broad. But I do like fountain pens because they force me to be deliberate, which I think is important.
These, sadly, are my other pens. Or rather half of them are mine. The other half were my father-in-law's. It took me a few years' worth of experimentation to find things that work for me. Turns out I appear to be a big fan of German and Japanese engineering.
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An adjacent skill would be to get involved with calligraphy.
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@taiwan_girl said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
An adjacent skill would be to get involved with calligraphy.
Not really. You can't properly write calligraphy without at least an italic or stub nib; just using a fountain pen with a fine, medium or broad isn't going to get you anywhere unless maybe it's a flex nib, which most are not.
You can do it with a fountain pen if you have the right kind of nib, but real calligraphy uses different pens, nibs and ink. Most of those folks prefer dip pens, brush pens or brushes depending on the style.
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Wow Aqua! That is a great collection. I know of all the brands you listed and I'm only a week into this.
I'm half asleep right now so we will discuss more later. Until then, my next pen that I just ordered this morning is a Conklin All American - Demo/Silver (Special Edition)
Extra-Fine
I also ordered some ink including the Colorverse New Horizons Ink Set (Limited Edition)
Colorverse has a lot of astronomy themed inks, so they have my number.
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Those are some great inks, Mark! And I like the Conklin!
Funnily enough, I still have the very first ink bottle I ever purchased, and every single one after that. (I only have about 8 or so anyway.) Matter of fact, the Aion has that ink in it now. It was from the DC pen show from... heck I dunno how far back, quite a few years. One weird side benefit of using extra fine nibs is that you don't really burn through ink all that quickly. The Kaweco Skyline has almost no ink capacity to speak of but I still only refill it about once a month or so.
My father-in-law has a kind called Eclipse that I use a lot. It's almost all black but has a slight tinge of blue/purple to it. Kinda cool and a very well-behaved ink.
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I sent a screen shot of your 1st response to my daughter.
Her reply...
Omg, he's just like me. He's just like me for real.
Kaweco is a great brand. I've been eyeing the green Lilliput for a while. Had I not just dropped a butt-load of money getting an AL-Sport from Japan, I would totally snap one up.
My iridescent Kawecos are from the Skyline Sport collection and I love them. I think the Kaweco Sport might be my favorite model yet.Lamy Aion is a neat little pen, and it's nice to know it's not just the 2000 that has a "sweet spot". I'm getting more accustomed to mine as I write with it! Soon I won't have any hard starts. (I am thinking of putting a "wetter" ink in it next time around.)
Looks like he has a Pilot Metropolitan in the collection! That's a neat little pen. I love the designs on them, but they're not a "need to own it" type of pen for me.
Aqua's taste is 10/10. I appreciate another Kaweco enjoyer.
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@mark said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
I sent a screen shot of your 1st response to my daughter.
Her reply...
Omg, he's just like me. He's just like me for real.
Kaweco is a great brand. I've been eyeing the green Lilliput for a while. Had I not just dropped a butt-load of money getting an AL-Sport from Japan, I would totally snap one up.
My iridescent Kawecos are from the Skyline Sport collection and I love them. I think the Kaweco Sport might be my favorite model yet.Lamy Aion is a neat little pen, and it's nice to know it's not just the 2000 that has a "sweet spot". I'm getting more accustomed to mine as I write with it! Soon I won't have any hard starts. (I am thinking of putting a "wetter" ink in it next time around.)
Looks like he has a Pilot Metropolitan in the collection! That's a neat little pen. I love the designs on them, but they're not a "need to own it" type of pen for me.
Aqua's taste is 10/10. I appreciate another Kaweco enjoyer.
hahah that's wild! Yeah, it's a Pilot Metro. Very much like the Mont Blanc, it just plain works. (A fun feature about them is that they can take the nib from a Pilot Plumix, so you can get a 1.1mm stub on your Metro if you're so inclined.) They completely disassemble, it's all friction fit and the nibs are very reliable. Great pen, I just can't handle the massive step on them. To me it's a step too far.
Sounds like she's got quite a Kaweco collection going! Does she know about the piston filler? Just released a week or so ago. I'd freaking love to have one but I can't justify the cost when my Skyline cost me $20.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
My father-in-law has a kind called Eclipse that I use a lot. It's almost all black but has a slight tinge of blue/purple to it. Kinda cool and a very well-behaved ink.
Is it Diamine Eclipse?
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@jon-nyc said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
Now if only you two had something to say….
I know that was just ball-busting but Mark mentioned stationery too, so, here's all mine, from bottom up:
Maroon: Notes from non-fiction that I read.
Red: notes about technical shit like how many stops a 720nm IR filter takes you down to, processes I use in Illustrator, stuff like that.
White: work notebook.
Blue: old writing notebook. I mentioned here awhile back that I was adapting a middle english Robin Hood ballad into modern english. That’s it on the left, but the blue notebook was the first draft.
Purple: my current writing notebook. I designed those because why not. Silverymoon is kind of like a Hogwarts in D&D. Thought it would be fun to use notebooks that look like test booklets from the university.
Small blue: for D&D campaigns. This was given to me by my friends; we all have one. What’s cool about the D20 attached there is that it’s hollow. It has a hinge on it, and inside is a D4, D6, D10, D12 and D20.Underneath my book is a Rhodia pad. @mark I’m a fan of these for loose notes but most of the notebooks I use (minus freebies I can get my hands on that aren't too terrible) are all Leuchtturm 1917s. I’ve never had a problem with any ink or nib combination with them and they actually do lay flat, which is handy.
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@mark said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
My father-in-law has a kind called Eclipse that I use a lot. It's almost all black but has a slight tinge of blue/purple to it. Kinda cool and a very well-behaved ink.
Is it Diamine Eclipse?
It is! That's the one. My bottle looks very different but it's Diamine all right.
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Awesome! I just ordered a couple of Rhodia A4 notebooks and a Clairefontaine A5 with a pretty cover for the Mrs.
Love the blue D&D notebook and especially the hollow D20!
I am still at the newbie stage but I'm writing more than ever before in my entire life! It started out writing nonsense or document what was happening with the pen, penmanship, spelling errors or writing fuck ups.
then it was what was happening in real time. Random thoughts, etc. Anything to keep that nib moving and the ink flowing.I took it to work and started to document everything. Started using a second notebook yesterday but still have random shit in both of the generic Staples college-rule notebooks I have been using.
I will start to organize them by subject matter. Probably use the Staples crap for work. The more premium ones for Journaling or creative writing. I'm considering enrolling in a creative writing class.
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@mark said in Pen, Ink & Paper:
Awesome! I just ordered a couple of Rhodia A4 notebooks and a Clairefontaine A5 with a pretty cover for the Mrs.
Love the blue D&D notebook and especially the hollow D20!
I am still at the newbie stage but I'm writing more than ever before in my entire life! It started out writing nonsense or document what was happening with the pen, penmanship, spelling errors or writing fuck ups.
then it was what was happening in real time. Random thoughts, etc. Anything to keep that nib moving and the ink flowing.I took it to work and started to document everything. Started using a second notebook yesterday but still have random shit in both of the generic Staples college-rule notebooks I have been using.
I will start to organize them by subject matter. Probably use the Staples crap for work. The more premium ones for Journaling or creative writing. I'm considering enrolling in a creative writing class.
That's awesome, Mark! They have a weird way of getting the hands moving, don't they?
What kind of creative writing do you think you might want to get into? I started weekly lessons that anyone can take at any time called "couch to Sonnet"; basically, it gets you from "what the hell's a sonnet" to writing your own in about 6 weeks. The lessons aren't hardcore, either; the writing component people can do while they drink their morning coffee. It's also free and folks who follow it can ask me anything along the way.
That might not be your thing but if I could help in any way, let me know.
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From Elizabeth...
I do know about the piston filler! Goulet keeps selling out of them (and they're a touch more expensive than your average run-of-the-mill Sport...) so I haven't invested in it yet. Largely, it's the cost factor but I also still like the smaller converters on the Kaweco. They give me more opportunities to use different inks (which is where I have my actual problem.
So many inks... So few pens.)The Kaweco I just bought is "The Little Witch" (a collaboration with a Japanese online stationary store). It's been on my radar for a while and I used my "conference bonus" to finally pull the trigger on buying it. So cute.
I found a really nice complimentary ink to go with it, but I'm waiting until Tuesday so I can buy the new "summer" Lamy Safari in the piña colada color.
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Holy crap that is the coolest Kaweco I've ever seen! What kind of ink does she use with it?
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The Little Witch?
She hasn't arrived yet, but this is what I will be inking her up with: https://www.gouletpens.com/products/colorverse-witch-by-starlight-65ml-bottled-inkGoulet exclusive - Colorverse, Witch by Starlight
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Freaking Brian Goulet of the Goulet Pen Company. He gets me every time. My wife wants a pen and she'd so dig this kind of thing. That ink is awesome, too.
