Fountain pens

kamagong said:
I do like the variety of inks available and because I just bought two bottles I'm going to be using my PK for a while.
Click to expand...

That's one of the things I love about fountain pens also -- hundreds of different ink colors. You can also blend your own if you can't find a ready-made color that suits you (or so I've heard). My current favorite is the Swisher/Noodler's Aquamarine Blue contract ink. :)
 
kamagong said:
The ink I chose is Waterman's Florida Blue. It's a great shade of blue, but I had a difficult time filling the converter. As I said, this is my first experience with a fountain pen. With some help from the Namiki site I figured it out and was soon scribling some lines on the nearest piece of paper.

At this time I don't know what I think about FPs. It's neat and sets me apart because I'm the only one I know who uses a FP, with the exception of you guys here on the web. I'm not sure if it writes any smoother though, and that is supposed to be the biggest advantage to using a fountain pen.
Click to expand...

Waterman Florida Blue is an excellent ink as far as easily available, commercialy availabe inks go. Excellent ink made in France. Good choice there.

If your fountain pen is not writing smoothly - gliding across the page, with a different feel than you've felt with other types of pens - then something's not right. For example, there could be a slight burr on the nib, or the ink flow is not quite right.

Ultimately, with a fountain pen, the nib is supposed to be - at least partially -"hydroplaning" on the ink; i.e. riding on the liquid. This is an amazing feel for the writer, and if you're not getting it from your Pilot/Namiki, call the person who sold it to you and ask about it.

It's largely what writing with a fountain pen is all about!
 
Woooo... always nice to know that other people share my little obsessions. At school my teachers hated ball points, "nasty scribbly scrawly things". Stayed with me. It has been said that I care a lot abotu writing instruments for someone with such awful handwriting. I have a slew of Lamy Safaris that I use daily at work. They're cheap enough that I don't cry if I lose/break one but work well and there's a decent range of colours. I use turquoise for signing things (kind of validates my signature and looks good on the page). I use red (theirs is a pale/orangey sort of red) for making notes on documents. It stands out well so I can see the markups I made and it doesn't photocopy well (which suits me!).
I inherited two Parker 51s from my mother. Lovely pens which I don't use, the nibs are worn to her hand and not mine. My wife gave me the fattest of Mont Blancs for Christmas a few years ago. Lovely pen but it's a real ink guzzler. The SUV of pens!
... and so on.
 
macdo said:
I inherited two Parker 51s from my mother. Lovely pens which I don't use, the nibs are worn to her hand and not mine.
Click to expand...

Nibs.com does nib rebuilds. Not familiar with this particular service of theirs myself, but I can say again that they have been good to deal with in general.

Ooh, I love those Levenger inks too. Cobalt Blue is one of my favorites! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top