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Fountain pen - recommendations

yardbird said:
Yeah, I'm looking, but I don't know what model I had. Looking, looking.
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Break it down: What models were around during your school years (besides quills, obviously! :p)? What colours were available? Were the bodies all-plastic or plastic and metal? What filling mechanism did your pen use?
 
Having conducted extensive tests (6 different pens), I have now come to the conclusion that although Visconti's black ink (in cartridges) is a lovely colour, it gums up any pen you use it in, and when I say "gums up", I mean "leaving the pen to soak overnight to clear the blockage", rather than just being able to rinse the pen through. :(

I think I'll stick to Rohrer and Klingner's purpley "scabiosa", Rotring's "Brilliant" royal blue carts, and Pilot's black carts (which haven't blocked the pen they're in even once, even though the pen has been in my bag through the vagaries of the weather in London and Berlin, it's kept on writing like it's been freshly-filled.
 
Scabiosa is one of my favourites. Not only is it a terrific colour and shades well, it's also an iron gall so dries quickly, doesn't feather or bleed and is waterproof. I should look at some more R&K inks actually.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Scabiosa is one of my favourites. Not only is it a terrific colour and shades well, it's also an iron gall so dries quickly, doesn't feather or bleed and is waterproof. I should look at some more R&K inks actually.
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I use scabiosa for writing in my (Cartesio) journal, not least because I love the colour of the ink on the cream paper, and I, like you, am impressed by the lack of bleed-through.
I've got a bottle of R & K Salix (their blue iron gall ink), but I haven't got round to trying it yet.
 
Salix is very nice as well - I'm not a great fan of blue, but it's one of the ones I am prepared to use. I have a TWSBI with a B nib loaded with it at the moment. They really excel with broader nibs.

I have some of their Sepia as well, which is a nice greeny-brown but a little too light for regular use I think. All of them are noticeably colourful but also subdued (as well as shading dramatically).
 
I usually use Diamine (occasionally Visconti; never got on with Noodlers), but I decided to try some different brands. So, I've just placed my Christmas ink order:

Edelstein Topaz
Herbin 1670 Anniversary Ink (red)
Sailor Kiwa-Guro "nano-black"

And I'm still hankering after:

Caran dAche Blue Night
Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same

Anyone tried them? Any other suggestions?
 
Athos said:
I usually use Diamine (occasionally Visconti; never got on with Noodlers), but I decided to try some different brands. So, I've just placed my Christmas ink order:

Edelstein Topaz
Herbin 1670 Anniversary Ink (red)
Sailor Kiwa-Guro "nano-black"

And I'm still hankering after:

Caran dAche Blue Night
Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same

Anyone tried them? Any other suggestions?
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I have the Herbin 1670 and the Kiwa-Guro. The 1670... I'm not quite sure about. It's very intense and takes forever to dry. It's not a "practical" red at all - I've seen people using it for calligraphy, which would be reasonable. The bottle is very nice certainly.

The Kiwa-Guro is an excellent nano carbon black with the disadvantage of being expensive. Carbon inks are quite magical though - they just don't care what they are writing on or with, they leave an even black line that stays forever and gleams slightly in the light. Platinum make a carbon black as well which Quoad was using a couple of pages ago. You do have to wash the pen out occasionally and not let it dry out, but it's not really much beyond good pen hygiene.

If the kiri-same is the grey one, I have some of that too. It's... a grey ink, nice colour, well behaved and good flow (and grey inks are quite interesting, not being the same as diluted black at all) but apart from that nothing out of the ordinary. The bottle is again very pretty, but I wouldn't pay the silly import prices from Japan for it - I asked a friend who was going to Tokyo to bring me some back, where it's far more reasonable.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Platinum make a carbon black as well which Quoad was using a couple of pages ago. You do have to wash the pen out occasionally and not let it dry out, but it's not really much beyond good pen hygiene.
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It's lovely.

However, I have staggeringly bad pen hygiene AND staggeringly erratic pen use, so have put the bottle to the back of my monitor stand and am mostly using Diamine Oxblood (never flush a tissue you've used to wipe a few drops of that up unless you want someone to think there's been a haemmorhage in the house) and Noodlers something Green. Which is palatable. Very... splatty. Even in a Platinum Carbon EF nibbed pen. But, yeah, bulletproof.
 
Noodler's inks do sometimes benefit from being diluted with water (distilled or de-ionised is best but tbh just tap water is okay). This makes them dry a bit faster and gives them a more regular flow. I dilute Bulletproof Black by about 50% these days and it's a lot easier to use.
 
mrs quoad said:
It's lovely.

However, I have staggeringly bad pen hygiene AND staggeringly erratic pen use, so have put the bottle to the back of my monitor stand and am mostly using Diamine Oxblood (never flush a tissue you've used to wipe a few drops of that up unless you want someone to think there's been a haemmorhage in the house) and Noodlers something Green. Which is palatable. Very... splatty. Even in a Platinum Carbon EF nibbed pen. But, yeah, bulletproof.
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The Diamine Oxblood is my favorite. Along with their China Blue and Imperial Purple.

Anyone tried the Edlestein?
 
Athos said:
I usually use Diamine (occasionally Visconti; never got on with Noodlers)...
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Haven't tried Visconti bottled, but my Visconti black carts never met a pen they didn't block within 12 hours of the cartridge being fitted. A shame, because their black was nice and deep.
 
http://www.firebox.com/product/4889/Caran-DAche-1010-Diamonds

p4889_main.jpg


£855,000 :eek:

But it does come with free delivery. Swings & roundabouts really.
 
I'm going to take some old fountain pens (which belonged to my late grandmother) to be restored, next week. A Waterman 'Lady Patricia' Pen and Pencil set, and a Conway Stewart No.15. Anyone have any experience of using them?

I reckon that, even if I don't get on with them, I can flog them for £100 - £150 each, so well worth spending £40 a piece to put them into working order.
 
Athos said:
I usually use Diamine (occasionally Visconti; never got on with Noodlers), but I decided to try some different brands. So, I've just placed my Christmas ink order:

Edelstein Topaz
Herbin 1670 Anniversary Ink (red)
Sailor Kiwa-Guro "nano-black"

And I'm still hankering after:

Caran dAche Blue Night
Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same

Anyone tried them? Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I got bored, started scouring the internet, and ended up treating myself to the Caran d Ache Walnut brown and the Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same, today.
 
Just treated myself to a Pilot Prera, as a stocking filler. Look forward to getting my hands on it.

Meantime, my Conway Stewart #15 has been repaired, and is really lovely to write with; I like a bold nib, and this is about the same as a Lamy B!
 
Well, Hero 329s are pretty cheap. This is my new strategy, to buy cheap Chinese and Indian pens, and 30ml bottles of Diamine - lower price per unit novelty.

Apart from that £150 Platinum I got the other day of course. But it was my _birthday_.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Well, Hero 329s are pretty cheap. This is my new strategy, to buy cheap Chinese and Indian pens, and 30ml bottles of Diamine - lower price per unit novelty.

Apart from that £150 Platinum I got the other day of course. But it was my _birthday_.
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Maybe we could all buy some of the 5 or 10ml vials, and do an ink exchange? We'd get to try new stuff at almost no cost.
 
I would do that, though I don't know how many general participants there would be. (I tend to have almost all the ink I want by now so I'm not terribly bothered about getting any back....)
 
FridgeMagnet said:
I would do that, though I don't know how many general participants there would be. (I tend to have almost all the ink I want by now so I'm not terribly bothered about getting any back....)
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Cool. I'll make a list of what I've got, and you (or anyone else) can let me know if there's anything you want, and what you have to offer. Might be a few days, though.

When you say you have almost all the ink you want, what is it that you want but don't have?
 
Athos said:
When you say you have almost all the ink you want, what is it that you want but don't have?
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Well, I don't know... if I've really wanted an ink I tend to have bought it already. There are a few Noodler's colours that I wouldn't mind looking at but are US-only - the problem there is that you then have to pay silly shipping and import duties to get hold of whole bottles (I've been burnt for that in the past).
 
FridgeMagnet said:
Well, I don't know... if I've really wanted an ink I tend to have bought it already. There are a few Noodler's colours that I wouldn't mind looking at but are US-only - the problem there is that you then have to pay silly shipping and import duties to get hold of whole bottles (I've been burnt for that in the past).
Click to expand...

By the way, if you use the code 'CYBER', you can get 40% off all the inks (and pens) on this site, today.

http://www.pencity.com/index.html
 
Athos said:
Cool. I'll make a list of what I've got, and you (or anyone else) can let me know if there's anything you want, and what you have to offer. Might be a few days, though.

When you say you have almost all the ink you want, what is it that you want but don't have?
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If anyone is interested in an ink swap, I have:

Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun (blue-grey)
Private Reserve electric DC Blue
Caran d'Ache Grand Canyon (brown)
Diamine: Oxblood, Scarlet, China Blue, Quartz Black, Evergreen, Imperial Purple, and two newly released colours - Soft Mint and Beau Blue.

And will soon have:

Herbin 1670 (red)
Edelstein Topaz
Sailor Kiwa-Guro "nano-black"
 
Meantime, my Sailor pen arrived: I love it!!

I also got a pen roll, which is really handy if, like me, you want to carry half a dozen pens in your pocket, without damaging them, or risking leaks etc. Was less than tenner, delivered from the US, and is handmade from a nice felt.
 
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