Fountain pens

[Kim]

Most girls with whom I went to school ended up with identical handwriting.  It never happened to the boys.

I have identical handwriting^[1] to one of the girls I went to primary school with.  We were amused to discover this after randomly meeting in the pub at some point in the sixth form, having been at different schools and not seen each other in the intervening years.  Suspect we were the token freaks who didn't end up with the afore-mentioned 80s rounded style, or something.  That was certainly prevalent amongst the work the teachers deemed worthy of sticking on the walls.


_{[1] Given a decent pen and the time to sit down and remember how to do it, anyway.  These days my normal writing (when I have cause to use it, which tends to mean labelling things) is standard electrical engineering block capitals, deteriorating into line noise at higher bitrates.}

[Pancho]

Re: ink colour and suppliers:


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I have several.

[dasmoth]

Not a big writer at all, but I now find myself with an irrational desire for a TWSBI Diamond...

[Woofage]

Don't know if they have improved it, but if it is old style brown (as was Waterman's) that is the worst for leaving deposits in your pen.

Not noticed it being any more glacky than the Quink in my other pens, but I use the pen a lot so it doesn't get much chance to accumulate. Washes out of the cat fur quite easily too.

Inks based on red dyes (reds, oranges, pinks, browns and purples) will always leave a hard deposit when dry. Reds also stain more than blues and greens so are not always good news for transparent and translucent pens and any with a visible ink window (eg piston-fillers). I mostly use purple and brown but don't have problems as the pens are always in use and get cleaned when empty .

[Woofage]

Having not used a fountain pen for 20 years, I'm quite shocked by the ink consumption.  I've used more than half a cartridge (allowing for the fact that new ones aren't full) in 3 days of note-taking (one or two meetings per day) and this is a fine (italic) nib!

Cartridges, whilst very convenient, do work out quite expensive. Fountain pen ink is considered a luxury item these days and priced to match, working out at typically 10p per ml (about a cartridge or converter full). In cartridge format you pay about 4 times as much for the same volume.

Still not sure about blue-black ink, which looks like an anaemic black.  I know I don't like black (far too physics student) and I had enough of royal blue washable Quink at school.  Purple or turquoise might be fun, as long as turquoise isn't actually green; I'd hate to grink everything.

In the days when I was ungainfully employed I usually used turquoise, purple or green. If those are a bit racey for you then there are plenty of more interesting blues.

[LindaG]

We learned to use Marion Richardson handwriting, using pens that were dipped into inkwells.  We spent hours and hours on our handwriting practice.  Do they still do this?

Not a big writer at all, but I now find myself with an irrational desire for a TWSBI Diamond...

+1

[Sergeant Pluck]

I'm not a fan of ballpoints either. I've got a bunch of Lamy Safaris with various ink colours and, just like Woofage (possibly unsurprisingly), I have a TWSBI Diamond 530.

 . What nib size did you go for?

I see these are generating a lot of positive comments - yet the reviews of the pen do not seem that great. Are they good or are they just benefiting from the good will resulting from a lot of "user involvement" in their development? I know the pen has won a design award etc but I cannot see anything particularly innovative about the pen. Fairly boring stiff steel nib. Can you enlighten me?

I have quite a few fountain pens, some with modified italic nibs. Practical favourites are probably my Pilot Capless and Decimo - as I now use a pen for short very frequent notes the absence of a cap is invaluable - but at present I am having real trouble getting my preferred nib to start. Most annoying. Favourite to write with is my Namiki eye-dropper but it is a little wet and thus a PITA for the left hander. I also like my Lamy 2000 but it leaks into the cap incessantly, thus giving inky fingers all the time despite being fine during actual use.

Probably time I looked for something else.

n?
Use: lots of quick notes or writing for longer periods?

What is recommended for "lots of quick notes"?

[Pancho]

Looking at that link, it won an award for having flanges to stop it rolling off the desk.

Now that is a good innovation; I park my (capless) MB resting on the function keys of the keyboard (unfortunately, I need a computer for work these days).

Which brings me to a Q: is it bad for a pen to leave it capless all day for quick access for scribbles? Used often enough to work without the need for a shake most of the time.

[Woofage]

n?
Use: lots of quick notes or writing for longer periods?

What is recommended for "lots of quick notes"?

Pilot Capless, of course .

As for the TWSBI, it's no Conway Stewart or Visconti but it's well thought out and well put together. I've been using mine almost daily for a few months now and I've become quite attached to it.

[Woofage]

Which brings me to a Q: is it bad for a pen to leave it capless all day for quick access for scribbles? Used often enough to work without the need for a shake most of the time.

Potentially, yes. If the ink dries in the feed (the plastic bit that the nib rests on) it may cease to write. A quick blast with an ultrasonic cleaner or a very long soak* will sort it out though.
* not the whole pen, obviously

[Sergeant Pluck]

Pilot Capless, of course

Thought as much  Must see if I can swap to another nib and see if it is better. Very annoying when a pen will not "start" even though it is perfect once it is going.

[rogerzilla]

Which brings me to a Q: is it bad for a pen to leave it capless all day for quick access for scribbles? Used often enough to work without the need for a shake most of the time.

Potentially, yes. If the ink dries in the feed (the plastic bit that the nib rests on) it may cease to write. A quick blast with an ultrasonic cleaner or a very long soak* will sort it out though.
* not the whole pen, obviously

My current pen needs a little scribble to get it going again if it's left for even 5 minutes without writing and with the cap off.

[rogerzilla]

Picked up a Sheaffer Agio, mainly because it's a ludicrous "rainbow" colour that's hard to lose.  Awful nib out of the box, but I have fixed it (adjusted the gap for more ink and also ground it in a bit) so it writes quite nicely now.  I think I get on better with italic nibs, though, something Sheaffer don't do much of these days.

Sheaffer inks are very watery but apparently this also means they rarely clog the pen.  The blue is horrid but the turquoise is rather good in my old italic pen, because it puts enough ink on the paper to compensate for the pale colour.

[Rapples]

Is it this one?

Sheaffer | Writing Instruments | Sheaffer® Agio® Collection

This is not merely a pen; this is a serious lifestyle accessory. Match one to your purse, your new shoes, your PDA or your cell phone.

Your gay you are!!

I think I get on better with italic nibs, though, something Sheaffer don't do much of these days

Appartently Sheaffer are not alone which is hardly progress!!  That's why I bought Miss Rapples a Lamy as they have easily interchangable nibs.

At school I always used a Parker with italic nib and turquoise ink, lost it at work some where about 15 years ago, but it did well.


Now if you are sitting comfortably, I'll begin.

A few years ago I was talking to a parent I'd met a few times and old schools came up, I mentioned mine.

"Did you?" he said looking at me strangely, "What's your name then?

"Rapples" I said as he knew my first name, and I his.

Almost together as I said "You were my history teacher!"

He replied "Light blue ink very neat handwriting"

So the moral is, not only does turquoise ink make you stand out from the crowd, but nearly everyone at school thought I was gay, hence the nickname Quentin

[rogerzilla]

Fortunately Sheaffer turquoise is more blue than green

We still think you're gay tho 

[Rapples]

I was never confused

[Pancho]

This is my current main colour:



I use this for reviewing stuff:

[Pancho]

There were gurls at my school so no one was thought to be gay (except the ones that were).

[Rapples]

This is my current main colour:

I see you still haven't completely come out of the closet then

[Rapples]

There were no gurls at my school, and anyone who was gay kept bloody quiet about it

Shirley was a nice boy though, I still don't know what side he batted for in the end

[Cudzoziemiec]

I currently have one (Parker), and have in the past had two other (Sheaffer, Waterman), pens which can be used as fountain pens, but I only ever use them as cartridge pens. I can't be bothered buying bottles of ink. I don't write enough with a pen to justify it and don't have a writing desk in any case.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

My parents gave me a good fountain pen for a birthday present years ago with a "matching" posh biro. In the days when I could be arsed keeping a diary, I used a lovely notebook bound in purple velvet and I wrote the entries with the fountain pen. But I am congenitally scruffy and dishevelled and I always end up covered in ink, so I almost never use the pen now. And I haven't written in the diary in about ten years either.

[rogerzilla]

Had a WHSmith voucher from work so used it to buy a Lamy Al-star.  Bizarre modern styling but writes superbly straight out of the packet and shows how bad the Sheaffer Agio nib is (or how bad the one I have is).  So you were right, Woofage.  I wish we'd had pens like this when I was at school - fountain pens were compulsory from 11-16 - instead of leaky Osmiroids.

You can pick the Al-Star up for next to nothing on eBay if you're not fussed about the colour (blue seems to be the most common); if you must have pink, purple or silver-green, it's about £23 from shops.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Roger's 'osmiroids are leaky, giggle giggle.  

[rogerzilla]

Roger's 'osmiroids are leaky, giggle giggle.  

Believe it or not, we never made the connection between Osmiroids and chalfonts.