Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Ancient Text
Monday, January 13, 2014
Monday Stinks #9
This exercise is telling me two things: firstly I should have stuck more with the Old Classics amongst inks. The Waterman and Pelikan are being over-used because they're so reliable. Waterman for everything because it's so good natured to even the most sensitive little blossom; Pelikan to tame the too-wet nibs. Getting a bit bored with the Pelikan blue-black in particular though. Functional, but not thrilling.
Secondly, no-one's interested in cheap pens, so we've gone up a couple of rungs this week. Although in the Grand Scheme I acknowledge that some would still call these cheap and probably dismiss them. Their loss, I assure you.
The reported occurrences of Orange Crustiness that can sometimes appear with Ancient Copper means I've resolved to confine it to pens of modern manufacture, so that's not an option. Pensioner Pen-friendliness and good shading makes a bottle of Waterman's Havana Brown ink highly likely to darken the doors of Alf Towers in the not-too-distant future, I fancy. Or whatever they call it now. Seriously, what did Waterman hope to achieve by changing the names of their inks? Apart from confusion. Tsk.
Secondly, no-one's interested in cheap pens, so we've gone up a couple of rungs this week. Although in the Grand Scheme I acknowledge that some would still call these cheap and probably dismiss them. Their loss, I assure you.
Such is my delight in "Junior" that I forgot to note the ink. Hah. Guess who? Yep, Waterman Serenity (formerly Florida) Blue. It's a good colour, mind you. However, doesn't that celluloid of gorgeousness rather say a brown to you? Cue the glamour shot:
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
A Salad of Many Herbs
So, you may recall I was nearing the end of my
In the end I went with a Rhodia A5 Webnotebook with a dot grid. Finally realised that I'd miss the hardback format if I didn't have it, and dots seemed the most crazy-person-friendly type to pick. Viz: I'm dotty and so is it... It's about two-thirds the thickness of my old Asda "Executive" (when the latter isn't stuffed full), which is a Bad Thing in having fewer pages for the given lettuce, but a Good Thing in reducing the hand-falling-off-the-page-at-the-bottom annoyance. Oh, and the marker ribbon length is pathetic. Can you see that whisp of black at the spine? That's it. Useless.
Not wild about the ivory-coloured paper, to be honest, but it's taking everything I've thrown at it thus far, including a flex nib that was gushing ink like... well, like 99% of the rivers in the UK at the moment. i.e. Lots of flow. No hideous bleeding, no feathering. We'll see if I can grow to love the paper colour over time. Either that or that Leuchtturm will get themselves sorted and stop making the quality of their paper such a lottery.
Right, that's it. I'm going while I can still resolutely ignore the fact that I may be developing a thing for orange pens. No, really, I think it may be becoming a problem. A combination plane kinda problem. Eeep.
Monday, January 06, 2014
Monday Stinks #8
Hope everyone is still in one piece after all the atrocious weather we've been enjoying on both sides of the 'lantic. Unfortunately the grey weather is playing havoc with my reliance on natural lighting, so this is dismal photography indeed. The Pilot blue is an excellent, rich and vivid blue, trust me. Just not in this case...
Anyway, the new year is often a time of belt tightening, and as such we have a bit of a budget theme going here. Generally the Noodler's Nib Creaper would be the cheap option in many fountain pen gatherings, but here it's by far the priciest at something over a tenner. It's way smaller than I realised; not dissimilar to the GB Parker Victory and Junior, but slimmer. I'm much taken by it, and the nib is the best yet of the Noodler's I've tried. Which reminds me, I used the Noodler's Ahab and Pelikan blue-black for the title - I've tweaked its flex even more, and now it's pretty nearly exactly how I wanted it, so huzzah.
I think the Pilot disposable may be clearance stock because they've changed its appearance, and thus it was much cheaper than usual, and thus I bought one to try because people rave about them. In all honesty I find the idea of a disposable fountain pen an anathema, even if you can (by somewhat laborious means) refill it. I will happily say it's the blobbiest line and thus worst Pilot nib I've ever used, which is comforting as I'd started to think Pilot were infallible.
The purple "demonstrator" was the result of a pen failure via Amazon - got sent the wrong pen, and after a small delay while the seller suggested I defraud the Post Office in order to return it, which I declined, they eventually said "keep it" rather than pay for the return postage. Which, given how much I see you can pay for one (pour example, ici) versus what they wanted to charge for it, I can fully understand. And it's... okay. It wouldn't be a total disaster if you were saddled with one of these for school, but the slip on cap problem, if ubiquitous, would get old very quickly.
The clear bargain for me is the Sheaffer-a-like from the "Deluxe Pen Set". Yes, it's fairly cheap plastic and probably breaks several health and safety rules by having indentations in the cap instead of actual breather holes, but the clip is sturdy, the grip is comfortably rubbery, and the nib is good. Pens costing fifty times as much and more regularly come with the nib tines out of alignment, so I refuse to damn it for that. It wrote, and that's the important thing. Add in a couple of not bad ballpoints for the money, and it's a total steal. Of course, another example might be utterly useless and a complete waste of money, but thems the breaks at the bottom of the barrel.
So there ya go; my ready response if anyone says fountain pens are too expensive. What my excuse is for my fascination with these budget pens though, I have no idea.
Anyway, the new year is often a time of belt tightening, and as such we have a bit of a budget theme going here. Generally the Noodler's Nib Creaper would be the cheap option in many fountain pen gatherings, but here it's by far the priciest at something over a tenner. It's way smaller than I realised; not dissimilar to the GB Parker Victory and Junior, but slimmer. I'm much taken by it, and the nib is the best yet of the Noodler's I've tried. Which reminds me, I used the Noodler's Ahab and Pelikan blue-black for the title - I've tweaked its flex even more, and now it's pretty nearly exactly how I wanted it, so huzzah.
I think the Pilot disposable may be clearance stock because they've changed its appearance, and thus it was much cheaper than usual, and thus I bought one to try because people rave about them. In all honesty I find the idea of a disposable fountain pen an anathema, even if you can (by somewhat laborious means) refill it. I will happily say it's the blobbiest line and thus worst Pilot nib I've ever used, which is comforting as I'd started to think Pilot were infallible.
The purple "demonstrator" was the result of a pen failure via Amazon - got sent the wrong pen, and after a small delay while the seller suggested I defraud the Post Office in order to return it, which I declined, they eventually said "keep it" rather than pay for the return postage. Which, given how much I see you can pay for one (pour example, ici) versus what they wanted to charge for it, I can fully understand. And it's... okay. It wouldn't be a total disaster if you were saddled with one of these for school, but the slip on cap problem, if ubiquitous, would get old very quickly.
The clear bargain for me is the Sheaffer-a-like from the "Deluxe Pen Set". Yes, it's fairly cheap plastic and probably breaks several health and safety rules by having indentations in the cap instead of actual breather holes, but the clip is sturdy, the grip is comfortably rubbery, and the nib is good. Pens costing fifty times as much and more regularly come with the nib tines out of alignment, so I refuse to damn it for that. It wrote, and that's the important thing. Add in a couple of not bad ballpoints for the money, and it's a total steal. Of course, another example might be utterly useless and a complete waste of money, but thems the breaks at the bottom of the barrel.
So there ya go; my ready response if anyone says fountain pens are too expensive. What my excuse is for my fascination with these budget pens though, I have no idea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)