I like Noodler's Inks, but the Pilot, Pelikan, Edelstein, Diamine inks I have are better inks. Noodlers is a wet ink so it feathers more on the page, while the others I have feed through the pen better and don't leave ink drops.

"Writer's Blood" by Diamine is a favorite of mine as is their "Black Ivy"... Both are wonderful in a broad or double broad nib pen.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Buy more inks, instead of pens.

Yea, yea, that’s it, just buy more ink. Then you have to swatch each one to see what colors you like so you buy another pack of swatch cards. Then you find the colors you like so you buy more pens so you don’t have to clean them every time you want to use a new favorite color. But your old pen case is full, so you have to buy a new case. Then you need a new journal for your new favorite pens and colors. It’s a never-ending whirlpool that sucks you in deeper and deeper and deeper, Ahhhhhhhh


Or, perhaps, I just may be slightly compulsive.

Yes, I can see that this "rabbit hole" is very deep with lots twists and turns.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Then when you get as crazy as me, you buy them their own furniture to store and display.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm a bit of a Iroshizuku snob myself. Love the bottles and haven't found a bad ink in the line. Wish I had the 2021 and 2024 discontinued flavors, but I missed them. They're going for $250 a pop on the secondary market now if you can find them. I'll probably hit the Philly Pen Show in January and see what I can find.

Yep. Still have unopened 50 ml bottles of Tsukushi and Kiri-Same that I'll treat like gold....

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
Yep. Still have unopened 50 ml bottles of Tsukushi and Kiri-Same that I'll treat like gold....

Wow, Doc! You have way more self-control than I do. I had a 4ml sample of Tsukushi. No way I could not use it. That chestnut brown was spectacular, not too wet, and perfect shading. The red/purple in that ink just peeked out the side of the chestnut with a very subtle sheen when writing. And then with heavy shading, green/purple. Really a special ink.

Beautiful montage/picture of an iconic grail fountain pen.

A little off topic... When I was in the 4th grade our teacher issued us pens that needed to be dipped in ink. The desks in use at the time in my school had actual ink wells cut into them. The teacher would go around and fill the ink bottles that sat in the wells and proceed to have us practice our cursive writing using this setup. WE also got ink blotters to use to pat the ink dry.

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:
Beautiful montage/picture of an iconic grail fountain pen.

Thanks...Funny story about that pen. I bought it at the ’92 Baltimore Pen Show. It was (and is) a grail pen and I fully intended to use it. Walking around the show a little while later, I ran into a guy selling a box of Mont Blanc parts for $450. It was a hodge podge of stuff, caps, barrels, clips, etc., some for 149’s, some not, but I could make out some 149 nibs and a piston or 3 in the bottom. It was Sunday afternoon so I took a shot and offered $250. He agreed.

Once I got home and really went through the box, I found most of the box to be trash but there were enough 149 parts to build 2 pens. The nibs needed some TLC and polishing and the pistons and nibs came from different eras but I got 2 working MB 149’s out of it. Gave one to a friend a few years later and still have the other one. Noone can tell it’s a mismatched parts pen without disassembly. And so, the new pen is still a new pen. Never inked and the barrel still has the stickers on it. It lives in the safe on top of the deed to my house, and I used my Frankenpen 149 and was just as happy. Office folk never knew my beautiful Mont Blanc came from a $250 parts box.

Didn’t realize until years later that the new pen was older than 92. Sticker says “Made in W Germany”. Glad I never ripped it off.

quote:

Originally posted by yanici:
A little off topic...

Be honest. You dunked the girl's in front of you pigtail in the ink well, didn't you.

Back when I was into collecting, I really, really wanted a Mont Blanc 129 or 139, but being a broke person, there was basically no hope.

Kind of like the box of parts, I found what was described as “broken antique pen” on this at the time “new” website called “ebay”… definitely looked like most of a 139, so I coughed up the $50 and sure enough, ended up with a complete 139, with the barrel broken completely through at the piston mechanism.

Paid a gentleman another $100 or so at the LA pen show and he did an amazing job on the celluloid getting it not just back together (which I would have been fine with just to have it in my collection), but he got it back to fully functional, replaced the cork piston seal, and had it working perfectly.



Amazing flexible nib, just considering how tough it was to get, it doesn’t get used much at all!

Bill R

Pilot "Vanishing Point" (the nib retracts into the pen body). This has the converter attached to the nib.

With Pilot ink. One of my favorite carry pens.

quote:

Originally posted by stylophiles:
Amazing flexible nib, just considering how tough it was to get, it doesn’t get used much at all!

Great pen and great story. I can do my own repairs / upgrades on the mechanicals, piston seals, helix rods, nib adjustments and polish and things like that, but when it comes to structural issues like you had, I need a pro like your LA guy.

This pen hobby is weird. I have a lot of "great pens". Most, as yours, don't get used much at all. But the ones that are always inked are my Safari's. Not sure how many I have but I do know I have all available nibs and all with different color ink. They are my 3AM can't sleep doodle pens. I guess being retired and not around an office anymore has a lot to do with it.

quote:

Originally posted by lizardman_u:
Pilot "Vanishing Point"

Beautiful pen. Even more beautiful photo. I really wanted to like this pen, but the pocket clip is in exactly the wrong spot for the way I hold to be comfortable with it. I traded mine to a buddy for a Pilot E95s and we both walked away happy. The clip on the vanishing point didn't bother him at all and I got an enjoyable daily carry.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:

quote:

Originally posted by lizardman_u:
Pilot "Vanishing Point"

Beautiful pen. Even more beautiful photo. I really wanted to like this pen, but the pocket clip is in exactly the wrong spot for the way I hold to be comfortable with it. I traded mine to a buddy for a Pilot E95s and we both walked away happy. The clip on the vanishing point didn't bother him at all and I got an enjoyable daily carry.

I have taken to Opus "Jazz" 88 pens in an eyedropper fill. one of mine has the Opus steel broad nib, and the other a custom Edison 14k gold extra fine flex nib.

i use those and my Pelikan M-1000 (green and black stripe) with the 18k gold double broad nib.

Fountain pens are about all I use unless I need to write a carbon in a checkbook. For that I use either a Parker that has a nice wide body or my Retro 51 roller ball.