I recently purchased a new Bible with wide margins for note-taking and was wondering if someone here has found an ink/nib combo that works well for them, for this purpose? In the past, I have used pencils to avoid bleed through but it tends to fade over time. I have been contemplating one of Richard's XXF nibs and one of the Noodler's permanent inks. Although I use light pressure, I am concerned that the XXF nib might cut the thin pages.

Any experiences you would be willing to share would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Greg

No clues for you Greg, but I am interested to hear what you find out. Which Bible did you get?

I got a center comlumn ESV in the calfskin. It is by far, the nicest Bible I have ever bought. They are on sale at wtsbooks.com.

My Pilot 78G Fine and my Hero 329 Fine both work alright in my ESV, for underlining etc. I don't have space for margin notes, so there is even less tolerance of bleed through. Both are fine points, and both are currently loaded with Pelikan Green. They are relatively dry writers, compared to say, a Pelikan M200, a Phileas F, or most medium nib pens. Hope this helps.

Donnie

the XXF will not cut the pages.

EDIT: You want it to write dry and you want your ink to dry fast

If you have enough space in the margins, get a .4mm stub from Richard Binder. It won't be as fine as the XXF round, but it will add a distinctive look that will work well with the subject matter. Make it look like the marginalia in 15th century bibles!

As for ink, I would test a few different ones in a back page somewhere. If the paper is high-feathering, than you need something like Noodlers low feathering inks. If it is a low-feathering paper, then you will need a quick drying ink (and if others have answered this based on their experience with the paper, then nevermind).

John

One of my best "Bible pens" is my Cross Solo XF, which I believe has the same nib as the 78G (or something VERY similar). Mine is typically loaded with Waterman Florida Blue or Montblanc Black. Works fairly well; can't complain. I've probably had better success, though, with a Prismacolor 005 pigment marker.

Greg,

I use Pigma Micron Archival Ink felt tip pens in my Bible. They use a "pigment ink for waterproof and fade proof fine lines." They work great! No feathering, no tearing, and very little bleed through. I use blue for notes and orange for underlines (sometimes for notes) and a "brush" version of the pen in yellow for hi-lights. I haven't seen them in the big box office supply stores. I get mine at a local art supply shop near my office. Have also seen them in Artlite here in ATL. However... I would prefer to use a FP.

I hope your post turns up a great solution! Thanks for asking the question.

John

The nib on the Cross Solo is labeled Cross, but other than that, they appear to be identical. I have several of both pens, and by the rhinoceros rule, the Cross nib is a 78G nib. The rhinoceros rule, if you are not familiar with it, is as follows: If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, odds are it is not a rhinoceros.

Donnie

I would not trust an heirloom quality Bible to any FP nib/ink combo. Bleed, smear, water drop, etc. is too big a risk. Any of the archive quality fine point fiber tips would be preferable.

Greg, I just purchased a Sopporo Mini with an EX fine nib from John Mottishaw. It is very smooth for an EX but the only ink choice is Sailor Cartridges as the pen body is very small...a converter will not fit into the body. I do a lot of drawing, some on very thin tracing paper and have been very pleased with the smoothness. The cap screws onto the back of the pen which I find to be an advantage in that I don't put it where I can't find it...usually between the seats of the airplane.

The paper matters a lot with this pen...so you may need to have him adjust the flow.

Best of Luck

But if the Sapporo regular with EX nib from JM will take a converter, the problem of small capacity can be overcome by installing a converter, assuming the regular size Sapporo will take a converter.

Donnie

If I were using ink, I would choose Noodler's black in a smooth and dryish-writing extra-fine pen.

I might not use ink at all.

Another vote for a dry-writing pen for writing on Bible paper! Noodler's standard Black ink works really well for this in my experience, and Sheaffer Skrip Blue (new, Slovenia) and Namiki-Pilot Blue (but not the Black or the Blue-Black!) work well.

If you buy a Binderized super-fine nib for this purpose, I would suggest a Pelikan nib with the flow adjusted toward the dry side (out of the factory, Pelikan M-series gold nibs are drier than the M-series steel ones). The Namiki-Pilot Vanishing Point / Capless nib assemblies come out of the factory as fairly wet writers, so a Binderized one of those probably wouldn't suit your purposes.

N's Black doesn't look quite as dark and opaque in this combination as it does from wetter-writing pens, but even this way it's still plenty dark and opaque for me. The pH of this ink, measured by Clark, is 7.1.

The other permanent and partly-permanent Noodler's inks I've tried (Eternal Luxury Blue, Legal Lapis, Iraqi Indigo, standard Brown, Blue-Black, Aircorp Blue-Black, and the most recent Polar Black) are not quite up to the world-champion benchmark that N's standard Black still holds with regard to behavior on paper. One possible contender is the new Noodler's "X-Feather" Black, which has been reported on the FPN as behaving very well and also taking longer than N's standard Black to dry.

There's a lot of agreement in this thread, including me. I'm normally a wet medium nib person but for that application I'd dig out a special pen I have, but rarely use, which has a very fine point and low-flow, and load it with Bulletproof Black because of the feathering resistance and go with that. Bulletproof Black stays where the pen puts it.

I know that we are talking about bibles that are specially designed for the purpose, and a tradition you have in the States, but I have never come across it here in Australia. However, the thought of writing in a book, any book, especially this book, just gives me the willies...

At one stage though, when I was between jobs, I spent some time typesetting the text of the Douay-Rheims bible so it could print out in two columns on A4 paper. This was because it is the the bible translation that, as a Catholic, I grew up on, and I couldn't easily find a copy in my part of Sydney. All the CLC bookshops ran to KJV, NIV, RSV, all good Protestant versions, but they didn't cater for Catholics.

I suppose I wouldn't feel so bad writing on a copy that I had printed out myself.

"However, the thought of writing in a book, any book, especially this book, just gives me the willies..." DC Waites

I grew up with that attitude... but then in school my idea of the purpose of a book changed... if underlining, making notes, etc. helped to get the knowledge from the page to anyone's mind...then that was the real purpose of the book... ( only if you OWN the book...LOL)

" all good Protestant versions, but they didn't cater for Catholics." DC Waites

Probably because Catholics ' were not supposed to read the bible ' themselves.... that it is too complicated for them and they need someone who has studied history, language and Sociology appropriate to the subject to properly interpret it...
A good read on that would be " The worlds most Dangerous Book " by Alan Watts ( The Universe is Wiggly )...LOL

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/alan-watts-bible.html

Greg

Exactly right. When biblical translators began to produce versions in the vernacular of the people, "the church" was highly opposed to it. They saw this new movement as an affront to their authority and necessity. Furthermore, these translators (i.e. Wycliffe, Tyndale, Cloverdale, others) were reviled for their work, and many of them met a gruesome death.