OK, so I decided to gingerly dip my toe in the shallow end and pick up one of the $5 Sheaffer Viewpoints at the art supply store.

I'm quite impressed with this small investment. It writes smoothly and starts right up. It's marked as a fine point. I'm guessing it's an italic nib or calligraphy nib since the line it puts down is that way, and the nib is flat across the end rather than having the small rounded end. Does that sound right?

It came with one Sheaffer Skrip blue cartridge which I have been using. It's sort of a pale blue-gray like faded jeans or something.

Does anybody know if it will take cartridges other than the Sheaffer ones? The office supply place has some Waterman Florida Blue ones that I would like to try.

I think I've started down that slippery slope. I'm already shopping for different colored cartridges, and I was scouting the pen aisle for potential new acquisitions.

My first 'fountain pen' was one of those $6 Sheaffer Calligraphy pens, of the Viewpoint/NoNonesense variety. Italic being so big and wet, I never used it as a writer, but it did get me started. I was playing with it last night and have to say- now that I know some about fountain pens and their use, I find the cheap-o Calligraphy pen to be pretty slick. Certainly revised my opinion on whether or not a pen needs iridium to be smooth.

You can't use other carts, but you can get a Sheaffer converter and use bottled ink that way- or inject ink of other brands into an empty Sheaffer cartridge.

Aaron

Thanks for the info. The art store where I got the pen offers a bunch of different cartridge colors, but their hours are opposite my off time so it's hard to get in there. Guess I'll stick with the Sheaffer carts for now, unless I find a converter for it at the art store.


That's what I wanted it for a starter/writer. After I noticed it had the calligraphy nib I was a bit concerned, but on the wide ruled comp books it has done well enough that I have continued to use it for journal writing.

I was reading back through my notebook last night after I posted this and I noticed that the color seems to be getting darker and more blue. Must have been some residue or something in it before that has worked its way out.