After being on this forum for a few weeks I find myself really only hitting 2 rooms... Inky Thoughts and the Japanese pen room... I'm going nuts wanting to try all these inks but have only 2 pens and I can't write nearly enough to use up the reserve of ink in the pen... The horror, the horror.... So now I have to find a dip pen I can live with just to be able to play with all the inks I "MUST HAVE"... I'm in so much trouble...

So far the only inks I'm going crazy for are Noodlers. I'm sure I'll branch out someday, but at the moment I can't wait to see more noodler inks... ARRGGHH!!!!

What are you waiting for? Get a Pear Tree Ink Sampler and some Dip Pens! Life is too short.

Uh Oh! You ARE in trouble

I joined FPN at the beginning of the year, like you I went crazy with ink, I bought about 20 bottles within a month and a half , but I only had one pen... Like you I felt it was too long to empty a fill to use other inks so I started to get more pens A few months later pen count is up to 7... Beware of the FPN effect

The solution is amazingly easy.

1. Buy the inks.
2. Buy a few dip-pen shafts & nibs.
3. Dip, sample and write to your heart's content!

That's one reason I love dip-pens. You can swap and change inks so easily with no mess.

Lucky for me I write like a jackhammer with only one handle, So I tend to not write enough to justify more than a few pens. I think I'll go the dip pen route, 1, to try alot more inks and 2, save money. While I am very interested in FP's my heart belongs to quality kitchen knives

One reason I got into FP's was to work on my writing skills so that others could at least attempt to read my writing. I've seen a few interesting things to try out in that department. See if that helps

J Hewrbin ( the makeers of the ink) sell a very nice glass dip pen that is super easy to clean
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Slightly off-topic but I've been using this book to improve my handwriting and altough still not beautiful everybody around me acknowledge a huge improvement in readability in about 1 month of practicing it around 1 hour every day or so. (ok about 1 hour every 2 or 3 days actually )

P.S. You don't need to write a lot to justify more pen, just plead insanity like the rest of us

I had a similar problem, and tried using dip pens, but I found that the results were too different from my fountain pens to be useful.
To fix the problem, I bought three Jinhao X-450s from Chinese eBay sellers (look up comeon1788 and gotoschool888). They usually go for about $3, plus postage. This gives me three identical medium nibbed pens that I can use dipped for a quick test, or I can fill all three with different inks to get a better comparison.

The closest dip nib I have found to match a fountain pen would be MacNiven & Cameron's Waverley Pen nibs. The others tend to be too wet or too fine.

Another alternative, although more expensive than the X-450s, would be glass dip pens. I haven't tried any, perhaps someone who has can comment?

Regarding illegible writing:
One of the medical schools in California has a required handwriting class.
The class is named after a Dr. (a former alumni) whose handwriting was so bad, No One could read it.

In the 1990's in Houston, my mom had a prescription from a Dr. one time that 3 pharmacists couldn't decipher and they had to call the Dr.'s office to see what it was for.

Sounds like something I need to take... While I can pass notes and all to others but if I have to do more than a couple lines... it drops off pretty fast... Using the FP helps me think about what I'm doing (so I don't crush it) and I tend to write a bit slower and try to not screw up the letters. Kind of hard when your dysliexic

I'd recommend asking Pendemonium - they sell dip pens and the nibs to go with them. One thing I noticed when I first bought a few nibs is that some are so sharp that they scratch the paper. Be sure and get a regular smooth handwriting nib, otherwise you might not enjoy the experience.

Don't know if it will matter to you or not, but ime dip pens are much wetter writers than fountain pens so the ink is darker than it is in a regular fp.

(And I so understand why you're doing this. I am such an ink junkie!)

I recommend getting a glass dip pen. They're great for testing inks and switching inks (cleaning the pen) is very quick and easy. Here's mine:

Where did you get your glass pen, Southpaw?

remind the wife that you're faithful and don't smoke crack cocaine.

If that fails to smooth things over ask how many pairs of shoes she has.

How does it write, looks great. I have been looking at those pretty hard. I'd have to set up a special place for it though... it would get killed fast if not