Interesting question this, only because for me it was a "no-brainer" until a colleague made comment.

I personally prefer a wet situation; I have a CS 85L with waterman black and a Parker 51 with waterman violet in everyday use. Although the CS has a tendency to scratch the paper, both pens write wet and consequently I have a blotter around.

My colleague, preferred a pen+ink combo that I would consider as a pain... it would dry on the page almost immediatly, and would offer good shading.

Don't care I like it wet... so I gave her all my Private Reserve ink I have in stock

?????? For me Private Reserve was too wet (didn't dry fast enough)--so I got rid of it.

No brainer for me, too...I like dry!

Best, Ann

Hi,

Wet if I am writing a letter, but dry if I have to write something quickly.

Dillon

DITTO!

-Bruce

Wet and Wild!

haha, me too krz!!

Pens should be wet. Dry is for martinis

Bill

Seeing a broad, juicy, wet line is immensely gratifying. I just give the ink a few seconds to dry before putting the paper away to avoid smearing.

I thouroughly hate dry writers ! So. no brainer too. wet and preferably broad !

Hi Guy,

It depends on the application and the ink. If I need to take notes in a hurry, I prefer an ink that dries quickly, and a nib that doesn't lay down a very wet line. If I am writing for fun, medium wet or slightly wetter italic, so that the shading shows nicely. I don't like wet, wet lines, because it just takes too long to dry for my taste .

Warm regards, Wim

Wet, of course.

Veryveryvery wet.

I suppose I never take notes that quickly so the 'wetness' is never an issue.
My personal journal (Moleskine Pocket Ruled), work journal (Moleskine A5 Squared) and Rodia Meeting Pad all have suitably sized blotters which I insert into pages before closing. That said I carry a MB rollerball around with my personal journal so less of an issue.

What I am surprised about is that for me Private Reserve has always been a dry ink in my pens... but then all of this is subjective.

Want dry? Collect pencils.

Words glistening for a few moments like the sun on the ocean is pure magic.

Bill

I think I'm with Wim on this one. Med wet if I've got the time, dryish if I'm on the run.

I don't mind waiting for or blotting wet downstrokes or punctuation points from the last handful of lines in a page, but if the first few lines at the top the page still smear by the time I get down to the bottom, it's too wet for me.

Ryan.

edit: one day I'll learn to preview typos before posting

I guess I'm with the majority on this one. Wet it is. I also enjoy the sight of the glistening line of real ink, as opposed to the calculated sludge smeared on the page by certain things with moving spheres in their tips.

Someone has to show the other side, so thought I would.
I prefer a dry pen/ink combo. Too wet and it looses all practical application and is just downright annoying.

I don't have the luxury of dealing with blotters or waiting for my stuff to dry.

Plus, I feel the dryer writers show a little more of the ink's character. Too wet and you just loose it to over saturation.

I carry a small rocker blotter (the Levenger black elephant, out of stock for a couple of years; superglue fixed it after a drop to a stone floor), but I can't use it in a hurry (see superglue).

I enjoy dry to medium in most situations. I prefer it for
envelopes,
package addresses,
checks,
deposit slips and ATM envelopes,
credit card receipts,
loose-fiber paper,
note taking,
scheduling in my planner,
recordkeeping at work,
and Noodler's Blue-Black ink (more blue shows up).

I can enjoy medium to wet for
rough drafts in Sheaffer Skrip Blue (new) (cheap, legible, eradicable, and well-behaved "wet" on not in, not through loose-fiber paper),
final drafts in the color of the moment,
and my toothy Hero 329.

AMEN!

For me, wetter is better. I *can* dry it quickly with blotting paper. However, I find that I vastly prefer the appearance of writing that has dried "naturally".

I like both. These days I carry a dryish Pelikan m605 and a wet wet Parker 75, both filled with Aurora Blue. It's amazing how different the color comes out, but both put out a lovely line IMO.

I would prefer wet. But I don't have a wet pen. How does one use a rocker blotter anyway?

They're loads of fun , and good conversation starters too .

There are several sizes of rocker blotters, and three attachment mechanisms I'm aware of.
Smaller rocker blotters, the size of a signature and/or two line widths of text,
have either a clip system (springy metal clips on both ends)
or an elastic band system (two silicone-rubber elastic bands); mine, a newer model, has the latter.
Larger rocker blotters, for four or more lines of text, have slots or clamps on the ends into which to insert the ends of the blotter paper.
J. Herbin makes a medium-sized rocker blotter and cut-to-size blotter paper with their own advertising on it.

Just rock the blotter slowly over slow-drying text, being careful not to shift it in any direction other than the direction of the rocking, and you've anti-smudged the page !

The same side of a piece of blotter paper can be re-used many times. Blotter paper is thick enough that you can use the other side too.