What Pen Did You Finish Today?

[Inkling13]

I emptied a MB 149 with an EF nib, washed and refilled it with Pilot BB, to see if I could correct a hard start on up strokes. it seems to have worked, misbehaved horribly with Sailor Kiwa-Guro.

[inkstainedruth]

Parker Vacumatic Azure Blue Pearl Sub-Debutante (3rd generation), which I had rehabbed at the Ohio Pen Show in November.

Got totally bored with Waterman Serenity Blue.... It's an okay ink, and very safe in vintage pens. Just well, zzzzzzzz. (At least Mysterious Blue has some je ne sais quoi to it.... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[praxim]

Extending the scope of this thread slightly, the pen I finished today was an Onoto 3050, BHR, except the finishing was putting it all together after disassembly, cleaning, and full replacement of seals. Put back together and filled with J Herbin Lierre Sauvage it is writing quite beautifully, as I normally expect from an Onoto No 2 nib.The writing feel is light and soft with a clear yet variable line. I call it a softness rather than "flex" (one seller was wont to splay the nibs like a gymnast learning the splits) having other Onotos and a Pelikan which clearly have far more. Maybe Bo Bo would tell me it was semi-flex. A great mid-size pen. My problem is that I have two other 3050s already, one of them also BHR. I am steeling myself to sell one. Maybe.

[inkstainedruth]

The newly repaired M400 Brown Tortoise is just about empty. Managed to squeak out my journal entry, but the piston is now all the way to the end of the feed.

Trying to decide whether to flush, refill (it currently has De Atramentis Van Dyck Brown in it) or what. I like the combination, but I have a lot of ink samples I haven't tried, and I'm also back at the "a bit too many pens inked up to be manageable" stage....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mongrelnomad]

Ive been writing my next novel with my Pilot Namiki Yukari Royale Vermillion on A4 tamoe river pads. Originally the plan was to write the whole thing in Sailor Nagasawa Kobe 65 - a lovely red-sheening black, but Ive been writing in frenzied bursts while traveling, so have had to modify my intentions when for whatever reason the bottle fails to travel with me.

 

First imposter was Bungu Box 4B; today I arrived on my third writing exile and filled the pen with an ink I grabbed by mistake: Ishida Bungu Hakodate Twilight. Its a lovely shading deep blue with a vivid red sheen, and I suspect it flows better than Kobe 65, if not 4B, but it lacks the purity of the black ink on the stark white page and somehow makes me quite sad. I drain the converter every day, but as it is the only ink I have brought with me, there is little alternative...

Edited January 31, 2018 by mongrelnomad

[aderoy]

Cross Apogee Chrome Fine using Platinum Carbon Black. Cleaned the cartridge and nib, now drying out prior to a sleep until next rotation.

[praxim]

Santini Italia in the Shanghai pattern, with F nib, Diamine Ruby. The pen is excellent, a great writer, except for an occasional dry start problem probably arising from surface tension in the standard cartridge because there is no obvious starvation or drying out in use. I need to slip a keyboard gold spring in there. Each of the three Santinis seems to have this characteristic, which is hardly surprising given they are the same pens in different colours.

[Noihvo]

[Bill]

Happened into a Montblanc store in Miami this afternoon and re-upped some regular inks plus dropped $43 (yikes!) on a bottle of UNICEF Torquoise. Of course, I "need" to try it out ASAP. Preferably in a broader nib that can showcase the color.

 

Checked the dozen or so inked pens in my bag and one was near empty: A Bexley 10th Anniversary with broad stub. The wonderful nib and short pocket depth means it gets more use than love.

 

Just flushed it out in the hotel sink and it is drying now. Will likely play with it during morning coffee, cigar, and sun soak ;-)

[Runnin_Ute]

Finished off a fill in my Pilot Metropolitan (M), flushed it of any remaining Blackstone Red Cashmere and put it away. Same with my Parker 51 Special and its fill of Waterman Serenity Blue.

 

The True Writer Silver Anniversary (F), had a small amount of Akkerman Shocking Blue in it. Flushed it and refilled it with KWZI 150 Confederation Brown. And put my Waterman Phileas into rotation with a fill of Levenger Amethyst. That gives me a total of 9 pens inked, down from 10.

[praxim]

The Pelikan M1000 ran out of the ink which was in it when it arrived. Not sure what it was. Possibly Pelikan 4001 Dark Green. The M nib flows ink like a sluice gate in a flooding dam. There is also a slight misalignment of the tines. I may reduce the former problem by fixing the latter which will reduce the gap when writing. Nothing wrong with the pen otherwise. Once working it writes nicely.

[praxim]

Aurora 88K, my only one among various 88s, ran out of good old Waterman Blue. Its fine to extra-fine nib gave the pen a lasting quality. I have Aurora Blue in the MB at the moment. The difference between these two inks seems far more influenced by the nib than the ink. While they may be boring blues to some, I think they are attractive options for routine use in between black and noticeable colour.

[pajaro]

Montblanc 144, but I keep beginning it again.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Wow, this is embarrassing. I’ve always thought this thread meant what pens you finished making today. I didn’t realize I meant the pens that you have finished cleaning. I try not to clean my pens that much anymore, a I’m notorious for destroying nice pens

[praxim]

Wow, this is embarrassing. I’ve always thought this thread meant what pens you finished making today. I didn’t realize I meant the pens that you have finished cleaning. I try not to clean my pens that much anymore, a I’m notorious for destroying nice pens

 

It simply invites you to talk about what pen(s) ran out of ink today, what you thought of the pen (and ink), whether you refilled or put it away for another time.

 

People tend to reflect a little more on the merits of their pen when it has just emptied, compared with when they are in the middle of using it ("What pen are you using today?"), so it was those reflections I was after.

[Noihvo]

 

[bbs]

I have far, far too many pens inked after a buying binge last year which has continued into 2018 .... you've got to ink them when you get them, right?

 

So when I came to check on a couple of them, found they had run out. First was a Delta Italiana Amber in the matt finish, fitted with a Delta black cart it came with. Really like the design and colour of this pen and it was nice and easy to clean.

 

The other was a bit of a disappointment - a Platinum 3776 calico celluloid filled with Diamine Chocolate which was a free gift from the Writing Equipment Show in London last year. The ink, that is. It really shouldn't have been empty yet, not sure why it dried out as Platinum pens usually stay airtight. It has a fine nib too which I needed to get to know a bit more. So that one will be going back into rotation once a few more have been flushed.

[Heldin]

My Lamy 2000 ran out of ink while I was writing a letter, it was inked with Sailor Oku-Yama. I just cleaned it and will ink it again in a few days. This 2K is my favourite pen (it is SO wet) and the combo with Oku-Yama looks so good. I just ordered a bottle of Oku-Yama as I only had a sample before .

[pajaro]

Today I finished one of those Chinese fake Lamy Safaris off for good and then threw it away. Hard to start, dried up capped. Junk. And, I don't care what any of you think about these pens, they are in no way as good as a genuine Lamy Safari.

[praxim]

Onoto 3050, black. These are neat little pens which write easily with their softish and somewhat flexible No 2 nibs, a pleasure to use. Ink was J Herbin Lierre Sauvage which I find unexciting but a very useful green.

 

I have two of these black Onoto 3050s, so I shall offer one for sale soon on the basis of removing duplicates. They both write well so I expect I will keep this one, being the one I restored myself.