Writing Samples Of My First Ink Order

[DrDebG]

Bo Bo is giving you some great advice!

 

When I got back into fountain pens, I had to re-educate myself. That's when I found Goulet Pens' Education section: https://www.gouletpens.com/education/c/653

 

It really helped me a lot.

 

You have a truly gorgeous pen. I have over 30 pens, but do not own a Montegrappa as yet. They are stunning!

 

Everyone is on a quest to find the "dream" ink. And everyone has a different opinion. It is just a matter of taking time to find what you like.

 

And like you, it took me a while to "get" sheening and shading the way I liked it. One of the first inks I bought was Waterman Inspired Blue (a nice turquoise). I didn't see much shading and sheening with my first few uses. But, when I filled it in my broad nibbed Delta Capri, I saw wonderful shading and even some red sheening.

 

For me, I prefer wider nibs, and I really like stub or italic nibs. I might suggest purchasing a Pilot Metropolitan with a stub nib (around $30 on Amazon) or perhaps a Lamy Safari with a 1.1 stub nib (also around $30 on Amazon). Stubs are great fun to play with. For me they always make my handwriting look better, and most inks really show their best.

 

When it came to inks, I spent a lot of time on FPN looking at reviews, but also on some of the pen websites (Goulet, Anderson, Vanness, etc) and purchased ink samples to start. I soon learned that I have a different taste in inks than most. I am not a fan of murky inks. I prefer less saturated inks than others. I also found that I did not like the formulation and odor of some inks (not perfumed inks, just general writing inks). And very surprisingly, I found that I love orange inks. I am not a big fan of orange anything - but I love orange inks for highlighting and marking.

 

With all that in mind, some of my favorite ink brands are:

 

Pilot Iroshizuku inks - all of them (sometimes you can get for less than $20/bottle on Amazon),

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio (Anderson and Vanness websites carry them), particularly Bleu Atlantique, Bleu Mediterreanee, and Ultramarine

DeAtramentis inks (most of the pen websites will carry DeAtramentis) - Pearl Violet, Mint Turquoise, Aubergine (deeply saturated)

 

I also love many of the J. Herbin inks, Waterman (less expensive), Montblanc and Graf von Faber Castell (I love Hazelnut Brown and Cobalt Blue).

 

Have fun!

[Bo Bo Olson]

You are going to have to add the little plastic or steel ball your self.

 

Buy your self some Pelikan Edelstein cartridges....those I know there are the little plastic ball in it......I don't know about the little international Pelikan or the normal long ones in as I said I seldom use cartridges.

I forgot to get a bottle of Limited Edition Edelstein ink, so ended up with 'only' some cartridges.

 

Bubbles will pop eventually.

Filling it up more helps....don't have to be all the way to the top.

But having to fiddle with twisting the converter to make ink flow more.....is a 'normal' converter problem.....I'm not sure which converters don't have that problem....but do know it's often a problem.

 

Clipping a small bit of a ball point pen's spring would do the trick too.....but sooner or later it will rust so it's only stop gap....but stop gap....works...for a bit.

Most converters will unscrew or pull apart from my understanding....which is a tad limited....but from what I remember from my reading.

You don't need the whole spring.... a fingernail clipper will clip enough from the middle of one of the hundred free ball points to do the trick... a turn in a half....two? Then slip it into the mouth...or see if the converter unscrews or pulls apart.

Give it a try.

[cat]

Well darn. After I learned not to be a newb with the paper towel, all the inks I retried so far are looking more vibrant except for Shigure which looks about the same. Wasted my time, but at least I learned.

 

Regency Blue and Oxford Blue are probably my favorites now. I need more blues like these.

 

Thanks Dr. Pen and Bo Bo.

Edited December 11, 2017 by cat

[DrDebG]

Well darn. After I learned not to be a newb with the paper towel, all the inks I retried so far are looking more vibrant except for Shigure which looks about the same. Wasted my time, but at least I learned.

 

Regency Blue and Oxford Blue are probably my favorites now. I need more blues like these.

 

Thanks Dr. Pen and Bo Bo.

 

 

 

In reality, we are all noobs in one way or another. I've been using fountain pens for years and I just learned how to take a converter apart yesterday for cleaning.

[Bo Bo Olson]

9 years ago I was 'noob'....now I sometimes feel that with paper...............and there is a world of inks I've not yet tried....only have 50-60......not even the basic 100 mainland Europe ones.

Japanese is too expensive still for me, even if by way of Amazon they are now only E20-23 or so, instead of the E70 of the year before......and I can't make heads or tails of what color they are....in my Japanese from 40 years ago, wasn't all that great either.

I tend to think of E20 inks as expensive.....having started with MB at 12---now close to 16, for the ink in the big boot bottle.

 

One starts out learning at least one thing every day, later after a couple of years it's once a week or month.

Then there is paper......I have some 40 good papers and don't even have some of the basics.

 

Writing is 1/3 nib width&flex, 1/3 paper and 1/3 ink and in that order.

 

 

The idea here is to have fun and play with a box of 64 crayons; and some of the @ 45 nib widths and flexes..

 

..and sorry I thought that Montegrappa pen was Chinese....but the Chinese have come a long way lately.

Sometimes fun is poked at Montegrappa's more ornate designs, and the regular pens don't get the play they should. Very pretty pen.

I did see one not sold at a live auction that needed two hands to lift and had it's very own wooden Temple. No BS. Start price was E2,200 the first time, didn't sell the second time for E1,850 either.

Something to use when you buy your 300 foot yacht...........a bit too much for a small 297 foot one.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[cat]

I did see one not sold at a live auction that needed two hands to lift

 

Sounds like you have to be strong like this guy:

 

http://penhabit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/P1010815.jpg

 

If I had to re-rank all the inks, it would be like this:

 

1. Diamine Regency

2. Diamine Oxford

3. Aurora Black (Need black for serious business)

4. Diamine Midgnight (looks same as Oxford but with lighter and less shading)

5. Herbin Bouquet (Need pink for romantic love letters)

6. Diamine 1864 Blue Black

7. Oxblood

8. PR Ebony Purple

9. Noodler Sunset

10. Dark Forest

11. Majestic Blue

12. Shigure

I think I will buy bottles of 1 & 2.

Edited December 14, 2017 by cat

[Bo Bo Olson]

Great pen holder .....yep, felt like needing a friend like that to lift that pen.

 

Herbin Lie de Thee`, a light medium borwn that shades so well. Cafe des Iles, is more a coffee color.

 

R&K inks are all good shading inks....or the 6 or so I have.

For best green-green shading inks, R&K Verdura and MB Irish Green are tied at best.

 

Who needs 'green' ink...........I didn't until I got half a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Green cheap on sale. (Unfortunately discontinued...just now, so see if you can find a bottle.) That year I ended up with 12 (now have 14-15) green inks.....including murky greens like Herbin Vert Empire...............murky is something one learns.....like sour dirty tasting Bordeaux. (Which I'd not be with out now.)

R&K Altgrungold....is a strange ink....that everyone needs....may take a couple of tries to nod to your self....yep....everyone is right.

Herbin Blue Pervenche is a delightful blue shading ink.

 

We have folks that love Diamine....I don't, they are inks that feather and or make a woolly line to me...Akkerman is made by Diamine....is a tad better....think of Akkerman as the best Diamine inks, but they too have a problem with a woolly line.

I'm a bit AR with that, light feathering or woolly lines. Even developed my own scale, of rating inks from that.

 

There are some 6 or so of the 15 or so Diamine Glitter inks I like the looks of, some of which have shading and sheen...........on my to buy list.

I really like Pelikan Edestein's Topas and Smoky Quartz............and get the Pelikan 4001 blue black...one of the most liked inks in the world.

 

PS.....if you get Smoky Quartz in cartridges, you will have that little plastic ball for your converter.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[chromantic]

The first batch of blue samples looked good, some interesting choices you've selected. The Oxford is especially lovely though, personally, the 1864 is more my cup of tea. I'm a little surprised at how light the Midnight is, in that I'd expect something named Midnight to be much darker.

 

I'm surprised, too, at how light the 2nd batch of samples are; while I don't have experience with Apache or that Herbin, my Dark Forest is much darker, though that may be down to the (wet) Pelikan M150 EF I have it in, but I also remember Oxblood being darker, as well.

[cat]

Chromatic those previous pics are not accurate because I was a noob. I'll attach more accurate ones for the blue inks here:

 

REGENCY

 

 

 

 

OXFORD

 

 

MIDNIGHT

 

 

 

MAJESTIC

 

 

1864

 

 

 

You're right, one would think a color named "Midnight" would be darker. Maybe it's mislabeled.

Edited December 14, 2017 by cat

[bluebellrose]

tip: Use a pair of disposable gloves for ink refilling. No inky fingers.

 

Monteverde inks are pretty dry and not very saturated.

Edited December 15, 2017 by bluebellrose

[Bo Bo Olson]

Dry, less saturated inks, often are good two toned shading ink.

[senzen]

Welcome! Inks look better with better paper, like Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Tomo River; they do take longer to dry with those, you can wait and admire how the ink colour settles, use a rocket blower to speed up the process, or a blotter.

 

You can use your bulb syringe to clean your pen by filling with water and sticking it in where the converter goes, and pressing until it runs clear; then empty the syringe and repeat the process just with air to remove excess water in the feed. Flexible bulb syringes are more practical than rigid ones, mine looks beat up but can adapt to all converter sizes.

 

To fill I dunk my nib in the ink bottle, use the converter to fill, expunge ink, three or four times.

[cat]

It was mentioned here that HP 32 lb laser paper is good.

 

How about HP 48 lb / 180g laser paper? Would that be even better?

[Bo Bo Olson]

Nope......might not be............better than 90g.....I've gone heavy paper....right now my best paper is Gmund 'Beige Blanc' the name they call that paper....they have it in beige and cream, perhaps ivory. 170g real nice feellng.

The same paper in 120g is better than the 170g, but liking the feeling I pressed the heavy paper 170g button, even if it's almost perfect.....the 120g is perfect......The next time I get E40 for 100 sheets I'll get the 120g.

 

I have G.Lalo Verge de France in 160g....but can't compare in I have no 90/100g.

Same with having G. Lalo Velin pur Coton in 125 g....50% cotton. But 100-50% cotton paper will feather....is the nature of the beast.

 

Fugi-Xeroxs is (was) reputed to be very good fountain pen paper.....have to look it up, in I've heard some of it is nothing special as it was reputed to be.

 

 

Didn't find the post from some 3-4 years ago (6-7 years ago is quite possible) where a guy from Scotland recommend some Heavy GB papers.

Some out old posts....

"""""I've been investigating middle Heavy papers....150-170g....some work great...none work great with all inks.

Same with 100-110-120 papers.

I'd mailed Gmund a top class art and regular paper maker in Germany to which of the very many types of paper they made were FP friendly.

They told me. A couple sheets were free the rest were E0.85 a sample sheet.

I got three 'types' of paper from 100, 110, 120, 150 and 170g. Expecting the 170 to win...With some inks it did...other inks it did not...in the end a 120g paper did best with all inks, but not best with each ink.

At €35+ E4 mailing, for a hundred sheets and €35 for 50 sheets of the other.....I'm really into dithering. IMO the 'cheaper' of the Gmund paper is better....Gmund Original did not win.

 

 

I'm no where done with learning, but so far I've learned no paper is perfect. One must match nib width and Flex and ink, to each paper. Some will do many inks well...some will do an ink or three or four perfectly.

 

 

Do look at what papers Sandy One uses in her ink reviews, turns out she'd from GB.....so they can be gotten no matter where they were made.

 

Sadly all Rossler papers are not any good, even the one 120g 100% cotton....perhaps it was 150...so sinfully good to write on it would be illegal to use on Sunday in Kansas......feathered so much even the 'cheaper' pads.

 

Good paper (the only good paper that Brunnen makes, M&K Papier is made by them. They bought up the old dead brand name and did honor it ..... I keep looking for the other two packs that were in my room...They are long gone....All I have is Typewriter paper good on only one side in 95G....100 sheets cost me E13.....

You can go into Amazon and order all three, the other may be an 80g...but think the others to be 90g....either way all three M&K papers are good....not best but a good nice paper.......I will get the missing ones again. they can be had in 50 sheet boxes for near E5.00...need to get into town, they were E4.00 in a department store.

Do Not Buy Any Other Brunnen Paper!!!!!

 

 

Lines pulled out of antique posts.....

You need laid, linen, hammered and smooth. That 25% and 50-100 % cotton are needed too.

I think you need an ivory or a champagne color or a marbled paper too.

 

I find 120g linen and 90 g laid to be less for shading. Takes a bit...1/2 a sheet to get use to it. Then it becomes a pleasure to write with.
Then you have to match nib and ink to the paper.

 

 

Well went back to 2011 when when I was real paper 'noobie' but the problem was I could see what I wrote but not what the other fella wrote..............so my hope of helping you with Heavy GB papers didn't work..................................... ...................and I needed that info too.

 

Sometimes heavy papers...150G &+ are real good. ....some times 120 g.....and there are good 100-110g papers too.

As long as you buy some good to better paper every three inks, you will soon have a nice paper collection. Eventually you will have nibs that do things with pattern so you can see which inks dance with what paper.

At a gallop you miss things seen at a slow trot....

Edited December 15, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[cat]

Thank you for all of that Bo.

 

There is also an advertised brightness scale that goes from 0-100 (some have "optical brightening agents" that give it a rating over 100). I'm curious to see the differences in how different brightness ratings compare with each other.

 

Also, some papers are described as "elemental chlorine free." Are papers that have chlorine harmful to fountain pens?

 

I ended up buying 200 g/m^2 laser paper. It is .2 mm. thick. I think this will look much nicer than my Clairefontaine paper because as nice as that is to write on, it still looks like ordinary lined paper which is not very fancy.

Edited December 16, 2017 by cat

[Bo Bo Olson]

You do jump into the deep end of the pool.

 

Some 4 or 5 years ago, Aldi had some great back to school papers......laid, linen effect, hammered and marbled, so I was able to get a jump in on papers very affordable.

I'd not expected to like the marbled paper....... ...I made sure I have enough of that......and later marbled papers were nice too.

 

The next year I got more of the same....................................... :crybaby:they didn't have any the third year....in I was going to buy a lot and send more of it around the world.

All was 90g but the linen-effect which was 120g.

 

The Lidle paper was not worth buying, it ended up in the printer. That is what happens to paper not good enough for fountain pens.

In I have nice laid paper, I was able to jump to G.Lalo's Verge de France in 160g....the paper requires a M or B nib to smooth it out. An EF is definatly not a nib for it.

Same with Linen effect..................not linen paper as it was once was pre-radio.....but paper run through a press with bumps so its the effect. Had to look that up on Wiki.

Laid paper dries on a wire screen, giving it it's name and form.

 

 

I have to admit....I stupidly kept buying more pens.....even more inks.....instead of saving that money for good to better papers.....then I flinch at their cost.

That is one of the reasons I recommend buying a pack or a ream of good to better paper every three inks...................one isn't looking at a mountain of money for a half foot of good paper.

[Noihvo]

[cat]

Hand-written electronic posts.

 

I saw pure linen and cotton paper at the store the other day and it is very nice to touch and has good texture. However, I can imagine it not being that great for fountain pens. Seems like it is better for printing or graphic design. It is so expensive. Better to buy cotton or linen clothes.

 

 

You do jump into the deep end of the pool.

 

I shoot for the stars, but sometimes without prior experience, you can drown. Unfortunately in life, you often have to fall before you learn your lesson.

[Bo Bo Olson]

50-100% cotton paper is nice to write on but feathers or has a woolly line....as part of it's nature.

I'm into inks that shade....if you have some that are supersaturated and a thinner nib, 50-100% cotton could do well in color of the ink and niceness of writing.

 

Like what you want a nib to do, it's also what you want the paper to do....that matters.

You are going to have to spend a lot of time in the Paper sections....

 

There is no single perfect paper.....well that 120g Gmund comes close, it depends on the width and flex of the nib matched to the characteristics of your ink(s).

Laid, Lenin effect, Blutten/hammered or marbled will be different but needed......sooner or later.

 

You will of course need a few more pens....a B, an EF..........later a semi-flex....those are stubs on the whole if German. So if possible hold off on the stubs until you are ready for semi-flex............a nail makes a good stub....and gives it some character......in case you make a mistake and buy a characterless nail pen.

 

I don't know if the vintage Brittish Swan nibs are stubbs. like those German pens with a tad of flex(Lamy has always been a nail) ....I investigated, eventually settling on a '50-55 torpedo lever pen; but found a German War pen that did what I wished from the Swan....a somewhat superflex nib. Swan has a lot of nib flexes, from regular flex, semi-flex to 'flexi' which I take to mean a low level superflex.

 

If you are a bit clever, you can get superb top of the line used pens....if you look half as hard as you are for paper....you might need 6-8 of them with out even worrying about superflex.

 

I prefer vintage...before '70, semi-vintage pre'97 if talking Pelikan, and in standard and medium-large in they have great balance if posted. They were designed to be posted, and if a top of the line pen back then was not very well balanced, it did not sell, so they worked hard at balance.

 

Large pens outside the Snorkel...which is thin, seldom have any balance at all....or not balance as I see it.

Some who grew up in the Large clunky pen era think they do too have good balance.........and snub posting at all, including standard or medium large pens....Pelikan 600 or Parker 51.

 

I find the standard silver P-75 to have great balance as does the Pelikan 400. (Prefer the semi-vintage over the modern fatter blobber 'butter smooth' nibs.) For a metal/silver pen the P-75 is light....and it like the P-51 is a classic you will get some day....P-51 nail, P-75 semi-nail.

 

Pens are considered classics because they are....the taste of the times, made well, sold well for a long time....still good.

 

It will be a bit of time at least 4-5 pens before you are ready for semi-flex. There are Parker Jr. Duofold and Sheaffer pens that are made in GB that are semi-flex...but are not on the whole stubs like the German pens....they have that American Bump Under.

[marcelo]

 

Here is my one and only pen: https://postimg.org/image/nj0sofspt/

 

 

Hi cat.

 

I'm curious about the pen, but the link does not work here. Which one it is?