Hello From Midwest, Introduction And Questions

[LiquidInk]

Hello guys, I recently got into fountain pens and found the forum. Been reading the forum and am now saying hi. After reading about fountain pens some, I got a pack of the pilot varsity pens from Walmart for $8.70 or so. Decided I liked the pens so I ordered another pen off of ebay. In the meantime I bought some inks from Goulet pens. The Noodler's Heart of Darkness because it came with a pen (also figured black is a good ink to have on hand) and the Nemosine Blue Snowball Nebula TwINKle ink. I really liked the Goulet Pens experience/webpage, and they were kind enough to include a gift of a soda pop blue ink and lollipop candy too. I'm not sure if it was because I'm a new customer or not but it worked. I'm hooked on their customer service so I will order from them in the future unless the cost is significantly different than ebay/amazon (sorry, but money still dictates where I shop).

 

I have no complaints about the Heart of Darkness ink, good black ink. The Snowball glitter ink though, since I meant to buy the sample but hit the bottle instead. I've been hesitant about using it because of the "higher" maintenance of the pen on the blog's ink review. So I did the next best thing. I made three 2 mL samples and let all the glitter settle down to the bottom. I took the ink (minus glitter) out of two of the samples using a syringe. So now I have an ink sample with no glitter, and a sample that I diluted 1:2 by itself so the glitter isn't as concentrated. It looks good to me with enough glitter, I haven't been brave enough to compare it to the original undiluted ink yet. And with the left over glitter, I added some of the heart of darkness ink to make a black glitter ink which works too. So, I have 4 inks to play with from the two ink bottles (5 if I count undiluted glitter ink but I haven't gotten to it yet). The color of the blue ink with no glitter is nice, it's almost black if it is heavy, but thins out to a lighter grey-blue when it drys. I have not had a chance to try out the soda pop blue ink yet because I've been busy using the other inks and I don't have another pen to use yet.

 

I also have one of those e-vape pen lanyard pouch to carry the pen in. It works well since I don't always have a shirt pocket to put the pen in and I don't want it in pants pocket either. Wish Goulet carried a lanyard pen holder unless I didn't see it. The demonstrator pen + vape pen pouch makes people think I'm vaping around kids at the park . If there is a less "vape" pen like way to carry a pen but still on a lanyard, let me know.

 

Now some questions for you guys. I know the free pen with the Noodler's ink is "free" so I shouldn't expect too much quality (?) from it. It isn't bad, I've been pleased with it. But I have a complaint/issue with it and would like to know if there is something I can do to fix it.

 

1) I heat-fixed the feed like on the Goulet video and washed it prior to using it. But when it burps ink, it burps it from the side of the nib, where the metal flairs out. Is there a way to get it to burp from the tip? It bugs me that it doesn't burp in symmetrically from the center of the nib but from one side then travels down to the tip. I don't mind the burping since I understand it is a drawback of an eyedrop pen, but does it have to be off kilter as well? Is it because I took the nib off when cleaning and have it slightly misaligned when I put it back on?

 

2) I really like the wick/feed of the pilot varisty, compared to the "channel/groove" of the Noodler's charlie pen. Is the groove style feed more common? Are there any other pens with the wick style feed? I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but with the varsity pen, I left it tip up and exposed to the air for about a half hour and came back, and it wrote right away, no issues starting/drying out. I thought it was because the wick kept the moisture in the tip from drying out so I would like another pen with this type of feed.

 

3) Can I get some help identifying the light blue color from the pilot varsity pens? I like the color and want to remember it for a future ink purchase. But being partially color-blind, I can't trust matching it to the colors on the webpage. I'm guessing it's one of the variants of turquoise, but I can't tell the difference between the blue/green examples from Goulet's page. I don't need an exact color match, but I can't tell what color to search under for similar colors.

 

4) Would a pilot parallel work with a of bottle ink for permanent markers? I'm wondering if I could get a bottle of sharpie ink to write on glossy paper/plastic surfaces and not have it clogged up. All the youtube videos talks about how the pen is different because it uses the two plate system but no one seems to have taken the pen apart so I can't see if the feed is different.

 

edit: A forum question, how do I remove the "The Fountain Pen Network uses (functional) cookies. Read the Privacy Policy for more info" notice bar at the top without accepting the use of cookies? I've notice this on European sites more often, and I tend to use adblock to filter the message out. Is there a way to get rid of the notice without accepting the use of cookies? Or is this how webpages annoy users into accepting the use of cookies by not giving them an option to not agree to its usage?

Edited March 18, 2018 by LiquidInk

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell. I do not believe you can remove the notice but you do not have to use cookies. I'm not at all sure why anyone would object to cookies though.

[LiquidInk]

it's not so much objecting to the use of cookies but that I dislike having to use anything extra when it isn't needed. I see it more as an unwanted intrusion into my internet experience. Consider me old fashion in that I like keeping my privacy online and see no reason to consent to giving up more than is needed.

 

Does "pull up a stump and set a spell" reference something? I get that it's a greeting but wondering where the saying comes from.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[Chrissy]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Enjoy your time here

[DaveT]

Hello and welcome from Indiana!

[Wahl]

[TheReubie]

how do I remove the "The Fountain Pen Network uses (functional) cookies. Read the Privacy Policy for more info" notice bar at the top without accepting the use of cookies? I've notice this on European sites more often, and I tend to use adblock to filter the message out. Is there a way to get rid of the notice without accepting the use of cookies? Or is this how webpages annoy users into accepting the use of cookies by not giving them an option to not agree to its usage?

Hello there. Sorry I can't be of assistance w.r.t. the FP-related question, but generally without cookies you wouldn't be able to post (under your name), unless FPN allows anonymous postings.

 

I use Ghostery to selectively block or permit certain trackers (e.g. I may want to block some third-party advertising retargeting service but not block FPN's site analytics). I suppose Incognito mode + accepting the use of cookies will achieve a similar outcome (getting rid of the notice + allowing you to browse somewhat anonymously, in the sense that any cookie tracking will be rendered useless once you leave private browsing/incognito mode), but only for that session. Once you close the browser, the cookies are gone, including the one that remembers you having accepted the use of cookies.

 

Sites under the jurisdiction of the EU tend to have stricter laws (or maybe they're just enforced better) regarding the use of cookies and end-user disclosure. It's not that they want to annoy users into accepting it, but quite a bit of functionality on many websites depends on cookies (e.g. on FPN you need cookies to be able to log in and remain logged in), and it's only in recent years that sites are required to disclose their use of it. A static info-site with no interactivity may not need cookies, but a dynamic, high-interactivity site like FPN will definitely rely on it. Just the way the current Web infrastructure is.

[LiquidInk]

No, I understand the uses of the cookies, but the notice makes no sense

 

I can login, which creates a cookie.... but I'm doing so without accepting the usage of cookies notification. So if I can login without accepting it, what's the point of the notice?

 

If anything, it should hide/go away after 30 seconds or so because it's notified me a cookie is being used, regardless of if I accept it or not.

[TheReubie]

No, I understand the uses of the cookies, but the notice makes no sense

 

I can login, which creates a cookie.... but I'm doing so without accepting the usage of cookies notification. So if I can login without accepting it, what's the point of the notice?

 

If anything, it should hide/go away after 30 seconds or so because it's notified me a cookie is being used, regardless of if I accept it or not.

 

The notice doesn't automatically go away, presumably so there is a clear user-initiated action to make it go away (so any one person can't say something along the lines of "I didn't see the message about cookies, it just went away on its own", in objecting to their user data being used for ad targeting, for example. Bit far-fetched but I suppose one doesn't usually think too much about the UX when creating these privacy notices to comply with regulation).

 

You have a point about the notification though, maybe this can be submitted as feedback for the forum administrators?

 

In any case, write on!

[Bisquitlips]

A VERY warm welcome!

Glad you are here!