Purchasing A Smooth Daily Writer With Line Variation

[Karmachanic]

Perhaps you are asking the pen to do that which it is not designed to do? Perhaps.

 

Dryness can be ink dependent. You may have better luck with a wetter ink. Iroshizuku for instance. Although Susan Piggot had good luck with a variety of inks

 

The fact that your fingers and wrist hurts suggests that you are holding the pen too tightly and therefore are possibly applying too much downward pressure. The natural line would be fine, and with normal writting you should get some line variation.

 

If you have a dry ink and push the nib further than it is designed to, you'll definitely get rairoading. If Goulet didn't get railroading but you do - ???

 

Matt Armstrong has given a balanced review. Watch the video when you have time.

 

To get a true flex experience you'll need to go vintage. Although I understand that Aurora has come out with a modern version at $600 +/-

[BinaryRun]

Perhaps you are asking the pen to do that which it is not designed to do? Perhaps.

 

Dryness can be ink dependent. You may have better luck with a wetter ink. Iroshizuku for instance. Although Susan Piggot had good luck with a variety of inks

 

The fact that your fingers and wrist hurts suggests that you are holding the pen too tightly and therefore are possibly applying too much downward pressure. The natural line would be fine, and with normal writting you should get some line variation.

 

If you have a dry ink and push the nib further than it is designed to, you'll definitely get rairoading. If Goulet didn't get railroading but you do - ???

 

Matt Armstrong has given a balanced review. Watch the video when you have time.

 

To get a true flex experience you'll need to go vintage. Although I understand that Aurora has come out with a modern version at $600 +/-

 

I actually used the pen with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo.

[minddance]

Try some Herbin Eclat de Saphir and Lie de The, I had some pretty good results with a waterman 12, i tried some Iroshizuku in the same pen but the ink breaks up and railroads. And I do not write on Rhodia. Waterman Serenity Blue wasn't very good in that old Waterman 12, ironically.

 

I avoid rolling the pen when flexing.

 

Iroshizuku is too slippery and Rhodia is slippery too. Good luck.

 

If you love Iroshizuku and must absoutely use them, they bubble easily, especially when you fill with con70. Give some time for bubbles to settle? If you use other convertors like con40 or con50, you can prime the feed to saturate it.

 

Pilot pens have a tendency to not saturate its own feed. And this is not helpful in flex nibs.

 

Tsuki Yo might be a good option, I find it wetter than Yama Budo. There are noticeable differences within Iroshizuku inks, their flow vary with different colours, as with all other brands.

 

Btw, Aurora is not a good flex nib. YMMV.

 

 

Just a sidenote:

Line variations can be had in many ways, and are not limited to flex nibs and stubs. It depends on what kind of line variations you are after. If you have tooth on the nib, it can be used to good effect. If you have a broader nib, with the correct inks and papers, a slight natural rolling of the pen can produce variations in lines too due to the change in area of contact between nib and paper. But this is limited to inks that stay close to the nib and do not write wider than the nib width.

Edited September 21, 2018 by minddance

[Bo Bo Olson]

Aurora use to be a semi-flex pen up to @ 2005, then they went away from it.

Don't know what they came back with....but don't expect many modern pens to be superflex unless someone has ground half moons or slits into the nib..I think Aurora got in on the new 'Flexi' market....in from my reading most of them....calling them self's 'flexi' are not superflex.

 

Minddance....do you think it's just their old semi-flex....re-labeled 'Flexi'?

 

On Rhodia 90g, superflex; easy full flex, a maxi-semi-flex M and a semi-flex OB, seems to be a bit wet for the Rhodia. Lacks shading. To get shading takes a good paper and ink match with semi-flex +.

I must say I'd thought Rhodia 90g would be more up as a paper for a sem-flex + nib, with shading inks.

 

 

The four of the Regular flex pens shaded...as expected in regular flex is dryer than semi-flex.......don't know what inks exactly, but all were loaded with various shading inks.

 

Hurray just found out 5 of my pens were empty...or empty enough no ink showed in the ink window....been hoping for that a long time....now only 13 inked.

 

I ended up with a few new inks, and a few 'new' pens... suddenly 22 pens inked.

 

I do want to get down to 5 pens inked....so I can use up more ink.

[mitto]

I would buy a good old Parker 51 aerometric in most, if nit all, situations and circumstances.

[Houston]

mitto: A P51 for someone seeking line variation? How do you figure?

 

BinaryRun: Another option that I don't believe anyone has yet mentioned is to get one of the pens modified to flex by a nib meister. For example, if you haven't checked out Pendleton Brown's flex mods, you might find them intriguing. I don't have any of his flex-modded nibs, but I do have two of his stubs, and they're outstanding. His work is very reasonably priced, and he's a delight to correspond with.

 

Anyone on here have experience writing with one of Pendleton's flex mods?

[cellmatrix]

Speaking of Pendleton, he has made me some nice cursive italics out of some broad nibbed p51s which give nice line variation. Perhaps this is the type of thing mitto was referring to. I have not tried Pendletons flex mod variation but knowing his expertise I am sure its high quality. Conversely I have a Minuskin Spencerian modified pilot 912 with FA nib. Gives great line variation and flexibility.

[Houston]

Cellmatrix: Great point (pun totally intended). My memory was that Minuskin does outstanding work, but is a bit more expensive and has a longer backlog. Is that right?

[cellmatrix]

Actually its John Mottishaw from nibs.com who has a long backlog, and months waiting time - unless you either buy the pen from him or you pay a rush fee. Greg Minuskin in contrast is usually quite fast. You are correct in that he and Mottishaw are more expensive than other folks. However both are excellent nibmeisters in fact, Minuskin was an apprentice of Mottishaw. Also both can retip nibs, something that most other nibmeisters cannot do.

[jmccarty3]

I really don't know enough about right footed obliques, and if they are as thought, better for lefites. Some say yes, others say no.

If some left handed underwriter could chime in on that? It could have to do with which of the 3-4 ways a leftie holds his pen.

 

It does. It also depends on whether you rotate the pen inward or outward. I am a left-handed underwriter who tends to rotate my pen outward (counterclockwise). So a left-footed oblique is perfect for me, and I enjoy these much more than flex nibs.

 

To my way of thinking, a true flex nib is not terribly practical for everyday carry, because you have to slow down too much when you flex for the feed to keep up. Writing with flex takes a lot of deliberate practice, and I don't recommend it for beginners at all.

[mitto]

mitto: A P51 for someone seeking line variation? How do you figure?

 

...

You have the Stubs and the Italics in P51s.

[sidthecat]

Mr. Minuskin has done a lot of wacky projects for me: he does not come cheap but he will turn your pen around in days instead of weeks.

I’d respectfully suggest, if you really want line variation, that you go to a pen show and handle some vintage instruments. The prices are competitive and there really is no comparison in terms of writing experience.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I don't ever think of semi-flex as a 'flex/superflex pen .....more of added that old fashioned fountain pen flair with out doing anything.

In one don't have to flex it...that is more line variation on demand. If one scribbles lightly, it would be more the wet nib than one with lots of fancy letter.

Semi-flex does take more work than maxi-semi-flex to do fancy letters........with both it is quite possible to scribble quickly with out too much flexing.

 

It did take me some three months to lighten my Hand enough with my first semi-flex a 140 OB, that I wasn't maxing the nib out to 3X or always running at 2 X..........in I was Ham Fisted.

My next pen was a maxi-semi-flex and I'd not noticed that...so my Hand had lightened up.......Also, I'd not invented the term maxi-semi-flex so wasn't looking for it. I hadn't run into that Rupp nib yet.

 

The more you know, the more you can nit-pick.

[BinaryRun]

 

It does. It also depends on whether you rotate the pen inward or outward. I am a left-handed underwriter who tends to rotate my pen outward (counterclockwise). So a left-footed oblique is perfect for me, and I enjoy these much more than flex nibs.

 

To my way of thinking, a true flex nib is not terribly practical for everyday carry, because you have to slow down too much when you flex for the feed to keep up. Writing with flex takes a lot of deliberate practice, and I don't recommend it for beginners at all.

 

That is exactly what I found out the hard way.

 

mitto: A P51 for someone seeking line variation? How do you figure?

 

BinaryRun: Another option that I don't believe anyone has yet mentioned is to get one of the pens modified to flex by a nib meister. For example, if you haven't checked out Pendleton Brown's flex mods, you might find them intriguing. I don't have any of his flex-modded nibs, but I do have two of his stubs, and they're outstanding. His work is very reasonably priced, and he's a delight to correspond with.

 

Anyone on here have experience writing with one of Pendleton's flex mods?

I'm now looking into the Waterman Carène with a fine nib. I'm aware that it doesn't flex, but with an 18k gold nib, it should offer some more line variation and the way the inlaid nib is mounted it really something else. (I think I have a thing for inlaid nibs, except the Lamy 2000. If that falls under that category. )

 

More important however it is quite a heavy pen, with a slightly larger grip section that is also quite long. Meaning that I can grip the pen higher if I want. That combined with the extra weight should feel a lot prettier in my hands and not painful when writing. Which is something that I experienced with lighter pens such as the Pelikan M200/M205, the TWSBI 580AL and the Pilot Custom 912.

 

Any other recommendations are still welcome, but please no vintage pens for now as this is still new to me and I don't want to dip into that pool yet. As long as I can find a nice wet writer without tooth, that has a nice weight, preferably with a gold nib etc. then I'll be happy. If I do end up with the Waterman Caréne or a similar pen, that doesn't offer a lot of line variation aside from the flexibility given by any gold content in their nib, then I might send it to a nibmeister in the future to add some more flex, once I'm comfortable enough with that process and have used the pen for a while.

Edited September 22, 2018 by BinaryRun

[minddance]

Do you want to achieve line variations by flex or nib grind?

 

Italics and stubs offer line variations.

 

Please take a look at Pilot Pluminix F and B, and also their Medium Italic/stub. Also Pilot 78G B and BB.

 

Lamy 1.1mm could be viable too, as with TWSBI stubs or any stub actually.

[BinaryRun]

Do you want to achieve line variations by flex or nib grind?

 

Italics and stubs offer line variations.

 

Please take a look at Pilot Pluminix F and B, and also their Medium Italic/stub. Also Pilot 78G B and BB.

 

Lamy 1.1mm could be viable too, as with TWSBI stubs or any stub actually.

 

By a little bit of flex at the moment. Although I'm considering to get a 'regular' pen with a little bit of line variation and a cheaper stub pen like a Pilot Pluminix or Nemosine Singularity.

[minddance]

Please have a look at Pilot 74sf and sfm

 

I apologise for my suggestion because they seem to offer you alot less flex than falcon. In fact, they are not meant to be really flexed.

 

Line variations can still be had and ink will keep up. The range will not be huge. But considering the balance between range of variation and ink supply, Pilot 74sf might be worth taking a look at.

 

These Pilot nibs seem rather elastic to me and readily return to their original form - they do not get sprung as long as the amount of pressure applied is reasonable.

Edited September 22, 2018 by minddance

[BinaryRun]

Please have a look at Pilot 74sf and sfm

 

I apologise for my suggestion because they seem to offer you alot less flex than falcon. In fact, they are not meant to be really flexed.

 

Line variations can still be had and ink will keep up. The range will not be huge. But considering the balance between range of variation and ink supply, Pilot 74sf might be worth taking a look at.

 

These Pilot nibs seem rather elastic to me and readily return to their original form - they do not get sprung as long as the amount of pressure applied is reasonable.

 

No need to apologize for your suggestion, I appreciate it. Especially as I'm taking a step back from flex after my FA nib experience, but still looking for some line variation. I'm afraid that the resin only pens are too light for me though.

[Houston]

BinaryRun: I read in your last reply to me (above) -- in which you go into detail about your interest in a Carene -- two ideas about which I'd counsel some caution. If I misread your post and neither of the below are accurate understandings of your thoughts, I apologise in advance.

 

The first thing you seemed to imply is that gold nibs will generally have some softness to them. This isn't the case. There are many modern gold nibs with absolutely zero "give". They are hard as nails. Pelikan 800s are a classic example. Waterman Exception likewise. And many, many others. Nails. I don't know the Carene, but if it's got a firm nib, it's unlikely to offer any line variation unless it is cut/ground to be a stub, oblique or similar.

 

The second thing I read into your note was the idea that you can later have a gold nib modified to add flex. This is sometimes true. It's also sometimes not -- in that some nibs are more suitable for a flex modification than others. There are a lot of modern gold nails I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to turn into even a semi-flex nib. Even for firm gold nibs that can be modified to add flex, those are very sophisticated mods, and there are very few folks I would trust to do the work. Already mentioned in this column are a couple of them (ie, John and Greg). There are a handful of others. Not all that many people can do great nib grinds. Even fewer can do the very precise metalwork required to modify a firm gold nail into a flex.

 

As I say, if you didn't mean to imply either of those things, I apologise for incorrectly inferring them.

 

Happy flexing. --h

[Houston]

You have the Stubs and the Italics in P51s.

 

Totally fair point, although they can be difficult to find, and the OP was looking for flex and doesn't seem to have warmed to the idea of stubs/italics.