Favorite Pen-Nib-Ink-Paper Combo

[warblerick]

The title says it best. What single pen in your collection, with what nib, and ink and on what paper, is your favorite?

My collection is not as large as it used to be, as I sold off pens that didn't work for me or just saw little use, so I don't have a big stable to choose from. But for me, it's my 2013 limited edition Conway Stewart Belliver Borealis with its Fine Italic 18ct gold nib, filled with P.W. Akkerman No.6, Binnenhof Blues on Rhodia or Clairefontaine Triomphe paper.

Just one pen please.

[ardene]

My intention is not to divert your question off the intended course, but I do not have a strictly preferred pen to begin with, much less having a particular pen-nib-ink-paper combination.

[senzen]

After a looong time I finally got all my 29 odd pens writing as I want them to, Sailor Pro Gear M + Tsuyu Kusa + Clairefontaine cloth bound, french ruled notebooks slides really smoothly and looks spectacular.

[georges zaslavsky]

Haven't got any paper because a good fountain pen writes well on all kinds of paper.

[Karmachanic]

Haven't got any paper because a good fountain pen writes well on all kinds of paper.

 

And that pen would be .....?

[georges zaslavsky]

 

And that pen would be .....?

Either the Stipula Etruria or the modern Conklin Nozac filler made by Visconti

[warblerick]

Haven't got any paper because a good fountain pen writes well on all kinds of paper.

[warblerick]

What madness is this?

[Karmachanic]

Either the Stipula Etruria or the modern Conklin Nozac filler made by Visconti

 

And neither of these will feather or bleed through 75gsm inkjet copy paper? Using a B nib? Magic!

Edited March 31, 2019 by Karmachanic

[FlyFast]

Pilot Custom 823 with a fine nib, Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao ink, and White Tomoe River 52gsm paper.

[ENewton]

Parker 51, Sailor Kobe Suma Purple, Rhodia pad (not the super-slick Clairefontaine paper)

[chromantic]

My current pen/ink combo is my M400 blue stripe with Stipula Dark Blue.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

a vintage (late 1930s) Mabie Todd Swan SM 205/60, semiflex F/EF nib, Diamine Registrar's blue-black and blanco Clairefontaine paper.

It's quite a wet writer, giving nearly black lines, sharp as if printed by a very good laser printer.

 

Best

Jens

[City74]

Sailor Pro Gear slim/music nib/Pilot Take Sumi/Rhodia 80g

[WLSpec]

Pelikan 400 M/Any Ink/Rhodia 5x5

[Bo Bo Olson]

No can do, somewhere hidden is a sheet of paper with various nib, ink and paper perfection. Must be three or four of them......

First only Rhodia is good in 80G....there is some Japanese paper that is well coated at 70g.............but common 80 copy paper falls out. One needs at least 90 go to shade.......look for laser paper if you can.

What color do you want your perfect paper to be, white, beige, creme, almond or marbled.

Among basic papers is hammered, laid, linin effect and marbled.

 

 

 

......haven't tried my new Rhodia 90g or Clarefontaine Triomphe out for perfect match....was real late in getting those papers....rather buy in stores on the whole. Do have other good to better papers.

 

Semi-flex requires much more luck, if one wants shading also, to go with line variation.

Do you have an assortment of semi-flex nibs? An assortment of regular flex nib widths?

 

Then what to you want the ink to do...............just sit there boring vivid.....two tones shading, looking for sheen. Wet nib to go with a skinny nib...........dry ink to go with a wet nib........... a wet ink to go with a wet ink. Some folks really line a wet line................I could well be wrong, am often enough, but most noobies think a wet vivid line is where perfection lies...............I like shading ink.....the 'wishy-washy' two toned ink....two toned pastel over boring vivid supersaturated inks.

 

Suggest looking at '82-97 Pelikan regular flex or the 200's which are also regular flex and M is a good width for shading ....still looking for sheen.

 

Well, if you like classic rough (ribbed) paper; laid , linen or linen effect would do better/smoother with an M.......so are you chasing shading? Or line variation? ( :PThat would be a good place to have a butter smooth M nib. )

 

G.Lolo Verde de France, a laid paper. I only have in heavy paper 160g.....need to get the skinny 90 or 100g paper some day.

G.Lolo Velin pur Coton (25%) in 125 g instead of 90g....chase heavy paper given the chance. Must be a good paper the 100 sheet pack is almost empty. That is a wove paper, uniform surface not watermarked.

 

Then there is the problem of 100 or 50% cotton....which is not good for shading inks, swallows the shading.

 

See if you can't get pure laser Laid or Linen effect paper.

 

Southworth makes some good paper....unfortunately all is compromise....laser+inkjet.....

Not much, but ink jet requires fast absorbtion = feathering..........so ink choice becomes more important........suggest dryer than wetter inks................no problem by me, in I have only a few Waterman inks...............which today's Noodler/Japanese wet ink era are middling wet...some Noodlers users call Waterman inks dry!!!!

A decade ago, it was The Wet Ink...........is still a safe ink..

 

Can be found in the US.

Southworth Antique Laid paper, watermarked 25% cotton is great, can still shade with it....90g or 24 pounds; have it in Ivory.............Linen Resume paper watermarked, 100% cotton, 32 pound/120g....I have it in Almond.

100% cotton paper like Strathmore and this swallows shading. But is so nice to write on it.

 

I like the feel of heavy paper.......170g/@45 pound...Gmund Blanc Beige (has nothing to do with color, is the type....Original Gmund cost twice as much and IMO is not as good) ) mine is in creme............was the second best of the 12 Gmund samples I tried. Because of the price I dithered some 4 years which allowed me to try many, many more 'new' inks on them.

 

170g was near perfect....surprisingly the same paper in 120g was the perfect one. (next time I have E40 hanging around for 100 sheets of paper, I'll get the perfect paper. ...that was the reason I dithered for 4 years....$$$$$$$!!!!)

 

I had had it in mind that heavy paper was going to be best.....surprising how many very good 90-100g papers there are. a expected good to great 150g paper was only good....sigh cubed.....So much for plan C.

There are some vary good heavy papers that are fun...........and who cares if it cost more to mail heavy paper..............Email is free.

 

If you have nail or semi-nail nibs...I can't help you....in I don't use them if I can help it....in the nib remains basically one width.....no possibility of flair.

 

I find regular flex....use to be regular issue in the states...so the name...regular flex. Pelikan '82-97, the '50's 120, the 200, some Esterbrooks, Wearevers, Sheaffers were regular flex. Don't know anything about Waterman.

 

Dry to medium-dry inks is what I recommend in wet writing Semi-flex...Sheaffer had some in the early '50's, Whal-Eversharp in the 40's or the German pens from say '50-70, were not only semi-flex but were stubbs on the whole. Semi-flex obliques IMO are the only ones worth buying.

 

I like shading inks.....Pelikan, R&K, some DA; not all inks, in he makes wetter inks also, MB, Herbin....pick your shad, your nib and try the papers I've mentioned.

So far I've not been able to make inks sheen....perhaps mine were made before that came in.

But that too is another layer of what one wants for perfection.

 

I really like Herbin Lie d Thee` for a great brownish shading ink, and R&K Verdura for a great green-green shading ink. (For E8.50 a much better buy than the matching MB Irish Green for E19.00. )

[almoore]

Tomoe River paper (GLP Author for preference)

Diamine Oxford Blue

MB 146 - M nib

 

Al

[Karmachanic]

Conid Minimalistica, Ti cursive italic 0.6 / KWZ Walk Over Vistula / Tomoe River

[SchaumburgSwan]

Conid Minimalistica, Ti cursive italic 0.6 / KWZ Walk Over Vistula / Tomoe River

 

That sounds interesting. :-)

[johnsi02]

Sheaffer Triumph, 14k fine nib, Noodler's Bad Blue Heron, Tomoe River