Confession Regarding Fountain Pens...

[kikopens]

This fountain pen hobby... Well it wasn't much of a hobby when I started writing with fountain pens from third grade. Since then, I used to buy fountain pens from the regular stationery shops, but in India you won't much branded fountain pens in a local stationery shop. Not long, maybe a year and a half maybe, I looked up for fountain pen to upgrade my old Parker Vector. I finally ended up buying the Lamy Safari which is a very good pen indeed, many more pens followed, including a Plaisir EF and a Metropolitan F (I am a F and EF guy). My Lamy Safari F is a very smooth pen, writes like a sketch pen, almost no feedback at all while the Japanese pens had some feedback to it. I always searched for the smoothest Fine nibs with the least feedback out there even yesterday.

 

Today I got a chance to write with my father's ASA Daily which has a Schmidt F nib. The nib is so incredibly smooth, I don't know how to write it in words. It writes smoothly even on some rougher papers even, unbelievably. BUT STRANGELY, I didn't enjoy writing with it. I didn't enjoy the smoothness. It felt like riding a car whose engine has no sound. Just after that, I wrote with my Plaisir and my Metropolitan, I enjoyed writing with them so much.

 

That's how I came to know smoothness is good, but feedback is just a cherry on the top of the cake (for my case). I was able to control my writing, feel it too. I remember when I first came to the group asking for smooth fine nibs, a guy named Bo Bo Olsen told me that many newbies start the hobby with smooth writing pens and generally crave for pens with feedback to it. He is completely right, I understand it now.

 

This Fountain Pen hobby which all of us have is just ever-evolving in our own ways till your last breath... isn't it?

[bebox]

Oh, I absolutely agree.

 

That's why I like Pilot and especially Sailor nibs.

Feedback gives you control, and being able to feel the paper a bit, is just wonderful.

 

I have a few butter-smooth pens and use them infrequently. Might have them re-ground eventually.

[txomsy]

Yes, it is. Beware. Here be dragons.

[kikopens]

Oh, I absolutely agree.

 

That's why I like Pilot and especially Sailor nibs.

Feedback gives you control, and being able to feel the paper a bit, is just wonderful.

 

I have a few butter-smooth pens and use them infrequently. Might have them re-ground eventually.

 

I heard Platinum nibs stand atop the world of nibs with feedback.

[TheRealMikeDr]

Having just a hint of feedback really makes the experience what it is. You can get super smooth from a gel pen or a ballpoint.

[kikopens]

Having just a hint of feedback really makes the experience what it is. You can get super smooth from a gel pen or a ballpoint.

 

I completely agree with you. Though the pens I have tried has a hint of feedback to them, I would like to try feedback giants Platinum and Sailor too.

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi Arijitdutta

 

That's the great thing about this hobby... some of us like to feel the road...

 

http://i.imgur.com/1egMgBG.jpg

 

 

...and some of us do not...

 

http://i.imgur.com/5ylEYaA.jpg

 

 

...and then there's some of us who like a bit of both...

 

http://i.imgur.com/KFgiqbb.jpg

 

 

...yet we all fit into the FPN garage.

 

 

Be well and enjoy life... and your scratchy pens.

 

 

- Anthony

 

P.S.: That was a joke. Being an international forum... you never know how these things will be received... ...hardly seems worth it, now... ...

Edited April 14, 2019 by ParkerDuofold

[OMASsimo]

Humor is if you laugh anyway.

 

I think the fun of using fountain pens is that there are nearly infinite variations of the same thing. The right amount of feedback is just one of them, the springiness of the nib or line variation are two more aspects of interest. We can explore for a lifetime and still find something interesting we didn't know before. My most favourite pens are all niche pens here on FPN (though usually with a small fan club).

 

Enjoy the hobby as much as you can.

[senzen]

It certainly seems like an ongoing evolution, I am a lot more into inks than pens, even if I appreciate their smoothness and reliability I don't think I am quite at the point of appreciating feedback, even with a Sailor that is apparently famous for it.

[kikopens]

Hi Arijitdutta

 

That's the great thing about this hobby... some of us like to feel the road...

 

http://i.imgur.com/1egMgBG.jpg

 

 

...and some of us do not...

 

http://i.imgur.com/5ylEYaA.jpg

 

 

...and then there's some of us who like a bit of both...

 

http://i.imgur.com/KFgiqbb.jpg

 

 

...yet we all fit into the FPN garage.

 

 

Be well and enjoy life... and your scratchy pens.

 

 

- Anthony

 

P.S.: That was a joke. Being an international forum... you never know how these things will be received... ...hardly seems worth it, now... ...

 

Thats a good comparison you did out there.

 

Scratchy, eh? I guess I wouldn't need micromesh and mylar every now and then.

[kikopens]

It certainly seems like an ongoing evolution, I am a lot more into inks than pens, even if I appreciate their smoothness and reliability I don't think I am quite at the point of appreciating feedback, even with a Sailor that is apparently famous for it.

 

It's only a matter of preference, maybe in the future butter smooth nibs will take a U-turn in my life once again. And maybe you are going to spam some Sailor pens too

[miwishi63]

I find that, personally, a little feedback enhances my writing experience given that I, perhaps like the OP, like F and EF nibs. It gives me the sense (subjective or otherwise) that I have a higher degree of control over the pen as I form words and letters.

 

Mike

[ParkerDuofold]

Humor is if you laugh anyway.

 

 

 

- Anthony

[ParkerDuofold]

...I think the fun of using fountain pens is that there are nearly infinite variations of the same thing. The right amount of feedback is just one of them, the springiness of the nib or line variation are two more aspects of interest. We can explore for a lifetime and still find something interesting we didn't know before. My most favourite pens are all niche pens here on FPN (though usually with a small fan club).

 

Enjoy the hobby as much as you can.

+1.

 

 

- A.C.

[ParkerDuofold]

Thats a good comparison you did out there.

 

Hi Arijitdutta,

 

Thank you.

 

 

Scratchy, eh? I guess I wouldn't need micromesh and mylar every now and then.

 

This is true.

 

Be well.

 

- Anthony

[Bo Bo Olson]

Many wish only butter smooth....could be some have PP paper.

I bought many an old piston pen on German Ebay that sat for two or three generations in the back of the drawer.

With a good quality brown paper bag I smoothed away the drag.....iridium rust, but the brown paper bag will never make a nib butter smooth. But being lazy could get the nib back to semi-vintage-vintage 'new' of good and smooth. The level under butter smooth.

 

IMO butter smooth is to be found mostly on nail and semi-nail modern nibs...........not so much in Japanese. The wider the nib the more butter smooth it can be.

 

I do have a couple of pens with tooth............writes like a lead pencil not.......scratchy.

Scratchy is mostly tine misalignment.

 

The proper ink and paper can make a nib smoother or less, depending on what you want.

 

Some folks send all their pens off to be tuned exactly the same by the same nibmeister say 7 of 10.

Why they bought the third pen I don't know.

 

Wet or dry inks can tune a nib....for the paper being used. The paper being used can make a huge difference to the ink.

 

Go to Ink Reviews and look at any of Sandy1\s grand ink reviews, she is using 4-5 normal widths, with 4-5 good to better papers and I am shocked it is the same ink.

[MuddyWaters]

No need to "confess", be proud of it

[Intensity]

I also like feedback! Not paper-catching paper-scraping kind, but a feel of the nib on the paper like a good pencil. Gives more control to the writing. The only times I don’t mind glassy smooth writing experience would be with very wide italic/stub nibs (around 1.3mm+) on coated paper, seeing juicy lines of ink as the nib glides over the surface. For any fine nibs I much prefer having some feedback.

[sansenri]

Two things

 

one, already mentioned by Bo Bo, once you find out that you like a hint of feedback, you discover that just using different paper can make a greater difference than using a very smooth nib vs a nib with some feedback.

You take a rough paper and the smooth nib has feedback again, you take a very smooth paper and the smooth nib shoots out of the page...

variables are many...

 

the other thing is that you learn to adapt to your nib, with a very smooth nib you need a lighter hand, you can write without almost touching the paper, often very fast, but you have to increase control to stay on the road...

 

just like those cars Antony posted earlier

Edited April 16, 2019 by sansenri

[ParkerDuofold]

...just like those cars Antony posted earlier

 

Hi Sansenri, et al,

 

I know what you mean though, even though I do generally prefer a "Cadillac" nib... if I'm on "icy" paper... like Rhodia... I'm all over the road... ...if I'm not careful.

 

That's why a touch of resistance isn't bad... it also prevents baby's bottom, i.e., skipping and stalling... but if the nib feels like a pencil... than I don't want it... don't need it... don't give it to me.

 

Be well all.

 

 

- Anthony