A Yorkshire Neophyte Checking In

[antheald]

Periodically, usually when I have something really important to complete that takes a lot of time and effort, and that I would like to complete as quickly as possible, I develop an Internet obsession that results in my missing a deadline, and buying some quite nice stuff that costs far less than I'd like to spend, but rather more than I probably should.

 

Decades ago it was hi-if, and I'm still happy with the NAD amp, and JPW Sonata speakers I bought back then. I've even pressed the Dual turntable back into service in true retro-hipster 'fashion'.

 

A few years ago it was bikes: I now have four mid-priced velocipedes of varying degrees of impracticality, and I still can't do a track-stand.

 

Then it was coffee: Iberital grinder, bog-standard espresso machine (though with Rancilio Silvia steam-wand mod), and I still can't do a convincing latte-art leaf.

 

Now, apparently, it's pens.

 

I've spent much of the past few weeks moderating A-level English Language coursework for what I must enigmatically refer to as 'a major examination board', but probably almost as much of that time has been spent trying to track down what I now know to be a matte black Shaeffer Targa with fine italic nib, to replace the favourite pen I lost some years ago.

 

In the meantime I brought out of retirement my only remaining FP: a temperamental Cross Aventura that leaks like a sieve and skips erratically. I then bought a Lamy Safari in charcoal black from a local stationers, which is a reasonably pleasing return to fountain pen writing, but the M nib is a little fine and dry-running for my un-tutored taste.

 

So: what is the One-One Il Pompino for fun , or Gaggia Classic for "it'll do" reliability, of the pen world? Then I can get them bought and bugger* off back to what passes for my real life.

 

Or is this going to be the net that finally lands me?

 

Cheers,

 

Ant

 

*if you are offended by the word 'bugger', sorry, but do stay away from the north of England where, among other things, it is a term of affection.

Edited June 23, 2013 by antheald

[notVirtuThe3rd]

Hi! Welcome to FPN.
I'm really glad you've joined us.

 

Keep in touch,
Kota Adachi

 

From Japan

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJ0ZapRmG0

[Vendome]

Ant

 

Hello from t'other side o' th'Pennines.

How do.

 

Jason

[RMN]

Hi Ant and

 

Alas, the fountainpen world is not so simple as the coffeemaker world.

 

There are so may good brands, and people are so different, that one persons heaven is another persons hell on paper.

 

Which make it interesting and surfing around here on FPN with the occasional link outside is great fun.

 

Who knows in a few years time you have bought your 30st pen? Or 60th? (6th?.. anything goes.

 

 

D.ick

[Sasha Royale]

_{Welcome !}

 

_{It is good to find, yet another< member with a bit of obsessive/compulsive nature.}

_{If the nib is drying, during your pauses in writing, I suggest replacing the cap, when}

_{you pause. Another solution might be a different ink. (visit that forum)}

 

_{Here's to a long partner ship of man and fountain pen. Cheers !}

 

_{Write with joy.}

[PAKMAN]

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

[Wahl]

Welcome to FPN, Ant !

[Clancy]

Greetings from California and a warm welcome to FPN. It's great to have you here with us.

[Pippin60]

Welcome to FPN, cool avatar.

[mgm1988]

Ow do from an exile. Believe me, you should leave while you still can. Save yourself!

[MisterBoll]

Welcome Ant. Good to see your current state involves pens. Now to find the ones that make your tail wag! That's the truly fun part.

[antheald]

Thanks for the welcomes, and "Na' then" to my fellow northerners.

 

Thanks for the avatar comment, Pippin. It's a self-portrait (if my shadow is part of myself, which I think it probably is) taken in the first few minutes of my first ride of over an imperial century, in Brittany a few years back. I've grown very attached to that image and use it all over the place. Despite the familiarity, it still brings back fond memories. I need to get a signature sorted, too: yours is great, as is the Umberto Eco one from mgm1988: I love Eco.

 

I can see that I'm probably going to get sucked into this pen thing. I'm coming back to it because even though I love my gadgets, when I'm doing any kind of creative writing it needs to be with pen or pencil in hand, and I'm wanting to write more.

 

Time is running out, and it's certainly too short for cheap biros.

Edited June 24, 2013 by antheald

[Francis_Rex]

"So: what is the One-One Il Pompino for fun , or Gaggia Classic for "it'll do" reliability, of the pen world? Then I can get them bought and bugger* off back to what passes for my real life."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having caught the pen bug and recognizing the fads you listed let me say hello...

 

My response to your quest above is as follows:

 

For fun get a vintage flex pen: something like a Mabie Todd with a No 2 flex nib: you can pick one of those up for about £35 on ebay. It is a great experience to write with a 70 year old pen that shapes so nicely For the "every day carry" I would go fro a Pilot Vanishing Point or Capless as they are called on our side of the pond. I just love mine.

 

if you like Sheaffers then I would look at a Sheaffer PFM : they are classics. But there are others on FPN who will suggest other inky beauties.

 

F

[antheald]

Gah!

 

I had written most of a lengthy reply when my ipad battery ran out, and all was lost. That wouldn't have happened with a fountain pen.

 

Anyway, I'll try again.

 

Thanks Francis for grasping where my question was coming from and giving a direct and interesting response. I was so taken with your Mabie Todd suggestion that I nearly went for one on eBay last night, but then thought maybe I should do at least a little research first, not really knowing what 'flex' meant.

 

Given that ebay's a potential minefield I thought maybe I should go for a reputable restorer. Goodwriterspensales.com has some Mabie Todd & Conway Stewart and other pens at what seem to me sensible prices. The owner seems to post on here ocasionally and hasn't been run out of town, so I presume she is reputable. There was a beautiful looking marble grey Swan that I was tempted by but it's gone today. However, dropping about £40-ish seems like a reasonable punt, and semi-flex nibs seem like probably a sensible start. Anything in particular I should look for or avoid? There's a marble blue Swan with broad semi-flex that looks good to me. Any reason not to go for broad rather than fine to medium which seems much more common?

 

The work-a-day suggestion of a Pilot Capless is probably out of the price range I want to pay until I've got clearer idea of the sort of pens I'm going to enjoy. It seems to make sense to me to try a few different styles of pen & nib and build up a little collection of cheaper pens that will serve different purposes before committing to something at that price point. I know that for many enthusiasts it would be relatively inexpensive, but I'm really not going to get into spending hundreds of pounds on a pen (no, really: I'm not!). I could imagine spending say £150 on something that was going to be special to me, but I'd want to be fairly confident about it first.

 

The mention of the Shaeffer was not because 'I like Shaeffers'; although I've used fountain pens most of my life to a greater or lesser degree, I've never had enough of them at once, or paid close enough attention to get any real sense of the characteristics of different manufacturers. It just so happens that the Shaeffer (I think it must have been a Targa fom what I've seen online, but I may be wrong) is the pen I recall enjoying most. It had a degree of weight and thickness of barrel that suited me, and the fine italic nib flattered my writing. I've enjoyed writing with italic nibs and dabbled a very little in calligraphy with Rotring art pens, which I really enjoyed, a Sheaffer No-Nonsense calligraphy set (ok, but not as nice as the Rotring) and a Parker Vector calligraphy set. Mainly I used them for general writing as i liked the style rather than calligraphy as such, though. Those, and other Parker Vectors and Jotters that I've used have been too thin barrelled and light weight for my taste. Although I'm really enjoying the shape and smoothness of my new Lamy Safari, I find that it's light weight somehow gives me a feeling of the pen running out of control when I'm writing quickly. Does that make sense? I prefer the Cross Aventura, when it's behaving, for what seems a smoother, broader, wetter line, but as well as the leaking and periodic skipping problem it again feels too lightweight, and slippery.

 

if anyone has any further suggestions it'll all be grist to the 'wasting time looking at stuff I probably won't buy' mill! But I will buy something. Almost certainly several somethings.

 

Maybe it's also worth mentioning that I have pretty small hands for a man (a little smaller than my wife's, even though she's an inch shorter than me in height) and have never felt comfortable writing with any pen that I've had when posted. The Safari feels as though the weight would be better when posted, and the cap is light enough that it doesn't feel too unbalanced, but the edge of the cap catches on the web of my hand where for someone with average hands I guess the edge of the cap would be sitting well below the web.

 

Now that I've waffled on (again) for ages I'm now wondering even if the new member welcome forum is a senible place to continue this, but as it's prompted by replying to Francis I guess I'll stick with it for now. Do tell me if I should be going elsewhere.

Edited June 25, 2013 by antheald

[Stompie]

Hello and welcome from down in Filkins!

 

I suppose the type of pen you should buy would depend on the type of handwriting you have, or want to have.

Stock standard broad nibs are not hard to come by and if you want a bit of style to your writing then get a Manuscript calligraphy pen with the broad nib - Shropshire Company that make a real good product at a very good price and are available at all sorts of stationary shops as in WH Smiths.

 

Flex writing is great but can take some getting used to and you strike me as the sort of person who wants instant gratification and may not be prepared to go through the learning process.

Also, go have a look on the board for "First stop, Frequently discussed topics" and then go to the pinned thread "Don't just tell us about the pen you are using, show us thread". There you will see all sorts of pens together with various forms of handwriting which will give you some idea of the capabilities of the various weapons of warfare.

And then it will be off to the ink threads - Diamine is a Liverpool company that makes great inks.

Not to mention the paper threads because papers react differently to fountain pen ink and so one has to be choosy!
And for good deals you can go hunt around the classifieds once you have an idea of what it is you are after.

 

[UK Mike]

Welcome - we seem to share some of the same addictions!

 

I gave up on HiFi after my young kids (now grown adults) took to bouncing the stylus off precious records or putting sticky finger marks on everything.

Bikes were curtailed when I got divorced and lost the storage space (probably the cause of the divorce in the first place)

[N2theBreach]

Welcome. You all right, then?

 

If you come into FPs expecting to be addicted, you may as well invest in someplace to store them now. There's no going back.

 

Also, on this side of t'pond, bugger has no connotations that I know of.

[antheald]

Welcome. You all right, then?

 

If you come into FPs expecting to be addicted, you may as well invest in someplace to store them now. There's no going back.

 

Also, on this side of t'pond, bugger has no connotations that I know of.

 

Well, thank buggery for that! I did once find myself on a board where, to my astonishment, the word was automatically censored and I got a ticking off from the admin. It wasn't long before the organisation concerned wrestled control of the forum off him though.

 

Welcome - we seem to share some of the same addictions!

 

I gave up on HiFi after my young kids (now grown adults) took to bouncing the stylus off precious records or putting sticky finger marks on everything.

Bikes were curtailed when I got divorced and lost the storage space (probably the cause of the divorce in the first place)

 

The curse of n+1? I see you're from Sheffield. I'm in Doncaster. Any local pen emporia I should know about?

 

Hello and welcome from down in Filkins!

 

I suppose the type of pen you should buy would depend on the type of handwriting you have, or want to have.

 

Stock standard broad nibs are not hard to come by and if you want a bit of style to your writing then get a Manuscript calligraphy pen with the broad nib - Shropshire Company that make a real good product at a very good price and are available at all sorts of stationary shops as in WH Smiths.

 

Flex writing is great but can take some getting used to and you strike me as the sort of person who wants instant gratification and may not be prepared to go through the learning process.

 

Also, go have a look on the board for "First stop, Frequently discussed topics" and then go to the pinned thread "Don't just tell us about the pen you are using, show us thread". There you will see all sorts of pens together with various forms of handwriting which will give you some idea of the capabilities of the various weapons of warfare.

 

And then it will be off to the ink threads - Diamine is a Liverpool company that makes great inks.

Not to mention the paper threads because papers react differently to fountain pen ink and so one has to be choosy!

And for good deals you can go hunt around the classifieds once you have an idea of what it is you are after.

 

 

 

 

Filkins? Never been there but I recall the name from a student summer job sorting post in Oxford. Letters addressed Filkins, Oxfordshire but without a postcode would often end up in our sorting office, but had to be re-routed via Gloucester as it was a GL code.

 

I think, though, that my analogous hobbies may have inadvertently given the wrong impression. If I were merely an instant gratification guy, I'd have stuck with the Giant Hybrid that was my first half-decent bike, rather than replacing it with a fixie, before buying a second hand Kaffenback to cannibalise it for its Ultegra group set and wheels and fitting them to a Planet-X Superlight Team frame, then adding a rigid steel MTB and a cross-bike to the stable. And I'd have bought a Nespresso pod thing, or a bean-to-cup machine rather than getting a grinder that has no presets so takes about 50 turns of the worm-screw to switch from filter to espresso grind, and modding a Gaggia Classic with an alternative steam-wand and learning about temperature surfing.

 

Which is a long winded way of saying that if flex-nibs are worth writing with, but take a bit of effort, I'm prepared to put the effort in, and the same with other types of writing instruments I might want to try (or try again). But I'm not the sort of person that is either going to leap in and start spending a fortune, or every waking moment, in search of the 'perfect' pen whether that involves lashing out daft money on Mont Blancs or whatever on the one hand, or spending night after night practising how to grind nibs.

 

I did spot a Manuscript calligraphy set in town today- £10 for a six nib set - so on your recommendation I got them as an impulse buy. I've had Shaeffer, Rotring, and Vector italic pens before (all lost - heaven knows what I do with pens) and it's been a real pleasure mucking about with italic nibs again: the uncials and miniscules I practised as a teen more-or-less came back to me. I might have to spring for some Lamy Joys or Pilot Parallels now, as I've never tried either of those before.

 

See what you're doing to me, already, people?

[Vendome]

How do Ant

 

Hope all is well and that there's no sign of trouble at th'mill.

 

'appen!

[antheald]

T'missus is a tad brassed off about t'coil i't bath bur apar' fro' thar a'm a'reight, aye.