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What's Your Favourite Pen/ink Combination For Rubbish Paper?


Tom Traubert

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Hi all. So, despite my insistence at the start of every year that my students produce their work on FP-friendly paper, many of them use some pretty horrific stuff - it's invariably grey, opaque and sponge-like.

 

I will not mark in ballpoint as it cripples my hand, so I've spent ages trying to get the perfect combination and I reckon I've found it:

 

Pilot Plumix with standard Pilot/Namiki red cartridges.

 

I'm not fan of cartridges at all, but these are cheap and Pilot ink is pricey in the UK.

 

Surprisingly, the next best combination is my Platinum #3776 Century (broad nib) and Platinum Carbon Black - that ink just STAYS. I'm a bit scared to use it in anything else though!

 

What about you?

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

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Thus far my favorite combinations that worked well on crappy paper (or unpredictable paper):

 

My Montblanc 225, Noodler's Black Eel. The 14K nib is a tad on the dry side with a line width around XXF-XF (japanese sizing). Doesn't skip, smooth on even crappy paper, and with black eel being lubricated it helps, plus it's bulletproof/waterproof, so can be used to sign certain forms.

 

Sheaffer Tuckaway Valiant Vac-Fill, 14K Medium, Black Eel. While I've used a Sheaffer medium before (14K Open nib on a Snorkel), this combination goes down bold but doesn't seem to provide enough ink to cause bleed/feathering on weaker paper. I've filled out money orders with it, dry in under 10 seconds, next to no feathering.

 

Pilot Petit1, Steel Fine, Pilot Blue-Black Cartridges. In *some* cases it might feather but 99.99% of the time it works, and the blue-black ink is very water resistant. It flows a tad wetter than some of my other pens, but that adds to the smoother feel, I just don't normally go slow with it.

 

Almost any soft, springy, or flex-ish nib with R&K Salix. I've used Salix with a wet springy nib up to a 1.9 stub, and while it does go down boldy, it resists feathering rather well. But it also sort of stays on the surface if too wet, doesn't feather on me, but you might have to blot it if you're in a hurry.Crappy paper tends to be pretty absorbent though. Love using Salix in my 100-year old BCHR pen with a small flexible nib, it keeps the feathering/bleeding on a more sane level when I'm not using nice high grade paper. (... and it's also waterproof...)

 

I remember Diamine Eclipse working decently in a western fine or smaller nib though. Tad on the dry running side (kinda like Pelikan 4001), but has next to no real water resistance.

 

It's no real surprise that Pigmented ink just stays. Especially since it bonds to itself pretty well when dried on the service avoiding smearing.

 

My general rule of thumb for crappy paper is, the finer the nib, and dryer the ink, the better.

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Hello TT,

 

My name might imply that I am in the tank for Lamy - and I do really enjoy using their pens - but I have used others - quite a few others, but this is an area where Lamy really does shine. Lamy's are brute workhorses - it is almost like they enjoy trench warfare conditions.

 

Select any Lamy model you like that uses the Z-50 nib, (Safari, Al-Star, Logo, CP-1, Studio), and use Lamy inks, I find their new Coral is great for editing or correcting in your case. :)

 

Here is why you should select Lamy:

 

1. Lamy's have easily removable nibs, so when the fibers from the cheap papers build-up in the tines and the end of the feed; it is very simple to clean the pen and nib out - without having to disassemble the pen like Steve Brown does all the time - (which I am not a big fan of in most cases).

 

2. The Lamy nib can handle crummy paper without flinching - in fact, 80% of my writing is also on crummy paper.

 

3. Lamy inks are on the drier side, so they don't get soaked into the cheaper papers like sponges; I use Lamy inks a lot on crummy paper - and I do not get that wild feathering that you do from the wetter inks. If you do not like the Lamy color range, you can also use Pelikan 4001 inks - they are like colored sand in a bottle. :D

 

 

Hope this helps. :)

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

 

PS: The Lamy bottles are pretty slick too, a built-in inkwell and a roll of plastic-backed wipes, so you can wipe your nib off and the ink doesn't soak through to stain your fingers. ;)

Edited by LamyOne

- He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me; and I in him. (JN 6:57)

- "A woman clothed in the sun," (REV 12.1); The Sun Danced at Fatima, Portugal; October 13, 1917.

- Thank you Blessed Mother and St. Jude for Graces and Blessings obtained from Our Lord.

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Pilot VP EF with Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo

and

Lamy 2000 EF with Aurora Black

 

have held up pretty well for me.

Pelikan 140 EF | Pelikan 140 OBB | Pelikan M205 0.4mm stub | Pilot Custom Heritage 912 PO | Pilot Metropolitan M | TWSBI 580 EF | Waterman 52 1/2v

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3. Lamy inks are on the drier side, so they don't get soaked into the cheaper papers like sponges; I use Lamy inks a lot on crummy paper - and I do not get that wild feathering that you do from the wetter inks. If you do not like the Lamy color range, you can also use Pelikan 4001 inks - they are like colored sand in a bottle. :D

Might explain why every safari nib I got (EF, F, 1.9) were excessively wet for my taste that I had to tune least the F to be drier.

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Might explain why every safari nib I got (EF, F, 1.9) were excessively wet for my taste that I had to tune least the F to be drier.

 

Hello KB,

 

Actually, out of 14 Lamy's, I have only found one that I would call "excessively wet," actually, most of them seemed a little on the dryer side to me. Not bone-dry like a Pilot, but drier than other brands I've used. A lot of it also depends on what ink brand/color you use.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

 

 

PS: Edited to correct grammatical/textual errors.

Edited by LamyOne

- He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me; and I in him. (JN 6:57)

- "A woman clothed in the sun," (REV 12.1); The Sun Danced at Fatima, Portugal; October 13, 1917.

- Thank you Blessed Mother and St. Jude for Graces and Blessings obtained from Our Lord.

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A extra-fine Japanese nib with Rohrer&Klingner Salix. It works on the cheap paper in my check book registers. Does not bleed and does not bleed through. In principle, a very fine pen using an extremely dry ink.

He came down from heaven and was made man.

 

fpn_1305512260__inkdroplogofpn.jpg member since May 15th, 2011

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I have some Waterman pen with a fine that was given to me. I haven't figured out what it is yet but when I use Visconti Turquoise with it I can't get it to bleed on anything.

"Never Say goodbye, because saying goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting,"

 

-Peter Pan

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I tend to use extra-fine nibs for almost everything, except marking papers, where I prefer narrowish (1.1mm or smaller) italic nibs. My go-to inks for low-quality paper are Noodler's Black, Waterman Serenity Blue, Sheaffer Skrip Red (which so far behaves well on any paper, bar one), and Noodler's Gruene Cactus. There is one paper, how ever, that defeats them all: the bulk graph paper that the school supplies. X-Feather in a Japanese EF bleeds and feather on that, and badly. I'm pretty sure that paper is just repackaged industrial paper towel.

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Parker 45 w. fine nib or Hero 616 jumbo - which as a fine or EF nib.

 

The ink goes on quite thinly.

 

Waterman and Pelikan's inks work well this these pens.

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Platinum #3776 Century extra-fine with Sailor Epinard is what I use in this case. Epinard is discontinued at present, but can be still found online.

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Any fine nib with Noodler's Black, R&K Salix or Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is working fine, even on any poor Moleskine paper.

Edited by beagle81080
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I found Lamy ink quite well behaved on most student paper, and I had it in a Noodler's Konrad at the time, and that pen has a generous flow.

 

Branching out a bit, for other blacks, Noodler's Black and Noodler's X-Feather are quite good.

 

As for pens, I've had the most consistent luck with a Lamy 2000, a Lamy Safari, and Edison pens. Noodler's pens behave with the right ink and no flexing.

Proud resident of the least visited state in the nation!

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any pen with an F or XF nib and a dry ink like R&K Salix, Pelikan 4001, or Sheaffer ink.

Parker 51 Aerometric (F), Sheaffer Snorkel Clipper (PdAg F), Sheaffer Snorkel Statesman (M), red striated Sheaffer Balance Jr. (XF), Sheaffer Snorkel Statesman desk set (M), Reform 1745 (F), Jinhao x450 (M), Parker Vector (F), Pilot 78g (F), Pilot Metropolitan (M), Esterbrook LJ (9555 F), Sheaffer No-Nonsense calligraphy set (F, M, B Italic), Sheaffer School Pen (M), Sheaffer Touchdown Cadet (M), Sheaffer Fineline (341 F), Baoer 388 (F), Wearever lever-filler (M).

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I'm using a Lamy Safari, extra fine, with Noodler's Black on every piece of paper I find with great results.

Fountain pens forever and forever a hundred years fountain pens, all day long forever, forever a hundred times, over and over Fountain Pen Network Adventures dot com!

 

- Joe

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I have a Vac Junior with an EF nib and Quink washable blue ink for crappy papers. I use the pen ¨upside down¨ for the first couple of letters to see what the paper does, and if the ink doesn´t feather out I flip the pen right side up.

 

This works so often that I rarely carry a ballpoint anymore.

 

ken

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From experience my favorite combination for bad paper was Platinum Preppy and Noodler's HOD (eyedropper setup)

 

It feathered. It somewhat bled.

 

But did it ever make a good and reliable endless line on the cheap.

Visconti Homo Sapiens; Lamy 2000; Unicomp Endurapro keyboard.

 

Free your mind -- go write

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