Fallen down the rabbit hole (and enjoying it)

[Stationery Fan]

Hello all, I've been lurking for the past month, so I'm currently very new to the fountain pen world and slowly picking up the lingo. My first fountain pen was a Lamy Safari, a gift from work.

 

In my eagerness, I popped the cartridge in and realised whilst I loved the writing experience, I hated the colour blue! Then after a lot of googling, I found the Goulet Youtube series (very useful, now addicted to watching), joined the local fountain pen facebook group, and my Instagram feed is filled with fountain pens. What an exciting world to fall into. Also, more inks than Lamy blue. I attribute my dislike to blue being the colour of primary school. Black is more versatile at work anyway.

 

My first purchased pen was a Pilot Metro at an exorbitant cost of $60. I wanted it in hand ASAP though and bought it from the local pen shop (literally waltzed down in my naivety). Mild regret now that I see everyone saying it's only $20...that's $40 I could've spent on ink. On the plus side, I did get to try before I bought. So I had the guarantee that I would like the pen first. Of course this was combined with a matching impulse buy of Lamy Turmaline bottled ink. I didn't know about ink samples at that point, thank goodness I love the colour, I've now got 50mls of it!

 

Finally got myself a cheap calligraphy set because I wanted to try stub nibs. Especially after I saw the positive review from SBRbrown for the Mont Marte pens. So I've got the set that comes with XF, F, M, B and XB nibs (not the conventional calligraphy nib naming convention). I have to say, I've played with this set...a lot. I'm loving it. It came with 20 cartridge colours and I've already gone through 6 of them in my fun. I've dived into learning broad nib calligraphy (particularly blackletter) and using it liberally all over my bullet journal.

 

I'm still very much in the exploration phase. And most of the knowledge comes from this community. Now if only there were more active posts in the broad nib calligraphy forum...

 

[mizgeorge]

Hello and welcome

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! So glad to have you as a member!!

[Bristol24]

Welcome to FPN and greetings from California!

 

Cliff

[Stationery Fan]

Thank you all for the welcomes. 

[Wahl]

[NgunnawalJack]

Greetings from an Aussie expat in Finland 

[KB3K]

Greetings! I’m pretty new here as well.

On 10/15/2021 at 4:56 AM, Stationery Fan said:

Finally got myself a cheap calligraphy set because I wanted to try stub nibs. Especially after I saw the positive review from SBRbrown for the Mont Marte pens. So I've got the set that comes with XF, F, M, B and XB nibs (not the conventional calligraphy nib naming convention). I have to say, I've played with this set...a lot. I'm loving it. It came with 20 cartridge colours and I've already gone through 6 of them in my fun. I've dived into learning broad nib calligraphy (particularly blackletter) and using it liberally all over my bullet journal.

 

I think Blackletter is beautiful, but I’ve never been good at it. I have better luck with pointed-pen calligraphy. The Brause 361 Steno is one of my favorite nibs.

[Stationery Fan]

@KB3K I'm pretty much brand new to calligraphy, only doing faux calligraphy with a ballpoint pen before and a failed attempt at Crayola calligraphy but was too scared to bend the felt tips with pressure. I actually thought the stub/calligraphy nibs would be great for pointed pen calligraphy! Well, that mistake opened my eyes to a whole new world of calligraphy, so I can't say I'm disappointed. I would have never known otherwise.

 

I'm still keen to try pointed-pen calligraphy, after I've exhausted my enjoyment of the broad-nib calligraphy. The amount of shading I can achieve with the XB nib without pressure is blissful. 

[PeterR-C]

Greetings from a Welshman in Durham! You have fallen down not just one, but several rabbit holes. Sounds like you are just getting down the ink hole. Paper may be next. You will start worrying about things like line spacing. The slippery slope stretches before you!

[Stationery Fan]

1 hour ago, PeterR-C said:

Paper may be next

It has already started! I just kicked out a bunch of notebooks of non-FP friendly paper. Relegated to either one-sided paper usage or handwriting practice rather than a functional bullet journal or work book.

 

Thank you for the welcome! I seem to have fallen down many holes simultaneously, now that you've mentioned it. I'm hoping to slow down my free-fall a bit as I am currently veering dangerously towards ink mixing. I've been able to satiate my desire to mix colours with food colouring in the aforementioned XB calligraphy pen. Sucks out all the "ink" within a few paragraphs, after which I clean the pen. So I'm assuming it won't cause too much harm given the frequent flushing with clean water. Also it's easily replaceable as I found the set at my local art shop for about $6.50 for a set with 2 nibs.

 

My mother was thrilled that I've rehomed her 2 bottles of food colouring to my place for the purposes of handwriting practice. She'd been wondering what to do with it for ages, as she had lost the baking bug quite a while ago.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Stationery Fan

[sansenri]

welcome!

variety is the spice of life, I use blue ink only.

The colour of primary school? you will soon realize how many different blue inks actually exist!

[KB3K]

18 hours ago, Stationery Fan said:

It has already started! I just kicked out a bunch of notebooks of non-FP friendly paper. Relegated to either one-sided paper usage or handwriting practice rather than a functional bullet journal or work book.

There are some inks that are well behaved on all but the cheapest paper, if you still want to keep some of your notebooks in service. I go through notebooks like water so I need some inks that accommodate inexpensive notebooks (think of a “decent” spiral bound notebook). I usually get to use both sides, although I refuse to write with the binding right of my hand. When I get to the end of the notebook I flip it upside down and start working in the opposite direction.

 

 

 

 

[Stationery Fan]

7 hours ago, KB3K said:

When I get to the end of the notebook I flip it upside down and start working in the opposite direction.

I've never thought to use notebooks this way. I might try it with my handwriting practice books. I don't think it would suit well for work or personal writing, as I do like to re-read those easily.

 

 

18 hours ago, sansenri said:

I use blue ink only

Wait...just the same blue ink? How long did it take you to find your blue? Or do you have a whole cupboard full of just different varieties of blue?

[KB3K]

 

12 hours ago, Stationery Fan said:

I've never thought to use notebooks this way. I might try it with my handwriting practice books. I don't think it would suit well for work or personal writing, as I do like to re-read those easily.

 

I got the idea from steno pads. I only use spiral bounds for writing practice, shorthand practice or free-writing, anything I really want to keep goes in something better. I write like a “normal” person in anything with a sewn binding.

[Stationery Fan]

I intentionally didn't buy spiral bounds for that reason. I hate the binding hitting my hand. Also, I dislike the concept that it's easy to tear off. I have 2 spiral bounds that I received as a gift with perforated pages that I baby a lot because I fear the pages partially coming away and flapping about inconveniently. I think I used to enjoy the style as a kid, when I would tear off pages that weren't perfect. Now I've evolved into appreciating the errors and watching improvement over time.

 

Although, some days I think about getting a dedicated jotter pad so when I write diagrams, I can just tear it off and give it out. But it's such a rare occasion that I have to do that, it's not worth getting a whole pad for the odd day in a blue moon where my concept drawing is required.