I got this pen today

[Penguincollector]

  Those are super cute, @Misfit! I really like the bronze trim Ecos and the Iris vacs as well (although it takes me forever to get through a vacuum fill, I have resisted buying one because of it) . 

[Misfit]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

  Those are super cute, @Misfit! I really like the bronze trim Ecos and the Iris vacs as well (although it takes me forever to get through a vacuum fill, I have resisted buying one because of it) . 

I understand that. Looking at the pen full of all that ink, makes me wonder how long it will take to use it up. I guess it’s better to fill them halfway. 

[Penguincollector]

9 hours ago, Misfit said:

I understand that. Looking at the pen full of all that ink, makes me wonder how long it will take to use it up. I guess it’s better to fill them halfway. 

  I have a Vacumatic style Wing Sung that’s been filled since February and it is a great writer, but it’s a commitment. It would be a wonderful school pen. 

[Ceramicist]

17 hours ago, Misfit said:

I got these yesterday (Friday).

 

They are the TWSBI Vac 700 R in Iris, the TWSBI Eco in Espresso Bronze, and the Kaweco Frosted Sport in Pitaya. 
 

I had returned a Pitaya when it was sent as a Skyline Pink. I gave my brother the option of Frosted Blueberry and Pitaya. 

They're all so nice! Congratulations!

[Misfit]

@Ceramicist thank you. I’m lucky I have one sibling who is into fountain pens too. He gave me the TWSBI Eco, and the Kaweco Frosted Pitaya for my birthday. 

[Ceramicist]

19 minutes ago, Misfit said:

@Ceramicist thank you. I’m lucky I have one sibling who is into fountain pens too. He gave me the TWSBI Eco, and the Kaweco Frosted Pitaya for my birthday. 

That's so nice! Did he get you interested in fountain pens, and if not, how did you come to collect/use them?

[Misfit]

1 minute ago, Ceramicist said:

That's so nice! Did he get you interested in fountain pens, and if not, how did you come to collect/use them?

I have a memory of a disposable fountain pen as a kid. He might have had some first. I got my first one I think in 1996, the Waterman Laureate in blue marble at The Pen Place when it was located on The Country Club Plaza, or The Plaza locally. It’s now inside the Crown Center Mall. I didn’t get another until the 2010s. Then it just became a constant buy buy buy fountain pens. I used to ask him questions about fountain pens. Eventually he asked me questions about them. 

[Ceramicist]

2 minutes ago, Misfit said:

I have a memory of a disposable fountain pen as a kid. He might have had some first. I got my first one I think in 1996, the Waterman Laureate in blue marble at The Pen Place when it was located on The Country Club Plaza, or The Plaza locally. It’s now inside the Crown Center Mall. I didn’t get another until the 2010s. Then it just became a constant buy buy buy fountain pens. I used to ask him questions about fountain pens. Eventually he asked me questions about them. 

Thanks for this. I love hearing how people came to collect and enjoy their collections! 

[InkyProf]

Today's mail brought this lovely 1942 Duovac (green stripes get me every time). I've inked it with J. Herbin Vert Empire; the nib is fine and hard*, which means that this combination really wants to be used with a paper like Iroful or Cosmo Air, which darkens and broadens the line a little bit. We'll see whether I keep this ink in this pen, though I don't want to put a more saturated green in it either.

 

*Edited to add: it's an "A" feed (accountant?), which I guess explains the true nail of a nib -- as in, you could hammer it into the wall and hang a picture from it. (That's not a complaint. I'm enjoying it.)

 

[carola]

5 hours ago, InkyProf said:

Today's mail brought this lovely 1942 Duovac (green stripes get me every time). I've inked it with J. Herbin Vert Empire; the nib is fine and hard*, which means that this combination really wants to be used with a paper like Iroful or Cosmo Air, which darkens and broadens the line a little bit. We'll see whether I keep this ink in this pen, though I don't want to put a more saturated green in it either.

 

*Edited to add: it's an "A" feed (accountant?), which I guess explains the true nail of a nib -- as in, you could hammer it into the wall and hang a picture from it. (That's not a complaint. I'm enjoying it.)

 

 

Today´s mail brought me the blue version of this exact pen (mine from the 2nd quarter 1946), freshly restored by my favourite pen repair guy. I have bought it a little while ago on ebay and its condition was mournful, to put it nicely. Even from the really bad pictures it was clear that this pen would need a lot of love and when disassembled it turned out there was even more - bent nib (looked like it had made a nose dive), chewed up blind cap AND cap, everything badly scratched, the engraving on the cap ring partly worn away, a gap between the section and the body, the ink sac, if I may quote my pen repair guy, "looked like a small condom", because whoever stuffed it in there hadn´t cut it to length but instead rolled it up, a broken screw to hold the jewel and a bent clip. Luckily there were no chips and cracks and the colour was still good.

 

So... we were in for a complete disassembly, clean up and polish, a new ink sac, jewel screw and clip, straightening and soldering the nib. The deepest scratch in the cap was in fact too deep to polish it out completely, but it is pretty unobtrusive and together with the cap ring´s "bald" spot it will be a reminder of the state this pen has been in.

 

With all the repairs the price is now at 2.5 times the amount I originally bought it for, but well, I have a tender spot for dilapidated old things that can be restored to former glory. For obvious reasons I will call it the phoenix from the ashes (see also the before and after pictures below).

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

[InkyProf]

12 minutes ago, carola said:

I have a tender spot for dilapidated old things that can be restored to former glory.

 

It looks like a very successful restoration, congratulations! I wouldn't have guessed the nib had ever been so bent... bravo to whoever did the work and I hope you enjoy the phoenix.

[carola]

9 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

 

It looks like a very successful restoration, congratulations! I wouldn't have guessed the nib had ever been so bent... bravo to whoever did the work and I hope you enjoy the phoenix.

 

Thank you. 

 

It wasn´t clear from the beginning whether the nib could be salvaged, but yes, they did a good job. Unfortunately it lost the front part of the engraved arrow in the process, but well, einen Tod muss man sterben, as we say in German, you have to die one death or another. I wanted it functional and the price for that was half the engraving.

 

Luckily the engraving on the pen body was and is still very crisp and the only thing on the pen that wasn´t completely scratched up. Even the date code is still nicely visible.

 

As soon as the other pens that are out for repairs or in the making are home, I want to get out the light box and do a family picture of this blue pen with its red and green siblings.

[Manalto]

The first fountain pen I ever bought (upper), back when they were new on the rack (1980s?), was a Sheaffer No Nonsense in red.

 

40 or so years later, I thought I’d give a NN a try as an EDC pen, this time with a medium italic nib. I found this pen (lower) on eBay for a reasonable price, listed as orange. I’d call it also red, but a brighter shade. 
 

The shift from crimson to scarlet has been an adjustment, but the italic nib is the real challenge. It’s loaded with Diamine Bilberry, but residue in the nib (looked like a muddy mix of red and black) polluted the color here:

 

 

It’s a pretty skippy nib to write with, but I might yet get the hang of it. The Bilberry might brighten up a bit, too.

[InkyProf]

15 minutes ago, carola said:

It wasn´t clear from the beginning whether the nib could be salvaged, but yes, they did a good job. Unfortunately it lost the front part of the engraved arrow in the process, but well, einen Tod muss man sterben, as we say in German, you have to die one death or another. I wanted it functional and the price for that was half the engraving.

 

So the loss of the arrow was the result of the burnishing that was required to flatten the bend? (Seems like a reasonable price to pay.)

[awa54]

Received a Pilot Grandee Urushi in black today. I already owned the gold filled/plated version and that pen is an OK writer, but not amazing, with only OK cap seal as well, so I was just expecting an interesting and uncommon pen not a new favorite.

What I got this time around is a near mint pen that has a soft nib and wet ink flow, plus what so far seems like a good tight cap seal.  

It's very nice! Kind of what I had always wished the Deluxe pens could have been.

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

6 hours ago, awa54 said:

Received a Pilot Grandee Urushi in black today. I already owned the gold filled/plated version and that pen is an OK writer, but not amazing, with only OK cap seal as well, so I was just expecting an interesting and uncommon pen not a new favorite.

What I got this time around is a near mint pen that has a soft nib and wet ink flow, plus what so far seems like a good tight cap seal.  

It's very nice! Kind of what I had always wished the Deluxe pens could have been.

 

Oooh they look like pair of nice pens

[inkstainedruth]

They do look nice.  But you lost me at the word "urushi".  Because I know what that stuff is -- it's the same stuff that's in poison ivy and poison oak and I can't trust the pens coated in urushi to be sufficiently "cured" enough for me to NOT have an allergic reaction.  And the last time I had poison ivy?  Took several months and 3 rounds of steroids to knock it out of my system.  And a $400 water bill for that quarter because I was washing the bedding every day so as to NOT reinfect myself.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[awa54]

@inkstainedruth @Mark from Yorkshire

 

The almost twins in the pic are the new Grandee and my best Deluxe so far.  As I have understood, the black lacquer Deluxe is also an Urushi coated metal barrel.

As far as my slight of the Deluxe series, the sampling is small in my use, with several of the pens being adjacent, or minor variations on the Deluxe theme, so take that opinion with a grain of salt, especially since many folks here love them.

I had initially expected a soft nib feel, since the Deluxe nib strongly resembles the Custom Grandee, which may have biased me against them, due to unwarranted expectations...

My needlessly large collection of Custom Grandees all feature slightly, to very soft nibs, despite none being marked as such.

 

On the subject of the Urushi lacquer, I have no idea if it's hand applied, machine sprayed, or what, nor do I know if the curing process completely removes the potential for irritation, so you're probably wise to avoid ...though I've only heard horror stories about the fumes or direct contact with uncured Urushi causing poison ivy style inflammation and burns.  I'm not immune, but also not terribly sensitive to poison ivy, so the fact that I don't react to these pens isn't a reliable indicator.  I'm just glad their lacquer isn't made of poison parsnip sap, since even a tiny piece of mowing chaff from that plant gives me a blister than doesn't heal correctly for months!

[nm4]

St Pen PPS stacked nib Jinhao X750...wow I am blown away.  Always wanted a Sailor Cross music nib and I think this is 95% of that pen for less than 10% of the cost.  Will post a review when I get a chance but right now I'm having too much fun writing with it!

 

N

[inkstainedruth]

@awa54 A number of years ago I happened across a website that had a bunch of maki-e pens that were just drop dead GORGEOUS.  And after drooling over them (they really were works of art) I closed the window, looked over at my husband and said, "Congratulations!  I just saved you $20K US!"  And that was PER PEN!  

I just cannot take the risk.  Not after the last time I had poison ivy; and that came on so fast that it was maybe an hour after walking around in the woods with some other people north of Boston -- or, at best, was associated with what I'd originally thought was a spider bite on my arm earlier in the day (we had stopped at the CVS on Rt. 9 in Framingham to pick up some ointment on the way to meet the people at something south of Boston -- so, sometime between about 8:30 AM and about 2 PM for it to go systemic on me... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth