$25 at Five Below nets perfect pens for learning nib tuning

[Misfit]

Just finished my Thanksgiving meal. Mostly turned out. I don’t work with puff pastry enough. It was part of Lentil Wellington. I put cranberry sauce on top, which was a mistake. The moisture Kept the top from baking properly. And I should have trimmed more of the top pastry sheet. 
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Puff pastry can be scary to deal with.  Glad the rest of it turned out.

[Penguincollector]

I opted to just put a little wheel of Brie out with crackers as an appetizer because I chickened out of covering it in puff pastry for Brie en croûte. I might try again for Xmas.

[amberleadavis]

On 11/21/2022 at 1:10 AM, Tony1951 said:

 Looks like that is a matter of very porous paper.... Might be wrong, but looks that way to me.

 

I'm amused by your temperatures Amber. -2 C here this morning. Northern UK, One mile south of Hadrian's Wall (built in 122 across northern Britain).

 

 

 

 

WOW what a great photo!

 

The paper is not my favorite, but the problem is really the outline pen which is really a paint pen.  As you can see the FPs didn't bleed through, but the outline pens did.

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

On 11/22/2022 at 5:23 PM, Misfit said:

One of my pens from the photo above doesn’t seem to accept the ink cartridges. The other three did. The cartridges are a bit longer than short international ones, and are a bit awkward for me to attach. Yet three of them had the click sound of attachment. 

I checked mine (same nibs, different color and cap):  they use the Jinhao/Gullor type cartridges.  These often require a lot of force to open; I used to bust mine with upholstery tacks.

[Penguincollector]

I often use the T shaped metal pins so I have a bit of a handle to open those.

[Misfit]

@Penguincollector I think I have some of those in a kitchen drawer. I’ll have to check. 

[Penguincollector]

@Misfitthey are super handy for all sorts of things

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have thoseT-pins too, but knowing me, the business end would miss the pen and end up in my thumb.

 

I put my tack business end up inside a plastic tray, and shove the cart down on it. ( Inside a tray because ink droplets sometimes spewed.)

[Misfit]

@Sailor Kenshin haha!  I can relate to that. I managed to just (bleep) my hand when handling a syringe. What we do for our pens!  I was thinking of using one of those tacks with the tall plastic toppers that are easy to hold.  Then @Penguincollector posted about the T pins. So I’m not sure what I’ll use. I was thinking about removing a Diamine cartridge from a pen, and trying it with the project pen. 

[Penguincollector]

11 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I have thoseT-pins too, but knowing me, the business end would miss the pen and end up in my thumb.

 

I put my tack business end up inside a plastic tray, and shove the cart down on it. ( Inside a tray because ink droplets sometimes spewed.)

My other hobby is sewing and my eyes are terribad so I just endure pinpricks as a matter of course these days.

[Misfit]

I got bleeped out for the word (p)rick.  I was using it in this sense

a slight sharply 

localized discomfort from Merrian Webster app. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

11 hours ago, Misfit said:

@Sailor Kenshin haha!  I can relate to that. I managed to just (bleep) my hand when handling a syringe. What we do for our pens!  I was thinking of using one of those tacks with the tall plastic toppers that are easy to hold.  Then @Penguincollector posted about the T pins. So I’m not sure what I’ll use. I was thinking about removing a Diamine cartridge from a pen, and trying it with the project pen. 

Uh oh, a regular push pin might also be unstable.  I'm using good old fashioned flat-head thumbtacks.  Not everyone has these, and I'm not even sure they still make them.

 

@Penguincollector, I sew, too, but only as a necessity.  😜

[Penguincollector]

13 hours ago, Misfit said:

I got bleeped out for the word (p)rick.  I was using it in this sense

a slight sharply 

localized discomfort from Merrian Webster app. 

I had no idea there was a censor! 
@Sailor Kenshinif I had known it was so difficult, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up, but I’m stubborn.

[Misfit]

I found a T pin. Finally got the cartridge open. It wouldn’t go on the pen. So I rinsed the section with nib, then looked inside. There is a clear piece of plastic inside that blocks the cartridge from attaching.  Grrr

 

Update:  I took a cheap letter opener, that just fit. I worked at the plastic, and got it out. Now the pen has accepted the cartridge!  Girl power!

 

further update:  well darn, cartridge attached, but the problem pen isn’t writing. I hadn’t tried writing with the other three. They wrote, but they have had their cartridges in place for awhile. I’ll give the problem pen some more time. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Misfit
Updates updates updates

[Sailor Kenshin]

7 hours ago, Misfit said:

I found a T pin. Finally got the cartridge open. It wouldn’t go on the pen. So I rinsed the section with nib, then looked inside. There is a clear piece of plastic inside that blocks the cartridge from attaching.  Grrr

 

Update:  I took a cheap letter opener, that just fit. I worked at the plastic, and got it out. Now the pen has accepted the cartridge!  Girl power!

 

further update:  well darn, cartridge attached, but the problem pen isn’t writing. I hadn’t tried writing with the other three. They wrote, but they have had their cartridges in place for awhile. I’ll give the problem pen some more time. 

Yay?  The feed probably needs to be saturated a while.  I usually either leave the pen nib-down a while, or dip it in some other ink (my InkDumps being made for this) until it writes.

 

I'm wondering whether I got a 'special' batch of those pens.  They wrote right away.

[Misfit]

Three of four are writing well.  I left the pen tilted nib down overnight, and it holds onto its problem pen title. 
 

Well drat, there is ink in the cap. I’m starting to get out of my fountain pen knowledge with this pen. 

[amberleadavis]

It's really weird, on the ones that were fine nibs with different colors, orange never wanted to write correctly. On the italic nibs, some nibs just never wrote correctly. My concern is that these will turn off new users.

[essayfaire]

24 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

It's really weird, on the ones that were fine nibs with different colors, orange never wanted to write correctly. On the italic nibs, some nibs just never wrote correctly. My concern is that these will turn off new users.

I thought the same thing - I thought the pens were okay at first, but then they got a little funny.  

[amberleadavis]

22 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

I thought the same thing - I thought the pens were okay at first, but then they got a little funny.  

 

I guess I'm not frustrated because my expectations were very low for what I paid