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Are Lamy T52 (Blue, Blue/Black, and Black) inks wet or dry?


InkyEd

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8 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Inkyed............IMO it's the paper and the ink, not the nib for shading.

 

I think you may be thinking of Line Variation, which has more to do with nibs.

The nib if one wants line variation one has to go vintage for semi-flex or the modified Pilot nib...how ever I am no up to date....there might be modern nibs that are semi-flex besides a Pilot with a Pilot mod of two half moons ground into the shoulder of the nib.

With in the last couple of years 'flexi' Ad BS has come along. Companies like Aurora claiming 'flex' and not coming even up to their discontinued semi-flex of 15 years ago. I do know a number of posters spent good money on nibs that should have given at least semi-flex and didn't. They were unhappy!!!!

My advice is to go vintage.

 

American semi-flex Eversharp '40's, some few Shaffer Snorkels in the early '50's were semi-flex.....and I'm not up on English makes and models, and neither was anyone in English Ebay 10-12 years ago when I last looked there. Flexi was then the key word...and it was too vague to have any meaning.

We now have more and better terminology.....that many don't use, or know of.

 

Semi-flex is a flair nib, not a calligraphy nib....IMO. I do like them, having 35.

 

The Pilot Mod is a semi-flex. (I don't have any Japanese pens...German Pens keep me more than busy.) So semi-flex Vintage German factory stubbed nibs like the Pelikan 140/400/400n '50-65, will give you line variation if your Hand is not way too light.

Geha piston pens outside of the school pen, piston ones are regular flex/Japanese 'soft'. ;like the Pelikan120) , MB, and Osmia are some other semi-flex brands.

.......

Line Variation is.....The first letter of a word's wide spot, loops in the word, T crossing and the natural narrowing trail of an e last letter are part of the 'flair' of line variation. Those natural widening of the nib 'should' be 2 X a light down stroke. Comes naturally in semi-flex. If you want to fancy up a last word in a paragraph descender...ing, you can press a semi-flex out to 3X for a bit of show off. If one has a special fancy letter, go 3X. My fancy letter is a capitol L.

 

I was Heavy Handed coming back after a Moses in the ball point desert.....so when I started with semi-flex I was mashing the nib out to 3X all the time. It took me six weeks to stop that and six more weeks that I had a Hand that allowed me to often write just 1 X....unless I wanted a bit of Line Variation. ....then I could Demand It.

.............................

I often say, writing is 1/3rd nib width/flex, 1/3rd paper and 1/3 ink and in that order.

 

There essentially two kinds of inks, boring saturated  monotone inks and two toned shading inks:rolleyes:.....(sheen and glitter is for another day). One does need both.

 

Ink ..... Jet paper should be avoided, in it is designed to absorb ink quickly = feathering with fountain pen ink.

Laser/Ink Jet paper is a compromise..........I do have good laser-ink jet papers.

Laser paper is better.

Copy paper of 80g and less (the famous Japanese light paper is no longer made) is not good for shading....it absorbs the ink too fast, so you don't have the ink puddling where the letter is fat.

100-50% cotton has that problem also. I find 25% cotton or rag to be good paper for shading.

Rhoda 80g is very good slick paper and not to be confused with 80g copy paper. I don't have that 80g but do have 90g Rhoda. Coatings is what makes paper good and better. Coating cost money.

90g or heavier is better paper for two toned shading.

IMO the Golden Age of Pens died in 1970. The Golden Age of Paper sometime in the '80's and no one noticed...........my best paper was dirt cheap top glued pad from then. (As a Ball Point Barbarian, I had no need to waste beer money on paper.), how ever we are living in The Golden Age of Inks.

 

......

15 years ago, as a noobie, my third ink was Lamy turquoise, the then basis turquoise that all turquoise were compared .............It was a nice ink but sort of Blaaaa.

I went to Ink Reviews and looked it up (a little late:unsure:). There were then only tworeviews, and both showed it shading!!!:yikes:....on 90g paper.

I had a small notebook of Oxford Optic 90g....and on that paper Lamy turquoise shaded....a completely different kettle of fish.

That hooked me on shading inks.

 

Those ...often noobies, in love with just shining wet lines (saturated/supersaturated inks) call two toned shading inks, wishy-washy or pastel. :headsmack:

As I previously mentioned I find saturated inks boring and love the contrast of darker where the ink pools and lighter where the letter is thinner.

So to get shading you need good to better paper.

 

Unfortunately, the heirs of our Grand Ink Guru Sandy1, killed her on com pictures.

Her ink reviews were so grand. A lesson for anyone.

She used 4-5 normal flex nibs....not superflex or even semi-flex to show how width of a nib, made an ink look so different and she used 4-5 good to better papers.....some 8-9 over the 13 years I had the pleasure of seeing how magical paper and nib width was to the hue of an ink. Often it was almost impossible to believe it was the same ink.

 

My advice is never put your writing paper in your printer.....(well I went over to 90 g paper in my printer in stead of the 80g, but I don't print out lots. That's not 'wasting' good paper in I'm going to edit, so am going to scribble on it.) I like  the possibility of shading ink, even if I normally use an EF for editing. With an F I can get shading.

My advice....

For every three inks you buy, buy a ream of good to better paper and if not printed, it will last years, or a box of better paper. Soon you will have a paper collection to go with your pens and inks.

 

I do have a dither problem, I can look in three directions in my library and find good to better papers.

 

But I did it ALL WRONG!!!!

I bought pens like no tomorrow, then got caught in an ink avalanche.

 

I lucked out into an Aldi action of return to school (I got two years worth...but they discontinued the third year, when I was going to buy them out and ship paper around the world...one or to were shipped too.), that gave me four of the say 8-10 papers one 'must' have. When I went down town (Germany) I found lots of papers that were great for ball points. When I went to the States I stocked up on Southworth boxes.

 

I use spiral notebooks of Oxford Optic90g; the same paper as in Black And Red notebooks, or Clairefontaine Velout`90g which I find =. Those are my normal scribble paper.

 

Paper is the dance floor your nib and ink tango on.

 

I may have 40 papers but find my self so paper ignorant.

 

 

 

 

 

You are correct.  I was thinking of line width and calling it shading.  I'm still learning the correct descriptive terminology 😁.  Thanks again for a lot more relevant information for me to consider as I try to improve my penmanship and contemplate future purchases. 

 

Ed

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7 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Do Not Buy Lamy Green!!!!! It is a real bad green.

 

 

5 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

I have to disagree on this one. Maybe it was bad, but the ink I recently bought is just a standard, well behaved and easy to clean green.
 

Uninspiring "ballpoint green" hue, just a basic green, but still competent, aka you won't wonder what color it is. Honestly I like it better than Pilot basic green (in cartridges).

 

 

4 hours ago, Mangrove Jack said:

I too find the Lamy green ink very useable and have a pen inked with it always on my desk. There's nothing spectacular about it. Its a basic green that does what I require of it - to look green and stand out, on the page, against black or blue writing. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

There are so many other great greens....a great lively affordable shading  Green-green now is R&K's Verdura for @ E-8.50.... same size bottle vs the now rip off MB's E-23 for Irish green, 7-8 years go I paid E-15 for my MB Irish Green. Pelikan discontinued, it's 4001 Brilliant green, was replaced by a non shading dull dark green....that I gave away the day before yesterday. A day I chiseled into my wall of memory.

 

In the '50s when I was in school, green was my ink of choice in my Parker 51.  I think it was probably Quink but I'm not sure.

 

Right now I'm planing on sticking with just blues and blacks while I work on my penmanship and general fountain pen knowledge.  I may get back into other colors later. 

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10 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

nkyed............IMO it's the paper and the ink, not the nib for shading.

 

I think you may be thinking of Line Variation, which has more to do with nibs.

 

It is somewhat unfortunate that the term "shading" has historically applied to line variation, and not color intensity on the page. In the old writing manuals, or in some of the catalogues for fountain pens, flexible nibs were advertised for providing easy shading, meaning that it was easy to create "shaded letters" in the style of Ornamental penmanship, roundhand, or Spencerian. I am not sure when the term shifted into one describing shifts of color rather than line variation. 

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3 hours ago, InkyEd said:

In the '50s when I was in school, green was my ink of choice in my Parker 51.  I think it was probably Quink but I'm not sure.

 

Many people have advised against Lamy Green, and I agree it's a very uninspiring color.  But Lamy does offer a very nice green ink by the name of Peridot, in their "Crystal" (premium) ink line.

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10 hours ago, arcfide said:

In the old writing manuals, or in some of the catalogues for fountain pens, flexible nibs were advertised for providing easy shading, meaning that it was easy to create "shaded letters" in the style of Ornamental penmanship, roundhand, or Spencerian. I am not sure when the term shifted into one describing shifts of color rather than line variation. 

:thumbup: With no trouble at all one can learn something new every day!!!

 

 

But it has shifted...........and I chase two toned shading inks.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

:thumbup: With no trouble at all one can learn something new every day!!!

 

We are all, all of us, always learning.  In my life's journey I've learned that the best way of learning more about a subject we know well is by teaching it to others. 

 

Ed

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13 hours ago, ErrantSmudge said:

a very nice green ink by the name of Peridot, in their "Crystal" (premium) ink line.

 

I don't have that one, (they didn't have it...then and I didn't look the last time I was to my B&M; (when I got  Edelstein Apatite) but do have a green/greenish Lamy Crystal Amazonite...it didn't overwhelm me.

It didn't jump up into the top of my green inks to use. I won't say anything bad about it, but I did put it and the other two up in one of the two ink boxs in my glass doored beer mug cabinet.

 

I have my tall ink bottles in a couple other boxes on the other side of my library.

(The wife made me  collect my ink bottles scattered easy to find under the pewter topped beer mug jungle and put them where I can't find them.

What has neat to do with origination?

Eventually, I'll end up with enough short ink bottles to label on the shelves the other box.

 

:lticaptd:I said with 100 inks, I didn't need any more....and for a couple years it was only a couple more a year :rolleyes:.......now there are ever so many 'new' to me inks....that I don't need. RrQTD31.jpg

 

I have three Crystal inks which are better than the dislike given them........I am sure as many stated, there are cheaper inks in those hues that are just as good, in bigger bottles.

They were a bit expensive for small bottles.

 

The Betonite, struck me as it's own shade. The Azurite and the Amozonite were not so special that I fell in love with Crystal ink.

I had to cut the name out of the boxes and glue to the top of the bottle in there was no color name on the bottles, (just Lamy)  just a plastic sealing ring in @ the color of the ink. Which I had a hard time sorting out; therefore the name taping.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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34 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

I don't have that one, (they didn't have it...then and I didn't look the last time I was to my B&M; (when I got  Edelstein Apatite) but do have a green/greenish Lamy Crystal Amazonite...it didn't overwhelm me.

It didn't jump up into the top of my green inks to use. I won't say anything bad about it, but I did put it and the other two up in one of the two ink boxs in my glass doored beer mug cabinet.

 

Amazonite is a green-leaning teal, whereas Peridot is more of a true green.  Tastes vary, but Peridot is competitive in terms of hue, saturation and behavior with similar colors from other ink brands.  You can't say that about Lamy's standard green ink.

 

34 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I have three Crystal inks which are better than the dislike given them........I am sure as many stated, there are cheaper inks in those hues that are just as good, in bigger bottles.

They were a bit expensive for small bottles.

 

Agreed, but not any more so than what most other manufacturers ask for their "premium" ink lines.  You don't have to look very far - even among German pen makers, Pelikan and Montblanc ask similar prices for their premium ink lines.

 

34 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

The Betonite, struck me as it's own shade. The Azurite and the Amozonite were not so special that I fell in love with Crystal ink.

I had to cut the name out of the boxes and glue to the top of the bottle in there was no color name on the bottles, (just Lamy)  just a plastic sealing ring in @ the color of the ink. Which I had a hard time sorting out; therefore the name taping.

 

I agree that Lamy's bottles for the Crystal line are a huge step backwards in design and usability from the regular T52 bottles.  I made stickers to label my Crystal inks, so I could tell them apart.


 

Quote

 

The Betonite, struck me as it's own shade.

 

 

I've always thought Benitoite was interesting, but I already have a bottle of Lamy Blue-Black and (to me) they are fairly close to each other in terms of color, enough that I haven't felt compelled to try out Benitoite for myself.  I think if I were starting from scratch I would buy Benitoite first, partly because it is an interesting shade but also because it has some permanence.

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Nice post...:thumbup:

,,,,,,,,,

Looking for another Lamy product I stumbled on this.

This is in a very wide OBBB, maxi-semi-flex nib so very wet, wetter than semi-flex in ease of tine spread is lighter.

500 Pelikan OBBB (eyeballed in the normal '50-54 piston cap marking is hidden by a rolled gold piston cap. 30 degree grind. Rolled gold cap and piston cap.

Also, a tad of a smaller width Geha 790 semi-flex in the small print.

p59YGTJ.jpg

 

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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