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Dear all, I'm asking here for your help: If you had to pick a good black ink for a pen that you care about, to be used together for the next six months in a large project with tens to hundreds of written pages, what would this ink be? I've issued this request for help also on the thread that inspired me to ask it, where I shared pics and info about the pen I will be using throughout this project: I've just signed my first professional book deal. (On computer systems.) There's a lot left to do and we'll see how it goes but I plan to do at least the planning and content-design in pen on paper. I already bought the pen for it, a Pilot Custom Urushi in vermillion red with 18k two-tone M nib (FKV-88SR-R-M), and I like very much my first experience with it, which happened today. The remaining details regarding the ink-search are as follows: I'm trying to decide on an ink for this Pilot Custom Urushi, M nib. I will have to draw many details and also cross-hatch large structures, and also write both small and large-sized text. I prefer wetter nibs and inks, but here I'm going to also use paper like Moleskine's Workbook (pulpy, very porous) and Leuchtturm 140 gsm (semi-rough and coated), and I'd prefer not to have much feathering. Water-resistant inks are a plus. Some shading would not be bad, but even the lightest shade must be easily legible. I'm thinking at the moment, in this order: Noodler's Dark Matter - seems good, but not water-resistant. Noodler's X-Feather - but it's quite pigmented and I'm afraid it's going to clog the feed and I won't know how to clean it. Noodler's Heart of Darkness - never used it before, but the reviews are raving. May have issues with the Moleskine. Sailor Kiwa-Guro - never used it, but seems to me a (micro-)pigmented ink that you can flush away easily. Sailor Do-you - this one I'm convinced will do a good job and keep flowing (and lubricating). Pilot Take-Sumi - love this ink, but its water resistance seems just too low to consider. What if I spill even a drop of coffee? Pelikan 4001 Black - never used it, but heard good things about it and it's cousins Brilliant Brown, Royal Blue, etc. are wonderful. Same concerns about water resistance as for the Take-Sumi. Platinum Carbon ink - fantastic ink, but how do I clean it after six months?! Are there strong enough but safe cleaning fluids, e.g., the Rohrer and Klingner Reiniger? I'll stop here; eight is a round number in my world. I would appreciate your replies, especially today, when I'll take my decision and hope not to revisit. Do you have other suggestions? They're most welcome. Thanks, everyone.

Hi, Guys! I need your all knowing help. I have a friend who is studying Art and he wants to base his thesis on Montblanc Pens as a form of Art. He needs quite a few book references on which they talk about the subject of Montblanc Pens to support this. The books don’t have to be solely dedicated to MB though! The only ones I have (I know, shame on me!) are these 7. Could you please give me any more titles? Thanks in advance for any and all help.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IzMDZRypqcE/ViQ20CCjxLI/AAAAAAAACag/EETndYJjdRA/s1600/IMG_9214_R.jpg Greetings, FPN fellows! After being away from making journals for a while, I wanted to show you these books that I made some months ago for a FPN friend, LuMa, since I will return to my work space. I am very excited to contact all the members who have patiently waited for me. Finally, I'd like to show you some of my past work that I had not been able to present to you before. Some months ago, LuMa contacted me for a custom order. She originally wanted a journal, but after showing her all the options, she finally decided she wanted five journals! But there was one problem: she wanted all the journals in Tomoe River, but I only had paper for two. For that reason, I sent her samples of three different papers: Fedrigoni, Torreon and Canson. She tested them and decided that the most fountain pen friendly one and the one she preferred was Torreon. She wanted two journals for her that looked the same. She chose a modern Ethiopian style with full black leather. It had 400 sheets, that is, 800 pages, of Tomoe River paper. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jaiRmPN9iGc/ViQ2zIlPtdI/AAAAAAAACaY/Oc82NjTdcK0/s1600/IMG_9213_R.jpg She asked me to put two red bookmarks and a black elastic band. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X2O6QrW1HhA/ViQ2vH733GI/AAAAAAAACaI/x70UgMbFq2k/s1600/IMG_9212_R.jpg She wanted me to engrave her family name, Lucero, on one side of each journal. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9WlT7r_Nq9o/ViQ2u-8XvFI/AAAAAAAACaE/6yYgmF1wq7Y/s1600/IMG_9208_R.jpg For the endpapers, she wanted a Bomoart paper with vintage writing style. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MZ4zXnfU_lk/ViQ2xBts-gI/AAAAAAAACaQ/TGHtzJuxTNY/s1600/IMG_9210_R.jpg By the way, one of these black journals is currently traveling all the world. LuMa had an iniciative where the journal will travel to different FPN members and each of them will fill some pages with their creative expressions. You can see more here. The third of the journals was made for her mother. She wanted the same journal style, but with red leather and black bookmarks. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IzMDZRypqcE/ViQ20CCjxLI/AAAAAAAACag/EETndYJjdRA/s1600/IMG_9214_R.jpg The endpapers were a different Bomoart paper, this one with a music theme. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-utElJOzVioo/ViQ23ei89VI/AAAAAAAACao/mp9PeSzP9_o/s1600/IMG_9215_R.jpg For her mother, LuMa wanted a stamp engraved on the center of the journal. Tomoe River is only 52 gsm, however Torreon is 90 gsm. Since this journal also had 400 pages, the final journal was very thick compared to the black ones: almost 10 cm or 4 inches thick! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JWBFXW-1TW4/ViQ25IsP5zI/AAAAAAAACa4/wsWhJtTS9FU/s1600/IMG_9220_R.jpg The other two journals were for a couple of friends and she chose a completely different style: they were linkstitch. This style has soft leather covers and she chose two different colors: olive green and orange. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q7IRTj4InqY/ViQ3Db_59oI/AAAAAAAACbs/nYcmcCc8SD4/s1600/IMG_9232_R.jpg A close up of the engraving of the arabesque. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bSsreKJE94M/ViQ3D5A90mI/AAAAAAAACbw/frBE90qySBU/s1600/IMG_9233_R.jpg The journal opened. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YN8F93CHHo4/ViQ3FNU7yqI/AAAAAAAACb4/bDMn_WEK4FE/s1600/IMG_9235_R.jpg An appreciation of the thickness of the journal. This journal also had 400 pages of Torreon paper and was more than 10 cm or 4 inches in thickness. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RYZiQ0dkve0/ViQ3HuuJgbI/AAAAAAAACcI/rALC82v1slU/s1600/IMG_9238_R.jpg This is the olive green journal. She also chose a black leather strap for the closure and an engraved Celtic cross as decoration. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ezeYNGektj0/ViQ29eL6r5I/AAAAAAAACbM/6ek95Vu30bw/s320/IMG_9224_R.jpg I had never shipped such a big package! I had to use a box that used to keep 5000 sheets, the ones usually bought for offices. It was about 5kg! It felt amazing to carry it to the post office to ship. LuMa received the journals many weeks ago and I am happy to say that she was pleased with them, as her mother and her friends were of their gifts. Pheww, that is all, sorry for the long post. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions, they are always welcome . Have a nice day! Anna J. Bach

Dear forum members, I would like to introduce my new book to you. It shows in word and picture over 550 pens, all in connection to the animal kingdom. You will find pens from 80 companies. The book weighs over 1.5 kilo, has more than 200 pages. The attached pages show how the book is structured. Described is also a number of pens that are not shown. Also 100 pens that were sold by well-known auction houses. The book price is USD 150; (euro 124) including shipping. Many thanks for your interest. We do accept paypal (regina.martini@t-online.de). best regards Regina Martini

I purchased a 'reprint' of The Palmer Method Of Business Writing, since I now know that is the format of penmanship I would like to practice rather than Spencerian. While Spencerian is beautiful, I'm a long way off being able to use a pointed pen properly, can barely hold a straight line at this point! The monoline Palmer method seems to fit my goals better. In any case, the book arrived today, I excitedly opened the package & thumbed the book only to be greeted with this...utter abhorrent insult to the eyes...and the wallet! Be warned, you are better off finding the PDF version online than you are purchasing this particular book. I would moan more but...honestly I'm too annoyed to bother at this stage.

Brandon McKinney is a collector of Esterbrook's steel dip pens, and he has finally finished his book on the subject. I have corresponded with Brandon for a couple of years now and he has helped me better understand my collection and Esterbrook. Other than that, I have no connection with him, and I am writing this review based on my personal copy of the book which I purchased myself. The book covers several major types of information. 1. Company history, general information 2. The pens and their physical characteristics, especially changes over time, maintenance, grinding vs. stamped grooves, etc... 3. Chronology of the pens and their boxes. The history is a sketch just to set context, and is not meant to be complete nor thorough. There are some interesting pieces of general information including a list of presidents, office locations, and patents and trademarks that are useful. The sections on the pens themselves better show the great care and time Brandon has spent looking at the pens, especially important numbers like the flagship 048 Falcon and the 128 Extra Fine Elastic. For collectors, it's the sections on the chronological dating of nibs and boxes that is the most useful and is not found anywhere else. I have been using this system for dating Esterbrook's steel pens for over a year now with my own collection and research. So far, I've not found any problems with his system. I have found one example of a stamp he does not have, but it's a very rare copper-coated example he and I are still trying to figure out. For 99.9% of all of the examples you will find in the wild, his system of dating to general eras will work perfectly well, and combined with his description of how the earlier differed from some of the later pens, should help you find just what you're looking to add to your collection. Overall, despite a weak area here and there (especially the history, but then the history is my area of interest, so I'm not sure how much would be enough), and I may not agree with every conclusion Brandon has (see the "gravity well" section), and the very rare error (the 314 Relief was made of a brass alloy, not bronze), the book is a highly welcome and useful resource for anyone interested in Esterbrook and their steel pens. You can purchase the book from his Etsy store in either a digital version, or a limited-run physical copy.

For 76 years as a lefty I have been looking not only for shortcuts in the right handed world, but for methods that let me imitate the rest of the world. On my 76th Birthday I decided I would learn (note I do not say TRY to learn) Calligraphy. IN the past three months I have spent more time on the net looking for tools, books and methods on the net than in teal practice, although my day to day handwriting has progressed from 5th Grade delinquent to Sixth Grade needing practice. In a search for literature on the printed page I have only found two offerings that look at least basically beyond "then mirror the right handed movements. Both are by Margaret Shepherd whom I have e mailed with no success in gaining an answer during these holidays. I have found her two titles are both beyond my means in the used market, unless I skip a bunch of meals over a couple of months and use my community food bank to get basics, like pasta. The first book is "The Basics of Left-Handed Calligraphy" Which I have not found for under $80 andsecopnd is "The Left Handed Calligrapher," which seems to be a collections of alphabets adapted for we lefties. It runs over $40 in used condition. HAS ANYONE READ OR USED THESE BOOKS (left handed, but truly sinister or or not in modern parlance) and care to share an opinion on one or both as they might relate to an elderly inexperienced person with a desire to learn and practice, but not go into pain (either physical or emotional) or emotional because "It just don't work that way." I would like to know before I have to go on a severe diet of pasta and beans to get them -- or whether I should continue to muddle through my current no result producing frustrations. Thank you Gregg In Tucson, AZ where ink dries FAST!

When I say 'brochure', it is a full size, lavishly illustrated 95 page hard back book showing the models sold in 2014 plus information on filling systems. Down side for me is that it is in French, with only a limited amount of English translations. If you go to Nice, you must visit their shop at 19, Rue de L'Hotel des Postes. Asking £2.50 for postage in the UK.

I thought this book might be of interest to those who are into the history of things related to fountain pens. https://www.fullersbookshop.com.au/event/ossie-nic-haygarth/ On the Ossie Tasmania and the global fountain pen industry! For a time in the early 1900s The Waratah and Adamsfield districts held the world monopoly on osmiridium. An alloy more valuable than gold (and used to tip gold nibs), Tasmanian osmiridium became a signatory to startling world events as well as making household fortunes.

I did this here for the Montblanc book by Rosler and Wallrafen, so let's get started on another opportunity. I'm only three months late getting started. If you are in the USA or Canadian with a USA postal address, and you want to save with the purchase of Jesus Martinez Guillen's recent release of the second edition of Montblanc Pens Made in Spain, PM me. There is no USA distributor of this book. Only 19 copies are available at the discounted price of $59 each DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR. No limit on how many you buy, so act now if you want in. When I have the orders, the author will ship them bulk to me, and I will in turn redistribute the books by USPS media mail to you. PM me for instructions. I'm not making money on this, and I'm not a dealer. A group buy keeps costs down for all of us. Fred Language: English & Spanish Book Format: Hard Cover Book Dimensions: 21.5x30 cm 160 Pages

Greetings, I was looking to buy a copy of Edward Johnston's famous book, and stumbled across this piece of information: it would seem that copies printed prior to the 1940s have 499 pages, whereas those published after the 1940s only have 434 pages. Does anyone know which of the pages might be missing in the shorter version? Could the text be more condensed? I am also aware that there are a couple of recent reprints, but from what I understand, these books are printed after photocopies of the original version. Has anyone compared the old with the new? Cheers!

Inks: Their Compostion and Manufacture, from 1904. Interesting reading. https://archive.org/details/inkstheircomposi00mitcrich

I would very much like to try to learn the basics of how to restore, look after, and nurture fountain pens....I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of suitable websites ( very much a beginner) or books. Alex

Hi, can anyone here identify these pens? Thanks, Sakurako

Hello, I am handwriting lover, in school, in college etc I always focused on my handwriting, I used to be obsessed that much with my handwriting that I used to change my handwriting daily in the school but after a long journey of this I finally made my hand legible enough to get a better grip on paper, so I have uploaded a sample of my handwriting here, my question is that 1) tell me that what type of handwriting is this? 2) Is this handwriting suitable for exams? 3) Is it legible and easy to read? 4) Is my handwriting beautiful good looking or bad looking? 5:) Should I continue to write like this? and please also rate my handwriting out of 10. Thanks.

Hello, I am handwriting lover, in school, in college etc I always focused on my handwriting, I used to be obsessed that much with my handwriting that I used to change my handwriting daily in the school but after a long journey of this I finally made my hand legible enough to get a better grip on paper, so I have uploaded a sample of my handwriting here, my question is that 1) tell me that what type of handwriting is this? 2) Is this handwriting suitable for exams? 3) Is it legible and easy to read? 4) Is my handwriting beautiful good looking or bad looking? 5:) Should I continue to write like this? and please also rate my handwriting out of 10. Thanks.

I have just joined FPN and I wish to buy a book I am having real diificulty finding. Fountain Pens of the World 2005 edition is I know out of print but I thing there are books around. Can anybody point me in the correct direction. Thanks............Tim Marshall