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An interesting article from Scientific American New Scientist (edited - thanks to those who pointed out the error), 1959, outlining the history of the development of quick-drying fountain pen ink, and how the ink and paper interact to influence perceived feathering or line spread. It also is clear how ink recipes can affect pen components or reliability thereof. http://bit.ly/Science_of_Quick_Drying_Fountain_Pen_Inks

Hello all, i bought a XXF, steel, black ruthnium coated nib from fpnibs and have some questions. First of all, Pablo of fpnibs helped me alot via email, a very kind person. I dont want to disturb him too much with general nib querstions, thats why i post this here. Are there different mentalities about how to grind XXF nibs? This one seems to be a narrowed XF nib, and tends to make broader horizontal lines when applying a little too much pressure. Kind of like a architect nib (see fotos). If I would grind a XXF, I would try to narrow down the nib not from just 2 sides but 3 dimensional. But what do i know . Is there a XXF grind guide, or other grinding services you can recommend? Its so expensive to try out all the special grindings The second thing is the poor black ruthenium coating, I changed the nib twice carefully and its peeling off already. How is your experience with the fpnibs.com coatings? Any recommendations? thank you

Hi there, The lacquer on the barrel of Waldmann pocket fountain pen has gone I asked the distributor of the firm, unfortunately they have taken down the shutters in Turkey. Thereby, I decided to find my own solution. I applied 3 thin acrylic paint coats on the barrel, then I will be working on polyurethan varnishes for finisihing. Yet, i am not clear wether is the best option or not.. Should I use waterborne paints and dense shellac finisih? I need more recommendations and advices.. Thanks for sparing your time..

I'm not getting very far in my quest to find the ideal plain laser paper suitable for use with a fountain pen! I know that rhodia is a coated paper, and that this coating is what gives it, its great properties when used with aqueous ink used in fountain pens. It never feather or bleeds through, even with my wettest nibs like the Visconti Homo sapiens stub. I realised that most colour laser papers are also coated but most seem to pale into insignificance when compared to rhodia paper. I've tried HP colour laser, staples laser, conqueror super smooth and conquerer bamboo, and mondi colour laser. Although all of these are coated as well, they all seem to feather mor than I would like. After hearing so many great things about HP colour laser, I bought a ream and was quite underwhelmed and disappointed with how badly it feathers and bled through. I've ordered some Clairfontaine DCP, but anticipate it to have similar problems. Any ides of what laser paper, available in bulk have a similar coating to that found on rhodia? Any idea of what rhodia is coated with?