Search the Community

I'm not putting this in the repair forum because I am no expert at repair, and wouldn't want anyone to take my advice. Just recording something I did. I have a Waltham Combo pen/pencil that I got for very little some years ago. This is one of those vintage items with a lever filler fountain pen on one end, and a twist operated mechanical pencil on the other. I have several other of these combos by other makers, mostly Wearevers, but one Remington, and one Arnold. The Waltham has a rather pretty vintage celluloid pattern, but unfortunately had two large cracks forming in the barrel. It was not broken all the way through, but you could see it coming apart when twisting the pen, for example when unscrewing the cap. Although it was not worth paying a professional to try to mend this, I've been meaning to have a go at it myself for some time. I decided not to worry about making the repair invisible, just wanted to see if I could get a functional pen. I had a couple of tries at fixing this with JB Weld epoxy, but absolutely could not get it to set. Must have been user error of some kind, although I was following the instructions as closely as I could. Maybe I got the epoxy mix wrong, maybe I didn't clamp it properly, don't know. But I couldn't make it work. So I tried Krazy Glue, and that worked. It's holding quite well. I cleaned off some some residual epoxy on the exterior with an emory board. As I said, I'm no expert at repair, but it doesn't look bad (to me). Put in a new sac. Filled the fountain pen with a cheap ink, Hero Blue-Black, and put a darker lead in the pencil than the one that was in there. Didn't really have any great hopes for it as a writing instrument. Waltham was a third tier brand, after all. The nib said 14k gold plated, but all the gold plating is gone, which didn't say much for the original quality. Surprisingly, though, it is very nice to write with, very smooth, and a nice wet writer. It's not something I'd carry around with me, but I think I may have found a new desk pen.

Hello again to all my FPN friends, We all have those combinations of pen and ink that bring us pure bliss and lift us out of the mundane world to new heights of inky euphoria. What I would love to read about is your favorite combinations, exactly why they are your favorite, and your description of the experience. It's important to explain your reasoning because everyone likes a different kind of writing experience (e.g., buttery smooth vs. slight feedback, etc.). Knowing your preferences would help other readers in discerning whether or not your favorite combinations would also be suitable for them as well. Personally, I'm looking forward to reading your responses because I selfishly want to have as many Zen pen experiences as possible. Before some smart aleck posts something like, "I only use inks that write perfectly in all my pens" or "all my pens write perfectly with all my inks," anyone who has been in this hobby long enough knows that different combinations of ink, pen, and paper create different writing experiences (or, in some cases, disasters). I'm curious to know which combinations give you the most enjoyable writing experiences. In order to narrow down the variables, let's focus on your favorite pen and ink combinations for writing on standard copy paper (70gsm or similar). Since that type of paper is available in pretty much every part of the world and is what most of us are stuck using whenever out of the house, it will allow for the most people to try the combination. Although it's fine to include the visual effects that make the writing experience lovely (color of the ink, sheen, etc.), what I'd really like to read about is the feeling when you write. After having many amazing colors that make my pens feel like writing with sandpaper or molasses, I'd like to focus on ink/pen combinations that just feel downright amazing when you right. Let me start us off with two amazing experiences I had this week: Combo 1 - Materials: Penbbs 308 with JoWo #6 1.1 Oblique Cursive Italic (ground my fpnibs.com) + Sailor Jentle Miruai Experience: I prefer ultra buttery smooth feel for quick daily writing and this combination is downright amazing. The pen is light and well balanced with some nice girth to the section, making it extremely comfortable for even my somewhat small hands. The nib isn't as forgiving as a stub, so I have to pay attention to keeping consistent pen angle and avoiding over rotation. However, when I do keep everything in alignment, this nib and ink combination feels like writing on a silken cloud. You know there is something underneath but it doesn't feel like paper....just pure smooth goodness. Combo 2 - Materials: Delike New Moon 2 F nib + Noodler's Ink Prime of the Commons (4:1 dilution with water) Experience: This combination surprised me. PotC has been too wet or too dry in many of my pens, but for some reason just flows perfectly in this pen. It's just dry enough to allow some slight shading and bring out the green component in the ink with no feathering or bleedthrough (the dilution fixes that). This writing experience is a little different from Combo 1. You feel a little bit more of the paper underneath, but it's still buttery smooth and has some added bounce (not softness or flex) when writing that is delightful. This is one of those combinations where I can write on the paper without actually having to make full nib-paper contact. Can't wait to read some of your blissful experiences!

So safe to say, that a significant majority of us here on FPN have dealt with nib creep in some form or another. While looking through a lot of the posted content, there is a lot of healthy debate concerning causes and solutions. My purpose here is to simply operate within the popular definition -ink seepage on to the nib (regardless of understanding of cause)- and have people post which pens and inks in combination seem to do it the most as a guide for those who are particularly bothered it. My list is as follows thus far: Lamy Safari: Sailor Jentle Black, Diamine Oxblood, Waterman Intense Black Pilot Metropolitan: J. Herbin Perle Noire, Waterman Tender Purple Please share your results and compare them to others so we can get a grip on this phenomenon of fountain pen ownership.

we all have our favorite pen-and-ink matches, and perhaps some matches work better than others, but over time, i suspect we tend to settle on certain inks for certain pens. this afternoon, just for fun, i set up and took this shot of the pens in my current rotation, and the inks that go into each of them. these choices and matches aren't graven in stone (well, maybe 70% of them are), but like many of you, my basic principle is to get an ink that's pretty close to the color of the pen, so i don't have to wonder what's in it. here's my current line-up: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/12183016753_d538e4bc41_c.jpg pelikan blue-black in the agatha christiediamine oxblood in the vacumatic OSr & k sepia in the oscar wildemontblanc carlo collodi in the CS marlboroughr & k alt-goldgrun in the onoto magnapelikan brilliant brown in the faber-castell pernambucoaurora black in the MB 100th anniversary here's another look: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/12183416796_29df685d1f_c.jpg let's see your combos!