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Hi everyone, Is anyone else getting more practical with their ink choices? Although I have dozens of ink options, brands, and colors I find myself wanting to ink more with blues, blacks, greens and useable colors over the more whimsical colors like pinks, purples, reds, yellows or oranges. Don't get me wrong, I still love and use a sheen or shade (no shimmers). I just find myself wanting more suitable ink colors for day-to-day usage. Is it just me? My favorite inks to fill pens with recently are Organic Studios Nitrogen, Noodler's Heart of Darkness, Monblanc Irish Green, Diamine Salamander and Diamine Majestic Blue. I also have a Lamy Studio with a fine 14k nib filled with Baystate Blue that I use regularly. I have other pens filled with reds, browns and the purple/pinks, however, they rarely get used and I find aren't practical for everyday writing. I also happen to like Diamine Wagner that my Bordeaux LeGrand is inked with. It's a yellow-ish light/medium green (think olive) and I'd love to find more times to use it. Am I going nuts to want to resort to more basic colored inks? Like I mentioned above, I still use inks with sheen and I really like to see shading. Yet, when it come to colors and situations, the blues, blacks and greens are what I'm reaching for over the (to me) much less useful colors. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Claret and Apache Sunset. Who doesn't like a bit of Imperial Purple or a ribbon of Honey Blast? I just can't find a daily use for them. Sure, I can use them when I do some of my transcribing. But I don't feel the color when I'm doing so. A color switch would be more of a function of a change for the sake of the change. How do I make a color fit what I'm doing? Even if it's just the few times I write for pleasure. What do you think? Where are you at? Has anyone else here moved to more practical ink colors? Happy Holidays

I have some pretty but unusable( due to the neck aperture being too narrow) inks, which I want to decant into a usable bottle, preferably one thing at least a wee bit aesthetically pleasing, and saw this, and wondered if anyone had one, and if so, if it's good for this purpose.... And any other suggestions about bottles very welcome.... Here's the one I saw(it's listed as Pewter Swan Ink Bottle by Coles Calligraphy) Any other sources for similar? Im in UK, and need to buy online....and my ideal would have a cat on it. Thanks Alex

I was surfing around, looking for a nice Parker fountain pen for a reasonable price (I really love Sonnets and Duofolds too, but they are too expensive for my budget unfortunately). I ended up finding I found two IM's which I really like and I'm debating a bit over whether choosing this one in case I got a new Parker fountain pen (I have 45 and Jotter pencils and Jotter pens so far). (Also looked at Vector and Premier, but I like IM the best so far.) I'm curious for your opinions about it, like how practical and comfortable it is, if it's good for longer writing and maybe some not-so-professional calligraphic writing (for example for Christmas greetings) and so on. I attach two pictures of the ones I like the most so far The blue one is a Parker IM metal fountain pen and the green one says Parker IM Premium Vacumatic Emerald Pearl CT.

Hey Guys, I am looking for a nice practical pen for everyday use, and prolonged writing sessions in an academic environment, after examining all my options Im torn between the CP1 and the TWSBI 580. I am considering a Fine nib by the way, which one should I opt for? Many Thanks.

Hi all, I've been thinking about how different nib sizes came about. I'm relatively new to fountain pens, but have seen the huge variety of nibs available to tailor to each persons hand. Out of curiosity I must ask. If manifold nibs and flexible nibs were born out of a need or necessity for practical purposes (which for the above I understand to be primarily accountancy and legal documents respectively), then how did the bold nib come about? I know it's an unusual question, and in current times it's all about preference but who came up with the idea of a big fat line and why? The only practical application that I can think of would be for use in signatures. Was there some common purpose or reason that meant that historically if you could only afford one fountain pen you'd be advised to carry a bold nib? Hope this question makes sense and thanks in advance, Badger