Search the Community

So you chose which new notebook to use next. What's on the first page? (Courtesy of @mhguda) This isn’t to tell you what to do; it’s to get your ideas. Lots of us struggle with how to start a new notebook. Maybe you know what you’ll write in it because you keep a journal. Or, the notebook is dedicated to your hobbies. I subscribed to Field Notes, so I have a lot of them. I usually keep two in a holder I got for them. One is lined for lists, the other is graph for anything. For those, I sometimes just add the first entry to start. Now I’m planning to record my two favorite radio stations on the first page, and maybe a favorite quote on the graph version. Then there are those other notebooks. You know these, they are precious. You can’t just start with anything. If they are leaving home with you, they might start differently than when they stay at home most of the time. Share how you start your notebooks. Give ideas for starting a new notebook. If you bought a new notebook, and want to show it off, you can do that here or at this thread: @amberleadavis and @essayfaire suggested I start this thread. I posted about a new one on the above thread, wondering if I had a good idea how to start it. This thread was born from that short conversation. It’s your turn now, to give suggestions and shine a bright light for your fellow notebook fans.

Hello, I posted previously about my Visconti Rembrandt and it also had this problem with hard starts and skips every line. I was able to exchange it for a Van Gogh starry night, and sadly it's no better. The starts are really bad. I have to apply more pressure than usual to get it started, and then 5 seconds off paper requires another hard start. Either im extremely unfortunate or visconti has the poorest nib QC here's a pic demonstrating the issue,. Visconti Van Gogh Starry Night B Nib http://i.imgur.com/nDeSjan.jpg?2 If theres any way to fix this without sending it to a nib mechanic let me know pleaseee

I've added a comparison with my fine nib Metro which works and writes beautifully. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Hello, I am planning to make my pens as possible as custom made, so I need special metrics for threading. There are many threading solutions, I know Tapping is one of them The matter is the taps and dies with triple/quatro leads are so expensive. They are made of (oftenly) HSS, that is why lifespans are not so long. My commissioners are asking for usually 12mm, 13mm, 13.5mm, 14mm, 14,5mm and 15mm multistart barrel threads. The total price for a whole set is not so affordable recently.. That is why I decided to make them manually, I have some solutions to make it easy There are couple of videos and essays I ve found on web, they are all about metal threading. The materials we are using are not that much strong, mostly thel are brittle.. As I succeed to make a proper one, I am going to share all stages here. I am just curious if anybody made anything about this problem? Is there anything to be aware of before starting

Hi all! I am working on starting a blog with a focus on 'utilitarian' pens and paraphernalia. The idea is that we won't be reviewing Mont Blancs and Viscontis on a regular basis, but instead focusing on what's affordable, durable, and functional (think Lamy 2000, TWSBI 580, etc.). I know that craftmanship and aesthetics are a huge part of the hobby, but I think what fountain pens need to stay current is new technology and functionality! Right now, I'm looking for someone to write reviews with me. I've got everything ready - a nice camera, a variety of pens, appropriate paper, too many ink samples, etc. I've even had businesses contact me offering to send samples already! All I need is a partner! I'm looking for someone who can compliment my knowledge of pens. While I mostly use fountain pens, hopefully my partner will be someone who is more knowledgeable about ballpoints, gel pens, pencils, etc. This is because I'd like for the blog to cover a broad range and have a large variety of reviews. Ideally, we'd each submit two reviews each month (on different things) and thus have four new reviews published on the blog monthly. It does not matter if you are not in the USA, in fact it may even be better if you have access to popular products that are not readily available in the U.S. Of course, if you'd like to review products or samples offered to the blog by businesses you would have to be able to receive and send mail as well. Please let me know if you are interested! I will be checking for replies and messages regularly. Feel free to ask me any personal questions (age, occupation, writing sample, etc), I will be glad to provide further information upon request. Hopefully we'll be able to discuss our individual interests and see if we can come to an agreement! Thanks for reading!

Hi, everyone! This is my first post in the forum. Three days ago I bought a Pelikan M200 from the only Pelikan dealer in my country. As with every pen I purchase I roughly inspected the tines under a loupe to see if they are aligned. I didn't see any problems so I bought the pen. When I got home however, eager to try it out, I inked it without flushing it first. The pen had a very hard time starting and when it did, it skipped a lot. I immediately thought it was factory oil residue left from the manufacturing process so I flushed it with dish soap and water. Inked it up again and it started a lot easier than before but it skipped a lot. I thought this time that it was a matter of the nib "breaking in" so I took it to school with me for the next two days and wrote around 20 A4 pages(cheap paper) for that period of time and flushed it with soapy water every day after I got home from school. It was still a hard starter but at least it no longer skipped. I went to a local office supplies store and bought a no. 12 Rhodia notepad to see if the paper was the problem. No difference at all. In fact it was much worse on Rhodia paper than on the cheap notebooks I regularly use. I'm thinking about sending it back to the store but I wanted to ask if it's just me or the pen is indeed defective. I took some photos today of the nib and I'll be very thankful if someone can tell if there is a problem with my pen. Thanks in advance. P.S I use Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue ink

So Recently I just bought a Monteverde Invincia Stealth (about 5 days ago) And I've been having some really annoying problems with flow and skipping. The pen just downright does not want to start up unless I shake or tap it, or twist the piston to push more ink through. When it does get started up, after a few sentences it starts to skip. Then goes back to being completely dry, until I once again tap/twist/shake. Just rinse and repeat, that's my problem. I've flushed the pen several times with distilled water and once with a tiny bit of dish soap. I've also tried several different inks, J-herbin, Noodlers, Monteverde, Lamy. still the exact same problem, So I believe the issue lies with the pen itself. I've sent in an email to Yafa to claim warranty. I'm thinking is it just worth it to take it to a local fountain pen repair shop to see if they can fix the problem. or should I pay the $20 or so postage to send the pen in for warranty and wait another month for it to get back? Is this a problem that's easily fixable (ie. Local repair shop) or should I play it safe if it is a more major problem (Send it in for Warranty). Or option 3- Can I myself do anything about it? (not very keen on doing any DIY, rather leave it to the pros)