Writing Instruments for Crossword Puzzles?

[silverlifter]

I use a Kaweco Sport: either an AL inked with R&K Dokumentus Dunkleblau, or a Skyline with KWZ IG Blue #5 or IG Turquoise. Both have fine nibs.

 

Both combinations perform admirably on newsprint.

[inkstainedruth]

I don't do crosswords much any more (the person who used to do the "hard enough to be interesting but not so hard that I need a stack of reference books" ones for the Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette either retired or died (they were the level of the ones in the Sunday Boston Globe and might have been the same person doing them).  I was mostly not using fountain pens back then, but I tended to use Uniball pens.  I guess it's because of my mom once saying my grandfather used to do crosswords in pen that the idea of doing them in pencil was sort of anathema to me. 

Mostly I do sudoku puzzles online, but I have done them on paper.  But there are these crazy puzzles in the Parade magazine in the Sunday paper where you have to put the numbers into the boxes in order so that they make a continuous line in succession without having any diagonals (just adjoining squares that are either above, below, or side by side with the previous and successive numbers) and I use whatever FP I have handy (the Parade paper is pretty slick, unlike newsprint, but F nibs tend to work better).  Very proud of myself when I get it.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[gyasko]

On 6/23/2021 at 5:03 PM, Paul-in-SF said:

I do a LOT of puzzles*, crossword and acrostic. I buy them in books, because I do way more than one a day; also the paper tends to be much better than newsprint but not glossy like a Sunday magazine.

 

I also like my puzzles to look fairly neat when I am done, so I use a Pilot Frixion erasable gel ink pen, in either 0.5 or 0.4 point, and blue ink. I have also used red ink in the past, but I have settled on blue, it's easier to find refills. The erasers last forever, through several dozen refills, so it is a very cheap way to go. 

 

My problem with pencils is the lack of contrast of lead compared with ink. I guess I would want a soft pencil and a big eraser, but the pen is more compact and less trouble for me. 

 

*story: my Japanese husband likes to watch Japanese TV; I stay in the room for companionship but I don't understand enough (or I am not interested enough, depending on the program) to try to follow the TV, so I do puzzles. 

 

Not a fan of most Japanese TV, but then, i used to leave it on in my hotel room when i was traveling for business (2 or 3 nights a week when i was working in Japan).  When i paid attention it would bug me, just like a lot of US or Canadian TV would bug me. 

 

At any rate, i use a fountain pen for crosswords.  I only do the harder ones and usually have a few do-overs.  I don't care how the puzzles look when i'm done.  They just go in the recycling anyway.  I take pleasure in ripping the page out of the box and putting it in the bin.  Take that puzzle!  I'm done with you.  I generally prefer broads, stubs and italics, so crosswords are a chance to use & appreciate my finer nibs.  Ink is whatever i happen to grab, but iron gall inks are good for the cheap paper.

 

[markofp]

I print out the New York Times crossword puzzle everyday onto 30lb. white paper stock, and fill it in with either a Pilot 823 <F> with Herbin Perle Noire, or a TWSBI 580 Silver <EF> with Diamine Merlot. 

 

I used to buy the physical paper, but distribution of the dead-tree edition of the Times is almost non-existent these days, even here just a few miles from Manhattan. 

[inkstainedruth]

Wow.  A major paper like The NY Times is hard to get?  Yikes!  (Is that exit 14A off the Jersey Turnpike, BTW?  In which case SERIOUS yikes!  I think that's the exit we take to get to my brother's place -- so really NOT that far from NYC....)

I thought I was having problems getting the Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The grocery store down the hill from my house is sold out almost as soon as the store opens.  If I don't get to the mini-mart at one Shell station before about 11:30 AM, I have to drive about 8-1/2 miles further north to find anyplace that still has them in stock.  I talked to the guy who opened up a Gulf Station less than a mile away from my house and he said that he couldn't even get anyone in the P-G's Circulation Dept. to return his phone calls!

I want real newspapers the same way I want real books -- I stare at a computer screen way too much as it is.  And newspapers I can easily recycle, or use as compost and to stifle weeds in the garden.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[markofp]

Finding the paper edition of the NYT is very hard if you don't subscribe. Years ago, Starbucks sold it and it was great, I would get my paper and drink and settle in to do the puzzle and catch up on the news.  They stopped selling it a few years ago, and now it is just down to a handful of convenience stores, most of whom order only one or two copies. I got fed up with driving around like a lunatic to find one, so now I print the puzzle off the website and take it with me. 

 

I am in Little Falls, Turnpike exit 14A, or 153B from the Parkway.