What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, Driften said:

 

It's a Magna model I'm interested in. I'm into oversized pens these days. The one thing I don't like about that model is the 3+ turns to uncap.  I still want one though  

Speaking from personal experience, the three plus turns to uncap the Magna ensure that the nib doesn't dry out when capped and left for an extended period (read a week or more). My Magna's broad nib is easily one of the smoothest writing nibs I've ever used.

 

I say this as an avowed Conway Stewart fan. The Magna is truly the Churchill's equal.

[essayfaire]

10 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Both are great pens.  I have a Churchill and a Magna, love them both.

I thought of you and how often you use your Conway Stewarts and your Onoto.

 

@DriftenI think you have raised the bar.  I need to earn myself some lovely pens!

[A Smug Dill]

TACCIA Aizen ‘Amamoya’ (‘Rainy Haze’) (first colourway shown below) limited edition urushi-on-ebonite pen.

 

This pen series was never on my radar; and the TACCIA brand always seemed to be an inferior value proposition as a way to get a fountain pen that is fitted with an excellent Sailor nib, compared to just buying a Sailor pen. However, just when I was contemplating whether to jump on a discount offer of a Sailor Ebonite Sculpture ‘Yogazsumi’ (‘Night Haze’), I came across this pen -- only in this colourway, and only for this particular nib width grade -- on offer for almost the same price. The Sailor probably still offers better value-for-money as a writing instrument, so it certainly was impulse-buying that I chose this instead.

 

[OldTravelingShoe]

8 hours ago, como said:

+1. The CS Churchill model and the stardust material look great!

I support @txomsy and @como and the others: congrats on the novel, and now you've got the pen for the eighth. 📖

[Driften]

29 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Speaking from personal experience, the three plus turns to uncap the Magna ensure that the nib doesn't dry out when capped and left for an extended period (read a week or more). My Magna's broad nib is easily one of the smoothest writing nibs I've ever used.

 

I say this as an avowed Conway Stewart fan. The Magna is truly the Churchill's equal.

 

Not drying out is important. The ones that can't last a week don't stay inked long. Some of my pens are amazing for how long they can go and still write on first touch on paper. My 149 has gone 90+ days which is sad as well as cool. My Sailor KOP's don't dry out easy. My Narwhal Nautilus is doing well among others. The Churchill will be pen 11 of the daily rotation so after the newness wares off it will be used less than once a week. Nah I will kick something out of the rotation  The Churchill is the 96th pen in the collection so many don't get a chance.

 

I'm done buying new camera equipment so more free money will be going towards thinks like the Magna.

 

13 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

I support @txomsy and @como and the others: congrats on the novel, and now you've got the pen for the eighth. 📖

 

Thanks all for the congrats! Most of my books are more action adventure and this one was more of a murder mystery and it really slowed down my progress doing something different. It also was a confidence issue in trying out something different. Its the 3rd book in that Urban Fantasy series and I hope the readers enjoy it. My beta readers have. My other four books are paranormal romance and I'm 75% done on the 5th book in that series. So not long until I earn that next special pen.... 

[essayfaire]

@A Smug DillThat's a very interesting-looking finish.  Do update us on how it feels (in terms of texture), when it arrives! Did you buy one of these are all three? 

[ParramattaPaul]

2 hours ago, Driften said:

I'm done buying new camera equipment so more free money will be going towards thinks like the Magna.

As tempting as a Nikon DSLR is I'll stick with buying pens for now.  The Magna is a good deal cheaper than a new DSLR and mot much more expensive than a new Go Pro. 

 

That said, I recently bought a Go Pro to video and analyse movement and body mechanics (for sports) in slow motion.  It works well for the purpose and worth the investment. 

[Driften]

2 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

As tempting as a Nikon DSLR is I'll stick with buying pens for now.  The Magna is a good deal cheaper than a new DSLR and mot much more expensive than a new Go Pro. 

 

That said, I recently bought a Go Pro to video and analyse movement and body mechanics (for sports) in slow motion.  It works well for the purpose and worth the investment. 

 

My resurgence in photography made my fountain pen hobby look cheep. I sold two Leica cameras (CL, SL2-s) and lens and bought a Canon r7 and then a r5 along with a bunch of lens for them. If Nikon doesn't improve the z7II subject detection and autofocus it might go as well and I will standardize on Canon. While I like Nikon better for many things, its always working the opposite of Canon and making it harder to move back and forth between them. It would be like the caps on one brand of fountain pen unscrewing the opposite direction from the rest. Now that I have Canon lens from 16mm to 600mm I really don't need more for the system.

 

So more of my spending money can go to pens  

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Did you buy one of these are all three?

 

Just the sand/graphite one at the top.

 

Overnight, the 10% discount coupon that I applied — and was equally applicable to several TACCIA product listings at the time — seems to have been largely withdrawn, and is now only applicable to two models (that I wouldn't have bought, not the least on account of their asking prices). Right now, the listed (uniform) unit price of all variants of the TACCIA Aizen pens is 83% more than what I paid eight hours ago for mine (excluding shipping charges).

 

Edit: Ah, no, that's not it. Apparently there are two separate coupons that each customer may only use once, and I used the coupon for the lesser category on my purchase already, so I'm now only seeing availability of the same discount-by-percentage on some pens in the more expensive category. Add to it some funny filtering of the search results, and I thought for some reason it now only applies to two models.

 

Meanwhile, the asking price of the Sailor Ebonite Sculpture I forwent has gone up by 1%; and a variant with a more attractive body (but the ‘wrong’ nib for me) has become available at the lower price.

 

Phew.

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by A Smug Dill

[inkstainedruth]

19 hours ago, Driften said:

To celebrate fishing up writing my 7th novel, I of course bought a pen. After checking my usual go to web sites I just didn't find anything that jumped out at me. Then I went to a site I don't often visit and they handle tow brands I don't have any pens from. It came down to a Conway Stewart or Onoto. The pen I selected was a Conway Stewart Churchill in Stardust Blue. I should have it on Wednesday. I do expect I'll pick up an Onoto sooner than later  

 

Ooh!  Pretty!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ParramattaPaul]

2 hours ago, Driften said:

 

My resurgence in photography made my fountain pen hobby look cheep. I sold two Leica cameras (CL, SL2-s) and lens and bought a Canon r7 and then a r5 along with a bunch of lens for them. If Nikon doesn't improve the z7II subject detection and autofocus it might go as well and I will standardize on Canon. While I like Nikon better for many things, its always working the opposite of Canon and making it harder to move back and forth between them. It would be like the caps on one brand of fountain pen unscrewing the opposite direction from the rest. Now that I have Canon lens from 16mm to 600mm I really don't need more for the system.

 

So more of my spending money can go to pens  

I think there has been a corporate rivalry between Canon and Nikon since at least the 1960s.  Most of the professional photographers I have known over the years have always preferred Canon cameras for field work (Hasselblads for studio work).

[Practice Writer]

This is my impulse purchase last week. A Custom 743 with an FA nib. I was looking for a cheaper pen that I would be willing to carry around and leave my more expensive desk-duty, daily writer at home. I've always like the Custom 823 but I wanted a c/c version of it.

 

I was initially thinking of getting the 743 in either a F or M nib but decided to get the FA nib at the last moment. I've always wanted to start practicing with a flex (semi-flex?) nib but most of the comments from a lot of people regarding most modern flex nibs have really turned me off from them. The recommendations are always either get the cheapest POS steel "flex" nib to start with, or get a vintage flex. There's hardly a middle ground. Neither of those two options appealed to me. I did some research on the FA nibs (#15 specifically) to have my expectations aligned with the reality of what the nib is capable of.

 

I must say that I am very happy with the decision to go with the FA nib. It's different enough that it serves its own purpose and I still have reasons to use it even though it's sitting right next to my daily writer.

 

Photo shows my first attempts at writing with the flex. Really, this is about as much as I'm going to push the nib with my writing. The FA nib has quickly became one of my most favorite nibs ever!

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Practice Writer said:

This is my impulse purchase last week. A Custom 743 with an FA nib.

 

Welcome to FPN. Nice pen! Nice minuscule f, foo.

 

1 hour ago, Practice Writer said:

I've always like the Custom 823 but I wanted a c/c version of it.

 

Who wouldn't?

 

 

[JonSzanto]

On 9/2/2022 at 4:07 PM, essayfaire said:

This looks so fun! It looks in no way impulsive.  Enjoy!

Thank you! It IS a fun pen, from a real bright spot among the new makers these day.

[ruby.monkey]

Andy's Pens strikes again, and now I fight to curb my impatience as an orange fine-nibbed Parker Lucky Curve Duofold Senior (does word order even matter with Duofold names?) begins its slow journey my way.

 

This is the last pen I buy. I really mean it this time - just like the last.

[mallymal1]

5 hours ago, Practice Writer said:

This is my impulse purchase last week. A Custom 743 with an FA nib. I was looking for a cheaper pen that I would be willing to carry around and leave my more expensive desk-duty, daily writer at home. I've always like the Custom 823 but I wanted a c/c version of it.

 

I was initially thinking of getting the 743 in either a F or M nib but decided to get the FA nib at the last moment. I've always wanted to start practicing with a flex (semi-flex?) nib but most of the comments from a lot of people regarding most modern flex nibs have really turned me off from them. The recommendations are always either get the cheapest POS steel "flex" nib to start with, or get a vintage flex. There's hardly a middle ground. Neither of those two options appealed to me. I did some research on the FA nibs (#15 specifically) to have my expectations aligned with the reality of what the nib is capable of.

 

I must say that I am very happy with the decision to go with the FA nib. It's different enough that it serves its own purpose and I still have reasons to use it even though it's sitting right next to my daily writer.

 

Photo shows my first attempts at writing with the flex. Really, this is about as much as I'm going to push the nib with my writing. The FA nib has quickly became one of my most favorite nibs ever!

 

 

That's a great pen, nib, and writing!

[Gloucesterman]

The price was right and this way I can afford to give some of them away at the Commonwealth Pen Show. Come by, if you are there to check out my other pens/ink/paper and ephemera for sale.

 

[TSherbs]

47 minutes ago, Gloucesterman said:

The price was right and this way I can afford to give some of them away at the Commonwealth Pen Show. Come by, if you are there to check out my other pens/ink/paper and ephemera for sale.

 

 

I saw that sale. Nice purchase. Is the Commonwealth Show definitely on again? 

 

edit: just looked it up...TWO days this year! No Noodler's table tho....

[Gloucesterman]

2 hours ago, TSherbs said:

 

I saw that sale. Nice purchase. Is the Commonwealth Show definitely on again? 

 

edit: just looked it up...TWO days this year! No Noodler's table tho....

Although Nathan will not be there I will have a small supply of Noodlers inks and pens including one or the clear Boston Safety Pen Limited Edition pens and a semitransparent blue Boston Safety Pen.

If you want, send me a message and I will let you know my location when I find out.

Discount or a gift to FPN/FPG members who identify themselves to me at the Show.

See you there...

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 9/5/2022 at 8:26 PM, Driften said:

it really slowed down my progress doing something different. It also was a confidence issue in trying out something different.

Thanks for sharing, good to learn how your process works. I write mostly technical material - I do scientific research for a living -, but I recognize the desire to try something new and the internal obstacles to it. The more joy when you see you've gotten through! 

 

On 9/5/2022 at 8:26 PM, Driften said:

So not long until I earn that next special pen

Someday, someone will mine this exchange and write a dissertation on how the choice of pens influenced your writing 😄