What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[OldTravelingShoe]

16 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!

Congratulations on your acquisition, which is also a favorite of mine, albeit, for sketching. I second @A Smug Dill 😄

[Practice Writer]

15 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

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

 

 

Who wouldn't?

 

 

 

11 hours ago, mallymal1 said:

 

 

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

 

25 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Congratulations on your acquisition, which is also a favorite of mine, albeit, for sketching. I second @A Smug Dill 😄

 

Thank you for the kind word everyone. I'm really loving practicing handwriting with the pen!

[Driften]

44 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

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! 

 

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

 

 

My pen choices sure have changed over the years. Went from pens like the Pelikan m200 and fine nibs, then to medium sized pens like mb 146/Pelikan m800 and broad nibs, now oversized pens in more medium nibs. My Nakaya's in B were the push to more M sized nibs. I got used to them and started to find European B's feeling too wide. 

[essayfaire]

15 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

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

 

 

Who wouldn't?

 

 

Double

 

[PatrickA]

17 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!

 

Nice pen, I use to mine for sketching as well, or at least I try.

 

Too fine as a daily writer for me, my penmanship is not as nice as yours. I can recommend getting the ebonite feed, it improved the flow on my pen especially when flexing.

[Practice Writer]

42 minutes ago, PatrickA said:

 

Nice pen, I use to mine for sketching as well, or at least I try.

 

Too fine as a daily writer for me, my penmanship is not as nice as yours. I can recommend getting the ebonite feed, it improved the flow on my pen especially when flexing.

 

Thank you for the suggestion on the ebonite feed. Right now, with my practice writing, I go slow enough that it's not a problem. Maybe later on when I write faster I might need it, but I will decide then when I get there. I will say though that my main writer is a medium Namiki nib. I plan on using the FA nib to embellish the names at the start of letters and for the signatures at the end. It takes me far too long right now to write cursive with flex to be practical. I also still largely prefer to write in print rather than cursive.

[AgedAndFine]

A Platinum 3776 with SF nib.....yesterday.  I feel particularly proud at my will power at not having bought something today....

[inkstainedruth]

19 hours ago, Gloucesterman said:

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...

It's a small enough show.  I'll find you.

What Noodler's inks will you have (as if I don't already have more different Noodler's inks than Diamine inks... ).

Yay -- it's official.  We just made hotel reservations for the trip up (one night partway across PA and two nights in the Sturbridge area).  The scary part is that Sturbridge was less expensive than anyplace in Framingham, even though Old Sturbridge Village is having their annual "Members" event the same day as the Commonwealth Show and there's no way for me to do both.... 

I don't miss much about living in Massachusetts -- but I DO miss being able for my husband and me to be going "Do we have plans for Saturday?  If not, let's go to Old Sturbridge Village for the day!" at each other....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ruby.monkey]

Does a pre-order count as an impulse buy? If so, then my latest is this - an eye-dropper glass nib fountain pen which looks to be based on a Moonman M2 or similar. Hopefully I'll get to play with it some time next month.

[essayfaire]

35 minutes ago, ruby.monkey said:

Does a pre-order count as an impulse buy?

Yes, if you had not planned on buying the item.  

[Gloucesterman]

10 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

It's a small enough show.  I'll find you.

What Noodler's inks will you have (as if I don't already have more different Noodler's inks than Diamine inks... ).

Yay -- it's official.  We just made hotel reservations for the trip up (one night partway across PA and two nights in the Sturbridge area).  The scary part is that Sturbridge was less expensive than anyplace in Framingham, even though Old Sturbridge Village is having their annual "Members" event the same day as the Commonwealth Show and there's no way for me to do both.... 

I don't miss much about living in Massachusetts -- but I DO miss being able for my husband and me to be going "Do we have plans for Saturday?  If not, let's go to Old Sturbridge Village for the day!" at each other....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Ruth, I am doing my inventory now and will let you know what I have. I will also have some Diamine inks and a bunch of paper pads and notebooks. They will include Rhodia, Fabriano, a few ink wells, ephemera and other stuff. 

 

You already know me as you have bought from me in the past. I wasn't there last year because I fractured my hip and was in rehab (and hobbling) for over a month. Also going to have a bunch of Pelikans - mainly M200 and some Pelikan nibs for the M200. Also a lot of vintage including an Eversharp 5th Avenue fountain pen and pencil set. The cap on the FP is SOLID 14k gold! Several Montblanc 146s and...

See you there...

[ParramattaPaul]

4 hours ago, ruby.monkey said:

Does a pre-order count as an impulse buy? If so, then my latest is this - an eye-dropper glass nib fountain pen which looks to be based on a Moonman M2 or similar. Hopefully I'll get to play with it some time next month.

It did for me when I pre-ordered the FPUK special edition Gravitas.  That little gem was a lightning quick impulse buy.

[AgedAndFine]

Pilot Custom 74 with SM nib, today.

[Driften]

Well I did it again... Onoto Caledonian Loch Ness with 18k F nib. It's all Vanness's fault. This model of Magna with gold nib was just hard to pass up price wise after having a 10% discount from the Conway Stewart coming in at $470. I don't know why they only wanted $523 for this one when all of the others were $679 or more. It's #54 of 100. I expect the mossy color just wasn't as popular as when it was the blue/yellow/silver version before it. At Onoto it's the same price as the others not less. There are ones with flasher materials but for the price difference you can buy a Onoto Scholar. 

 

 

[ParramattaPaul]

35 minutes ago, Driften said:

Well I did it again... Onoto Caledonian Loch Ness with 18k F nib. It's all Vanness's fault. This model of Magna with gold nib was just hard to pass up price wise after having a 10% discount from the Conway Stewart coming in at $470. I don't know why they only wanted $523 for this one when all of the others were $679 or more. It's #54 of 100. I expect the mossy color just wasn't as popular as when it was the blue/yellow/silver version before it. At Onoto it's the same price as the others not less. There are ones with flasher materials but for the price difference you can buy a Onoto Scholar. 

 

 

 

Having both a Magna and a Scholar I can say you will be very happy with your pen.  

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 9/7/2022 at 9:45 PM, Driften said:

 

My pen choices sure have changed over the years. Went from pens like the Pelikan m200 and fine nibs, then to medium sized pens like mb 146/Pelikan m800 and broad nibs, now oversized pens in more medium nibs. My Nakaya's in B were the push to more M sized nibs. I got used to them and started to find European B's feeling too wide. 

Interesting. I'm wondering if you use different pens for different things.

 

I write typically with F or EF nibs, but make changes with larger nibs, M or even B, and mark things 'done' with a bold+ nib (in bright color). Somehow, writing this makes me smile. I have patterns of pen use now 😄

[OldTravelingShoe]

17 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Yes, if you had not planned on buying the item.  

Only if you want it to count, @ruby.monkey 😃

[inkstainedruth]

1 hour ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Interesting. I'm wondering if you use different pens for different things.

 

I write typically with F or EF nibs, but make changes with larger nibs, M or even B, and mark things 'done' with a bold+ nib (in bright color). Somehow, writing this makes me smile. I have patterns of pen use now 😄

I don't know how Driften would respond, but I definitely do that to some extent.  While my preferred nib widths are F and M, the pen I reach for if I have to do a lot of research and being writing copious notes will be the Parker 51 Vacumatic with an EF nib -- the fill system means that there is a lot of ink in the barrel -- and the nicely tuned nib means that I get a very fine line without the nib being scratchy (while still being stingy with ink use).  

But if I'm doing calligraphy?  I'll reach for the Parker Vector calligraphy set (with four different nib widths, although I've mostly only ever used the IF nib) or a cheap Chinese pen with a fude nib (which is also the pen I use for the old formula J Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite with the big gold flakes in the ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Driften]

2 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Interesting. I'm wondering if you use different pens for different things.

 

I write typically with F or EF nibs, but make changes with larger nibs, M or even B, and mark things 'done' with a bold+ nib (in bright color). Somehow, writing this makes me smile. I have patterns of pen use now 😄

 

I got into wider nibs to show off the ink better. For a while I also like stubs and italics. I found stubs and flexible nibs slow down my writing as I try harder to make it look nice. So those are for special needs and not often used. I don't like extra fine nibs as they made my writing look really bad.

 

Paper makes a difference on good paper wider nibs look better than on cheeper paper. I found that a 0.65mm line width was my favorite. It's in-between M and B depending on the brand and nib. Jowo/Bock steel nibs it's normally a B. In wet gold nibs its an M. When I got into Nakaya pens, a B nib writes around 0.50mm and with getting used to that line width I'm enjoying it and moving my new nibs in that direction. My Nakaya's are my favorite pens. I love the feel of urushi on them so they set the standard.

 

A lot of factors go into line width like how wet the ink is and how fast or slow you write. I tend to write slow and with wetter nibs it makes them wider than someone like my wife that writes fast and flowing. 

 

Over the last six years I have found thicker sections and oversized pens more comfortable to write with, but that's not always true. it depends a lot of section shape. Age might be a factor in that, I turned 60 this year.

 

To finally answer your question, most of my writing is general purpose or in my journal at the end of writing sessions on my novels. I normally swap pens every day and use different colors of ink to be able to see at a glance what day a journal entry changed days. 

 

 

[NumberSix]

Bought two impulse pens today, after buying nothing for almost six months.

 

1. Pelikan M1000 F

The green stripe model has basically been out of stock all year for everywhere I looked. I got an email this week from Cultpens that it was back.  I am expecting to have to send it off to Kirk Speer for tuning, based on the last time I bought a brand new Pelikan from cultpens (an M800 about 2 years ago). But I am pleased with the price, and I grabbed some cheap bottles of 4001 ink to go with it.

 

2. MB 149 F

Late 70s/Early 80s model I just happened to stumble across on a dealer page. The price was about usual for a used 149, but I haven't seen any nice ones for sale lately. I included some Iroshizuku inks with it because they're a good match for Montblancs in my experience.

 

It was a lot of money to spend at one time. But each pen was a price I am happy to have paid.