One Pen One Month Challenge

[Noihvo]

[Eitan]

Correspondence. One letter to one person each day. Even just a one line letter.

[Scylax]

Has anyone completed the challenge on the 'second cycle' yet? I'm hoping to give it a go soon, and I'd love to know if anyone else is doing it or has done so recently. This thread has some great information, thank you all!

[Honeybadgers]

I can't - need at least two colors for school - I use four, two each for each subject so I ca help differentiate my notes.

[Scylax]

I can understand that. I generally like to have a second colour available but I don't enjoy switching inks so I should be better off than most. I'm more than happy to use one ink all month - but I'm struggling to find the right one. I know we can change if we want but I'm one of those people who just can't switch ink during a project so I need to get it right!

 

Also I'm fussy about my ink choices so I'd really welcome some thoughts. Firstly it has to be waterproof and at least of good lightfast ability. Blue would be ideal, bright if possible, black is fine, I'd certainly consider other colour but not *too* eye-popping. And it has to be dry and not spread -my handwriting is *tiny*. And the killer for me at the moment is that my pens are demonstrators and I don't want permanent staining!

 

I've been using Noodler's BPB but it really smears too much for me with any water. MB permanent blue appears to have ruined one of my demonstrators with stains I can't seem to remove. I love the colour of R&K Marlene but will that stain in a month? If so, could that be remedied? Otherwise I have Sailor Sei Boku or Noodler's Kung te Cheng, but I'm not sure if those would be better? I tried DA document inks and I like them but they're far too wet!

 

My pen is a Conid Kingsize demonstrator with a Platinum 3776 UEF nib (which sadly writes more like an EF/F)

[cattar]

scylax - I've unstained pens/converters with a fill of Sailor Doyou.

Others have done the same with a fill of Noodler's Red Rattler.

 

I'm writing out my pens so I can be in during incowrimo with 2 pens. One pen I write with and one pen I loan to others.

(I've already done the one month with the pen I loan to others.

What I'd like to find is a pen that writes like my favorite and looks discreet.)

Edited January 18, 2019 by cattar

[Scylax]

Thanks, I'll try to get hold of those inks somewhere and hope that works on my already stained pen - might give me more confidence to risk my others! Do you have your own pen options narrowed down yet?

[cattar]

I've been using mostly modern pens the last few months.

I have a handful of lever-fillers, so I'm going to pick....one.

When the time comes, I think I'll close my eyes and pull one out of the vintage pen cup. I think it'll be the Osmiroid with an italic nib. It'll be good for writing notes for incowrimo.

[Scylax]

Lovely! I'll look forward to reading how that goes for you

[Scylax]

So I decided to do a 'soft start' and try the De Atramentis Document Black, and surprisingly it's giving me a more accurate line width than the BPB, but the pen doesn't seem quite as happy somehow -it doesn't flow as evenly - maybe the ink is a little thick? I'll stick with it for a few days then change if I have to, but the Platinum nib on the Conid is an amazing combination for me - a pen large enough to hold but with a nib small enough to write with - 5 lines of text to each line of Oxford Optik this morning, which is brilliant

[Karmachanic]

With four recently filled pens, I'll have to wait a bit. One additional thing that keeps me back, is that I might like it enough to continue ad infininitum. Then I'd have to get rid of the rest of them, as I tend not to keep things I don't use. Hmmm.

[MsRedpen]

I forgot to share the experience, this is how it went

 

Selecting the pen seemed easy, Decimo is pretty much fuss free, right? Wrong. Test ride of just 2 days, filled with Pelikan Aquamarine was absolute failure. M nib too smooth for my everyday writing, colour started annoying me as too light (?), run out of ink from CON 40 which was not properly filled in the first place, no Aquamarine in spare vial at work, clicking the button seemed noisier with every next click, finished the day with Preppy and it ‘s blue-black.

2 days test learning: for my needs and habits I should use my Decimo with smooth paper only, dry inks, for everyday writing I prefer darker colours. Another note to self: fill converter properly and due to it ‘s small capacity keep spare ink vial/bottle close.

 

Re-start test (one month challenge restarts all over again)

Old faithfull, Pelikan M400, with R&K Verdigris. What could go wrong with this classics? Well, feathering all over office papers, and my M nib has typicall Pelikan wetness and writes on the wider side. Other than this combo not being compatible for work notes and drafts, it was comfortable for home use with Rhodia, Clairefontaine and Midori - but I was stuck with seriousness of Verdigris. Test over.

2nd test learning: I should use my wet pens with high gr smooth papers. I love the look, feel, fit, size of Pelikan in any setting, but my nib choices should strictly fit the purpose.

 

Actual one pen one month challenge was done mid July to mid August, with Pelikan M200, green marbled, steel F nib, and Tsuky-yo. One full fill of ink was used in that time.

It was perfect for all occasions, comfortable for longer writing. The only difference I noticed, when I had to write more/longer I would post the cap. I usually write unposted. My writing angle became more shallow, grip higher on the barrel.

In writing, important parts were in print letters, with some “stars” or underlining, the rest was in cursive.

Learning: above combination was a “happy choice” and confirmed why so many vintage Pelikans from one person one pen time are still around and praised (at least in this corner of the world).

 

After August I went happily inking way too many pens with burgundy, red, green and blue-black. And bought few more pens...

 

I was OK with one pen one ink for one month. And I am also OK with the whole variety around,

[Scylax]

How interesting! So am I right in thinking that the pens that didn't work for your test are ones you still really enjoy using, just didn't work for you as a 'one and only'? I love my decimo but I can't imagine relying on that little converter as my only ink source!

 

I find it especially interesting that your choice in the end seems to have affected your handwriting - am I understanding that correctly? Interesting!

[MsRedpen]

Hi Scylax,

I still use and like all my pens, each has it ‘s own character and needs matching with mood, purpose and naturally, paper and ink.

You could say I went safe, with pen that suited my daily routine, opposed to changing my habits and adjusting them around the pen.

 

My handwriting did not change (does not look any better or worse ), my grip slightly changed. And that is good for my wrist.

 

But I mised colours... that was the difficult part of the challenge.

 

When I think years back, I used black ink for about 15 years, one pen 10 years - and all was fine both were Pelikan!

[cattar]

msredpen brings up an interesting point about color.

I've done one pen for a month before with ink I knew I could mix. And i changed the color every few days when filling.

This time, I also need a permanent ink in a pen.

So I'll either reconsider the timing, or use two pens, or commit to one ink. Hm.

[japinder_888]

Sounds good!

[Scylax]

So a few days in and I would say the results are slightly mixed. Love the pen and line width, but I'm scared the ink is starting to stain the clear body, and the nib skips at certain angles. And I don't have the skill to work out why, or indeed what to do about it. Key lesson here is test nibs before transplanting them onto a different pen :/

[Scylax]

Well, after being increasingly frustrated by the slightly inconsistent ink flow I unscrewed the nib unit and we used a pipette to flush water through the nib and feed, and that seems to have improved matters somewhat, though the nib is still slightly wet for such a fine point. I'm really really appreciating not only the comfortable dimensions and grip section and good ink capacity of the Conid, but also the fundamental design decisions to make it user serviceable/modifiable - the nib unit can be swapped in seconds (which also allows for filling by pipette which is easier), the vac mechanism can be removed, and the pen generally feels like a useful tool designed for the benefit of the user instead of the maker. Yes, I've had some frustration getting a nib onto this pen which suits my needs, but between Conid's decision to allow users to mod the pen, the flexible nib factory's ability and willingness to make custom housings, and Platinum's UEF nibs, I finally feel like I've got what I need.

 

I'm also happy enough with the De Atramentis document ink - I love the waterproof nature and colours, price is not great but acceptable. Different colours have different flow though and the purple and maybe blue are too pale for nibs this fine. Black of course is fine, but slightly wetter than I like. I haven't tried turquoise in it but given the flow in everything else I am certain it would be incredibly wet.

 

My current challenge is that I take a lot of notes on post-its and I'm finding them slightly ink-repellant. I need to try a few pads, maybe different colours, to see if it happens on them all. Thanks to the ink the effect isn't catastrophic, but it feels unpleasant, whereas writing on Oxford Optik paper is enjoyable.

[cattar]

I decided to do a one pen on a different month because I like the pen/nib/ink variety during incowrimo and I'm using a lot of dip nibs. But I'm following the thread.

 

I've been intrigued by conid and the user-friendly features you've mentioned. Will consider one for a favorite nib.

I've found that some inks are friendly with a variety of papers and some are not. I tend to use Japanese inks for business. The inks stick even to thermal paper.

 

Looking forward to the updates.

Edited February 7, 2019 by cattar

[by_a_Lady]

I just now stumbled over this revived thread, but the testmonials of previous participants of this challenge really intrigue me! I think I will participate as well, even if just privately.

 

My weapon of choice will be a Wing Sung 601 F; the ink is yet to be chosen (Im tending towards Diamine Ancient Copper or J. Herbin Lie de Thè for a start). A yellow Lamy Safari 1.1 with Sailor Jentle Oku-Yama was also a good candidate, but I feel like I already have a similar experiment going on with it, as its my journaling pen and ink that I use almost every day to write several pages. A petrol Lamy Safari B dropped out of the race as well because the nib size plays well with most inks, and my objective in this challenge is chiefly to find a colour that wont look too dark and boring coming out of a narrower nib. I only have one other pen this fine, a Wing Sung 698 F, and that one seems to have bonded permanently with Noodlers Heart of Darkness (although I will try it in the 601 as well and see how it likes that).

 

 

 

 

Dominique

Edited February 7, 2019 by by_a_Lady