Your Pen/ink Combinations For The Perfect Writing Experience

[IndigoBOB]

I really like the versatility of the Jowo's. And I really like how such #6's write in lighter pens. With heavier pens, like my Jinhao x750/450's, I find anything finer than a Medium can get a little toothpicky for me. I even had to switch my Silent Night out of my Jinhao x750-F "dream combo".

 

For me, my sweet spot is typically a Medium nib with Noodler's ink or a Fine nib with Sailor ink... My Lamy Safari M has Noodler's Air-Corps Blue Black, and thought it's not that dreamy feel of velvet, my hand loves it lol . It has the right balance of feedback and smoothness that allows me to accent my writing with pressure without toothpicking into the paper, while also allowing me to finesse back to a weightless glide without losing that sense of connection to the paper (TRP of course). My hand feels free for some reason and my characteristic penmanship comes back. It doesn't feel blissful necessarily, but it's just write . And I love the vibrancy of ACBB in this batch of very dark greenish teal the bottle came from. I've purchased other ACBB's that were either lighter, more anemic, or that more blue color of the original, and I just did not like them at all.

 

I do have a Rose Gold x750- Medium Black Goulet Nib- Black Swan in English Roses. and This has been one of the most surprising combos that I can enjoy where my hand feels the freedom to reach it's "signature" penmanship... And I'm also surprised how much I love this ink. I typically don't use reds, I'm not oriented to them, and I especially don't prefer them for a daily writer, but BSI English Roses is an exception. It is beautiful, especially on TRP with a relatively wet nib like the Jinhao-Jowo's.

I did use it before in a Lamy Safari-1.1, and it wrote really well on cheap paper, which surprised me, but it wasn't as dark and had less shading. It was like my experience with Kung Te-Cheng in my Safari: flowed well, but lacked the vibrancy that made you fall in love with the color.

[Torrilin]

I definitely like my JoWo xf nibs a lot. One is my front line ink testing pen, the sister to my “boring” one mentioned upthread. Those two pens are my best for fast writing and drawing. (Assuming the testbed doesn’t get fed an unpleasant ink) I’d very much rather have spidery writing if it’s a big writing day than a blobby look. So xf nibs are my friends, tho not necessarily the absolute finest.

 

I’ve got a Safari xf that writes a more Japanese xf and is pretty agreeable about inks, and it’s the other front line ink tester. And I can hot swap the nibs if I want on that pen... very helpful in testing.

 

Fine nibs definitely don’t show an ink off the best usually, but there are a lot of inks that are unuseable for my lefty self even in these nibs. And it’s a lot more upsetting to ruin a page of calligraphy practice with smearing than regular writing. And the technical stuff that goes into crosshatching can be really illuminating when I’m trying to decide if I want more than 2mL of an ink.

[truthpil]

I do have a Rose Gold x750- Medium Black Goulet Nib- Black Swan in English Roses. and This has been one of the most surprising combos that I can enjoy where my hand feels the freedom to reach it's "signature" penmanship... And I'm also surprised how much I love this ink. I typically don't use reds, I'm not oriented to them, and I especially don't prefer them for a daily writer, but BSI English Roses is an exception. It is beautiful, especially on TRP with a relatively wet nib like the Jinhao-Jowo's.

I did use it before in a Lamy Safari-1.1, and it wrote really well on cheap paper, which surprised me, but it wasn't as dark and had less shading. It was like my experience with Kung Te-Cheng in my Safari: flowed well, but lacked the vibrancy that made you fall in love with the color.

I have had this ink sitting in a drawer for a year or two now because I just couldn't get the black swan to come out and play with anything other than a noodler's "flex" pen....which is so NOT a blissful writing experience. So do you actually see any black shading with your combo?

 

I concur about the versatility of JoWo nibs and am starting to amass quite a few #5 and #6 nibs. I love that I can just pop one into a variety of pens in different shapes, sizes, and colors and get the kind of writing experience I want for that day (depending on the ink working well with the combo, of course). It's especially nice when you have a pen that fits your hand just perfectly, but you need to change the nib size for different writing purposes. I've got a customized Asa Rainbow coming in a few weeks that has been set up with a JoWo #5 nib unit that I can't wait to try.

 

I definitely like my JoWo xf nibs a lot. One is my front line ink testing pen, the sister to my “boring” one mentioned upthread. Those two pens are my best for fast writing and drawing. (Assuming the testbed doesn’t get fed an unpleasant ink) I’d very much rather have spidery writing if it’s a big writing day than a blobby look. So xf nibs are my friends, tho not necessarily the absolute finest.

 

I’ve got a Safari xf that writes a more Japanese xf and is pretty agreeable about inks, and it’s the other front line ink tester. And I can hot swap the nibs if I want on that pen... very helpful in testing.

 

Fine nibs definitely don’t show an ink off the best usually, but there are a lot of inks that are unuseable for my lefty self even in these nibs. And it’s a lot more upsetting to ruin a page of calligraphy practice with smearing than regular writing. And the technical stuff that goes into crosshatching can be really illuminating when I’m trying to decide if I want more than 2mL of an ink.

Fine and extra fine nibs definitely have their place. As a writing professor I have to grade hundreds of papers every term and a Western fine is just broad enough to write quickly and smoothly while showing off enough of the ink to be interesting but still minimizing the smearing.

 

Using extra fine nibs that obviously can't have that butter on glass type of smoothness, what is your idea of writing perfection when using an extra fine nib on copy paper?

 

Regarding Platinum Carbon Black you mentioned earlier, lately I've been amazed at how it improves the writability of pens. I have a scratchy older model 03 Preppy (back when the nibs were colored) filled with this right now and the ink flows so smoothly that the nib doesn't actually have to fully contact the paper to write a rich line. The ink totally saved the pen for me. I'm looking forward to trying it in other pens that haven't been writing as smoothly as I'd like.

[IndigoBOB]

English Black Swan played so nice with my 1.1 Jowo in the jinhao. With a Medium Jowo I had to make sure it was a wet nib to get that nice color.

 

I'm experimenting a little with the FPR Himalaya right now. I have a standard feed, but I ordered a flex feed to see what I can get out of it. You know I've always wanted a wet nib for Scabiosa that could lay day that dark saturated hue I can get when I prime the feed of a TWSBI Eco with it.

[truthpil]

 

I'm experimenting a little with the FPR Himalaya right now. I have a standard feed, but I ordered a flex feed to see what I can get out of it. You know I've always wanted a wet nib for Scabiosa that could lay day that dark saturated hue I can get when I prime the feed of a TWSBI Eco with it.

 

They aren't joking when they say the special flex feed is a gusher. It's so wet that some of my inks just looked like black puddles on the paper haha. The feed is absolutely perfect for iron gall inks because it brings them to their full potential, so you should enjoy the Scabiosa combo. My sample of Scabiosa has been ignored for lack of saturation as well.

[IndigoBOB]

*Fingers Crossed* that it's so. I absolutely love scabiosa when it's wet and deeply saturated.

 

I also have KWZ IG GummiBerry I feel the same way about. I'd love to get it to that full dark potential. Plus, the standard feed of the Himalaya with a Fine nib works so well with Kung Te-Cheng in case I wish to use it with that pen. I feel more comfortable taking the Himalaya out than I do my Noodler's Charlie I have inked right now with KTC.

 

I can tell you, I can't imagine not having KTC inked in a pen. I don't know whey, and I would have never gone to this extent to make any other ink work, but I need to have this inked in a pen.

 

After trying Ebonite pens from Ranga and Noodler's I've actually grown to appreciate the Himalaya. I picked up several more Fine nibs to make sure I got at least one that will work well and some backups for my Charile pens.

 

I've been consolidating my pen collection and making use of what I have. Along with utilizing my Himalaya, I dug up a Pilot CH 92 B from several months ago that wrote terribly, never got used, and so I finally sent it into a nibmeister, Mark Bacas over here, to grind it down to a Japanese M that could flow easily. I typically don't prefer acrylic pens, but it's still such a solid pen and the threads are lower so I can use them as a grip. Plus, I really like the inkflow of a typical Pilot Pen.

 

I sold my Franklin-Christoph Model 20 Marietta so I can use the money to buy a Lamy 2000. I love Franklin-Christoph pens, but they are typically too slippery for me for longer writing sessions, which the L2K's Makrolon remedies for me. I tried the L2K half a year back, but wanted to search for a more affordable alternative after my bad experience with spending more on the Pilot CH 92 that didn't go well. I couldn't find a better alternative TBH.

[truthpil]

I sold my Franklin-Christoph Model 20 Marietta so I can use the money to buy a Lamy 2000. I love Franklin-Christoph pens, but they are typically too slippery for me for longer writing sessions, which the L2K's Makrolon remedies for me. I tried the L2K half a year back, but wanted to search for a more affordable alternative after my bad experience with spending more on the Pilot CH 92 that didn't go well. I couldn't find a better alternative TBH.

 

Slipperiness is another important factor in perfecting the writing experience. I cannot use pens with slippery sections because I'll get cramps from trying to clamp on to it when it starts slipping during extended writing. It seems like a lot of folks are fans of the Lamy 2000 and don't have slipping issues due to its textured surface.

[IndigoBOB]

 

Slipperiness is another important factor in perfecting the writing experience. I cannot use pens with slippery sections because I'll get cramps from trying to clamp on to it when it starts slipping during extended writing. It seems like a lot of folks are fans of the Lamy 2000 and don't have slipping issues due to its textured surface.

 

 

Yes, the pens I own are basically all to avoid slipperiness. If I can't use the pen for long writing session will likely not buy it.

 

I have the Lamy Safari, Vista, and Al star because they have that securing shape on the grip with a nice flare.

 

I have the TWSBI Eco, which actually has those little flares at the end that are decently useful.

 

Funny enough, the resin on the Charlie isn't too slippery.

 

And then there's ebonite, which is simply wonderful.

 

The only pen I actually want which doesn't fit this trend is the TWSBI 580.

[truthpil]

 

 

Yes, the pens I own are basically all to avoid slipperiness. If I can't use the pen for long writing session will likely not buy it.

 

I have the Lamy Safari, Vista, and Al star because they have that securing shape on the grip with a nice flare.

 

I have the TWSBI Eco, which actually has those little flares at the end that are decently useful.

 

Funny enough, the resin on the Charlie isn't too slippery.

 

And then there's ebonite, which is simply wonderful.

 

The only pen I actually want which doesn't fit this trend is the TWSBI 580.

 

Yep, the slipperiness is what keeps me from buying a lot of otherwise really nice Chinese fountain pens.

Every since I discovered acrylic and ebonite pens, my "precious resin" pens have been ignored. Both acrylic and ebonite have a special feel to them that feels soft in the hand and delightfully light, perhaps ebonite most of all. Vintage celluloid/BCHR also have a lovely gripping texture I find essential for a zen-like writing experience.

 

Summing up so far, we've seen that some factors contributing to the perfect writing experience in addition to just nib and ink include the size, tactile feel and balance of the pen and how it fits the individual's hand.

 

Any more perfect pen and ink combinations for copy paper that folks in this community have discovered?

[Torrilin]

Basically, I go for either an xf (German style mostly, so some Japanese xfs lean spidery for my taste) or an italic. I’m sometimes in the mood for in between sizes, but it’s not even close to the default. In calligraphy terms, I like an x height of 3-4mm, and 2.5 is doable. This lets me use around a 1mm nib for drill, and it lets me use 5mm grid/dot rule or 7mm ruled paper for drill. With minor adjustments I can go up to a 1.9mm nib on the same sort of paper if I need the discipline provided by a sharper nib.

 

So I’m not ever looking for a super smooth experience, not the way many fountain pen users seem to. I’m much more interested in the character of the line, and how well the nib fits my own particular calligraphy. And I’ve done enough miles of drill that even if I’m technically using a ball/monoline nib, it’s still going to bear the stamp of my favorite hand.

 

A nib with no character will (bleep) me off. And most xf nibs show greater line variation than broader ones. Gotta be gentle. I can be sloppy with a fat nib with no corners, and I don’t want sloppy. I want crisp and pretty.

 

I’m kind of cranking through ink in my new Kaweco Sport, which is labeled as an F, but it’s got the typically Kaweco flow and so far it’s writing like an xf. An international short cartridge is fantastic for ink attention deficit disorder... I don’t think I’ve thrown any of the new inks at copy paper yet, but several are standing out as inks I should try in better or more demanding nibs. They’ve all been thrown at comp books, Moleskine cahiers, my cheap Maruman, and some student quality art paper.

 

Kaweco paradise blue and caramel brown are the stand outs so far. A lot of brown inks seem lefty hostile, but caramel isn’t (so far). And the blue has a nice lubricated feel and it’s satisfying my peculiar taste in blue.

[truthpil]

So I’m not ever looking for a super smooth experience, not the way many fountain pen users seem to. I’m much more interested in the character of the line, and how well the nib fits my own particular calligraphy. And I’ve done enough miles of drill that even if I’m technically using a ball/monoline nib, it’s still going to bear the stamp of my favorite hand.

 

A nib with no character will (bleep) me off. And most xf nibs show greater line variation than broader ones. Gotta be gentle. I can be sloppy with a fat nib with no corners, and I don’t want sloppy. I want crisp and pretty.

 

That's an interesting and different angle to put on "the perfect writing experience." From your description, it seems like for you what makes the experience perfect isn't how it "feels," but what the writing looks like. Makes sense. I guess I kind of go between those two ideas depending on my mood or purpose. When I want pretty writing, I go with cursive italics and vintage EF or OB flex (depending on the size of writing called for). When I want to kick back in ethereal bliss, I go for a buttery smooth stub for personal writing and a wet Western F or M for work or jotting things in my planner.

 

I’m kind of cranking through ink in my new Kaweco Sport, which is labeled as an F, but it’s got the typically Kaweco flow and so far it’s writing like an xf. An international short cartridge is fantastic for ink attention deficit disorder... I don’t think I’ve thrown any of the new inks at copy paper yet, but several are standing out as inks I should try in better or more demanding nibs. They’ve all been thrown at comp books, Moleskine cahiers, my cheap Maruman, and some student quality art paper.

 

That's interesting about your Kaweco, because my EF Sport writes very smooth and wet, leaning toward an F.

[Torrilin]

The feel matters, but I don’t have good words for what the “right” feel is. I know what I like, and I know what I like isn’t mainstream for the hobby...

 

I’ve seen some posters comment that italic nibs tend to have rather dry flow. Too wet and you lose the hairlines. And I’ve got experience with too wet, probably the pen I have the most miles on still is the Sheaffer No Nonsense and it was something of an ink firehose. Lots of ink beading and shading, and feathering was a problem on most paper. It’s probably not a coincidence that I developed a profound love for blue black ink with that pen.

 

A more typical italic like my Lamy and Kaweco nibs seems to work better for me. Or my Pilot Parallel, tho that edges towards too dry sometimes.

 

The other comment I see a lot about italics is they have a narrow range where they work well. And I’ve spent so much time with them it’s hard to evaluate. I don’t consciously think about it, ever, but there’s a right way to hold a nib to paper, and to me it feels like it just happens. I’m getting to the point where even with an xf ball nib, it just automatically gets held a certain way, and I can feel the resistance if I’m off. It’s not as strong as with an edged nib, but it’s there.

 

So I guess I’m looking for a feel that reinforces the character of the line and supports it. Glassy smooth always doesn’t work. But if I’m in the zone, I won’t feel the edges.

[IndigoBOB]

Have you tried Sailor Kiwa-Guro?

 

It's lubricated like Miruai, with a velvety feel that surpasses Aurora Black.

 

But it's drier than Miruai. I've been trying to find the right pen for it. I love the behavior, permanence, and rich blackness.

 

My Finer Safari nibs are a tad dry with Kiwa-guro for my liking. The Medium worked well, but I didn't do thorough testing because I was looking for a finer line for EDC.

 

I may test Kiwa-Guro with Pilot pens (Prera, Kakuno) because I find their pens have wetter inkflow than Lamy's.

 

I may test it out on a TWSBI 580-F or Eco-F if other options don't work out. But TWSBI's can be dry, so they aren't at the top of my list to test.

 

But I will say I just received my Lamy 2K-F (my new workhorse EDC). I've been too busy to use it, but I've been keen to test it with Kiwa-Guro.

 

I also have a Pilot CH92 from last summer that was a bum Broad nibbed disappointment that never worked, and I only recently sent it to Mark Bacas (more affordable and timely nibmeister with excellent reviews) to have it fixed and ground down to a Japanese Medium. Testing this out with Kiwa-Guro could be a test for the Custom 74 as well.

 

All these pens have good inner caps to keep the pen from drying out. For that Reason the Platinum 3776 has always been on my list.

 

But I'm not quick to test Kiwa-guro out on just anything cuz I don't like to waste it and I have a pretty good idea of what kind of pen I'm looking to use it with. Kiwa-Guro is pricier, but at least nothing like Kobe or Bungubox, and quite frankly I think its a much better value than those boutique inks, which are more guilty pleasures for me.

 

Kiwa-Guro really allows me to bridge the gap between ballpoints and fountain pens and allows me to use a fountain pen as a True EDC.

 

It's like the Kung Te-Cheng of my EDC/cheap paper world and is basically the only other ink besides KTC that I've searched to find the right pen for that fits my preferences for a workhorse EDC. Otherwise I think a Pilot Metro among others would suffice.

 

If I'm not using Kiwa-Guro for EDC, I'm using whatever finer nib works with Noodler's HoD, or Noodler's Black (I love these rich black inks), but even those are going to go through similar trials with the before mentioned pens in hopes of finding something close to that "just right" EDC/pen for cheaper paper/workhorse.

[Torrilin]

I have kiwa-guro cartridges, but my Sailor fude likes Platinum Carbon Black better. With the kiwa-guro, the line is a weird combo of dry and wet. Dry because it doesn’t flow well and is MUCH more prone to drying out. Wet because once you get it flowing, it’ll form ink beads and generally be ridiculous about smear and dry times. While also being somewhat dry and scratchy. It’s a real mess. Not the good kind of mess like a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen either.

 

I have a ball nib option for the pen, but it’s only a mf. So about the same as a Pilot medium or a JoWo or Lamy fine. The fude has a lot more character with a good ink so I’d rather have it inked. And I have plenty of nice ball nibs in finer widths.

 

I haven’t tried the kiwa-guro in any of my other favorite pens. Yet. But it’s an ink that has potential, and I can see why people love it in the right pens.

 

I’m betting Platinum and Sailor are tuning their inks for slightly different target customers.

[IndigoBOB]

I have kiwa-guro cartridges, but my Sailor fude likes Platinum Carbon Black better. With the kiwa-guro, the line is a weird combo of dry and wet. Dry because it doesn’t flow well and is MUCH more prone to drying out. Wet because once you get it flowing, it’ll form ink beads and generally be ridiculous about smear and dry times. While also being somewhat dry and scratchy. It’s a real mess. Not the good kind of mess like a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen either.

 

I have a ball nib option for the pen, but it’s only a mf. So about the same as a Pilot medium or a JoWo or Lamy fine. The fude has a lot more character with a good ink so I’d rather have it inked. And I have plenty of nice ball nibs in finer widths.

 

I haven’t tried the kiwa-guro in any of my other favorite pens. Yet. But it’s an ink that has potential, and I can see why people love it in the right pens.

 

I’m betting Platinum and Sailor are tuning their inks for slightly different target customers.

 

 

That's the challenge I faced.

 

I loved the way it wrote in my safari after filling from the bottle, making the feed fully saturated, but it would peter out like you say once the extra ink in the feed was used. I'd have to prime the feed to get it to work after that.

 

In my Franklin-Christoph Marietta, Kiwa-Guro's flow was not a problem at all, but I sold that pen off because it wasn't that comfortable for longer writing sessions.

 

I have yet to ink it up in my L2K, which is supposed to be a wetter writing pen. I was hoping the Pilot CH 92 would be wet enough with it, but we'll see of course.

[truthpil]

I haven't tried Kiwa-guro but I have Platinum Carbon Black and it is very wet. It makes some of my dry writers flow nicely

However, lately I've noticed it drying on the nib when I pause while writing and this caused hard starts. I have a feeling it's due to the extremely dry weather where I am lately.

[truthpil]

(repeat post)

Edited March 7, 2018 by TruthPil

[IndigoBOB]

I haven't tried Kiwa-guro but I have Platinum Carbon Black and it is very wet. It makes some of my dry writers flow nicely

However, lately I've noticed it drying on the nib when I pause while writing and this caused hard starts. I have a feeling it's due to the extremely dry weather where I am lately.

 

 

 

OOooooh. You can't talk EDC or writing on printer paper or something cheaper without talking about Kiwa-Guro:

 

http://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2016/10/19/a-quick-guide-to-coping-with-crappy-office-paper

 

I'm surprised I don't see Noodler's black higher up on that list, but I agree with what's number 1. It's like Sailor Jentle Miruai (and other Jentles) in how they can make a good pen great and even a $h!# pen shine.

 

The velvet feel is wonderful and as long as your pen isn't too dry, it's at least for me the one ink I'd own if I could only own 1. Kung Te-Cheng would be number two because it doesn't work as well on cheap paper.

 

If you find a pen that works well with that ink, you're golden.

[truthpil]

 

 

 

OOooooh. You can't talk EDC or writing on printer paper or something cheaper without talking about Kiwa-Guro:

 

http://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2016/10/19/a-quick-guide-to-coping-with-crappy-office-paper

 

I'm surprised I don't see Noodler's black higher up on that list, but I agree with what's number 1. It's like Sailor Jentle Miruai (and other Jentles) in how they can make a good pen great and even a $h!# pen shine.

 

The velvet feel is wonderful and as long as your pen isn't too dry, it's at least for me the one ink I'd own if I could only own 1. Kung Te-Cheng would be number two because it doesn't work as well on cheap paper.

 

If you find a pen that works well with that ink, you're golden.

 

That's one of the reasons I started this thread. If someone shares the golden combination for sheer writing perfection with Kiwa-Guro, then I might be game to buy both the pen and ink.

 

The reasons I chose Platinum Carbon over Kiwa-Guro were that some have noticed the latter rubbing off onto the facing page when left on the shelf for a while and also that it can take on a more slate-like sheen and I wanted pure suck deep into the paper black.

 

Noodler's Black was my only ink for years until I discovered this horrible place hahaha. However, I've stopped using it because it will smear like crazy if you rub a finger over it even years after writing something on any paper other than the most absorbent. It's amazing on really grainy cheap copy paper, but if even the tiniest amount doesn't sink into the paper, it will smudge if you touch it. I unfortunately used it to write notes on gifts to people that have since smudged and messed up the pages they were written on.

[minddance]

Many Sailor inks smear readily, Oku Yama, Yama Dori, Shigure etc. Some Diamines smear quite readily too, Sargasso Sea, Oxblood, Red Dragon, Bilberry, Iroshizuku yama budo, even Waterman Serenity Blue, when run from a wet pen, smears. As a matter of fact, all non-waterproof inks, are potentially smearing.

 

Rohrer and Klingner Document Brown doesn't smear and I believe inks in that range, and other waterproof inks won't smear.

 

Generally, inks that sheen very readily smear easily. So, as a guide, one might want to search for and take a look at all those reviews displaying 'sheen'.

 

The next time someone says "oh, look at that gorgeous sheen, marvellous sheen", it would mean "this ink smears readily".

Edited March 7, 2018 by minddance