What Pens Are You Using Today 2020

[A Smug Dill]

But it looks good and is so warm to the touch. I really like this pen. I've been working on selling off all my mid range pens to make room for a higher end collection but I can't let this one go.

Have you looked at the Aurora 888 Mercurio? It's aurolide body looks very similar to that on your Conklin Durograph in terms of colour and pattern, and while I can't pinpoint or articulate what it is about the material, the aurolide-bodied Optima and Ottantotto pens just feels great in the hand that I can't help buy amass more and more of them in different colours and trims. I don't know, but that could be a fit "higher end" replacement for the Durograph.

 

EndlessPens just put the 888 Mercurio on Hop Drop special a few hours ago, so now the price works out to US$477. I've been eyeing that pen, and if the offer was made a fortnight ago I've probably have jumped on it! Alas, I just bought (and already received) an 888 Nettuno instead, and have spent about as much again on a Santini Italia Calypso, in the meantime so I'm out of funds (and my pen display case is out of space, too).

Edited January 10, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[bemon]

Have you looked at the Aurora 888 Mercurio? It's aurolide body looks very similar to that on your Conklin Durograph in terms of colour and pattern, and while I can't pinpoint or articulate what it is about the material, the aurolide-bodied Optima and Ottantotto pens just feels great in the hand that I can't help buy amass more and more of them in different colours and trims. I don't know, but that could be a fit "higher end" replacement for the Durograph.

 

EndlessPens just put the 888 Mercurio on Hop Drop special a few hours ago, so now the price works out to US$477. I've been eyeing that pen, and if the offer was made a fortnight ago I've probably have jumped on it! Alas, I just bought (and already received) an 888 Nettuno instead, and have spent about as much again on a Santini Italia Calypso, in the meantime so I'm out of funds (and my pen display case is out of space, too).

I haven't explored the Aurora line much at all. I had an Ipsilon once, but I didn't ink it more than a few times before I sold it. I know it's an entry point and probably doesn't compare to models higher up the line, but it didn't hold my attention enough to come back to the brand.

 

Maybe it's worth looking at.

 

For now I just bought 9 pens. I wrote 8 an an earlier post, but I forgot about one. And when you're forgetting about the pens you just bought already, maybe it's time to dial it back!

 

Thanks for the heads up- I'll definitely keep Aurora on my radar. Maybe not as a replacement for the Conklin directly, but as just one more piece to add to the collection.

[A Smug Dill]

I haven't explored the Aurora line much at all. I had an Ipsilon once, but I didn't ink it more than a few times before I sold it. I know it's an entry point and probably doesn't compare to models higher up the line, but it didn't hold my attention enough to come back to the brand.

 

Maybe it's worth looking at.

 

 

I'm umming and ahing at the moment as to whether to order an entry-level resin model of the Aurora Ipsilon. I already have the 100th anniversary commemorative edition Ipsilon that is fitted with a ruthenium-plated gold EF nib — and that's actually the pen I used recently to sign the paper at my wedding, what with 百年 ("a hundred years") being an expression in Chinese commonly used to allude to a lifetime of wedlock — but frankly I'm not that impressed by the line widths it puts down. I hear that the steel EF and F nibs are actually much better in terms of writing performance: toothy, suitably narrow, precise, with some "flex" under the right amount of pressure when one wants to put some line variation into the shapes of one's pen strokes; some have likened them to the EF and F nibs on the Pelikan M20x, which I like and of which I have many (but my wife just relieved me of the the M205 Star Ruby I received two days ago). I think I'd like the satin resin bodies better, but alas they're not the models on special offer at the moment, and I'm not so sure whether the glossy resin will feel "cheaper" in the hand. (I already know the glossy resin attracts fingerprints, whereas the satin resin hides them.)

[bemon]

 

 

I'm umming and ahing at the moment as to whether to order an entry-level resin model of the Aurora Ipsilon. I already have the 100th anniversary commemorative edition Ipsilon that is fitted with a ruthenium-plated gold EF nib — and that's actually the pen I used recently to sign the paper at my wedding, what with 百年 ("a hundred years") being an expression in Chinese commonly used to allude to a lifetime of wedlock — but frankly I'm not that impressed by the line widths it puts down. I hear that the steel EF and F nibs are actually much better in terms of writing performance: toothy, suitably narrow, precise, with some "flex" under the right amount of pressure when one wants to put some line variation into the shapes of one's pen strokes; some have likened them to the EF and F nibs on the Pelikan M20x, which I like and of which I have many (but my wife just relieved me of the the M205 Star Ruby I received two days ago). I think I'd like the satin resin bodies better, but alas they're not the models on special offer at the moment, and I'm not so sure whether the glossy resin will feel "cheaper" in the hand. (I already know the glossy resin attracts fingerprints, whereas the satin resin hides them.)

Congrats! Hang on to the pen you signed your wedding papers with. I choose to use a ballpoint because I knew it was going to be circulated around to everyone who had to sign. I used my blue Pelikan K400, and then lost it a few months later. I hate that I lost the pen we signed with.

 

At any rate, I don't remember the base resin showing a lot of finger prints, but I really didn't use it for long. I had the red one with a broad steel nib. Out of the box the nib was terribly misaligned, but once I fixed it the pen at least put a line down reliably. I don't remember if there was any flex to it, but it didn't feel substantial. Maybe not quite cheap, but not like picking a higher quality pen.

[Freddy]

Montblanc Diplomat w/a expressive Extra-Fine nib

Bexley Pens:

Poseidon Magnum II CI nib PIF

America The Beautiful Stub nib C/C

Lamy 2000 Edition LE Fine nib PIF

Omas Ogiva Double Broad nib PIF

Pens are filled with the Blues

 

Fred

"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking"

Steven Wright.....................

[Misfit]

Just one today, a Nemosine Singularity in black marble, F nib, filled with Noodler’s Dark Matter.

[mallymal1]

Today I'm using

 

1. Platinum #3776 Ascending Dragon w/ Noodler's Legal Blue

2. Monteverde Prima Blue Swirl w/ Noodler's Legal Blue

3. PenBBS 266 Blue Storm w Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue

4. Conklin Duragraph Blue Nights w/ Noodler's Blue-Black

5. PenBBS 480 not sure the color name w Noodler's Bad Green Gator

 

Nice selection.

 

I think the PenBBS 480 is 68 Sunset.

[Jerome Tarshis]

Two contrasting pens: Pelikan M120, the present-day 120, Iconic Blue, inked with Pelikan 4001 royal blue, and an earlier pen that looks as if it came later, a Parker Aero 51, burgundy, inked with Pelikan 4001 brilliant black.

[Misfit]

I used two today.

A Levenger True Writer Wintergreen, M nib, filled with Visconti Blue. I also used Franklin-Christoph #31 Omnis Smoke and Ice, Masuyama broad cursive italic, filled with J Herbin Gris Nuage.

[Freddy]

LXX

Accompanying others............................the following

 

Fred

[hari317]

[Freddy]

 

Fred

still wearin' Sinn Echo Zulu Mike One 503

[A Smug Dill]

[Freddy]

 

Fred

[GardenWeasel]

Pilot 912 with FA nib and a 3 slit ebonite feed, and Papier Plume 011 ink.

[PAKMAN]

Lamy AlStar Marron XL

[BaronWulfraed]

Opus 88 Bela arrived, along with Colorverse Dust Storm/Valles Marineris set, so...

 

After a quick rinse with a drop of Dawn (the main problem of eye-droppers -- no easy way to run solution through the feed) inked it with Dust Storm (an odd color -- I haven't figured out if it is olive drab, or yellowish brown).

 

Warning -- the Opus 88 "Stub" nib (at least from the store through which I ordered it) is a humongous 2.3mm italic. It is not what I'd consider a "writing stub" being well on the calligraphic side. Not sure if I'm seeing hard starts or feed starvation -- may just be remnants of the soap flush affecting the ink (touching to paper towel shows ink, but not showing well in a <shudder> Moleskine)

[aderoy]

Esterbrook J with 9450 nib

Pelikan M200 Cafe Creme F

Caran d'ache Ecridor Retro F

Sailor 1911L Green SF

Lamy Studio Palladium EF

 

The year is still young.

[sidthecat]

I’m doing one of my favorite things today: procrastinating. And it happens that the journals I’m working in have somewhat absorbent paper, so my default lately is a fine-nibbed flexy Conklin GF Crescent ringtop. It’s a bit dinged-up but a super writer.

[mallymal1]

PenBBS 308-54, RM nib, with Iroshizuku fuyu-syogun.

Fuliwen 017, M nib, with Diamine blue velvet.