What Pens Are You Using Today 2020

[Helen350]

Lanbitou 3059 - White - M. nib Ink: Diamine Sherwood Green

Lanbitou 3059 - Purple - M. nib. Ink: Chesterfield Amethyst

Lanbitou 3059 - Blue - F nib. Ink: Diamine Sargasso

Lanbitou 3059 - Red - F. nib Ink: Akkerman Dutch Masters Scharlaken von Jan Steen

Jinhao 9035 - M. nib. Ink: Sheaffer Absolute Brown

Wing Sung 699 - M. nib Ink: Iroshizuku Kon Peki

TWSBI Mini 580 - M. nib. Ink: Sheaffer Black

TWSBI Eco Green - M. nib. Ink: Diamine Apple Green

(Been an interesting couple of days dabbling with these ink colors)

[Penman222]

Montblanc 146 filled with Waterman Serenity Blue. The pen was one of the last stamped W.Germany in 1990 or so.

[inkstainedruth]

Lamy Safari (Dark Lilac), F nib -- Diamine Guitar Series Pelham Blue Burst.

Sailor Pro-Gear Slim (Purple Cosmos), zoom nib -- diluted Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi.

Pilot Falcon (Purple), soft F nib -- Iroshizuku Yama-guri.

Hmmm. Apparently, it's a purple pen day, even if the Pro-Gear Slim looks more like a very dark blue with the glitter speckles in it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Freddy]

Ever Ready a lever filler in overall olive drab green with ends of French blue and International orange...taggin' along A

pre-unification Pelikan M800 piston fill pen with custom binde.

Pens are filled with Diamine Oxford Blue and Waterman Blue-Black

 

 

Fred

The general, who had come from Athens to defend the place, sent to the other commander

in Thrace, Thucydides son of Olorus, the author of this history, who was at the isle of Tharos,

a Parian colony, half a day's sail from Amphipolis...........4.104.4

 

[mallymal1]

Brightening up a gloomy day, a Jinhao 100.

 

[ENewton]

Lamy Safari (Dark Lilac), F nib -- Diamine Guitar Series Pelham Blue Burst.

Sailor Pro-Gear Slim (Purple Cosmos), zoom nib -- diluted Kyo-no-oto Sakuranezumi.

Pilot Falcon (Purple), soft F nib -- Iroshizuku Yama-guri.

Hmmm. Apparently, it's a purple pen day, even if the Pro-Gear Slim looks more like a very dark blue with the glitter speckles in it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I consider the Purple Cosmos to be purple in the same way Shigure is. One keeps having to convince oneself.

 

I typically use the same set of pens for several weeks running. Right now:

• Sailor 1911S Wicked Witch of the West, medium nib, with Sailor Shigure. This pen has been inked since I bought it, when it first became available.
• Shaeffer Tuckaway Deluxe, fine nib, with Montblanc Lavender Purple. My only gold-nabbed Shaeffer. They don't come in purple, unfortunately.
• Peyton Street Pen Works prototype, dark purple, medium cursive italic nib, with Kobe Taisanji Yellow. I bought Taisanji Yellow to use in my Pelikan 140, but the Pelikan doesn't write wet enough for Taisanji Yellow to be legible. The PSPW prototype is much wetter, while still delivering a sharp line.
• Pilot desk pen, extra-fine nib, with a Pilot black cartridge. The pen is a garish pink color but has an exceedingly fine nib suitable for writing marginalia in the books I am currently reading.

[inkstainedruth]

How do you like the 1911S Wicked Witch pen? I saw one in Bromfield's when I was in the Boston area a while back (nothing like spending roughly 9 hours wearing a mask *except* when I was actually eating... ) and I thought it was even more "blue" than the Purple Cosmos. I'd like one, but can't really justify the price -- and because it's a US exclusive, can't do like I did with the Purple Cosmos and look for ones on eBay when the red one was coming out only then discovering I could get one for a lot less money on Cult Pens -- plus, IIRC it hit their price threshold for free shipping AND I didn't have to pay VAT).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AmandaW]

Today just one pen so far, this one an old favourite opaque grey Jinhao 992, with a mismatched cap. The transparent blue pen developed a crack in the barrel and was put aside for parts, then the grey cap broke. I've been using it like this all year and like the look very much. Maybe there's an idea here for pen designers: putting together difference colour caps and bodies for effect. I've seen many clear bodies with coloured caps or a plain section with patterned barrel, but none that I can think of with this sort of look. Or maybe it's just my strange aesthetics showing again.

 

[ISW_Kaputnik]

The picture shows a Parker 180 and a Mabie Todd Swan 3150. I've had the Swan for some years now, and after getting the nib reground a while back, it has become one of my favorite vintage pens. The Parker was one of two fountain pens I've bought this year. I've been surprised by how much I like it.

 

 

And of course, there's that non fountain pen over to the right. Just ignore it if it bothers you. But I sometimes have a use for it. Carrying a Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil too, but it didn't make it into the photo.

Edited October 18, 2020 by ISW_Kaputnik

[Helen350]

Jinhao 51A - F. nib. Ink: Diamine Syrah

[mallymal1]

Going with the Plasma version of the Sheaffer Prelude, today. Has a nice Broad nib.

 

[N1003U]

Going with the Plasma version of the Sheaffer Prelude, today. Has a nice Broad nib.

 

Very attractive.

 

I continue to be impressed with how well that light brown Traveller's Notebook shows off a wide variety of pens.

[N1003U]

Today I am using:

 

• Edison Brockton in Black/Blue/Pink "Miami Nights" in M with Edelstein Moonstone.
• Edison Herald in Copper Flake and a stubbed M with Fritz Schimpf Sundowner.

 

I am attempting to finish the ink charges in a few pens in advance of flushing and taking them out of rotation for the season. I am down to 9 inked pens now, but that is still WAY too many.

[inkstainedruth]

Very attractive.

 

I continue to be impressed with how well that light brown Traveller's Notebook shows off a wide variety of pens.

I'm not. The brown is a neutral color.

A number of years ago I bough some cheap cotton fabric that had wide printed stripes with multi-color paisley patterns in the wide stripes, that were then edged with narrow bands of metallic gold dye printed on as well.

I found that the trim that looked best with what I wanted to make with the fabric was some inexpensive gold embroidered stuff from India, where the base fabric for the trim was dark brown....

Someday I'll even make the dress, even though I bought the fabric something like 30 years ago....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[kulnet]

I'm using a twsbi vac mini clear with a medium nib filled with Pen Addict Fire on Fire ink

[inkfade]

Am leaving for vacation in two days and finally settled on the two pens and inks I'm taking, and subsequently are journaling with tonight.

Lamy 2000 (M) - Kaweco Summer Purple

Lamy Safari All Black (F) - Parker Quink Blue Black

[N1003U]

I'm not. The brown is a neutral color.

 

I guess that neutral color is (part of) my point.

 

The above pictured Traveler's Notebook is just a simply/neutrally tanned/finished/dyed chunk of leather, chopped into a rectangle and folded over into a cover for some modest, but darn fountain-pen-friendly calendar and note paper inserts. It is bound also with simple neutrally-colored elastic bands of nominal quality.

 

The notebook doesn't call attention to itself. One notices the pen instead (at least in my experience). The notebook carries its own story in the ink stains and the scuffs and scratches, but my overwhelming experience is when I do get comments on my Traveler's notebook with a pen clipped to it (I have the same model/color that MalcolmH displays above), the comments are related to the pen and not the notebook.

 

From 1988 until 2012, I carried a similarly-colored leather binder that contained a Franklin (Now FranklinCovey) Dayplanner. It had nice stitching and brass trim pieces and binder hardware, and that is what people noticed, generally not whatever pen I had clipped to it. Same thing from 2012 until about 18 months ago. I carried a very nice smooth-finished black aniline leather binder that contained DayTimer Planner. There were always oohs and aahs about the cool leather binder, but again the pen rarely got a notice. Typically when it did it was my MB 144 that I rarely carry because it has a tendency to pop it's cap at inopportune moments, and I think many of those comments were because even non-pen people recognize the Montblanc brand, which was in it's own way just as flashy as the fancy leather binder.

 

In my search for something a bit smaller and more flexible in a planner, I came across the Traveler's Notebook products, and I have been using one now since early 2019. Since then, my planner rarely gets a second glance from people (it really isn't much to look at), but the pens clipped to it often do.

 

I didn't plan my notebook to be a backdrop for showing off my pens, but that seems to be how it has worked out, and as pointed out, the simple, non-distracting, neutral background seems to play significant role in the pens getting noticed.

 

THAT, now in more detail, is what impresses me. (Thanks again to MalcomH for the nice pen photos in front of your notebook!)

topic>

 

Today, I am still working to drain the Edison Brockton with a letter to a relative, and I am signing a few legal documents and payment authorizations with a Pelikan Stresemann loaded with 4001 Blue-Black. Otherwise, it has been so far a digital/electronic sort of a day.

[mallymal1]

Very attractive.

 

I continue to be impressed with how well that light brown Traveller's Notebook shows off a wide variety of pens.

 

[mallymal1]

As we're approaching Halloween, Danitrio Phantas I, inked with Heart of Darkness.

 

[Estycollector]

2017 Al Star Pacific/Serenity Blue and the Parker 45 BP with black gel ink.