What inks are best for Wet noodles?

[Bo Bo Olson]

What is the reputation of Japanese inks with sac pens like my two 52's?

[DvdRiet]

17 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

What is the reputation of Japanese inks with sac pens like my two 52's?

 

No personal experience to speak from, but I was just yesterday reading all the 'scary' stuff on Binder's site about which inks not to use and one of the things he did say unambiguously is that Japanese inks tend to be alkaline and have been known to eat latex sacs. I don't think I'm going to experiment with them in mine.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you..Then I'll only put the Japanese ink in my piston pen with the Soenecken wet noodle on it. (No name pen and fantastic nib.)

[DvdRiet]

18 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

exactly opposite of being told to use a dry ink.

 

Wet inks are exactly what I was trying to use in my super flexy French pen in my assumption that wet inks would improve the horrible flow issues I was having. The result was inevitably me being tempted to throw the pen across the room in frustration after writing 3 lines and it conked out again (but instead flushing it out and putting it away again in total defeat with the fervent wish that I may someday find out what was going wrong - what can I say? it was an expensive pen! 😉)

[RJS]

Am I the only one with no idea what on earth wet noodles are? (In relation to inks, not food)

[Bo Bo Olson]

Dave, what pen?

 

RJS...you have to have a regular flex to use my system....helps to have a semi-flex also...German are easiest to find, unless you know your Swan pens.

If you mash a regular flex pen (in a 3 X max tine spread set) ...like a Pelikan 200, it will spread it's tines 3X a light down stroke. (You can not write with it so maxed.)

Semi-flex takes half that pressure to go to 3 X. If heavy handed enough you can write with the nib maxed.

Maxi-semi-flex half of that or 1/4th the pressure needed to mash a regular flex to max...................that is the end of the 3 X tine set spread set.

 

Superflex nibs good for Copperplate or Spenserian fancy writing.

Those who can write want fast snapback to a thin line....many nooblies want to write real fat letters so spring their nibs by making it do Olympic Splits.

Fat Letters are easier done in stiff nib italic Calligraphy. Lots of different scripts to learn if one wishes.

 

Superflex....pens whose tines spread easily and wide, 4x..some, mostly 5&6X a light down stroke....

I (for noobies to superflex) have three ranges.

The more superflex pens you own the more the borders blur.

 

Superflex....Easy Full Flex (1/8th the pressure needed to mash regular flex to 3 X),  I have five or six of these. Out side the first one the other 5-6 just fell into my hand.

I don't know but think there are no 7 X tines spread in this flex set....I don't see why it should. Mine are mostly 5 X with a couple 6X and one 4 X.

 

Wet Noodle 1/16th ....dip pens make it look uncooked.  But compared to the normal nail/semi-nail or even regular flex....Wheee cubed.

I have three wet noodles, one goes 6X, the other two goes the very rare 7X tine spread. 

 

It is not rare to see folks springing the nib out to 7 X or more for your convenience  on Ebay or on Youtube before they sell the ruined nib.

Buy 7 X nibs only from respectable sellers, so you don't buy a pre-sprung nib. My 2 Watermen 52's the 6&7X pens came from such a man, and the other I lucked out on German Ebay in getting a Wet Noodle back when I'd been happy it was an Easy Full Flex.

 

7X  are rare and you don't really need it. 7 X = XXF, EF, F, M, B, BB, BBB.

I have a slightly heavy Hand, I sweat to make  my 7 X or 6 X pen write XXF, think to make it do EF so scribble merrily along at F.

 

Before buying a superflex nib, read Richard Binders fine article on metal fatigue in his great site.

I have a post war Pelikan 100n, made to '54, it is an Easy Full Flex nib, that will go 5 X tine spread..........so I only take it out to 4 X.

Same with my 7X nibs I take them only out to @ 6X....I don't want to spring a nib.

 

 

& Weak Kneed Wet Noodle....@1/32-1/64th as much less pressure or so; a term invented by John Swobada the English nib grinder. Middle of the dip pen range.....real flexi...very, very rare. I've seen two, have one of them. Both were MB Safety Pens............there are others; on early 20'th century or even late 19th century pens.

 

Wet Noodle in the middle range, still under basic dip pen ease of tine spread and width of tine spread.

 

I always recommend working one's way up the flex ladder to superflex nibs. That way one's Hand grows light enough to use it with out ruining the nib...

...but they have come in with modern nibs with lines and half moons ground into to them.....if impatient, buy one of them to ruin.

 

One has to learn to Draw Letters for Copperplate or Spenserian. and practice...which circumstances has forced me into doing now.

Just like you have to learn to draw letters for stiff italic nib calligraphy.

Buy dip pens....they are affordable and you can rapidly find out if you want to spend time learning to write fancy. Cheapest to ruin...no big deal.

 

I now have to spend time to learn how to write....now that I got that Weak Kneed Wet Noodle, that my wife brought home to me...for free.

Well for free I'd taken it, but I never even wanted to go look for such a flexi pen..

...I'm so lazy...

.now I got to learn to write fancy. I'll start while my pre'24 Simplo nibbed MB Safety Pen is being re-corked.

 

One has to screw the nib out in it's sort of an Eyedropper.

 

[gyasko]

16 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

 

No personal experience to speak from, but I was just yesterday reading all the 'scary' stuff on Binder's site about which inks not to use and one of the things he did say unambiguously is that Japanese inks tend to be alkaline and have been known to eat latex sacs. I don't think I'm going to experiment with them in mine.

 

I used a Japanese ink exclusively for about a year in a few pens.  I had to replace all the sacs & diaphragms.  

[Bo Bo Olson]

1 hour ago, gyasko said:

I used a Japanese ink exclusively for about a year in a few pens.  I had to replace all the sacs & diaphragms.  

I have one, Iroshizuki Kon-peki, at over E-22..could have been E-25?,  hadn't planned to buy any more....anyway. E19-20 is my limit.....

 

Thank you for warning us with a few sac pens of the dangers of Japanese inks.

 

Up to when Amazon took over the Ink Market, Japanese inks had cost in the E-70's a bottle here in Germany, now in the mid 20's. But still a rip off.

If I wanted Precious Ink, I could buy MB, who jumped their prices to keep up with the Jones.

[RJS]

22 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Dave, what pen?

 

RJS...you have to have a regular flex to use my system....helps to have a semi-flex also...German are easiest to find, unless you know your Swan pens.

If you mash a regular flex pen (in a 3 X max tine spread set) ...like a Pelikan 200, it will spread it's tines 3X a light down stroke. (You can not write with it so maxed.)

Semi-flex takes half that pressure to go to 3 X. If heavy handed enough you can write with the nib maxed.

Maxi-semi-flex half of that or 1/4th the pressure needed to mash a regular flex to max...................that is the end of the 3 X tine set spread set.

 

Superflex nibs good for Copperplate or Spenserian fancy writing.

Those who can write want fast snapback to a thin line....many nooblies want to write real fat letters so spring their nibs by making it do Olympic Splits.

Fat Letters are easier done in stiff nib italic Calligraphy. Lots of different scripts to learn if one wishes.

 

Superflex....pens whose tines spread easily and wide, 4x..some, mostly 5&6X a light down stroke....

I (for noobies to superflex) have three ranges.

The more superflex pens you own the more the borders blur.

 

Superflex....Easy Full Flex (1/8th the pressure needed to mash regular flex to 3 X),  I have five or six of these. Out side the first one the other 5-6 just fell into my hand.

I don't know but think there are no 7 X tines spread in this flex set....I don't see why it should. Mine are mostly 5 X with a couple 6X and one 4 X.

 

Wet Noodle 1/16th ....dip pens make it look uncooked.  But compared to the normal nail/semi-nail or even regular flex....Wheee cubed.

I have three wet noodles, one goes 6X, the other two goes the very rare 7X tine spread. 

 

It is not rare to see folks springing the nib out to 7 X or more for your convenience  on Ebay or on Youtube before they sell the ruined nib.

Buy 7 X nibs only from respectable sellers, so you don't buy a pre-sprung nib. My 2 Watermen 52's the 6&7X pens came from such a man, and the other I lucked out on German Ebay in getting a Wet Noodle back when I'd been happy it was an Easy Full Flex.

 

7X  are rare and you don't really need it. 7 X = XXF, EF, F, M, B, BB, BBB.

I have a slightly heavy Hand, I sweat to make  my 7 X or 6 X pen write XXF, think to make it do EF so scribble merrily along at F.

 

Before buying a superflex nib, read Richard Binders fine article on metal fatigue in his great site.

I have a post war Pelikan 100n, made to '54, it is an Easy Full Flex nib, that will go 5 X tine spread..........so I only take it out to 4 X.

Same with my 7X nibs I take them only out to @ 6X....I don't want to spring a nib.

 

 

& Weak Kneed Wet Noodle....@1/32-1/64th as much less pressure or so; a term invented by John Swobada the English nib grinder. Middle of the dip pen range.....real flexi...very, very rare. I've seen two, have one of them. Both were MB Safety Pens............there are others; on early 20'th century or even late 19th century pens.

 

Wet Noodle in the middle range, still under basic dip pen ease of tine spread and width of tine spread.

 

I always recommend working one's way up the flex ladder to superflex nibs. That way one's Hand grows light enough to use it with out ruining the nib...

...but they have come in with modern nibs with lines and half moons ground into to them.....if impatient, buy one of them to ruin.

 

One has to learn to Draw Letters for Copperplate or Spenserian. and practice...which circumstances has forced me into doing now.

Just like you have to learn to draw letters for stiff italic nib calligraphy.

Buy dip pens....they are affordable and you can rapidly find out if you want to spend time learning to write fancy. Cheapest to ruin...no big deal.

 

I now have to spend time to learn how to write....now that I got that Weak Kneed Wet Noodle, that my wife brought home to me...for free.

Well for free I'd taken it, but I never even wanted to go look for such a flexi pen..

...I'm so lazy...

.now I got to learn to write fancy. I'll start while my pre'24 Simplo nibbed MB Safety Pen is being re-corked.

 

One has to screw the nib out in it's sort of an Eyedropper.

 

Thanks for the reply- it looks like quite a complex subject!

[Bo Bo Olson]

My system of halves is horseshoe close...I think.

 

You have a life time hobby, if I could come up with it, once you have a regular flex and a semi-flex, the rest is easy.

 

13 or so years ago....everything was 'flexi' ....in some cases from newer nail users from even regular flex; who didn't know regular flex use to be a regular issue nib back in the day and into the mid '90's in Germany. Hey, when Swartzeneggered, the regular flex  tines bent and spread  =flexi. (Some have thought it was a fabled semi-flex...because the tines actually spread and bent like they'd heard of.)...Nail users have a life time of exploration in front of them.)

Flexi.....flexi.... Flexi was from semi-flex** to Wet Noodle....The term Superflex was not in use.... Even Wet Noodle was just called . Flexi!!! or real flexi just as often as Wet Noodle.

 

I'd gone looking for a 'superflex' Swan pen in English Ebay...and the term wasn't used....just 'flexi'....I had semi-flex, and didn't need more. I wanted a more flexi pen....a super flex!!!!

And couldn't find one; not even in the offerings by Marshall and or Oldfield, (Authors of the great Pen Repair Book) who had great professional sites.....flexi?....quite flexi??, somewhat flexi????

The fog of flexi...hung over the world of fountain pen nibs.

 

**(I'd not invented the term maxi-semi-flex yet....I'd not discovered my Rupp nib and walked around in small little circles muttering''''boy, that's certainly a maxi-semi-flex""".....and discovered of my 20 semi-flex, five were maxi's. )

 

Using my system, I came up with three superflex flex sets (including one I didn't have but had heard of only....Weak Kneed Wet Noodle.....but the more superflex you have the more borders blur. My system is  good for superflex noobies.

 

I'll also take credit for the term... Easy Full Flex. When one can say That's a Wet Noodle and that's not; though is superflex; flexes easy enough to a full 5 or 6X...one must define and name it.....and it fit right into my system. of halves.

 

And I lucked into a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle that busts my system all to hell.......but it's Weak Kneed. Don't even have to freeze the water or find the pipe to walk on..........good middle of the dip pen flexibility...............what happens when one cooks a wet noodle the full 10 minutes.  instead of half, like

 

My system goes from by half as much pressure to max the nib tine spread of regular flex to 3X to semi-flex (1/2), maxi-semi-flex (1/4th), (end of 3 X tine spread max set)

Start of superflex; Easy Full Flex (1/8th) and Wet Noodle (1/16th).

 

This skips the logic....not to say there isn't somewhat weaker kneed wet noodle nibs that only go 1/32nd the pressure needed to mash a regular flex to 3 X....but I've not run into them. And no one has responded to my question about Weak Kneed Wet Noodles.

 

My Weak Kneed Wet Noodle and the other I had tested in a live auction house  is like (1/64th). Mid dip pen nib range.

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

My wife retired.

So I had to clean out man cave and my ink bottles from under the canopy of my pewter topped beer mugs into little boxes with neat little labels on them..................so it always takes me now a longer time to find what ink I want to use.

This is where they use to be hid....

 

My R&K Salex will be going back there to hide, until that old MB comes in this week....thinking  Saturday. If not then on Monday.

In the mean while I'll ink one of my wet noodle 52's.

**I do have a few pens needing a new cork including my wet noodle Soennecken nibbed no name.

**and I've been buying booze instead of cork.

[DvdRiet]

36 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I've been buying booze instead of cork

 

If the booze has a cork, you're good to go! 😂

[Bo Bo Olson]

posted something somehow to the wrong place.