I got this pen today

[PithyProlix]

3 hours ago, AmandaW said:

It's a Pilot Elite pocket pen with a Posting nib. (I'd have been happy with any older pocket pen with a Posting nib, it being an Elite is icing.) And, yes, I bid and paid more for it than any of my other pocket pens. I guess I'm done looking at them now...

 

You missed the word "for" between those last two words.

 

What is your other pen with a Posting nib?

 

Congratulations on finding the Elite. Pilot Elites are for me what Parker 51s are for their enthusiasts- reliably great, well-built vintage pens. Enjoy!

[AmandaW]

3 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

What is your other pen with a Posting nib?

These two. A Platinum 18K with 'Posting' on the nib and an older Pilot that only has the distinctive downward curve. As can be seen the Pilot is a bit ratty, and even has part of the feed broken off, but writes really well.

 

 

The other pen that arrived last week was another Platinum 18K - a fine by guess - bought for it's pretty tulip pattern...

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

6 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

I really like it in my wet pens.

Pelikan making a dry ink, made a wet nib.

Waterman making a thin nib***, made a wet ink.

Therefore both met in the middle.

( With no facts to back it up, tend to think of MB ink as towards the middle.)

 

Before the Japanese came strong into the world market, we use to have major flame wars here ....the skinny Waterman nib folks vs the Change the Nib Pelikan folks.

 

I was never heavy into skinny...hard to shade. And when I came back to fountain pens after a Moses in the ball point desert, having one pen....was a One Man, One Pen guy (My P-75 was locked in my wife's Jewelry Jail). ....it was an M, so I went wide.

Others go narrow...........There was never a thought  by us in the wide section....out side of saying a Japanese B was an M, of this company's B or BB wasn't wide enough, like the reverse with narrow nib folks.

 

For me BB was wide enough, BBB too wide....a signature nib. Taking up 2/3rds-3/4ths of a page to write a legal fifteen letter legal name.  I have a Pelikan 500 with an eyeballed OBBB in a 30 degree grind, on a maxi-semi-flex nib.....and me with nothing to sign.

(Going to have to dig out one of my semi-flex Osmia OBB's now that I've talked about wide nibs.)

 

***Last year I won in a live auction, a plastic bag lot of assorted fine pens.......and one was a Waterman Man 200 with an F nib.....that is narrower than my Pelikan 200's EF.

 

 

[PithyProlix]

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

These two. A Platinum 18K with 'Posting' on the nib and an older Pilot that only has the distinctive downward curve. As can be seen the Pilot is a bit ratty, and even has part of the feed broken off, but writes really well.

 

 

Those Platinum pocket pens with the zogan on the section and the larger than normal nib tend to be really excellent. I don't have one, or any other Platinum, with a posting nib - lucky you! 

 

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

The other pen that arrived last week was another Platinum 18K - a fine by guess - bought for it's pretty tulip pattern...

 

 

I have this same pen. Unique shape but very cute. It's short-ish but I'm not sure whether it counts as pocket pen - so if you thought you hit your pocket pen quota you could probably get another. 

 

[The Elevator]

23 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

(C singed his reports in green ink in MI-6....the nickle knowledge one can gain, and never ever forget.)

 

^out of curiosity, can you explain? I googled this but wasn’t sure what bits of it are the keywords so didn’t come up with anything.

 

10 hours ago, AmandaW said:

Posting nib

Not really sure what the appeal of that nib is—I haven’t ever wanted one. What do you plan to use it for?

[Bo Bo Olson]

I stumbled across a bit of info on Pentest/quest or whatever while looking up 19th century stuff.

There was a catalog sheet from Sears? or Montgomery Ward? or someone, in it was a catalog and I couldn't make out any brands, like Waterman, or Wert. With each pen you bought they gave you a free.....fountain pen protector

Which is a removable fountain pen clip, in fountain pens didn't have built in clips back then.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

33 minutes ago, The Elevator said:

^out of curiosity, can you explain? I googled this but wasn’t sure what bits of it are the keywords so didn’t come up with anything.

Think I got that C signed in green and the straight pen info from books by Viktor Suvorov, a GRU agent that defected and wrote a lot of very informative books on the GRU, spetsnaz and Russian military life.

 

, about inks used by the British, and that they were still using straight pin in the Secret Service  ....to clip paper together long, long, like maybe even into the '50's, long after workable paper clips(1890's for the Gem...I know of a couple older) or staplers came into being**. Like straight pin for holding cloths together while sewing, type of pin.

The Russian Secrete services copied the English with the straight pen stapling of dossiers. ('70's-80's by the Russians)

So that stuck in my mind in C from one of the English secret Services used green ink to sign C....'James's order was signed with green ink'.....so both parts of nickle knowledge got engraved in granite.

 

At first  staplers (McGill) flip up first half, insert staple, were loaded with a single staple, closed and then stapled....by 1880 a complicated to load magazine (Brown) stapler came in that loaded multiple staples. Single staple machines were safer, worked 100% of the time...no jams....so it did take 20-30 years before the magazine staplers took over.

[A Smug Dill]

56 minutes ago, The Elevator said:

Not really sure what the appeal of that nib is

 

It's great for applications of putting pen to paper where you would want to produce consistent fine lines (and/or tightly controlled lines) of ink smoothly and reliably with every mindful pen stroke.

[Mercian]

9 hours ago, The Elevator said:

out of curiosity, can you explain? I googled this but wasn’t sure what bits of it are the keywords so didn’t come up with anything.

If you look on the Wikipedia page for MI6 the story about ‘C’ using green ink is repeated.

It also contains a link to a page for the first ‘C’ - Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith-Cumming KCMG CB.

 

More-officially, if one goes to the ‘Our History’ page of the website for the SIS (the actual name of ‘MI6’), and scrolls down to the section captioned ‘1909-1923’ (it is just after the ‘1920’ section and just before the ‘1923’ section), the statement that he wrote his letters in green ink is also made there.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Fine post....I didn't know the 'first' C was that early....but the book that I had been researching with the GRU man as an info source (I have 6-7 of his books)....has tooooo much sex in it...for now adays... It was the '70's....and it's fallen way down my to do book list. Even before, too many characters.

 

[AmandaW]

My Lorelei 667. Just 8 days since I ordered it from China- to Western Australia- via NSW (says that on the shipping label). Very pretty.

 

[Misfit]

@AmandaW the Lorelei looks great. What ink will you put in it?

[AmandaW]

1 hour ago, Misfit said:

@AmandaW the Lorelei looks great. What ink will you put in it?

 

I put Diamine Vivaldi in it and used it as my journal pen yesterday. I'm very happy with it.

 

 

 

[The Elevator]

A beautiful burgundy Montblanc 144, gift from a friend who bought it in the 1980s, inked it a couple times, then stopped using it. Best present I have ever received 😍. It’ll need a good cleaning before I put it to use though.

[Bo Bo Olson]

My bought in '70-71 P-75, then cost $22 in silver money....$18 for the P-75 BP/MP (later name was changed to 'Classic'), though it had the Parker MP cartridge in it. I still have the MP cartridge.

 

Back as a 'noobie' I did a 20 pen balance test and to my surprise the light for metal P-75 finished 3rd.

 

Knowing how the squeeze filler worked, I tossed the box as soon as I took both pens out of it. (Pre-converter era....just the other day some nice poster called the rubber squeeze filler a 'converter' and I was shocked, in I'd never put two and 2 together before.

 

So 40 years later after buying the pen I read here on the com, there were two cartridges in the bottom of the box and the P-75 took cartridges.

 

Using Quink 'gray'-black. I don't have any other Quink cartridges, in Quink never hit any of my buttons, even back when in the US it was Parker, Sheaffer and Pelikan. Pelikan was used by me  in the artificial low DM to $ made Pelikan cheaper even shipped across the ocean...back then they used cheap ships. instead of expensive airmail.

 

Quiknk black is not quite as bad as the reviews I read on it...but those folks more than likely use Noodlers Black Hole black inks, ....three levels blacker than Pelikan Black...which is more than black enough for me.

 

I chase Piston pens, though some CC pens slip in.

A decade ago, I bought a hand full of different converters at a flea market, that I'd not had the urge to use nor even look at. A fine poster showed me some converters that fit Parker pens.

 

Of mine, one was Lamy, two were Pelikan (had to look that up(( I do have a couple CC Pelikan pens)), one is some sort of open mouthed Japanese is my guess and one was a Parker that got put on my P-45 for when it gets a chance to be used next month.

 

What is the 'best' Quink ink color???

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

Hope your employer did not give you the P-45 as the next one maybe a form giving earnings etc in that employment. 

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

What is the 'best' Quink ink color???

In my opinion, the best Quink colour is the Quink ‘Blue’.

N.b. I do not mean the Quink ‘Washable Blue’!

 

Brief explanations below….

 

Quink ‘Washable Blue’:

There’s nothing wrong with QWB, if you like washable blues.
It stays wet on the nib, so is always ready-to-write, and it dries quickly on the page (like all Quink - ‘QUick INK’).
It is also really easy to clean out of one’s pen (and one’s clothes, obviously).

Having seen lots of it during my school years, I think of it as the ‘British’ equivalent of Pelikan 4001 Königsblau.
It’s actually a rather restful colour. But, once it has dried on the page, I find it to be even paler than Pelikan 4001 Königsblau is!

I have also found that, on some papers, it will fade away even if the paper is inside a notebook that is kept closed 😕 I presume that such papers contain one of the chemicals that is used in an ‘ink-eradicator pen’ such as a Pelikan ‘Super-Pirat’.

 

I mostly use ‘Fine’ nibbed pens, with the occasional ‘reckless excursion’ in to ‘Medium’ territory. Very pale inks do not work brilliantly for me.

 

Quink ‘Blue/black’:
Like many dye-based inks, this ink has no water resistance.
When used in a ‘wet-writing’ pen it starts out looking like a nice, dark, blue-black ink.
BUT: on papers that contain sulphites (or is it sulphates?) it rapidly turns from its initial blue-black to a pale teal colour.

Lots of papers contain sulphites, presumably because they are a preservative.

As such, I can not in good conscience refer to Quink ‘Blue/black’ as a blue-black ink.
Instead, I regard it (by analogy with iron-gall blue-blacks, which start out blue and then turn gradually black) as a blue-teal ink!

I have only ever had it in cartridges. I will add that it has caused hard-starting in some of my Parker c/c pens 🤨

 

Quink ‘Black’:

As you already know, this is a ‘soft’ black when used in a wet-writing pen (as opposed to being an ink that is, like Noodler’s Black, Sailor Kiwa-Guro, etc, a blackest-blackety-black ink that is ‘as dark as a Raven’s wing at midnight’ or ‘as black as my heart’).

I have only ever had it in cartridges. It works well in most of my Parker pens (including my 75s), but it won’t work at all well in my 45s. My 45s hate it! 🤷‍♂️

Whichever pens I have used it in, it has a slight greenish tinge. I have also experienced it fading to a green-tinged grey on lots of papers (presumably those that contain sulphites).

 

Quink ‘Blue’ (the not-‘Washable’ version):

I have used a few ‘basic blue’ inks over the years. This one suits me really well.

I previously used Waterman Florida ‘Serenity Blue’ as my ‘basic blue’. WSB is, like Quink Washable Blue and 4001 Königsblau, washable and eradicable with e.g. a Pelikan ‘Super-Pirat’ pen.

Unlike those two, WSB dries out to a reasonably-dark blue on the page.

But it dries to a colour that looks very ‘flat’ to my eyes.

On the other hand, Quink ‘Blue’ is capable of generating some shading, and when dry it seems to have more ‘life’ in it than does WSB. I find it to be ‘prettier’ on the page than WSB. Your mileage, dear reader, may vary.

Quink ‘Blue’ is a violet-leaning blue, rather than a green-leaning blue.

Some people dislike it, on the grounds that it looks like ‘default blue’, or almost like Bic-ballpoint-blue.

 

Caveat lector:

If you intend to buy any ‘blue’ shade of Quink, you need to do your research before attempting to purchase it.

Parker, in its ‘ineffable wisdom’ does not include the names of its inks anywhere on their packaging 

They include only a single, very-small, square of colour from which one is supposed to infer the ink’s colour.

The main colour of the body of the packaging is a dark/navy blue.

The ‘Washable Blue’ colour swatch is a very light blue. Ok, that one stands-out reasonably-well 👍

But the ‘Blue’ swatch is a dark blue, and the  ‘Blue/black’ swatch is a very dark blue.

Many retailers will carry one of the latter two inks, but I have never seen both in the same store!

As such, it is usually impossible to discern which of these two inks the store has!

 

Therefore, if anyone is thinking of buying any Quink, I urge them to visit Parker’s website for their country, and to note down the SKU (number underneath the barcode) of the ink bottle/cartridges that they wish to buy.

In my experience, this is the only way to know which colour of Quink a store is selling.
Nowadays, most store employees will know less about ink than you, the prospective purchaser, do.

 

Slàinte,

M.

Edit to add:

I have found that QWB, Quink ‘Blue’, and Quink ‘Black’ all lubricate the nib of one’s pen delightfully. The nib glides across the paper on the small blob of ink formed at its tip by capillary action.
My experience with Quink ‘Blue/black’ has occasionally varied.
This, in conjunction with the occasional hard-starting that I have experienced from it in some of my Parker c/c pens, makes me suspect that it dries-out on the nib more quickly than the other Quinks do.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you, a quite deep and full answer to my question.

That was quite a deep experience into Quink inks.

 

Well, I do have needle syringes to fill long Parker cartridges......with other inks...

[51ISH]

4 hours ago, Mercian said:

In my opinion, the best Quink colour is the Quink ‘Blue’.

N.b. I do not mean the Quink ‘Washable Blue’!

 

Brief explanations below….

 

Quink ‘Washable Blue’:

There’s nothing wrong with QWB, if you like washable blues.
It stays wet on the nib, so is always ready-to-write, and it dries quickly on the page (like all Quink - ‘QUick INK’).
It is also really easy to clean out of one’s pen (and one’s clothes, obviously).

Having seen lots of it during my school years, I think of it as the ‘British’ equivalent of Pelikan 4001 Königsblau.
It’s actually a rather restful colour. But, once it has dried on the page, I find it to be even paler than Pelikan 4001 Königsblau is!

I have also found that, on some papers, it will fade away even if the paper is inside a notebook that is kept closed 😕 I presume that such papers contain one of the chemicals that is used in an ‘ink-eradicator pen’ such as a Pelikan ‘Super-Pirat’.

 

I mostly use ‘Fine’ nibbed pens, with the occasional ‘reckless excursion’ in to ‘Medium’ territory. Very pale inks do not work brilliantly for me.

 

Quink ‘Blue/black’:
Like many dye-based inks, this ink has no water resistance.
When used in a ‘wet-writing’ pen it starts out looking like a nice, dark, blue-black ink.
BUT: on papers that contain sulphites (or is it sulphates?) it rapidly turns from its initial blue-black to a pale teal colour.

Lots of papers contain sulphites, presumably because they are a preservative.

As such, I can not in good conscience refer to Quink ‘Blue/black’ as a blue-black ink.
Instead, I regard it (by analogy with iron-gall blue-blacks, which start out blue and then turn gradually black) as a blue-teal ink!

I have only ever had it in cartridges. I will add that it has caused hard-starting in some of my Parker c/c pens 🤨

 

Quink ‘Black’:

As you already know, this is a ‘soft’ black when used in a wet-writing pen (as opposed to being an ink that is, like Noodler’s Black, Sailor Kiwa-Guro, etc, a blackest-blackety-black ink that is ‘as dark as a Raven’s wing at midnight’ or ‘as black as my heart’).

I have only ever had it in cartridges. It works well in most of my Parker pens (including my 75s), but it won’t work at all well in my 45s. My 45s hate it! 🤷‍♂️

Whichever pens I have used it in, it has a slight greenish tinge. I have also experienced it fading to a green-tinged grey on lots of papers (presumably those that contain sulphites).

 

Quink ‘Blue’ (the not-‘Washable’ version):

I have used a few ‘basic blue’ inks over the years. This one suits me really well.

I previously used Waterman Florida ‘Serenity Blue’ as my ‘basic blue’. WSB is, like Quink Washable Blue and 4001 Königsblau, washable and eradicable with e.g. a Pelikan ‘Super-Pirat’ pen.

Unlike those two, WSB dries out to a reasonably-dark blue on the page.

But it dries to a colour that looks very ‘flat’ to my eyes.

On the other hand, Quink ‘Blue’ is capable of generating some shading, and when dry it seems to have more ‘life’ in it than does WSB. I find it to be ‘prettier’ on the page than WSB. Your mileage, dear reader, may vary.

Quink ‘Blue’ is a violet-leaning blue, rather than a green-leaning blue.

Some people dislike it, on the grounds that it looks like ‘default blue’, or almost like Bic-ballpoint-blue.

 

Caveat lector:

If you intend to buy any ‘blue’ shade of Quink, you need to do your research before attempting to purchase it.

Parker, in its ‘ineffable wisdom’ does not include the names of its inks anywhere on their packaging 

They include only a single, very-small, square of colour from which one is supposed to infer the ink’s colour.

The main colour of the body of the packaging is a dark/navy blue.

The ‘Washable Blue’ colour swatch is a very light blue. Ok, that one stands-out reasonably-well 👍

But the ‘Blue’ swatch is a dark blue, and the  ‘Blue/black’ swatch is a very dark blue.

Many retailers will carry one of the latter two inks, but I have never seen both in the same store!

As such, it is usually impossible to discern which of these two inks the store has!

 

Therefore, if anyone is thinking of buying any Quink, I urge them to visit Parker’s website for their country, and to note down the SKU (number underneath the barcode) of the ink bottle/cartridges that they wish to buy.

In my experience, this is the only way to know which colour of Quink a store is selling.
Nowadays, most store employees will know less about ink than you, the prospective purchaser, do.

 

Slàinte,

M.

Edit to add:

I have found that QWB, Quink ‘Blue’, and Quink ‘Black’ all lubricate the nib of one’s pen delightfully. The nib glides across the paper on the small blob of ink formed at its tip by capillary action.
My experience with Quink ‘Blue/black’ has occasionally varied.
This, in conjunction with the occasional hard-starting that I have experienced from it in some of my Parker c/c pens, makes me suspect that it dries-out on the nib more quickly than the other Quinks do.

 

I've been AWOL for some time...but I don't remember many folks singing  Parker Quinks praises....🤔  

 

I'm not keen on pale inks (in any colour) if I'm honest. My preferred 'black' is Aurora Black....so from what you've said Parker Black is not for me.

 

I used Parker Blue carts as a kid in the '70's in a Parker 25 which I assume was 'washable' although it didn't seem that way at the time.😄  My Parker 25 looked decidedly 'Second Class' alongside my mates Sheaffer in Burgundy...🥰

 

I'm waiting on a Parker 45 with a Stub to arrive in the post. I'd be interested to know your ink recommendations ? 

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, 51ISH said:

I'm waiting on a Parker 45 with a Stub to arrive in the post. I'd be interested to know your ink recommendations ? 

You weren’t asking me, but I will just drop my 2 cents in and mention that Diamine Aurora Borealis looks amazing with a stub nib, and currently resides in my teal 45-although that one is a Fine.(I also really like vintage Quink blue with Solv-X, both the color and the way it cleans out pens)