I got this pen today

[Paul-in-SF]

This pen arrived today, a Visconti Opera Silver Dust, with a Broad Smartouch nib. Currently loaded with Sailor Souboku ink. I have written a few lines only, so far, and it seems a very very wet nib, which is not a great thing (in my view) for a Broad nib. But I will withhold judgment until I have written with it for a page or so. I will probably end up having it ground down to something better suited to journaling. 

 

[Lithium466]

1 hour ago, Misfit said:

I use both sides of the paper in my Exacompta FAF pad. I think it’s a cool product. I really, really like mine. It’s the No. 3 version. 

It is for sure a timeless French classic! I have seen it a lot, but only bought one very recently.

I remember days when I thought Rhodia paper was of average quality (more than 30 years ago), and the FAF was considered like a much classier and higher end paper. 
 

Edit: I know see that Rhodia was bought by the Exacompta group in 1997. That explains things.

[Paul-in-SF]

On 1/13/2023 at 2:45 PM, Paul-in-SF said:

This pen arrived today, a Visconti Opera Silver Dust, with a Broad Smartouch nib. Currently loaded with Sailor Souboku ink. I have written a few lines only, so far, and it seems a very very wet nib, which is not a great thing (in my view) for a Broad nib. But I will withhold judgment until I have written with it for a page or so. I will probably end up having it ground down to something better suited to journaling. 

 

 

I have written today's A4 page with this pen, and it is taking some getting used to. If I have the knob open even a tiny bit, the pen gushes ink. If I keep the knob completely closed, it writes seemingly drier and drier over the lines; or else maybe it has a very small sweet spot (speaking rotationally) so that I have to pay very close attention, when the ink isn't gushing, to how I hold it. I don't know, I need more practice I guess. 

[Mercian]

On 1/15/2023 at 3:54 AM, Paul-in-SF said:

I have written today's A4 page with this pen, and it is taking some getting used to….

Your post makes me wonder whether Visconti might perhaps have named this pen ‘Opera’ because owning it increases the amount of drama in one’s life (though not, I hope, the amount of tragedy), or because it is prone to behaving like a diva… 🤔
 

Edit to add:

On a non-frivolous note, I have found Sailor Kiwa Guro pigment black to be a rather free-flowing ink, so I suspect that Sou Boku may be too.
I hope that you can achieve happier results in your Opera by using a ‘drier’-writing ink and writing with the pen’s knob open.

[Mercian]

My latest acquisition is another ‘umble Parker Urban (first version), this one being in the ‘Chiselled Ebony’ finish:

 

 

I rather like these pens - their curves please me, greatly.

And I am lucky enough to find them to be comfortable in my hand.

 

I’ll admit that they’re not as nice as the more ‘high-end’ pens that I own are, but I still enjoy them.

[amberleadavis]

6 hours ago, Mercian said:

My latest acquisition is another ‘umble Parker Urban (first version), this one being in the ‘Chiselled Ebony’ finish:

 

 

I rather like these pens - their curves please me, greatly.

And I am lucky enough to find them to be comfortable in my hand.

 

I’ll admit that they’re not as nice as the more ‘high-end’ pens that I own are, but I still enjoy them.

 

My Parker Urban suffered a nib drop.  It was a nice pen.

[Arkanabar]

16 hours ago, Mercian said:

My latest acquisition is another ‘umble Parker Urban (first version), this one being in the ‘Chiselled Ebony’ finish:

 

 

I rather like these pens - their curves please me, greatly.

And I am lucky enough to find them to be comfortable in my hand.

 

I’ll admit that they’re not as nice as the more ‘high-end’ pens that I own are, but I still enjoy them.

I like the idea of a Parker cartridge pen.  I think that, much like with their ballpoint refill, Parker designed one of the best  FP ink cartridges, possibly the very best.  But the only Parker c/c pens that have a form factor I think I'd like, that are in my preferred under USD50 price point, are annoying to obtain, or unlikely to have my preferred nib size, or both.  I don't enjoy things like sifting through ebay listings or browsing antique stores enough to enjoy the acquisition.

[sandy101]

Conway Stewart Collectors' pen - Bracken with B nib. Filled with Diamine 1964

Don't know why image is upside down.

 

 

[ajoe]

Holder: Yoke Pen Co. Custom Ergonomic Oblique

Nib: Manga G

 

[Rebbe]

Got an old Sheaffer Lifetime vacuum filler. This is a neat little writer so far!

[Mercian]

19 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

 

My Parker Urban suffered a nib drop.  It was a nice pen.

😔 that’s sad news - it’s never good to lose one to that.

 

Am I right to suspect that your ex-pen was one of the ones in the visible-from-Space ‘Fashion Pink’ finish? 😉

 

I still have a hankerin’ for one of these in the ‘Amethyst Pearl’ ‘Vacumatic’ finish that they released towards the end of the first version’s production run.

(For avoidance of disappointment, these are not Vacumatic-filled pens - they merely had rings painted on the outside of their lacquer that resembled the appearance of the stacked-celluloid Vacumatic pens of the 1930s-40s.)

I really like the shade of purple on those, but I have only ever seen them for sale at prices that are too rich for my (Yorkshire) blood 🙄

[Mercian]

9 hours ago, Arkanabar said:

I like the idea of a Parker cartridge pen.  I think that, much like with their ballpoint refill, Parker designed one of the best  FP ink cartridges, possibly the very best.  But the only Parker c/c pens that have a form factor I think I'd like, that are in my preferred under USD50 price point, are annoying to obtain, or unlikely to have my preferred nib size, or both.  I don't enjoy things like sifting through ebay listings or browsing antique stores enough to enjoy the acquisition.

I agree with you about Parker’s cartridge design - they have a good capacity, that nice ‘reserve tank’ at the end, and I really like the internal strakes that prevent the ink’s surface tension from starving the pen’s feed.

 

It’s a pity that you can’t face the faff of finding a Parker c/c pen that meets your criteria, but I completely understand what you mean. I’ve ‘missed out’ on other pens for similar reasons.
This is actually a good thing, in that it shows that your willpower is stronger than your desire for ‘Another Shiny Thing’.

 

Of course, with my FPN Evil Enabler’s hat firmly on, I do feel duty-bound to moot the following:

Spoiler

Given the sub-$50 budget, could you perhaps suggest to a close family member that what that you’d really like for your birthday/Christmas this year is an inexpensive Parker ‘x’, with a ‘y’ nib, preferably in ‘z’ finish?
And add that, as you are aware that finding one could be something of a faff, this would make you really appreciate the receipt of such a pen if it were ever to happen 😉

Hmm. When did I start turning in to Leland Gaunt from Needful Things…? 🤔

Edited January 18, 2023 by Mercian
Edited for clarity

[PithyProlix]

Early urushi Platinum 3776 that doesn't look much like a 3776 (or any other Platinum that I can think of)! The nib has a very curved profile even relative to my other early, flat-topped 3776s. I wished they kept this design! The wave-shaped thing on the clip is possibly a representation of Mt. Fuji. (?) Haven't inked it yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mizgeorge]

4 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Early urushi Platinum 3776 that doesn't look much like a 3776 (or any other Platinum that I can think of)! The nib has a very curved profile even relative to my other early, flat-topped 3776s. I wished they kept this design! The wave-shaped thing on the clip is possibly a representation of Mt. Fuji. (?) Haven't inked it yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is absolutely beautiful - I love the shape!

[AmandaW]

A gift pen... it's a pen that Steiner students are required to use when learning to write. Quite fine with a very comfy grip. The writing on top of the cap says "Art makes sense".

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

Today I received my most recent impulsive pen purchase, an Osmia 664 EF that also has Faber-Castell on the barrel. 

 

I'm paying a little for my impulsiveness. The listing said "sold as found" and I should have believed him. Not only did the seller not clean the ink out of the pen, he didn't even clean the ink off the surface of the pen; this is minor. The EF nib is not performing well, stingy with ink and scratchy, it's going to require no small effort, I think, to write well; this is moderately annoying. The pen appears to be leaking through the front of the section, so that the ink gets on my fingers; ugh. I think I'm going to have to remove the section and knock out the nib and feed to see what might be wrong with it. 

 

No photo, it looks like every other Osmia pen I have, black with gold plated trim. 

[Misfit]

56 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

A gift pen... it's a pen that Steiner students are required to use when learning to write. Quite fine with a very comfy grip. The writing on top of the cap says "Art makes sense".

 

 

Nice pen, and I like the background with stars.

[Paul-in-SF]

1 hour ago, Paul-in-SF said:

The pen appears to be leaking through the front of the section, so that the ink gets on my fingers; ugh.

 

I am pleased to say that I was wrong about this. First, I had forgotten to clean out the inside of the cap, and I think that's where the ink smudges were coming from, rather than from a leak. Second, the section came off readily, it is threaded with no adhesive, and I am sonically cleaning the section and barrel with piston now. 

 

On the other hand, I forgot to mention the first time the barrel shrinkage, which means the barrel threads are not meshing very well any more with the inside cap threads. I don't think there's much I can do about that. 

[PithyProlix]

3 hours ago, AmandaW said:

A gift pen... it's a pen that Steiner students are required to use when learning to write. Quite fine with a very comfy grip. The writing on top of the cap says "Art makes sense".

 

 

 

For some reason, I think this looks like what a school pen should. Attractive design - like something Ikea might sell and I could imagine a kid who had a pen like this would also have Lego set. I'd bet its made by Pelikan.

 

I see wood grain on the barrel. Is it really wood?

It's kind of long but here's a nice quote from an article on a Steiner Waldorf education site that mentions fountain pens: 

 

... Many thinkers of the late nineteenth century feared that the machine would sever this connection between meaning and matter. Simple tools designed for the human hand make this connection between the world of thought and value and the world of matter more visible. Such tools allow human beings to create products possessing a unique kind of “honesty.”

The fountain pen is an excellent example of such a tool. Waldorf students learn handwriting using a fountain pen, rather than a ballpoint, precisely because the fountain pen emphasizes this connection between thought and matter. Because its point can easily catch on the paper, the fountain pen teaches attentiveness and sensitivity. Because the ink will pool if one presses too hard, or not register if one glides too lightly, it teaches balance and appropriateness. Because the pen needs to be maintained, it teaches the value of care. As with all work done by hand, writing with a fountain pen forces one to experience the “denseness” of physical reality-which is exactly what higher technologies try to mask or overcome. The student must work conscientiously and consciously in order to manifest her will in the often obdurate material world.

Using a tool such as a fountain pen when a much less problematic tool like a ballpoint pen is avail­able brings up the issue of anachronism. Waldorf schools are sometimes criticized for keeping children uninformed about the realities and necessities of modern life-the personal computer, for example. (In fact, Waldorf schools do teach students to use a computer, but at the time when the children are ready for such activity-in the high school years.) Reformers at the turn of the century were also criticized for advocating “old-fashioned” ways of doing things. What is at issue here, though, is not one’s attitude toward the past, but one’s attitude toward the present and what the present brings. Should one automati­cally embrace all things new, simply because they are new and seem to make things easier and faster? Or should one consciously examine implications and consider options? ...

[AmandaW]

1 hour ago, PithyProlix said:

 

I see wood grain on the barrel. Is it really wood?

Yes. It is wood.

 

In this photo is also the one which belongs to my son's partner. She used it as a Steiner student from age 10. It's about 11 years old and is still in use.