What pen(s) are you using today?

[inkstainedruth]

OOOOH....  That Newton Townsend sure is pretty....   And it's ebonite you say?  Tell me more.... No, on second thought, maybe not, given that we are likely to have to replace the furnace (and real soon now at that... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[dms525]

2 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

OOOOH....  That Newton Townsend sure is pretty....   And it's ebonite you say?  Tell me more.... No, on second thought, maybe not, given that we are likely to have to replace the furnace (and real soon now at that... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Just one little "more?"

 

When I bought this pen from Shawn, I had him install a custom-made cap medallion on it.

 

 

David

[dipper]

Not strictly "today", but more like the past two weeks...

 

Topped up a recent ink mail-order with two Pilot V-Pens, plus a 0.3 and a 0.5 Platinum Preppy - to satisfy my curiosity.

 

The Pilot V-pens were delightful. (="Varsity" in US apparently). I have assembled a simple vacuum-pump flushing and refilling system for them, and look forward to using them again in my pen rotation.

In some references these are described as being "version four". Certainly a big advance over the first version that came to the UK sometime in the previous century.

 

The Preppys were a disappointment - dry enough for doing a newspaper crossword. They seem to have a serious air breathing problem. Little air in - little ink out. (Nib tuning cannot fix a pen that can't breathe freely.)

 

Today, put the Preppys to bed and celebrated by inking one of my favorites - a juicy 1950's UK Duofold with medium/broad nib - ahhhh yes, now I remember why I use fountain pens!

 

[ParramattaPaul]

I'm attending lecture sessions and not taking notes, hence no pen use.

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

The EF nib is surprisingly thin, but still could be a bit more polished; at this scale it may be I just got one of the lesser productions.

 

Pilot's steel EF nibs are fine enough to be sharp even if as well-polished as can be; the one I was using recently (of which the tines are admittedly not in abbbsolutely perfect alignment, which is probably a problem I introduced when transplanting the nib months ago into a Pilot MR's/78G's gripping section) will pick up a fibre between the tines every few lines of writing, from even Rhodia 80g/m² lined paper if I write with any pressure at all.

 

Thanks for showing the BB nib. I've never seen one of those on a Plumix; I only have the F, M, and B (italic) nibs on those.

 

…

 

Today — or, more accurately, yesterday but less than 24 hours ago — I was using my Montblanc Meisterstück LeGrand Calligraphy filled with Aurora Black, just to see if it's nearly as fine as the Pilot Penmanship's EF nib. Nope, although it isn't that far off. I tried constricting the ink flow on it a bit but manipulating the tine gap, but that proves to be a bad idea with the flexible nib. I think I've put it back the way it was now; and I'm not going to attempt that again.

 

[PithyProlix]

8 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

TL;DR: My first experience with a Pilot Plumix, with EF and BB nibs so i can understand the range.

 

Overall, for me it's a better pen than the Metropolitan, for sketching especially because its body has smooth transitions. I like both nibs I've tried, although they do have a distinctive steel feedback. The EF nib is surprisingly thin, but still could be a bit more polished; at this scale it may be I just got one of the lesser productions. 

 

Figure 1. The two pens. 

 

Figure 2. The two nibs: (top) the stub, BB-tipped, (bottom) the EF-tipped nib. 

 

Enjoy the weekend! 

 

Is the Plumix EF italic? I wondered because I see line variation but perhaps that is just differences in pressure?

 

I passed on buying a second hand one recently because I assumed it was basically the 'regular' steel Pilot EF. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Pilot's steel EF nibs are fine enough to be sharp even if as well-polished as can be; the one I was using recently [...] will pick up a fibre between the tines every few lines of writing, from even Rhodia 80g/m² lined paper if I write with any pressure at all.

Oh, I didn't know this. I may have caused this, then, because I really tried to write with various degrees of pressure. Hmmm...

 

On the other hand, the steel EF nib on my Pilot 78G+ writes much smoother (and, iirc, a bit thicker). So perhaps this nib is just a bit misaligned. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

1 hour ago, PithyProlix said:

Is the Plumix EF italic? I wondered because I see line variation but perhaps that is just differences in pressure

I believe it is a regular EF, which shows line variation because I apply various kinds of pressure while writing. @A Smug Dill is really the expert in this, so I'll push the question on his plate 😄

 

Enjoy the weekend! 

[Misfit]

I got a new ink delivered today. I filled a Monteverde Mountains of the World K2 with it, and that’s the pen I used. 

[A Smug Dill]

9 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

I believe it is a regular EF, which shows line variation because I apply various kinds of pressure while writing. @A Smug Dill is really the expert in this, so I'll push the question on his plate 😄

 

I don't know whether the EF nib factory-fitted on a Pilot Plumix pen would be different from one on a Pilot Penmanship pen, sorry, since I've never come across a Plumix pen with either an EF nib or a BB nib that is available for me to order on Amazon (including .com.au, .com, and .co.jp), AliExpress, etc. My best guess is that they are the same; and even though the Plumix line is considered to be ‘calligraphy’ or ‘lettering’ pens, for such fine widths as the EF nib (for the purpose of illumination, in the context of calligraphy, I suppose), I seriously doubt that Pilot would bother with giving the nib a distinctly non-round tip.

[A Smug Dill]

I finally inked up my MUJI fountain pen that came from Amazon.co.jp (added while I was ordering other pens, so that the ‘flagfall’ on the the not-choice-but-DHL-by-default shipping charges to Australia was a non-issue for ‘incremental’ items), which is factory-fitted with a polished (i.e. naturally silver-coloured) steel Schmidt F nib, as opposed to gold-plated Schmidt F nibs more commonly found on Chinese-branded fountain pens (e.g. Moonman M100 and M200).

 

To my delight, in spite of the apparent width of the tine gap, the ink flow is pretty well-controlled, the line width is very tight, and the tipping seems to have been ground to have a noticeably Italic character, akin to a Pilot Plumix's F nib.

 

[essayfaire]

Mark Bacas tuned and smoothed a EF Pilot Metro for me some years back, and I was shocked at how big a difference it made.  I had liked the pen well enough, but now I enjoy writing with it much more.

[inkstainedruth]

On 10/8/2022 at 7:00 PM, dms525 said:

Just one little "more?"

 

When I bought this pen from Shawn, I had him install a custom-made cap medallion on it.

 

 

David

Oooh, very nice!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Helen350]

Jinhao X159 - F. nib.  Burgundy.  Ink:  Monteverde Blue/Black

[mtcn77]

I bought this Lamy Scala in black with my name inscribed. So far, I haven't given it much use, but I can tell why Lamy gold nibs are so revered.

[welch]

Just filled a PFM I, medium point. 

[PAKMAN]

Parker 51 Premium in Turquoise with a fine nib.

[jandrew]

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, jandrew said:

Nice.

[CRASHtheGREY]

Opus 88 Koloro and a 1930s Parker Duofold Senior.