What pen(s) are you using today?

[inkstainedruth]

Today's it's been the recently repaired Vac Green Shadow Wave, F? nib, with what I THINK is Waterman Havana Brown (but might be whatever the new name is); and the Sheaffer Star Wars Pop BB-8 pen, M nib, with Robert Oster NYC Pen Show 2022  LE (said to be "Sky Blue" but is a little more turquoise than what *I'd* call "sky blue" -- and I'm originally from the Greater NYC area, so I should know (lived within 50 miles of Manhattan until I got married -- even when I was in college, and took the train into the city to go museum and art gallery hopping on a regular basis).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[readytotalk]

Today it's been the recently customized Montblanc Mozart, inked with Iro Aji-Sai.

 

[Jerome Tarshis]

Parker 51 Aero Demi with Pelikan brilliant black. Somewhat more in the spirit of Christmas trees, a Pelikan M120N Iconic Blue, with Pelikan Olivine.

[mrtoml]

Today it's a Visconti Mirage. M nib. Diamine Bilberry.

[jandrew]

Ranga Bamboo / Pilot blue-black

[essayfaire]

16 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Today's it's been the recently repaired Vac Green Shadow Wave, F? nib, with what I THINK is Waterman Havana Brown (but might be whatever the new name is); and the Sheaffer Star Wars Pop BB-8 pen, M nib, with Robert Oster NYC Pen Show 2022  LE (said to be "Sky Blue" but is a little more turquoise than what *I'd* call "sky blue" -- and I'm originally from the Greater NYC area, so I should know (lived within 50 miles of Manhattan until I got married -- even when I was in college, and took the train into the city to go museum and art gallery hopping on a regular basis).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

Does it post?  I keep searching for a non-outrageously priced Vac that posts.

[USG]

11 hours ago, readytotalk said:

Today it's been the recently customized Montblanc Mozart, inked with Iro Aji-Sai.

 

Very nice pen and My favorite ink...

 

But I've recently discovered that I can't tell the difference between Ajisai and Diamine Sapphire after they've been the their respective pens for a day or two.

 

Today I'm using a Waterman Patrician (M) with reconstituted Waterman green ink.

 

 

And a bunch of other pens...😁

 

[essayfaire]

2 hours ago, USG said:

Very nice pen and My favorite ink...

 

But I've recently discovered that I can't tell the difference between Ajisai and Diamine Sapphire after they've been the their respective pens for a day or two.

 

Today I'm using a Waterman Patrician (M) with reconstituted Waterman green ink.

 

 

And a bunch of other pens...😁

 

I love bunches of pens.  Carry on, then!

[inkstainedruth]

6 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Does it post?  I keep searching for a non-outrageously priced Vac that posts.

Yeah, all my Vacs post.  Pens where you can't post the cap drive me nuts.

I don't know what you consider to be "outrageously priced".  I didn't pay a huge amount for the pen when I first got it, but had to have repairs done a couple of times, which has pushed the total price up.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mallymal1]

Holiday pairing...

 

 

 

Waterman Ici Et La pens.

Both pens have M nibs.

 

 

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:29 AM, A Smug Dill said:

Among Westerners, however, I can only conjecture that the difference in popularity, between nibs with an upward bend and alternatively a downward bend, is a combination of marketing and perception. The upward-bending nib looks like a brush bending under pressure (thus appealing to ‘soft’ and artistic), and the name “Fude de Mannen” sounds more exotically Oriental than “Concord”, thus cornering that style of nib as a way-out-there, circus-tricksy kinda specialty nib, with the normal orientation unconsciously defining what the nib is mean to do or deliver. The downward-bending nib looks (and is actually) ‘hard’, even more ‘nail‘-like than other ‘nail‘ nibs, and perhaps a lot of users cannot see the advantage and versatility in such a nib, but only see it as being unnatural or uncomfortable to use

I like very much this conjecture, @A Smug Dill

!

 

Now maybe we should also try to retrace the history of the namw 'Concord', this time, in Sailor's own garden. Why would they call it this way? Western-envy? Need to appear as sleek as a futuristic aircraft? Or a link to agreement and peace? Hmhmhm. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

Not sure 'using' is the right term, but I've been spending all my hobby time for the past month -- very much reduced, because of work pressure -- indexing Japanese pens I've acquired in time. I will expand on this in the next months, but my plan for the year was to traverse the Richard Binder book on Japanese pocket pens and to enjoy collecting them. Needless to say, I got a bit carried away. 

 

Figures 1 and 2 depict two of my trays for Japanese fountain pens from Pilot; one for long (normal-sized) and one for long-short (pocket) pens. All pens are user-grade, and some may even look battered, but I think they're all great and their nibs are geberally good, I befits both my views on acquiring vintage pens and my desire to draw with each of them eventually. Plus, I'm learning how to take care of them and there are people around who can help with this. 

 

Figure 1. A flock of Pilots? A gaggle of Pilots? A... ? Well, it's Pilots alright, and long-legged at that. Supers, Elites, the likes. 

 

Figure 2. This is a tray of tiny Pilots. Actually, they may onky seem tiny. With the right cap, they look outright long and all. So much for first impressions. 

 

@stan, many thanks for your advice. You replied to my first post on FPN and especially the advice to focus was spot-on. I cannot say I did it perfectly, but it was very important and I'm satisfied with how things went about this advice. In this collection, I focused on Pilot, Platinum, and Sailor pocket pens, 1960s-1980s, and strayed mainly into their long cousins over the same period. 

 

I want to conclude this post by saying the FPN community has been absolutely inspiring to me. I'll return with more on these pens and similar over the next weeks, months, and years, but for now I just want to thank everyone who talks Japanese pens on this forum. I cannot name everyone I want to thank, but - in no particular order - @stan, @Bruno Taut (many thanks for the amazing Cronicas Estilográficas), @kamakura-pens, @troglokev, @KBeezie, @Number99, @awa54, @A Smug Dill (who says he does not like vintage pens but is very helpful about them), @hari317, @Karmachanic, @PithyProlix (amazing comments, plus that visual of Platinum #3776 pens over time led me to acquire the little bumble-bee like from 1987!), @liubrian, @Nikolaos (on all those 1950s pens), etc. 

 

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 12/13/2022 at 4:59 PM, ruby.monkey said:

I'm trying out a couple of Majohn C4s that arrived today, but my main pen is my Mabie Todd Swan 1500:

 

XTFA1355 by Jean-Yves, on Flickr

 

XTFA1360 by Jean-Yves, on Flickr

 

XTFA1353 by Jean-Yves, on Flickr

 

XTFA1366 by Jean-Yves, on Flickr

Ooh, what a great pen! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:43 PM, USG said:

I have these guys out today.... the Blues have fine nibs and the Greens have Mediums.

Inks:

M800 Blue [F] - Pelikan blue with a couple of drops of Diamine Sapphire for color.

M800 Green [M] - Aurora Blue

Aurora Primavera Green [M] - Diamine Sapphire Blue

Aurora Mare Blue [F] - Aurora Blue

 

 

Yesterday was the battle of the #6 nibs -

 

@USG, these are pretty great pens to compare. Thanks for sharing! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 12/16/2022 at 11:01 AM, A Smug Dill said:

This is art, @A Smug Dill. Thanks for sharing. Also... Now I'm feeling an itch for Majohn S7. 

[jandrew]

Universal Uniflow this morning ...

[OldTravelingShoe]

2 hours ago, jandrew said:

Universal Uniflow this morning ...

Very cute pen, lovely drawing, @jandrew. Thanks for sharing! 

[essayfaire]

12 hours ago, mallymal1 said:

Holiday pairing...

 

 

 

Waterman Ici Et La pens.

Both pens have M nibs.

 

 

^Guess you're not color blind!

[essayfaire]

6 hours ago, jandrew said:

Universal Uniflow this morning ...

You've done it again.  What's the ink you have so perfectly paired with the Uniflow?

[jandrew]

1 hour ago, essayfaire said:

You've done it again.  What's the ink you have so perfectly paired with the Uniflow?

It's a "burnt orange" batch I did when I got the uniflow last year --- according to my notes it is roughly 4-parts diamine ancient copper and 1-part kon-peki.