What pen(s) are you using today?

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, 51ISH said:

 

Excuse my ignorance.... I'm kind of assuming the current company purchased the name Onoto?? The 'best value' (cheapest) pen I could find was £250.

 

I do 'get' the Limited Edition recycled Spitfire 'thing'...but I'm still not sure how that 'sits' with me.   I think maybe a scale model of the Spitfire sat on my desk I could handle much better....🤔

My understanding is that Onoto used scrap metal from the Spitfire that was salvaged from it during restoration.  I have no issue with that. 

 

I will add that my Godfather flew first Spitfires (crash landed one in a potato field) operationally during WWII.  He went on to fly Mosquitos and Meteors before leaving the RAF after the war's end.  IF I was younger (people are starting to collect stuff to commemorate me now), and could afford it, I'd be tempted to have as a memory of his service.

[PAKMAN]

OM1 - Only Made Once Designs pen by Steven Clark purchased at the Arkansas Pen Show last weekend.  Inked up with Monteverde Horizon Blue ink. xf hooded nib. Sweet pen!

 

[51ISH]

30 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

My understanding is that Onoto used scrap metal from the Spitfire that was salvaged from it during restoration.  I have no issue with that. 

 

I will add that my Godfather flew first Spitfires (crash landed one in a potato field) operationally during WWII.  He went on to fly Mosquitos and Meteors before leaving the RAF after the war's end.  IF I was younger (people are starting to collect stuff to commemorate me now), and could afford it, I'd be tempted to have as a memory of his service.

 

My apologies, I meant no disrespect to your Godfather or anyone's ancestors. I confess I had not considered it from that viewpoint. An honest question, would you rather have that fountain pen,  or a scaled model of the Spitfire sat on your desk to remind you of your Godfather?

Incidentally, my 'avatar' ...I think that's what they are called?  In case you are wondering  is the 'Cap badge'  of the Machine Gun Corps in WW1. It's in memory of my Great Uncle (my Granddads brother) He was serving with the MGC and was shot through the neck on the front line in 1917. He was 24 years old. If you are interested in his 'story' send me a PM and I'll send you  some links.

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, 51ISH said:

 

My apologies, I meant no disrespect to your Godfather or anyone's ancestors. I confess I had not considered it from that viewpoint. An honest question, would you rather have that fountain pen,  or a scaled model of the Spitfire sat on your desk to remind you of your Godfather?

Incidentally, my 'avatar' ...I think that's what they are called?  In case you are wondering  is the 'Cap badge'  of the Machine Gun Corps in WW1. It's in memory of my Great Uncle (my Granddads brother) He was serving with the MGC and was shot through the neck on the front line in 1917. He was 24 years old. If you are interested in his 'story' send me a PM and I'll send you  some links.

I recognised the Machine Gun Corps Cap Badge.  My Grandfather was a Sergeant in a Highland regiment, twice wounded and survivor of the 2nd Ypres (1915) and Somme (1916) battles.  My father was an anti-aircraft gun director in the South Pacific during WWII.  He and all my uncles, excepting the one who was too young saw active service during WWII. One of my uncles served in Korea as well as WWII.  I served 3 years in Vietnam ('We Were Only Nineteen' - If you know the song).  That said 20th Century military history is a very large part of my family history.  Then too, almost every adult male (including my parish priest who had been a Commando before becoming a priest) I knew growing up was an ex-serviceman and a WWII veteran.

 

Growing up, I probably built more Airfix models of Spitfires than you have room for on your desk. 

 

As for which I would prefer, my answer as I approach 75 is neither.  It is inevitable that I will be relocating to 'Toe Tag City' at some unknown date, and that I can't take anything besides my memories with me.  That's a just simple reality all of us will confront whether we want to or not. 

[Toolattack]

11 hours ago, Mercian said:

Is your ink the original iron-gall Montblanc Blue-black?

Or their modern, dye-based, version of ‘Midnight Blue’?

 

If it’s the former, you’re a braver man than I am! 😁

Sorry @Mercian it’s the new Midnight Blue - force of habit, I used the blue-black for years! I have to say with good pen hygiene I didn’t really encounter any problems with it.

[inkstainedruth]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:34 PM, Mercian said:

You mean you Lamy-ented? 😉

 

Bahdumtissshhh! ThangyewverymuchfolksI’llbehereallweek….

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[51ISH]

20 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

I recognised the Machine Gun Corps Cap Badge.  My Grandfather was a Sergeant in a Highland regiment, twice wounded and survivor of the 2nd Ypres (1915) and Somme (1916) battles.  My father was an anti-aircraft gun director in the South Pacific during WWII.  He and all my uncles, excepting the one who was too young saw active service during WWII. One of my uncles served in Korea as well as WWII.  I served 3 years in Vietnam ('We Were Only Nineteen' - If you know the song).  That said 20th Century military history is a very large part of my family history.  Then too, almost every adult male (including my parish priest who had been a Commando before becoming a priest) I knew growing up was an ex-serviceman and a WWII veteran.

 

Growing up, I probably built more Airfix models of Spitfires than you have room for on your desk. 

 

As for which I would prefer, my answer as I approach 75 is neither.  It is inevitable that I will be relocating to 'Toe Tag City' at some unknown date, and that I can't take anything besides my memories with me.  That's a just simple reality all of us will confront whether we want to or not. 

 

As for which I would prefer, my answer as I approach 75 is neither.  It is inevitable that I will be relocating to 'Toe Tag City' at some unknown date, and that I can't take anything besides my memories with me.  That's a just simple reality all of us will confront whether we want to or not. 

 

So true my friend, I'm about 10 years or so behind you, so I'm beginning to understand that feeling. My Granddad and two of his brothers all served at the same time in different Regiments on the Western Front in WWI.  What it must have been like for a Mother to watch your 3 sons go off to war in the early 1900's I have no idea. Chances are all 3 had never left their home town previously. (Incidentally that town is about a mile from where I live) Sadly, I never got to 'find' my Granddads military history, one of my Uncles told me that he was a Despatch Rider (Horses) and he told him how his horse effectively saved his life by returning to their 'Lines' while he was in a very bad state after getting caught in a bad 'gas attack'. Ironically, I found Service Records of one of his brothers, and managed to track the history of his brother that was with the MGC.

 

My Uncle (Mom's brother) served in the Middle East during the Suez Crisis. He was probably the toughest guy I knew personally. One of my other uncles said to my Dad that he would 'roughly'  'take him outside and sort him out' My Dad replied. "You best take a hammer with you then, cause you  are going to need it! 😲

[Sinistral1]

23 hours ago, PAKMAN said:

OM1 - Only Made Once Designs pen by Steven Clark purchased at the Arkansas Pen Show last weekend.  Inked up with Monteverde Horizon Blue ink. xf hooded nib. Sweet pen!

 

A very interesting looking pen!

[51ISH]

Nothing new from me today...🙁

 

My Bejing Jin Xing 28  'Loaded' with Diamine Sherwood Green 🤩

 

This pen never fails to amaze me how lovely it performs with any ink I throw at it

 

If I had bought this pen sooner, this would have been a much cheaper 'hobby'.

 

I can't remember exactly but this pen cost less than £15 ... probably nearer £10...

[AmandaW]

Today's journal pen is a grey Jinhao Morandi-colour EF filled with Robert Oster Muddy Swamp. The nib really is extra fine and extra smooth too.

 

I have one of each of the four colours - pink, green, blue, but I chose the grey to celebrate what feels like the first autumn day here. A cool and misty morning, with a chance of a little rain later. And the first day the fire danger is down to "moderate" after months of 'high', and 'extreme', with a few to many 'catastrophic'. We won't be putting the fire fighting gear away just yet, but my stress level has definitely dropped a notch or two. Yay. Grey to celebrate. I love grey skies and the promise of rain.

 

[USG]

Platinum 3776 Celluloid, Tomoe River Paper, Private Reserve Naples Blue

 

[A Smug Dill]

 

 

Edit: Some redditors have commented that Troublemaker inks Milky Ocean should present as more blue, and a couple of them have suggested that what I have looks more like Foxglove (even though the label on the bottle lid clearly says Milky Ocean, and the colour of the ink I see is represented on one end of the spectrum of colours shown on the label). I've just contacted Troublemaker inks to ask them to have a look, and tell me if I possibly have a mislabelled bottle here.

Edited March 25, 2023 by A Smug Dill

[Mangrove Jack]

Sheaffer Lady's pen with Noodlers Bad Belted Kingfisher.

 

[USG]

Pilot 743, FA, Iroshizuku Tsuyu-Kusa, 52gsm Sanzen Tomoe River paper

 

[Misfit]

@A Smug Dill you make every nib look good in your writing.  That’s impressive. 

[51ISH]

3 hours ago, Misfit said:

@A Smug Dill you make every nib look good in your writing.  That’s impressive. 

+1

[Mark from Yorkshire]

Today may end up being the turn of the modern variant of the P-51 in burgundy retrieved this morning from storage last night was the Eversharpe Skyline. That and also the Monteverde Impressa all with Diamine Onyx Black ink

[A Smug Dill]

@Misfit @51ISH Thank you! My late father counselled, “Be the man who can produce pleasing script with a dollar pen, instead of one who sports a thousand-dollar pen but only produce chicken scratch^† with it.” So I try to make it work — as long as the pen does not have a Western Medium or broader nib. 😉 However, there's only so much I can do with a ballpoint pen at my current skill level, though, and I don't see it getting much further in that regard. 

 

^† Of course, he don't actually use the expression ‘chicken scratch’. In Chinese, the colloquial term for illegible scrawl is 鬼畫符, literally “ghosts drawing spell-imbued graphics”, because lingfu often contain symbols that look halfway like common Chinese characters which then devolve into something unintelligible to the vast majority schooled in the written language.

[PAKMAN]

Wrote in my journal today with my new 'The Good Blue' flex Ti nib pen.

 

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

A good mix today but principally the Eversharpe Skyline, also Parker Vector and parker 51, and Parker IM rollerball. I think it is the lot