What pen(s) are you using today?

August 6

9 hours ago, Doug C said:

How do you clean the pen?

I do not clean them. I had 2 nos pens, so they were clean.

August 6

Pelikan L65 dark blue, M with 4001 blue black ink

August 6

6 hours ago, USG said:

Hi LTM

I have similar feelings about ClaireFontaine paper 👎 and their covers.👍

My 743 SFM has sadly been under used so I am going to be using it more.

What kind of Oxford notebooks are you referring to? I recently found out about the Oxford Optik notebooks, is that what you're referring to?

What ink did you decide to use in your 743?

Oh, the very standard school notebooks with Seyes ruling. I just like the paper and the ruling. They make several types of notebooks with their 90gsm Optik paper, but I'm only able to get the A5 or A4 (or 24x32) school style, 48 or 96 pages. I wish they'd sell their paper open stock here, or maybe their Rhodia style notepads.

I put a leftover of Diamine Vivaldi in my 743 (which has been reground closer to a SF)!

August 6

Pelikan L65 dark blue, M with 4001 blue black ink

August 6

2 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Oh, the very standard school notebooks with Seyes ruling. I just like the paper and the ruling. They make several types of notebooks with their 90gsm Optik paper, but I'm only able to get the A5 or A4 (or 24x32) school style, 48 or 96 pages. I wish they'd sell their paper open stock here, or maybe their Rhodia style notepads.

I put a leftover of Diamine Vivaldi in my 743 (which has been reground closer to a SF)!

I use the Optik paper (A5, college notebloc, 160 pages). It was 90gsm, but it seems they have changed that. It does not say how much gsm it is now. The new optik paper feels a bit different. The Pelikan L65 M is almost an F, while the L65 B looks like a nice M. But it works.

August 6

Magna Carta Mag 1000, still can't stop gazing at it.

August 6

Since I started to use @InesF's surface tension findings as my ink shopping list, my supply certainly has grown. These seven are presently inked -- in surface tension order:

The ink/pen test:

<25> Orange Soleil, Parker 51
<40> Morinda, Kaweco Supra
<51> Sargasso Sea, Kaweco DIY
<64> Green Black Parker 51
<65> R&K Honey, Kaweco red
<65> R&K Cassia, Parker New Duofold
<76> Citrus Black, Sheaffer Au/red

The number within brackets tells the ink's surface tension, à la InesF.

As you can see, Jacques Herbin's Orange Soleil feathers terribly, even on very high quality sheets. Actually, I wonder what this ink is intended for?

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

August 6

18 minutes ago, Scribs said:

Magna Carta Mag 1000

Very cool pen!

August 6

Opus 88 Koloro, kon-peki and some good music.

August 6

Doug C-

I clean & fill my Pelikan Levels (both the L5 and L65) by using a small syringe (smaller bore than usual for fountain pens) and simply add warm water to the bottom hole in the pen & then remove the water. I have purchased a couple of these very inexpensively because ink had dried in the pen. With enough patience I was able to 100% clean out these pens. And if the ink is stuck in the front chamber next to the nib unit, simply remove the nib & feed and syringe into the opening to that chamber. I never use the supplied ink bottles, I find the whole system too finicky. Just syringe fill the chamber with whatever ink you want.

August 6

1 hour ago, lascosas said:

and simply add warm water to the bottom hole in the pen

Do you mean the hole at the bottom of the nib's feed or the rubber hole at the top of the pen?

August 6

16 hours ago, USG said:

Hey Mercian how have you been? 😀

Would love to see some samples from those pens.

I've found some pretty good shading from the 4001 Blue-Black, but never had any shading from Edelstein Sapphire. Maybe the pens I have it in are too wet, like that M800 above? What did you use to get shading from Sapphire?

¡Hola de nuevo, amigo!

I don’t have any (good) photos of Edelstein Sapphire from my pens (the only one on here is of something that I wrote on absorbent paper that swallows shading) 😔

That said, I get very similar results with it to those which can be seen in the review of the stuff on ‘Mountain of Ink’:

https://mountainofink.com/blog/pelikan-sapphire

I have had those kind of results from it in my 2012 M205 ‘F’, and from it in my 2020 M805 ‘F’. I usually write on Rhodia or on Oxford Optik when using Edelstein Sapphire.
It seems that the nib on your M800 ‘F’ might be a bit ‘wetter’ than is the (bi-colour) nib on my M805 ‘F’, although I can see some shading in your writing sample.
Your remarkable, ‘ink-concentrating’, Cosmo Snow paper may also be a factor too 🤷‍♂️

As for my experience of 4001 Blue-black, from most of my pens it shades as one would expect, but from my 1954 Pelikan 400 ‘F’ - which has an ebonite feed - its very narrow, crisp, ‘italic cursive’ nib lays it down as almost a solid black 😮

Is the following photo any good?

My 400 ‘F’ also laid-down the Sapphire as a vividly-coloured solid line, so I am now keen to try out my Edelstein Garnet through it, and Edelstein Topaz, perhaps the ‘Mandarin’, and maybe the ‘Star Ruby’ too.
Although, as I really love the ‘raspberry syrup’ look of writing with that ink from my M205 ‘F’, I might not try it in the 400… 🤔

😉

Slàinte,
M.

Edited August 6 by Mercian
Edited for fershlugginner FFEs.

August 7

I used the Pelikan Cognac pen that recently got the italic nib from the Cafe Creme pen. I wrote down who to vote for, and how to vote on the two state amendments. The notebook is a Clairefontaine Europa pad.

August 7

That’s a pretty brown pen, @Misfit!

August 7

@Penguincollector thank you so much. I’m glad I got it after buying the Pelikan Smoky Quartz instead.

August 7

17 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Oh, the very standard school notebooks with Seyes ruling. I just like the paper and the ruling. They make several types of notebooks with their 90gsm Optik paper, but I'm only able to get the A5 or A4 (or 24x32) school style, 48 or 96 pages. I wish they'd sell their paper open stock here, or maybe their Rhodia style notepads.

I put a leftover of Diamine Vivaldi in my 743 (which has been reground closer to a SF)!

Ah, your 743, ground to a SF. I remember, you like fine nibs and Seyes ruling. 😀👍

I like the bright white Optik paper but it doesn't bring out the subtleties like Cosmo Snow or Iroful does.

August 7

14 hours ago, Wil D said:

I use the Optik paper (A5, college notebloc, 160 pages). It was 90gsm, but it seems they have changed that. It does not say how much gsm it is now. The new optik paper feels a bit different. The Pelikan L65 M is almost an F, while the L65 B looks like a nice M. But it works.

How does the new Optik paper differ from what you refer to as the original?

August 7

14 hours ago, Claes said:

[...] The number within brackets tells the ink's viscosity* [...]

* surface tension

You are welcome. I'm pleased by your strategy making the measurement table a helpful tool.

August 7

15 hours ago, Claes said:

Since I started to use @InesF's viscosity findings as my ink shopping list, my supply certainly has grown. These seven are presently inked -- in viscosity order:

The ink/pen test:

<25> Orange Soleil, Parker 51

<40> Morinda, Kaweco Supra

<51> Sargasso Sea, Kaweco DIY

<64> Green Black Parker 51

<65> R&K Honey, Kaweco red

<65> R&K Cassia, Parker New Duofold

<76> Citrus Black, Sheffer Au/red

The number within brackets tells the ink's viscosity, à la InesF.

As you can see, Jacques Herbin's Orange Soleil feathers terribly, even on very high quality sheets. Actually, I wonder what this ink is intended for?

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

Hi Claes

InesF explained the viscosity thing explained to me but I still don't quite understand how it relates to wet Vs. dry and thick Vs. watery inks. Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi, for instance, seems like a thin watery ink but good luck trying to get it to write out of a pen.

Now a few questions:

How are you using the viscosity chart to choose inks?
What paper are you using?
Are most of those nibs fine?

Oh, one more thing: 😁

14 hours ago, metalhead said:

Opus 88 Koloro, kon-peki and some good music.

Hi @metalhead is that an accurate Kon Peki color? Mine is less blue and more turquoise.

8 hours ago, Mercian said:

¡Hola de nuevo, amigo!

I don’t have any (good) photos of Edelstein Sapphire from my pens (the only one on here is of something that I wrote on absorbent paper that swallows shading) 😔

That said, I get very similar results with it to those which can be seen in the review of the stuff on ‘Mountain of Ink’:

https://mountainofink.com/blog/pelikan-sapphire

I have had those kind of results from it in my 2012 M205 ‘F’, and from it in my 2020 M805 ‘F’. I usually write on Rhodia or on Oxford Optik when using Edelstein Sapphire.
It seems that the nib on your M800 ‘F’ might be a bit ‘wetter’ than is the (bi-colour) nib on my M805 ‘F’, although I can see some shading in your writing sample.
Your remarkable, ‘ink-concentrating’, Cosmo Snow paper may also be a factor too 🤷‍♂️

As for my experience of 4001 Blue-black, from most of my pens it shades as one would expect, but from my 1954 Pelikan 400 ‘F’ - which has an ebonite feed - its very narrow, crisp, ‘italic cursive’ nib lays it down as almost a solid black 😮

Is the following photo any good?

My 400 ‘F’ also laid-down the Sapphire as a vividly-coloured solid line, so I am now keen to try out my Edelstein Garnet through it, and Edelstein Topaz, perhaps the ‘Mandarin’, and maybe the ‘Star Ruby’ too.
Although, as I really love the ‘raspberry syrup’ look of writing with that ink from my M205 ‘F’, I might not try it in the 400… 🤔

😉

Slàinte,
M.

Mountain is Amazing. She gets fantastic shading doesn't she.

I have some samples of the same inks as yesterday but on OPTIK paper. I also had a better look at the Edelstein Sapphire and you were right, there is some shading that I didn't notice yesterday. I never thought of it as a shading ink.

Take another look at the OPTIK sample from my M800 F and see if you still think my nib is wetter than yours. It very well might be because the nib was on my main office pen for a long time and has been well used. ( I'm on my 3rd blue barrel in something like 25 years. The first one flipped out of my pocket, hit the floor and broke, a Pelikan dealer replaced the barrel at a pen show, the second one rolled off the desk, hit the floor and broke just like the 1st one and the 3rd one is the charm. 😀)