What pen(s) are you using today?

[essayfaire]

2 hours ago, dms525 said:

Since I have 4 Sailor Realos (1911 and PG's), 3 with CI-ground nibs, I don't find them "ideosyncratic." My everyday handwriting is italic, so I use these pens as everyday carry writers. 

 

They are nice writers - a bit toothy, as is typical of Sailors. Their size is perfect to fit in a shirt breast pocket. 

 

Sailor Realos

Size comparison: (Top to bottom) Aurora Optima, Pelikan M800, Pelikan M620, Sailor PG Realo.

 

David

Are they all music CIs?  I love Sailors, but I don't do CIs, and I'm thinking about a music....

[dms525]

2 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Are they all music CIs?  I love Sailors, but I don't do CIs, and I'm thinking about a music....

 

The black PG II Realo has a broad nib which writes like a European Med.-Fine. Some of the others started as Music nibs and others as Zoom nibs.  The Music nib has 2 tines, unlike most,  and is like a double broad Pelikan. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

5 hours ago, mallymal1 said:

Happy to have brought this pen back to life, today. A Burnham No. 54, inked with Robert Oster Graphite.

 

 

 

Very nice, @mallymal1. I keep bumping into this brand (company?) name, Burnham, every time I look at larger (eBay) sellers of Conway Stewart and Mabie Todd. I believe Mentmore is another of the names that pop up. I should read some more...

[inkstainedruth]

14 hours ago, Misfit said:

It was a letter to a very Inky friend from pen club. I usually use a pen per side of paper. One was close to running out. One I refilled with a different dark blue before I started. 

That happens to me sometimes with journal entries.  This morning I finally finished the fill of diluted Noodler's Tokyo Gift in one of the Parker Vectors, and finished with the Parker Eversharp 45 hybrid, and IIRC Kobe Suma Beach Blue (a little more than a page).  Sometimes I end up using 3 pens because I'm not going to get up and start flushing/refilling until after the day's entry is done.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AmandaW]

Today's journal pen is a brown Pilot Prera with a fine italic nib (from a Plumix) filled with Robert Oster Motor Oil. A favourite combination!

 

[essayfaire]

4 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

Today's journal pen is a brown Pilot Prera with a fine italic nib (from a Plumix) filled with Robert Oster Motor Oil. A favourite combination!

 

I love Motor Oil!  I never know whether it is brown or grey, though!

[Misfit]

@AmandaW The dark brown Pilot Prera is the last of the opaque ones I need to use. It will be the last of them to get ink. Just how it worked out. Preras are cool smaller pens. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

Today's pen, chosen from several because I've refreshed my drawing kit, is a PenBBS 491 acrylic fountain pen, in Winter Night (blue with sparkles) material, with an RM (round, medium tip) steel nib. I inked it with Noodler's Cayenne. Figures follow. 

 

I plan to use this pen to draw some maps, and the Cayenne dark orange seems to me a good match to the coloring of European medieval maps. 

 

Figure 1. The iPen. 

 

Figure 2. The Pen!

 

Figure 3. Nib, blue period. 

 

Figure 4. Nib of rough waters. 

 

For more photos of this pen, focusing on the nib, see OldTravelingShoe's Random Pics of Fountain Pens. 

[A Smug Dill]

Out of these, the Diplomat Excellence A² Evergreen just arrived within the past 24 hours:

 

Once again, Diplomat has proven that its steel EF nibs are truly Extra Fine, even if they are not of Japanese provenance.

[OldTravelingShoe]

24 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Out of these, the Diplomat Excellence A² Evergreen just arrived within the past 24 hours:

 

Once again, Diplomat has proven that its steel EF nibs are truly Extra Fine, even if they are not of Japanese provenance.

Wonderful samples, @A Smug Dill, thanks for sharing! Excellent writing technique, lots to learn from this. (Among others, that italic handwriting can be done right with any pen; it's the writer's skill that matters.) 

 

The only downside to your post: these pens are inspiring 😄 Now I'm ogling the Opus 88. 

[A Smug Dill]

15 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Now I'm ogling the Opus 88.

 

Cult Pens still has it on clearance at the moment, so 15% off the ‘clearance’ price with the application of the discount code repeatedly given in recent Penorama newsletters from the company. You won't get a double-whammy by virtue of a 10% brand-wide discount for Opus 88 products, though.

 

[Doug C]

Mad Science Pen Co Clingman. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

2 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Cult Pens still has it on clearance at the moment, so 15% off the ‘clearance’ price with the application of the discount code repeatedly given in recent Penorama newsletters from the company. You won't get a double-whammy by virtue of a 10% brand-wide discount for Opus 88 products, though.

 

Thank you, @A Smug Dill, this is very useful. Will have to check the budget, I've been anything but thrifty for the past few months 😄

 

There may be another snag. I'm also wondering if LCdC in the Netherlands would have the pen cheaper at some point in the future, if they even offer it:

1. Cult Pens is offering a 15% discount. However, AFAIK, Cult Pens has to add >20% for customs, since Brexit. 
2. IIRC, LCdC offers quite frequently 20% discounts, which effectively remove the VAT. 

To all: Any thoughts on all these games on rates, customs, etc.? (I've read quite a bit of the discussions on FPN from around the Brexit transition, IIRC with comments also from @A Smug Dill, but the waters were muddy at the time and I'm wondering if things are clearer now. I'm starting to notice very high prices, pushed by customs, when I buy from the US or the UK, and partially from JP, so when I import in the EU.) 

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

I'm also wondering if LCdC in the Netherlands would have the pen cheaper at some point in the future, if they even offer it

 

I haven't seen LCdC list the Opus 88 Shell, or the wooden-barrelled Heart Sutra limited edition (which I'm now ambivalent about, having decided against it when Cult Pens had it and some minor discounting was applicable), or other of the brand's c/c-filled models priced above its far more well-known and well-received eyedropper-filled models.

 

However, that is just history, not crystal ball gazing.

[AmandaW]

Today's journal pen is a Lamy Studio Black Forest with a fine nib and Diamine Safari.

 

[mallymal1]

18 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Today's pen, chosen from several because I've refreshed my drawing kit, is a PenBBS 491 acrylic fountain pen, in Winter Night (blue with sparkles) material, with an RM (round, medium tip) steel nib. I inked it with Noodler's Cayenne. Figures follow. 

 

I plan to use this pen to draw some maps, and the Cayenne dark orange seems to me a good match to the coloring of European medieval maps. 

 

Figure 1. The iPen. 

 

Figure 2. The Pen!

 

Figure 3. Nib, blue period. 

 

Figure 4. Nib of rough waters. 

 

For more photos of this pen, focusing on the nib, see OldTravelingShoe's Random Pics of Fountain Pens. 

 

Very good. Loved the i and the !

[mallymal1]

!!!!!  😱

 

 

Amazingly, it writes. 

Aurora 88K, inked with Aurora Blue. But...another pen for the repair bundle.  😞

 

[AmandaW]

1 hour ago, mallymal1 said:

But...another pen for the repair bundle. 

Oh dear. What happened to it? Did it arrive like that?

[mallymal1]

Just now, AmandaW said:

Oh dear. What happened to it? Did it arrive like that?

 

Yes it did, but I thought I'd try it, and see if I could do a quick fix. On close inspection, there's a groove across the tines, which would suggest that a previous owner has messed about with it.

 

I picked the pen up for next to nothing, so it's not a problem.

 

I've now to decide whether to have a go myself, or to send it off to a pen doctor. 

 

Some might find all this messing about a nuisance, but I really do enjoy tinkering with pens...within my limitations. 😁

[PAKMAN]

Asvine Skelton