So this arrived today ...

[Chthulhu]

I've wanted an Aurora Thesi ballpoint for years. I've seen these pens in this "Oro Nero" color scheme listed for as much as US$700, but have no idea of it's actual value, and paid next to nothing for it. It's absolutely pristine, though the presentation case is a bit scruffy. I've dropped in a fresh Schmidt A3 refill, but the Aurora refill it came with still works fairly well.

 

What I'd most like to know is when it might have been made. The instruction card has a sticker showing that it was imported by Yafa, so I'm going to try asking them. Also going to ask Kenro, who seem to be the current importer for Aurora.

 

 

[Chthulhu]

Kenro says "mid 1980s," Yafa hasn't replied yet, and Aurora misunderstood the question and showed me the several versions they have in their warehouse, with prices (presumably in Euros).

[Black Spot]

It looks very 80's.

[A Smug Dill]

Continuing in the vein of this discussion thread's title:

 

There are more writing instruments that are not fountain pens than there are fountain pens in this shipment.

 

A+ for another valiant effort in packing all those goods so neatly, densely, and securely. It's a shame a couple of (very minor, perhaps easily overlooked) items indicated on the enclosed packing lists are missing from the parcel's contents.

[amberleadavis]

8 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Continuing in the vein of this discussion thread's title:

 

There are more writing instruments that are not fountain pens than there are fountain pens in this shipment.

 

A+ for another valiant effort in packing all those goods so neatly, densely, and securely. It's a shame a couple of (very minor, perhaps easily overlooked) items indicated on the enclosed packing lists are missing from the parcel's contents.

 

WOW what a score!

[mhwombat]

9 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Continuing in the vein of this discussion thread's title:

 

There are more writing instruments that are not fountain pens than there are fountain pens in this shipment.

 

A+ for another valiant effort in packing all those goods so neatly, densely, and securely. It's a shame a couple of (very minor, perhaps easily overlooked) items indicated on the enclosed packing lists are missing from the parcel's contents.

I am drooling!

[DvdRiet]

10 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Continuing in the vein of this discussion thread's title:

 

There are more writing instruments that are not fountain pens than there are fountain pens in this shipment.

 

A+ for another valiant effort in packing all those goods so neatly, densely, and securely. It's a shame a couple of (very minor, perhaps easily overlooked) items indicated on the enclosed packing lists are missing from the parcel's contents.

And a valiant effort yourself, I would say, in taking full advantage of the clearance!! Awesome haul!

 

I received word today that I also should have one of those boxes coming tomorrow, although not anywhere near as full. And, somewhat surprisingly, exactly according to the stated/expected delivery period!

[A Smug Dill]

On 7/5/2022 at 5:26 AM, amberleadavis said:

WOW what a score!

 

Updating the spreadsheet of (how much of) which inks I have is now a chore.

 

Edit:

OK, now my spreadsheet is (I think!) up-to-date, including fixing some stuff missed from a couple of deliveries earlier in the year. That brings me to having retail bottles of over 450 different inks; and, after the four on order finally arrives, I'll have 600 bottles here, having given away about 30, and (will have) tossed out that bottle of Diamine Sargasso Sea with the sickening smell.

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by A Smug Dill

[Misfit]

I was trying to find somewhere to post this. Then I saw @A Smug Dill’s haul, and had to stop and say Wow, just wow. It’s like a birthday and Christmas. 
 

Anyway, I got a free stylus pen today, I wanted to share. I’ll post it here to contrast to Smug’s haul of wondrous goodies. Today was Primary Election Day in my state. 
 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, Misfit said:

I’ll post it here to contrast to Smug’s haul of wondrous goodies.

 

Alas, both of the fountain pens in that shipment had issues and were returned - at the retailer's cost to the Netherlands - for refund (which I've since received). 

 

The remaining items are OK. Some clearance items I ordered turned out not to be available in the numbers of units I already paid for, and I told LCdC not to bother specially ordering them in for me if it is culling those products from the shop's catalogue. I got the refund for those... and then some units of those showed up again not a month later in its list of clearance specials, when I couldn't order them again because of the now-instituted minimum order value of EUR 50. I guess someone found in some box or corner the units that the shop's inventory system originally said were available after all.

 

Sigh.

[A Smug Dill]

 

Now I have to buy one of these double-sided 11.5-inch erasable, battery-powered LCD writing tablets for my wife as well, just so I can hog this one for myself.

[A Smug Dill]

I'm having such fun with this thing! All for ~US$20 delivered, too.

 

[amberleadavis]

21 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I'm having such fun with this thing! All for ~US$20 delivered, too.

 

 

Okay I love the modern etch-a-sketch!  Thanks for sharing the great pictures.

[pensuponpens]

On 3/3/2022 at 6:06 PM, Chthulhu said:

I've wanted an Aurora Thesi ballpoint for years. I've seen these pens in this "Oro Nero" color scheme listed for as much as US$700, but have no idea of it's actual value, and paid next to nothing for it. It's absolutely pristine, though the presentation case is a bit scruffy. I've dropped in a fresh Schmidt A3 refill, but the Aurora refill it came with still works fairly well.

 

What I'd most like to know is when it might have been made. The instruction card has a sticker showing that it was imported by Yafa, so I'm going to try asking them. Also going to ask Kenro, who seem to be the current importer for Aurora.

 

 

I know I bought mine in the late 70's.

 

[XYZZY]

On 8/9/2022 at 1:00 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I'm having such fun with this thing! All for ~US$20 delivered, too.

 

 

Certainly in four years on FPN I had to have seen your handwriting before, but I don't recall it being so gorgeous.  Wow.  How much of the detail in the strokes is put there by the device?  For example, where you cross your "t" there is a little ball on one/both ends of the stroke:  is that your doing?

 

Part of me is thinking "there has to be an app for that".  So how is this device different from using an iPad with a stylus?  Besides the fact that I would never risk my iPad by writing on it with a fountain pen.

[Muncle]

3 hours ago, XYZZY said:

 

Certainly in four years on FPN I had to have seen your handwriting before, but I don't recall it being so gorgeous.  Wow.  How much of the detail in the strokes is put there by the device?  For example, where you cross your "t" there is a little ball on one/both ends of the stroke:  is that your doing?

 

Part of me is thinking "there has to be an app for that".  So how is this device different from using an iPad with a stylus?  Besides the fact that I would never risk my iPad by writing on it with a fountain pen.

I bought one for each of my kids on the car ride. They don't need charging, and as you can see it can be written on with multiple things. I hadn't thought of a fountain pen though, I'll try it as soon as I get an uninked one.

[A Smug Dill]

On 8/11/2022 at 3:50 AM, XYZZY said:

Certainly in four years on FPN I had to have seen your handwriting before, but I don't recall it being so gorgeous.  Wow.

 

Why, thank you very much!

 

On 8/11/2022 at 3:50 AM, XYZZY said:

How much of the detail in the strokes is put there by the device?  For example, where you cross your "t" there is a little ball on one/both ends of the stroke:  is that your doing?

 

My handwriting technique is pretty consistent across various writing instruments, but especially when I have a fountain pen in my hand, without having to adapt to the significantly lesser girth and weight of a plastic stylus.

 

   

 

However, the resolution and sensitivity of the LCD writing tablet's touchscreen are such that sometimes very tiny hooks I'm wont to put at the beginning of entrance strokes (see majuscule S, minuscules f and n, and the cross-stroke on my minuscule t) in my cursive handwriting may get rendered as little balls as you describe them. That also happens sometimes with pen and paper, if the ink flow is wet and/or paper is absorbent; the ink just seeps out and spreads while I execute the movement, such that what is intended to be a tiny hook becomes a glob of colour on the page.

 

Some aspects of my handwriting in Chinese do carry through to how I write in English. A horizontal pen stroke in the construction of a hanzi character in kaishu script is generally not perfectly straight and even, but has a “little ball” at the start, narrowing towards the middle of the stroke, and then end with either a deliberately sharp tail or, more commonly, another “little ball” or swell at the end. With a stiff pointed pen (as opposed to a brush), I would produce those rounded and swollen ends with (translated literally) pen pauses, which are not actually brief cessations of movement, but involve dipping or pressing down on the pen point ever-so-slightly for a split-second. The LCD writing tablet will also (correctly) render those as “little balls”. (With a brush, those dips involve movements akin to tiny, almost-looping hooks.)

 

On 8/11/2022 at 3:50 AM, XYZZY said:

Part of me is thinking "there has to be an app for that".  So how is this device different from using an iPad with a stylus?

 

The LCD tablet's touchscreen is not capacitive, but resistive and pressure-sensitive. The harder you press (to a limit), the thicker and more intense the resulting mark (electronically rendered) will be, without any variation in the contact area between stylus point (or whatever you're using) and the screen's surface. In a way, it's like writing or drawing with a soft (or even “flex”) nib, except it isn't the writing instrument that alters the ink flow and/or contact surface area by its nib physically and elastically changing shape; and, if you press too hard, it isn't the nib that gets sprung and ruined, but the screen that gets scratched or damaged. You can put a 9H hardness tempered glass screen protector on your iPad and it'll still work perfectly without compromising the touchscreen resolution and sensitivity, but you can't do so with a resistive touchscreen like this tablet has.

 

Oh, and of course, tapping or writing on a capacitive touchscreen, such as the one on an iPad, with the metal point on a fountain pen nib isn't going to cause the device to register anything electronically, although you could possibly put scratches on the glass foing so.

[XYZZY]

10 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Why, thank you very much!

 

 

My handwriting technique is pretty consistent across various writing instruments, but especially when I have a fountain pen in my hand, without having to adapt to the significantly lesser girth and weight of a plastic stylus.

 

   

 

However, the resolution and sensitivity of the LCD writing tablet's touchscreen are such that sometimes very tiny hooks I'm wont to put at the beginning of entrance strokes (see majuscule S, minuscules f and n, and the cross-stroke on my minuscule t) in my cursive handwriting may get rendered as little balls as you describe them. That also happens sometimes with pen and paper, if the ink flow is wet and/or paper is absorbent; the ink just seeps out and spreads while I execute the movement, such that what is intended to be a tiny hook becomes a glob of colour on the page.

 

Some aspects of my handwriting in Chinese do carry through to how I write in English. A horizontal pen stroke in the construction of a hanzi character in kaishu script is generally not perfectly straight and even, but have a “little ball” at the start, narrowing towards the middle of the stroke, and then end with either a deliberately sharp tail or, more commonly, another “little ball” or swell at the end. With a stiff pointed pen (as opposed to a brush), I would produce those rounded and swollen ends with (translated literally) pen pauses, which are not actually a brief cessation of movement, but involves dipping or pressing down on the pen point ever-so-slightly for a split-second. The LCD writing tablet will also (correctly) render those as “little balls”. (With a brush, those dips involve movements akin to tiny, almost-looping hooks.)

 

 

The LCD tablet's touchscreen is not capacitive, but resistive and pressure-sensitive. The harder you press (to a limit), the thicker and more intense the resulting mark (electronically rendered) will be, without any variation in the contact area between stylus point (or whatever you're using) and the screen's surface. In a way, it's like writing or drawing with a soft (or even “flex”) nib, except it isn't the writing instrument that alters the ink flow and/or contact surface area by its nib physically and elastically changing shape; and, if you press too hard, it isn't the nib that gets sprung and ruined, but the screen that gets scratched or damaged. You can put a 9H hardness tempered glass screen protector on your iPad and it'll still work perfectly without compromising the touchscreen resolution and sensitivity, but you can't do so with a resistive touchscreen like this tablet has.

 

Oh, and of course, tapping or writing on a capacitive touchscreen, such as the one on an iPad, with the metal point on a fountain pen nib isn't going to cause the device to register anything electronically, although you could possibly put scratches on the glass foing so.

Thank you very much for the time you put into your clear and informative responses.  Much appreciated!

[A Smug Dill]

Originally I thought the screen resolution of the monochrome side is somehow higher, since it seems some sellers are offering a single-sided version of the tablet with only the edge-to-edge monochrome writing surface (and the Clear Screen button remains on the opposite side of the device) and are marketing those as “high definition” writing tablets. However, it seems the colourful side has similarly fine screen resolution: