Pen/Ink/Paper Trios

[Penguincollector]

    I really like the “Pen of the Day” thread, but wanted a space to talk about what we use our daily pens with, ink and paper. Do you have a combination that you particularly love? One you loathe? One you use daily? I wanted to share my daily experiences, and so I’m opening the discussion with today’s pen/ink/paper combo: the first inking and use of one of my grails, the Namiki Nippon Art Collection Origami Penguin with a Fine nib. I used Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku for my ink, and Sanrio Japan Badtz-Maru note paper. It is quite a good trio to use together. The paper is a light blue that suits the teal ink. 

[InesF]

2 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

[...] the Namiki Nippon Art Collection Origami Penguin [...]

 that's great! I fully understand why this is your grail fountain pen. My congratulations for getting this one! 👍

 

Also a good idea for a thread and I like to follow (with photo tomorrow). However, there are many paper types that are equally good for use with pen and ink - means: whatever posted will be only one option of many. I see already multiple entries with different combinations over a full year ... 

[InesF]

Hmm, OK, no, I can't wait.

Here a photo of what I use today and what turns out to be a nice combination:

 

The pens are: Waterman Carène m-stub with Colorverse Pillars of Creation and a perpetuo 80% graphite pencil.

Yes, the Ink looks a bit dull at the photo. It is a beautiful Bordeaux with a decent green sheen. Watched at right angel (as the photo is) Bordeaux and green mis into this strange brown. Watched at an angel it is either green or Bordeaux ... The pencil lines appear a bit lighter in the photo (reflections?).

 

The Carène loves the ink, the paper loves the ink, I love the ink  and the combination of the three.  

[Penguincollector]

8 hours ago, InesF said:

 that's great! I fully understand why this is your grail fountain pen. My congratulations for getting this one! 👍

 

Also a good idea for a thread and I like to follow (with photo tomorrow). However, there are many paper types that are equally good for use with pen and ink - means: whatever posted will be only one option of many. I see already multiple entries with different combinations over a full year ... 

 

  Thank you, Ines- that’s precisely what I would like to see, members posting on what they are using and how they feel about the interaction between all three items. 
 

  Memo pads can have some lovely paper, and are fun because they are so random. Penworld in Belgium sent me a little thank you note with my order that was written on such nice paper, that I asked if they sold it. They didn’t at the moment, but they are looking into it. 
 

  Oh, I love your Carène, btw,  I bet the Pillars of Creation ink really looks great with it in person. It’s so hard to get the light right with those kinds of inks for pictures.

Edited February 7 by Penguincollector
Last paragraph was forgotten.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I like two tone shading inks, and until a couple of years ago, any 90g paper would do for that, but now there are many that I'd not buy again.

Including 100g papers.  Clairefontaine, ClarAlfa and DCP, one was 100g, the other 120....and they landed in the printer after the first sheet was tested....no shading....and at 100 and 120g.

 

To buy, if your pens aren't too butter smooth...which is very good for 100-50% cotton papers which don't allow shading as is. (or common 80g copy paper) 

Strathmore is one, very nice to write on, but because of the high cotton amount, doe's not shade, nor leave a clean line. Crown Mill is another 100% cotton paper that is well liked...but It because of the high rag/cotton % don't shade.

 

25% cotton is a much better paper for a clean line or shading inks. .

 

Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g. is a slick fine paper....that shades well  I have Rhoda 90g, and like it, but others who have had both prefer the 80g. Both are slick papers where butter smooth nibs cans skate and slip along.

 

One, Of Course, needs classic rough papers, laid or linen effect. Good for your M or B nibbed pens.

I tend to go for heavy papers, so don't have these in 90g or 100g

G.Lalo....

Verge de France is a laid paper, I have it at 160g. Ivory....

Velin pur Coton, a 50% cotton paper that I like at 125g. creme

 

Boxes of Southworth papers were very nice...somehow getting around the limitations of being laser&Ink Jet papers, which is normally a compromise. I have seven boxes from the last time I visited the States a decade ago. From 24-32 pound...'90-120g.

 

Spiral notebooks, both . Clairefontaine Velout 90g is = to Oxford Optic 90g,  which is the paper used in the Black&red notebooks. I'd call both the most affordable good papers, and it being in a spiral notebook don't bother me a bit.

It could be possible to get Oxford Optic 90g  other than in a spiral notebook. It is made in at least three lands. Portugal, England and Germany.

I have 2 to 3 of each.

[Penguincollector]

  I took inspiration from your post, @Bo Bo Olson, and used my tiny Clairefontaine notebook. No shading from Diamine Jet Black, but the Speedball calligraphy 1.1 mm nib is a delight. Not bad for a $10 pen picked up at the general store. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I didn't know Velote came in such small spiral notebooks.

 

Even though I've not been using Optic or Velout lately, I am glad I have 'more' of their spiral notebooks than I use.

If I pull out my right extension board of my desk, there is one of each, under my back scratcher and long shoehorn.

[PolarMoonman]

I have two trios I use most.

 

Moonman A1 Matte Black with Noodler's Polar Black and printer paper 

 

Or

 

Pelikan M205 with Noodler's Blue Eel and Rhodia Dot Pad

[Penguincollector]

I like your desk setup, @Bo Bo Olson. 
 

@ParkersandPilots, no Parkers nor Pilots in your most used combinations? What printer paper do you use? 
 

  I would say that there’s no combination of all three that I use regularly lately. I buy so many new things that it’s hard to justify keeping things in the rotation if there’s something new to try. In school I used either Cross BB in my 18k Century I (RIP), or Parker washable blue in my Duofold Centennial and either Sanrio lined filler paper or these wonderful white letter sized legal pads Office Depot carried for a long time. My various themed journals and pocket notebooks are the only things that I use regularly, but the pens and inks are constantly rotating. 
 

  Off to post some packages, so today’s combination will be added later.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you...one of these days, I got to go to something like your Home Depo and get some wood for another desk slanted shelf, for my Scene's notebook, one of three  writers' notebooks. The one that's out is Plot. The other is Body Language.

Years go by, when I'm there at Baumarkt, I forget about getting the wood.

[PolarMoonman]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

@Bo Bo Olson

@ParkersandPilots, no Parkers nor Pilots in your most used combinations? What printer paper do you use? 
 

 

 

I made the account a long time ago. A Sonnet was in my daily use rotation but I lost it. 😭 I do have a black lM Premium in the mail. Parker inks are well behaved but not very permanent and so they don't make it into my rotation. I currently do not have any Pilot stuff. 

 

W.B. Mason basic laser paper, nothing fancy. Mostly it's paper from my work. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Penguincollector]

5 minutes ago, PolarMoonman said:

 

I made the account a long time ago. A Sonnet was in my daily use rotation but I lost it. 😭 I do have a black lM Premium in the mail. Parker inks are well behaved but not very permanent and so they don't make it into my rotation. I currently do not have any Pilot stuff. 

 

W.B. Mason basic laser paper, nothing fancy. Mostly it's paper from my work. 

 

 

 

 

 

   I see. I’m sorry about your lost Sonnet. I have lost a few that I still miss. I also have a IM (Monochrome) in the mail. I agree about Parker and permanency- I have a few vintage permanent inks but nothing current. PolarMoonman is a great username!

[PolarMoonman]

8 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

   I see. I’m sorry about your lost Sonnet. I have lost a few that I still miss. I also have a IM (Monochrome) in the mail. I agree about Parker and permanency- I have a few vintage permanent inks but nothing current. PolarMoonman is a great username!

 

Thank you  I love yours too.

 

My friend actually called his town to see if he could legally have a penguin as a pet. He and I formed a master plan called "Penguins in the Pond" where we planned over the generations to increase the penguins' tolerance for fresh water and eventually start throwing them in the lakes so Maine would have penguins. But the town said he couldn't have any so it never happened 😛

 

[Penguincollector]

1 minute ago, PolarMoonman said:

 

Thank you  I love yours too.

 

My friend actually called his town to see if he could legally have a penguin as a pet. He and I formed a master plan called "Penguins in the Pond" where we planned over the generations to increase the penguins' tolerance for fresh water and eventually start throwing them in the lakes so Maine would have penguins. But the town said he couldn't have any so it never happened 😛

 

 

  This is great ! 😂 I would’ve visited Maine more than once if there were penguins around, maybe lived in that Portland instead. The penguins in this Portland’s zoo live in freshwater.

[PolarMoonman]

23 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

 

  This is great ! 😂 I would’ve visited Maine more than once if there were penguins around, maybe lived in that Portland instead. The penguins in this Portland’s zoo live in freshwater.

 

Ah see it can be done! There is hope

[Penguincollector]

Today’s trio was ok, but not ideal. I like the pen and ink together, but the paper felt a little bumpy under the very  EF nib. I’ll try the same paper with a larger nib tomorrow.

[Penguincollector]

Today was better, but I think a larger nib will really shine on this paper. I will try a Broad or Medium.

[USG]

2 Pens, 2 Papers, 2 Inks:

 

I'm not sure this is what PGC wants, but I've been checking out two inks that looked very similar online, but in actuality are quite different, Organics Studio Nitrogen and Colorverse Quasar, on two of my favorite papers, Cosmo Snow and Tomoe River.  The pens used were two Jinhao X159s with Medium nibs.

 

CLICK FOR LARGER

 

 

 

 

 

 

The JInhao X159s were 2nd generation, where the cap unscrews with a couple of turns and the rear finial is detachable.  The medium nibs were initially dry and I adjusted them for a wet flow.

 

 

Initial writing before I adjusted the nibs:  The Nitrogen wrote a bright turquoise similar to PR Naples that didn't shade or sheen and the Quasar was just a thinner line of dark blue.  After adjusting, the NItrogen was a very dark teal similar to Polar Glow with copious shading and sheening and Quasar was a deep purple-blue with a generous flow.

 

I don't know if it was my just my sample but the Nitrogen was a consistent hard starter and dried out on the nib quickly.  I almost want to call it a dry ink because  until I had the flow adjusted I had to exert a lot of pressure on the nib to get it out of the pen and onto the paper.  Once I had the flow adjusted, it shaded nicely and sheened on both papers, but still required more pressure than Quasar, which I had no trouble with.  That pressure differential, however, let the nib on the X150 bounce nicely giving me lighter and darker areas.  I had read that Nitrogen smeared after drying but my sample did not.

 

The Quasar was a dark, wet, purple-blue ink, that flowed easily and showed some very slight feathering on the Tomoe River paper.  It has some sheen on the Cosmo Snow paper but none on the Tomoe River paper.  What I didn't like about it was that it smeared after drying.

 

In terms of shading and sheening I have found that nothing is better than the discontinued Cosmo Snow paper.  Iroful is a close second but it's not the bright white color Cosmo Snow is. Tomoe River has always been a staple but it isn't in the same shade-sheen league as the other two.  Among the 52gsm papers, I like Tomoe River the best, with Thin Kokuyo next and View Corona, regular and bright white, the least.  Every time I write on View Corona paper, I end up putting it away after a couple of lines.  Some paper is soft and some are neutral but View Corona seems to have a 'hard' quality I don't care for.

 

As good as they are with shading and sheening, both Cosmo Snow 75gsm and Iroful 75gsm are quite sensitive to finger prints, producing ink resistant areas where ithey've been touched.

[Misfit]

@Penguincollector This is a great new thread. I won’t be sharing my daily writing, since it’s personal. It’s the same paper, different pens and inks. I’ll try to come up with something to share some day. I have some paper from my gel pen and ballpoint days that are tinted.  I’ll have to try some of those to see how they work with fountain pens.

 

That origami penguin pen is so very cool. Congratulations my buddy. 
 

Ok, like @InesF I couldn’t wait. The information is in the image. I tend to write with a lighter touch, which would work with this notepad. When I tested the nib on a different sheet writing x several times, I saw show through. So at the end I wrote with more pressure, and it bled through. 
 

The pen material was discontinued by F-C after I first saw a pen photo here with this color. I was lucky to see this pen on their website when I did. It’s the same brown I admired.  I was happy to get a pen in this material. It uses a #5 nib. All my other Franklin-Christoph pens have #6 nibs. 
 

[Bo Bo Olson]

B or M nibs are normally quite good on 'bumpy'....or onclassic rough papers like  laid or linen effect.

 

I dug out some B nibbed pens in a vain attempt to find glitter from glitter ink that is not dark gray....I don't have glitter in black, in my half bottle of 4001 is only 16 years old. Being retired means I don't need black ink. Though I've read here, there is now shading black inks.