Pen/Ink/Paper Trios

[USG]

On 10/26/2024 at 12:10 PM, Penguincollector said:

<snip>
I think I feel the same way about Manyo Konagi as you feel about Budo, except that I love the color. I was expecting it to shade more, or to shade differently than it does, I guess. I will have to try it on different papers and see what happens. <snip>

 

I changed my mind about Konagi. You were right.  I always thought of Konagi as a substantial blue ink but I was wrong.   From my Pilot 743 <sfm> and Sailor KOP it presented as a much darker ink with a lot of shading and a glowing pink sheen.  But from a Sailor 1911L<M> it didn't hold up at all.  I turns out it's about the same shade as Kon-Peki or Sumire and didn't do much of anything.  How disappointing.

 

[Penguincollector]

Funny you should say that, @USG. I finally saw some sheen on Iroful, but not much. Still a pretty blue. I’ll put up some pictures when I get back to my desk. 

[inkstainedruth]

On 11/1/2024 at 1:40 PM, Penguincollector said:

  Belgium is such a linguistic mélange. I knew one person from there, don’t remember where, and they spoke Flemish.

I remember going to a performance a number of years ago of a guy named Benjamin Baby, who performed Beowulf in the original language, accompanying himself on some plucked string instrument as a accent.  There was a Q&A session afterward, and someone in the audience asked him if people in other countries could pick up bits of the story from traces of the original language filtering into modern languages (such as English).  And he said that people in Iceland could.  But that there was also someplace in the Netherlands where people still speak Frisian and that is apparently fairly similar to English.  They wouldn't get the same bits of Beowulf as the people who speak Icelandic, but they do get the same AMOUNT of bits....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

Today:

 

[USG]

This page started out trying to find a suitable ink for a Sailor 1911L<M>.  I started out with Sailor Konagi, which turned out to be too light from the Sailor's dry nib.  Then I tried Sailor Yonaga which kept it's color and looked like a dark teal, it was OK.  Next was Sailor #743.  I liked the bright color but I already had it in a WS 629Au so NG.  Then I tried Iroshizuku Shin-Kai which was unimpressively pale from the Sailor nib but not a Jinhao X159 wet nib.  Next was Sailor Illinois which I really like because it was a nice dark color that leaned toward blue where Yonaga leaned toward teal.  The Sailor pen in question still has Yonaga in it but I'm probably going to switch it to Illinois... but not tonight.

 

I took a break from all this ink testing and wanted to try one of those Flex nibs @Penguincollector was talking about.  I had Goulet's EF version so I put it on a WS 699 that had Waterman Blue in it.  The EF nib was 'firehose' wet and laid down a tube of ink the width of a fine.  Not content with the Waterman ink, I wanted to try the Illinois ink, but I had to clean the pen first... Vaccum fillers are not easy to clean.  I ended up dissembling the entire pen.  I would have been nice if WS had put some flats on the end piece that holds the rod.  But I was able to unscrew it and take the assembly out.  After that cleaning the pen was easy.  So now the WS 699 with the Flex nib, which btw doesn't flex*, has the Sailor Illinois ink, which I fed in with a dropper because I didn't want that much ink in the pen in case I don't like this ink either.

*One comment on the Flex nib.  I tried to flex it and it felt like the pressure required to get those tines apart would either spring the nib or crack the housing so I didn't go any further.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

Highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a flex rating system....so don't know what flex rating you are talking about.

 

Regular flex like a Pelikan 200 springy nib, which I've heard is a bit better than a shoulder ground Pilot 'soft' nib.= soft 1.

Have to be mashed to reach 3 X tine spread. Can not write so mashed.

Semi-flex = soft 2 . Often '30-50-60's era, I have being in Germany more German semi-flex nibs than English. Takes half the pressure to reach 3 X tine spread, than regular flex. Heavy hands can write when maxed....one does learn to lessen the pressure eventually.

Maxi-semi-flex =soft 3. Half the pressure of a semi-flex or 1/4th the pressure needed in a regular flex to reach 3 X.

These nibs should not be forced to spread their tines more 3 X a light down stroke,=sprung nibs sooner than later.

I have 35 semi-flex, and 15 maxi's so not rare, but have to be ID'ed from the other semi-flex, only marked in Osmia nibs. That extra springy semi-flex is more than likely a maxi.

 

From your comments it is not superflex; Easy Full Flex or Wet Noodle.

Superflex can be a seldom 4X tine spread, or the normal 5-6; 7 X is rare outside of Nib Abusers on Youtube or Ebay sellers selling you pre-sprung nibs for your convenience. IMO what is important in the the three grades (Weak Kneed Wet Noodle...is as scarce as hen's teeth.) is the ease of tine spread. The tine spread of 4 X or more, and at lesser pressure than the 3 X set of regular, semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex.

[USG]

12 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I have a flex rating system....so don't know what flex rating you are talking about.

 

Regular flex like a Pelikan 200 springy nib, which I've heard is a bit better than a shoulder ground Pilot 'soft' nib.= soft 1.

Have to be mashed to reach 3 X tine spread. Can not write so mashed.

Semi-flex = soft 2 . Often '30-50-60's era, I have being in Germany more German semi-flex nibs than English. Takes half the pressure to reach 3 X tine spread, than regular flex. Heavy hands can write when maxed....one does learn to lessen the pressure eventually.

Maxi-semi-flex =soft 3. Half the pressure of a semi-flex or 1/4th the pressure needed in a regular flex to reach 3 X.

These nibs should not be forced to spread their tines more 3 X a light down stroke,=sprung nibs sooner than later.

I have 35 semi-flex, and 15 maxi's so not rare, but have to be ID'ed from the other semi-flex, only marked in Osmia nibs. That extra springy semi-flex is more than likely a maxi.

 

From your comments it is not superflex; Easy Full Flex or Wet Noodle.

Superflex can be a seldom 4X tine spread, or the normal 5-6; 7 X is rare outside of Nib Abusers on Youtube or Ebay sellers selling you pre-sprung nibs for your convenience. IMO what is important in the the three grades (Weak Kneed Wet Noodle...is as scarce as hen's teeth.) is the ease of tine spread. The tine spread of 4 X or more, and at lesser pressure than the 3 X set of regular, semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex.

 

"don't know what flex rating you are talking about."

One of these nibs.  They are listed as flex, this one doesn't with any kind of normal pressure.  It's a very wet EF nail that lays down a line like a F.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

[Penguincollector]

  The one that I am borrowing is not what anyone would call flex except the manufacturer. It’s a soft steel nib, similar to Platinum soft medium gold nib from the Honest line. It’s nicer than the stock Jowo nibs, my guess it’s the same specs that Jowo uses for Leonardo, as this is the first pen that came out after they bought Radius from my understanding.

[USG]

57 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  The one that I am borrowing is not what anyone would call flex except the manufacturer. It’s a soft steel nib, similar to Platinum soft medium gold nib from the Honest line. It’s nicer than the stock Jowo nibs, my guess it’s the same specs that Jowo uses for Leonardo, as this is the first pen that came out after they bought Radius from my understanding.

 

Pic please 🙏

[Penguincollector]

53 minutes ago, USG said:

 

Pic please 🙏

 

  Here is the nib, very similar in shape to yours. I was thinking about possibly changing the nib to a FPR/FNF EF Ultraflex if I buy the pen. 
 

[USG]

21 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

 

  Here is the nib, very similar in shape to yours. I was thinking about possibly changing the nib to a FPR/FNF EF Ultraflex if I buy the pen. 
 

 

The pen is beautiful... and you say that nib flexes without forcing it?   Do you mean this nib, FPR #6 Chrome EF Ultra Flex Nib?

or the whole nib, feed and collar

 

Let me know what you're going to do.  I'll order the same nib and see if I can stick it in one of my Chinese pens.  It should make a nice little fun project.😀

[Penguincollector]

   I would order the top nib with the Jowo #6 housing and ebonite feed. I ordered one for my pen that uses Bock nibs and it’s been great. I probably won’t get it until either Xmas or next year sometime. I have to make sure that the person who I am borrowing this pen from really wants to sell it. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'm so out of date all I have is old vintage ones, out side a decade or so old Ahab, with the Pilot/Ahab mod, half moon shoulders. That changed that hard, semi-flex Ahab to a nice and fun Easy Full Flex.

It depens what flex rate one wants.

 

For most flex go dip pen.

On my scale...a Wet noodle is in the stiffer lower third of flex at best.

My Weak Kneed Wet Noodle, is half or even more flexible than a Wet Noodle....yet that is only middle of the dip pen flex ranges. 

I still haven't learned how to write and got given the Weak Kneed Wet Noodle last year.

 

I have everything but will power of time...and the dip pens are not even hung on the wall!!!

[Penguincollector]

  Most of my flex nibs are vintage, 14k from the 1920s-‘40s. I have very low expectations for newer flex, but the FP Revolution/Flexible Nib Factory collaboration is different. I watched videos comparing it with other nibs out now and it’s pretty good. The steel was rated better than the gold. Not dip pen good, nothing ever is, but definitely worth looking into if you have a Jowo or Bock nibbed pen of the correct size. 

[USG]

I was writing with the WS 699 that has the Flex nib and Sailor Illinois ink and I noticed that on Iroful and Cosmo Snow paper it looked like the ink was "Glowing".  Definitely not a sheen, but a "Glow".  I took some pics of the effect.

 

I tried it on Tomoe River-S paper... no 'glow" effect.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 

 

[USG]

i wasn't paying attention when I did these dip-pen tests with Sailor Illinois ink and Sailor Ink Studio 743 ink, but the inks lost their blue color and started "Glowing", on the Cosmo Snow paper, with the Fine and Medium nibs.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

[Penguincollector]

   @USG, Sailor inks are so paper dependent, both a feature and a bug. I did end up putting Manyo Konagi in a medium nib, and after my weekend winds down, I’ll compare it with my 51 on Cosmo Snow.  The glow on the paper effect is really cool.

[USG]

Part 1 of my FPR Ultra Flex nib project came in.

A Jinhao 9016, which is going to be the pen body for the Flex nib.

I had no idea it had a Heartbeat nib

 

 

I  dipped it in some inks

 

 

 

 

[USG]

16 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

   @USG, Sailor inks are so paper dependent, both a feature and a bug. I did end up putting Manyo Konagi in a medium nib, and after my weekend winds down, I’ll compare it with my 51 on Cosmo Snow.  The glow on the paper effect is really cool.

 

That's an interesting way to put it. 👍😀

[USG]

On 11/10/2024 at 1:06 PM, Penguincollector said:

 @USG, Sailor inks are so paper dependent,

 

Tomoe River-S

Cosmo Snow

 

Tomoe River-S

Cosmo Snow