have you ever purchased a pen for one ink?

[Glyph]

I recently purchased a bottle of Troublemaker Petrichor from Shigure. It is the driest ink I have ever tried. My ahab with #6fpr ultraflex will dry out and stop writing after a sentence or two even unflexed. The muji pen writes but is so dry it just looks light grey. It didn't look anything like the reviews so I tried a speedball globe dip nib and it was beautiful. The fpr in the ahab also looks beautiful if I write very very slowly and don't flex. Otherwise the feed empties out and I have a hard time getting it started again without reverse writing for a bit to make a puddle and then flipping it over. I'll try my Sheaffer TD when I finish its current fill of diamine red dragon, it is my wettest non flex pen. The jinhao x750 with the ahabs old nib might also be something to try?  But if those fail I'll be buying a pen just for this ink. I got the ahab just so I could write at full flex with the fpr using diamine registrar's, so this isn't the first time I've done this, but I'm not sure what to get. Buying a pelikan m1000 just for a $12 bottle of ink is a little ridiculous so I'm trying to find other ridiculously wet pens that don't flex. A n fpr pen with a non flex kanwrite nib perhaps? Or a twsbi go in broad?  I might spring for a lamy2k but they aren't always wet even after adjustment from what I've read. Thoughts?  I guess I bcould just keep using the globe...

[Penguincollector]

  If you would spring for a new Lamy 2000, you may want to consider a vintage Pelikan 140 or 120. You can find them used at very good prices. Try The Penguin (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer), who often has them in stock with various nib widths in great condition at a fair price. 

[Glyph]

I've heard the 140s and 400nn can be dry on occasion. Would a semiflex be wetter or drier?

[senzen]

No but I have rotated inks in pens until I find the right match; knowing how each pen produces inks (more or less saturated, impact of drying out) would have made that much easier.

 

For instance my Imperial Blue Studio bought second hand with its fine nib that writes like a broad has been the only pen out of 70 that managed to tame super clogger Rouge Hematite... With a drop of White Lightning. 

 

My 140 and 400 dry out as slowly as my other Pelikans, much more slowly than most pens. There are cheaper screw cap piston fillers that may dry out as slowly, e.g. Reform, Ero, Artus.

[Penguincollector]

   Hmm, I haven’t experienced that. My 140 gets the driest of dry inks because it’s such a wet pen. My M800  (W. Germany) 14k needlepoint is a wet semiflex, as is my 1995 M400 OM. They are all my dry ink pens. I use them for Troublemaker Abalone (love this color) and many dry chroma shaders.  You can find good deals online if you look often. 

  I like Reform pens as well. The are getting more expensive now, but still less than Pelikan and I have had mine since I was 14 or so. I mostly used 4001 in that one, which is pretty dry. 
 

 

[Mercian]

In answer to the question in the thread title, yes; this ⬇️ one:

 

 

It is a ‘Made in England’ Parker ‘Junior’ Duofold, with an ‘aerometric’ squeeze-filler built-in to it.

This one was made some time in the 1960s.

 

I bought it as my pen to dedicate for use with ‘ESSRI’ - Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies Registrars’ Ink.

The ink is a ‘heavy iron-gall’ ink, and HMG used to recommend it for use as a ‘permanent black’ ink for our Registrars of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, and for our Passport Office.
It is a very ‘dry’ ink.

 

I bought this pen to use with it because it has an ebonite feed; its feed-channels were cut into the feed (rather than having a plastic feed that was injection-moulded).
The channels that were cut into ebonite feeds are wider than the very narrow channels in injection-moulded feeds, so these feeds are ‘wetter’. Which makes them perfect for use with dry inks.

The 14k gold nib and the simple filling-mechanism are perfect for very-acidic iron-gall inks, such as ESSRI.

The fact that the nib is rather ‘bouncy’, or ‘semi-flexible’, is just a lucky (& lovely) bonus.

 

This pen (like the other sizes/versions of the UK Parker Duofold) is the perfect pen for a very ‘dry’ ink. Especially for a very ‘dry’ iron-gall ink.
It gives even better results than do my Pelikans!

Edit to add: and my UK Duofold cost me only a mere fraction of what I paid for each of my Pelikan M205, 400, and M400; let alone what my M800 & M805 each cost!

 

If you have not ever heard of ESSRI, my own interest in the stuff was sparked by reading a review of it on here. The review has more replies to it than any other ink review on here.

It can be found at:

 

If you want to see the original photos re-inserted into the (brilliant) original review before looking at other folks’ reactions & photos of their experiences with the ink, jump straight to page 23, and scroll down to the final post on that page.
(It was by me, and it is dated 2024-03-24.)
 

Slàinte,
M.

[Bo Bo Olson]

7 hours ago, Glyph said:

I've heard the 140s and 400nn can be dry on occasion. Would a semiflex be wetter or drier?

Mercian, I got to look, in could be my 17 pen and 17 paper review of that ink is there. I don't have a copy. I lost it on Ransom Bucket.

In width of a nib and paper make a huge difference of how an ink displayed as always shown by our Sandy1. Often one could not believe it was the same ink.

 

 

That man on pg 2 had great handwriting and the two paper show just some of the differences.

That was one of the all time longest threads I think in the com's history, that is not what pen are you using today or this year.

I called that ESSR ink sneaky or our grand and glorious passed Ink Guru Sandy1 called it mischievous.

..............................................................................................

The only dry semi-flex nibbed pen that I had that was dry was a Geha 725. With permission of Penboard.de. I bought Waterman's Florida blue or what ever the name of the turquoise ink was way back when. With that wet ink...and before noodler's Waterman was considered the wet ink, the problem was solved.

Semi-flex was mostly a factory stub also.

I have some 35 semi-flex and 16 maxi-semi-flex pens, and none but that  725 could be called dry. Maxi due to even less pressure needed is normally a wet nib.

As a 'noobie' I had one of those maxi nibs but of course didn't know that. I'd not invented the term yet. Then the cork died. But it was one of those wet juicy lines noobies of the time demanded.

 

Most semi-flex nibs often don't shade; or not much, in some are a bit too wet for that, but you get natural flair line variation....Flare, with normal writing.

Some folks have an idea that a semi-flex nib is a FLEX nib so write extra slow and try to ruin the nib by doing fat letter calligraphy., the narrower lines is about as much as you can ask of the semi-flex B or BB nib of this one.....but the fat lines are Nib Abuse IMO.

not my picture, a curious poster showed me this and asked my opinion.

Suddenly I could understand that those people had been forcing the nib to do things it was not made to  do. risking a sprung nib...to be sold online immediately.

Such as below caused the writer to be glacial.

3X tine spread over the light down stroke is max for those nibs...unless you want a suddenly mushy sprung nib.

 

I was heavy handed, and normal semi-flex helped me lighten my hand. Originally I was maxing the nib, and it too at least  6 weeks to get my Hand to light enough to demand line variation instead of having a fat line....

So semi-flex is strong enough to survive a heavy hand. Line variation will pretend with you that you can write.

[Mercian]

7 hours ago, Glyph said:

I recently purchased a bottle of Troublemaker Petrichor from Shigure. It is the driest ink I have ever tried

As an aside, your remark ⬆️ here is just the latest one of quite a few on FPN that have led me to believe that the ‘Troublemaker’ line of inks is honestly-named 🤔

[Mercian]

23 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

In width of a nib and paper make a huge difference of how an ink displayed as always shown by our Sandy1. Often one could not believe it was the same ink.

You have reminded me that I have been meaning to do a limited (compared to Sandy1’s fantastic works) comparison of Pelikan 4001 Violet from my 2012 M205 & from my ‘W.-Germany’ M800 from 1990/91.

(I will need to use-up the Topaz in the M800 first).

 

Danke!

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Please do, it will show those who didn't know her grand work, the difference paper and nib width make to an ink.

Some where we complied a list of 10 or more of her good to better papers she used over her 150or more years here on the com.

[PPPR]

Since you asked, "Have you ever purchased a pen for one ink?"

 

Nope, any ink that finicky goes straight down the drain. Life is too short for that nonsense.

 

Hope you enjoy your pens, ink, and your investigations.

 

[Lithium466]

12 hours ago, Mercian said:

As an aside, your remark ⬆️ here is just the latest one of quite a few on FPN that have led me to believe that the ‘Troublemaker’ line of inks is honestly-named 🤔

😂😂😂

 

(I only tried Abalone, which really lacked lubrication)

[Karmachanic]

No.  But I have six pens that have only seen 1 ink.

[Penguincollector]

17 hours ago, Mercian said:

This pen (like the other sizes/versions of the UK Parker Duofold) is the perfect pen for a very ‘dry’ ink. Especially for a very ‘dry’ iron-gall ink.
It gives even better results than do my Pelikans!

   This is great information. I love this line of Duofold pens. I have two aerometric Slimfolds , and I noticed that Quink felt like “too much” for these pens. I will use IG inks with them when either is in the rota next. I really want a hooded Lady version. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

At an indoor flea market, I wasn't going to buy a nail, or semi-nail Parker. My Jr. Duofold was such a shock, being semi-flex until I looked where it was made, England.

I didn't think mine was better than a Pelikan or the tad more springy Geha. It's a good solid semi-flex................

I've some 12-or so semi-flex Pelikans. Just thumb tested my Jr...as good as, not a maxi-semi-flex, which IMO those nibs came from Degussa gold ribbon wheels, in they made that softer semi-flex gold ribbon wheel for Osmia/Osmia-Faber-Castel. I don't see them importing to England, but who ever made Swan's gold ribbon wheels could have sold to Parker also. So your  Jr, could have a maxi or first stage superlex, if a Swan gold wheel was used.

 

Two tables further on at that indoor flea market  I ran into a springy regular flex P-45 that was also made in England.

They had to offer pens with more flex or spring to the nib because of Swan's very wide nib flex rates.

[Mercian]

38 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I didn't think mine was better than a Pelikan

To clarify what I wrote earlier, I only meant that my ‘Junior’ gives better results than my Pelikans with ESSRI.

 

The nib on my 1954 Pelikan 400 is at least as springy as the nib on my Duofold, and it is ground in a far more pleasing shape than is the monoline nib on the Duofold.

 

The 400 might also give fantastic results with ESSRI (it, too, has an ebonite feed, and is far wetter than my Pels that have plastic feeds) - but the ‘aerometric’ fill system on the Parker has fewer ‘moving parts’ in it than the Pelikan’s (delightful) piston-fill system, so the ‘heavy iron-gall’ ESSRI is even less likely to ever clog in the Duofold.

I am happy with the flow of ESSRI from my Duofold. It cures to a solid black from that pen, but can also shade.
It is indeed an ink that is ‘sneaky’, or ‘mischievous’ 😁
And I have found that, when run through the 400, my Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black mostly cures to a shade that is black-enough for me 😊
 

[inkstainedruth]

Mostly I don't, but continually have trouble finding a pen that Noodler's Kung Te Cheng works well in.  Had high hopes for the Noodler's Boston Safety pen, but it didn't work well in it either.  Currently I've got a fill in a Noodler's Charlie eyedropper, but the ink dries out in the nib and feed too quickly.... 

I want SOOOO much to love that ink (love the color and love that it's pretty much "everything proof").  But it's so badly behaved otherwise.  Tried putting a drop of Vanness White Lightning into a fill a while back, but it diluted the color too much.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penguincollector]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

Mostly I don't, but continually have trouble finding a pen that Noodler's Kung Te Cheng works well in.  Had high hopes for the Noodler's Boston Safety pen, but it didn't work well in it either.  Currently I've got a fill in a Noodler's Charlie eyedropper, but the ink dries out in the nib and feed too quickly.... 

I want SOOOO much to love that ink (love the color and love that it's pretty much "everything proof").  But it's so badly behaved otherwise.  Tried putting a drop of Vanness White Lightning into a fill a while back, but it diluted the color too much.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

    I recently fell in love with this ink, and I have been looking for a suitable pen myself. The answer seems to be a brush pen or a Preppy. Some folks have mentioned the Dollar 717i, but I haven’t been able to find those in some time.  I may end up just using a dip stub, or an extremely inexpensive generic piston pen.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 8/21/2024 at 10:10 PM, Mercian said:

and it is ground in a far more pleasing shape than is the monoline nib on the Duofold.

I have some 35 semi-flex nibbed pens; and three of them I think that are not stubbs. It a nice springy ride but....boring.

Two of them with tear drop tipping are very pretty. The green stripped one is Standard sized..400 or Esterbrook DJ size.

This cracked ice is a real small pen. Rusewe is Austrian. My guess is early -mid '50's in they have cork gaskets; along with the piston knobs  and cap  finials.

[lamarax]

Today Tonight (with everything the word entails) I purchased this new in <EF>:

 

 

...just to have somewhere to put J. Herbin Vert de Gris 🤡

 

I should have it by Thursday, then I shall post my... sober assessment 🙂