Does anyone use Fountain Pens?

Looks about the same as the Safari, so I’d call it good to go 8)

Same nib as the Al-Star and Safari so it should be fine.  The soft grip should be more comfy too.  Their nibs have been called ‘nails’ but that is subjective as to what you like.  A newer FP user might like or be better off with a stiff nib as they are stronger and less prone to damage like springing the nib (folding it over or bending it) or dropping the pen and it landing on the nib.  I’ve liked most of them personally and like the variety (xf, f, m, b, db, 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 1.9mm) and easy nib swap on those pens.

Goulet did a review a while back you may find helpful.

Wanting to try the R&K Morinda red!  Rohrer & Klingner - 18 Inks - Ink Comparisons - The Fountain Pen Network  Looks nice!

After seeing more chromatography on the ink reviews, even that looks like something fun to do, and see what colors the inks are actually made up of!  I like Lexington Grey and it’s chromatography shows a light blue in it.
http://inks.pencyklopedia.pl/wp-content/uploads/Noodlers-Lexington-Gray-chromatografia2.jpg

That looks like an awesome red! And I’ve never heard of chromatography, but then again I don’t do much online in the way of fountain pens beyond following a few brands on facebook, so I bet it’s a really interesting thing to try, I may have to look into that too since I love inks so much  :stuck_out_tongue:

Didn’t know what it was either until I started to look up some ink reviews. Didn’t know so many people wrote ink reviews either, from blogs to websites! Chromatography basics are easy enough it turns out. Just cut coffee filters or similar into a rectangle. Draw a circle with the ink or a drop of it on one end. Then just suspend the piece over a glass of water (or alcohol I read, maybe for waterproof inks?) with just the tip of paper in the water but not the ink mark and wait.
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/165/169061/GIFS/AAAVBCN0.JPG

One page I read mentioned having a class write a ransom note for something with one of multiple different branded black or blue pens. Then do a chromatography dot/test for each pen that belonged to different ‘suspects’ to determine which pen was used to write the note. http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Education/learninglabs/lab_downloads/EL_ink_chromatography.pdf

oh man, that looks cool! I’m probably going to have to try that soon

Today I inked a demonstrator (clear) Noodler’s Konrad with the last of my old bottle of Noodler’s Luxury Blue ink. The exciting part is I ground the nib into a fine stub. The nib has some feedback to it, but it isn’t terrible. A good first effort that has room to improve. It was a lot less difficult than I expected. It also didn’t hurt that i was experimenting with a $2.00 nib and not an expensive gold nib

Yeah, that’s another reason I am a fan of Noodler’s pens, if you want to tinker, the replacements are so easy to get.

I have never tried a stub, but I would like to try an italic nib, through my hand writing usually demands a fine point on regular sized paper, when I write larger a medium nib usually works out.

Nathan has a good video on making all types of nibs from his $1 non-flex nib!

I actually used the $2.00 tipped, non-flex nib and the Ludwig Tan article. I will edit this post and add a link when I get to a computer or tablet. Nathan’s video made me want to get some of the non-tipped nibs and try his method, as it was different than the grind and polish method I used.

I agree, the biggest advantages of the Noodler’s Pens are the ability to tinker and availability of replacement parts at low cost (nibs and feeds for less than a 10 pack of yoyo string)

You can make or have an italic or stub made from any size nib. I believe the only downside with finer italics & stubs is there is less variation between vertical and horizontal strokes.

French

Yeah, I know there are fine italics, it’s just that the variation is so minimal that it’s not worth trying to make one out of a fine nib. I may try to make an italic soon though, that vid is pretty cool!

This is the article I believe. Good article too. Ludwig Tan - Grinding your Own Nibs - Glenn's Pens

Just looked at the Noodler’s Neponset music nib pen. Talk about line variation! Some nice acrylic colors too. Here’s a review I saw.
www.gourmetpens.com/2014/08/review-noodlers-neponset-fountain-pen.html

Man, I want a neponset, but I’d rather put that kind of money into a new yoyo. Or ink :’( Maybe next month’s pay check will have room for one

Right! That’s a bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail!
I thought it was high for the Noodler’s price point myself but a neat pen. Although the acrylic Ahab/Konrad are $40 so acrylic just cost more to make I guess. I read somewhere that the nib was being developed for 3.5 years so maybe that ramped up the cost too?

I’m liking the J.Herbin Stormy Grey, good properties and almost black from a wet nib or flex. The Rouge leaves 1/2 gold and 1/2 red letters in many flexed writings but the grey is still grey with just extra sparkle instead of a completely different color. Which I’m not knocking as I still like it a lot too, just different. Now that they’re adding the hematite (I guess its the same in all the 1670’s?) to the Ocean Bleu why not complete the set!

That sounds awesome! I am definitely going to have to pick up some of that stormy grey!

I wish that MB didn’t sell their limited inks in such small bottles, on an unrelated note. They cost more than the average 60ml, but you only get 30ish :frowning: but the colors are just so amazing! I’m having a really hard time staying away from my Jonothan Swift and Leonardo since I do so much writing in the day that my Al-Star is usually empty at the end of the second day after a fresh fill.

I wish I could’ve found some of the Leonardo to try other than steal-bay for ridiculous prices! :smiley: Yeah 30ml can disappear quick with very much writing! That’s the problem with regular J.Herbin sizes too but at least they’re just ten bucks and some colors you can get the 100ml for $22.
Anderson’s has the Organics brand on sale and they’re evidently out of business so it’s the last of their inks, but they had several good reviews so they might be worth trying before they’re gone.

I wanted to try their inks, but I suppose I’ll just have to let them go into history since I’m broke ::slight_smile:

Yeah, the bay always wants crazy prices for MB limited inks. I was looking for the Winter red from a few years back, and some people are asking $50 for a 30ml bottle

Eh… you’re at no loss really after looking through Organics colors as they can be found in other portfolios easy nuff imho. I like Twain but the color wasn’t that great of a blue so I passed.

Yeah the Leonardo was $59.99 plus $21 s/h from Singapore so… I do love Singapore, but they can keep that ink bottle!

I’ve got some more R&K ink on the way and already putting together another order so I’m stoked! Probably going to grab a Neponset also so I’ll hit this thread up after testing it. Some inks still don’t flow well out of my custom ground nib and heavily carved feed Ahab so the multi-channel feed on the Neponset sounds good to me. The 3 nib Noodler’s Art nib pack for $6 sounds great too!

Saw this pen and thought it looked neat for $22… http://www.isellpens.com/product-p/c_232_bllea.htm
http://cdn3.volusion.com/rvbga.avcnm/v/vspfiles/photos/C_232_BLLEA-3.jpg?1371547712

That’s a nifty looking pen! I was thinking about grabbing that art nib pack, could be pretty interesting, but I’ll need another stock feed since my feeds are all high flow. That R&K ink also looks really awesome, I’m going to need to buy some more ink, or I’m going to start looking like a slacker ;D

and geez, $81 for some Leonardo?!? I like this color, but no thanks!

That pen looks like a significantly cheaper imitation of the Mont Blanc Mesterstück that has an actual diamond embedded into the cap. I forgot how much it retails for but its somewhere between 750 and 950 dollars before sales tax.