Does anyone use Fountain Pens?

I looked for the MB Leonardo and it’s all gone I guess!  Other than a couple ebay way overpriced bottles.  Some said it was very similar to Antietam from Noodler’s which I have and like at least.  Saw the MB Einstein limited edition was still around and have just gotten into some grey’s so that might be fun to try since it’s supposed to have silver speckle and sheen similar to the Herbin’s new Stormy Grey with gold speckle and sheen like their Hematite Red.  Never even thought I would want or like grey ink!

Abby, don’t know if your set on a Parker but this old school Conklin looked nice!  Converter and nice box to boot.
http://www.gouletpens.com/ck71340/p/CK71340

The Conklin Pen Company revives its 1920’s classic model, the Duragraph. The Duragraph was originally released in 1923, and is a classic example of the streamlined flat-top design that was so popular during that era. The Duragraph is produced from a unique hand-made resin, and each pen features the famous Conklin logo engraved over a brushed metal crown on each cap. A silver-plated clip and cap trim band accent each pen.
The fountain pens feature a polished stainless steel nib in the 1.1 size, and a two-tone finish for the fine and medium nibs. The Duragraph fountain pens use a cartridge/converter filling system, and the international style converter is included. The pens are presented in a gorgeous satin-lined gift box.

http://www.andersonpens.com/v/vspfiles/photos/CK71341-2.jpg

All I remember is using a friend’s once. Don’t remember what it looked like.
Remembered using it to write in a few languages though. English, Spanish, Filipino, Korean.

gah! Your making it harder cause my dads birthday is February 14!
but anywyas… thanks for the suggestion im still looking at parker though cause that was the brand that was my dad’s first thing so i think giving him a little nostalgia can’t be that bad.

I love fountain pens, pens in general. My favorite that I own is a Waterman Charleston and a MontBlanc Boheme.

Hmmmmm, I’ll have to get a bottle of Antietam and let you know, but I didn’t know it was disappearing! I just bought my bottle locally for normal MB ink prices ($25) last week :frowning: but that Einstein sounds awesome, I’m gonna have to grab a few bottles of it. Man I wish I bought my store’s other bottle of Leonardo now ;D at least it’s just a color, it’s not like it turned paper into lusty maidens (edited for the children after I reread the original wording)

No worries Abby! :wink:

I’ll have to check locally for the Leonardo and see if I get lucky since it was a limited edition. But so was the Einstein and others which are still plentiful? But, like you said, there’s still plenty of colors! I like Antietam. A rusty’ish color with some shading although I haven’t really used it much so far.
The thing I like about Noodler’s is the option of getting bulletproof colors that won’t wash off if they get wet or fade in UV etc. over long periods of time. Of course Noodler’s talks of them for anti-forgery against bleach, acetone, and the check/document thieves tricks. El Lawrence was an interesting bulletproof color many have said looks like used motor oil. I got some Rachmaninoff for my wife and it is one of the brightest and richest pink inks I’ve seen. It’s bulletproof too although a bit thick and dries up in the feed quickly along with getting thicker in the pen over time. Luckily it rinses out easily and doesn’t stain up your pen or converters.

Yeah, Noodler’s inks are fun, the bulletproof options are awesome, and the sheer selection of colors is amazing as well, I don’t think there is another company that puts out so many quality colors… Well, Diamine has a lot, but not Noodler’s level.
El Lawrence sounds cool, but my girlfriend actually loves pink inks, I got her the Atlantic Salmon the other week and she will not stop using it. I may have to look into getting her some Rachmaninoff at some point, but she is actually trying to find her perfect purple right now, so the search will go on. I want to find her a bottle of Conway Stewart Edgcumbe, but Anderson Pens is out of stock and probably not getting more, so that’s gonna be a hunt. She wants to try the Pilot Iroshizuku inks, but they are so expensive that she always shies away, and I can’t say I blame her at $30 a bottle.

I’m thinking a light dilution with water on the Rachmaninoff might help?  It’s a heck of a pink for sure.  She might like PR DC Super Violet?  The Iroshizuku inks are nice and the bottle’s are great too.  Their properties are top notch too imho but color selection isn’t the largest as you know.
Also might like Rohrer & Klingner Solferino.  Love that color.  If you use it heavily is has a bright green sheen/sparkle in it like the JR 1670’s do gold!

I will definitely look into buying those! Especially the R&K, that sounds really cool!

Saw Noodler’s is selling nibs alone now like you mentioned!  They used to not sell any replacement parts, you just had to buy a new pen.  Great for tinkering!

Here’s a killer review of all the R&K inks on FPN!


Getting a bottle of the Alt-Goldgrun to try after reading it.

For other darker green’s I’ve enjoyed Zhivago although it’s pretty much black with just a tint of green for writing, I like doing a wash with a damp paintbrush over lines on drawings which makes a nice green shade.  Private Reserve Avocado is a nice one for writing imho and has some shading too.

A quick sketch and drawing using all Zhivago and wet paint brush.  The zombie is Zhivago but also has Noodler’s black and Diamine Red Dragon for blood with a wet paint brush wash too.

http://i.imgur.com/C7VmHHA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/j8JPByw.jpg

Also a link to an old thread I posted about writing on water with fountain pens I saw on YouTube.  If you like colors and flex you’ll have fun with this one!  A nice coated watercolor paper works best.
http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,57153.0.html

All of that is awesome! I’m currently writing in Montblanc’s black right now, and loving how it’s more grey than black, it really makes the writing stand out more than just pure black lines, like I get with Noodler’s Anti-Feather, which is great ink, just solid pure black

yay! today I’m going to a local pen shop near my house to buy a fountain pen for my dad! looks like they carry noodlers Ahab flex nibs pens. so i think i will go for that cause the parker one look like they might break the walllet! and also whats great as well is they have a nice selection of inks as well (so a piston converter and a bottle of ink as well is going to be fun to pick out!)

Awesome, the Ahab is one of my favorite pens, it’s great for almost anything. It’s not the best flex pen by far, but it is the best flex pen for the price, I mean, you get a solid resin pen with a screw on cap, friction fit nib and hand cut ebonite feed for $25. That’s one of the reasons I support Noodler’s so much, besides the fact that the ink is usually great

yeah. So happy I found the local pen store. They had a $9000 pen in there! And last year the store sold a $20000 pen! O.O kinda shocked by who would buy it.

Man, people pay crazy money for pens, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable paying over $200 because there are pens that write so well for under that. I mean, it won’t be solid gold extracted from a melted down nobel prize, but as long as it writes well, I’m good

I love fountain pens. Unfortunately about the only writing I do these days is filling out forms in triplicate, so I’ve reverted to a ball point. :frowning:

Hey guys I just made a video using my new Lamy Vista I got from Paradise Pen Co. check it out with this link :slight_smile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69SSiKfJnM

welp my dad had a good birthday he enjoys the fountain pen and got a nice bottle of ink he enjoys. Now my dad says hes only using his fountain pen for stuff that and also keeping it as far away from the dog as possible.

Awesome! Glad he likes his gift

Also cool vid on the Lamy!

That’s great! Now you need a fountain pen too! :wink: It’s such a pleasure writing/drawing and being able to feel the nib glide across the page. You can even tell the difference in feel between inks and paper!

FYI, isellpens.com has some Jinhao’s for only $2.99. I got a couple when the were solid colors (not translucent) and they’re a Lamy Safari basically with a medium nib and wet line. Not bad at all. Of course they don’t flex like the Ahab which is a lot of fun too.

Here’s a picture of my modified Ahab nib. Now that Noodler’s sells them separately you can tinker away. This mod makes the nib flex much easier for lighter writing with plenty of flex. Easy to do with a dremel tool, just grind away equal amounts on both sides equally spaced of course. The stock nib goes straight across so all you have to do is carve a ‘hill’ into the nib behind the front shoulder. You’ll have to carve the feed out some (as shown in the Ahab paper with the pen) to keep up with the increased ink flow needed. Also, I would do about half as much as mine 1st and then see what you think as I wanted mine to flex with very light pressure which it does.

I got some J.Herbin Stormy Grey in. Some shading but the same sparkle/sheen as the red! I like Noodler’s Heart of Darkness too, black, just not as black as Noodler’s ‘black’. Ha ha ha You know what I mean! Lexington Grey is also dark for a grey but a good one and bulletproof too. For a lighter grey I really like Kiri-Same (Autumn Shower). Got it to write Basho’s poem with:

All along this road
Not a single soul
Only, Autumn’s end

Ahh the lure of fountain pens and ink…