[Chinchy]

Look at my Myu! Tee hee!

Oh happy day!

 

[iSleipnir]

Haha, I was so tired when I made this thread I had forgotten I had made it. Well, tonight I ended up ordering a Rotring 600 because I liked the Utalitarian look, and it came with a converter (At last I'm pretty sure it did. If not I know one is available.). And since people were talking about inks in this thread I have a small collection of various colors.
I use Pelikan for Black because it writes very smooth
Private Reserve for red because it's the only brand in which that color doesn't look washed out. When it dries it almost looks like blood. Very cool effect.
For blue I use Aurora. It just looks amazing. Deep and dark and rich.
For green I use J. Herbin...um it translates to Green Ivy. Verde something. Its a cool (as in blue) looking green. The Harry Potter books inspired me to get it.
And those are the inks I curently own.

BTW: this is turning out to be a great thread for fountain pen information. The retipping site is a good resource.

 

[mattigol]

Well I hope you did well on the final you took the other day.

Thanks for providing a few ink options. I think I am going to try some out a local store and see for myself. I am just guessing but the 600 nib seems to be fairly rigid, so I hope to smooth things out with the right ink. So I am going to ask for this first. At the top of my list are MB, Waterman and Pelikan at the moment. The other brands are probably hard to get locally.

Is it possible to exchange colors from one refill to the next without having the old color mixing into the new?

I hope my pen comes with the converter included. I didn't ask about it beforehand.

 

[mattigol]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy I'm looking to pick up a Sailor 1911 with a Music nib for a friend.

These Sailor 1911 ("Professional Gear" or "Sterling Silver") pens looks great! According to nibs.com they write like the absolute best out there.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol I read somewhere that nibs can be customized for added smoothness. Is this an expensive thing to do? How about inks? Do they make a difference in terms of smoothness? What would be good contenders? I read Waterman ink is supposed to be nice?

Along with the above stated John Mottishaw, there's also Richard Binder at http://www.richardspens.com. If you happen to have a Pelikan 200/400/600 you can actually buy pre-ground nibs straight from him and screw them right into your Pelikan.

Inks do make a difference in terms of smoothness...in fact one of the things one should try if they have a new fountain pen that won't write too well is to try a different brand of ink. Montblanc, Parker, and Sheaffer all make inks that are a little on the thin side, so they tend to look washed out, but will allow for the best ink flow. Good flow usually equals a higher degree of detergents in the ink...Montblanc is known for putting a good deal in their inks. One trick you can try to increase flow is to actually mix in a toothpick head's worth of dish washing detergent into a cartridge's worth of ink...don't go overload though, just a tiiiiiny drop will do.

Private Reserve and Noodlers both make a huge variety of inks and some of the most vivid, but it can come at the cost of smoothness as the dyes can clog up some pens. The exception is Private Reserve Tanzanite...supposedly known as the "laxative of fountain pen inks". It's just part of the whole uniqueness of fountain pens...each and every single fountain pen's nib and feed is temperamental in its own little way.

You should always flush a fountain pen out and thoroughly dry it before filling it up with another ink color. Inks sometimes don't react too well with one another, plus you're less likely to get the true color shade of the ink you're refilling with. You should also flush it out if you don't intend to use it for about a month. I strongly recommend spending $13 on a inkjet printer cartridge refill kit, mainly for its syringe. It's a very useful tool that lets you refill FP cartridges with whatever ink you wish, and it also lets you flush out the carts and nib with water. The best and most thorough way I've found to flush out a nib is to force water through the cartridge feed using a syringe a few times. Then fill a cart up with water using a syringe, put it into the nib/section, wrap the nib in a paper towel, and let the capillary action slowly draw the ink out of the feed. You're more likely to get all the ink out this way than if you simply flushed the nib under a faucet, which never gets the ink completely out of the feed.



I just got a new FP myself in the mail today.

Haven't inked it yet, don't know if I will, but it sure looks darn cool.

 

[mattigol]

Thanks for your advice! I like your new FP. Very utilitarian looking due to its gunmetal grey color, but upon closer inspection, a very classic piece. A pen 007 would be proud of. What brand is it?

 

[Vertigo-1]

It's made by Dani Trio, which has become quite a rising star in the fountain pen world. They've been making some amazing Japanese Maki-e pens lately that are actually affordable. This all metal one though inevitably sells out like hot cakes because it's insanely cheap for what it is ($27!) and isn't readily available from a store. They only show up when a particular Dani Trio rep puts them up for sale on a pen forum. I asked him about possibly obtaining a black one as well and he said he sold out all 80 that he had already in a week. I'm glad as it is to finally have gotten my hands on one of these.

 

[iSleipnir]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol Well I hope you did well on the final you took the other day. Thanks for providing a few ink options. I think I am going to try some out a local store and see for myself. I am just guessing but the 600 nib seems to be fairly rigid, so I hope to smooth things out with the right ink. So I am going to ask for this first. At the top of my list are MB, Waterman and Pelikan at the moment. The other brands are probably hard to get locally. Is it possible to exchange colors from one refill to the next without having the old color mixing into the new? I hope my pen comes with the converter included. I didn't ask about it beforehand.

Luckily my final was on one of the classes I was pretty well prepared for. I think I got an A so no worries there.

As for the ink I think the Pelikan black ink flows the best and red ink usually flows very well but I'm not sure about the Private Reserve red simply because it is so dark.

And Vertigo, that pen looks amazing framed against the gun. Very classy.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Here's another great pic of the Myu for everybody to drool over.

 

[Chinchy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol I am just guessing but the 600 nib seems to be fairly rigid, so I hope to smooth things out with the right ink.

The nib is steel I believe. Yes it's rigid. I've read that steel nibs are a lot more susceptible to being eaten away by inks, which have high pH. I haven't had that happen yet, but then again, I only have a few pens which are steel nibs. For that reason I prefer to get gold nibs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol At the top of my list are MB, Waterman and Pelikan at the moment. The other brands are probably hard to get locally.

I love Pelikan black. Very nice, dark, black.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattigol Is it possible to exchange colors from one refill to the next without having the old color mixing into the new?

No. You should never do that. Inks are chemicals, and different inks put together can have chemical reactions, thickening up, precipitating, or whatever. It may clog your pen.

And I agree with Vertigo-1 about the syringe thing. Sometimes filling up the ink with the cartridge by sucking up through the nib is so tedious. Actually, it's all the time. I almost always use a syringe to do it, except in the case of the Namiki vanishing point, since the converter is like an open cylinder.

Haha, maybe you can find a Needle Exchange center and just ask for a needle. Or you could find those syringes for diabetes and stuff.

 

[Chinchy]

Hey Vertigo-1. I'm just curious. What other pens are in your collection? Got any full pics or a description list?

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy Look at my Myu! Tee hee! Oh happy day!

nice myu!! it's on my short list of want to buy stuff...comes after my new nikon lens, though, so maybe later this summer...tell us how you like it!

 

[imho]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMHBAT OK, normally I don't bother with this, and I'm prepared for people to angrily tell me to piss off with my nit-picking, but it's not just that you've misused the word "everyday" (as is so common) - you actually misused both "every day" and "everyday." "Every day," in the title, should be the adjective "everyday," meaning "common" or "for non-special use," etc. "Everyday," in the first sentence," should be the two words "every day" (just as in "every week" or "every year"). You may now start preparing your sarcastic remarks about the unwelcome "spelling police."

Voila! The "disposable" fountain pen. (Hey for under $5 a pop, can't beat that, and it's by "PILOT")
http://www.buyonlinenow.com/viewprod...p?sku=PIL90010
http://www.office1000.com/data/pilot/90010PIL.html
http://coloradopen.com/ShowView/cate...FQgGHgodNRstIA

And for my pen collection:

Collection of new and vintage pens. (mostly fountain pens, Parker, Mont Blanc, Pelikan, Waterman...)

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy Hey Vertigo-1. I'm just curious. What other pens are in your collection? Got any full pics or a description list?

Well...a lot of them aren't particularly expensive and aren't FPs. Pens that have a certain high tech look to them is what I go after usually. I cut back a lot of my more expensive FPs last year that weren't getting used. My fancier and main rotation of pens currently includes:

Dani Trio Tamenuri FP
Dani Trio Wakasa-nuri FP
Visconti Wall Street blue celluloid FP
Pilot Myu FP
Montblanc Starwalker Metal/Rubber BP
Montblanc Starwalker resin RB
Montblanc Jules Verne BP

 

[mattigol]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy Haha, maybe you can find a Needle Exchange center and just ask for a needle. Or you could find those syringes for diabetes and stuff.

Thanks for your advice regarding inks. I will most likely get blue ink and keep it. I have seen the MB blue which turns into a blackish blue after drying. I'd rather find something that stands out more. Maybe the Waterman Florida Blue is what the doctor ordered.

Aquiring syringes for refills won't be a problem. Cheers!