[proton007]

Quote:

 Yum-o!

 
The funniest thing happened. I got an email from the seller stating that the mention of 'ink' on the package had prompted the customs to request an MSDS for the 'ink'. 

 
I didn't even know there's an MSDS for ink !  
Anyhow, Pilot will send the MSDS to the seller and then he'll pass it on to the customs, then the package will be cleared.
 
Usually the ink is never mentioned on the package, now I know why.

 

[Tsujigiri]

At least you didn't order that one Japanese sepia ink that costs $70 a bottle and is made from real squid ink. I'll bet customs would have a field day with that one...

 

[Silent One]

Likely, it'd ship one year and be cleared the next...

 

[proton007]

Quote:

At least you didn't order that one Japanese sepia ink that costs $70 a bottle and is made from real squid ink. I'll bet customs would have a field day with that one...

 
There'd be no MSDS, unless they know what're the constituents of squid ink....field day indeed.
 
 
EDIT: Just saw the Hakase Squid Ink thread on FPN. Its a lovely shade indeed, and permanent too. Here's the site http://fp-hakase.com/products/, they seem to be using all real stuff, the tortoise is real tortoise shell, not celluloid imitation 

Not to mention, the prices are unreal.

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Likely, it'd ship one year and be cleared the next...

 
Yeah, I think the ink would have to be sent to the lab first.

 

[jay-w]

The pen purchases have calmed down a bit but the inks are on the rise.
 
Waiting for the arrival of a bottle Iroshizuku Asa-Gao which is my standard blue. Also have a bottle of Sailor Kobe Arima Amber on the way. I might get the Pelikan Edelstein Amber to go with it.
 
I'm thinking of getting Iroshizuku Yama-budo or Private Reserve Chocolat. I already own a bottle of Private Reserve Ebony Purple and have never had a problem with it. Richard Binder is very well respected in the fountain pen community but so far no problems for me with PR inks.
 
I found some of the Noodler's can be a bit troublesome but not pen destroyingly so. I haven't tried the infamous Baystate Blue. 
 
I suspect most manufacturers will have some great inks and some mediocre ones.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Quote:

The pen purchases have calmed down a bit but the inks are on the rise.
 
Waiting for the arrival of a bottle Iroshizuku Asa-Gao which is my standard blue. Also have a bottle of Sailor Kobe Arima Amber on the way. I might get the Pelikan Edelstein Amber to go with it.
 
I'm thinking of getting Iroshizuku Yama-budo or Private Reserve Chocolat. I already own a bottle of Private Reserve Ebony Purple and have never had a problem with it. Richard Binder is very well respected in the fountain pen community but so far no problems for me with PR inks.
 
I found some of the Noodler's can be a bit troublesome but not pen destroyingly so. I haven't tried the infamous Baystate Blue. 
 
I suspect most manufacturers will have some great inks and some mediocre ones.

Same here, I haven't bought a new pen in a long time. Prices have come up quite a ways recently; I remember when I got my Montblanc 149 a few years back the list price was $585, and I got from an AD for $465. Now the list is about $1k for the same pen, and the other pens I got have increased in price as well (My Pelikan m100 was $315 shipped new when I got it around the same time). Oh well, there are always good deals in vintage pens...

 

[proton007]

 
Same here, I haven't bought a new pen in a long time. Prices have come up quite a ways recently; I remember when I got my Montblanc 149 a few years back the list price was $585, and I got from an AD for $465. Now the list is about $1k for the same pen, and the other pens I got have increased in price as well (My Pelikan m100 was $315 shipped new when I got it around the same time). Oh well, there are always good deals in vintage pens...

 
After buying a few new pens, I'm mostly sticking to vintage now.
 
Seems the designs of new pens have changed a lot, they're meant for ball point users. Nibs are hard, tipping is ball like.
I'd recently bought a new M400, and the nib is totally useless. Its marked as an 'F' but writes more like a wet and wide M.
 
I stuck a vintage 400 nib in it, the difference is night and day. Not to mention vintage pens are cheaper.
 
The only consistent brand I've used thus far is Pilot/Namiki. The nibs are well tuned.

 

[Tsujigiri]

   
After buying a few new pens, I'm mostly sticking to vintage now.
 
Seems the designs of new pens have changed a lot, they're meant for ball point users. Nibs are hard, tipping is ball like.
I'd recently bought a new M400, and the nib is totally useless. Its marked as an 'F' but writes more like a wet and wide M.
 
I stuck a vintage 400 nib in it, the difference is night and day. Not to mention vintage pens are cheaper.
 
The only consistent brand I've used thus far is Pilot/Namiki. The nibs are well tuned.

That has more to do with fountain pens becoming a luxury. Before they were the only option out there, so manufacturers made thinner nibs so customers could save ink and paper. Now people want bold wet strokes from their fountain pens, so every modern pen maker makes nibs one size larger than they used to (modern medium = vintage bold). The exception is Asian pen makers; they still make their nibs to the vintage standard because Asian alphabets are so complicated that finer nibs are necessary. Like you, I've found that the Japanese manufacturers have the best quality control, but I would rate Pilot/Namiki behind Platinum and Sailor. I've had some minor issues with Pilots and they never feel quite as refined as Sailor, my personal favorite for nibs.
 
The loss of flexible nibbed pens really is unfortunate, though. I guess few people write in copperplate now. There's always the dip pen option for that, and it's pretty easy to get large amounts of NOS vintage nibs for low prices. I got about 150 nibs (mostly Esterbrook) for under $25 a while back. Found a 70's Montblanc inkwell for $80 at an antique store to go with them and now I should be set for life.

 

[proton007]

  That has more to do with fountain pens becoming a luxury. Before they were the only option out there, so manufacturers made thinner nibs so customers could save ink and paper. Now people want bold wet strokes from their fountain pens, so every modern pen maker makes nibs one size larger than they used to (modern medium = vintage bold). The exception is Asian pen makers; they still make their nibs to the vintage standard because Asian alphabets are so complicated that finer nibs are necessary. Like you, I've found that the Japanese manufacturers have the best quality control, but I would rate Pilot/Namiki behind Platinum and Sailor. I've had some minor issues with Pilots and they never feel quite as refined as Sailor, my personal favorite for nibs.
 

 
Well, either that, or people don't remember how well vintage FPs can write, compared to the ink gushers of today.
 
I would like to try Sailor, so far I only have their steel nibs (Industrial Revolution, Classic F-55) and they're pretty good pens for the price.  The only thing stopping me from getting their premium pens is the nib selection. They only offer the standard sizes (not counting the Naginata nibs, they're too expensive), unlike the variety on the Pilot 742/3.
 
How soft is the standard 14k nib? 
 
 
Quote:

  The loss of flexible nibbed pens really is unfortunate, though. I guess few people write in copperplate now. There's always the dip pen option for that, and it's pretty easy to get large amounts of NOS vintage nibs for low prices. I got about 150 nibs (mostly Esterbrook) for under $25 a while back. Found a 70's Montblanc inkwell for $80 at an antique store to go with them and now I should be set for life.

 
True that, but I think semi-flex pens are a good choice for daily use. Something like a Elabo, or an FA, or vintage Waterman/Pelikans are good enough for daily use.
Copperplate is definitely the high point of the dip pen era, but its not a script that can be used for everyday writing.

 

[Tsujigiri]

The standard Sailor nibs are pretty firm, but I like the tactile feedback of the nib. It has enough tooth to give a good amount of control, but is still smooth enough to write freely. Also, the feeds are very well designed; I've never had them run dry no matter how fast I write. Pelikan actually has some spring in their nibs, especially the large ones. The flow is heavy, though.
 
I'm inclined to agree with you that vintage offers some of the most exciting pieces for the price. There's a little more work involved in finding a good specimen and fixing it up, but materials like ebonite and celluloid or features like integrated filling and flexible nibs that you don't see as often on modern pens make vintage pens all the more appealing.

 

[proton007]

  The standard Sailor nibs are pretty firm, but I like the tactile feedback of the nib. It has enough tooth to give a good amount of control, but is still smooth enough to write freely. Also, the feeds are very well designed; I've never had them run dry no matter how fast I write. Pelikan actually has some spring in their nibs, especially the large ones. The flow is heavy, though.
 
I'm inclined to agree with you that vintage offers some of the most exciting pieces for the price. There's a little more work involved in finding a good specimen and fixing it up, but materials like ebonite and celluloid or features like integrated filling and flexible nibs that you don't see as often on modern pens make vintage pens all the more appealing.

 
I've heard praises about the Sailor nibs everywhere, and now I'm interested in one...soon. I think the 1911 Large in Medium-Fine should be perfect. After my experience with modern Pelikan, its off my list. Only pre '97 Pelikans for me.
 
Totally agree on the point about vintage pens. I consider the 1950-60s to be the height of FP ingenuity, this was the time when FPs were mainstream, and had not been decimated by ball points yet. 

 

[proton007]

Tsujigiri,
 
Is there any difference in the Sailor 14k/21k nibs? The 1911 seems to have both of them...

 

[Tsujigiri]

  Tsujigiri,
 
Is there any difference in the Sailor 14k/21k nibs? The 1911 seems to have both of them...

In feel? No. The larger versions of their pens use the 21k nibs and the smaller ones use the 14k nibs, but there is no functional difference between them other than size.
 
On a side note, there is no functional reason to put more than 14k of gold in a pen nib; anything more than that is just for bragging rights and value as jewelry. A 14k nib is perfectly sufficient for resisting corrosion, and is actually better than higher carat counts for flexible nibs because it is less likely to be "sprung," or permanently deformed when pressing on it. Making a nib with a very high carat count is more difficult because a higher purity of gold is naturally softer, and needs to be strengthened somehow. So you could say that the 21k Sailor nibs are impressive for that, since they do have more gold than the typical 14k or 18k pens.

 

[nikp]

  In feel? No. The larger versions of their pens use the 21k nibs and the smaller ones use the 14k nibs, but there is no functional difference between them other than size.
 
On a side note, there is no functional reason to put more than 14k of gold in a pen nib; anything more than that is just for bragging rights and value as jewelry. A 14k nib is perfectly sufficient for resisting corrosion, and is actually better than higher carat counts for flexible nibs because it is less likely to be "sprung," or permanently deformed when pressing on it. Making a nib with a very high carat count is more difficult because a higher purity of gold is naturally softer, and needs to be strengthened somehow. So you could say that the 21k Sailor nibs are impressive for that, since they do have more gold than the typical 14k or 18k pens.

 
A 18K nib feels a lot softer than a 14K one IMO and I can't imagine what 21K nib would feel like. This is Montblanc though so I couldn't speak for Japanese pens although the consensus in fountain pen communities is that every Japanese nib (with the exception of nibs deliberately designed to be flexible) writes like a nail regardless of gold content.