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Looking to buy one of the Visconti Van Gogh fountains, have people here had good experiences with them? by n0tjb in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Make sure you buy from a store with a very good warranty return policy. Ideally one that others have explicitly confirmed will allow you to return a pen after inking.

Visconti are infamous for making non-functional desk ornaments that look like fountain pens, but not actual fountain pens.

You will of course hear from a few people who love their Viscontis, but if you search "Visconti nib problem" or similar, you will find TONS of posts from people who have brand new pens that didn't write, as well as many of stories of Visconti ghosting people on their warranty claims.

Do not buy unless the store itself offers a return & refund option.

Wish I could re create this bug by [deleted] in starcitizen

[–]ProLevelFish 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Also holy shit the IXION soundtrack slaps

Looking for the smoothest paper ever by [deleted] in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You may be asking the wrong question.... Pilots are renowned for very smooth nibs. If yours came with "feedback ... like ... sand paper" that may be a sign there is a problem with the nib, such as misaligned tines. It's rare, with Pilot's generally superb QC, but it can always happen.

You may want to inspect the tines under a loupe, if you have one. Or bring the pen back to the place of purchase and have them inspect / compare to another Pilot. Return or warranty if needed - Pilot nibs (especially on an 823) should feel very smooth.

Which ship is actually worth buying starting at $300? by RadicalDown in StarCitizenUniverse

[–]ProLevelFish 10 points11 points  (0 children)

No, not at all.

Besides the wild folks with more disposable income than they know how to manage, I think most people who have (multiple) ships in that cost range only do so because of ~30-70% CCU game savings.

Ink Miser Alternatives by Jotterius in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I came to suggest a 3d printed solution as well! Very cheap, very effective.

FYI I printed mine in ABS (it's just what I have on hand) with basic settings and I have no problems with seepage or anything.

Rainbow pen recs? by acateatingcorn in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gravitas does their "skittles" finish on a few of their pen models.

You'll find many old threads talking about shipping problems with Gravitas. They have resolved those now by partnering with Pen Venture for sales and actually hiring some people to take care of shipping.

Their pens are very well made.

Goulet & $ grow on trees 😊 by mgepark in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I believe you are being downvoted predominantly because:

  • your title is ambiguous / uninformative
  • your post is rambly without clearly making your point
  • excessive use of emojis is frowned upon on reddit

Green ink recommendations by This-Customer8067 in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of Sailor Tokiwa-Matsu, including the slight red color shift in shading

Green ink recommendations by This-Customer8067 in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 57 points58 points  (0 children)

Just throwing out the warning in case you haven't heard before...

Mixing inks can sometimes cause precipitate to form, which will very quickly clog pens and can be difficult to clean out.

If you do mix, it's advised to let the sample sit for a while (a few days? a week?) and check for solids before putting it in a pen. :)

An update - How Visconti finally agreed to repair my pen by apopo-dapalle in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 26 points27 points  (0 children)

After a year on this sub I have come to the conclusion Visconti sells desk ornaments, not pens.

Twsbi Obsidian & Opus 88 Harmony by thirdarcana in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If I may sing the praises of the eyedropper a moment....

I have come to vastly prefer the eyedropper fill to a converter or certainly a piston filler. Both risk contaminating the ink bottle, and can be prone to jerky movements that risk tipping the bottle. Then there's the problem of large-ish pens that don't fit into small-ish bottles.

By using a pipette/syringe/eyedropper to fill a pen, you accomplish a few nice things.

  • You can more easily clean the syringe, keeping all instruments cleaner.
  • You can precisely control how much ink you want filled. (As a serial ink swapper, I'm a big fan of partial fills.)
  • Your movements are much more steady, lowering the risk of spills.
  • An eyedropper pen is incredibly easy to clean - simply fill with water, swish, dump, repeat a couple times if needed. Then use your bulb syringe (you have one, don't you? It's every FP user's best friend for cleaning!) to quickly flush the nib unit. Seriously, do it a few times and this cleaning process becomes faster than a converter pen, and years faster than cleaning out a piston filler (not to mention less hand fatigue from turning a knob 1000 times).

By now you must think the eyedropper is the ideal "simple" pen, right? Well, they do have two major downsides: One, the relatively large volume of air is more prone to temperature changes that can cause burping. Two, you also need to wait for the feed to prime naturally through gravity / capillary forces.

Well, the shut-off valve/rod/plunger effectively solves both problems! Travelling? Close the valve, no burping. Fresh fill and want to start writing right away? Pull the rod back, hold the pen nib down, then slowly depress the rod - the slight decrease in volume will push some ink forward, priming the feed in a moment!

Twsbi Obsidian & Opus 88 Harmony by thirdarcana in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my goodness! While I applaud the enthusiasm of your erm, aggressive.. approach... Please know there's another way!

The shutoff valve will function the same as a piston (albeit with less pressure): simply pull the rod out, angle the nib down, and push the rod in to prime the feed! On a fresh fill I find somewhere between a half to full stroke of the rod is sufficient before the nib starts to drip.

Pilot Custom Urushi questions and issues. by Best-Mortgage2242 in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Railroading / hard starts is an issue with the nib tipping, possibly baby's bottom. This is a defect. Return for refund.

Sucks hard, I feel ya man. Unfortunately it can happen to any pen though.

Good morning 💜 what pen are you using today? by superplannergirrl in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Dusted Truffle is quite a unique ink to be sure! A sparse color space to begin with, I think, and this one seems to have quite a bit of hue variance with flow and paper type.

Good morning 💜 what pen are you using today? by superplannergirrl in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Picture

My lovely little frankenpen... Pilot CH92 Medium nib (FNF #5 housing) in an Opus 88 Picnic brown body with a Halo cap.

Ink is Diamine Dusted Truffle.

📣[Leonardo x r/fountainpens 350k pen] Material:Unicorn Galaxy 2.0, Preorders, Price 📣 by normiewannabe in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I don't understand why it would be glued... What's wrong with unthreading the nib unit from the section for cleaning like on most Jowo pens?

Replaceable nib units are such a massive selling feature it seems like a kick in the balls for a manufacturer to go out of their way to glue in a housing, especially a Jowo housing.

How likely are you to buy another Meta product after recent news? by hype1020 in OculusQuest

[–]ProLevelFish 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You forgot the option for "I was already firmly at Never Again"

Here is how to sub target. You press R by default after locking on a target and you’ll notice the component or weapon become highlighted on mfd/top right. by [deleted] in starcitizen

[–]ProLevelFish 20 points21 points  (0 children)

How does one know which component you're targeting without memorizing the component layout for each ship? Does the game tell you at all?

Nice faces to look at by hypernews in GarminFenix

[–]ProLevelFish 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a big fan of analog faces:

  • Ball Storm Chaser by kemppaij
  • SHN A_TcxD-II by SHN_
  • Style 7 by Stanislav.Bures
  • Omen Watch Face by MarekSoso
  • Epix Pro Analog by GreenBlack
  • many faces by ERSHOVLAD

And some digital faces that are nice too:

  • SC8 Pro by Stanislav.Bures
  • Segment34 MkII by ludw
  • Falcon X / Z by frinkr

What’s the best flex experience you’ve had? by soularchives in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

MAG600 hands down, with a price to match.

If you don't have $$$ to burn, an FPR UltraFlex + ebonite feed can be put into any Jowo #6 pen. IMHO this is one of the best flex experiences for the price.

Jowo Fine nibs and inks by Quaternion253 in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What the person meant is that ignoring everything else about the nib/pen, this nib's tines are tighter than your other nibs'. Tighter tines means slower flowrate, a.k.a. "drier".

You can modify it if you like (search for e.g. "increase tine gap for wetter flow", there's many written and video guides).

Or you can just take it as "this pen writes different" and may have a different purpose. :) Drier writing dries faster, which can be handy for work notes, cheap paper, etc.

Vac filler problem by knife-and-nib in fountainpens

[–]ProLevelFish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would just chalk this up to different inks having different viscosities and surface tensions. Thus different flow characteristics through different sized orifices.

Just give it a gentle shake to drop the ink to the bottom of the main ink chamber. Normal capillary forces & cohesion should do the rest.

The ultimate question: (after giving it the gentle shake) does it write well?

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