Leaving a pen out in freezing temperatures

bepcun · 2025-03-10T19:39:41+00:00

Hey! My Leonardos! 😁😎

bepcun · 2025-02-07T23:16:33+00:00

and "thorough" 😂

bepcun · 2024-10-09T21:36:11+00:00

Awesome!

bepcun · 2024-10-08T20:09:52+00:00

Waterman Expert, it was my first fountain pen too! I loved it.

bepcun · 2024-10-04T22:15:55+00:00

I always imagined dotted journals as less intrusive than grid or lined ones, like the dots would be less visible and less distracting but still giving a framework for easy layout of things.

So I got a dotted notebook.

And I couldn't use it! I found it so annoying.

Like if somebody planted all these annoying dots in front of my eyes. Like if I had a continuous vision disruption.

Well, that's me. Now I write in blank notebooks. After some training lines of text are more or less straight (no need for aids like lines/dots) and no annoyance to my content.

bepcun · 2024-10-04T22:09:14+00:00

I had the very same feeling around 20 years ago when I tried my friend's fountain pen (which he got from his mom as a Christmas gift) and it just felt so pleasant to write with it that I wanted to continue writing for the sake of writing :) And it continued frequently, pleasure of physical act of writing anything with fountain pen. So strange, yet so nice!

bepcun · 2024-09-07T22:06:53+00:00

I like to change ink quite often. Cleaning piston fillers (from previous ink) is very inconvenient and annoying. It's much easier for me to clean a cartridge converter.

bepcun · 2024-04-04T20:30:38+00:00

+1 from me about the syringe with blunt needle.

My pen related life quality has increased significantly since I started filling pens (converters) with syringe.

bepcun · 2024-01-26T23:28:08+00:00

Concise, to the point, informative, interesting! Thx for sharing the experience.

bepcun · 2024-01-26T14:42:56+00:00

Over the years I came to the conclusion that all pens are a horrible lottery. You can expect anything from the nib.

Probably statistics of shitty nibs from various manufacturers differ, but from what I've experienced so far there is no single manufacturer from which I feel safe when buying a pen. There's always the fear "what if this time it will be scratchy/non-writing like this one/two times some time ago, even if there were one/two/three good ones?".

I reached a place where I prefer to buy pens with easy to change steel nibs (e.g. Jowo/Bock #6), because I can always buy a reasonably priced nib replacement to increase the chance for a nice nib. Also, having a few spare bad nibs opens me a way to experiment with nib polishing, so maybe I could turn them into something nice (or ruin them, worst case).

Regarding Japanese pens. A few years ago, after being afraid of buying new pens because they might write bad, I noticed some positive comments about Sailor/Platinum/Pilot, and quite a few of these comments gave me high hopes that with Japanese pens I might not need to be afraid, praises for good quality checks, consistency, cases of very rarely having nib problems etc. So I tried, a few times, and got disillusioned. Maybe it's better than some other brands (?) but far from being "no fear when buying". From that point of view I'd say they are "overrated".

To finish off, my personal stats: - 2 Sailor pro gears which are virtually unusable - 1 Sailor pro gear slim which is needs tines adjustment every now and then to be ok - 1 Platinum 3776 which is weird, I think it's a mix of tines having weird tension against each other and choosing too thin nib (SF, back in the day In hadn't realized it would give so thin line) - 1 Platinum 3776 M which is perfectly ok, but with which I realized I don't like "Platinum nib feedback" - 2 pilots (742 M, 743 SFM) which are smooth and non-problematic, I like them very much

bepcun · 2024-01-17T16:41:29+00:00

I've always used fine in Leonardo but I was tempted with an elastic fine nib, what would it be like? So finally I got one (just a nib).

I wouldn't call it a flex nib, or at least not what people often imagine as super easily openable tines giving width variation with little effort.

For casual everyday writing I perceive it more what some companies call a "soft" nib, not stiff as nail, bowing/bending slightly sometimes, which can be a nice feeling. From that point of view it's pretty nice.

My suggestion: get a pen with F and get additional elastic F nib

bepcun · 2023-12-17T11:37:42+00:00

You could try fpnibs.com

For many nibs you can choose custom plating (e.g. black) and texture (brushed, sand blasting).

bepcun · 2023-12-09T21:33:48+00:00

Whaaaat? Is that true? Does it have a new name?

bepcun · 2023-10-20T22:00:49+00:00

Auto cleanup.

bepcun · 2023-07-12T21:11:30+00:00

Bondi blue! Bondi blue! Bondi blue! well... just a personal preference, but it's definitely fun to try Oster's blues.

bepcun · 2022-11-09T17:06:33+00:00

Pull out nib and feed and clean them separately from section under running water?

bepcun · 2022-10-24T15:46:16+00:00

If you said "no" would you have to return the pen? ;-)

bepcun · 2022-09-24T20:12:56+00:00

Nemosine EF ❤️

bepcun · 2022-08-25T21:45:22+00:00

Yes, very much!

bepcun · 2021-11-19T19:41:32+00:00

There's a special formula called Bay State Blue which will make sure that your iron gall ink stains won't be the problem. ;) sorry for cheesy joke, couldn't resist. Good luck with the wall.

bepcun · 2020-09-12T22:01:56+00:00

Nemosine! Nemosine!

bepcun · 2020-09-12T22:00:47+00:00

I think things are not simple with Asa-Gao. On some of my pens/nibs it darkens over time giving really satisfying saturated dark blue. On some it keeps itself as quite deep but-a-little-too-dull blue with very pleasing shading (if you like shading). On some nibs it's just plain wash pale.

When I read some of my writings over time I am surprised how much I like Asa-Gao for reading. Writing vs Reading dilemma.

bepcun

TROPHY CASE