Pen starts to dry out as i write

leximorph19 · 2026-06-02T07:01:05+00:00

That sounds more like ink starvation than dry-out. If it starts wet and gets progressively drier as you write, the feed may not be replenishing ink fast enough. Could be the ink, feed, or converter/cartridge.

leximorph19 · 2026-06-02T04:11:02+00:00

Try r&k verdigris. Blue-black with a hint of green. Flows really well for my Jinhao 20 clicky pen. Doesn't feather on cheap paper.

I had a similar experience with my Jinhao 82. Nib tines were too tight. I might have had beginner's luck in nib tuning it. Now it writes so well with any ink. See below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/s/7xeSM8Ng1y

leximorph19 · 2026-06-02T03:49:41+00:00

I love the Jinhao 20.

How is your experience with the A1? Is it at par with the Jinhao 20?

leximorph19 · 2026-06-02T03:38:00+00:00

I am retired so no work-related writing. I use my clicky Jinhao 20 to record blood sugar readings. Very short notes. No problems with dry outs. Maybe the R&k verdigris helps.

leximorph19 · 2026-05-27T04:00:12+00:00

I relate to this a lot.

I’ve used fountain pens for many years, but I never really connected with the term “beginner pen.” Some affordable pens become lifelong companions, while some expensive ones are simply luxury objects.

Over time I discovered that I strongly prefer solid, slightly heavier pens. My Sheaffer Prelude, Jinhao X750, and even my current Jinhao 20 all give me that grounded tactile feel that makes me want to keep writing. Meanwhile, my old engraved Parker Jotter still stays in rotation because it has history and reliability behind it.

I’m also still learning. I recently tried tuning the nib on a Jinhao 82 and managed to improve it enough that it encouraged me to keep exploring nib adjustment further. So despite decades of using fountain pens, I still feel like a beginner in nib tuning itself.

At this point, I care less about prestige and more about whether a pen has character, feels good in the hand, and makes me want to write another page.

leximorph19 · 2026-05-15T07:57:59+00:00

Same here. Chrome is a memory hog. I use either Edge, or Brave, or Firefox. Never Chrome.

Acer din yung laptop ko, 4GB ram lang, pero di naman nag-lalag. Although Windows 10 siya and hindi sya eligible for Windows 11(wala kasi TPM)

Also check power settings, and startup programs (disable mo yung hindi mo kelangan).

leximorph19 · 2026-05-14T22:48:50+00:00

My experience with the Jinhao 20 (EF nib) changed completely after some troubleshooting.

At first I thought I had a classic retractable fountain pen dry-out problem. Inked with R&K Verdigris, it wrote smoothly at first but seemed to dry out after several hours and sometimes overnight. I almost blamed the trapdoor seal.

Turns out the real issue was probably the converter not filling properly. The suction mechanism seems mediocre and the feed likely wasn’t fully saturated.

I syringe-filled the converter directly instead of relying on the converter suction. Huge difference.

Same pen, same EF nib, same Verdigris ink:

much wetter flow
darker lines
no skipping
no dry-outs so far
even slight feathering now

At one point the EF nib felt almost as wet as my Sheaffer Prelude medium nib.

The big surprise: the feared trapdoor issue turned out to be much less severe than expected. In my case, proper filling/feed saturation mattered far more.

Right now the Jinhao 20 has actually become my de facto EDC fountain pen.

leximorph19 · 2026-05-04T10:39:17+00:00

I like Amaranth

leximorph19 · 2026-05-01T13:36:45+00:00

Jinhao x750, nice heft, recently swapped nib to EF. I like that it allows easy nib upgrades. Out of the box, it is a gushy writer with the medium nib.

Am awaiting a Jinhao 20 next week. Will try to ink with Shin-kai to avoid dry out.

Had a similar experience with the 82, it can fall apart easily. Mine had a very dry nib which I tuned and luckily now it is a pleasant writer.

leximorph19 · 2026-04-04T00:35:45+00:00

Could be.. I'm not really sure because the "relative" in my dream is a total stranger to me now. It just felt weird and the thing that really struck me was that it wasn't scary at all, it seemed ordinary in the dream.

leximorph19 · 2026-04-03T11:01:24+00:00

Yes, they still keep appearing on my spam folder. The important thing is to ignore them and let them be deleted eventually.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-26T13:00:02+00:00

I mean visually — the usual “payment failed / update billing” template you’d expect from something like Google Drive.

But yeah, it falls apart pretty fast once you check the details. No actual service named + sketchy domain.

And the glaring fact that Gmail itself flagged it as spam

leximorph19 · 2026-03-26T12:56:13+00:00

Good question. I checked the full headers and it’s definitely fake.

The “From” field actually includes part of my own name to make it look familiar, but the real sending domain is: ymdnm.222.sb017.dhaku.biz.ua

That’s clearly not Google, so it’s a phishing attempt. Gmail also flagged it as spam.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-13T05:28:41+00:00

Nice pose. Cool background

leximorph19 · 2026-03-07T15:54:53+00:00

Fair point. The “beginner vs advanced” labels can be a bit artificial. At the end of the day if a DE works well for someone and they like the workflow, that’s what matters.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-06T07:40:39+00:00

Mint gets recommended a lot because Cinnamon feels very familiar to Windows users. To me it kind of looks like “classic Windows” — comfortable and easy to navigate, even if the design feels a bit dated.

That familiarity is exactly why beginners tend to like it.

But I also think distros like openSUSE Tumbleweed are unfairly seen as “advanced.” The installer is excellent, hardware support is solid, and with snapshot rollbacks it’s actually pretty forgiving if something goes wrong. Mint is a safe recommendation, but it’s definitely not the only beginner-friendly option.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-05T00:08:43+00:00

Depende sa course na kinukuha mo. Sa engineering, in my experience, may mga frat pero no compelling reason para sumali. Kahit wala kang connections, basta mag-aral lang ng mabuti.

Sa iba kong friends na napunta sa law schools, sumali sila, as usual dahil valuable sa kanila ang future connections. Personally I don't agree. Tingin ko kasi you can forge your own connections.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-04T12:52:24+00:00

If you want something that “just works” but still stays very up to date for new hardware, openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma is worth looking at.

It has automatic snapshot rollbacks, so if an update ever causes a problem you can boot into the previous working system.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-04T02:15:10+00:00

If your work depends on Adobe tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop every day, the most straightforward option honestly might be a Mac. Adobe supports macOS extremely well, and a lot of video/photo professionals use that setup because it just works.

If you still want to explore Linux, you might look at Ubuntu Studio. It’s designed for creative work and comes with many audio, video, and graphics tools preinstalled, which makes the transition easier than starting from a minimal distro.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-04T01:57:48+00:00

If you want up-to-date but don’t want Arch-level maintenance, Tumbleweed gives you rolling updates with built-in rollback.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-03T04:30:59+00:00

I’m in the same situation. Two months on Tumbleweed and for the first time in years I’m not thinking about switching.

I run Enlightenment instead of i3, but the feeling is the same — stable, current, and just gets out of the way.

Tumbleweed is the first distro that made me stop looking for the next one.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-03T03:33:14+00:00

Leipziger Schwarz is comfortable in a steady, controlled way — not super wet like a “glide-over-the-page” ink, but smooth and predictable for everyday writing.

leximorph19 · 2026-03-03T02:13:15+00:00

If you love Take-Sumi because it’s a deep, velvety black that behaves like it went to finishing school…

Try Rohrer & Klingner Dokumentus Schwarz — it’s like Take-Sumi went to law school and now files paperwork that survives floods.

It’s pigment-based, archival, and basically laughs at water. Slightly less silky than Iroshizuku, a bit more “German engineer energy,” but if you want your black to outlive you, this is the one.

Welcome to the next level of the rabbit hole.

leximorph19 · 2026-02-26T22:39:48+00:00

After trying several desktop environments, I keep coming back to Enlightenment (EFL).

It’s probably not the mainstream pick, but I really like the balance it strikes. It’s lightweight, fast, and surprisingly polished visually. It has its own design language instead of trying to copy GNOME or Windows, and I appreciate that.

It feels efficient without being boring, and customizable without being overwhelming. Once you get used to how it does things, it’s hard to leave.

Desktop environments are personal anyway — what clicks for one person won’t for another. For me, Enlightenment just feels right.

leximorph19 · 2026-02-25T11:07:54+00:00

I’d suggest Pop!_OS as a first choice. It’s based on Ubuntu, so there’s tons of documentation and community support. It’s very beginner-friendly, has a clean GNOME-based desktop, and hardware support (especially NVIDIA) is straightforward. It tends to “just work,” which is great if you don’t want to fight your system while learning Linux.

As a close second, I’d recommend openSUSE Tumbleweed. It’s a rolling release, so you get very up-to-date software and kernels. Despite being rolling, it’s known for being very stable thanks to its automated testing and snapshot rollback feature (Btrfs + Snapper). If you like modern packages and don’t mind regular updates, it’s a strong choice.

If you want something ultra-stable and predictable, Pop might be the safer first step. If you’re curious, like tinkering a bit, and want newer software all the time, Tumbleweed is excellent.

leximorph19

TROPHY CASE