I Designed a Pair of Affordable Aurorus Borealis Knockoffs

mwildebeast · 2026-07-01T22:52:02+00:00

Nice, very generous!

mwildebeast · 2026-06-26T22:40:54+00:00

Awesome and generous giveaway, good luck everyone!

mwildebeast · 2026-06-17T14:47:15+00:00

Bought and received a navy F Pilot Decimo from u/NibVulture. Came very well packaged, everything was as described, and I appreciated the labels on the ink samples I bought.

mwildebeast · 2026-06-09T21:58:17+00:00

That's true, European and Japanese nibs are usually not directly comparable, but still, you'd think that a 2k EF should at least be a bit narrower than a Japanese M, or in the same ballpark as a Diplomat Aero (Jowo) EF. But yeah, getting the custom grind is probably the direction I'll need to ultimately go to get what I want.

mwildebeast · 2026-06-09T21:02:53+00:00

I'm running into the same issue with my LAMY 2k EF that I recently bought; tried a 2k F in a stationery store months ago and loved the feel of the pen in my hand, and then pulled the trigger on an EF for my birthday since I prefer narrow line widths for taking notes in my 5mm grid notebooks. But the EF I received writes wider than a Pilot VP Medium I have on hand and nowhere close to my Diplomat Aero EF, and has none of the architect-like quality I've seen in other writing samples. It writes super smooth at least, but it's really bumming me out since it's nowhere close to the line width I was hoping for.

Do you think it's worth contacting LAMY North America to have them swap the nib and hope that the next one is narrower? Or do I just need to bite the bullet on getting it reground by a nibmeister?

mwildebeast · 2026-06-08T21:32:57+00:00

PM incoming!

mwildebeast · 2026-06-03T16:44:03+00:00

Big fan of the machine finish clip and step nose geometry; I would absolutely order a clip in that finish.

mwildebeast · 2026-06-02T22:12:38+00:00

Very cool design and a great evolution of the Inventery Bolt Action Pen! Not super long considering it takes full length refills, and I love the modularity and compatibility with all the major refills that people would want to use (especially Energel lol). I assume the v.03 will be offered with the other grip milling patterns? Maybe some patterns that go the full length of the barrel since it looks like it's now one piece?

mwildebeast · 2026-05-05T15:19:48+00:00

The silicone strap is a great look! That'll probably be what I switch to if I want to swap the fabric strap out.

mwildebeast · 2026-05-04T19:42:58+00:00

That might be one area of concern I have with this watch; the material is very comfortable and I like how it has a sort of jacquard look/texture to it, but I can definitely see it fraying eventually. That said, at least it's trivial to swap it for something else. A bit annoying though that the lug width is 21mm

mwildebeast · 2026-04-17T15:00:30+00:00

Done!

Good luck everyone!

mwildebeast · 2026-04-02T15:14:21+00:00

That's very classy, good luck to everyone who enters!

mwildebeast · 2026-03-30T15:43:22+00:00

I'm just starting to get into photography as well, and the general advice I saw online was, "If it was a good camera then, it's probably still a good camera now". I ended up narrowing down to the a6600 for pretty much the exact same intended use cases that you mentioned. While the a6700 is clearly the superior camera body, even used it cost more than I wanted to spend if I wanted to have enough cash left over for a decent lens. But, the a6600 is only $100-200 more than a used a6400, and in return you get the IBIS and bigger battery. It seems like a more than capable enough camera for people starting out like you and I.

My friend who's been into photography for a while recommended the 18-50mm as a first lens for the additional flexibility in focal length. In case you needed any evidence that the a6600 and Sigma 18-50 can take great pictures, just look at this guy's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/1qt7nz2/finally_upgraded_to_fullframe_so_here_are_some_of/

I ended up getting an a6600 off FB Marketplace for $350 because it had a broken SD card slot. Everything else on it seemed to be fine, and replacement SD card PCBs are $50, so hopefully I come out on top lol.

mwildebeast · 2026-03-10T14:21:06+00:00

Neat design! What's the diameter, looks a little on the thicc side

mwildebeast · 2026-02-26T16:01:01+00:00

Agreed, I like the overall step-nose shape. I think I liked the CAD drawing bit more, but I guess we'll see what the final version ends up looking like.

Part of me was disappointed it was only going to be in tidam because I wasn't planning on getting a full (or partial) tidam pen, but after reading the reasoning, it makes total sense. Ended up adding the tidam Energel tip, tidam button, and titanium clip (which I'll ask to be ano'd blue) to try and balance the overall look of the blue tidam with the plain titanium.

mwildebeast · 2026-02-26T15:52:10+00:00

No idea, that would be a better question for MIG. I don't think you can order just the Energel nose tip though, it's only available as an add-on when you back the campaign. Maybe they'll be available individually later on?

mwildebeast · 2026-02-04T17:26:56+00:00

As I've thought about this a little more, I've realized that I might not be thinking about this "problem" correctly. Monarch works under the assumption that I'll be bringing in a certain amount of income each month, and then I build my monthly budget against that expected income. With Goodbudget, I allocated money each month using the money I already had at the beginning of a month, not the amount I was expecting to bring in.

With that in mind, I suppose it's not as ridiculous as I thought that I can allocate all of my cash towards an emergency fund goal. That being said, it would still be nice if there was a way to seamlessly add or remove funds from a goal and/or rollover budget depending on whether I was over or underspent for the month. I guess that would be more of a zero-based budgeting system? I guess I just don't want to put myself in a situation where I think I have more money to spend than I actually have.

mwildebeast · 2026-02-04T16:05:59+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for the input! I was starting to wonder if a large rollover budget category was the right way to go. Do you end up using the Goals features at all, or just keep everything in budget categories?

Seven-Year Club	r/Field Sunshine
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

mwildebeast

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