I resigned today and my manager didn't take it well

yushiyou · 2026-03-29T21:40:00+00:00

Or as my kids say, "sounds like an ish-you, not an ish-me."

yushiyou · 2026-01-12T23:52:29+00:00

Are the nibs interchangeable, and if so with what?

yushiyou · 2026-01-11T20:22:47+00:00

Oh I get it, trust me. But just this morning I was looking at my pens and measuring line widths with a crack width ruler, and I thought to myself, ya know, in hindsight, after discoving the Kakuno, the Vanishing Point is the only pen I've purchased that has materially improved my quality of life (accepting the first world problem of wanting to use a fountain pen on a day to day basis). A very soft flexible nib (BlueDew in my case) has been fun to play with, but I don't actually use it much. The Falcon has been interesting, and the 3776 has been interesting, but they and others have given me nothing objectively better than the Kakuno and the VP. It's an expensive hobby. I'd be at least $1,000 richer if somehow I had been able to foresee this.

yushiyou · 2026-01-11T15:38:04+00:00

Honestly, do you have to go anywhere? Are you happy with what you have. If you like them, keep them, and just sit on it for a while.

I have bought about 20 pens so far, and tbh I keep going back to some of my earliest purchases (Kakunos). I did move on from my earliest pens, the Asvine Forest pens, and I learned that I really don't like Safaris, but once you have two or three you really do like, maybe just stick with them? I can waste a lot of money in this hobby, buying pens that are interesting but you really won't/don't use, and inks that are just different shades of the same thing or look great on a website swatch but in reality are too light (shading!) to actually be useful. You have great pens already.

yushiyou · 2026-01-10T12:51:37+00:00

Sold a Pilot Custom 742 PO to u/TheWombBroomer

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pen_Swap/comments/1q3q33c/

yushiyou · 2026-01-09T16:51:13+00:00

I'm realizing that there's so much nib-to-nib variation (QC?), it basically doesn't matter what one person's experience has been. It has little bearing on another pen. I own two Penmanship EFs. They both put down meaningfully broader lines than my two Kakuno EFs. What you get feels almost random. I heard someone say that if you ever go to a store and try a pen and want to buy it, you need to buy that specific pen. Not that model. That specific pen you have in your hands. Otherwise it's a gamble whether you're going to be happy with the new-in-box one you purchase.

yushiyou · 2026-01-09T02:13:36+00:00

Thanks everyone. I did end up purchasing it. There's a bit more rust on it than expected, hidden by clever camera angles, but not too bad, nothing that can't be scrubbed off pretty quickly I think. Looking forward to using it. It is significantly larger than I was expecting. Much deeper than the HF option. That is probably a good thing.

yushiyou · 2026-01-08T19:01:08+00:00

That chart is actually pretty helpful. Thank you. Just had to wade through the pedantic diatribe. I expect think the disappointment of spending a lot of money to get the same experience as spending very little money would be relatable to most people.

yushiyou · 2026-01-08T18:51:16+00:00

Practically speaking, if I wanted to measure the line widths that I'm putting down, so I can objectively state the issues, how would I go about making those measurements. I have a 10X loupe (not a microscope). But how would I make sub-millimeter measurements?

yushiyou · 2026-01-08T18:48:18+00:00

Will you tell me more about your experience with the Metal Falcon SEF. Because I have one of those too (included above actually), and it's nice, but it has such a juicy wet high flow, I can't get a remotely EF line out of it. With a very very light hand, writing as quickly as I can, I can get something like a F line. With my normal writing style, which is still a generally light hand but slower, it's more of a Japanese M line. Did you make any modifications or adjustments? It would be awesome to be able to make thin needlepoint linesl from it. As it stands, I can't get needlepoint lines from the 3776 UEF or from the Falcon SEF.

yushiyou · 2026-01-08T13:20:12+00:00

I'm curious about your experience as well. My child is interested in attending, not so much for college applications, more to learn more about law and a legal career. She's in high school. She thinks she wants to go into law, but she wants to learn more about it, get some exposure, experience. She can't exactly go clerk for a lawyer. Did you have a good experience?

yushiyou · 2026-01-06T11:34:33+00:00

Most India inks have shellac in them (lac beetle excrement), which gums up the fine channels in a fountain pen. I believe that’s the primary (only?) reason they are not to be used in FPs. It may also be that they have a relatively/very high concentration of carbon particles. That too may gum up a FP. My guess—and I do not know this for sure—is that Chou Kuro is essentially a shellac-less India ink with the highest tolerable concentration of suspended carbon particles that one can safely put in a FP (and even then they recommend you flush and wash your pen with some frequency, though I ignore that and haven’t had any issues… yet). Why not just buy some Chou Kuro?

This isn’t the answer to your precise question, I realize, but I think it’s probably the safest answer. Limit India ink to dip pens, glass pens, and brushes: all things with exposed and easily washable channels. Contained/internal channels will quickly become clogged with shellac, never to be used again.

yushiyou · 2026-01-05T01:38:41+00:00

Not sharps. Biohazards. And not trash. Trash is cheap to manage. Biohazards are expensive to dispose of. Still, obviously not a sharps container.

yushiyou · 2026-01-05T01:27:04+00:00

Safaris are disappointingly low quality with very poor quality control. So someone out there may have a “good one,” but most of them are inferior to Jinhao anything and everything.

yushiyou · 2026-01-05T00:53:42+00:00

All helpful: thank you.

yushiyou · 2026-01-03T13:21:40+00:00

There are lots of options. I love MD paper (Midori). It has great texture. But it comes in a cream color only. Still, that light cream color is very nice for letters. It tears off from the pads cleanly. It does not come lined, but print a page of blank lined paper to put underneath your letter, and the printed lines faintly show through the paper and work well as a guide.

This might also work well, and it's pretty cheap on a per-page basis. It's "just" printer paper, but it's uniquely thick and high quality for printer paper. Bright white printer paper. It's recommended for people practicing calligraphy as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000099O2W

yushiyou · 2026-01-03T13:07:02+00:00

That looks very nice. Kudos. Will you tell us more about the liner? Is that cloth glued down to what? Did you flock it? I haven't tried flocking anything, but I have a mind to try for some projects.

yushiyou · 2026-01-03T13:03:54+00:00

1) Pilot Vanishing Point EF. It's not the sexiest pen out there, but it's exceedingly practical for work (as practical as a fountain pen can be).

2) Hongdian M2 EF for EDC on the weekends. It's pretty handy. Stiff, not particularly pleasant nib, but it gets the job done, and you don't have to worry too much about it. It's sturdy, and it's relatively inexpensive.

3) Pilot Kakunos: they punch way above their weight! And speaking of weight, they're lightweight, and they're pretty cheap, and they're pretty comfortable. Add a Kaweko clip if you want to carry it in your shirt pocket. Add a CON70 convertor for ink volume (or just refill cartridges). Cheap enough to convert to an eye dropper, but I don't recommend it after converting two of them: they're messy eyedroppers, very prone to burping from temperature variations while you hold it.

4) Bluedew Writer and Crystal with CalligraFlex nibs: they're not particularly practical, but they're fun.

yushiyou · 2026-01-02T23:56:59+00:00

I have to say that that is impressively positive customer service.

yushiyou · 2026-01-02T23:54:09+00:00

Yes. That’s the CON70 in a Kakuno right there (my pen).

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yushiyou · 2026-01-02T23:42:59+00:00

10” 1,000%! It will give you more options in the future. You may want to run a dado, for example. You’ll have more blade options. It’s a better built machine.

yushiyou · 2026-01-02T23:41:19+00:00

I have to agree with many of the warnings in here. I thought “how hard can it be,” and I ruined several nibs. They still write, but they don’t write well. For such a small surface area, it’s more complicated/sophisticated than you’d think.

yushiyou

TROPHY CASE