Fountain pen frenzy thread

[NeuroTypical]

Ok.  So Zil and I traded addicting passions.  I finally had time to sit down with the stuff she sent me.   I watched some videos and stuck the thing in the other thing and "milked" the thing and here's how it went.

 

First, I was all like this:

 

Then, I was all like this:

And after it was all done, I was all like this with no pen juice on me:

How'd I do, Zil?

[zil]

35 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

How'd I do, Zil?

Exceptionally!  You appear to have mastered the thing.  And not a single inky finger on that hand.  Now, what about the other hand?

Hope you enjoy the smooth gliding of nib on hard paper.

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

And after it was all done, I was all like this with no pen juice on me:

So, not only are you a Brony, but you can also operate a fountain pen?  I guess we're not twins after all.  And you're a southpaw to boot.  I'm so depressed right now.

[zil]

Poor @Carborendum.  Poor, poor, @Carborendum.  Maybe @NeuroTypical has some pony music he could send you.

[NeuroTypical]

5 hours ago, Carborendum said:

And you're a southpaw to boot.  I'm so depressed right now.

Bite your tongue!  I'm as RIGHThanded as my politics.  

Every "how to fountain pen" video I watched had the enthusiast proudly sporting ink stains on both hands, and Zil went into great detail about how it just sort of goes along with the whole deal.  So I held my phone with my non-ink-stained right hand, and took a picture of my non-ink-stained left hand.   Should further use produce a different result, apparently there ain't no shame, and no reason to claim otherwise.

[Grunt]

5 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Bite your tongue!  I'm as RIGHThanded as my politics.  

Every "how to fountain pen" video I watched had the enthusiast proudly sporting ink stains on both hands, and Zil went into great detail about how it just sort of goes along with the whole deal.  So I held my phone with my non-ink-stained right hand, and took a picture of my non-ink-stained left hand.   Should further use produce a different result, apparently there ain't no shame, and no reason to claim otherwise.

Interesting.  Is it usually toddlers starting with fountain pens?  I've been using them for over a month now and have somehow managed to not get ink on my digits.

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

15 minutes ago, Grunt said:

Interesting.  Is it usually toddlers starting with fountain pens?  I've been using them for over a month now and have somehow managed to not get ink on my digits.

LOL,  It's not the writing with them that gets ink on your hands...if that is the problem you're doing it wrong.    The ink stained hands happen when refilling the ink in the pen.  At least that's how it's been for me.  Actually, now that I have been using fountain pens for awhile, I can, if I am careful, change refill the ink without getting ink all over my hands.  That said, I really don't mind getting ink on my hands, it's just become part of the adventure!   

@NeuroTypical welcome to the Dark Side, LOL!   Which pen are you using?  I'm a Lamy Safari fan myself, but I do have others that I love too.  

Edited December 28, 2017 by LiterateParakeet

[zil]

Refilling from a bottle and cleaning are what tends to cause inky fingers. Using an ink cartridge avoids the former, but is more expensive.  inksperimentation and impatience hsve been known to cause inkcidents.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, zil said:

Poor @Carborendum.  Poor, poor, @Carborendum.  Maybe @NeuroTypical has some pony music he could send you.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Bite your tongue!  I'm as RIGHThanded as my politics.  

So, why are you showing your left hand in your photo after talking about not getting your hand stained?

[Guest]

3 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

LOL,  It's not the writing with them that gets ink on your hands...if that is the problem you're doing it wrong.    The ink stained hands happen when refilling the ink in the pen.  

I never got to the refilling stage.  I just plain got ink on my hands -- plural -- whenever I write with fountain pens.

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

36 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I never got to the refilling stage.  I just plain got ink on my hands -- plural -- whenever I write with fountain pens.

My guess would be that either you were holding it wrong, or you had a really lousy/leaky fountain pen.  I use FPs every day and I don't get any ink on my hands.   

[zil]

6 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

My guess would be that either you were holding it wrong, or you had a really lousy/leaky fountain pen.  I use FPs every day and I don't get any ink on my hands.   

He had a Pilot Varsity.  Apparently there was ink on the feed and in the cap every time he opened it.  Either the trip caused the pen to be damaged in some way (it worked fine before the trip), or Carb's pen-carrying / -handling techniques are not FP friendly.  

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

1 minute ago, zil said:

He had a Pilot Varsity.  Apparently there was ink on the feed and in the cap every time he opened it.  Either the trip caused the pen to be damaged in some way (it worked fine before the trip), or Carb's pen-carrying / -handling techniques are not FP friendly.  

Let's blame Carb, just because that will be more fun, LOL!

BTW, I have to tell you!!!  I got a TWSBI Eco....the TWSBI Eco-T.  I am in love.  But to be honest, I think my favorite fountain pen is whichever one I'm holding at the moment....LOL!    And my son gave me a Dryden Fountain Pen for Christmas...it's made of bamboo....guess which ink I put in it.  Noodler's Lexington Gray, of course!  LOL.

[zil]

8 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

Let's blame Carb, just because that will be more fun, LOL!

Well, I'd rather find him the right pen, ink, paper, carrying-method combo, as I think he'd really like them if he had a setup that would work for him.

8 minutes ago, LiterateParakeet said:

BTW, I have to tell you!!!  I got a TWSBI Eco....the TWSBI Eco-T.  I am in love.  But to be honest, I think my favorite fountain pen is whichever one I'm holding at the moment....LOL!    And my son gave me a Dryden Fountain Pen for Christmas...it's made of bamboo....guess which ink I put in it.  Noodler's Lexington Gray, of course!  LOL.

Congrats!  I love my Eco.  Been thinking about trying the Eco-T to see how I would like it, but I have too many pens already.  They're fabulous pens - and the ink in them never dries out (a big deal in Utah).

Never heard of Dryden.  Googling.  Looks like fancified Jinhaos to me - I do like the look of the bamboo wood.    Enjoy it!   You and your Noodler's inks.  I don't really like a lot of the ones I've tried - many tend to behave badly in some way - I should probably dilute them a bit.  I wonder if they like humid environments (or dislike dry ones), and that explains the difference.

[NeuroTypical]

My wife has a million names for all the different kind of chickens we have.  Bantams and frizzles and olive eggers and cornish this and leghorn that.  We have a rare kind of Japanese fighting chicken that just sits there and looks zen, until you give it access to another chicken, then it picks a fight and gets it's tushie whooped because it doesn't fight well.  We have a crossbeak chicken that gets tube fed twice a day.  We own a rare threatened breed of turkey that was running around when our founding fathers were alive, and now they only exist in a couple of veterinary colleges and a tiny handful of hobby farms like ours.  

I'm finding that fountain pen people are equally, if not more, crazy than crazy chicken people.  I don't think I have the brain capacity to learn a new language, what with tax season starting.  I have a nice fountain pen, and ink goes in it.  I like it, and I think I'll write letters to my daughters with it, use it on important occasions, etc.  The passion and zeal and names and all might have to wait a bit. 

[Vort]

4 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

cornish this and leghorn that

[zil]

3 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

I'm finding that fountain pen people are equally, if not more, crazy than crazy chicken people.  I don't think I have the brain capacity to learn a new language, what with tax season starting.  I have a nice fountain pen, and ink goes in it.  I like it, and I think I'll write letters to my daughters with it, use it on important occasions, etc.  The passion and zeal and names and all might have to wait a bit.

The names are just brand and product names.  You could replace them with Chevrolet Silverado and Kellogg's Corn Flakes - it's just that the brands and products are not familiar to you yet.  Waiting is just fine - you've got plenty of inks and a pen that works.  Try not to leave it for weeks on end with the ink drying inside.   If you're not going to use it for an extended period, clean it out (if necessary, dump the ink down the drain, or back into the sample vial).

[NeuroTypical]

46 minutes ago, zil said:

The names are just brand and product names.  You could replace them with Chevrolet Silverado and Kellogg's Corn Flakes - it's just that the brands and products are not familiar to you yet. 

One thing I've learned through this process: Ain't nothing "just" about a fountain pen hobby.  It's a rich landscape of exotic sounding ink names and methods and practices and passionate zeals.   I'll probably clean it out next week, after the letters are written.

As for Vort's Scootaloo/chicken crossover: Not bad for a rookie.  We had a chicken named Scootaloo, she had some neck palsy condition thing that mirrored the cartoon pony's underdeveloped wings and flightless life.   They had similar attitudes.

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by NeuroTypical

[zil]

5 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

One thing I've learned through this process: Ain't nothing "just" about a fountain pen hobby.  It's a rich landscape of exotic sounding ink names and methods and practices and passionate zeals. 

Just don't ask which is the blackest black ink, and nobody will get hurt.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

My guess would be that either you were holding it wrong...

2 hours ago, zil said:

Carb's pen-carrying / -handling techniques are not FP friendly

2 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

Let's blame Carb, just because that will be more fun, LOL!

I told you it is a Korean weakness.  It's the only way to be fair to the rest of the world. 

[Vort]

28 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I told you it is a Korean weakness.  It's the only way to be fair to the rest of the world. 

 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Vort said:

 

But I like MSG.

[anatess2]

Let me interrupt the Bronypen thread just to say... I got a Shaefer.  $16 from Office Depot in a fat silver barrel with granite ink.  Let's see how it measures up to my $20 Franklin Covey.  No pictures because my husband decided to wrap it up and give to my son's girlfriend who is getting baptized on Saturday.  He wrapped it up with the journal that I got from Deseret.  So, ok, it's not yet mine but I'm headed to the store to get another one.

[zil]

What is "granite ink"?

Also, fair warning, there's a serious chance fountain pen ink won't work well on the usual journals from Deseret Book and such - the paper tends to be rough and really absorbent.   But we can hope that's not the case with this one.