Pens, pencils and writing supplies - The Pen-Island.

I have 2 cross pens I got in highschool.
One things that bugs me to no end is wood pencils. The feel of holding one, the way it scraps against the paper as you write. Its like nails on a chalk board to me.
 
I find it very satisfying, especially on paper with some texture to it. :)
 
I find it very satisfying, especially on paper with some texture to it. :)


Mechanical pencils are much more efficient, but a proper wood pencil is much mire satisfying. The variation as the point is getting worn...and I am sounding like a freak. :lol:
 
That UV thing sounds really interesting. I'd like to see some writing with that (if possible) and with those other special inks.

I don't know if I'd call the others so much special inks. The only notable feature of most of them that can be conveyed via internets is color, and my camera skills are suspect at best. I realized after I'd written this out the only UV light I had was a single LED miniature flashlight thing in my watchmaking bench, so I had to setup my point and shoot camera in manual mode to get this picture as a long exposure in my closet :lol:

So, the Blue Ghost ink. Paper is Strathmore writing soft gray laid 24#. Under normal light it's basically invisible, under close examination and certain lighting it's possible to tell something's there but it's not easy to read at all. It's also strange writing out something of that length without seeing it as you write, without reference for spacing it's just awkward to do.


 
Thank you VERY much, that was awesome!
:D

I appreciate the effort. That looks really interesting.
 
I have these own-brand retractable ball points that I buy from Officeworks because they're cheap and they last a long time. I find the Kilometrico biros I tend to have lying around go bad quickly if not used for a while. I also have some Bic ballpoints I've stolen from various offices over the years but they mostly sit in the drawer with the alcohol swabs I took daily from my previous office job when I knew I was leaving. At work now they buy in bulk those Faber Castell biros and they're quite good. I have yet to misplace a few into my pockets yet.


What?

I had a Parker fountain pen that I used for a while and liked but then it ran out of ink and I couldn't find anywhere that sold the correct refill locally and not knowing anything about pens I put it back in its box with a note saying 'buy ink' and that's been there for maybe five years now.
 
My current rotation is made up of a safari, an ohoto, and a few other cheaper fountains, but at the same time, it seems my go-to is more often whatever horrible ballpoint is near the hand than anything that actually feels nice to use.
 
These are my favorites:

PapermateFlair2-X-760x507.jpg


Simple, cheap, easy to find, long lasting, tip doesn't degrade much, extremely smooth. For writing maybe they wouldn't be much good, but for designing, they are awesome. When more subtlety or detail is required, I tend to use these:

20702-2009-2-2ww-m.jpg
 
Used to have fountain pens in school but i stopped caring, my go to pen for the last decade or so is a Pilot V5 Hi-Tecpoint, does mostly all I want. Pencil wise i have a mechanical i keep around, prefer the constant width over regular pencils.
 
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I use these:

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Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen.

My cursive is unreadable unless written with a fountain pen. However, just as I hate block writing for taking too much time, I hate dealing with fountain pen maintenance.

A big plus of these pens is that if I loose one I'm out of a couple bucks and not a small fortune.
 
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I actually rather like how the varsities write. They're a bit softer of a nib, so they form rather quickly and stay smooth until they're lost. It's just a shame that they hold so little ink...
 
Oh boy.

In almost a year since the last post, I bought a bunch of stuff, but I will not talk about it right now.
Paging Nabster! :lol:
I have a question: how do I know which inks are safe to use on my fountain pens?
I know the dip nibs can use almost anything but the fountain pens are a bit more picky.
Also, I can see one of the inks I have (red) is much thicker and clearly would clog a fountain pen, while the others seem much watery and I perceive them as "safe" to use on the pens. How do I know for sure?
 
/not nabster

A good starting point would be to use inks that are composed of dyes rather than pigments, as the molecule size can mean that pigments will clog up your feed. Beyond that, I'd think that as long as it's not attacking the materials and you flush out ink between changes to avoid any unpleasant reactions, you can get away with quite a bit.

...If you do end up clogging up the pen, most of them seem to come apart well enough for cleaning. --the question there being whether it's worth the effort of setting up a force feed to back pressure the wick and whatnot.

Maybe keep a few platinum preppies (or whatever your low cost option may be) around to serve as disposable eye dropper testers?
 
I've been nearly exclusively writing my entire uni-career on a Rotring 600 0.7mm mechanical pencil. it's worked very well for me :) After having used a silver one for ages that got beaten up pretty bad (so the brass body now pokes through) I got myself a black one two or three years back that's not being kept in a nice leather case...
vslEHTx.jpg


somehow fountain pens don't really do much for me. i guess i take more of a pragmatic approach to writing.
 
Oh boy.
In almost a year since the last post, I bought a bunch of stuff, but I will not talk about it right now.

And the Montblanc employee sale was very good to me in the mean time as well. :lol:

I have a question: how do I know which inks are safe to use on my fountain pens?
I know the dip nibs can use almost anything but the fountain pens are a bit more picky.
Also, I can see one of the inks I have (red) is much thicker and clearly would clog a fountain pen, while the others seem much watery and I perceive them as "safe" to use on the pens. How do I know for sure?

Unless the ink is from a reputable brand and specifically says "fountain pen ink" on the bottle then you should assume it's not wise to use in a good pen until shown otherwise. Particulates clog and some of the thicker or more saturated inks have solvents which can react and damage a fountain pen. I do know J Herbin has some newer inks with a gold and silver glittery additive in the ink, and those are safe in a fountain pen as long as you rinse thoroughly after use and don't let the ink completely evaporate in the pen. Staining is another thing to look out for, Noodles Baystate Blue is notorious for staining and destroying pens made with certain materials. And never use any India inks in a fountain pen either, those are dip pen only.
 
/not nabster

A good starting point would be to use inks that are composed of dyes rather than pigments, as the molecule size can mean that pigments will clog up your feed. Beyond that, I'd think that as long as it's not attacking the materials and you flush out ink between changes to avoid any unpleasant reactions, you can get away with quite a bit.

...If you do end up clogging up the pen, most of them seem to come apart well enough for cleaning. --the question there being whether it's worth the effort of setting up a force feed to back pressure the wick and whatnot.

Maybe keep a few platinum preppies (or whatever your low cost option may be) around to serve as disposable eye dropper testers?

Thanks!
I've been nearly exclusively writing my entire uni-career on a Rotring 600 0.7mm mechanical pencil. it's worked very well for me :) After having used a silver one for ages that got beaten up pretty bad (so the brass body now pokes through) I got myself a black one two or three years back that's not being kept in a nice leather case...
vslEHTx.jpg


somehow fountain pens don't really do much for me. i guess i take more of a pragmatic approach to writing.

:blink: Get out of my head! :lol:
I've been drooling over the Rotring for a few days, but I can't decide between a 600 and a 800.
I don't particularly want the retractable point, but I really like the gold details and I like 4B lead, and not being able to indicate it on the cap would drive my OCD crazy. :p

And the Montblanc employee sale was very good to me in the mean time as well. :lol:



Unless the ink is from a reputable brand and specifically says "fountain pen ink" on the bottle then you should assume it's not wise to use in a good pen until shown otherwise. Particulates clog and some of the thicker or more saturated inks have solvents which can react and damage a fountain pen. I do know J Herbin has some newer inks with a gold and silver glittery additive in the ink, and those are safe in a fountain pen as long as you rinse thoroughly after use and don't let the ink completely evaporate in the pen. Staining is another thing to look out for, Noodles Baystate Blue is notorious for staining and destroying pens made with certain materials. And never use any India inks in a fountain pen either, those are dip pen only.

Thank you. :)
 
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A funny thing happened the other day, I had to write down something and sign it.

I probably spent thirty minutes rummaging around the apartment for a pen until I found one, and actually writing down something felt really forced and barely natural. That's something a digital life does to you, I guess. I don't think I even have an actual handwriting these days, and my signature is a squiggle of a couple mountains.

This is probably off-topic though :p
 
A funny thing happened the other day, I had to write down something and sign it.

I probably spent thirty minutes rummaging around the apartment for a pen until I found one, and actually writing down something felt really forced and barely natural. That's something a digital life does to you, I guess. I don't think I even have an actual handwriting these days, and my signature is a squiggle of a couple mountains.

This is probably off-topic though :p

:lol:
You can still be saved.
Go buy a fountain pen! :p
 
So, recently I've been much more interested in pencils, so I bought a few different ones, but this one called my attention:
G517.JPG

It's a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Pencil.
Yes, it's a solid rod of graphite. It's cold, heavy and looks AWESOME.
I know it's overkill to write everyday notes with this, but it feels special.:p
Also, this arrived today:
IMG_3554.jpg

It's a Uni Kuru Toga Roulette. It has a nifty rotating mechanism, so the lead rotates every time you lift if from the paper.
Explanation here:

I don't know if I'm influenced by the hype, but it feels really nice to write with it.
I have yet to get the fancy nanodiamond-coated leads, but so far I am very pleased with it and with the fact that (despite the fancy mechanism) it cost me 20 dollars (with shipping!).
 
Yes, it's a solid rod of graphite. It's cold, heavy and looks AWESOME.

Don't drop it! What's the hardness? I'm imagining it being rather brittle without the safety of a wood casing.

I'm rather fond of Sanford's ebony pencils for the feel while laying down graphite but eventually drifted away from them for constant use with how fast they dull while just jotting down text.
 
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