fountain pen geekery ahead

[truepenny]

(Or, displacement activity to distract from the corner I have written myself into.)

My birthday/X-mas present to myself is a Pelikan Technixx fountain pen (in chrome), since Fountain Pen Hospital has them for $40. I'm trying, in a not very serious way, to collect one pen from each of the great fountain pen manufacturers. I have Sheaffer, Waterman, Cross, and now Pelikan. Plus the two Lamys* and the Griffith Stadium pen (interestingly, Ballpark Pens no longer seems to be making fountain pens, so I'm glad I grabbed that one when I did, because--historic awesomeness aside--it's a really nice pen) and the handful of vintage pens (mostly nibless) maryrobinette gave me.

I do actually use all my pens (except the vintage ones, which are my dragon hoard), each with a different color so I can keep track of different projects/locations. It's a way to make the physical act of writing more fun that works very well for me.

• The Lamy Safari demonstrator that lives in my purse gets violet ink cartridges. Lamy's violet isn't wildly exciting, but it's a nice workhorse color for my purposes.
  
• The Waterman Phileas uses black; it's my administrivia pen and also the pen I write down my dreams with. I've been experimenting with blacks lately, and have just ordered Noodler's Old Manhattan (described as "blackest black") from FPH.
  
• The Griffith Park pen uses Pelikan cartridges; it gets Pelikan's "brilliant green," which I actually quite like.
  
• I use Noodler's Couleur Royale in my Sheaffer Legacy II. I love the deep blue-shading-toward-purple and am unlikely to stray.
  
• The Cross ATX gets a ink I mixed myself (yes, such are the depths to which I have descended), about 45% Noodler's Nightshade, 45% Ottoman Rose, and 10% Couleur Royale. Nightshade I found too rusty-brown-black rather than red-violet; Ottoman Rose was like writing with raspberry sauce; combining the two and adding some Couleur Royale to pull it toward blue makes a really rather awesome burgundy color. Since burgundy was the color I started out using, way back in the day, with my Sheaffer (before Sheaffer discontinued their burgundy, the rat-bastards), I am possibly just the slightest bit unbecomingly smug about this.
  
• No matter how hard I try, I cannot like blue-black ink (which is what Mike used in the John M. Ford Memorial Pen). I have just purchased a converter for it and a bottle of Noodler's Old Dutch Sepia.
  
• The Pelikan Technixx is going to get Noodler's Squeteague Turquoise.
  

The Squeteague and the Sepia are both experiments. (Squeteague is such a Lovecraftian word I couldn't resist it, and it looks like an interesting color.) We'll see what happens.


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*One of the Lamys is my purse pen, so that I have a fountain pen to use outside the house which I will not be devastated if/when I lose. The other Lamy is my John M. Ford Memorial Pen, and it does not leave my desk.

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Incidentally--the things you find when you Google--you can get cufflinks made from the copper window encasements removed in the 2005 remodeling of the Flatiron Building. Tor peeps, did you know about this?

Comments

[cerulean-sky.livejournal.com]

My father used to be a fountain pen user. He carried one around at all times, and when he signed credit card receipts he told the cashiers to be careful, it was going to be wet for a little bit. As per his request, one year for father's day/his birthday my mother and I got him a Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen. It's a really beautiful pen. Slimmer than most of their current models and entirely in matte black. I should like to have a pen just like it some day.

Also, I use the Pilot "Varsity" disposable fountain pens to write in my journals.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

One of the Lamys is my purse pen, so that I have a fountain pen to use outside the house which I will not be devastated if/when I lose.

This is a very good idea. I lost both my fountain pens (one, a Pelikan I'd had since I was nine years old) when their case (which I was also rather fond of) fell out of my bag on the Metro two weeks ago. I am making do with a reasonably heavy rollerball right now and have asked for a replacement for Christmas, but the Pelikan was practically part of my hand by this point and I'm still fairly devastated that it's gone forever.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh how horrible. Much sympathy. :(

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

Old Dutch Sepia is particular to FPH-- Noodler's makes some colors specific to one retailer.

The burgundy mix sounds interesting. There are many fountain pen folks searching for replacements for particular inks, especially the Parker Penman inks or "Pre-Slovenia" Sheaffer Skrip. Every so often, a bottle of one of the less-common colors comes up on Ebay, but you'd have to wade through tons of current Skrip, Washable Blue and Permanent Royal Blue to find them.

You might have luck finding old cartridges that have dried out and reconstituting the ink. I have written with burgundy that came in a cartridge I got back around 1992 or so by doing that.

I think Lamy Blue-Black is an "iron gall" ink which can be corrosive over time, but is permanent.

It is worth fixing the nibbed vintage pens! I've had some of the best performance from my old Sheaffers, and love the feeling of bringing a writing instrument back to life. It takes a little outlay up front for a bottle of shellac and a pair of section -- spark plug-- pliers, but once you've got those two things, a lot of vintage pens can live again for the price of a new sac or some seals.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

As a surprise Christmas present for my husband, I just purchased this beauty (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/114381-pelikan-m605-blue-silver). It will be his first Pelikan, which I freely admit is my favorite fountain pen company. I love their piston filling system, their nibs, pretty much everything about them. All of his FPs at the moment are cartridge/converter fillers, so the Pelikan will be a new experience for him.

My favorite pen to use is a pre-1997 Pelikan M600, the nib just glides like butter across the page! I haven't ever used a Lamy Safari, but my carry around pen at the moment is either my Namiki Vanishing Point, or the TSWBI I just picked up (another piston filler, based on Pelikan's design). Ebay, $40, and a demonstrator. There is something I just adore about watching how the whole thing works.

I've recently discovered Diamine inks, and am now in love with their color "Syrah", a rich burgundy red. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I love fountain pens. My favourite is a Waterman, and I only use it with their sepia ink, so that my pages are already old-seeming even in their first minutes.