Do you use a fountain pen?

[Pints]

Vroom101 said:

Thanks to Robbo and the other posters on here, I've now ordered a Jinhao 599 in black with a fine nib I'm impatient, so I went for one from a UK seller which cost me the grand total of £3.99 including postage.

Thanks

I note you've bought a fine nib. I was given a fine nib fountain pen for Christmas and I'm just not getting on with it. I really prefer medium, so might buy a replacement nib.

I only mention it in case a fine doesn't suit you and you decide to not bother with a fountain pen at all - which would be a shame.

[uncinqsix]

I used to have a very nice Lamy 2000, but it went walkies off my desk at work one night. Still got my Safari though, which to be honest I prefer using.

[Robbo 27]

Vroom101 said:

Thanks to Robbo and the other posters on here, I've now ordered a Jinhao 599 in black with a fine nib I'm impatient, so I went for one from a UK seller which cost me the grand total of £3.99 including postage.

Another question, this time regarding ink. Robbo, you recommended Parker ink as it is quick drying. Is this knowledge gleaned from experience or do different inks state if they are quick or slow to dry.

Oh, and another question - why do they dry at different rates?

Thanks

Some people find that a fine nib is a little too scratchy on the page, part of it depends on the type of paper, the rest may be just the angle you hold the pen or it may just need a little smoothing. Something abrasive will be far too much and you will make matters worse, see if you can find a piece of flint or a very shiny stone, use gentle pressure with ink in the pen and draw circles, then retest on the paper. if you cannot find any flint try a piece of aluminium, copper or brass. I have even heard of people using glass to polish a nib, just a little at a time.

Parker inks are a safe bet, they work well and are easily available, drying time is quite quick, bad news is that they only have a limited range of colours, you will be lucky if you find anything other than black or blue. Waterman and Pelikan inks are similar, better range of colours but harder to find.

There are other makers whose inks are based on dyes and are either saturated or have a lot of wetting agent in them to improve flow, this can cause feathering on certain paper or bleedthrough of the ink to the other side of the paper. Diamine is an ink maker from Liverpool and people have said that one ink in their range will smudge even 24 hours after it has been used, 20-30 seconds after use is not uncommon for this brand. They also do a range with particles in the ink to reflect light, this has the potential to block the pen, especially with a fine nib.

Suggest that you buy inks from companies that make pens. Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Montblanc, Sailor, Caran D'Ache. Sheaffer is a brand that makes pens but their inks are not the best performers.

[Vroom101]

Thanks Robbo. I'll have a look at those ink manufacturers. I like the idea of different colours, too.

Pints said:

I note you've bought a fine nib. I was given a fine nib fountain pen for Christmas and I'm just not getting on with it. I really prefer medium, so might buy a replacement nib.

I only mention it in case a fine doesn't suit you and you decide to not bother with a fountain pen at all - which would be a shame.

The reason I've gone for a fine nib is because my handwriting is quite small (see photo on previous page). I think even a medium nib will find the 'e' with a filled in hole, if you see what I mean. If I find it a bit rough, I will have a go at Robbo's nib rubbing methods (that sounds a bit suspect ). If I still don't get on with it I'll splash out another four quid on a pen with a medium nib.

[williredale]

Robbo 27 said:

Some people find that a fine nib is a little too scratchy on the page, part of it depends on the type of paper, the rest may be just the angle you hold the pen or it may just need a little smoothing. Something abrasive will be far too much and you will make matters worse, see if you can find a piece of flint or a very shiny stone, use gentle pressure with ink in the pen and draw circles, then retest on the paper. if you cannot find any flint try a piece of aluminium, copper or brass. I have even heard of people using glass to polish a nib, just a little at a time.

Parker inks are a safe bet, they work well and are easily available, drying time is quite quick, bad news is that they only have a limited range of colours, you will be lucky if you find anything other than black or blue. Waterman and Pelikan inks are similar, better range of colours but harder to find.

There are other makers whose inks are based on dyes and are either saturated or have a lot of wetting agent in them to improve flow, this can cause feathering on certain paper or bleedthrough of the ink to the other side of the paper. Diamine is an ink maker from Liverpool and people have said that one ink in their range will smudge even 24 hours after it has been used, 20-30 seconds after use is not uncommon for this brand. They also do a range with particles in the ink to reflect light, this has the potential to block the pen, especially with a fine nib.

Suggest that you buy inks from companies that make pens. Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Montblanc, Sailor, Caran D'Ache. Sheaffer is a brand that makes pens but their inks are not the best performers.

My first pen when I ventured back into fountain pens was fine nibbed but I prefer mediums or broads now.

I like Diamine inks and I've not had problems with them. I've never tried their shimmering inks though which do sound like a recipe for disaster. I wonder if the performance varies between their different inks? Don't they make the Conway Stewart ink?
If I'm using cheap paper at work I tend to use a pen with Pelikan ink because that seems to work well for me.

[Robbo 27]

williredale said:

My first pen when I ventured back into fountain pens was fine nibbed but I prefer mediums or broads now.

I like Diamine inks and I've not had problems with them. I've never tried their shimmering inks though which do sound like a recipe for disaster. I wonder if the performance varies between their different inks? Don't they make the Conway Stewart ink?
If I'm using cheap paper at work I tend to use a pen with Pelikan ink because that seems to work well for me.

I know of others who like Diamine ink too, they have a large variety of colours in their favour but my experience, which is shared by others, is that the quality control between batches is very hit and miss and as a brand you cannot be certain that they will all give an acceptable and consistent performance. For me a quality ink dries reasonable quickly, doesnt feather, doesnt bleed through and doesnt harm the pen. In my experience Diamine is not consistent across its range. I have just read a review by a Diamine fan who says that the ink (a brown) took over 30 seconds to dry and showed significant feathering to the point that the letters were blurred. To me that qualifies as an ink to be avoided.

They used to make the ink for Conway Stewart, that comapny has ceased trading.

If this was a pen forum people could make their own minds up as to what ink to buy and see samples of the ink performance but given that a majority of the PH readers could be pen newbies then my recommendation is that they buy an ink that is reliable and has a known performance.

I think its great that some people have shown some enthusiasm for writing with a good pen, I hope that they go on and improve their handwriting skills - even if they only get to use them in keeping journals and greetings cards.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Wednesday 18th January 12:42

[williredale]

Robbo 27 said:

I know of others who like Diamine ink too, they have a large variety of colours in their favour but my experience, which is shared by others is that the quality control between batches is very hit and miss and as a brand you cannot be certain that they will all give an acceptable and consistent performance. For me a quality ink dries reasonable quickly, doesnt feather, doesnt bleed through and doesnt harm the pen. In my experience Diamine is not consistent across its range. I have just read a review by a Diamine fan who says that the ink (a brown) took over 30 seconds to dry and showed significant feathering to the point that the letters were blurred. To me that qualifies as an ink to be avoided.

If this was a pen forum I would allow people to make their own minds up and provide samples of the ink performance but given that a majority of the PH readers may be pen newbies my recommendation is that they buy an ink that is reliable and has a known performance.

Fair point. I'm currently using Parker cartridges because they're easier than trying to fill from a bottle whilst on crutches.

Part of the interest for me is that I can experiment a bit with different pens and inks. It's also safer than riding a bike as a hobby

[FredAstaire]

inspired by this thread i just bought myself a new fountain pen. nothing fancy, just a parker.

buy how do you guys re-fill without making a mess - i've got inky fingers!

[Samcat]

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I'm confirmed fountain pen user.
I'd fancied trying to use a fountain pen again after many years of cheap ball-points, so about 10 years ago I wondered into The Pen Shop in Manchester quite prepared to spend what it took to get a nice daily writer.
On the advice of the shop I left with an Aluminium cased Lamy Safari with a fine nib, Blue-Black cartridges, and change from £20. Never looked back, fantastic pen, highly recommended.

[timmymagic73]

Thanks to this thread I've recently purchased a JINHAO 599 in frosted black - most excellent, I had no idea these existed.

Medium nib is perfect for me, it writes beautifully straight out of the box (tatty jiffy bag from China) and is a nice weight - it's made of metal (brass?).



Total price of £4.29 including 5 blue cartridges. Now I need to try and unravel the mysterious world of ink.... too much choice.

Tim.

[foreright]

Robbo 27 said:

I know of others who like Diamine ink too, they have a large variety of colours in their favour but my experience, which is shared by others, is that the quality control between batches is very hit and miss and as a brand you cannot be certain that they will all give an acceptable and consistent performance. For me a quality ink dries reasonable quickly, doesnt feather, doesnt bleed through and doesnt harm the pen. In my experience Diamine is not consistent across its range. I have just read a review by a Diamine fan who says that the ink (a brown) took over 30 seconds to dry and showed significant feathering to the point that the letters were blurred. To me that qualifies as an ink to be avoided.

I have been trialling various Diamine inks over the last couple of weeks - mostly blue / purple colours but one thing I have found is that the paper type AND the specific pen for some reason makes a huge difference to how they look. For example, in the following image, the ASA blue is completely different when using my Sailor 1911 with a fine nib to my Jinhao X750 - no idea why it's that different!



The "Eclipse" colour is nice - this is cheapo notepad paper but on better papers it has a really nice dark purplish hue. I've also tried Imperial Blue and Imperial Purple, Violet and Presidential Blue although I have no pens with those in right at this moment.

My favourites out of all of these so far as the ASA Blue and Sargasso Sea. They are both pretty saturated / bold and have some nice colour variation / sheen to them.

I really wanted to like the Imperial Blue, as from the samples on Diamine's website, it looks really nice but in reality, the colour is REALLY purple to me - not blue at all.

None of these inks have shown any feathering or bleed-through on reasonable paper so far, even with the huge amount of ink the Jinhao 159 puts out but there definitely is "show through" so you can only write on one side of the page. Sargasso Sea takes by far the longest to dry out of all of these - probably around 20 seconds.

[Robbo 27]

FredAstaire said:

inspired by this thread i just bought myself a new fountain pen. nothing fancy, just a parker.

buy how do you guys re-fill without making a mess - i've got inky fingers!

There is one model of a Parker that is a problem, the Parker Sonnet, I have owned two and could not get them to work proerly, tried to repair many more. this is not a cheap pen, you can easily pay £100+. If yours is the Sonnet then you may want to try something else.


If you get inky fingers whilst using the pen you may have a crack in the section or are carrying it nib downwards so that ink falls into the cap and then back onto the pen. See if there is any ink in the cap by making a point with a tissue and pushing it into the cap.

You should not get inky fingers when filling a pen, especially by cartridge, if you use a converter it is simply a matter of drying the front of the pen as it comes out of the ink.

With all respect, it may not be down to the pen but your technique.

[Robbo 27]

Samcat said:

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I'm confirmed fountain pen user.
I'd fancied trying to use a fountain pen again after many years of cheap ball-points, so about 10 years ago I wondered into The Pen Shop in Manchester quite prepared to spend what it took to get a nice daily writer.
On the advice of the shop I left with an Aluminium cased Lamy Safari with a fine nib, Blue-Black cartridges, and change from £20. Never looked back, fantastic pen, highly recommended.

Great to hear, if it has an aluminium body I think it may be called the Al Star, a slighty larger version of the Safari and sought after by collectors. If ever you want to try a different nib they are very easy to swap out in Lamys, a new nib will cost around £4.

[Robbo 27]

timmymagic73 said:

Thanks to this thread I've recently purchased a JINHAO 599 in frosted black - most excellent, I had no idea these existed.

Medium nib is perfect for me, it writes beautifully straight out of the box (tatty jiffy bag from China) and is a nice weight - it's made of metal (brass?).



Total price of £4.29 including 5 blue cartridges. Now I need to try and unravel the mysterious world of ink.... too much choice.

Tim.

Not a lot of money for a good performing pen, if you want to stay with cartridges you need to look out for a type called the international, I can recommend Montblanc cartridges for their quality and ink choice, mind you a pack of 12 will almost cost the same as the pen.

[ClockworkCupcake]

Robbo 27 said:

There is an odd pleasure to writing well with a fountain pen that is not there with a rollerball or a ball point pen.

I agree. I use a stainless steel body Parker 45 with medium nib and black ink, which I have owned for years.

I work day-to-day with a keyboard and mouse, but find it useful to keep a daily log book professionally (my favoured is a Black & Red 90gsm spiral bound hardback A4 book) and, as you say, there is an odd pleasure in using a fountain pen.

Edited by ClockworkCupcake on Wednesday 18th January 15:07

[FredAstaire]

Robbo 27 said:

There is one model of a Parker that is a problem, the Parker Sonnet, I have owned two and could not get them to work proerly, tried to repair many more. this is not a cheap pen, you can easily pay £100+. If yours is the Sonnet then you may want to try something else.


If you get inky fingers whilst using the pen you may have a crack in the section or are carrying it nib downwards so that ink falls into the cap and then back onto the pen. See if there is any ink in the cap by making a point with a tissue and pushing it into the cap.

You should not get inky fingers when filling a pen, especially by cartridge, if you use a converter it is simply a matter of drying the front of the pen as it comes out of the ink.

With all respect, it may not be down to the pen but your technique.

it's a sonnet!

but the inky fingers bit is during the fill up - i guess i'm just clumsy.

[scotlandtim]

Another daily fountain pen user here - part computer /part handwriteen notes based, and sign hundreds of prescriptions with one.

Preferred pen of choice - Rotring 600 with a "B" nib my father bought for me on my 16th birthday! Used pretty much daily since then.

Edited by scotlandtim on Wednesday 18th January 15:05

[Robbo 27]

foreright said:

I have been trialling various Diamine inks over the last couple of weeks - mostly blue / purple colours but one thing I have found is that the paper type AND the specific pen for some reason makes a huge difference to how they look. For example, in the following image, the ASA blue is completely different when using my Sailor 1911 with a fine nib to my Jinhao X750 - no idea why it's that different!



The "Eclipse" colour is nice - this is cheapo notepad paper but on better papers it has a really nice dark purplish hue. I've also tried Imperial Blue and Imperial Purple, Violet and Presidential Blue although I have no pens with those in right at this moment.

My favourites out of all of these so far as the ASA Blue and Sargasso Sea. They are both pretty saturated / bold and have some nice colour variation / sheen to them.

I really wanted to like the Imperial Blue, as from the samples on Diamine's website, it looks really nice but in reality, the colour is REALLY purple to me - not blue at all.

None of these inks have shown any feathering or bleed-through on reasonable paper so far, even with the huge amount of ink the Jinhao 159 puts out but there definitely is "show through" so you can only write on one side of the page. Sargasso Sea takes by far the longest to dry out of all of these - probably around 20 seconds.

Thats a good result, and I agree with with you on how different some colours look between pens and when you use good quality paper. Some people would find the 20 second drying time to be a little too long, especially if they are used to writing with a ball point but if that works for you thats good.

The 159 can be made to produce less ink if thats whats wanted, it is a bit of trial and error and could mean going to cartridges rather than the sometimes troublesome Jinhao converter or even reducing the gap bewteen the tines slightly be lifting the shoulders of the nib, all down to personal choice.

I realise that I have been advocating Jinhao pens a little too much but the bottom line is that they make a good performing pen for not a lot of money and are ideal if you want to see if using a fountain pen is for you, plenty of other brands out there if and when you are ready.

[Robbo 27]

ClockworkCupcake said:

I agree. I use a Parker 45 with medium nib and black ink, which I have owned for years.

I work day-to-day with a keyboard and mouse, but find it useful to keep a daily log book professionally (my favoured is a Black & Red 90gsm spiral bound hardback A4 book) and, as you say, there is an odd pleasure in using a fountain pen.

I used to keep a day book myself of meetings and events, particularly items that may be contentious in years to come. A few years ago I was involved with a piece of litigation and was asked by the judge, ' I have seen the minutes that you produced after the clients meeting, I would now like to see your contemporaneous notes', I was able to produce my day book with hand written notes on what was said and agreed.

The Parker 45 is a great workhorse of a pen, still in demand after all these years, a unique feature with the 45 is how easy it is to unscrew the nib for easy cleaning or to put in a replacement.

[Robbo 27]

scotlandtim said:

Another daily fountain pen user here - part computer /part handwriteen notes based, and sign hundreds of prescriptions with one.

Preferred pen of choice - Rotring 600 with a "B" nib my father bought for me on my 16th birthday! Used pretty much daily since then.

Edited by scotlandtim on Wednesday 18th January 15:05

Thats a very nice £200 pen there, classic design.