2021 all new Fountain pens, stationery, wax seal etc thread

Wheels Of Confusion said:

It should run smoothly in Lamy 7, but skip Lamy 8. Lamy 10 will be the last "good" one and even it will have some foot-shooting annoyances, heralding the company's pivot into in-pen advertisements and AI.

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I see what you did there, and I DO NOT LIKE IT, Wheels!

Ya'll see he just compared the Lamy Vista Goulet Special Edition, with the black trim, nib, and converter, to farking Windows, right?
RIGHT?

I need to go find a newspaper - someone needs a sharp 'wack' across the nose for this affrontery.

I picked up one of the new BENU AstroGems "Pallas" models in a F nib, and holy cow. This thing is pretty AF and I can't stop looking at it.

Matthias said:

I picked up one of the new BENU AstroGems "Pallas" models in a F nib, and holy cow. This thing is pretty AF and I can't stop looking at it.

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21 down is ‘Tat’.
35 down is ‘Badu’.

Pen is pretty.

What does NPR mean that handwriting can't keep up? Stenography was a thing long before chording keyboards were even dreamed of. Taking dictation is a thing for both typing and writing, but neither is appropriate for taking notes. As the article implied, notes require immediate assessment and valuation for important points and memory recall aids. I don't know anyone smart enough to do that at a dictation speed.

After long practice I can keep abreast and even participate at need when taking detailed minutes in an important meeting (albeit I usually have to backfill whatever I said when there's a lull). But minutes are a level of detail somewhere between notes and dictation. I personally can't take minutes and run a meeting without making people wait while I write things down. But those are usually meetings where I'm writing down tasks I have to follow up on, so nobody minds since they know it'll get done if I write it down.

The main format benefit I find when composing at speed is that other people can read what I type much easier than my fast handwriting (which is fairly illegible if I'm maxing it out). Also, I can immediately email out notes if I entered them on a computer.

For the rest though, I'm completely on board with the idea that handwriting better engages kinesthetic learning, expands object recognition (all the variants of handwritten rather than typed characters), and etc… It's just the claim of speed from a supposed expert that I find wild. Maybe that expert prints and never uses cursive - but then again how could someone be acknowledged as any type of expert if their writing skills never advanced past third grade printing? <duck>

Diabolical said:

I see what you did there, and I DO NOT LIKE IT, Wheels!

Ya'll see he just compared the Lamy Vista Goulet Special Edition, with the black trim, nib, and converter, to farking Windows, right?
RIGHT?

I need to go find a newspaper - someone needs a sharp 'wack' across the nose for this affrontery.

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I don't know. A Lammy 11 might be good for people who like center aligned writing…

Defenestrar said:

I don't know. A Lammy 11 might be good for people who like center aligned writing…

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At least avoid the LamME, which everyone agrees was a huge mistake.

Matthias said:

I picked up one of the new BENU AstroGems "Pallas" models in a F nib, and holy cow. This thing is pretty AF and I can't stop looking at it.

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Just picked up the True Unicorn to scribble down some recipe notes, and that nib has no business being as good as it is. I give BENU two thumbs up.

You mean it really is a "unicorn" of a pen?

Pulled the cap off my Model 20 and ‘pop’.

Fuck.

\

Okay, I have Jinhao 95, medium nib.

And no matter what ink I try, the flow is always super, super dry. It'll flow fine in my Kaweco medium nib, and then be much slower / drier in the Jinhao. Anything I can do to remedy this, or is it "Buy new nib time"?

pasorrijer said:

Okay, I have Jinhao 95, medium nib.

And no matter what ink I try, the flow is always super, super dry. It'll flow fine in my Kaweco medium nib, and then be much slower / drier in the Jinhao. Anything I can do to remedy this, or is it "Buy new nib time"?

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Making a nib "wetter" is one of the easier mods, usually requires a little careful bending. You can simply press down a little harder than you'd normally feel comfortable doing and holding it for about ten seconds. Test the results and repeat if you need to.
Lots of people buy brass sheets/shims and sort of twist the tines a bit to spread them out ever so slightly.
Here's a fairly explanatory video for both methods, mainly focusing on using shims:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgiGUjF_A5Q



Trying to go the other way is what's trickier.

PSA: Taylor Swift is selling a cheap ($15) fountain pen: https://store.taylorswift.com/products/the-tortured-poets-department-fountain-pen

If you are known as the fountain pen guy/gal, your niece or other Swiftie may be hitting you up for advice on why this pen is a pain to use.

Haven't tried it myself, but have seen a few negative reviews already.

Looks like a rebranded very cheap Chinese made pen. You may be able to find equivalents on eBay or Alibaba for less than $1.

I’m also getting very pissy about the glut of fountain pen ads on FB and other social media. All of them look like rebranded Jinhao pens being sold at 20X the price.

It (the Swift pen) looks almost like a really cheap knockoff combination of a clipless version of the Diplomat Traveler (Goulet) and the Waldmann Tuscany (Goulet).

Got a pakidge from JetPens in today, one of two that I've been waiting on. This one had some Hobonichi Plain notebooks in A5 size, two of the Midori MD clear notebook covers, and a Midori Soft Color Ring Notebook. The Midori notebook, in particular, was of interest to me because it's the only readily available notebook in this size from Midori with white (not ivory or cream) colored paper, and I've been wanting to try Midori paper for a while, but I also want white notebook paper.

The Midori notebook also required some surgical persuasion to get it into the notebook cover, which is not designed for this particular notebook from Midori, but I have the skills, baby. I probably need to take just about another eighth of an inch off for a perfect fit, but it's good enough for now. The LOVE sticker and washi tape seemed like a good match, and this notebook is destined to be my new video gaming notebook.

The other notebook I stuck a piece of blank white card on before covering it with a vellum print to be my new ink swatching notebook. My primary journal being the Hobonichi Cousin, I wanted to keep the same Tomoe River S paper for ink swatches. I already have one other Hobonichi Plain notebook in use, as an omnibus all-in-one-place Mass Effect walkthrough notebook, so this is just keeping with what I already know I like.

Next week I expect to get one more notebook, from Clairefontaine, from Goulet, plus a refill on my normal Rhodia dot pads.

SunRaven01 said:

this notebook is destined to be my new video gaming notebook.

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A gaming notebook? That's a great idea! I have a series of post-its, failed prints where I write in the margins, envelope backs, and smashed-by-calculator spider spots for my gaming notes. Doesn't make for the tidiest desk.

I use a leather Traveller-style notebook in A5 with Tomoe River 68 gsm inserts for TTRPG notes. I keep two inserts in it. They are great with fountain pens and have just the right tooth for an HB pencil lead.

Rhodia A5 dotpads are my video gaming notebooks of choice. I keep two pens by my PC with it - right now it’s my Chinese knockoff of the Vanishing Point (Namiki black cartridge), and my Pilot Lucina (Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku green). And I keep an extraordinarily clean/sparse desk.

NPD, Birthday Edition:

Picked up a Platinum Higo Zogan Ginkgo from Pensachi in a medium nib.

It's interesting because it's a snap cap, but still has the silicone liner. Writes like a dream so far, and it's SO pretty.

I said this on Discord, but it is so pretttttty.

Very nice. I like the embellishment around the cap ring.

In personal pen news, I dropped my first Custom 823 in the basement while rushing upstairs from the office to write some graduation cards for nieces and nephews. It fell on the basement tile, and the finial on the cap cracked at the threads.

So now I have a cap with a gaping hole on top and a loose clip.

Time for another email to Pilot USA to arrange a repair. I would have scouted for a replacement cap, but I am sentimental about the patina on the cap and clip since I've had this pen for eleven years now.