further remarks on this week's special interest

[kaberett]

Further to my previous, I now own:

• a TWSBI Diamond 580ALR in Prussian Blue, with a 1.1 mm stub nib
  
• 80ml of Diamine Eau de Nil
  
• 80ml of Diamine Blue/Black
  
• 60ml of TroubleMaker Starry Night Blue (shown off to gorgeous effect in this r/fountainpens post)
  
• ... and a replacement Pilot Penmanship FP60

I went for the stub nib on the grounds that A already owned a Diamond 580-compatible EF nib, so I had might as well get something as different as possible, on the grounds that I could always swap it out. (A had not realised that the nib units swap out on the Diamonds -- he got his second-hand at a bargain price -- and is Very Pleased at the concept of ceding the EF to me entirely if I stick a B in my next fountain-pen-fandom order, which is... definitely going to happen, sigh).

I have finally, today, got (more-or-less) to grips with the stub nib, and it is now writing reliably. Sorting out handwritings I also like is a work in progress, but I am starting to get some amount of sense of how to do things, e.g. this ink wishlist as a blatant excuse to continue with writing practice:



Meanwhile, I have also Committed Harder to bullet journalling, by which I mean I've set up a calendar of birthdays:


On the one hand it looked better before I crumpled the page during the actual last round of erasing pencil marks, and on the other I am pretty pleased with having got watercolour pencil to behave itself on standard Moleskine paper (tl;dr lay down a layer of pigment, very slightly dampen finger, smudge gently to avoid pilling).

I'm going to spend a bit longer getting used to this pen before I try switching over to shimmer inks. I am definitely not actually going to Immediately buy the ridiculously expensive (yes, yes, not by fountain pen standards, I know) pen made out of LAVA (and resin, and other bits), if I ever do, but I do need to share with you all that this thing exists. (I have also not bought the half-a-litre of indistinguishable blue-to-teal inks I spent today shortlisting -- see above -- on the grounds that there's only one of me and I only have one pen.)

And in the meantime, probably actually the next thing I ink up the Diamond with will be A's Diamine Prussian Blue, which I wasn't quite convinced by when reading reviews but which I am very glad to know I get to try without having to spend money on it.

Of course, it turns out that A also owns a bottle of the Diamine Blue/Black, which I absolutely bought a large quantity of, but in my defence it wasn't labelled.

So, er, let's see, what is the state of this hobby? "Cheaper than perfume per millilitre" is perhaps damning with faint praise; I am trying to actually think seriously, in the grip of Special Interest NRE, about how much I'm likely to want to use water-based and water-soluble inks (As A Geologist I have historically preferred waterproof inks, but for reasons those aren't generally fountain-pen friendly, because stuff that won't dissolve in water likes clogging up the workings), but for right now I am an extremely happy autistic who is spending hours every day reading fountain pen blogs. I am taking it upon myself to Explain Fountain Pens to A, frequently and with vigour, because his Special Interest was long enough ago now that the scene has in fact moved on some.

And, you know, practical considerations aside, I am having immense fun. There are! so many! shiny blues!

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Hooray!

[kaberett]

BLUE.

SPARKLES.

[azurelunatic]

Extremely. Important.

[shanaqui]

In your fountain pen travels, you may well come across my mother. I think it's still a relevant special interest of hers; it certainly was the consuming interest for at least five years. I -- don't know what to say about that other than that I felt it important to say so.

As a consequence, I can tell you that Diamine Umber was my usual ink, and when I can be convinced to bother, I write with a copper-coloured Esterbrook pen which is special for reasons I have forgotten, maybe the year of manufacture?

[fyreharper]

Small squee at your copper Esterbrook, as I have one of those also (an LJ, because fatter pens aren’t my thing) and it’s so pretty :) albeit in my case underutilized, because I have a little bit of the “oh no, too special to use, what if I ruin it” going on...

[kaberett]

Thank you for the heads-up <3

[fyreharper]

PRETTIES :D

[kaberett]

yesss

[momijizukamori]

I will be curious to here how you like the TWSBI! I aaaaalmost got a TWSBI ECO as my last pen purchase but ended up getting a Pilot Metropolitan and telling myself that maybe if I still wanted it, I could save up for the Diamond (afaict the ECO is more or less the Diamond but slightly less pretty and without swappable nibs).

I've mostly been committing myself to only buying waterproof inks because I can't be trusted not to spill things everywhere - Noodler's La Reine Mauve is my go-to though it tends towards being very dry, which I'm still kind of working out in the Metropolitan. That shimmer is gorgeous though!

[kaberett]

So far I am getting on with it very well! It really does hurt my hands less to write with than my previous default rollerballs, which I am finding Interesting.

As far as I can tell, yeah, the Diamond is (1) prettier and (2) has more interchangeable nibs, along with (3) slightly tougher materials (e.g. scratch-resistant body). I have found the Goulet Pens blog post and similarly The Gentleman Stationer's post about the differences helpful.

My general impression is that if you already have and like an Eco then there's not much compelling reason to add a Diamond to your collection unless you Want More TWSBI Pens Anyway, but -- yes, one minor nib tweak aside (nib and feed channels needed a tiny bit of manual alignment) I am enjoying this a lot.

[momijizukamori]

Oh, I skipped on the Eco in favor of the Pilot, with the justification that maybe I'll get a nicer TWSBI instead in the future, which is why I was curious! And yeah, ease-of-writing is like, one of the big selling points for fountain pens - I've definitely noticed it too, though the drier ink needs a little more push to get going than some of the others, I've found.

[lunabee34]

I am thoroughly enjoying reading about your forays into fountain pen use.

Your penmanship is so lovely.

My favorite blues are Pilot Iroshizuki Shin-Kai and Tsuki-yo.

I also highly recommend Thornton's Luxury Goods inks; you can buy them on Amazon. They are very inexpensive but work just as well as the ink I've paid a lot of money for. They shade and even sheen beautifully on paper like Tomoe or Kokuyo or Cosmo Air Light. They have a really beautiful turquoise.

[kaberett]

Thank you! I am really enjoying getting to mess around with Trying Out Handwritings and seeing what options the various nibs give me :) Learning to actually trivially read a standard cursive is... mmm, a work in progress, though, which is mildly annoying, because managing to write that much faster would be nice! But. Experiments.

[lunabee34]

That's one of the things I really like about a stationery hobby, too--the opportunity for experimentation. :)

[hilarita]

May I also draw your attentioo to the J. Herbin Bleu Calanque ink? It is Quite Nice. I do like the Diamine Teal and Peacock Flare inks. At the lighter end, I quite like the Diamine Steel Blue and Diamine Marine colours.

I find Moleskin paper a bit thin for some of the darker inks I use, but YMMV.

Maybe you can persuade people to get you a pen made of LAVA as a graduation gift? Because that is Very Cool.

[kaberett]

Yes, I was not expecting the Moleskine to cope with the wet ink or for that matter the water colour pencils at all and was kind of impressed that it did!

Thank you for pointing me at the Bleu Calanque :)

I am... Considering LAVA PEN as a graduation present, yes.

[vass]

"Cheaper than perfume per millilitre" is perhaps damning with faint praise;

It's also not too space-consuming, which is nice. And pens keep well, and ink fairly well.

I'm glad you're having so much fun with it.

[kaberett]

Yes! Though I am trying to work out where I want to store the inks. Keeping them on my perfume shelf seems... ill-advised...

[sporky_rat]

I am very fond of my Eco, and I kinda want to see how well Noodler's bulletproofs do in my pilot metropolitan.

[judiff]

Pretty.

We have a TWSBI Go with Diamine Red Dragon in at the moment - it’s like super-dramatic.

[mdlbear]

crawls up out of rabbit hole Yeah; fountain pens. I'm not nearly as fanatical as some people I know; I think I only have four or five functional ones at the moment. My Osmiroid pen and its left-handed calligraphy nibs seem to have vanished in one move or another. Etc.

[gumbie_cat]

This is a dangerous looking rabbit hole. Less for the pens than for the ink! So many fancy, pretty bottles. And the colours! It very much appeals to the frustrated apocathary/alchemist in me!

In news that may be related, if not strictly relevant, to your interests: there are a couple of online events coming up as part of London Rare Books School Week. One is a free talk on Medieval Ink, the other is a workshop on making and using medieval ink!