I would like to start a new thought to the general discussion thread.
My recent fascination in fountain pens and my wonderful experience on this forum has enlightened me in many ways. At first it was the much better experience with fountain pens than the boring biros and like. I have a small but very good herd of fountain pens which I love and found that they improved my handwriting and writing experience.
But since I was directed to the flex nib experience (thanks to Jon) I found a whole new fascination. I am now trying to learn to write in American roundhand/modern copperplate or whatever they want to call it. I have been purchasing quite a few dip nibs and made my own oblique nib holders and have come a long way (but a long way off being competent).
This new fascination has got to a point where I have lost interest in purchasing any new fountain pens (which is good for my bank balance). Although I must admit I have spent a little on buying some vintage rare nibs (e.g. the Gillott 604 EF) But the costs of these nibs ($1-$20) is nothing compared to buying a good fountain pen. This track has also led me into another field. i.e. Inks. The various calligraphy inks is just as fascinating as the nibs. I have recently bought some Walnut ink crystals and made some wonderful Walnut ink which is very good for calligraphy writing.
So my point is that I came to a point where I was finding the fountain pen experience was waning and even new pen purchases werent really exciting me. Dont get me wrong. I certainly would get excited if I could afford a Visconti or a Mont Blanc but my point is that the writing experience is not that much differento to me. Yes some are smoother than others but my limited experience is that there are quite a few relatively cheap pens in my herd that produce a very smooth nib experience.
Different nibs (e.g. stubs and italics) were interesting but what caught my interest more were the samples of beautiful handwriting I saw on the "for sale" section where sellers were demonstrating their pens nib characteristics. I found the beauty of the handwriting more interesting. The great line variation produced by some of the pens (e.g. the Marie Todd) really made the handwriting stand out to my eye. Of course some people are blessed with an ability to produce beautiful handwriting whilst others like me just produce a barely legible scibble.
So that is the reason for my present fascination in the high flex dip nibs and the beautiful handwriting they produce and my endeavour to master this style and improve my scribble to a standard that I could write "Merry Xmas" on a card that the recipient would say "Wow. Look at that writing". I spend about 2 hours a day drawing the letters of the alphabet against the modern copperplate exemplars I have. These exercises have had an impression on my ordinary handwriting and I can see a great improvement there...
I am sure we all get our pleasure from pens in different ways. Is it the pleasure in using a Mont Blanc, or the pleasure of owing a vintage Marie Todd, or possessing the beautiful Viscontis to mention a few. Maybe it is a combination of all. is it just the pleasure of having a beautiful collection of pens that are rarely even inked up and used.
I think it would be interesting to know what others find drives their passion to the point of being members of this great forum
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