I went thru and photographed all my pens (and two pencils) next to each other, and the goal is to try to cut the overall count down close to half, either by selling or trading 1-to-3 pens for 1. Hopefully by october-ish. :P Course when I mentioned the "plan" to least two friends they laughed as in "good luck with that" (they also collect pens).
So this will be fun...
So here's a picture of all of them, with little icon markers. Two I don't have yet but will soon (the Vanishing Point is a trade for the Pilot Falcon).
I have the green 3-pen leather case there on the left to prevent the first pen from accidentally rolling off the shooting table.
Top Row - Left to Right
- Desiderata Flex Pen (Purpleheart+Cedar Wood), Zebra G dip pen nib on Ebonite Feed, currently filled with Noodler's Apache Sunset
- Platinum PTL-5000 (Black, with aftermarket Maki-e/Urushi), 14K Extra-Fine Nib, currently filled with Iroshizuku Tsutsuji
- Platinum Century 3776 (Black with Gold Accent), 14K Soft Fine, currently filled with Noodler's Texas Blue Steel
- Montblanc 225 (circa ~70s), Piston filler, 14K platinum-coated EF inset nib, currently filled with Noodler's Black Eel
- Parker 51 Vac (Cordovan Brown), 14K 1/8 Gold Filled Cap, Fine nib
- Eversharp Skyline Standard (Burgundy), 14K Fine nib, Green striated derby cap w/ Navy blue dome (not original to pen)
- Eversharp Skyline Demi (Army-Navy Configuration, wide cap band, derby cap), 14K EF~F nib
- 1958 Ultra "Italian Import" syringe filler with gold/black weave design, maybe steel fine nib. (I suspect it's an american store brand)
- Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator, Goulet 2-tone 1.5 Stub, currently filled with R&K Salix
- Lamy Safari (Charcoal), Fine Nib (also have Extra-Fine and 1.9), currently filled with Noodler's Texas Live Oak
- Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Nighthawk (v.1), Goulet 2-tone Extra Fine, currently filled with Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo
- Autopoint Model 152G "Executive Director" Mechanical Pencil
- Sailor 1911M (Blue/Gold) with 14K Zoom Nib (will probably get it on monday/tuesday)
Bottom Row (left to right)
- Sheaffer Milady Balance (Striated Carmine), lever filler, EF~F 14K Feathertouch nib
- Sheaffer Craftsman (Lever, Persian Blue), 14K Monotone #33 extra-fine nib
- Sheaffer Touchdown Statesman (TM, flush WD, Persian Blue), 14K 2-tone Fine Nib, currently filled with Akkerman Binnenhof Blues
- Sheaffer Touchdown Admiral (TM, Evergreen Green), 14K 2-tone Feathertouch Accounting Nib
- Sheaffer Snorkel Admiral (Black), 14K monotone M2 Medium open nib
- Jinhao 159, Goulet 2-tone Medium, currently filled with Waterman Intense Black
- Jinhao X750, Monteverde black-coated Fine
- Jinhao 599 (metal, green), crimped lamy-style fine nib
- Jinhao 599 (plastic, orange), hooded extra-fine nib, currently filled with Caran d'Ache Electric Orange
- Duke Uranus 1000 [or KSF-301] (blue/silver), semi-hooded steel fine~medium nib
- Pilot Metropolitan (Bronze Lizard), Fine Nib, currently filled with Pilot Black
- Pilot Metropolitan (Black Crocodile), Medium Nib
- Pilot 78G (Green), Bold/Stub nib
- Pilot Elite Mini (~70s), 18K Soft Fine, currently filled with Noodler's Liberty's Elysium
- Pilot Petit1 (Blue Black), Fine Nib, currently filled with Pilot Blue-Black
- Kaweco AL Sport (Raw Aluminum + Sport N Clip), Medium Nib, currently filled with Akkerman Shocking Blue
- Uni Kuru Toga ("High Grade", Gunmetal) filled with Uni NanoDia HB lead
Middle - Faber-Castell BASIC (Leather), Fine nib
I figure I can scale it down to mostly the ones I enjoy using (not just looking at), use the rest to acquire something more to my liking or to fund those kinds of acquisitions.
Initially I thought I was going to be using the sheaffers more, they're nice but I haven't been using them much. The Snorkel is too wet large for me, and I tend to lean more towards finer nibs for most things (kind of want to get a Snorkel with a Fine writing triumph nib).
I've pretty much outgrown the chinese pens already, the cheapie Pilots do everything I want, they're comfortable and hardly ever have a problem starting up or leaking. (The goulet nibs are great though, just wish the Jinhaos had a better feed, which seems to be most of where the problem lies). They're cool looking, and only the 159 out of all the chinese ones I've tried seems to be one that I would use more often (especially with the current ink in it, very well behaved with that nib and feed).
The Platinum PTL-5000 is rather decent especially after I aligned and smoothed the nib a little bit (still has some feedback but not nearly as much scratch now), definitely gives a fine line, but with the maki-e/urushi paint job (done by Engeika shop), I been somewhat weary of using it much, especially since I already chipped some of the clear urushi lacquer off the bottom of the pen (paint job is still there though), I feel like if I had gotten an unpainted PTL-5000 I'd probably use it more often, but I didn't even know I was getting a PTL-5000 when I won it .
The Montblanc 225 and Pilot Elite Mini... good luck trying to get me to part from them. With the MB has excellent ink capacity for my usage, works great with noodler's black eel, gives a very fine line that dries very quickly (even with black eel), doesn't skip, it's also the smoothest nib of that line width I have. The Elite Mini feels very nice in my hands posted, nib is smooth and easy to use, and I have no problems keeping it in my pocket for out and about usage, very quick to get out and jot something down (will be interesting to see how I like the vanishing point compared to it). Also I really like pilot cartridges for syringe filling. For the Mini out of most my inks the Liberty's Elysium seems to be a very good fit (previously Noodler's Blue-Black was way too wet, and took forever to dry on most paper, liberty's elysium still flows very well, but dries on most paper under 5-10 seconds without smearing).
The unmarked ones have their place but they're not 'omfg I love this' right now. Though I am loving how smooth the nib is on the AL Sport after I got that tweaked up. Just wish the section/grip on it was a little longer like the Elite Mini is.
I knew I had too many when I was listing them out, and then I'm like "dammit, I forgot one", and "argh... one more I forgot to put on the table, gotta re-shoot"...
I think it's a case of acquiring too quickly without much of a direction in mind, especially early on when I was on a Chinese binge (I must have given away 30 to 40 sub-$10 chinese and other pens in PIFs/etc).
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