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lucasmines
December 8th, 2011, 10:29 AM
Hello everyone -
I'm Lucas from Atlanta, GA. Just a quick introduction - I've always had a fascination with fountain pens, but have only started to take it seriously over the past few months. I remember watching my grandfather write with his Parker 51s. He always told me that a proper writer, whether professional or personal, will use a good fountain pen. Sadly for me, it was always followed by "but you're left handed so...". Over this summer, I was going through some of his things in storage to put together a video for his birthday, and found a bunch of his handwritten journals. Near perfect penmanship with almost calligraphy like line variation filled each page. Turns out - he kept a written journal from the day he and my grandmother got married until his eyesight and age caught up with him a few years ago. That sparked a desire to get my own fountain pens, and here we are today! Some of you may have even read my longer introduction on the FPN.

As of today, I have a very modest collection of pens - I have 4 Platinum Preppys (2 fine, 2 medium) converted to eyedroppers with various inks. I was given a Platinum Plasir by my co-worker as a gift - which is basically another Preppy with an aluminum body. I've been on a hunt for a good shade of ink that I fall in love with, but that hasn't happened yet. And I've been holding off on investing in a higher priced, (probably) better quality pen until I knew enough about fountain pens to make an informed decision. I'm still on the fence between two pens, but I very well might just end up with both - the TWSBI Diamond 540, and a Lamy Studio.

eriquito
December 8th, 2011, 11:17 AM
Hi Lucas!

We've only "met" vicariously through the podcast and Twitter. It's great to have you here at FPGeeks!

Thanks for your introduction and thank you for sharing that your grandfather kept a daily journal. Very motivational.

Kudos to you for converting your Preppys to eye droppers!

If you're hunting for that "I love you and can't live without you" shade of ink... well, I was going to recommend the Swab Shop at gouletpens.com, but something tells me that you spend more time there than I do. I particularly like the "View by Color Group" section. It's great for finding just the shade that might be "the one."

I just ordered a bottle of Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu from Jet Pens. It might even arrive today - WooHoo! If you like purple inks and want a sample, let me know.

Thanks again for being here - and thanks for participating in the FPGeeks podcast. Oh, speaking of that, you heard me announce in the last podcast that FPGeeks had reached the 300 Follower milestone with Twitter? You sir, were the 300th follower =) I wish I had known that when we answered the question you tweeted. I'd have mentioned it "on the air."

All my best,

Eric
Son of Ragnar

lucasmines
December 8th, 2011, 12:08 PM
Thanks for the welcome!

I definitely needed to convert the Preppys... I attempted to keep refilling the cartridges, but that's just not practical when I'm at the office. Plus, they look really cool when filled with ink. That's actually one of the good things about the TWSBI you guys recommended as well!

I love the Swab Shop, and it's been such a nice tool to have. Now that the Goulet Pens have added the Nib Nook, that's a really awesome tool for someone just starting to get into FPs. All of the different sizes between the different makers/regions are quite confusing, and it will be nice to have a visual comparison between what each can write. It's just a shame I don't see any of the more specific options yet - stubs, italics, cursive italics. Maybe in time.

I hear nothing but good things about the Iroshizuku inks, and I plan on getting some samples from Goulet Pens this week. Murasaki-Shikibu is one of the new colors, right? I honestly haven't decided on a color group that catches my eye completely - just as I find one, another one comes along that I really want to experiment with. So far, I have a Noodler's Black for work, Private Reserve Midnight Blues, and Private Reserve Sherwood Green. I've got samples from almost every color group though, and am working my way through them. I'd love to at least see a writing sample from the Murasaki-Shikibu, it looks to be a very nice color from the bottle.

dannzeman
December 8th, 2011, 03:25 PM
Lucas! Good to have you here, sir.

Regarding the decision between the Lamy and TWSBI: I'd say they're different enough that you need them both. Problem solved!