Shashinjitsu
March 7th, 2012, 07:48 PM
Hi, new member here from Delaware, USA. I am basically in the suburbs of Philadelphia, not in New England as so many people think of when I say "Delaware."
Back when I was a schoolkid in the 80's, my first girlfriend gave me a Parker 45 she'd gotten in the UK. I loved the pen but I had a hard time finding cartridges for it in rural Arkansas where I grew up. It eventually migrated to the back of a drawer and then was hidden in boxes until late last year when I suddenly got interested in fountain pens again.
The reason for this revived interest is that I started taking a class in Japanese language, both for career and personal growth. I was suddenly doing a lot of writing again and found my hand cramping up even with the smoothest gel pens I could find. I saw a Pilot Varsity at a store and gave it a shot. Using it reminded me of my old '45 so I dug that out of storage. Of course it had decades of dried ink in it so I looked online to find out how to clean it and get ink for it again. That lead me to discovering the whole fountain pen world that has blossomed on the web, totally hidden from the un-enlightened masses.
I ordered a converter for my '45 and also a Lamy Safari with a broad nib. I loved the Lamy but decided I needed something really fine for writing the Japanese characters for my class. I also got really curious about the Noodler's Ahab so I wound up with one of those, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I've added bits and bobs to my pen and ink collections since I got the bug last summer, mostly sticking with the economy class.
My absolute favorite pen at the moment is a Sailor 1911 mid-sized demonstrator with a fine nib that I got at the Fountain Pen Hospital showroom in NYC. I have it loaded with Diamine Red Dragon and I use it for the majority of my class work. I also have a TWSBI 540 in orange with a fine nib that I use a lot at work. The other "nice" pen I own is a Namiki Falcon that I use with Iroshizuku Yama-budo.
I'm making another trip to Tokyo in April and I hope to do some pen shopping there. I love the 1911 so much that I'd like to look into a full-sized version. I'd love to get into vintage pens but I need to learn a lot more about them.
I've been catching up on the FP Geeks podcast lately and really enjoying it. There seems to be a great community here and I look forward to taking part in it.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6730529555_629b4554b5_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/acetonic/6730529555/)
Sailor 1911 Mid Sized (http://www.flickr.com/photos/acetonic/6730529555/) by acetonic (http://www.flickr.com/people/acetonic/), on Flickr
Back when I was a schoolkid in the 80's, my first girlfriend gave me a Parker 45 she'd gotten in the UK. I loved the pen but I had a hard time finding cartridges for it in rural Arkansas where I grew up. It eventually migrated to the back of a drawer and then was hidden in boxes until late last year when I suddenly got interested in fountain pens again.
The reason for this revived interest is that I started taking a class in Japanese language, both for career and personal growth. I was suddenly doing a lot of writing again and found my hand cramping up even with the smoothest gel pens I could find. I saw a Pilot Varsity at a store and gave it a shot. Using it reminded me of my old '45 so I dug that out of storage. Of course it had decades of dried ink in it so I looked online to find out how to clean it and get ink for it again. That lead me to discovering the whole fountain pen world that has blossomed on the web, totally hidden from the un-enlightened masses.
I ordered a converter for my '45 and also a Lamy Safari with a broad nib. I loved the Lamy but decided I needed something really fine for writing the Japanese characters for my class. I also got really curious about the Noodler's Ahab so I wound up with one of those, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I've added bits and bobs to my pen and ink collections since I got the bug last summer, mostly sticking with the economy class.
My absolute favorite pen at the moment is a Sailor 1911 mid-sized demonstrator with a fine nib that I got at the Fountain Pen Hospital showroom in NYC. I have it loaded with Diamine Red Dragon and I use it for the majority of my class work. I also have a TWSBI 540 in orange with a fine nib that I use a lot at work. The other "nice" pen I own is a Namiki Falcon that I use with Iroshizuku Yama-budo.
I'm making another trip to Tokyo in April and I hope to do some pen shopping there. I love the 1911 so much that I'd like to look into a full-sized version. I'd love to get into vintage pens but I need to learn a lot more about them.
I've been catching up on the FP Geeks podcast lately and really enjoying it. There seems to be a great community here and I look forward to taking part in it.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6730529555_629b4554b5_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/acetonic/6730529555/)
Sailor 1911 Mid Sized (http://www.flickr.com/photos/acetonic/6730529555/) by acetonic (http://www.flickr.com/people/acetonic/), on Flickr