I've adopted these principles to help me keep my pen habit under control. I don't recommend these for anybody else but thought I'd share.
discuss if you like.
The Pen Commandments
I've adopted these principles to help me keep my pen habit under control. I don't recommend these for anybody else but thought I'd share.
discuss if you like.
Last edited by manoeuver; June 6th, 2012 at 10:29 AM.
Lolz
Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot
no screw capped pen??
nope. I don't like it. pisses me off every time I want to write something, takes ten times as long to get started. I forget stuff. The TWISBI is worth it, so it stays. I gave the Ahab to my wife, I can borrow it if I want to get all flexy. I'll keep the squid around cause c'mon, it's a squid. Past that, no. No screw caps for me.Originally Posted by fountainpenkid
That stipulation alone has done wonders for me in the last few months.
The PR Ebony Green looks good. What colour Al-Star did you use ?
What is a boring-nibbed pen ?
I remember reading that screw cap pens allow you that little bit more time to think about what you are going to write and also the delay adds to the drama of the situation.
"Do not buy a cartridge pen" doesn't work for me as all of mine are Lamy's with converters.
If you really want your habit under control you would need to add "Don't look at Fountain Pen (Geek) forums" but then you wouldn't have any fun at all and your self-control wouldn't get a workout.
sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
"Nothing means less than zero"
My rule will always be, " NEVER buy any pen that is a C/C or C." No matter how much the MB Boheme begs me to buy it, I refuse. Same idea with the Stipula Duetto, Waterman Carene....etc. Lovely pens with atrocious fillers.Someone should offer a c/c conversion service---you'd send in a pen like the carene, and the person would make it a piston filler....
Thanks Bogon. There's my trusty Al-Star (attached).
IMG_2887.JPG
terrible photo, sorry. experimenting with a light box today, needs more work.
Aluminum and beat to hell. I hot swapped the 1.5mm nib today to write out the commandments. One time I fished it out of a storm gutter (dry thankfully) with some speaker wire, a beer coaster and some double sided tape. Years prior to that I ran it over with my bicycle. I smashed the section in a car door once, had to replace it. The new section has an indelible thumbprint made of superglue on it. I bought it on Ebay from a guy in Santiago Chile.
I've got the al-star and 3 safaris, that's enough for me. Eliminating c/c pens makes it much easier for me to say no.
A boring nib is something uninspiring in F M or B. I have all of those already. If it's going to make the cut it needs to make an interesting line.
Wow. Where do they sell the electric powered Al-Stars?? Oh, wait, I see. In Chile.
Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot
Ok. So those are the pen commandments! I should use this one: "Think about a pen for weeks before buying it."
One that recently occurred to me is: Only buy the pen if there's a way to check the ink level.
That includes c/c's because I can remove the barrel and excludes anything without an ink view window or translucent/transparent barrel.
That's a good one. the Safaris and Al stars have a nice viewing window for those purposes.
Anybody else have criteria they use while considering a pen purchase? I know I'm not the only one.
I just have to like the pen cosmetically/ergonomically speaking and it has to be solidly built. I am open to anything after that. I have some pens that I like cosmetically but just could not use them for ergonomic reasons. The Kaweco Liliput is one that comes to mind. I love the look of the pen but the barrel is too thin for my fingers and it gets uncomfortable. It was one reason I decided to give it away.
Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot
Maybe I'm just undiscriminating. Up until last week I wouldn't by a pen that was cartridge only unless it could be converted to at least an eyedropper. But then I bought the Ohto Rook thinking I could at least fill the cartridges with a syringe. But then I was so disappointed with it I probable will never use it, so I learned my lesson.
The photo is good enough to see how well used your Al-Star is and it certainly has been through a lot. It is a testiment to how ruggered they are that it still writes well.
I wonder if beat-up Al-Stars can be refinished with those fancy auto paints ?
Some of those irridescent purple or turquoise paint jobs we see on panel vans here would look outrageous on an Al-Star or Safari.
sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
"Nothing means less than zero"
Stubs/italics/obliques are preferred, since I bought far too many, now uninteresting, mediums in the past. But what did I know?
And no slim pens, they make my hand cramp up very quickly, in spite of the tripod grip.
May Your Force Be With You
If I mention a supplier, I am ONLY affiliated if I EXPLICITLY say so.
I don't want to start the piston cartridge war, but if a pen came in a piston version or a cartridge version, then I would buy the cartridge version.
You'll never offend me with your personal preferences. What do you prefer about a c/c system? I'm ok with converters but I have enough pens that use them.
Interesting. I don't have anything against cartridge converters and like most people most of my pens have them. But given the choice I would choose pistons, vacuum or even eyedropper because they are just more interesting, but mostly because they typically hold way more ink.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
To continue to diminish the place of the handwritten in our lives is to diminish, in a small but real way, our humanity. Philip Hensher
Dunno ergo sum
Manoever, reasonable self limits I think. And reasonably put!
For myself, I have a slightly different list.
1) Cheap pens are fun, I've found.
2) Twist caps are not a deal breaker for me, it is more about how well the cap is integrated into the pen.
3) I won't reject a pen that uses cartridges but I prefer other filling systems. Mainly because of the bigger ink supply most other systems seem to have.
4) I will try to suit the nib to my purpose and haven't used anywhere near enough different ones to find any of them boring--one of the fun things about newbie-hood!
5) Given what I am willing to spend on a pen, impulse buys are not going to be much, if any, strain on my wallet so I don't need to think on 'em too much. Yet.
6) Try not to poop in outer space but absolutely don't poop in inner space...
I have a strong preference for demonstartors; I enjoy seeing the works and having a good idea about how much ink I've got.
After that, I am pretty open about the mechanics of the pen. Though that may well change over time and as I use more different pens.
When I first got back into photography, I went through a lot of different cameras but am now at a point where I know what works well for me and what might not. Much like pens, I had very little real world access to cameras which meant buying mail order/on line and so I did buy some that if I had been able to physically handle them before purchase, I would not have bought.
I am just now starting to learn about what I like and dislike in pens and will certainly go through a similar process.
One very good thing is that I stumbled across this forum before I got too far into the pens, so I will be able to at least get some informed opinions about stuff rather than sales pitches!
Rob
My opinions are not facts but I try to start there.
I like piston fillers, but they hold too much ink and take longer to clean. The TWSBI is an exception because it is easy to clean, but it still holds too much ink. Anyway, I enjoy my Pelikans but a CC filler brings more relative enjoyment, so I tend to go in that direction. But if I were to get a Aurora, Pelikan, Visconti, or Delta that only had a piston, I wouldn't mind. A cc filler makes it easy to fulfill my ink lust with a new ink for ever fill. In some ways, I wish I could be more monogamous with my inks. My dad is satisfied with Quink black, which I'm envious of. Only using one ink would make life so much easier.
good points Mr. Mixer. My first fill on my TWSBI lasted two months. Second fill ended up on somebody's pants when they were fiddling mindlessly with the piston knob. Third fill has hardly a dent in it.
I've switched inks numerous times with my Lamy pens in the interim. And it's not easy to empty those pens unless you mean to do it.
That said, you don't HAVE to fill a piston pen completely if you don't want to.
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