This is a follow-up from something I mentioned in an earlier post this year about finding FPs to be a little impractical at work, despite being in a mostly academic office environment.

Perhaps I’m not the only one in this kind of position, but if so, here goes nonetheless.

It occurs to me, on reflection of that previous remark, that perhaps I would be served better by having two ‘toolkits’ as it were.

1. Work: where only fine and extra fine nibs come into play, or could be interchanged with a ballpoint/rollerball/pencil.
2. Home: where most usage is for personal diaries and correspondence, and where broader, more flexible or other interesting nib shapes can be deployed.

The work part is easy enough to satisfy: a Decimo, 823, L2K, and perhaps a 912/742 PO should cover all requirements. Plus, I frequently use a multipen (gasp!).

At home though… an ideal solution for me would be to have dip pen holders that took fountain pen nibs with their feeds. To be sure there are some out there that will fit Jowo units, but that would mean missing out on a number of interesting other brand nibs, which unfortunately are not always available without buying the whole pen. Obviously, I could buy the pens entire, but it’s always nice to reduce costs if possible.

What would be cool is a universal adaptor that would allow any nib/feed unit to be mounted on a dip pen handle.

The other reason for considering this is that I, like many others, have a multitude of inks, and I don’t always like being tied to one ink in a pen until it’s been used up (I’m not going to waste stuff), and cleaning an FP is a lot slower than pulling a nib from a holder rinsing an refitting for its next dip in another colour.

Anyway, just some musings on how I actually find uses for FPs in real life, and I really like the idea of the Universal Adaptor.