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Fountain pens and ink?

Another pen question! I have been experimenting with rollerball type pens and I just cannot settle with them. I have a terrible tendancy to squeeze my pens and place too much pressure on the paper, and anything that encourages me to do that is out. So I have decided to experiment with fountain pens.

The first major stumbling block I have is being left-handed. That means I am likely to encounter issues with writing angle and with smudging. However, at least I know that fountain pens require much less pressure to write with, so I am willing to give a few a go. So far, I have unearthed an old fountain pen of mine and some even older ink. After a bit of a clean, it is writing fairly well and, as long as I keep my wrist rotated, I can write legibly without smudging everything. The main problem is that the profile of the pen, where the cap fits, requires me to hold it a bit too close to the nib, which pulls my posture in and brings my hand round to smudging territory. Its still nice to write with, though.

I am now on the lookout for fountain pens that write well at different angles, and that are not averse to being pushed across the page by left-handers. I am also hoping that fountain pen inks may have improved over the past 20 years (yes, the last time I dabbled with fountain pens was when I was a teenager).

Do any of you have any suggestions?

David

TOPICS: Lofi
jkenton's picture

Cartridges are easy, although pen...

sonia_simone wrote:

Cartridges are easy, although pen purists sniff. But if you just want to see if you like FPs, you might as well start with carts. If you get all obsessed and insane, you can get a converter and some bottles of ink.

If you look online for the name Charles Draper, and or "The Write Fill" you will find that he sells a cartridge refilling kit. It's a syringe barrel with a blunt metal tipped "needle" and a plastic "needle." (He also used to include a blotter with his contact info on it. I don't know if he still does or not.) I have loved this thing since the moment I received it.

I use Parker Vectors as my workhorse pens, so I use it to put Pelikan inks in Parker carts. (cue the maniacal mad scientist laughter...) I have a very nice Hero pen that will accommodate long international carts, so I also use the filler to refill my international carts with Noodlers inks.

He also sells ink color mixing kits, but I've never tried that. I think the rainbow of pedestrian colors I currently use are fine, thankyouverymuch.

 
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