A Moleskine, A Pelikan, And Waterman Ink

Did the Moleskine, the Pelikan, and Waterman ink play well together?

Not bad at all.

To be accurate, that is a Moleskine reporter notebook, a Pelikan M400 (not a 600) sporting a fine nib adjusted to increase the flow, and Waterman Florida Blue ink. There is a very mild amount of feathering, but only noticeable on close inspection. Ink flowed along some of the fibers, but that is typical of Moleskine’s performance with fountain pen ink.

Back in my small notebook, on-the-road, Moleskine days, Noodler’s Black and Quink Blue-Black were my standard inks. Both performed admirably so I had no clue there were feathering issues with the paper. WFB would have been a good choice to round out my color rotation. These days Waterman Blue-Black would replace Quink, and added to NB and WBBk, would make a good trio for the persnickety paper.

The surprise was that the free-flowing Pelikan nib worked so well. I expected the flow would make a mess of my writing, but not so. It’s quite legible. My handwriting is somewhat large, but the fine nib is better suited to the paper’s narrow line width than my usual writing from broad and stub nibs. Now I’m having second thoughts about exchanging the nib for a wider one.

The pen is on the small size for me at 125mm capped, but I adjusted quickly thanks in part to the light weight. Writing was stress-free which would make long sessions very manageable. In part that’s attributable to the ink, to give credit where it is due. Another ink that could be perfect with the pen is Iroshizuku asa-gao, but that will have to wait for the next fill.

Did the Pelikan with WFB tame the Moleskine? Enough that I would take them on the road. Now where did my keys go…