Writing Gear Links

Fountain pens and other good stuff…

• Gourmet Pens: Montblanc Ladies Edition Pearl Pink Marilyn Monroe
• Crónicas Estilográficas: Against Inks
• Crane Stationery Plant In North Adams To Reduce Workforce By 85% In June (Paper worth hording.)
• The Well-Appointed Desk: Notebook Review: Ink + Volt The Founders Notebook
• Fountain pen blog: Early thoughts on the Sheaffer Pop fountain pen.
• SFGate: Our Editor-Tested Guide to the Best Pens for Any Writing Purpose
• The Columbus Dispatch: Antiques and Collecting | Vintage ink bottle a coveted treasure
• Ed Jelley: ystudio Portable Brassing Fountain Pen Review

From the archives.

 

Sunday Reads: From Montblanc To India To Bamboo Pens

Pens, inks and all sorts of other stuff…

• Phys.org: Vinegar offers hope in Barrier Reef starfish battle (Vinegar?!)
• From The Pen Cup: Inky Fingers Notebooks: Currently Inked
• Anderson Pens: Montblanc Shakespeare Velvet Red
• Office Supply Geek: Lamy Safari Petrol Special Edition Fountain Pen and Ink
• NibSpotter: Pens of the People: The Namiki Emperor Vermillion
• My Pen Needs Ink: Zenzoi Bamboo Fountain Pen Review
• The Well-Appointed Desk: Dot Grid Showdown
• Viviva Colorsheets (I signed up for two.)
• Top Ten Most Expensive Pens in the World (Gulp!)
• The Pen Addict: Sailor Jentle Ink Kin-Mokusei: A Review (Love the color.)
• The Serial Doodler: Coloring Pages (Very cute.)
• In a Paperless Age, This Mumbai Boy Hopes to Popularise Made-In-India Fountain Pens
• How to Type Accented Characters Without Annoying Alt Codes
• Ed Jelley: The Five Best Pocket Fountain Pens To Carry Every Day
• Pranks

Platinum #3776 Music Nib and friends meet a Stillman & Birn Sketchbook:

 

Fountain Pen Ink Survey

Sugna on FPN has posted a survey about fountain pen ink with a drawing for a bottle of Montblanc JFK Navy Blue. The survey is for academic purposes and should take less than two minutes to complete. Wanna play along?

More Of Those Eclectic Links

It was a very weird week, but I did find some good stuff to share…

• This Pen Lets You Draw In 16 Million Colors That Could Be Found In Real-Life (h/t David Isaacson)
• The Cramped: Fountain Pen Guide for the Left-Handed Writer
• The Unroyal Warrent review of Montblanc Permanent Grey Ink and the Pilot Custom 743FA
• Epicurious: Quick Breakfasts
• Father Time can suck it. Dick Van Dyke Dancing In A Store At Age 88:
  vine.co/v/MdDahpt9ExI— via Denis Leary (@denisleary)
• 60 Rare Photos (h/t Kevin Sorbo)
• Space Travel’s Future
• How to pronounce the name “Moleskine”?

Flashmob Extraordinaire!

Montblanc Ink Has The Blues – Black, Too

Montblanc is expanding its ink offering to more permanent colors with the addition of a blue and a black that are iron gall based. Given the new ink is intended for use in MB pens, these inks ought to be relatively safe in any fountain pen.

Midnight Blue is being reformulated to a less permanent version. If you like the current Midnight Blue, stock up now. Inventory is already running low at many stores. Expect the new inks to be on the shelves in the next month or so.

For those who are not familiar with iron gall, read So What’s The Deal With Iron Gall Ink? Montblanc has a good record of producing trouble-free ink and the new releases are not likely to disappoint. Especially where Noodler’s is not readily available, the new MB inks could be just the thing when permanence is critical.

Fountain Pen Inks That Celebrate Autumn Colors

Sometimes the inks in my rotation do a little ink dance in my daily journal. The steps consist of the ink name plus a doodle that shows the ink color to good advantage.

My most recent ink and pen duos were chosen at random and include a few favorites plus several inks that warranted testing in pens different from their last outings. None of those former couples were wedded but rather suffered ill-fated flings. Time to be a bit more successful at matchmaking.

To my surprise and without planning, my rotation took on the colors of autumn. I have no idea how that happened but the result is quite pleasing.

Autumn Inks

Pens in order from top to bottom:

• Pelikan M215, custom cursive italic
• Levenger True Writer, Masuyama stub
• Lamy Safari, custom fine cursive italic
• Levenger True Writer, Masuyama cursive italic
• Namiki Falcon (resin), Soft Fine
• Pilot Elite Socrates pocket pen, Fine
• Levenger True Writer, Fine
• Lamy AL-Star, Oblique Broad
• Lamy Vista, 1.1mm italic
• Lamy AL-Star, custom fine italic

Notes: Montblanc Racing Green has been discontinued and Noodler’s FPN Dumas Tulipe Noire was a limited edition release. Noodler’s #41 Brown is the original formulation – not the one currently available. The Pilot pocket pen was made in 1976 but all of the other pens are current models. The paper is Strathmore Windpower Sketch. It’s a bit toothy for fountain pens but excellent for swabs and doodles.

Is This Ink List Too Long?

Some inks make it into my rotation based on just one characteristic. Not that these beauties don’t possess other stellar qualities but the inks on this list make it for color alone.

Blue:

• Noodler’s Ottoman Azure – Greenish blue. Flows well in fine nibs.
• Noodler’s Eel Blue – Medium dark blue. Very lubricating. Piston fillers.
• Diamine Royal Blue – Medium blue. Shows well in broad nibs.
• Iroshizuku syo-ro – Soft greenish blue. Good in all pens.
• Diamine Mediterranean Blue – Bright sky/ocean blue. Broad nibs.
• Iroshizuku ku-jaku – Dark turquoise. Free-flowing.

Green:

• Montblanc Racing Green – Very dark green. Shades beautifully.
• Noodler’s Zhivago – Very dark green. Looks black at times.
• J. Herbin Vert Empire – Muted green.
• Diamine Emerald – Medium green.
• Iroshizuku shin-ryoku – Blue green with good flow.

Purple:

• Diamine Violet – Purple that flows very well. Perfect for wide nibs.
• Caran d’Ache Storm – Grayed red-purple.
• De Atramentis Aubergine – Non-bright purple.

Brown:

• Diamine Sepia – Orange brown. Shades and outlines.
• Noodler’s #41 Brown – Dark brown.
• Noodler’s Golden Brown – Yellow brown. Shades.
• Noodler’s Kiowa Pecan – Somewhat pale yellow brown. Shades.
• J. Herbin Lie de The – Medium dark brown.

Orange:

• Noodler’s Cayenne – Orange red.
• Diamine Vermillion – Red orange.
• Noodler’s Apache Sunset – Intense orange. Excellent shading.

Red:

• Noodler’s Red-Black – Dark red with strong black element. Shades.
• Diamine Monaco Red – Dull red.
• Noodler’s Tiananmen – Brick red.

Magenta:

• Rohrer & Klingner Solferino – Dark, rich, pink-purple. Great flow.
• Rohrer & Klingner Magenta – Slightly muted magenta.
• Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses – Deep burgundy.

Blue-Black:

• Iroshizuku tsuki-yo – Greenish blue-black. Good flow.
• Waterman Blue-Black – Unsaturated blue-black. Very safe ink.
• Diamine Teal – Saturated greenish blue-black. Best on quality paper.

Black/Gray:

• Noodler’s Lexington Gray – Dark gray.
• Noodler’s Black – Basic black. Reliable.
• J. Herbin Perle Noire – Very black. Good coverage.
• Sailor Deep Rust Black – Brown black. Good flow.

Yes, the list is long but only a few inks go into pens at one time. What’s on your list?

Note: Links are to previous Inkophile mentions and reviews.