Old Friends From My Stash

It was a dark and gloomy weekend. Not really. Sunny and comfortable but evenings at my desk were uninspired until I put together paper, pen and ink that haven’t seen the light of day in ages. To my delight the Rhodia No 13 pad, Sailor Sapporo fine nib and Diamine Mediterranean Blue ink were made for each other.

Mediterranean Blue has been a frequent companion to a Platinum #3776 music nib, but never a narrow nib. Not surprising for a Diamine ink, it has excellent flow and color from a fine nib, too. I never post a cap. Ever. However, the Sapporo works better in my hand with the extra length and weight. So doing something different from in the past made an unused pen usable.

I didn’t have to spend another dime to put a Sapporo into my rotation and I didn’t have to wait for a delivery. All I am suggesting is to mix things up especially in unexpected ways. You might get as pleasantly surprised as I did.

Fountain Pens To Excess

Is there a ten-step program for people who ink too many pens at one time? My current rotation is ridiculously out of control. Or maybe not…

Top row:

• Mink Levenger True Writer
• Amber Conklin Duragraph
• Clementine Retro 51
• Raspberry Lamy AL-Star
• Green Lamy AL-Star
• Green Levenger True Writer
• Cracked Ice Conklin Duragraph
• Noodler’s Creaper Demo
• Platinum Century Nice Pur
• Platinum Century Nice

Bottom row:

• Platinum Century Chartres Blue
• Platinum #3776 music nib
• Namiki Falcon SF
• Sailor Sapporo
• Pelikan M-215 Rings

When Only Blue Will Do

Blue is a perennial favorite when it comes to color and ink is no exception. With so many shades available from every corner of inkdom, how can you select a simple palette and still enjoy a range of color? Satisfying properties, ease of use and ongoing availability are important, too. Several companies can fill these requirements but Diamine has three colors that work just right for my basic blue palette.

The first three are terrific together and offer a pleasing palette of blue hues. For a swing towards green on the color wheel, Teal is a versatile color that works well for correspondence as well as in the business environment unless you have a stick-in-the-mud boss who restricts ink to black only. No doubt you can imagine what I think of that.

None of these four are super-saturated colors and they work especially well in pens that are fine or extra-fine. All are easy to clean and don’t dry in nibs and feeds when written with at least once a week.

Another plus to Diamine, at least for the ten years I’ve used their ink, is that none of the ones I use have been discontinued. Lots of new colors get released but the older, good ones don’t disappear as a result. That’s loyalty to the consumer that deserves loyalty in return.

While the tall, narrow bottle may not let your Montblanc 149 suck up to it, the 30 ml bottles straight from Diamine are the best deal around. The cost for four bottles + U. S. shipping is around $21 at the current exchange rate. Just decant to your favorite, empty ink container and enjoy it anyway. C’mon. You know you will.

The dynamic Diamine duos in the image are

• Mediterranean Blue + Platinum #3776 music nib
• Royal Blue + Platinum #3776 Century “Chartres Blue” broad nib
• China Blue + Pilot Custom 742 Falcon nib
• Teal + Sailor Sapporo fine nib

Note that the scan isn’t bad but China Blue and Teal are a bit darker than pictured and Royal Blue is a bit paler. Mediterranean Blue looks just right.

Pens and Inks for Summer

For the last two weeks, my pens and inks have taken on summer hues. Inks more than pens but black is a neutral, right?

Summer Pens 2010

While other inks and pens will surely get added over the next few weeks, my current rotation includes

• Mabie Todd ‘Jackdaw’ Stub with J. Herbin Lie de The
• Sailor Sapporo with Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku
• Namiki Falcon SF with Diamine Violet
• Lamy Vista 1.1 italic with J. Herbin Rouille D’Ancre
• Lamy Safari Custom Cursive  Italic with Montblanc Racing Green
• Montblanc 220 with J. Herbin Larmes de Cassis
• Pilot “Isaac Newton” with Rohrer & Klingner Solferino
• Pilot Blue Flower Pocket Pen with J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche
• Yellow Levenger True Writer with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrun
• Retro 51 Scriptmaster II in Clementine with Iroshizuku Yu-Yake

There are five fine nibs, four stub/italics and lastly one lone, flex nib. Not until I completed the list did I realize how well it represents my usual choice in nibs. Unintentionally, I picked just the right mix of pens.

Summer Ink Palette 2010

The inks were a bit more considered but still without a true plan. Summer weather does call for lighter, cheerful shades like orange and turquoise. Larmes de Cassis fits the season as well. So the inks skew a bit softer than my usual rotation.

Just to keep things from getting into a rut, I’ve also have at the ready two Levenger True Writers with fiber tip refills, one black and one blue. Veering even further from the fountain pen fold, a couple of Pigma Microns showed up in orange and evergreen. Those two will make colorful notes on anything including an old Moleskine Cahier with paper that just doesn’t play fair with fountain pen ink.

Well, that’s my seasonal kit. Varied and colorful it invites playful use which is just the thing for the lazy days of summer.

How about you? Do you have a group of pens and inks that suit this time of year?