Fountain Pens

@michiel071 are those all yours? They look beautiful!

Yes, I use them for the postcards. A Pelikan Toledo, Parker Duofold, Sheaffer Balance and a Mont Blanc Meisterstück. The Pelikan has green ink, the rest has blue/black ink.

I always write my postcards with red ink, the teacher’s signature :wink: I have one inkpot at home from Pelikan and one at school from Waterman. That way, I can always refill my pen whether I’m at school or at home. My pen is a simple Lamy Safari red fountain pen with calligraphic (wide) tip. In my pencil case is also a Faber Castell Ambition Pearwood fountain pen with a normal tip. This one has blue ink.
Following renegade_cavalcade’s tip with the microglaze, I did some of my own research. The micro glaze looks a lot like coconut oil, in my opinion. So I gently smeared that over some writing in red ink (non-waterproof). The second test was simple wax from a white candle (any candle will do, or a tea light). I then sprayed both writings with water and it turned out that both are now waterproof. The coconut-oil doesn’t really stain, but I don’t know what this may do in the future. I should test that too. So, cheap tips to keep your ink waterproof!

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Ahhh, I’ve been debating on buying a fountain pen to try out as a late Christmas gift, but I wasn’t sure. Reading all of your replies has made me feel like taking the plunge. Wish me luck, and thanks! :grin:

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To keep the ink from smearing you can use the spray fixative meant for coal or pastel colours, or cheaper and not so smelly option, hair spray :slight_smile:

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I’ve tested it today and it works just fine. A white candle is all you need. I’ve also tried coconut oil/butter (the pure stuff) because I think it looks a lot like micro glaze and that works too. It’s not greasy or anything, but I don’t know what it might do in the long run.

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I wish you luck :four_leaf_clover:

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I’ve been using fountain pens regularly since I was an exchange student in Belgium 20+ years ago and the kids all used them.

I’ve never had an expensive one, usually student versions lol.

I use them for taking notes at work but rarely on postcards, my favourites right now are Pilot and Online. I love how the Online feels to hold, and for it I usually use Pelikan cartridges in whatever fun colours I can find.

I have a converter and some bottled ink but I’ve never really dived in to using them. Do many of you use converters?

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I use converters but I find the proprietary cartridges hold more - I just refill them with a syringe or clean them out if I want to swap inks. :smiley: I find the Pilot converters annoying (I’ve got 2 CON-70s).

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I use converters most of the time, with various bottled inks, particularly Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa, Kon-peki, and Take-sumi, P.W. Ackerman Delfts blauw, and Diamine Presidential. I think it’s easiest to fill converters using a syringe.

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I love using fountain pens. I have kaweco sports and classics, platinum preppy, platinum plasiur, lamy all star 2018, steelpen and pelikan twist girly rose and hola. I write postcard with fountain pen :heart_eyes:

I like this now but It is not selling in Turkey. I want to having pilot kaküno. It is amazing pen for me :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I love to write with fountain pens. I keep my favorites in a suitable box when they are cleaned.


In this box i Container pens from Mont Blanc, Sheaffer, Pelikan, Dupont, Campo Marzio and Aurora.,I keep others in a separate box.

I always use 2 or 3, at the moment these two. Mother of Pearl from Duke and stainless steel with leather from Porsche Design.


I use cartridges and converters. The most beautiful inks are only available in bottles.
These are my inks, I won’t buy them again until one or two are empty.:sweat_smile:


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These are lovely! Which inks are you fond of at the moment? :slight_smile: Please do share!

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@meiadeleite I am still fond of Sailor’s Seiboku, it’s like having several inks in one bottle! I think that’s the only ink I’m not tired of keeping in a pen. :smiley:

Just got my first fountain pen in the mail yesterday! It’s a TWSBI 580ALR with EF nib. I got a chance to ink it up this morning and I’m really liking it so far! I was worried that going with such a fine nib would make it scratchy, but it feels very smooth to me.

I’ve used dip pens off and on for a while now, but I figured a fountain pen would be a little more portable and, with the right ink, easier to use on cheap paper. I’m hoping the TWSBI can be used most of the places I’d normally use a ballpoint. :slight_smile:

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Congratulations! You chose well for your first pen. :smiley: I have a 580ALR as well and I just bought extra nibs for it, I have EF, M and B. You can get different ones if you get bored of your EF nib plus I find it easy to clean if I put shimmer inks in it.

Thanks! I saw a lot of recommendations for the Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Safari, and TWSBI Eco as good starter pens for newbies. The 580 looked similar enough that I figured it would also be a pretty good bet and I liked the aesthetics a lot more. :slight_smile:

It’s good to know that the cleaning is fairly straight-forward. I just got a plain blue Waterman ink for now because I was afraid to put anything with shimmer in it. It sounded like the Waterman inks would be pretty gentle and forgiving of newbies who maybe don’t keep up with pen maintenance as much as they should. Between that and their performance on low-quality paper, I figured that was the way to go for now and I’d save the fancy shimmer inks for my dip pens until I get the hang of fountain pen husbandry. :wink:

I have far too many fountain pens and more ink than I’ll ever be able to use!

I’ve been deciding which pens I need to let go, as there are only so many you can have inked at the same time.

For postcards I usually use Noodler’s bullet proof inks, iron gall, or carbon black. I was also reading about De Atramentis Document Inks, that look pretty good. Probably be adding one to the already overstocked ink drawer

I do find some postcards have a coating, so even with waterproof inks, fountain pen inks have a problem, because they take so long too dry and the ink sits on the surface. I know Noodler’s inks have a chemical reaction with the paper, which is why even if they get wet, some of the ink might run off, but the ink that has ‘attached’ to the paper will stay put.

I’ll have to try some of the suggestions mentioned for protecting fountain pen inks, some interesting ideas.

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Same here, I have way too many pens and ink than I’ll ever be able to use - 2020 was the year of no pen shows, so I didn’t acquire anything new, but 2021 might be the downfall of my wallet again :laughing:

I always have clear packing tape handy- a layer of that over the text and address always done the job. I think I’ll be trying the wax candle method next, as I have a stack of tealight candles for when I used to use wax seals.

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Oh me too! I have more unopened ink than opened ones…I’ve got way too many samples!

Most of my bottled inks are from Diamine, Sailor, Vinta, KWZ and Pelikan.

@paperglo I did the Sailor North America virtual ink show last year and my wallet told me enough is enough. :rofl:

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