Beyond fast drying ink consider a finer nib. Less ink on the page dries more quickly. Also, paper makes a big difference. Midori paper absorbs ink well while still providing some sheen, while paper like Tomoe River is coated such that the ink will sit on the paper for a long time making smearing more likely.
WARPed1701D
joined 2 years ago
I didn't suggest the VP simple because of price. Pilot bumped up prices this year by a huge amount taking it well out of the OP's $100 budget. They also wanted something that looks like a fountain pen. I like my VP well enough but one of my dislikes is that it really doesn't look like a fountain pen. Capacity can also be an issue if using the included converter.
Lamy Studio (either LX or Brushed Steel finish).
https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2019/11/15/workhorse-pens-the-lamy-studio
Snap cap. Takes standard Lamy nibs (although the Lx version has a nicer stealth black PVD finish) so you can swap out nib sizes if you feel your needs change. Plus, when you want to upgrade you can get a gold nib for it.
Steel is $67 at Cult Pens https://cultpens.com/en-us/products/lamy-studio-fountain-pen-brushed-steel Lx is $102 https://cultpens.com/en-us/products/lamy-studio-lx-fountain-pen-all-black
I recommend either of these models out of the Studio range as they have a rubberized section. People have complained the chromed section on the other models can be slippery. If another model excites you though you can buy replacement sections with the rubber coating https://vanness1938.com/products/lamy-rubberized-grip-section-for-lamy-studio.
Otherwise, do consider the Faber-Castel E-Motion https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2018/4/24/workhorse-pens-faber-castell-e-motion-pure-black.
It is a heavy, although well balanced, pen which may not suit very long writing sessions and it is a screw cap, but if I recall from mine it is less than 1 turn to unscrew and almost as convenient as a snap cap, plus FC steel nibs are as nice if not nicer than many gold nibs out there. I have the pure black whcih you can get on Amazon for just over $100. $147 at Cult pens https://cultpens.com/en-us/products/faber-castell-e-motion-fountain-pen-pure-black?variant=43643035910387.
Both of these use cartridges or converters so they don't have the capacity of a piston filler but if you refill cartridges you can get plenty of pages from a fill.
As much as I can although due to moving they are all currently all packed away.
Normally, I use them in Bullet Journal which is an organizational tool rather than a way to unpack my feelings. I've toyed with traditional journalling but I just don't feel my life is interesting enough to write about. Otherwise, odd notes for work and home life and I have brought some books to learn and practice my penmanship. I also try to write the odd letter around the festive season to some of my older relatives that still appreciate real letters.
Did you read the book?
The main takeaway of it is that slowly and pervasively we have been manipulated into handing over our focus. The techniques have been sophisticated and subtle.
If I were to convince you that it was worthwhile to hand over your life savings to me and then it was pointed out to you that you had been manipulated in to doing so, would you not take the view that the money had been stolen from you?
Similarly, for some, telling them to go cold-turkey on tech and social is not massively dissimilar to telling a smoker to just quit smoking, or a alcoholic to just stop drinking. Our brains have been conditioned to want the dopamine fix that our vices give us and it is a strong motivator. Just stopping is not that simple.
But to respond to one comment "we, as as society, are also in charge of gaining our attention back", that is actually what the book leads to. In the realization that singularly the deck is stacked against us to fight this as much as we may try. It is hard to succeed and easy to fail. But as an organized group or body with the power and/or ability to collectively resist the methods of big tech, to legislate against the situation we are in now where the public are the commodity and the advertisers are the real client to social media companies, to make us the real clients who are catered too, then we stand a better chance.
I recommend the article author's book Stolen Focus. An interesting read. Not so much a self-help book providing solutions to the problem (such as Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism or Deep Work books) but an analysis of the problem and in some ways vindication for us, the masses, who are being constantly manipulated by tech companies that spend billions on psychological methods to keep us hooked and brainwashed.
One of the most impactful parts of the book, for me anyway, points out that while we assume smart speakers and phone assistants are listening into our private conversations to provide the data necessary for Google and their likes to miraculously provide ads for things we may have talked about offline with a family member or spouse (a scary prospect in itself) the reality is even more scarier. They don't need to listen (although if they can I bet they will), they already know us better than we know ourselves to the point that they know what we are likely to think about before we even know it ourselves and so provide the right ad at just the right time giving the creepy sensation that they were somehow listening to us.
The book has made me much more privacy conscious. Tech is unavoidable but don't put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your tech needs and subsequently your data across multiple different companies that have better track records for privacy. Make it harder for any one company to connect the dots and be able to know you better than you know yourself!
OK. That is VERY cool! I want to change my vote! Visconti . Pfft! Silly me.
Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age. I really like the look of that pen but I will admit to some serious reservations regarding their nib QC. I don't expect to pay out that much for a pen and then have to send it to a nibmeister to get it to write properly. It is all dreaming anyway. No way I can spend that on a pen any time soon and I've more than enough of my own pens to rediscover.
I have probably 15 or 16 pens and purchased them all within the space of a couple of years during the early pandemic. Many of them have swapable nibs too and I purchased the complete range of nib sizes for them. Honestly the end result of all of these options turning up in a short amount of time is that I can't tell you a favorite. That doesn't mean I love them all the same. That would be great! What it means is that I never gave myself the chance to get to know a pen/nib long enough to know I loved it.
All my pens are boxed away right now but when I open the box again I'm going to be very regimented in just removing one or two pens at at time and using them exclusively for a few months. It will be like New Pen Day's all over again for a couple of years and I hope to enjoy them and get to know them this time rather than using them for a week and then chasing the next pretty thing.
In terms of bottles of ink, just three.
Waterman Serenity Blue - I brought this to be my baseline ink for new pens and nibs. The community seemed to view this ink as one of the few that will work in all pens regardless of their temperament so it seemed like a good option when starting out with a new pen for comparison against my others. Then I found out it is highly acidic. I think it eroded the plating along the edge of the slit on my matte black Pilot Vanishing Point and as two of my Sailors have an ion plated finish on the nib I have stopped using it.
Pilot Iroshizuku Ina-Ho - I brought this one simply because I I love the Iroshizuku line and liked the sample of Ina-Ho. They announced they were discontinuing it and I didn't want to find I couldn't get it in the future so I brought it - just in case. It is still sealed in its box! 😂
De Atramentis Document Black - I wanted a permanent ink for my bullet journal. I didn't want my year's calendar being wiped out by a spilled glass of water and this received good reviews and I liked the sample.
Otherwise I have a bit of a sample obsession. I mush have at least a hundred or more samples. Including the complete line of Iroshizuku inks, most of the De Atramentis Document inks, most of the Faber-Castel inks and large selections of Herbin and Diamine. Too many samples if I'm honest.
I feel my return to using fountain pens was a little over the top and moved faster than I could actually appreciate them. I started back into fountain pens in 2020 so I partially blame the pandemic for being over focused on a new hobby. This over the top progression included ink sample and notepad/paper purchasing. I was jumping from one pen/ink to another without forcing myself to spend the time to really get to know them. Ultimately, on top of other things I kind of burnt out on what felt like unnecessary stress of picking a pen and ink constantly and never feeling happy with it so wanting to swap to one of my others. It all ended up being packed away and I have just been using my Sailor Imperial Black multi-function ball point (the sacrilege of it!!!). Only just now am I getting ready to open the boxes again.
I hope to write a post about my experience at some point as an attempt to warn others about getting sucked in too quickly and missing the enjoyment of the experience of getting to know a new pen. I felt that the old fountain pen community kind of encouraged over consumption. I wish I had taken more time to explore my pens and inks.
I haven't seen anything so far and searching the Lemmy Explorer (lemmyverse.net/communities) comes up blank for all the keyword combinations I can thing of.
In some cases it isn't the pen that is at fault. If a cartridge or converter has a bad seal where it attaches to the feed it will allow air to enter the system uncontrollably and so the pen will leak. Re-seating and if necessary replacing a stretched or damaged cartridge or converter can resolve this.