Thoughts Before Filling

Going to be heading into the mountains for a 3 day “camping” trip and wanted to bring along a pen. This time I wanted a pen that can seal off the section from the reservoir and I thought this one would go well with the ink (and the ink was a gift from my wife this week). Here goes!

Thoughts Before Filling

Nothing special here. I don’t have an orange in rotation, I have not used this orange before, and I wanted to use another pen my wife gifted me.

Thoughts Before Filling

My wife surprised me with this pen for our 24th wedding anniversary. I knew right away I wanted to put Diamine Red Dragon in it and give it a spin.

Thoughts Before Filling

I wanted another grey ink and remembered I had not used this pen in many years. That’s it; no other reason.

Thoughts Before Filling

I treated myself to a new pen and a new ink and thought I’d put them together.

Thoughts Before Filling

I have an upcoming short trip planned, and I really want to bring a pen with me, but as I’m flying this time, I’m always a tad worried someone will be having a bad day and my pen will get confiscated. While considering what pens I own that I could part with should something go wrong I decided, instead, to pick up a new one, and since St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner I picked up this green pen and toss in some Irish Green ink as well.

Thoughts Before Filling

Simple calculus here: I bought a new pen, I have nothing in the red spectrum, and I have not used this Akkerman ink in a long while (plus the ink looks like it matches the body of the pen). Here goes!

Thoughts Before Filling

This pen is still in my top ten pens, yet I cannot remember when last I used it. This caused me to put it back in rotation. Absent is a brown ink in my rotation, and I keep thinking I have this ink in a bottle, yet it turns out I only have a sample, and until today I had not tried it out. In the end, this was an easy decision, and one I am looking forward to.

Thoughts Before Filling

I have but a small collection of Lamy pens, and I thought I was done with what I had, but when I saw this one I decided to treat myself. I’m not positive the ink will be a good match, but it’s been a while since I’ve used it, and I want to put it back in rotation again, so…here we go!

Thoughts Before Filling

I took my time choosing the ink for this pen. Ottoman Azure was what my gut told me would match, and after doing dip tests of half a dozen inks it was the one I chose. Already I enjoy writing with this pen, as I have with all my Vac700 models. There’s a chance this one stays in rotation for months.

There are few occasions in which I will break from my habit of writing a pen dry before cleaning and changing ink: Christmas is one of those occasions. My ink palette, while mostly satisfactory, was not festive; blues and oranges do not, in my mind, signify Christmas. It was time for a change.

Red and green are the obvious colors for the season. I have many reds in my collection, but one stands out: J. Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite. This ink not only has a golden sheen but it has gold flecks suspended in the ink. Writing with this ink imparts a glitter of gold to each letter, bringing to my mind the gifts the three Wise Men brought to Jesus (gold, frankincense, and myrrh). I’m rather more limited in my selection of green ink, but I recently bought a sample of Diamine’s Magical Forest. Where Rouge Hematite has gold flecks, Magical Forest has silver (and yes, Silver Bells does get stuck in my head from time-to-time while using this ink). Together both inks, with their twinkling and sparkling flecks, call to mind fond childhood memories of flickering lights on our Christmas trees.

While red and green are traditional Christmas colors, I had a few more colors I wanted to indulge in this festive season. It’s been a while since I used Pilot Iroshizuku’s Momiji. This is generally regarded as a pink color, but to me it’s always been more of a soft red than a true pink. There’s a softness and gentleness to the color reminiscent of those classic Hallmark moments we all hope to have at Christmas.

Purple is also not traditional, and yet it is an imperial color, and at the time of Christ’s crucifixion, He was mockingly clothed in purple since He was called the king of the Jews. That calls to mind one of my favorite Christmas songs, Handel’s Messiah, which quotes Revelation 19:16 proclaiming that Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” So I say purple is an appropriate color for the season, and to that end I’m giving Akkerman #13 Simplisties Violet a try.

My final choice was not about the Christmas season at all. Sure, one could make a tenuous connection between vineyards and burgundy and Christmas cheer, but the truth is my wife bought me this bottle of ink not too long ago and I wanted to use it in honor of her. If anything connects this ink to Christmas it is that it was a gift given to me out of love. That is enough reason to use any ink.

* * *

I will be lucky to get caught up with my correspondence, let alone create Christmas cards. So while I may not have the time this Christmas to express my warmest wishes in my best italic (all but one of the pens in my current rotation have an italic nib), at the very least I shall fill my Hobonichi Techo with the joyful colors of Christmas this December.

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• Pen Rotation: Rouge Rebellion
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• Pen Rotation: Economic Pink
• Pen Rotation: Simply Idylling
• Pen Rotation: Churchill’s Vineyard

It is a known fact that fountain pens can leak on airplanes. It has been documented and advice has been given (keep the pens nib up during take-off and/or fly with them empty or so full there is no air bubble). I was to put this advice to the test on a recent business trip to Nashville, TN. But which pens do I bring?

Traveling causes quite a lot of stress and the last thing I want to worry about is losing (or have confiscated) an irreplaceable pen. Additionally, I would hate it if one of my more expensive pens were targeted, as replacing one of those would mean months of saving. Those two criteria ruled out some of my favorites. What was left were not left-overs by any means. In fact, most of my TWSBI collection was available, so they got to go. I had already decided on my Prera, and that brought me to five pens. Considering my plan was to transport my pens in my Franklin-Christoph Penvelope Six I had only one slot left. Since two of my co-workers were bringing their Lamy pens (a Safari and a Studio) I decided to bring my Lamy 2000.

With the pens selected the only thing left was to top them off with an ink syringe and head to the airport. Happily the TSA were not interested in my pens, so no confiscation to worry about. The next hurdle was take-off. Firmly secured in the seat pouch in front of me, my penvelope rode with me. I had hoped I would have a reason to try and use my pens while flying, but not this trip.

When I got to my hotel I inspected my pens: only the Lamy 2000 had a little ink in the cap. No other pens had leaks. I was impressed considering I had two take-offs. The return trip was better: nothing leaked, despite having used the pens in Nashville.

While I hope I will not need to take to the skies anytime soon, I am happy with the results. Flying with fountain pens was not problematic in the least.

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• Pen Rotation: Prera in the Park
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• Pen Rotation: Bad Blue Vac 700
• Pen Rotation: Lamy 2000 + R&K Sepia

My company is having an off-site meeting next week; in fact I fly out tomorrow. I do not know what kind of notes I will be taking, but surveying my currently inked pens two things were lacking. First, I have been itching to try the custom italic nib I ground on my TWSBI Vac 700, and what better time than an airplane ride. The vacuum mechanism has a gasket that seals the reservoir off from the feed, which makes me feel comfortable bringing it with me on a plane. Second, I want to have a pen with red ink, and I have low confidence that my Konrad won’t leak during take-off. So, my Pilot Prera returns to duty with Noodler’s Park Red.

Related

• Pen Rotation: Bad Blue Vac 700
• Pen Rotation: Prera in the Park

The CEO of my company is coming to town. It is because of me that he has begun his own journey into fountain pens. I could hardly do anything but invite him for a pen meet over dinner. To that end, I asked if there were any requests as to which pens I bring. So it was that I filled a few favorite pens and radically increased my currently inked count to ten.

The following pens were chosen:

This is going to tide me over for a while. Although, I have a business trip coming up and I want to see how my Vac 700 fares on a plane….

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• Pen Rotation: Visconti HS + Omi Osun
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In the early days of my fountain pen journey I frequently used Levenger’s Raven Black ink. In part it was for the archival quality of the ink, but also because black is a standard ink color, and at the time I didn’t want to be prevented from using my fountain pens due to ink color. Along my journey I determined that I prefer any color of ink except black. But here I am, with a pen full of a black ink, and I’m not rushing to empty and refill my pen.

Why & How I Got It

Quite simply, this bottle of ink came with my Pelikan M805 Stresemann. The price was too good to pass up, even if it hadn’t come with a bottle of ink. The ink came with the pen, and apart from that there was no other way this bottle would have been added to my inkventory.

Appearance

This ink looks less like a black ink and more like an incredibly dark grey ink. It reminds me of the color of a single piece of gravel that is wet and drying in the sun: it is both dark and black-like but subtly shifts into the grey spectrum. It is probably best described as a blank ink that shades with hints of grey. A couple of years back I began looking for a grey ink because it is a color not available to ballpoints, and yet was close enough to black that I might get away with the substitution. While I do not regret the grey ink I chose this is another excellent choice for a black ink that behaves differently from the standard black.

In the Pen

So far the ink has been perfect as far as the flow and wetness. I have it in my Pelikan M805 and Pelikan’s nibs have a reputation of writing wet. Conversely, their inks are known to be a bit dry. Personally I find these two play together well.

* * *

All in all I am impressed with this ink on its first go. I love that it shades and shows some grey. I like that it is neither too dry nor too wet in my M805. It passed the first test: I will write this pen dry. The real test is will I use it again once this pen runs dry?

Related

• Ink: Pelikan Edelstein Onyx
• Pen Rotation: Formal Stresemann