Fountain pen/ink starter kit

Darkbulb said:
I'm waiting for a $2 x450 Jin Hao. It's a medium nib (seems impossible to find these pens with a fine nib) so I am pretty sure it will be too wide for me...but at a couple of bucks w/ free shipping I thought I'd give it a go.
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I got a Jinhao a while ago, see this link for my post. The pen is surprisingly well made and the medium nib is rather wide but it's a fun pen. It begs belief that you can buy a fountain pen for such a low price (which includes postage) and have it posted all the way from China.
 
fancontroller said:
I got a Jinhao a while ago, see this link for my post. The pen is surprisingly well made and the medium nib is rather wide but it's a fun pen. It begs belief that you can buy a fountain pen for such a low price (which includes postage) and have it posted all the way from China.
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I know...the price point incl. shipping just blows my mind.
Do you know of any Jin Haos with an EF/F nib? I can't seem to find any.
 
Darkbulb said:
I know...the price point incl. shipping just blows my mind.
Do you know of any Jin Haos with an EF/F nib? I can't seem to find any.
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There are apparently none. The only way to have one of those nibs is to buy another nib and fit it. If you're in the States, Goulet is the place to get one, and Mr. Goulet has also produced videos ( available via YouTube/Goulet website ) showing how to do it.

I'm waiting for some Zebra G nibs, as I plan to turn my X450 into a flex nib instrument.

These Jinhao pens are ridiculously cheap. £4.20 will buy me two X450s, shipped. To put it in perspective, that is less than the price of a pint of Adnams beer, in the town where it is brewed. Bonkers.
 
1) Changing nibs, even in a partially inked Esterbrook, turned out to be super simple,
2) I am loving the 9550 nib!

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Signing Tax return this morning with one of my new fountain pens for some reason made me feel really important :)
 
I wrote a sentence in ballpoint and then with a 1.5mm nib, one above the other to compare. The ballpoint is a sprawl by drunken spiders - but fast. The fountain pen is clearly the same hand but somehow transformed into legibility - but is still awful. I'm having great fun trying the fountain pen and am inpatient to receive the few 1.9mm pens I've ordered - hoping they are as easy to write with as the I.5mm but making me slower, thus forming letters more carefully.

So far I've stuck with cheaper pens - but have the hots for a Parker at £500. I mean, 10p for a Bic or £500 for a proper pen? Makes shaving look cheap!
 
Bechet said:
I wrote a sentence in ballpoint and then with a 1.5mm nib, one above the other to compare. The ballpoint is a sprawl by drunken spiders - but fast. The fountain pen is clearly the same hand but somehow transformed into legibility - but is still awful. I'm having great fun trying the fountain pen and am inpatient to receive the few 1.9mm pens I've ordered - hoping they are as easy to write with as the I.5mm but making me slower, thus forming letters more carefully.

So far I've stuck with cheaper pens - but have the hots for a Parker at £500. I mean, 10p for a Bic or £500 for a proper pen? Makes shaving look cheap!
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I agree with what you say about the difference between ballpoints and fountain pen writing. It does have an ability to 'transform' your writing both in looks as well as HOW you write :)

Yeah...the potential monetary pen-rabbithole makes the razor one looks like a shallow ditch.

Pens are still 'tools' and to me it kinda breaks down as;
Ballpoint
Pro: Writes on almost anything. Great for carrying with you for any situation.
Con: The least pleasant writing appearance and experience. Scratchy, poor ink flow, boring writing.

Rollerball
Pro: Much more pleasant to write with than a ballpoint. Ink flows really well and writing becomes more 'fun'.
Con: Sometimes a slow starter. Limited when it comes to ink options.

Fountain pen
Pro: Smoothest writing experience. Access to hundreds of ink options and often ability to change nibs on pens.
The most 'fun' pen to write with and gives you the best ability for customizing the pen to write as you want it to.
Con: Ink stains on your fingers :)
 
Bechet said:
I wrote a sentence in ballpoint and then with a 1.5mm nib, one above the other to compare. The ballpoint is a sprawl by drunken spiders - but fast. The fountain pen is clearly the same hand but somehow transformed into legibility - but is still awful. I'm having great fun trying the fountain pen and am inpatient to receive the few 1.9mm pens I've ordered - hoping they are as easy to write with as the I.5mm but making me slower, thus forming letters more carefully.

So far I've stuck with cheaper pens - but have the hots for a Parker at £500. I mean, 10p for a Bic or £500 for a proper pen? Makes shaving look cheap!
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Keep your money in your pocket, Carl. Getting an expensive pen won't make your writing anymuch better, or even slake your thirst for more expensive pens.
You've just got to force yourself to write slowly. For me writing fast is a false economy, it gets the job done quickly but when I look back it's almost illegible and consists of badly thought out gibberish. Writing slowly gives you the chance to think about what you're going to write before you commit it to paper.
Try writing really slowly and be careful to try and make your letters uniform height and correctly spaced. You get into a kind of rhythm at each letter which is much more rewarding. Give a little twirl to the start of your capitals S, G, T, C etc. A tiny bit of embellishment makes the words a pleasure to read and it's fun playing around and trying out different letter designs.

You don't need an expensive pen for all this and it seems like you're already having fun with your Lamy 1.5mm stub nib. Stubs are great nibs for producing creative designed characters. I've found that moving from the heavy pressure needed for a ballpoint to no pressure of a fountain pen (razor analogy there) frees up your writing to twiddle a bit more and just go with the flow.

Write on.
 
fancontroller said:
Keep your money in your pocket, Carl. Getting an expensive pen won't make your writing anymuch better, or even slake your thirst for more expensive pens.
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I'd agree with that but wanting to explore and try out different things is normal :)
Based on my very limited experience I'd say try out some Esterbrook vintage J pens.
Comfortable writers they come in a slew of colors and a LOT of nibs (see list here) so one can really customize the pen to be exactly how one like it to be.

A good condition, restored Esterbrook J sells for about $30-40 and nibs are anywhere from $5-15 per nib.
Places like Andersonpens sell a lot of NOS nibs.

OTJCMUI5REJFMzBDRkEzRDgwMDU6ZTdiZjU5ZTcxNWQ1ODUzZmYwMTBkN2QwZmQ4OTI1ZGI6Ojo6OjA=
 
fancontroller said:
I've found that moving from the heavy pressure needed for a ballpoint to no pressure of a fountain pen (razor analogy there) frees up your writing to twiddle a bit more and just go with the flow.
Write on.
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Hadn't thought of that! A quick test shows that with no prssure, it becomes drunken spiders like a ballpen. I shall experiment further!
 
Nisse said:
And my favourite letter writing with fountain pen is H and among many candidates M is the worst letter.
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No way! I hate H's. Can't get them to look anything else than a ladder shape. M's are great. I just do a capital-sized lower-case letter M. I've attached a scan of my writing, hopefully you can view it (PhotoBucket seems to be having a wobble at the moment)

My Capitals.jpg
 
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