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GonzoTGreat
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May 25, 2015
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Part 4: My pen writes like crap:
This post applies to fountain pens in general. I've added it here because it addresses an issue raised in a recent, earlier post.
1. Check the alignment of the nibs. Use a magnifying glass and plenty of light.
2. Here's where the kind of ink actually does play a role. Writing with a finer nib will feel more scratchy when using a dryer ink or a poor-quality paper.
Unfortunately, poor paper quality is the default in the US. If you want decent loose-leaf paper for USA, get a ream of 24/26/28/32# laser paper and print your own lines on it. I print a dot-grid pattern on 24# laser printer and that works pretty darn well for my purposes. Rhodia and Clairefontaine are very fountain pen friendly brands.
Noodler's makes over 100 inks with many different properties; over 10 black inks with varying features. Although the "default" is often Noodler's Black, there are many others you can use with significantly different properties. For example, Borealis Black is a very wet writing ink. My pen just glides. It also bleeds like crazy through all but my best papers. A few rules of thumb:
Dryer inks => less feathering, less bleed through on lower quality paper, scratchier in finer nibs, long dry times on better paper.
Wetter inks => the opposite of dryer inks. Interestingly enough, "fast drying" inks are often very wet inks.
If you like Pilot ink but don't want to go through cartridges, save up for a bottle of the Iroshizuku. For some reason, inks in this line seem to write relatively smoothly without the kind of bleed through you might expect. They aren't waterproof, but don't completely wash out if you get a drop or two on them. They're generally very easy to clean and have quick(ish) dry times, all things considered. But they're not cheap and they only come in 24 different colors.
Part of the fun with fountain pens is in the journey. Try different inks! Inks samples abound from retailers and swapping threads on fpn, fpgeeks, etc.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
As usual, this post is periodically edited for typos, grammar and clarity. Significant changes are noted as such. Affiliations, if applicable, are clearly indicated. In this case, I have none.
May 25, 2015
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