Ink Nouveau

Brian's Mailbox #5

2012-02-17T01:10:00.000-05:00

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person who writes to me. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with others, so that's what this post is for! These are some emails of mine from the past week or so:

I've been waiting for the coming of the TWSBI 700 Vac. I just saw a video on an Ink Filling Tool to fill the 700 fully. Will you be selling these also? What is the best nib size for this pen?

The VAC 700 is set to arrive the beginning of March, so it'll be a little bit of a wait still. As far as the filling tool, it's basically like the TWSBI inkwell that's out right now for the 540, except it's made to fit the VAC 700. It's still in prototype stage though, so there's no estimated arrival date for them. The VAC 700 has been in prototyping stage for 2 years, so I wouldn't get too excited about the VAC 700 filler just yet, it'll likely be the end of the year before it's ready, maybe longer!

The best nib choice is purely going to be a matter of preference. I like the medium in mine, but I like a little broader nib that some people do. I have a comparison of all the TWSBI nibs in our Nib Nook: http://www.gouletpens.com/Articles.asp?ID=268

As far as the VAC 700 goes, it is going to be a different (slightly larger) nib than what's in the 540. I haven't seen or tested one for myself yet, but I know they will all be Bock.

I am torn between an Edison Nouveau Fine Nib, a Pelikan's Tradition M215 Fine Nib, and a Pilot Custom 74 Fine. This is what I am looking for: a nib that writes the first time it touches paper, that is smooth with enough feedback to tell me I want I am doing, and not a dry writer. Any advice?

My honest opinion? I think you would be happy with any of these three pens, but for different reasons. Here's a rundown of the key points of each pen:

Edison Nouveau:
- Obviously, I love this pen. We helped design it!
- It has a great reputation, it's American made
- Brian Gray does great work on the pen itself and with tuning the nibs
- The overall craftsmanship and appearance/uniqueness of this pen beats the others
- This one is turned from cast resin instead of injection molded, so the depth of the material is more appealing to the eye (except the matte black, which is rather 'flat' looking, on purpose)
- You can swap the nibs rather easily, and individual nib units are available
- Takes standard international cartridges, if that matters to you
- Easiest of the 3 to clean
- Is convertible to eyedropper to hold the most ink
- Available in EF-B
- Brian Gray does offer custom grinding such as italics and obliques (costs extra)
- Excellent customer service from Edison, far more responsive and personal than Pilot and Pelikan

Pelikan M215:
- Well known pen with a good reputation
- Much shorter and thinner than the other two, if that matters
- Nibs swap easily like the EN, individual nib units are available but only by special order, and in gold plating
- It has an ink window, so you can monitor your ink level
- It is a piston filler, so holds more ink than the EN (if using the cartridge)

Pilot Custom 74:
- The only pen with a gold nib, which has a little bit of 'spring' to it
- Nib sizes run smaller than the German Pelikan and Edison nibs, so a M in Pilot is about equal to F in the others
- Demonstrator pen, so you can monitor your ink level
- Takes Pilot cartridges, if that matters
- Con--70 converter in this pen holds about twice as much as other cartridge/converter pens

The things that are important to you (as mentioned in a part of the email I left out of this post):
-Writes the first time it touches paper- all three will do this for you
-Smooth with some feedback- this is exactly what Edisons are known for...the Pelikan is a little smoother but harder to 'control' (just by a bit), Pilot is great like the Edisons
-Not a dry writer- none of these write dry, but they do write a little differently from each other. I recommend checking out our Nib Nook to see how they compare to each other with the different nib sizes: http://www.gouletpens.com/Articles.asp?ID=268

Personally, I enjoy writing a lot with my Pilot Custom 74 with a medium nib, it is a pleasure. Edison pens have earned their great reputation and Brian Gray stands behind his work. His pens are the most exceptional looking and write very well. The Pelikan is nice, but my least favorite of the three. These are just my thoughts, and entirely subjective!

I was wondering what inks you would recommend that have a nice dark red hue.

There are a lot of great dark reds. Some of my favorites are Diamine Red Dragon, Diamine Oxblood, Diamine Syrah, J. Herbin Rouge Hematite, and Noodler's Red Black. You can see them and all of our other red inks here: http://www.gouletpens.com/Swab_Shop_Red_s/823.htm

I'm planning on purchasing a pen from you in the next few months, but want to do my homework before I'm ready to buy. I'm looking for a pen that has a thick grip and one that has a large reservoir for ink so that I don't have to refill it every few days. I'll be doing a lot of daily writing with this pen, so want it to be one that is very comfortable to hold. I tend to grip the pen too tight, if that helps you give me a more precise recommendation.

I think you'd really like a TWSBI 540 or VAC 700. They're great pens for the money, and they are both large and hold a lot of ink. We're currently out of all of them right now, but you can sign up to be notified when they are back in stock on the individual product page by clicking the 'email me when back in stock' underneath the 'add to cart' button.

540: http://www.gouletpens.com/TWSBI_540_Fountain_Pens_s/1120.htm

VAC-700: http://www.gouletpens.com/TWSBI_Vac_700_Fountain_Pens_s/1124.htm

My question today is can I use a Waterman long cartridge in my new Monteverde Black Tie pen? It looks like it would fit. I am worried that somehow the short Monteverde cartridge could somehow come loose in the pen since there is nothing but friction holding it in place.

Well, I don't carry Monteverde so I can't be 100% certain, but I believe all of their pens use standard international cartridges. There are a LOT of pen brands that use this size of cartridge, and all of them work just fine with the cartridge friction fitting in the pen like with the Monteverde. The Waterman cartridges are a little longer, but the diameter of the opening is actually a tiny bit larger than the standard international, so I suspect they will actually fit looser and have a greater chance of leaking than using the cartridges that are intended for the Monteverdes.

I see the Clairefontaine 8.5" x 11" is much more expensive than the other wire bound notebooks. I was just wondering why in the world this particular size of Clairefontaine wire bound notebooks is so much more expensive than the others. Is it the demand in America for this size?

The reason this notebook is more is because it's 3-hole punched, micro perforated, and has almost double the number of sheets of the other notebooks. Here's a comparison:

Hopefully these posts are helpful to you! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. Also, feel free to shoot me an email anytime, your question could end up in the next Mailbox!

Write Time 2/15/12 with Jamie Grossman

2012-02-16T08:04:00.000-05:00

Jamie Williams Grossman was kind enough to join us for Write Time last night to share some preliminary results of her Noodler's Eternal Ink UV-resistance test. See how she does her test here. She does a lot of work with ink washing and acrylic painting, and runs a great blog over at Hudson Valley Sketches that I recommend you visit.

We'll be doing a follow-up post soon with some of her pictures and the results of the test after about 6-weeks of UV exposure. Thanks to everyone who joined us live!

Write Time Tonight with Jamie Grossman

2012-02-15T00:15:00.000-05:00

Jamie Grossman is the wonderful blogger behind Hudson Valley Sketches, and she's well known in the mixed media/watercolor community as well as for her oil and acrylic paintings of the Hudson River and surroundings at her Hudson Valley Painter website. She started doing some interesting UV lightfastness tests with random fountain pen inks that she has. After seeing her tests I thought it was really interesting to see which inks held up to the abuse, and which ones didn't! Noodler's has a whole line of inks that rated as eternal, which tout UV-resistance. Now, these inks aren't UV-proof, just resistant, and I was curious to know just how much. I approached Jamie about supplying her with the inks in exchange for her work of doing the testing for all 32 of the Noodler's inks I have that tout UV resistance. Check out how she set up her test here.

Jamie was kind enough to take me up on the offer to join us live on Write Time tonight by phone, to discuss her one-month findings with the Noodler's UV tests, as well as provide some insight into the fountain pen ink-crossover world of watercolor washing. If you have the time tonight at 9pm EST, we'd love to see you there!

Pink and Black Ahabs are Coming!

2012-02-14T00:50:00.001-05:00

I've known that the Noodler's Ahabs would be coming out in a black, pink and black, and pink with white and black colors for a while now. But a lot of you may not have seen pictures like these until Eric Schneider showcased them on the Fountain Pen Geeks blog (with a special shoutout to Dan Smith, who is the co-founder of the blog!). They were sent one of each color to review and post pictures on their blog, and they have done a great job. I enjoy reading a lot of what they post on there, so I recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

Eric was nice enough to let me share his pictures and video on the newest Noodler's Ahabs. I'm appreciative that he allowed me to do so because I haven't even seen them for myself yet! Ours are scheduled to arrive over at GouletPens.com sometime on Wednesday, our shipping delivery is confirmed. So if you're interested in getting any of these from us, I recommend signing up for our 'email me when back in stock' list so that you'll be notified the moment we list them for sale. Go here to sign up for the Noodler's Ahab in Black, Charon's Panther, and Pink Tiger.

Enjoy the Fountain Pen Geeks' pictures and video, and go check out their awesome blog!

Noodler's Ahab Flex in Charon's Panther, picture courtesy of Eric Schneider of FPGeeks.com

Noodler's Ahab Flex in Pink Tiger, pictures courtesy of Eric Schneider of FPGeeks.com

Rohrer and Klingner Complete Brand Review

2012-02-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

If you've been following Ink Nouveau lately, then you know I reviewed the entire brand of Rohrer and Klingner over the last month, all 18 colors. Rather than shooting 18 individual videos, I thought I'd just do one long one that covers all of the colors at once.

If you're interested in more detail on any of the particular ink colors, check out my individual reviews:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa
Sepia
Smaragdgrün
Solferino
Verdigris
Verdura

I'd love to hear what you think of Rohrer and Klingner!

Rohrer and Klingner Alt-Bordeaux

Rohrer and Klingner Alt-Goldgrün

Rohrer and Klingner Blau Permanent

Rohrer and Klingner Blu Mare

Rohrer and Klingner Cassia

Rohrer and Klingner Fernambuk

Rohrer and Klingner Helianthus

Rohrer and Klingner Königsblau

Rohrer and Klingner Leipziger-Schwarz

Rohrer and Klingner Magenta

Rohrer and Klingner Morinda

Rohrer and Klingner Salix

Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa

Rohrer and Klingner Sepia

Rohrer and Klingner Smaragdgrün

Rohrer and Klingner Solferino

Rohrer and Klingner Verdigris

Rohrer and Klingner Verdura

Rohrer and Klingner

Waterman Ink Name Changes

2012-02-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

Apparently, last October (2011) Waterman changed the names of their inks as a rebranding effort. The inks themselves are the same, it's just the names that changed. This was a bit confusing because although the change happened a while ago, the information wasn't passed down very quickly, and we (as Waterman retailers even) didn't know about the change until we started getting in bottles with the new name and packaging.

So here are the new names. I will withhold any of my personal feelings about the new names because I'd really love to hear your own unbiased opinions. What do you think?

February 2012 Ink Drop Reveal (with Joseph!)

2012-02-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

This month's Ink Drop theme is Valentine's Day...okay not the most creative name but it gets the message across ;) Joseph just happened to be in my studio as I was about to shoot this video, so on a whim I decided to shoot it with him. He's so adorable in it, and he behaved really well! It was great, I'm glad I did it. For this month, we picked out a nice selection of lovey-dovey colors, including some of our all-time favorites:

Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses- a very popular color, we hesitated to use it because we knew that a lot of you already have it. But, it's such a nice color that we thought those that didn't have it would really enjoy it. Plus, c'mon....roses.....Valentine's Day...
Noodler's Purple Heart- this is our Goulet exclusive Noodlers' color, and it is part of the American Eel line of lubricated inks. We named it Purple Heart in honor of George Washington (a fellow Virginian) and his Badge of Military Merit. Plus it has the word heart in it :)
Private Reserve Chocolat- that's not a typo, there's no 'e' on the end. It's a nice Hershey brown color, like you're writing with a melted chocolate bar! Everyone loves chocolate on Valentine's.
Diamine Hope Pink- you'll either love it or hate it, it's a bright pink. The cool thing about this ink is that Diamine actually donates a portion of the proceeds of this particular color to breast cancer research.
Waterman Red- this is now actually called 'Audacious Red'. We found that out after Ink Drop was completely assembled, so there will undoubtedly be confusion there! I'll be posting more about this and the other Waterman name changes soon. No real reason for choosing this one, it just rounded out the palate nicely.

If you're interested in joining, you can do that here through Feb. 14th to still get this month's colors. Members get 10% off the bottle price for any of these 5 inks!

I hope you enjoy this month's Ink Drop colors. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Edison Model Showcase

2012-02-09T00:49:00.002-05:00

As many of you are aware, the Edison Pen Company offers a production line of pens that Brian Gray offers: the Premiere, the Hudson, the Collier, and most recently, the Herald. But there are many other models that Edison offers as part of their Signature line. The Huron, Pearl, Mina, Stillwell....

I get asked from time to time how the production line pens compare to the Signature models. I asked Brian if he would be willing to send me one of each pen to check them out, take some pictures, and shoot a video, and he did!

As you are already aware if you saw my post yesterday, I have a new 105mm Nikkor macro lens for my Nikon, and I've use been having a ball with it. The fancy Edisons were a perfect opportunity to try them out! Enjoy as I showcase what I've been doing the last two days (especially the last picture!).

Edison Lineup from Left: Herald, Stilwell, Pearl, Huron, Glenmont, Mina, Huron Grande, Herald Grande, Morgan, Collier, Hudson, Premiere, and Herald (again)

Edison Morgan in a green ebonite swirl, detail on the threads

Almost the exact same shot, but with a much wider aperture and a shallow depth of field, to really highlight the threads.

Same Morgan, but with a shot of the Edison logo on the nib.

Nearly the same shot, but with a really shallow depth of field to focus solely on the Edison name. That's a small area!

Showcasing the finest details of the green swirled ebonite.

Edison Mina in a cross-cut and laminated striated acrylic, a wonderful effect.

Edison Stilwell, my favorite of the group for taking macro shots!

The detail of the overlay on the Stilwell is quite amazing, great for pictures!

One of the coolest things about the macro lens is the ability to really control what you want to highlight. I'm able to focus on such incredibly small areas of the pen such as the flowers on the vine running up this overlay.

Seeing how close in I could go, to the point where you can actually see the tool marks inside the vine, that must be 0.5mm wide. These marks are not even visible to the naked eye.

The shallow depth of field almost makes the pen look dreamy! Here I wanted to draw focus to the Edison name.

This picture is nearly the same as the next one, but with a wider area of focus.

I tightened the focus on this one so that you can really only clearly see the "E", which can't be any more than 1/8" tall.

And my favorite of all the pics I shot....this is the ball on the end of the clip of the Glenmont, and it can't be any more than 1/4" in diameter. When taking the picture, I saw that I could see a reflection in it, so I deliberately put my big smiling face in the reflection. If you look closely, you can see the whites of my teeth! That's macro, baby!

Tell me what you think in the comments below!

Write Time Canceled, let's Hangout instead...

2012-02-08T10:44:00.001-05:00

Rachel and I just too beat to do a whole Write Time broadcast tonight, we've been working overtime lately and we just need a break this week! I'm sure you all understand, especially if you saw last week's broadcast! We were supposed to have Jamie Grossman on this week, but we're going to reschedule her appearance because she's short on sleep just like we are!

But, we won't leave you hanging. In fact, we'd like to hangout with you! Brian Gray has turned us on to the cool Google Hangout feature on Google+, and he's hosting a pen hangout tomorrow (Thursday) 2/9 at 9pm EST. I'm planning to be there with him in the hangout, so stop on by if you are on Google+. If you're not, don't worry, we'll post the recording afterwards.

Basically, the way the G+ hangout works is that you have a moderator (Brian Gray in this case) who hosts the hangout, and up to 9 additional people can join in by video chat and all talk at the same time, sort of as if there are a group of friends hanging out in a room together. It's a different dynamic than Write Time, because it's much more conversational instead of 'broadcast-like'. Brian and I tested it out earlier in the week, and it was pretty cool!

Here's Brian's post about the hangout: http://edisonpen.com/index.cfm/2012/2/7/Lets-Hang-Out

So though we won't be there tonight in Write Time, I will be joining Brian Gray's hangout tomorrow. I don't know what we'll talk about, but it'll be pen stuff ;)

My New Toy: Nikkor AF-S Micro 105mm F2.8 ED

2012-02-08T07:00:00.017-05:00

I got a new toy today! I have other pictures I need to be taking like the Pelikan m200's and Sailor 1911's we just got in, but I can't stop playing with my new lens :) I've mentioned before that I shoot all our product photography with a Nikon D3100, and I just got this righteous lens to get the finest detail I can on our pens.

Nikkor AF-S Micro 105mm F2.8 ED

Nikkor 105mm on my D3100

The main advantage of this lens is that I'm able to get very fine details on small objects like nibs and pen ornamentation. I went with the 105mm so that I could have a little more range than some of the other micro (aka macro) lenses, which is especially key when shooting in a light tent like I do. Just check out some of the detail I'm able to get on the Platinum Modern Maki-e Crane pen:

Platinum Modern Maki-e Crane

Platinum Modern Maki-e Crane, ultra-fine detail focused on the Crane's wing.

Platinum 3776 Steel Nib, detailed focus on the stamped logo on the nib, subtle '3776' on the centerband behind it.

Platinum 3776 Black Century, crisp detail on the feed.

Stepping up my game on our product photography for both GouletPens.com and Ink Nouveau is something I'm taking seriously for 2012, and I have some aggressive projects I'm pursuing. I just wanted to blog to share my excitement as this lens is a bit of a 'holy grail' lens for me, and I'm excited about its possibilities. Granted, it's my first day and I plan to get a LOT better with it, but after messing around for a couple of hours, I'm thrilled with the shots I'm getting so far.

Rohrer and Klingner Verdura Review

2012-02-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Verdura is a bright green German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. This also is the last of all of the Rohrer and Klingner reviews for me! I've gone through the entire line in alphabetical order, and Verdura is the final color.

Verdura is a bright green ink, with a pretty average dry time of 20 seconds on Rhodia paper. The saturation is middle-of-the-road, but the shading is high, so you get some distinctive variation while you write (which I love). It writes wet, but won't hold up well to water. The plus side is that it cleans easily out of a pen.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

Vibrant greens are always fun to use, especially as we start to think about Spring around the corner. Here are some other greens to compare:

Verdura comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa
Sepia
Smaragdgrün
Solferino

If you've used Verdura, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Verdigris Review

2012-02-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Verdigris is a lovely blue-black from Germany that comes in a 50ml bottle. Blue-blacks are incredibly popular ink colors because they are very work-appropriate but add a little splash of color to the daily grind. This is a very nice color.

The dry time is pretty fast, 15 seconds on ink-resistant Rhodia paper. You can get faster, but slower is much more common. This ink isn't heavily saturated, but rather even in color so you don't have a lot of shading (variation of color within your writing). The flow is wet, and water resistance very low. Like all Rohrer and Klingner inks, it cleans out very easily from the pen, which is nice for a color this dark to do that.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

In the fountain pen world, a blue-black ink is just about the most predictable color that you can find. Every brand has one, though they may not name it 'blue-black' (though a lot of them do!). Heck, even Pilot Iroshizuku is missing a black ink from its lineup, but has blue-black! Despite what you would think is a relatively narrow color range, these inks can actually vary quite a bit, usually swaying heavily green or heavily gray. Verdigris leans a little green, though not much. Here are some other inks to compare:

Verdigris comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa
Sepia
Smaragdgrün
Solferino

If you've used Verdigris, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Jamie Grossman's Noodler's UV Torture Test

2012-02-03T07:00:00.005-05:00

Jamie Grossman is the wonderful blogger behind Hudson Valley Sketches, and she's well known in the mixed media/watercolor community as well as for her oil and acrylic paintings of the Hudson River and surroundings at her Hudson Valley Painter website. She started doing some interesting UV lightfastness tests with random fountain pen inks that she has. After seeing her tests I thought it was really interesting to see which inks held up to the abuse, and which ones didn't! Noodler's has a whole line of inks that rated as eternal, which tout UV-resistance. Now, these inks aren't UV-proof, just resistant, and I was curious to know just how much. I approached Jamie about supplying her with the inks in exchange for her work of doing the testing for all 32 of the Noodler's inks I have that tout UV resistance.

Jamie will be updating and sharing her findings on her blog, and we're even planning to have her on Write Time to talk about all of the cool stuff she does and this Noodler's UV test (official date pending). There's really no reason for us doing this test other than mere curiosity and the sake of conversation in our respective communities, so join us as we discover how these inks fare.

Here is Jamie's post from her blog, I will be reposing her results as she updates her blog:

Brian contacted me regarding some lightfastness testing I've been doing on a number of inks. So far I've tested 39 fountain pen inks. (If you haven't seen those results, you can click here and then keep scrolling down to see them all.) Whether or not lightfastness is an important issue is a decision you need to make for yourself, and your particular applications. Having the information available is always a good thing, and it gives us one more factor to consider when choosing an ink for a specific job.

In the interest of providing information to his customers, Brian suggested a collaborative venture to test all of the Noodler's Eternal inks, and have those results available on Inknouveau. Although some of my previous testing did include some of these inks, having them all done together at the same time, and available here, will be a good resource for those times when some UV resistance is important. The line of Noodler's Eternal Inks includes the following:

Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin
Noodler's Black
Noodler's Blackerase Waterase
Noodler's El Lawrence
Noodler's Heart of Darkness
Noodler's Polar Black
Noodler's X-Feather
Noodler's Lexington Gray
Noodler's Whiteness of the Whale
Noodler's Blue Ghost
Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher
Noodler's Bad Blue Heron
Noodler's Luxury Blue
Noodler's Periwinkle
Noodler's Polar Blue
Noodler's Bad Green Gator
Noodler's Hunter Green
Noodler's Polar Green
Noodler's Dostoyevsky
Noodler's Year of the Golden Pig
Noodler's Empire Red
Noodler's Fox
Noodler's Rachmaninoff
Noodler's Socrates
Noodler's Tchaikovsky
Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
Noodler's La Reine Mauve
Noodler's Mata Hari's Cordial
Noodler's Pasternak
Noodler's #41 Brown (2012)
Noodler's Polar Brown
Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia

I selected a Stillman & Birn Alpha 7x10" Wirebound book as my paper to do the tests. It's nicely sized, acid free, archival, heavy weight, doesn't have too much tooth, and is a clean bright white. Brian sent the 32 ink samples to me, and I got busy making swabs, crosshatches and washes to test in my studio window.

The ink samples were sorted by color group according to where Brian placed them in the Goulet Swab Shop, then by alphabetical order within that group. All writing was done with a glass dip pen (including the crosshatched sections), which was washed and dried between samples. Artists who use fountain pens are often interested in knowing how much an ink's lines will wash with a water-filled brush after the ink is dry, so I washed a portion of the crosshatched sections with a wet brush. That also spread the ink thinner, providing additional information as the UV light interacts with the ink. Here are the prepared pages. You can click on any image for a larger, clearer version:

Black, Gray, White, Clear (Blue Ghost):

(My apologies for some ghosting on a couple of these images, due to the next page showing through a bit. I didn't realize that was happening until I was adjusting the images, and it's not too relevant at this stage in the process.)

Blues:

Greens, Turquoise, Yellow:

Red, Pink, Magenta:

Purples:

Browns:

The pages were then cut down the centers vertically, so that the name of the ink and half of each swatch is on each side. The right sides of the pages will go in my south-facing studio window. The left sides will remain in the closed, wirebound book, where they will be in total darkness. Here they are, all set to go:

Most fountain pen inks are more fugitive than you'd think. That may not matter if whatever you write will not be exposed to UV light in its application, but it is certainly a reason to keep all of your inks stored in darkness. Even colors in artists' paints that fade very quickly, like genuine alizarin crimson, take many times longer to show signs of change than inks. Some inks start fading in just a matter of days. Others take six months or more. I'll be able to post some preliminary results in about a month, so stay tuned!

Write Time 2/1/12

2012-02-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night! I'm SOOOO sorry that Ellie was so fussy. She is only 6-weeks old after all! We worked to time everything right with her feeding and all to do the broadcast uninterrupted, but she had her own plan :P There's a little crying here and there, but that is our life right now! We didn't want to stop/cancel the broadcast, so you'll just hear a little baby noise in the background.

In this video, we talked about:

TWSBI color demo 540's and italic nibs
New pens! We're bringing in:

Pelikan m200's, m205's, and m215's (showed them)
Platinum 3776's and Modern Maki-e (showed the Maki-e)
Sailor 1911-S's (showed it and the 1911-L)
Noodler's Ahab in Black, Pink Tiger, Charon's Panther

Waterman ink name changes
Pilot Custom 823's (showed it)
Jamie Grossman's ink UV torture test

We said we'd post a link to Jamie's blog, here you go. I'll be posting about Jamie and her test tomorrow, and we'll have her on next week's Write Time to talk about it and her watercolor washing. Thanks to everyone who joined us, and we'll see you next week :)

Write Time Topic 2/1/12

2012-02-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

We took a week off last week due to the fact that both our kids and Rachel were really, really sick. It was a bit of madness around here, but things are settled down now! We'll be back with Write Time tonight at 9pm EST talking about:

TWSBI color demo 540's and italic nibs
New pens! We're bringing in:

Pelikan m200's, m205's, and m215's
Platinum 3776's and Modern Maki-e
Sailor 1911-S's
Noodler's Ahab in Black, Pink Tiger, Charon's Panther

Waterman ink name changes
Pilot Custom 823's
Jamie Grossman's ink UV torture test

So if you have the time and would like to hang out with us, we'd love to see you tonight.

An Ink Nouveau Milestone

2012-02-01T00:10:00.000-05:00

I just happened to check a few minutes ago, and noticed I have 1,000 YouTube subscribers! Never did I think there were that many people that wanted to watch me talk about pens. It's been absolutely killing me that I haven't been able to do as many videos as I'd like lately. I have been tied up between taking care of my young family and the daily runnings of GouletPens.com, and I have to really work to find time to do anything with video these days. It won't be this way for long though, trust me. I am burning and yearning to do more video stuff for Ink Nouveau, it will come. So, thank you for subscribing to Ink Nouveau, my YouTube channel, the GPC Facebook Fanpage, Twitter, and the Ink Nouveau podcast. As I've said before, without you to listen to me, I'd just be some guy talking to himself about fountain pens!

Brian's Mailbox #4

2012-01-31T07:00:00.002-05:00

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with others, so that's what this post is for! Here goes:

I would like to obtain a TWSBI medium nib for my Diamond 540 ROC, but I would like the new Bock nib as opposed to the Schmidt medium nib that it came with. Do you now, or will you soon carry one? I understand that these pens just arrived, but to me the difference in the two nibs is like night and day, and I want to "upgrade" the one on the ROC.

The new TWSBI color 540's that just came in all have Bock nibs, as well as the stub 1.1 and 1.5 nibs. The clear 540's that are coming in a couple of weeks will have Bock in the EF and F nibs, the M and B will still be Schmidt. They will be switching everything over to Bock soon. We only got in whole pens this go around, not nib units which you'd probably want for your ROC. The nib units that are sold individually only come with a clear section (intended for the clear 540), but you can actually remove the nib from the section if you wish to put it in your ROC. However, I don't have an official word on when the medium nibs in the nib sections that are sold by themselves will be switching over to Bock, for right now they are still Schmidt and I haven't heard anything otherwise yet.

I've been waiting for the coming of the TWSBI 700 Vac. I see it's coming in blue and will order one when it comes in. Question: I just saw a video on an Ink Filling Tool to fill the 700 fully. Will you be selling these also?

The VAC 700 is set to arrive the end of February, so it'll be a little bit of a wait still. As far as the filling tool, it's basically like the TWSBI inkwell that's out right now for the 540, except it's made to fit the VAC 700. It's still in prototype stage though, so there's no estimated arrival date for them. The VAC 700 has been in prototyping stage for 2 years, so I wouldn't get too excited about the VAC 700 filler just yet, it'll likely be the end of the year before it's ready, maybe longer! But yes, we will carry them whenever they're available.

I have small hands, and I'm worried that the VP will be fat and heavy. Do other people (women in particular) with small hands find it comfortable to write with?

The VP is hit-or-miss for most people, and you'll know it the first time you hold it. I always have my wife hold all of the pens I use to get her opinion because her hands are much smaller than mine, and she uses 4 fingers to grip her pens, where I only use three. She tells me that she does like the VP, and that if there's anything that is a nuisance for her it is the clip, but that has to do with her 4-finger grip more than the size of her hands in relation to the pen. The weight, balance, and diameter of the pen are all comfortable for her. The deal breaker for the VP is the clip, since most pens have the clip in the back and not where you would grip the pen. This clip is an obstruction for some men and women alike, so determine if the way you hold your pen would be interrupted by a thin clip on the top part of where you hold your pen. For me, it's not in the way at all. It's not a problem for most people.

I've read that the fine nib is ultra fine and can be scratchy. I like fine point pens, but I'm wondering if, in the case of the VP, I should go with medium. I've read that the medium is a pretty big medium. In other words, there's not an in between that's just right with the VP.

The fine nib on the VP is really fine, actually finer than a Lamy extra-fine! It's just how Pilot does it. You can actually compare the writing width of each nib for every pen we sell (including all the VP's) in our Nib Nook: http://www.gouletpens.com/Articles.asp?ID=268
As far as if it's scratchy or not, it really shouldn't be. For some people who aren't used to fine nibs, it can seem scratchy just because the finer you go, the less nib there is that touches the page, but it also means that the nib tine alignment is very important. Brian Gray of the Edison pen company has a great article about nib adjusting: http://edisonpen.com/page.cfm/IPGnibs2

I prefer a medium nib for myself though. Unless you REALLY want a fine nib, then a medium is nice. The medium Pilot nib is about like most other fine nibs. Here are the VP nibs compared to each other (like you'll see in the Nib Nook):

The jump from fine to medium is noticeable, but not overly dramatic. The jump from medium to broad is actually much more significant.

Why is Noodler's La Reine Mauve sold in 1 ounce bottles (as opposed to 3 or 4.5 ounces, like the rest of Nathan's inks), and why is it so expensive? Is there something special in it?

The components used to make all of the 1-ounce Noodler's inks are more expensive, and if Nathan was to make them in the regular 3-oucne sizes, they'd be over $30 each. Nathan wanted to keep the price attainable still, so he puts them in 1-ounce bottles instead. As far as exactly what is in them that makes them so expensive, that's something that only Nathan knows as it's proprietary information! It is a waterproof and UV-resistant ink though, so whatever gives it that permanence is what makes it expensive.

Hopefully these posts are helpful to you! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. Also, feel free to shoot me an email anytime, your question could end up in the next Mailbox!

TWSBI 1.1mm stub, wow.

2012-01-30T07:00:00.003-05:00

Just inked up the TWSBI 1.1mm italic (stub) nib for the first time. Wow. I'm a big fan of italics, and this might be one of the best I've ever used. It's incredibly smooth, wet flow, and it writes soft as if it was 18k gold (but it's steel!). It even has some flex with some line variation, that doesn't take a whole lot of effort. For $20, it is a no-brainer.

We sold out of ours at GouletPens.com hours after we got them in, and I saw that TWSBI on ebay and Amazon is out of them too, I'd be surprised if anyone has them left. The TWSBI italics are in short supply right now as they're brand new and TWSBI totally underestimated the demand, but in a few weeks they should be coming to the US in higher numbers. I suspect once word starts to get out about how great these are, everyone will want one....at least ;)

Videos and more in depth reviews are forthcoming, this is just to wet your palate.

Rohrer and Klingner Solferino

2012-01-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Solferino is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. This ink is one of the most vibrant in the brand, and it is quite striking. It's fairly similar to Rohrer and Klingner Magenta, which I previously reviewed here.

There are some definite pluses with this ink, the biggest one being the very fast dry time, under 10 seconds on Rhodia! It's a fairly saturated color with little shading, so the color is going to look pretty consistent and even. The flow is fairly wet, not as much as some others but pretty generous. The one downside is the lack of water resistance, but that also helps to make it very easy to clean out of the pen.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

Bright pinks like Solferino jump out on the page, and have a lot of pop to them. I like this color range for writing on paper where I want the writing to really stand out. It might be a bit much if you're journaling a whole page full of it on white paper, but that's a personal preference. Here are some of the colors similar to Solferino:

Solferino comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa
Sepia
Smaragdgrün

If you've used Solferino, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Smaragdgrün

2012-01-28T00:24:00.001-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Smaragdgrün is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. The name translates (roughly) to emerald green, and that's a pretty appropriate name for this ink. It's an attractive green, with just a little bit of blue to it.

The thing that surprised me is how fast it dries, it's quite fast! Under 10 second dry time on Rhodia paper is always impressive to me. The saturation, shading, and flow are all pretty average. The water resistance is pretty poor, but the flip side of that is that the ink cleans out of the pen quite easily.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

I tend to like darker greens than Smaragdgrün, but it is still on my 'acceptable' list for a usable green. I like seeing a little darker shade of green ink. There are a few good greens in this range, here are some of the comparable colors:

Smaragdgrün comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa
Sepia
Solferino

If you've used Smaragdgrün, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Sepia

2012-01-27T12:30:00.003-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Sepia is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. Naming an ink "sepia" is one of the most descriptive ways to name an ink. I see a lot of different inks names a lot of different things, and most names only hint at what the color might be. But sepia is very descriptive, see how Wikipedia defines it here. Long story short, it can be defined as a toning method used for warming up a black and white photograph and enhancing its archival capabilities. I alway think of 'old-timey' photographs, like what you see around the turn of the 20th century.

Keeping in line with the sepia name's assumptions, this Sepia is a brownish-grey with an incredible dry time, under 10 seconds on Rhodia paper, which is fairly ink resistant and tends to take longer than most papers for ink to dry on it. Most of the other Rohrer and Klingner inks are not very water-resistant at all, they fade quite badly when wet (except for Salix and Scabiosa). Sepia holds up better than most of the others, though. When wet it does lose some of its color, but about 70% of it remains, leaving it quite readable. For not making any claims of water resistance, this ink fairs quite well.

The flow is wet, the saturation is low, and the shading you get is high. The easy of cleaning, like you'd expect with Rohrer and Klingner, is quite effortless. All around, it's a pretty well-rounded ink. I would venture to say that it would make a very nice work-appropriate ink as an alternative to the usual blues and blacks. It would change up your day a little bit without drawing undue attention to it by unsuspecting co-workers.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

There are a few inks in the sepia color range, and some brands (like Rohrer and Klingner) just outright call it Sepia. Diamine, Private Reserve, Rohrer and Klingner, Platinum, Omas, De Atramentis, and Noodler's all have inks with Sepia in the name. It's a color range that may not stand out much, but is actually incredibly popular. You will notice a pretty wild range of color within the name 'sepia' across different brands though. So I'll break out my swabs into two groups, those with the name Sepia, and those that look the closest to Rohrer and Klingner Sepia. There are the Sepia named inks:

The Sepia inks are pretty much all over the place, right? You have yellows, reds, browns, greys.....it's nuts! Now here are the colors I feel are actually closest to Rohrer and Klingner Sepia:

As you can tell from the swabs, Rohrer and Klingner Sepia is very much leaning towards the grey end of the color spectrum. If that floats your boat, then you'll probably find it to be a very pleasing ink. Sepia comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix
Scabiosa

Sepia

Solferino

If you've used Sepia, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa

2012-01-26T16:20:00.003-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. It's popular for two reasons, the first being that it's water resistant since it is iron gall, just like Salix. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it, but know that this ink is not the same 'pure' iron gall that is known to be corrosive to metals, rather it is a modern formulation that behaves much more like conventional fountain pen ink. Rohrer and Klingner does recommend that you clean the ink out of your pen every week, and be aware that iron gall inks aren't ideal for all pen types and models.

Scabiosa's water resistance and ease of cleaning are every bit as great as Salix. There is one aspect where Scabiosa has a leg up on Salix, and that's dry time. Salix had about a 25 second dry time, but Scabiosa dries quite a bit faster, only about 10 seconds on Rhodia paper, which is quite ink resistant. This is a huge plus given that it's a pretty wet writing ink. And the shading is great, too!

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

Scabiosa is a great color, a dusty purple much like many of my favorite colors. Here are some of the other colors that are like Scabiosa. The only other purple that really has any water resistance in this color range is Noodler's La Reine Mauve, and that ink looks a lot 'dustier' and washed out on the page. Scabiosa has great vibrancy and shading like Purple Heart and Blackcurrant, but with the bonus of the water resistance. No wonder it's up there with Salix as the best selling Rohrer and Klingner color. Check out the other inks similar in color:

Scabiosa comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda
Salix

Scabiosa

Sepia

Solferino

If you've used Scabiosa, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Salix Review

2012-01-24T17:11:00.004-05:00

At long last! For those of you that have been following each of my Rohrer and Klingner reviews as I've been posting them in alphabetical, you have no doubt been waiting for me to get to Salix. Rohrer and Klingner is a German brand that comes in a 50ml bottle, and Salix is arguably the most popular and well-known color in the brand.

Salix is popular for two reasons, the first being that it's water resistant since it is iron gall. What is iron gall? Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it, but know that this ink is not the same 'pure' iron gall that is known to be corrosive to metals, rather it is a modern formulation that behaves much more like conventional fountain pen ink. In fact, in my usage of it I didn't find any significant difference in flow, ease of cleaning, or dry time than most of the other Rohrer and Klingner inks. It was quite the pleasure! Rohrer and Klingner does recommend that you clean the ink out of your pen every week, and be aware that iron gall inks aren't ideal for all pen types and models.

The dry time was medium-long, about 25 seconds on ink resistant Rhodia paper. It's on the long side for Rohrer and Klingner, but still pretty manageable. The saturation is medium, which allows for some shading but not an overwhelming amount. Even though the ink is very water resistant, it still cleaned very easily out of the pen. Gosh, you can't even really tell that I did any drips on the drip test grid, but I swear I did! Usually with inks you get easy to clean or water resistant, it's rare to have both like you do with Salix.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

The color of Salix isn't anything that hard to come by, many other inks are very close. But most of them don't have the water resistance of Salix. One important thing to note is that the color of Salix is very close to Diamine Registrar's Blue-Black (also iron gall) when first on the page, but the Registrar's darkens considerably to the color you see below. Salix doesn't seem to do this. Here are the comparable inks that are also water resistant:

Here are other inks similar in color but that aren't particularly water resistant:

Salix comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta
Morinda

If you've used Salix, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Rohrer and Klingner Morinda Review

2012-01-21T09:55:00.003-05:00

Rohrer and Klingner Morinda is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. It is their 'red' color, and it's a fairly pure red. It's not as bright as Sheaffer Red, but not as dark as others like J. Herbin 1670 or Diamine Red Dragon.

It has a pretty long dry time, over 30 seconds. You'll have to be a little patient with this color. It also doesn't have practically any water resistance, but the plus side of that is that in cleans easier from the pen than almost any other red ink I've ever used. It flows wet and has a high degree of shading, so it is an interesting ink to use is shading is your thing.

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

Red inks aren't hard to come by, but good shading, easy to clean red inks are. This is where Morinda shines. Here are some other red inks similar in color for you to compare:

Morinda comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:

Alt-Bordeaux
Alt-Goldgrün
Blau Permanent
Blue Mare
Cassia
Fernambuk
Helianthus
Königsblau
Leipziger-Schwarz
Magenta

If you've used Morinda, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

Brian's Mailbox #3

2012-01-20T07:00:00.001-05:00

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with others, so that's what this post is for! Here goes:

I been considering the purchase of a Sailor 1911 fountain pen with a "music" nib. I want a pen (nib) that will allow me to literally write musical notes, ledger lines, clefs, etc. on musical staff paper. Are the Sailor pens with "music" nibs designed for writing music or is Music" just one model name for a a smooth writing pen?

It is a little confusing about the whole 'Music Nib' declaration. In my experience, the only pens that have named "Music Nibs" are Sailor and Platinum (there may be others, but these are the only ones I know). Their names are a little misleading though, as very (VERY) few people actually use these pens for writing music. Really, a music nib is nothing more than an italic nib, or a stub nib. Here's an explanation of what makes these different than conventional (round) fountain pen tips: http://www.pentrace.net/article052501085.html
In my personal collection, I have both the Platinum Music Pen and a Sailor 1911 with a Music Nib. I can say that the Platinum pen, though about half the price of the 1911, writes much smoother and with more line variation. The Sailor music nib is nothing different than a conventional italic nib. The Platinum music nib is a little different, it actually has 3 nib tines (two slits cut in the nib), which is unique to this pen. Check out the pictures I took of the Platinum nib and its writing sample on the product page: http://www.gouletpens.com/Black_Gold_Platinum_Music_Nib_Fountain_Pen_p/plat-ptbm-170b.htm
As far as using these pens to write music, you could certainly do that. However, don't feel that you HAVE to use a music nib to write music, really you just need an italic nib. If you don't want to drop $160+ to get this effect, you can get much less expensive pens that will do the job just as well, perhaps even better. Don't get me wrong, both the Platinum and Sailor are really nice pens, but if you're looking more for value and utility, there are other options for you. The one I'd recommend the most would be the 1.5mm Pilot Parallel. It's a weird-looking pen, but the line variation that you can get with the nib is quite striking: http://www.gouletpens.com/Pilot_Parallel_Fountain_Pens_s/952.htm
Spending $10 (plus $5.50 for a converter, which I recommend) is a low-cost way to try it out. I would recommend poking around our Nib Nook, which is an interactive tool I put together to compare writing samples I did of every pen we carry...that will show you what kind of variation you can get with each nib.

I am debating between 1 of these 2 pens. 1 is the Lamy Studio-Imperial Blue and the other is the Lamy Accent Palladium Black. I am leaning more towards the Accent reason being the black india rubber grip. I love the look of the Studio but was also wondering if gripping it after long periods would be an issue if your fingers start to sweat.

I'm a big fan of both pens, but if you're writing for long sessions, the Accent will serve you better. That's the biggest drawback of the Studio...it's beautiful but the smooth metal grip is harder to hold for long periods. Another option might be the Stainless Steel Studio, which has a rubber grip instead of metal like the other Studios.

In the near future I am looking to treat myself to one of two new pens. One is the Namiki Falcon in a soft medium and the other is the Edison Nouveau Premiere in a cherry cordial ebonite. Which one do you think would be better for long writing sessions and some that require applying firm pressure at times?

Between the Falcon and the Premiere LE, these are both nice pens! The Falcon is noticeably smaller and shorter than the Premiere, but the biggest difference will be the way it writes. I have a video using the Falcon right here: http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/04/namiki-falcon-first-impression.html
The Falcon is great if you have a light hand or if you are trying to write with a lot of line variation....but if you have a heavier hand with firm writing pressure like you mentioned, you may enjoy the stiffer Edison nib better. You won't get the same line variation with the Edison as you will with the Falcon, but it will likely feel better for you when writing for a long time.

Often times, I browse through your swab shop, and then want to go to the page for a particular ink to see what you (and your customers) have said about the ink. It would be nice if one could click on the swab (just like one can after having done a product search) and go to the page for that ink, instead of only having the choice to buy a sample or buy a whole bottle.

I agree, that would be really cool! It's the kind of thing that seems like such a simple thing to do, but the technical stuff that goes into it is far beyond what I understand. Rachel is really smart and does a lot of great stuff on our site, but what you're asking for is one of the things she hasn't yet been able to figure out, and trust me, she's been trying. We have a lot of things like this that we want to add to our site for 2012, and we're going to actively be working on it. I won't be able to promise anything, but know that we are definitely working on it.

I got a Pilot 78G fountain pen today. However, the oddest thing is that it comes with a Pilot CON-20 converter (those are the ones with the rubber sacs). Guess what? These are the exact same converters that come with the Pilot Parallels – but with the Parallels, Pilot explicitly instructs us to use the CON-20 for flushing purposes only. In the 78G, this converter holds ink without any problems, and I can’t think of a single technical reason why the CON-20 would not work in the Parallels. Am I just more paranoid that usual, today, or is this really weird?

I hear what you're saying! Technically, though, that converter isn't the Con-20....it's some other variation. They are similar, but slightly different. What you have and what comes in the Parallels is the one on top, and the one on bottom is the Con-20:

They're similar, except that the top one has the bladder more exposed and it's a little shorter. The mouth is the same on both though, and you can use them both...but I think because the top converter is a little shorter, it isn't held in place very well by the back end of the Parallel, so it can come loose and leak. You're right though, both converters will fit the Pilot pens! The one on top comes (apparently) with the 78g, the Parallel, and the Knight, from what I've seen so far. No doubt, it's a cheaper converter and that's why it's in these lower priced pens.

I saw a bottle of Noodler's Prime of the Commons Bulletproof blue black on an English site which looked interesting and was hoping you could get some.

We actually just inquired about getting Prime of the Commons this week, and Nathan said it's exclusive to the UK, end of story. So I'm afraid that it's not going to be in the US anytime soon.

Does anyone in your shop customize nibs? I love my TWSBI XF but want to get a medium nib in italic. I was hoping to have a nib unit done there or sent out to someone you trust.

We don't have anyone here that does custom nib work, that's actually a pretty specialized skill. There are really only a handful of people that do that kind of thing, and none that we are officially affiliated with. The ones that I know about that have good reputations for their work include John Mottishaw, Richard Binder, and Pendleton Brown.

If you wanted to wait a little bit (which you will with custom grinds anyway), TWSBI is actually coming out with 1.1mm and 1.5mm italic nibs themselves, that (I believe) will be the same price as their regular nib units. I don't know if you were looking for something finer than 1.1mm, but if that would work then it would certainly be the easiest and cheapest way to get your italic nib.

Hopefully these posts are helpful to you! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. Also, feel free to shoot me an email anytime, your question could end up in the next Mailbox!