A kind friend sent me samples of some of the inks from the forthcoming Diamine “Shimmertastic” series of inks with gold and silver colored particles. The first one I inked was Blue Lightning, a light blue with silver particles, which I put in a Pelikan M200 with a stubbed 14k medium nib.
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Platinum Carbon Desk Pen. This is an inexpensive plastic desk pen made by Platinum for its Carbon Black ink. I bought this, and a similar desk pen made by Sailor, years ago for drawing. I decided to take them out again this week for writing.
The Platinum desk pen has a nice, smooth nib, and I like the pen’s light weight, long length and good balance. It can take a Platinum converter if you want to use bottled ink. It’s a good pen to write with, for me. Platinum describes the nib as “super fine.” It may be slightly thinner than my Pilot Prera fine nib with Pilot black ink, but I really think the two are comparable.
Platinum Carbon ink is marked safe for fountain pens, but I have had some difficulties with pigment inks over the years, so I honestly prefer to use them in dedicated cheaper pens, like this one. Carbon Black is a waterproof and lightproof pigment-based ink. It’s reputed to be a very dark black ink, but in this pen I don’t get that. It writes smoothly and dries quickly. This combination easily could be an everyday user.
I liked this ink so much, I ended up buying a full bottle. But until recently I couldn’t really test how it cleaned up from a pen — I was too happy using it to empty the pen.
On August 24, I filled my Pelikan M600 with Emerald of Chivor. By the night of September 5, it was time to clean out the pen. It had been left filled for 12 days, which is a fairly long time for me. There are a few conventional inks I wouldn’t keep in a pen that long.
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In the evening, with the sharp summer sun set, the humblest blooms catch your eye.
At the top are the late summer flowering of an unknown, undistinguished hosta that serves as ground cover in a shady spot in our side yard.
This is a clump of bloom from Phlox paniculata ‘David’ — a common garden plox in a mildew-resistant variety that is in the last throes of bloom. The foliage is tired this time of year, and the blooms are less full. But like many fleeting things, if you look closely for the moment, it’s beautiful.
Blotting paper! I thought the micro-mesh stick was boring. I thought the loupe was dull. But this has to be the most humble accessory ever. Still: so useful!
Blotting paper. It’s off-white, it’s thick, it’s soft, it’s useful. Mine measures four inches tall by nine inches wide, which covers the width of any paper I use.
What do I use it for? Blotting ink, of course: I blot ink at the end of a page, so I can turn over the page more quickly and continue on the other side. I also rest my hand on blotting paper when I write, to keep my writing paper neat. And I stick a sheet of blotting paper between the pages of my notebook to mark my page; the blotting paper is there, then, to perform blotting and hand-resting duties when I next open the notebook.
Oh, and one of my pieces of blotting paper also helpfully reminds me to consider having a snack. As you can see, this is multi-purpose stuff.
On that piece of blotting paper, a very young friend practiced her handwriting and expressed her deepest wishes. No problem! It still works fine. After all, it’s made to blot up ink. And if my little vandal grows up to become another Banksy, I’ll auction off this piece of juvenilia and make a fortune. Because blotting paper lasts.
I bought my stock from the nice folks at Pendemonium, both at the Chicago Pen Show and through their website. As always, no connection except being a very satisfied customer.
I was talking with a fountain pen friend the other day when we discovered that we both, at different times, have gotten into Marie Kondo’s organizational book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. We both responded to Kondo’s concept that you should seek to be surrounded only by the objects that bring you joy.
Coincidentally, I had just that morning been staring at a pen cup full of fountain pens, thinking, do I have too many Safaris? Ha, well, yes, of course. I had seven Safaris and Al-Stars inked in the pen cup at that moment. And that is but a fraction of the number I actually own.
But I looked at them with only satisfaction: pink and reds and apple green and black and charcoal, and a Vista, right there, filled with ink. And I thought, they make me happy. So it’s perfect.
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Oh my. These three Line Friends have to be the cutest Lamy Safaris ever.
From left to right, meet the Line characters Brown, Sally and Cony.
All purchased from the excellent eBay seller k2pop from South Korea.
Fountain Pen Follies 