I went to my first Pelikan Hub on Friday night. Fun.
We had a small group of six; Friday night at 6:30 in the city is a hard time, and some people had to cancel. But for those who were there, it was awesome. The nicest host ever. Key lime pie. And many Pelikans passed around. Fountain pen people are usually congenial, but these other attendees were all amazing. I’m afraid I had so much fun I didn’t take very many photos.
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I got that really cute pen, the Kaweco Skyline Sport in Metallic Violet in early February, and I immediately popped in a Kaweco Summer Purple ink cartridge. It’s seven months later — seven months of intermittent neglect — and that same ink cartridge is still in there. Still going.
Kaweco Summer Purple is an attractive purple ink. And I really intended to do a post about it. But life got busy. I forgot the pen was still inked.
Months went by. Then I’d find it and use it briefly. Then weeks would go by. But every single time I guiltily rediscovered this pen, all I had to do was pick it up and turn it over, for the ink to immediately start flowing. And by flowing, I mean flowing perfectly, without hesitation, skipping or blobbing.
Some of my pen-ink combinations have balked if left for just a few days unused. So this is meritorious service. Shout-out to Kaweco.
I’ve mentioned that Kaweco inks are nicely lubricated. And that Kaweco cartridges contain a little plastic ball for better ink flow.
Clearly, it all works. What a well-made pen, what a great ink cartridge, what a great ink brand.
And Summer Purple ink is a nice color, too.
A very nice friend found a partially full bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire for me, and it arrived on Friday.
I don’t chase vintage inks, so this will be my first and last bottle of this one, but it’s great to have more to use. PPS is a great blue color, very deep, with nice shading. This ink is saturated, is not easy to clean, and it has red sheen out the wazoo. I like less saturated inks; I like easy-to-clean inks; and I’m neutral on sheen. And I still adore PPS. It is special.
I put it in a Kaweco AL-Sport with extra-fine nib this time.
Think of a middling movie franchise. The first movie does well, so they come up with a sequel, which isn’t exactly good, but sells enough tickets, so they can’t resist slapping together a third. Which is just chum. And that was my August — the Jurassic Park III of months.
But hey, Laura Dern and Sam Neill were in Jurassic Park III. Nothing is irredeemable. So let’s focus on the bright side of August.
1. Weather. It did not rain every minute of every day. Okay, nearly. But there were a few minutes where you could see the sun still existed. Bonus points: no need to worry about a beach body. And I found some very water-resistant inks.
2. Pen Shows. Many people I know had fun at pen shows in August. Not me, but I lived vicariously. And I was lucky because a very sweet friend brought me back a present from DC. I hope you either went to a pen show in August, or got something nice.
3. Inks. I loved my August inks. There wasn’t a “meh” ink in the bunch for me. The new-to-me inks were simply wonderful: KWZ Thief’s Red, KWZ Rotten Green, Graf von Faber-Castell Cobalt Blue, Kaweco Sunrise Orange, Kaweco Smokey Grey, and J. Herbin 1670 Caroube de Chypre. I could be happy with just those. That was a real light in August.
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Kaweco Smokey Grey. This is an attractive light gray ink that is surprisingly legible and features a surprising amount of water resistance. It is a Kaweco ink, so it’s not surprising that Smokey Grey also is easy to clean from a pen and has excellent lubrication and flow.
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Kaweco Classic Sport with broad nib. Not so much a Pen of the Day this time, because I’m more interested in the ink, the new-to-me KWZ Iron Gall Orange.
If you read this blog regularly, you will not be surprised that KWZ Iron Gall Orange is not so much orange as brown. After all, this is KWZ, the imaginative ink maker that offers a black ink called Dark Brown and a fairly purple ink called Brown-Pink.
I look forward to putting Iron Gall Orange through its paces. This pen is my old reliable, the Kaweco Classic Sport, here with a broad nib.
Kaweco Classic Sport with double broad nib. Here’s an ink I had never used, but I found a leftover sample vial with just a little bit remaining. That’s a perfect situation for the Kaweco Classic Sport. I don’t need to go through contortions to fill a Sport from a small sample — I can syringe whatever ink is left into the pen body or a converter.
Here is Ama-iro with the Kaweco double broad nib.
The Kaweco Sport also lets one easily swap nibs. So here’s Ama-iro from an extra-fine nib, for Fountain Pen Geeks forum.
But I’m in it for the bling, frankly. So for me the eyedropper is key. Especially when the ink is a beautiful sky blue like Ama-iro.
Kaweco Classic Sport with calligraphy nib. Again we have what’s really an Ink of the Day, but, shhh, don’t tell anyone. This is the sample of Parker Penman Sapphire a friend very kindly sent me.
Is it the world’s most beautiful blue ink?
The pen is my son’s Kaweco Classic Sport in blue, which is a very good pen at an excellent price. I swapped in Kaweco’s 1.1 mm calligraphy nib, which is a smooth writer with excellent line variation, and another real bargain.
Kaweco Classic Sport Clear with double broad nib. I decided I wanted to see this next ink. So it was time to eyedropper a Kaweco Classic Sport. And I decided to bring out the monster truck of nibs, the double broad. My usual extra-fine and fine nibs quail before its majesty.
I left Azure #4 for last of the five KWZ Azure inks I’ve tested. Because it seemed to have a slight blue-green tint, and I am not a huge user of teal or turquoise blues. So I wasn’t quite as excited about this one.
Which lasted as long as it took me to ink up a pen. Look at what KWZ did here. Another awesome blue.
Fountain Pen Follies 