Fountain Pens II

 

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We went to the UW Bookstore Fine Writing sale, and picked up a large Rhodia dotPad, a Midori "003" passport insert, a Platinum Preppy fine nib, a Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop Turquoise medium nib, a Pilot piston converter, J Herbin Eclat de Saphir (Sapphire Blue), J Herbin Perle Noire (Pearl Black), Noodler's Green, and Noodler's Red-Black.

Inks

The only ink we've tried so far is the Eclat de Saphir. It's a gorgeous ink, a light slightly purple blue. I've always favored black inks but now I'm really enjoying using this one. Carol has also been using it, and likes it as well.

Either we were really, really lucky with our first random fountain pen out of over 5001 choices, or I'm going to really, really enjoy exploring all of the inks! I already have three more inks to try, though, so I'm fighting the urge to buy more.

Rhodia dotPad and Pilot Metropolitan

The Rhodia dotPad and Pilot Metropolitan were for Carol. The Rhodia is wonderful paper, 80 gsm, extremely smooth, no bleed-through, and only mild ghosting. They don't, however, have blank notebooks in the size I want, so I have to look elsewhere.

Carol had tried my Pilot, which has a fine nib, and liked it but wanted a larger nib. So far, she likes the medium nib Pilot. Having already tried a Pilot cartridge in mine, I just loaded it up with the Eclat de Saphir.

Midori

I've been obsessing about the Midori passport notebook since I first heard about them. They're gorgeous, I got to see the brown one up close when I went to the UBookstore. They're also fifty dollars (of course you can find them for less) so I've been resisting the urge so far. When I was at the UBookstore, it suddenly occurred to me that I could get the inserts first, and try out the various papers. And only buy the Midori if I like the papers that it uses.

I know. Genius, right?

I purchased the '003' insert. It's MD paper, has a plain reddish-brown cover, then one thick sheet of paper, which on the back is set up to put in all your passport info. It has 32 sheets or 64 pages of lovely white paper, 80 gsm and yet somehow very thin. It ghosts but so far has no bleed-through at all, and it's wonderful to write on.

I'm going to try out another couple of their inserts, in fact I have a '005' refill in transit right now from Goulet Pens. It's on Tomoe River paper, which everyone who's used it raves about. It's a super thin 52 gsm paper that has no bleed-through, though there is substantial ghosting. I'm really eager to try it out.

Platinum Preppy

I got the Platinum Preppy to try out the eyedropper conversion, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I need to pick up a #5 o-ring and some silicon grease. I also might wait until I've tried all of my inks, since the eyedropper takes a fair bit of ink I'll want to settle on one for it first.


  1. "Over 500" inks was mentioned off-hand in a Goulet Pens youtube video, I haven't been able to find a more definitive source.


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