What I've been using this week! 11-13-2021 Edition

Hi folks!

I've never written a post like this before, so you'll have to bear with me while I work out the kinks and get into a flow.

I know that lots of bloggers have gotten into a habit of tracking the way that they use their fountain pens, and I am going to try and hop onto that bandwagon. It's been a fun little switch keeping a short log of the pens I used and the pens I've just inked and things like that. 

 

My list isn't complete. 

I took these pictures with my phone and in a hurry.

My list didn't start until about mid-week.

My list doesn't include the papers I used or the standard pens I used or lots of other things, probably. 

But, at the end of the day, it's more than I'd been doing to keep any kind of track. So! Let's dive in! 

 

I've had this Montblanc Johathan Swift on loan for a couple of weeks now, and it's fun to use. The nib is smooth, the section is just long enough for me to use comfortably, and I really like the look. It's a quality pen. My friend might see this and say "YES! I've got Mike! He's going to be a LE Montblanc collector now." Nah. No way, man. I'm far too cheap for that kind of thing. Its' a rabbit hole I'm going to stay out of. Like watches. Don't get into watches, folks. 

 This one has the matching Swift Sea Weed ink from MB in it. It's a very sea weedy green, indeed.

 

 

While I'm on Montblancs, I've just gotten a Montblanc 320 in the mail. It's not an expensive Montblanc and it's not a very fancy one, but it's pretty darn nice and it's my first Montblanc so it's got that going for it. The body is burgundy and the nib is sort of inlaid. It reminds me of a Lamy Safari nib, but it feels entirely different to those. This one has a bit of a softness to it that you won't find in a Lamy nib even though both are made of steel. Moral of the story: Different nibs are different. Steel doesn't feel the same from nib to nib, and neither does gold. Try them all! 

 I have Private Reserve's Tropical Blue in it, and that ink is too wet for this nib on most papers. MB doesn't mark their nibs, so I didn't know what to expect. You live and learn.

 

 

 

 

I was talking about inks with a friend online and they asked me about Diplomat inks. I have a few of those that Dromgoole's sent out, but I don't think I've even tried them all. In talking to them, I was recounting how some of them were hits and some were misses, but that I couldn't remember trying this one called Pine Tree that I really liked on a swatch. So I inked it up! It's now in this awesome Aurora 888 Black Mamba that Audrey got me for Christmas a couple of years back. I hadn't used that pen in a while, and I really like it. And I like this brown ink, too. So that's a win/win. Hooray!

 

 

 

Then I was talking about nibs with another friend online, and I remembered that I have a pair of nibs from Mark Bacas that I haven't used in a long time and that I haven't gotten around to making a video about. They're both on Diplomat Aeros and they're both pretty rad. One is a Predator Extreme which is fine on one side and architect-like on the other. It's really a Predator Not-That-Extreme because it's only a fine on one side and a sort of blade grind on the other that is like a very forgiving architect on the reverse. I asked for it that way because I don't really do extra fines and harsh architects. I tend to rotate my pens and I write a bit bigger than an EF allows, so he did it to my taste. It's neat. 

 

 

The Predator Not-That-Extreme

 

The other is called (I think) a Reverse Nib. It's got a stub on one side and basically a fine nib when you flip it over. It's very cool and useful. He doesn't have that on his nib-menu, though, so maybe it's something else? It was done in the Before Times and my memory is hazy on some details from then. 

I've got both of these inked with Diamine's Jalur Gemilang, and it's a fantastic blue sheener. Whew!

 

 

Lastly, I inked up my Sailor Mozaique with Dominant Industry Pearl Tanzanite. It's a really dark purple ink with blue shimmer in it, and I've only had it in there for about 3 hours. It looks cool though, and the flow is good so far in this Music Stub. As with all inks like this, things could go wrong so I'll keep testing it for a while before I make a call on it.

That's it. That's the first "What I've been using" post. It's a work in progress, but let me know what you think. If these are something that people like then I'll try to keep doing them. Are there things you'd want to know more about? Do I prattle on too long? What're you hungry for?