The joy of stationery (pen is at the ready)

This is the one I have saved, not sure if it was the one Ben linked or the one I saved on this site because I know my Mum likes purple.

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Thanks a lot.

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Cult Pens :heart_eyes_cat:

Absolutely the best place to go.

@ndrw - some quick nuggets. Welcome to my Ted talk.

  • You can either get ā€œDemonstratorā€ pens or ā€œCartridgeā€ pens - demonstrators have the clear chamber that allows you to see the ink. If you get a cartridge pen, you need to buy a converter to fill with non-cartridged ink. A demonstrator pen will hold more ink than a cartridge. Both are faffy to fill.
  • On the Twsbi, they have a whole wide range - the ECOā€™s come in at about Ā£30 and are super reliable but not super high end construction.
  • (You can go higher end with things like Sailor / Pilot (vintage models) / LAMY etc, but a lot of that is really making the nib gold).
  • Youā€™ve got options in how fine the nibs are, and how thick the line on paper is, and different brands tend to have nibs that ā€œflowā€ differently, higher end tends to be smoother, more controlled writing.
  • TWSBI also do an ā€œECO-Tā€ model, where the barrel of the pen is triangle shaped, which may help with grip vs the default round - meant to be more comfortable.

Edit to add: Lamy Safari or Kaweko Sport are also good alternatives for a more budget friendly / starter pen. Though I prefer the TWSBI

The main thing to get thinking about though, is what delicious and lovely inks you want to pair your pen with. Thereā€™s an ink brand called Diamine which have hundreds of different colours. (whatā€™s that you say @revels, you wanā€™t a Lavender ink to pair with your mumā€™s present? No worries).

They have a whole range of glittery inks, lots of bright colours, and iridescent inks which glimmer with two colours under the right light. The one I use most often, is ā€œDiamine Maureenā€ which iridesces blue to red.

But that said, if youā€™re feeling fancy, Pilot Iroshizuku are my all time favourite. itā€™s like writing with, or on, butter. Itā€™s a fancy looking bottle though, but honestly itā€™s a dream to write with. They even have a lavender one @revelsā€¦

Anyway. Thats enough pen chat for me today. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Donā€™t get me started on notebooks and paper quality.

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I already had the link to that bottle saved too! tips hat

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Oh also.

ā€œInvisibleā€ UV Inks are a thing if you want to bring out your inner spy kids

Edit to add: Iā€™m so glad the forum is back. Though for some reason my productivity has dropped this week?!

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Thank you, thatā€™s amazing! I donā€™t write too much, tends to just be Christmas and birthday cards and notes at work. As such not sure if one is justified as Iā€™d be worried about ink drying in.

My other issue would be, I want one of the iridescent inks, but if I need to sign something I canā€™t. Two pens? :laughing:

Also, whatā€™s the best nib to go for? I suppose a medium one?

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Purely down to personal preference - hereā€™s a quick guide as to the thickness:

image

I tend to find with Medium I make more mess writing, so I prefer Fine, but depends on your handwriting.

To be honest, some of my pens have ink in them thatā€™s not been used in months and they are fine. Occaisonally youā€™d need to wash them out, but Iā€™ve never had a problem.

A lot of the iridescent stuff also depends paper thickness / quality / absorbency. The iridescence is basically the best when the ink has dried really slowly on heavy paper - if youā€™re signing just ā€œnormal stuffā€ it will not have the effect so strongly. But you should probably just get 2 pensā€¦ :smiley:

Right now I have to go do some work,.

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Definitely feeling that I should split this out to another topic dedicated to pens

Any objections?

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Pens are definitely not part of Monzos connected accounts, although Iā€™d have a hot coral pen if one was available :laughing:

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Yeah sorry Iā€™ll stop now.

Connected :fountain_pen: accounts :fountain_pen: good :fountain_pen: buy more pens

@ordog what about a hot coral ink

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Yes, welcome to Pen Chat everyone.

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Iā€™ll take a hot coral pen, with hot coral ink pls

Weā€™ve been merged! :tada:

I could watch people doing calligraphy all dayā€¦

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Apology not accepted! You will be forced to endure it here :joy:

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I think if anything youā€™re just enabling me at this point.

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What are your recommendations for ballpoint pens? I use Parker jotter pens normally but if you know something that writes as well I might give it a go

I have these.

So that my notes are barely readable but in nice colours.

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I wish I had a lovely pen to hand write that this is potentially the second most desperately pretentious thread title ever seen on here, only beaten to the number one slot by ā€˜collected thoughts on card designā€™. That said, I do enjoy pens and pen chat very much so if I can stop myself cringing so much at the god awful title I can focus on the words, I will enjoy seeing where this thread goes.

Gel pens > Ballpoint

ETA: had a look at site linked in reply after and saw it had one of my favourites

This is my favourite ball point :slight_smile:
Really fine nibbed, but the Pilot G2 is a slightly thicker alternative.

They are ā€œgel inkā€ rollerballs, I think. So the best of both.

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