Pen inventory (98/365)

[white_hart]

Today's post brought the second of the two new fountain pens I ordered while I was on holiday last week. (Yes, this is slightly excessive. The new pen is a TWSBI Eco, which I've been hankering after for a while but trying to resist; the other one I bought is a Kaweco Sport which I ordered after discovering a stash of standard ink cartridges and wanting a nice pen to use them in.) This means that my current pen inventory is:

Black Lamy Safari with blue-black ink
Yellow Lamy Safari with royal blue ink
Pink Lamy Safari with turquoise ink
Purple Lamy Safari with purple ink
Dark teal Lamy Safari with dark teal ink
Coral Lamy Safari with coral ink
Lamy Vista (like a Safari, but clear) with grey ink with gold sparkles (J. Herbin 1670 'Caroube de Chypre')
Ohto Tasche with dark teal ink
J. Herbin transparent pen with dark red ink (but when the current cartridge runs out I will swap to orange), though I find this one a bit scratchy
Kaweco Sport with blackcurrant-purple ink (J. Herbin 'Larmes de cassis')
TWSBI Eco with teal ink (Diamine 'Aurora Borealis')

I also still have my fifteenth-birthday present Waterman, though after over 30 years it's a bit battered and has developed a tendency to cover me in ink, so I don't tend to use it any more.

It's possible I have a fountain pen problem.

Also, I can't decide whether I should make a zip-up pencil case or a pen roll to keep them in. (At the moment they're in a Paperchase pencil case shaped like an owl that folds back to convert to a pen pot, but I don't think standing fountain pens upright is optimal, really, and my other pencil case isn't big enough to fit them all.)

Comments

[caulkhead]

At least all yours have different coloured ink! (The Herbin ones sound gorgeous). I have

A long broad-nibbed Lamy
A Lamy safari (under normal circs these both live in the office)
Fine-nibbed Waterman
Tiny Campo Marzio, blue
Ditto, red.

All but the last use blue-black Quink, though I have some green cartridges I should use up, possibly for writing grumpy letters.

[white_hart]

The Herbin ones are very pretty, and the cartridges come in really dinky little tins!

[hilarita]

Er, this stoat may have a pen problem (or a reasonably good way to have a mid-life crisis. I dunno.)

I have over 60 pens, many of which are cheap and cheerful (like my Jinhao shark), some of which are a bit more pricey. I keep them all in a leather pen case, with loops for each pen. I also have a couple of small pen cases, for transporting a few pens. Those latter are like fabric pencil cases, but with places to put cartridges etc.

[white_hart]

Pens are lovely things to collect! I am quite tempted to add a Jinhao shark to my collection, because who wouldn't want a shark pen?

[mountainkiss]

These all sound lovely. What is the grey ink with gold sparkles like? Is it easy to read?

[white_hart]

Yes, it comes out as a very dark (almost black) grey with a subtle gold sheen.

[mountainkiss]

How gorgeous. I am thinking about getting the green one.

[callmemadam]

These pens sound lovely, writes another stationery freak. I was so upset when I lost my old (and I mean really old) Parker.

[white_hart]

I would be very sad if I lost any of mine, even though most of them are fairly inexpensive ones.

[alithea]

One day I will own a fountain pen that I love writing with as much as the one I had at high school. Unfortunately it was only a cheap Parker and it started leaking everywhere when I was at uni.

[white_hart]

Oh, what a shame! I used to have a Parker Jotter but the plastic barrel cracked. I do sometimes wonder about getting another Parker...

[jinty]

Pen roll pen roll pen roll!

[white_hart]

I like the idea of a pen roll, but thinking about it I'm not entirely sure it would work for me in practice - it feels like it would be more awkward to get the right pen out quickly than a pencil case.

[muninnhuginn]

Oddly, yesterday, whilst reviewing my working-at-home setup, I realised the one good thing about not being away from home was having fountain pens, ink and cartirdges easily to hand. I only have a couple at work.

I swear the things breed--or merely come up as kickstarters far too often.

I vote for a pen roll.

[white_hart]

I used to keep all of mine at work, but it is nice to have them at home!

[mountainkiss]

Why is it not a good idea to keep fountain pens standing upright?

[perennialanna]

If nib-down, they leak into their caps, which is astonishingly messy. If nib-up, the nib can dry out and has to be washed and re-primed. I have been putting off sorting out my 13th birthday Parker for several years.

[mountainkiss]

Thank you.

[mountainkiss]

Possibly my final q or possibly not: do you use blotting paper?

[white_hart]

No, I don't - generally I find the ink dries fast enough that it isn't a problem, though I do have to flap the pages a bit before turning if I'm writing fast.

[owl]

That doesn't seem like a fountain pen problem to me *shifty eyes*

I like the TWSBI Ecos because as piston fillers, they have a large capacity, so I don't have to fill them often. I used to take them into the office because they could stay there for weeks without needing to be refilled.

[white_hart]

They are also very pretty!