I'm currently transcribing Thoreau's Walden and pulled a few pages out of the stack and took a photo of them. I use a different pen/ink for each chapter.
I already had a clear one in Fine and was looking for an opaque 140 to compliment it but I saw this green one and really liked it. I got it with a Medium nib.
First of all, I would note that if somebody utters that phrase to me, I just ignore anything else that follows. Seemed like a good post title, though 😉
I could not have foreseen that I would accumulate this many clear acrylic pens. I must say I do like them, though.
Sorry, I'm far too lazy for a complicated, aesthetically-pleasing layout or listing for all the pens but will note that's a Longwin 8" crystal ball and if you position one in direct sunlight, it can burn your house down.
Separate photo of the Asvine V200 only because I forgot to include it in the photo with the others.
"Finest acrylic," in my opinion, goes to the Majohn M2. It's probably the same stuff the other Majohns are made from but for some reason it most closely resembles the real glass the crystal ball is made of, maybe because it's a smaller pen and the material seems more dense.
My favorite? Even with two Pilot CH92's in the bunch, I would have to say it's the Majohn P140 with a Fine nib.
Please show us your clear pens!
Some pens paired with my small collection of 3 meteorites.
I thought I would share my setup/ritual for transcribing books.
Photo 1 is my desk. If I have an actual printed book, I prefer to use one of those for transcription but also have no problems using my Kobo if need be. On the desk I have a pleather desk mat and on top of that one of those roll-up silicone kitchen/craft mats I use for writing. When I'm not writing, I just roll it up and stash it.
I only use single sheets of looseleaf paper and find the silicone mat provides the perfect writing surface; firm yet with a little cushion. I only write on one side of the page even if the paper/ink support 2-side writing and I stick with the same paper throughout a project, usually either Tomoe River 52gsm or Kokuyo KB printer paper that I print my own French/Seyes ruling on.
A burning sage/citrus candle and cup of coffee are usually involved in this process.
Photo 2 features the most important writing accessory I have, which is a 3-inch memory foam cushion for my desk chair. Without it, everything else involved in this endeavour fades to insignificance. 😉
Photo 3 is a wooden book press where I store my finished pages when I'm done to keep the cat away from them and to press them flat as a lot of papers tend to curl a little by the time you finish with a page. I have no intention of doing any bookbinding, I just like the looks of the press and it's a handy place to store the finished pages. I propped it open with a bottle of ink for the photo.
The stack of pages in it are from the book I'm currently transcribing, Thoreau's Walden. I'm up to page 217 in the book and have done 250 written pages on Tomoe River 52gsm. I find it interesting how much more bulk there is to 100 pages of TR52 that's been written on compared to what it's like when you open a fresh 100-page ream.
I use a different pen (and throw in some pencils as well) for each chapter and this book has around 20 chapters so I'm getting to use a lot of different pens/inks for this one. I tend to avoid books with a lot of conversations in them because I find it annoying to make thousands of quotation marks when copying a book. I suppose I could just skip the quotation marks and it wouldn't matter but it just seems "wrong" to do that 😆
Pages written per day varies. Some days I'm more into it than other days. I would say, between work days and weekends I average about 5 pages a day. I don't attempt to make my handwriting perfect but I'm not in any hurry either and just enjoy the process. It takes me about 20-25 minutes to write a page.
There are some days I'll take a break and won't write at all.
I'm very familiar with the book I'm currently doing but I think transcribing a book gives you a unique insight/perspective on it that reading alone doesn't provide.
The last book I transcribed was Mark Twain's Life On The Mississippi (which I had also read before at least once) and it's the only book I've copied using only one pen, a chrome Conklin Mark Twain Crescent Filler with a Fine nib, as kind of a tribute to the author.
Next up after Walden is a book by Tony Horwitz called A Voyage Long and Strange which I've never read so that will be all new to me and should be quite enjoyable to work through.
Edit: Almost ran afoul of Rule #5. Pen being used is a Diplomat Excellence Marrakesh <F> and the ink is Conklin Rich Mahogany, Desk pen in the background is an Esterbrook Desk Pen and the pen in the skeletal hand is a Lamy 2000 rollerball.
Kaweco AL Sport Olivine <M> with bronze clip filled with Monteverde Olivine ink. Paper is Tomoe River 52gsm.
After recently acquiring a Liliput in the Fireblue finish I thought it would be nice to have the Supra in the same finish and just received it today. It's not quite as varied/colorful as the Liliput but I'm still happy with the finish so it's a keeper. I'm going to do some nib-swapping and put a Broad in it.
I bought one of these at an antique shop in Denver last week and it was missing the chrome trim ring on the base around the hole the pen goes into. That didn't bother me much, but I was browsing around eBay to see if maybe I could find one and came across this new-in-the-box one and got a Buy It Now on it for a little less than $30. So, now I have two of these things.
The two halves of the disassembled pen and the nib were all still sealed in their original cellophane wrappers and the only damage to anything was the torn box lid.
So far the fill mechanisms on both pens (the first one was full of old, dried ink) are functional so I'm happy about that. The first one I bought was a Firm Extra Fine and this one is a Firm Medium. I think I'm going to look around for a stub nib for it. I plan to keep it on my desk inked with blue/black ink for everyday use.
There's a lot to be said for a long, skinny desk pen and I like the translucent tail, which I understand was a way to tell pens apart in the same location that had different colors of inks in them. I believe there was at least the clear tail one and one that was all black to differentiate them at a glance.
I posted photos of this pen a few days ago after I found it in a Denver antique shop. I got it home and got all the old ink cleaned out of it and filled it up with some Diamine Onyx Black to try it out.
It writes great! My only complaint is that it is a very harsh critic of my penmanship, revealing every tremor and flaw with my writing. It's very similar in feel and performance to my Pilot PO nib.
After I bought it, I discovered that there was a chrome trim ring missing on the base and that didn't really bother me any but while doing some research, I stumbled across a never-used, near NOS (the lid of the box is torn) offering for this very same pen still in the box with a Hard Medium nib on eBay for less than $30 so I bought it as well.
Found some deals and acquired three new Kawecos which all arrived today:
Stainless Steel Supra <B>, Olivine Sport <M> and Fireblue Liliput <M>
I already had these pens in different finishes so nothing truly new pen-wise other than that.
I usually leave my Sports clipless but a couple of people on here showed their Olivines with the bronze clip and I liked that combo so much I decided to follow suit.
I bought them all on Amazon and since I already have these pens in different nib sizes I just bought whatever nib size was the cheapest option and will do some swapping around later if I feel like it. When it comes to Kaweco 060 nibs, I generally stick with M and larger.
I saw this old Esterbrook Desk Pen in a booth in an antique mall in Denver and after a quick once-over I decided that for the price of $28.50 it was worth buying.
There was dried ink on the nib and a cursory cleaning revealed that it's still full of a blue/black ink but the good news is that so far the lever and sac work okay. It was sucking in and expelling out water, anyway. I'll give it a good cleaning when I get home. A Google search indicates that nib is a firm extra fine.
I'm not a big buyer/user of vintage pens but this one with the translucent tail caught my eye and I do like long desk pens with very fine nibs.
Looking at photos I found online, it appears there's a chrome trim ring missing around the hole in the base the pen goes into, but I can live with that.
I'm looking forward to getting home, getting it thoroughly cleaned and inked and trying it out. Sorry, Platinum Desk Pen, but you're probably going to be put away somewhere and this one will remain out on my desk.
Oh, I thought people might be curious what the rolled up thing is behind it. It's a 20"x27" poster my sister gave me so I'll include a photo of it as well. It will be framed and go above my desk. The colors are kind of off in the photo but it's the same color as a green chalkboard.
I paid the princely sum of $9 for a 4-pack of these things to try out. They're designed for use on electronic device screens but I know they're often used by artists and some fountain pen users make use of them to avoid contaminating their writing paper with skin oils.
The whole skin oil thing is rarely an issue for me, but as a whole-arm writer I was curious to see how the friction reduction offered by these gloves would affect that method of writing.
They're 100% nylon and do slide easily on the paper but, as I found after writing three pages, no more easily than my own skin does so I decided there wasn't any real advantage to me using them.
I can say, though, they fit well, are very light and comfortable and I would recommend one for anybody with issues with sweaty hands/skin oils. Having done both now, I would rather wear one of these gloves than mess around with an extra piece of paper under my hand.
So, in the end, I think I'll always just carry one around with me and put it on in certain situations so people will wonder what the hell it is and why I'm wearing it.
Ready to spend the next three hours or so doing some transcribing with the Sailor 1911 Realo Medium filled with Sailor Blue ink. Seems like a good way to spend the evening!
I tend to buy multiples of a lot of pen brands but as I was going through my collection today looking for my next pens to ink, I thought I would see how many brands I only have one example of and here they are.
I have nothing against these brands and I like all these particular pens, I just haven't been compelled to buy any other pens from these brands.
Left to Right:
Penlux Masterpiece Grande, Edison Collier Antique Marble, Esterbrook Estie Botanical Gardens, Stipula Etruria Magnifico Wild Honey, Benu Astrogem Midas, Caran D'Ache 849, Muji Aluminum, Schneider Callisma
I inked this pen up to write a letter and wanted to write a a couple of pages to get accustomed to it before actually doing that.
I prefer to write on a single sheet of paper. Awhile back, I got a new pleather mat for my desk but found it wasn't quite as cushiony as my old one.
The usual advice is to place a couple more pieces of paper under the one you're writing on but it's kind of a pain to keep a stack of paper aligned as I tend to move my sheet of paper around as I write across and down the page.
I got this soft, roll-up 15.7" x 23.6" silicone mat that's 1mm thick. It provides the perfect amount of cushion for writing, works great and has made my writing experience even more pleasant. It comes in different colors and different sizes: I opted for the larger black one so my writing arm rests completely on it as well for a little extra cushion.
When I'm using the desk for things other than writing, I just roll it up and put it on a shelf.
Names from the Sheaffer website: Legacy 9064 Glossy Black Inlaid Nib Fountain Pen with Chrome-Plated Trims and Legacy 9065 Glossy Black and Chrome Bi-color Fountain Pen with 14k PVD Gold-Plated Inlaid Nib and Trims.
Both are Mediums. They are offered in Medium, Fine and Broad.
I've actually had these pens for awhile, but hadn't taken any photos of them together. They're really nice writing pens and are my favorite pen I've purchased in probably the last couple of years: nicely smooth with what I consider the perfect amount of feedback.
Note that the 9065 has the same steel nib as the 9064 and "PVD" stands for "Physical Vapor Deposition" which, I believe, is basically a fancy term for Super Special Vacuum Coating. I would assume if Sheaffer is bold enough to use the term in the description of the pen, there must be some minute amounts of gold involved in the coating process. The 9065 costs more than the 9064.
These pens do not post. The inked, unposted pen weights 27 grams. The grip, measured at the midpoint where I hold it, is 11.5mm and at is widest at the top between the two gold trim rings is 12.5mm.
If it's something that bothers you, it's probably no surprise that they show fingerprints like nobody's business.
It foretells of a new fountain pen in my future.
I'm currently transcribing Thoreau's Walden using a different pen and ink for each chapter.
I decided to do the first chapter with a Custom 823 Medium. I think this is the longest chapter in the book at 73 pages and it turned out to be about 83 pages in my handwriting.
To be honest, by around page 60, I was starting to get bored with the 823 and tired of writing with it and was ready to move on to my next pen. By the last 10 pages or so it was truly becoming more of a chore than a joy.
I just started the next chapter this evening using a Kaweco Brass Sport with a Broad nib and this project has become fun again. Fortunately, from here on out, most of the chapters are much shorter so I'll be able to swap out pens more often.
Just a reminder to me that, no matter how nice a pen is, I eventually get bored with it after awhile and move on to another one. The 823 is already cleaned and put away for another time. Variety is the spice of life!