u/Recent_Average_2072

I was doing some "photographic swatching" of this new ink I got and thought I'd snap a couple of extra photos and post them on here while I was at it.

This is a Stipula Etruria Wild Honey with a Medium nib filled with Teranishi Wild Honey ink. Paper is Tomoe River 52gsm.

This is one of only two Italian pens I own (the other is a Stipula as well) and I would say it just slightly nudges out my Botanical Gardens Estie as my prettiest pen. I love the resin this pen is made of. It has a steel nib and is a very nice writer.

I really like this ink as well. It's my third bottle from them: I also have the Classy Burgundy and Smoky Navy.

We all have our own expectations/likes/dislikes when it comes to our pens but, for me, these three are the pinnacle of my collection and my absolute favorites to write with.

Judged against my Particular Persnickety Pen Demands, they are perfect in the way they write and the way they feel in my hand when doing so. They just feel "natural," for lack of a better term. They also perform well across a wide range of ink properties and write as reliably as the sun rises every morning.

Diplomat Excellence A2 Steel Fine

Pilot Justus 95 Fine/Medium

Platinum President Bold

I'll use all kinds of inks in a lot of different colors but, going through them all, I recognized these three as probably my three standard overall favorites that I reach for the most:

Platinum Carbon Black

Platinum Blue Black

Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri

When it comes to paper, I do probably 95% of my writing on the white Tomoe River 52gsm blank looseleaf. I find it to be very predictable, it just seems to work fine with any ink I happen to throw at it and it's relatively inexpensive. I use a cheap HP black-and-white laserjet printer to print any ruling on it I feel like, usually French-rule.

The Kaweco Supra Fireblue has kind of a purplish hue to it in spots so I figured some Waterman Tender Purple would be a good match for this Kaweco 250 Medium nib. Paper is Tomoe River 52gsm blank looseleaf with home-printed French ruling.

Jingles, as always, providing the valuable service of making sure the desktop close to where I write is warm.

Pen is one of those new Jinhao 59's. I'm totally impressed with it.

Well, probably more an "accumulation" than a "collection." No curation was involved in assembling these razors. I just kind of wound up with them over the years.

Top left to bottom right:

Gillette Super Adjustable 109: This my favorite out of the bunch to shave with. I like the long handle and the black/chrome aesthetics of the Supers.

Gillette Super Adjustable 84 (Model #'s are total length in mm's)

Gillette Slim #1 This is my most prized razor as it was manufactured in the same year/quarter I was born. That just happened by chance, because I've had it for 50 years and it was the razor I learned to shave with, using my exotic cream of choice, Gillette Foamy Lemon Lime, followed up with a healthy splash of Hai Karate aftershave. I didn't even realize it matched my birth date so close until about 10 years go when I got curious what the little numbers on the bottom of it meant. I'm glad I thought enough of it to keep it around until I made that discovery.

Gillette Slim #2 Got it for $1 at a flea market a few years ago.

Merkur Progress: I can't say as I like this razor. I maybe should have just gone with the standard length version with the plastic knob. I find this longer model to be very awkward and slick. Maybe the shorter one is as well, I don't know. I don't think enough of the head/mechanism to buy one and find out, though.

Parker Variant Open Comb I suspect these are made of cast-iron? Quite the "mil-spec" razor. If you need to bust up the floor tile in your bathroom for replacement, repeatedly dropping one of these on it would make quick work of the job. It's not the heaviest razor out of this batch, but for some reason it sure feels like it is. I think it's the massive knob on the bottom. Don't get me wrong, though, I like it.

Rockwell T2 Gunmetal I must say, this is one fantastic-looking razor (the main reason I bought it) and performs very well. I would be curious to see how the finish holds up over time and under regular use/cleaning but I'll probably never use it enough to find out. It just sits in a glass-top case looking pretty. I would consider buying the stainless version of this as I think it shaves very nicely and I like the adjustment mechanism. I have the stainless Rockwell 6S and it's a nice setup. I consider the 6S more "configurable" than "adjustable," so it's not included in this lineup.

Merkur Futur I would say this is my most aggressive razor. It's unique but a tad clunky for me. It was one of those "Let's see what this thing is all about" purchases. I will just say it's "iconic" and leave it at that. Behind the Merkur Progress, this is the last razor of this bunch I would reach for.

These razors don't see much use as I stick with the same razor for 90% of my shaves (Muhle R41 Twist) but they're fun to pull out and use from time to time.

I consider the Gillette Adjustables to be The Greatest Razors Ever Made. My birth year Slim is now 64 years old, has seen a lot of use over the decades and still looks and functions like it was just made yesterday. I haven't tried them all, but I've never found any other adjustable razor that provides great shaves like any of the Gillette adjustables do, at least these I own and have used.

If I was going to do a deliberate, curated collection of adjustables, I would concentrate on the Gillettes alone.

And, yes, I know I need a Fatboy 😆

I've used a lot of razors over the years but my favorite for comfortable, daily 2-pass shaves is the Muhle R41.

Pictured here top to bottom are two Standard models (rose gold and chrome), a Grande and a Twist.

I recently acquired the Twist and it's quickly become my favorite of the bunch not so much because it's a 2-piece but just because I like the big knob on the end.

I've debated on picking up a Grande Stainless, but I'm old so don't really need the durability of the stainless, the polished stainless doesn't really look much different than the chrome Grande and I already have four of these things so I think I'd rather reserve that $ for something else down the road.

I always use Feather blades in these and pretty much all my razors.

For those unfamiliar, a brief rundown on the Gillette razor commonly referred to as the “Psycho.”   I believe the actual name of it is the Gillette Security Razor or Security Tech.

This is basically a Fat-Handled Tech that has been modified for use in settings where you wouldn’t want somebody removing the blade on their own: jails, prisons, psychiatric facilities, etc.  I believe they first came into use around 1950.  

They came in sets of ten, with one key per set, so coming across one with a key is pretty rare.  There is at least one company that makes replica keys for those who acquire the razor without a key and want one for it. 

About 15 years ago I was discussing razors with a guy I worked with who wasn’t really into them, but he mentioned he’d recently picked up an old razor cheap at a local estate sale and he’d give it to me if I wanted it.  Of course, I said, “Sure!,” really expecting to get some kind of old razor I most likely already owned.  

When he showed up the next day and handed me this in a Ziploc bag I was quite surprised.  I knew exactly what it was when I saw it and told him and also told him he might want to consider keeping and selling it.  He said he didn’t care about that and I offered to pay him for it but he wouldn’t take anything so wound up just giving it to me as he’d planned to do. 

The town where he bought it at the estate sale has had a large “State Hospital” mental/psychiatric facility in it that operated continuously from 1874 (originally called the “State Lunatic Asylum No. 2”) all the way up into the 1980’s and it’s currently a state prison.  St. Joseph, Missouri for those interested in reading about the place  

There’s no way of knowing for sure, but I would say it's more than likely this razor originated from that institution.

I shaved with it once even though I was concerned I could possibly be possessed by the spirit of some long-forgotten psycho killer who was the last person before me to shave with it and died with it in his hand.

I now have my suspicions that may have happened. I can't seem to face up to the facts, I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax, I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire and often yell at people "Don't touch me!" I'm a real live wire, I tell 'ya.

I get up around 5:00am on weekdays and drink coffee and write for about half an hour or so before getting ready for work. Jingles gets up at 5:00am and lays on my desk and watches me.

My coffee cup isn't "dirty," it's "seasoned." 😉

A few Razor/Fountain Pen pairings for your consideration.

Razor/pen identified in each photo.

I have a lot of razors I use but I do probably 90% of my shaving with this combo so thought I might as well just get a big order in and be done with it. This should last me for awhile.

Razor: Muhle R41 Grande

Brush: Simpson Trafalgar T3 Synthetic

Alum Block: Gentleman John

Jingles, offering her services as my desk assistant this evening.

Opus 88 Mini Celestial Zodiac

Parker IM Midnight Astral

Hypergraphia: The driving compulsion to write; the overwhelming urge to write. 

I am not anti ball pen and still use those for a lot of things but I would never really enjoy sitting down and copying a book using even my favorite rollerball pens. So, I don't think the general diagnosis of Hypergraphia would really fit me since I would presume anybody who had that condition would write with anything they could get their hands on.

What would you call somebody who has an overwhelming urge to write but with the caveat of "only with fountain pens?"

Pen in the photo is an Asvine C80 1.1 stub filled with Monteverde Mulberry noir and the writing is about 20 or so pages I did over the past 3 nights after work.

The big stack is the last book I copied which was 335 pages. My current one (in the photos) is in-progress and I'm 100 or so pages in.

I look forward every day to returning home, sitting down at my cozy desk and spending a few hours writing with my favorite fountain pens. I believe this enduring habit/urge/compulsion which I think is familiar to many of us deserves its own unique name but I can't really come up with a good one.

Asvine C80 with a 1.1mm stub filled with Monteverde Mulberry Noir ink. Paper is Tomoe River 52gsm.

I am currently transcribing a book using Chinese pens and inexpensive inks and plan to go through this whole set of Monteverde Noir inks. So far I've used the
Coal Noir, Copper Noir and this Mulberry. They've all been good and Mulberry is nice and wet and perfect for this Asvine stub.

The bottles in this set are 30mL and I paid $80 bucks for it on Amazon so $8 a bottle and I felt that met a threshold for "inexpensive ink."

My only complaint with this set (it's a heavy cardboard box with a magnetic clasp on the lid) is that the glue has failed on most of the seams so the box doesn't really stay closed properly and when you open it, the sides kind of flop down.

I don't care since it's mine: it holds together good enough to keep the inks safe and I put tape on the seams but it would kind of suck to buy this for somebody as a gift and have it happen.

All-around, though, I consider the set a good value and the colors I've tried so far have been good.

Did some matchy-matchy with some of my pens and razors.

Descriptions of the items are at the top of each photo.

Note that most of the pens and razors are not actually made from the same material, they just kind of look the same for the most part color-wise.

The last one is actually probably the best match. It's not captured well in the photo, but I swear that pen and some parts of that razor are made from are the exact same bluish-gray plastic.

Ahhh, Sunday, and really nothing pressing to do today so the day will consist largely of a lot of coffee-drinking and writing.

I'm copying a book and am currently using a Majohn P140.

This is my only currently-inked pen. Majohn P140 Transparent Green Medium filled with Hongdian Peacock Blue ink. Paper is Kokuyo KB office paper with French-ruling I printed on it.

I guess New Nib Day, not New Pen Day. I swapped out the original nib in this Esterbrook desk pen I already had for an Osmiroid Italic Fine Straight nib I just received today and I really like writing with it.

It's not my best writing as this is the first page I wrote with the pen/nib so wasn't really familiar with the properties of the nib yet and wasn't really warmed up so my writing was a little herky-jerky.

The ink is darker at the top of the page: there must have been a little residual blue/black in the pen from the last time I had it inked.

Ink is Waterman Tender Purple and paper is Midori MD on which I printed my own French/Seyes-ruling.

Thanks again to Querybird for enlightening me on this outstanding combination of Esterbrook pen and Osmiroid nib!

My collection of Asvine pens. Sorry, but I was too lazy to take them out of the case.

The second image is a listing of the pens, left to right, top to bottom.

While I like the feel of the ebonite J16 and C2000, I would have to say my overall favorite is still the very basic C80.

I consider Asvine pens, at least the ones shown here, a very good value for the money.

This pen has been around awhile and I never paid much attention to it because I wasn't a big fan of the stringed instrument clip and always figured based on its price that this pen was on the small side and super-cheap.

I recently learned the pen was larger than I thought it was and, at $14.99, I decided I could adapt to the clip and decided to buy one. This pen comes in Black, Blue, Green, White/Ivory, Clear Demonstrator and Red, which for some reason, was $1 less than the rest.

As far as I know, this pen only comes with a M or F nib. I chose the black version with a medium nib.

After writing 15 A4 pages with it, I am totally impressed with this pen and it's been a real joy to use. The nib is wet and writes flawlessly, quite smooth with a hint of feedback. I experienced zero issues with the nib using Monteverde Copper Noir ink in it. I did have to slightly adjust the tines prior to first use. Writing with this pen is quite effortless and drama-free. It works just as it should, all the time without fail.

The converter is a standard length, but has a large diameter and while I don't really have any feasible way to measure it, a Google search indicates the converter will hold around 1.1/1.2 mL of ink which keeps the Medium nib supplied for a long time.

I consider the build quality to be very good, especially for the price. The grip section incorporates very little taper at all (13.3mm at the trim ring and 12.7 at the front) so feels quite cylindrical when you hold it but is comfortable. The grip is pretty short, 17mm, so my fingers do touch/feel the cap threads when I'm writing with it but I don't consider them too harsh and they don't bother me any.

The pen weighs around 34g total and 19g uncapped when inked. The cap posts securely but not that deeply. Unless you're an inveterate poster, there's no reason post it as the body is plenty long. For those who care, the cap goes on and off with 1-1/4 turn.

I've had the pen inked for about a week but I have been writing with it at least once a day, sometimes multiple times throughout the day so I can't offer any opinion on how well the cap seals. About 24 hours is the longest I've let it sit unused and no problems with that length of time.

I have a lot of other Chinese pens from Hongdian, Asvine and Majohn and this $15 offering from Jinhao compares very favorably to any of them and I consider it quite an impressive value for its price.

I had originally intended on looking into removing the clip, but now that I have the pen I'm not going to bother. I don't post the pen so don't have to look at it when I write and it's not a pen I sit around and gaze on lovingly when it's not in use so I don't see any point in removing it. After having it a week I don't even think about the unusual clip anymore.

I'm going to buy a couple more, probably the same nib size in a couple of different colors.

I'm currently using this one to write a chapter of a book I'm currently transcribing.

The paper in the photos is Tomoe River 52gsm I printed my own French ruling on.

Next-to-last photo shows its size compared to a Jinhao 9019 on its left and the massive Jun Lai 930 on its right.

The Copper Noir is out of a boxed set, hence the rather nondescript bottle. It's a great ink!