First-time fountain pen?

In article , "Bluesea" wrote:
[snip]flush out the section and nib with cool, not warm since too much heat may
damage the innards, tap water only, never ever (!) with soap, using a baby's
[snip]

why no soap?

is it bad?

regards,

==========
Pam @ Home

Cort Furniture Rental and Honesty are two exclusive concepts.

"Iain Dalton" "iain [dot] dalton [at] gmail [dot] com" wrote in message
...
Terry McGinty wrote:
Using a blotter on the previous
writing helps also.

What's a blotter? Would I find one at an office supply store, or do I
need to order one through the web?

http://www.pendemonium.com/blotters.htm

Pro'lly have to order online. Blotting paper is $1 a pack. Rocking or roller
blotters hold a sheet of blotting paper, but you don't have to use one.
Then, there are desk blotters - blotting paper that's the size of a desk
pad, but I can't recall where to buy one.

--
~~Bluesea~~
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"phk" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Bluesea"
wrote:
[snip]flush out the section and nib with cool, not warm since too much
heat may
damage the innards, tap water only, never ever (!) with soap, using a
baby's
[snip]

why no soap?

While a drop of detergent like a dishwashing liquid mixed with water may be
beneficial to wash out leftover manufacturing oils in a new pen, soap is
more difficult to rinse out and there's no point to leaving a film of soap
in a fp.

is it bad?

Honestly, I don't know if it's bad for a pen or how soap reacts with ink,
but why not wash your hair with soap sometime instead of shampoo (which is
detergent, not soap) and decide if you want your pen's innards to be that
way.

Really, plain water is all that's necessary for regular maintenance and if
you don't let ink dry up in a pen, you'll never need to even think about
anything else. It's the KIS principle.

--
~~Bluesea~~
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Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Bluesea" wrote in message
...

"phk" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Bluesea"
wrote:
[snip]flush out the section and nib with cool, not warm since too much
heat may
damage the innards, tap water only, never ever (!) with soap, using a
baby's
[snip]

why no soap?

While a drop of detergent like a dishwashing liquid mixed with water may
be
beneficial to wash out leftover manufacturing oils in a new pen, soap is
more difficult to rinse out and there's no point to leaving a film of soap
in a fp.

is it bad?

Honestly, I don't know if it's bad for a pen...

....except for the aforementioned film which buildup would clog or at least
inhibit the flow of ink.

--
~~Bluesea~~ just making sure things are clear
Spam is great in musubi but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

Bluesea wrote:
http://www.pendemonium.com/blotters.htm

Pro'lly have to order online. Blotting paper is $1 a pack. Rocking or roller
blotters hold a sheet of blotting paper, but you don't have to use one.
Then, there are desk blotters - blotting paper that's the size of a desk
pad, but I can't recall where to buy one.

I still didn't quite understand, so I looked it up in the American
Heritage Dictionary, and found, "Absorbent paper used to blot a surface
by soaking up excess ink." I still don't understand _how_ that's done,
however. Is it like a paper towel were, after writing, the writer dabs
at the page with the blotter?

--
Iain Dalton

Iain Dalton "iain [dot] dalton [at] gmail [dot] com" writes:

Bluesea wrote:
http://www.pendemonium.com/blotters.htm Pro'lly have to order
online. Blotting paper is $1 a pack. Rocking or roller blotters
hold a sheet of blotting paper, but you don't have to use one.
Then, there are desk blotters - blotting paper that's the size of a
desk pad, but I can't recall where to buy one.

I still didn't quite understand, so I looked it up in the American
Heritage Dictionary, and found, "Absorbent paper used to blot a
surface by soaking up excess ink." I still don't understand _how_
that's done, however. Is it like a paper towel were, after writing,
the writer dabs at the page with the blotter?

Blotting paper is thick and fairly stiff. You lay it flat on what you
have written and press down without moving it sideways at all. It
absorbs any wet ink on the page and thus prevents smearing. A decent
choice of paper and ink make this generally unecessary, at least for
right handers. I've never been a left hander, and it's quite possible
that many inks don't dry quickly enough to prevent smearing.

Any "mainstream" ink like Parker's, Sheaffer's, Noodlers ought to dry
very quickly on most papers. If the paper is coated or finished to be
hard and shiny, you'll run into trouble. I find regular photocopy
papers work quite well. "Ultrabrite" papers tend to be more
troublesome.

On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 01:07:25 -0800, Iain Dalton "iain [dot] dalton [at]
gmail [dot] com" wrote:

"Absorbent paper used to blot a surface
by soaking up excess ink." I still don't understand _how_ that's done,

Blotting paper is somewhere betwen thick writing paper and kitchen
towel. Traditionally a "blotter" was a curved wooden roller with a sheet
of the paper fastened to the bottom of it. They're almost unheard of
today and it's rare to need one other than to sign a letter and drop it
straight into an envelope, without smudging.

Another sort of "blotter" is a large pad of several sheets of this
paper, held in a thick card, leather or vinyl holder on top of a desk.
This gives a smooth slightly soft surface suitable for writing on. It
also absorbs any ink spots and it can also be used as a blotter by
turning your paper over.

You don't want to mess with either of these. Find an ink that's fast
enough drying for you not to wipe your hand over it, n normal writing.

On Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:16:50 -0800, Iain Dalton "iain [dot] dalton [at]
gmail [dot] com" wrote:

Don't Moleskines look the same wherever they are sold?

As far as I know, yes. They have _many_ different styles with different
sizes, rulings and papers. I've seen at least two paper stocks, a
lightweight notebook paper and a heavier sketchbook paper. Both of them
are typical European good-quality paper - slightly soft, slightly
rough, not particularly white.

The paper that causes trouble for fountain pens is the stuff that's
bright white and with an extra-smooth surface. It looks nice in a
magazine, but it's not friendly to write on.

"Iain Dalton" "iain [dot] dalton [at] gmail [dot] com" wrote in message
...
Terry McGinty wrote:
Using a blotter on the previous
writing helps also.

What's a blotter? Would I find one at an office supply store, or do I
need to order one through the web?

--
Iain Dalton

Iain,
As I recall, most stationery or art supply stores carried blotting paper,
and the rocker blotters, but I presume the demand is very small these days.
Prior to the fifties and ballpoints it was in common use and one would see
the practice of using blotting paper put over a fresh fountain penned letter
and given a quick rub before putting in the envelope. Perhaps you've seen
this in an old movie? I remember as a kid in grade school using dip pens,
desks with ink wells, and a blotters all the time; not unusual for one going
to school in the thirties and forties. I'm giving away my age he-)
Times change and methods are forgotten.

I only mentioned using blotters with Moleskines, which I have used for some
time. As a former technical illustrator I've learned many techniques using
ink on paper; techniques relegated to history these days since most of that
is accomplished by computers these days. One such method was using a hair
dryer to dry ink of technical pens filled with india ink, but I see little
practical application of that here. (Never use india ink in a fountain
pen.)

When using Moleskine Journals, notebooks, etc. -- the paper has a coating,
and the paper is thin; not the best for left handers. Swisher's faster
drying ink from Noodler will bleed through so I have found Noodler's regular
black with a fine nib will not bleed through for this left-hander -- But has
a slight tendency to smear for an over writer, so a blotter or other
absorbant paper put over previously written material eliminates the slight
smearing that can result from a following left hand.

Another solution is to get other journals or notebooks with better quality
paper. I use the Moleskines because I like the format and size, not because
of the paper.

Regards,
Terry
--
The address is bogus so remove the excess.

I use Noodler's Air Corps Blue-Black in Moleskine journals with no
significant bleed through. I think it dries quite rapidly, and I (personal
taste here) like the finished appearance of the ink.

One of my brothers is left handed and he uses a variety of Noodler's inks in
Moleskines with no obvious difficulty utilizing a Pelikan M250 fitted with
an Oblique Medium nib. I believe that he writes in a conventional underhand
manner.

Gordon