New notebook, inks and pen
And so begins another rambling post...
You may have read my last post (which was about 3 months late in publishing) about fountain pens which included a brief reference to notebooks. Specifically, the A5 Leuchtturm1917 I am now using as my main notebook. This has turned out to be a really lovely book to use, with very nice features such as contents pages, archiving stickers and page numbers; and the paper is splendid to write on.
I tend to carry a smaller A6 book around with me all the time and, recently, this has been a hardback Black n' Red. The paper in these books is lovely and smooth and takes fountain pen ink really well. But, as my current book was almost full, it was time to think about a replacement. There are many premium notebooks available these days, Rhodia and Moleskine being two fairly well known brands. My wife has a Rhodia (because I bought her one, not because she's that interested in this sort of thing) and I considered getting one of those, but then I came across a Japanese maker called Midori, so I ordered one of their MyNotebooks from The Journal Shop. Not cheap by any measure, but it is a lovely thing; there is some very special about Japanese paper.
I'm also trying another ink. Not in the Sheaffer, which is still happily running with Montblanc Irish Green. No, this was for the old Elysée which, although no longer my main pen, I didn't want to leave to gather dust. I thought it would be good to have a more 'serious' ink colour for those more sombre notes (or something like that) and so I got my hands on a small bottle of Diamine Jet Black. I'm fairly happy with this ink, it has a lovely dark tone, dries quickly and seems fairly resistant to smearing from my hands (which can be a bit damp at times). There isn't much warmth to the colour though.
I'm also trying another fountain pen. The point of buying this pen was that I'm starting to do a bit more legal study (for fun, you understand) and I wanted a hard-wearing pen, filled with black ink, for my notes. So I bought a cheap Parker Urban from W.H. Smith. I loaded it up with the Diamine Jet Black, which had been running without problems in the Elysée, but did not want to play in the Parker. For fast downstrokes (in letters such as b, l, T, etc) the ink was just cutting out. Very annoying. So, instead of trying Quink cartridges (which are designed for Parker), I decided to order a bottle of Aurora Black. Beautiful. Darker than the Diamine and a warmer tone and it appears to flow better through the narrow Parker nib
So, now I've got three pens:
You may have read my last post (which was about 3 months late in publishing) about fountain pens which included a brief reference to notebooks. Specifically, the A5 Leuchtturm1917 I am now using as my main notebook. This has turned out to be a really lovely book to use, with very nice features such as contents pages, archiving stickers and page numbers; and the paper is splendid to write on.
I tend to carry a smaller A6 book around with me all the time and, recently, this has been a hardback Black n' Red. The paper in these books is lovely and smooth and takes fountain pen ink really well. But, as my current book was almost full, it was time to think about a replacement. There are many premium notebooks available these days, Rhodia and Moleskine being two fairly well known brands. My wife has a Rhodia (because I bought her one, not because she's that interested in this sort of thing) and I considered getting one of those, but then I came across a Japanese maker called Midori, so I ordered one of their MyNotebooks from The Journal Shop. Not cheap by any measure, but it is a lovely thing; there is some very special about Japanese paper.
I'm also trying another ink. Not in the Sheaffer, which is still happily running with Montblanc Irish Green. No, this was for the old Elysée which, although no longer my main pen, I didn't want to leave to gather dust. I thought it would be good to have a more 'serious' ink colour for those more sombre notes (or something like that) and so I got my hands on a small bottle of Diamine Jet Black. I'm fairly happy with this ink, it has a lovely dark tone, dries quickly and seems fairly resistant to smearing from my hands (which can be a bit damp at times). There isn't much warmth to the colour though.
I'm also trying another fountain pen. The point of buying this pen was that I'm starting to do a bit more legal study (for fun, you understand) and I wanted a hard-wearing pen, filled with black ink, for my notes. So I bought a cheap Parker Urban from W.H. Smith. I loaded it up with the Diamine Jet Black, which had been running without problems in the Elysée, but did not want to play in the Parker. For fast downstrokes (in letters such as b, l, T, etc) the ink was just cutting out. Very annoying. So, instead of trying Quink cartridges (which are designed for Parker), I decided to order a bottle of Aurora Black. Beautiful. Darker than the Diamine and a warmer tone and it appears to flow better through the narrow Parker nib
So, now I've got three pens:
- Sheaffer Prelude running Montblanc Irish Green.
- An old Elysée running Diamine Jet Black.
- Parker Urban running Aurora Black.
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