A thread about writing (pens, ink, pencils, paper)

Me right now actually, ordered a lever fill Conway Stewart about an hour ago :slight_smile: looking for some nice ink now

A period piece?

You’d have to explain what that means, but it is made roughly just about post-war or 1950’s

Yep. Exactly that, then :blush:. It’ll surely have been refurbished. Usually nice finish to them with interesting coloration. A photo will be most appreciated.

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Might post some pictures when I get it, I think due to the age the nib on the pen should be semi-flexible. British made, too!

Hoping it adds some character to my handwriting + happy to purchase something made in Britain. Trying to shift myself away from Chinese produced goods.

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The nib will be been replaced I’d have assumed, given its age and the ink reservoir as it most likely would have perished long ago.

Antique pens are like antique motor vehicles. Not the cleanest experience but we’re talking classic - comes with the territory. :roll_eyes:

I think the nib is original by the looks of the pen it has the old Conway Stewart labelling on it, a tad ink stained and dirty

I reckon the ink sac is going to be either replaced or need replacing, but I’ll deal with that when it comes on the 30th/31st

Not that I’m sure how to replace a rubber ink sac in a lever fill, now that I think about it. I don’t even know how I’d go about getting that all out haha

Good old YouTube (and Google) I suspect, will be your first call. Important thing here is: enjoy it and learn.

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Yep, I’m excited for it. I think it’s celluloid or lacquer based (or maybe both?) but I’m going to look into seeing what I can use to clean it

I have a friend that’s really into pens so he probably has some knowledge of what I can use. Will also let it sit in some water to clear the chamber etc

Then after it’s all clean I’ll see if it needs some polishing for example to give it some extra gleam as lacquer should have, take a scratch or two out of the limelight along the way

Then I get my nice writing instrument for my notebook in university and for letters, going to get some nice cotton paper letters and some nice envelopes while I’m at it

Sounds like a well-ordered plan.:slightly_smiling_face:

They’re out of town until Saturday :neutral_face: so I probably won’t get it until the 3rd or 4th

And here’s me with my Twisbi :smile: good pen though.

Diamine Ink is a pretty decent UK company and inexpensive I’d your still looking for ink?

TWSBI is a good pen company too, I plan to pick one up for university note-taking (since it can guzzle a lot of ink)

I’m guessing you have the ECO?

I’m considering my options still, I know of Diamine but I’m not too sure what ink I want to use yet, namely looking at Pilot, Noodlers and Diamine right now :slight_smile:

Also going to get some nice paper and some sealing wax soon. Don’t suppose you know where to pick up a signet ring or something similar?

Do any of you know an A6 notebook of good quality? Looking for paper that’s either made of linen or with a high cotton content.

Decided Diamine colours aren’t really my cup of tea so any other British ink providers would be appreciated if anyone could recommend

Edit: I actually like their Prussian Blue but it’s out of stock on CultPens and 2x the cost on Amazon…

Have you looked into Moleskine? Their notebooks are what they’re famed for. They don’t quite do A6 size but their pocket is very close to it, just 1cm narrower and 0.5cm shorter.

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I got some Yop & Tom ones, 160GSM and pretty much anti-ghosting

Unfortunately Moleskine are really bad for bleeding and ghosting; I use pens with quite a wet ink flow generally so they’re not really useful to me since I’d only be able to use half of the book

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So my Conway Stewart fountain pen came, but it was broken.

The lady refunded me and said that she didn’t know much about it and couldn’t tell it wasn’t working and apologised.

I didn’t get a returns label, so I can’t send it back to her, so I’ve decided to repair the pen, or at least I’m trying to do so (eBay also told me as she’s refunded me and it’s all closed they can’t get me a label or do anything further)

Waiting on a replacement ink sac now. Took the old one out and it had turned into something very brittle that was permanently depressed.

I think I might have fucked the nib while trying to pull it out to realign it w/ the feed, but I’ll see if I’ve ruined it when the rest comes, I suppose.

Could actually be a decent hobby if I had more calloused fingers, because trying to pull an adhered pen apart when it has friction and adhesive, is very painful on my soft baby hands

I generally use Rhodia for higher quality note pads, and leuchtturm for notebooks (though I know there’s better out there for note books these ones are available and decent quality)

I’ve never used super expensive stuff. Do you have any recommendations for fancy paper?

You can get these repaired, though I’ve never had it done myself.

Crown Mills and Clairefontaine have cotton paper iirc, there’s also linen paper out there but it’s very expensive

Going to see if it works first but if it is fucked I’ll see about getting the nib repaired: I actually crimped it a tad trying to pull it out with metal

My friend is super into pens though and said it should be okay because ink isn’t too picky on flowing down

I’ll post another update once I cut the new sac to size, seal it all up and try to write with it :slight_smile: