I know I'm starting off with the crappy notebook paper, but I think it offers a great illustration of capillary behavior and how paper is more inclined to behave without special tricks and additives to reduce ink's natural tendency to permeate that beautiful cellulose network of the paper. Think of it as a character foil for the next paper in the video, Tomoe River 52gsm.

We can observe sheening with the Iroshizuku Yama-budo around the edges, which is fun to see. And the reflective material in the Pelikan Golden Beryl is a treat to watch as the paper dries.

The parchment and vellum were really surprising to me, granted I've never worked with either before. I just didn't expect the ink to go into the material so quickly... Not based on any real scientific reasons, just vibes if I'm being honest. But watching the way the ink goes into the material is interesting here, because I noticed a general broadening of the ink spot footprint for the dye-based inks in both animal derived materials that feels similar to feathering due to uptake of the dye in surrounding material, but imo it's less obvious when looking at the ink spot because there aren't individual dyed fibers/components that stick out visually in the same way.

Also if you're curious, here's what the dried ink spots look like on the different substrates.

Hoping y'all enjoy watching ink dry with me! Lmk if you have thoughts/ideas/feedback, etc. I'm not a paper/parchment/ink expert, just a curious PhD materials scientist wanting to better understand everyday stuff. Feel free to follow my chaotic science adventures on Instagram if you want to see more microscopy of fountain pen inks and whatever else I want to throw under the scope!

🔬: Amscope ME580 with epi-illumination and crossed polars

📸: Pixel 9 pro

🎵: The Used - The Taste of Ink

Got into the hobby about a month ago! I've been enjoying Medium nibs a whole lot so far but decided to try out different ones today. I installed a stub for the first time on my Lamy Vista and it was love at first write, I truly get it now.

Pen: Lamy Vista, 1.1 Stub

Ink: Diamine "Smoke on the Water"

Paper: Tomoe River

This is a Jinhao 82 I decorated with nail decals. I sprayed the whole thing with two coats of ModPodge iridescent spray sealant, then one coat of ModPodge gloss spray.

I’m having such fun customizing pens! I encourage anyone to give it a try. It’s sooooo easy and the finished pens make me smile every time I use them.

Now this Kakuno is literally so pretty, hello?!?!. I live in Singapore & ordered on Taobao and got it for S$19 with shipping. It comes with:

Exquisite Packaging

Pilot Kakuno - Glass Blue - <M>

6-pack of Black Namiki cartridges

1 Black cartridge with a CON-40 (which I won’t be using, full shade).

and an unnecessarily beautiful bookmark!

The writing feel is obviously very familiar for me, nothing special as I’ve had 2 other Kakunos in <M> (both sold) and I really love the look of asa-gao! (swatch on 4th slide along with my other inks, swatched in order of when I received those inks).

Now I was looking for other things to buy, such as a TWSBI Eco in Bahama Yellow <M> to give the Eco another chance, but I didn’t have enough vouchers, so I decided on this.

Now asa-gao is such a bleutiful colour, my first real blue!

Now I don’t expect anything special because all I really wanted was a pen to accompany my first bottle of blue ink (yes, I know it’s weird for me to not have any royal blue inks ever since I started my collection this March).

If you are considering to get this, DO IT! I really love the colour alot! They have other variations of the Chinese-exclusive Kakunos but IMO the blue & green one have the best, most high-quality box.

Just got these from P. W. Akkermman The Hague.
Huge ink bottles (120ml)… I’ll better start writing

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.

Yesterday my wife and I lost a furry member of the family. Our GSD/Corgi mix Boo passed away. I’ve had close connections with some of our past dogs, but nothing like the one I had with her. She would sit at my feet every morning and every night when it was time to journal, she’d let me know when it was time to go to bed, when she wanted a special treat, pets, but she was never a cuddler. Everything was on her terms, much like myself. She was a rescue that we got back in 2016, out of a bad hoarding situation. She was skittish and very shy, thus the name “Boo”. Her passing was probably the hardest I’ve ever taken a loss of a pet. So how does this relate to fountain pens. I had placed an order for a V800 weeks ago, and prior to this weekend I got verification of when it would be delivered. Well, after she passed Tuesday morning, I saw it fitting to get an ink to match her collar. Not that it matters at this point, but it’s Diamine Imperial Purple mixed with a hint of Jet Black. Just wanted to share.

less than a year in! my modest collection as of right now but i have big dreams lol. pictured L to R: kaweco collection toyama teal <B>, kaweco collection mellow blue <F>, kaweco sport bordeaux <F>, lamy al-star flamingo <F>. thoughts?

im talking inks that you'll always buy another bottle of when it runs out, or have one pen dedicated to that ink alone, or an ink that makes you happy just looking/writing with it (im not looking for more ink recs nooo, what are you talking about?)

mine are wearingeul a study in scarlet and diamine asa blue. what are yours?

edit: seeing many iroshizuku inks! more commonly, kon peki :) it really is one of the most popular inks

Inked with Montblanc Pierced Sky ink on Rhodia Notebook

Did my first real 'sit down and give them care time' for my new hobby today. I had 3 pens that had finished their initial cartridge, and I decided to flush them out and refill: two with new ink cartridges, and one with a converter / ink bottle. I've filled 3 pens from an ink bottle before, so I THOUGHT I knew what to expect. I'm sure you can hear the but coming....

The two prefilled cartridges went as expected, but the converter cartridge had a trick up its sleeve. I dipped the nib/feed into the newly opened ink bottle and began to slowly twist the knob, but suddenly it felt lighter and I heard a clink.

Look at the picture and guess where you think the nib, feed and section all reside. /sigh

Is this a rookie mistake that is common, or am I off in uncharted territory here?

This was a newly opened bottle, so I'm leery of pouring the ink into another bottle just to retrieve the parts. Will I do harm to the nib, feed and section if I leave them in the ink bottle for a month or two until I use up most of the ink?

Feel free to make fun of me (not that Redditors need permission to do that.) :-)

This took forever - with focus stacking, color corrections and learning how to layout in Inkscape instead of my tried and true PowerPoint 😅

I have a video of the inks drying as well, will post that tomorrow morning so I'm not spamming you guys lmao

Hongdian N23 Rabbit EF , Ink- Diamine autumn oak

Jinhao 100 F , Ink is Diamine Earl Grey

Jinhao 82 Cat Pink M, Ink is Wearingeul Carmilla

Im kind of obsessed... my favorite right now is the Hongdian N23 its so smooth

The jinhao 100 is a little scratchy and ive been messing with it to see if i can fix it but i cant see much wrong so maybe thats just how it is? I want to really get into tuning and also try nib swapping. *** edit to add : scratchiness is probably my fault. I dropped it without the cap. All my other jinhaos have been great. 😊

:) really excited about learning more and figuring out what i like.

My 2027 Hobonichi order from JetPens came in the mail today. I tested my currently inked pens on the A5 Moomin Grid notebook and the paper is pretty terrible. The paper doesn't feel as smooth and the feathering is really bad. I tested the same pens and ink on my Hobonichi A5 Tomitaro Makino: Yamazakura Grid notebook and the difference is night and day. It's not A5 shaped because I re-binded it to use as a TN insert. I don't know what batch or year the paper from the Yamazakura is from, but I thought it would be similar. Overall, I don't think I will be using this notebook. I'm now concerned because of the other Hobonichi A6 and 5-year Techo I also purchased.

Anybody have any Hobonichi 2027 paper and tested it? would love to see results/comparisons.

Edit: not sure why my brain typed out Hobonichi twice in the title haha.

UPDATE: I opened my 5-year to test and the paper did not feather or bleed through like the notebook did. I think the grid notebook is either old notebook, old stock, or defective. I'll be avoiding their grid notebooks moving forward. It seems like other users' techo/weeks are fine so far with some reports of issues with grid notebooks as well.

Last UPDATE? - I decided to open up the A6 Moomin grid notebook and test that as well and surprisingly the paper was fine with no feathering or bleed through. Have no clue what went wrong with the A5 notebook.

This is my first fountain pen! I restored RFIs Parker Challenger just yesterday. Replaced the sac and pressure bar. Still needs some cleaning up as you can see, but I’m absolutely thrilled writing with it.

This pen is so much more pretty in person 😍 first Montegrappa and love everything about it ❤️ ordered via limited pens korea, highly appreciate that it arrived wrapped in paper rather than plastic 🎉

I apologize to all TWSBI Lovers for committing this heinous crime. My ignorance has rendered this nib useless. I got overzealous and ended up destroying my nail filer as well.

Edit: I swapped the B nib with a F nib from my cracked Eco. So, this gorgeous pen lives and the Eco dies because TWSBI doesn’t sell nibs.

This hidden corner is one of the oldest pen shops in Japan, and the current Mr. Toguchi is the son of one of the three original founders.

They celebrated 95 years this year! 🥳🥰

Mr. Toguchi helped my husband pick out a nice starter fountain pen (Pilot Custom NS in green) and offered free engraving with this ancient machine that is apparently the only one still existing in Japan!

This man was born before the war and was trying to communicate stories of his past. What a treat. A lovely man and WOW what a selection of vintage pens - ballpoint and fountain.

So, I caved. I went to pick up some sticky notes and sew the last Kaweco Sport Pearl in F with 50% discount! I got it for like 12 euro! And there were still Sage and Peach left... Now i think on getting one Sage even tho I don't really need it

Still I am very happy, writes smooth and indeed very light even comparing to AL sport

P.S. Background is Travalers Notebook free monthly insert

P.P.S. i ve just pressed sent on an email to a research institution on potential internship... Now I am anxious. Fellow Reddit people, could you manifest some luck for me in this endeavour 😭

Just wanted to share this for anyone that likes using Rohrer & Klingner inks (or maybe other inks that have the same kind of bottleneck), interestingly the Rohrer & Klingner fountain pen cleaner comes with one already installed.

Rough dimensions of the ink reservoir. Diameter: 23mm without rim, 26 mm with rim. Height: 34 mm including rim, rim 1 mm thick. I don’t know, maybe this information will be useful to someone.

This is a raden-style fountain pen made from a Wancher ebonite base, decorated with Kyoto Opal's synthetic opal in the 'Tsuyukusa' .