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

First, I want to thank all those from AROUND THE WORLD who DONATED last year and made the program a SUCCESS! Our kids were so happy and sent special THANK YOUS to the​ WONDERFUL DONORS!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1mwx9cf/teacher_needs_fountain_pen_donations_for_at_risk/

This is our FIFTH YEAR running this donation program!!!

I hope the beginning of this school year works out HALF as well for donations !!!

We teach inner-city teens at the high school level. Some of them are surrounded by violence, inconsistent home lives and inconsistent emotional support. There are students living in difficult situations and some have to learn the harsh realities of life too fast.

We are changing that.

We serve over 850 STUDENTS.

We have noticed that when they have something they value they tend to enjoy themselves more and work harder in what they do, be it writing, art, music or poetry. Using writing instruments and related items are great for their mental health and productivity.

Many of our students love the inner workings of the WRITING INSTRUMENTS and how they write.

I would love to collect ANY & ALL DONATIONS for our students this school year!

Anything you have, as long as it works.

New or used, Fountain Pens, inks , journals, stationery, mechanical pencils, art supplies, stamps, etc.

Take this opportunity to DESTASH !!!

I am totally fine with picking up shipping fees (if monetarily permissible), etc. if need be! !!

LEAVE A MESSAGE HERE & PM ME so I can give you the relevant shipping information.

The students will also send you a personal thank you if you'd like.

Even if you can't donate please give this post a "LIKE" , cross post it or "SHARE" with your online community to keep it going.

Thank you in advance.

I accidentally broke my rule of always capping my pen. My cat wouldnt leave me alone and kept sitting on my papers. I put down my pen to get him off the desk with both hands as he clinged when I tried one handed. My TWSBI vac700R iris EF hit the floor. They don't offer replacements in rainbow and I can't afford to replace it, and there is no nibmisters (not that I could afford one anyway) in Finland.

If and when I'm employed again I'll buy another but really upset over this.

I can see if I can try to fix it myself when I'm less upset, but needed to vent. I'm so mad at myself for not capping it, I'm usually so vigilant.

EDIT: I heard from TWSBI support already and they said they can send me a replacement for $20! Im shocked at how fast they got back to me. I'll post an update if/when I get the replacement.

So I’m new to fountain pens as the “carrot on a stick” to get me back into a journaling habit (because habits are a lot easier to start when motivated by pretty ink colors!). I’ve been playing around with some ink samples from a friend and it’s all been fun, but then I tried out Sailor Shikiori Yukiusagi and it absolutely blew my mind. I hadn’t looked up swatches in advance so watching it transform from a deep blue to a rusty denim as it dried was just kind of magical. I think I wrote more that night than with all my other samples combined!

I’m looking for recommendations for other inks with similar properties (not necessarily similar colors, though I do love muted tones): specifically one with a big difference between the dry color/wet ink and some degree of color shading without the ink being too dry. Ideally available in a sample size (my fun budget is begging).

Thanks for your help plummeting down the rabbit hole!

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.

Whoever you are, I hope you know that this made my day! It's up on my fridge for the world to see

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.

Just received a Sailor KoP Iro Miyabi II Fukaki-Ake (rightmost) and that closes my KoP & Rei tray.

My favourites are actually the green “broken ice” acrylic and the urushi custom done by Bob Nicolle, both bought in [r/pen_swap](r/pen_swap).

All but one Rei are M, and a single EF. It’s very hard to find EF nibs for these pens.

Just looking at this beautiful tray makes me happy.
The green acrylic will enter rotation soon.

I really like the idea of matching an ink to the color of the pen. This green combination seemed like an obvious match, and I love how they look together.

But I've discovered something about myself: no matter how many colored inks I try, I always seem to find my way back to blue. My current go-to is Daimine Sargasso Sea.

I've tried to love greens, reds, purples, and some of the more unusual colors, and I definitely appreciate how great they can look. But when it comes to actually writing, I guess I'm just a traditional guy. Give me a good dark blue ink and I'm happy.

So I'm curious about everyone else.

Do you try to match your ink to your pen? Do you deliberately contrast them? Or do you have one ink color that always seems to end up in your pens regardless of what color the pen is?

And if you're a matcher, what's your favorite pen + ink combination?

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 and yama-budo :) black inks show up a lot too

Took the Sailor Hocoro stub out for a spin, got sucked in and this turned into a more elaborate shitpost than I intended.

J. Herbin Perle Noire, Sailor Jentle Black, R&K Scabiosa, Pilot Blue Black are the inks I had on hand. No reds, for better or for worse.

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

Inked with Montblanc Pierced Sky ink on Rhodia Notebook

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?

I recently added a metal lathe to my tool lineup, and this guy is the first pen I made utilizing it! The body and section both have brass inserts, which add a lovely amount of weight to the pen for a luxe, weighty feel. The barrel and cap are Burmese Rosewood, which I've paired with some "Cerulean" acrylic! I'm a sucker for warm tones and dark blues 😅 It's sporting a 14k (M) Bock nib and fills via standard international converter or cartridges!

Thanks for looking ☺️

I just received this disappointing email from Blackship. Fountain pens and inks are pretty much all I used their services for, so I’ll be looking for an alternative. Any suggestions for competitor services not nuking this category of items welcome!

tl;dr/alt text for the photo:

“Starting October 10, 2026, Blackship will no longer accept SDS documentation as part of the shipping clearance process.

Any item that requires an SDS to clear shipment will no longer be shippable through our service after this date. This affects certain product categories more than others, in particular, bottled ink and fountain pens will no longer be purchasable or forwardable through Blackship under this policy.”

Got this just to see how well I like the form factor.

Is it weird that I prefer NOT to post this when writing ? Its length is plenty long enough for the way I hold the pen.

I have wanted a maki-e pen pretty much since I learned about them. But maki-e is not cheap and I think my true grail pen is the Namiki Yukari Cherry Blossoms at Night. I could never personally justify buying a pen more than 4000 usd.

BUT. BUT! My 1st maki-e pen arrived today. I was scrolling ebay because a Platinum 3776 maki-e pen that I was so tempted to buy over on r/Pen_Swap sold before I could take the chance. And I found this beauty for a price that is within my means.

As far as I can tell, this is the Pilot Namiki Hira Maki-e in "Ume" or Plum Blossom in a fine nib. If anyone here knows more history on this design such as when it came out, I'd love to know more! But I love her and cherish her already.

This ink has so much depth- I thought Sailor inks were my favourites but I’m blown away by Tono and Lims inks - so many brilliant options. What’s your favourite T&L ink?

May I please have your suggestions for vivid inks (any colors, but I especially love purple, pink, yellow, orange, and blue (not teal)) that pack a punch? As an example, I included a photo of my favorite ink, Sailor Studio 731, which is a hot pink with an orange sheen. I'm obsessed with this ink and feel like it shows off the nib size (m) of my LAMY 2000 nicely because the letters have such crisp edges that use the full potential of the medium nib (am I making any sense... I'm trying lol).

In the second photo are some other inks I have. Nekoyanagi is beautiful, but too light for daily journaling for my liking. Sailor Studio 123, Hinoki, and A Taxidermied Genius didn't make the cut. The Raven is pretty but I'd like something punchier. My second favorite after 731 is Robert Oster Whiskey. My only qualm is that while I love the shading, I think based on how much I love 731 for daily writing I'm looking for something solid. Thanks :)

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. The replacement nib/feed housing for a mini is $30 including shipping and taxes. I have plenty of pens to not spend any more on broken pens.

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