Sharing is daring
Sharing is caring, so the saying goes. Sharing in the world of fountain pens is also daring.
A common joke amongst my pen friends is that our blood pressure spikes when someone at work or the local café asks to “borrow a pen real quick.”
Do I offer my fountain pen like a decent citizen and possibly watch it’s demise in the hands of someone who isn’t yet practiced writing without pressure? Do I put on my pretentious pants and offer a quick lesson on writing without pressure?
I don’t yet have a satisfactory answer. However, when I was in higher education, I used to carry both a Pilot Varsity and a Pilot G2 in my bag. These were my borrowables: pens I would lend out to those who may only have experience with rollerballs. The Varsity offered a “fancy pen” option. The Varsity nib is a nail and so can withstand abuse. The G2 was a familiar go-to. Both withstood heavy-pressure writing admirably.
I took the leap on Tuesday and lent my Delike to a student. He has been using a black Pro Gear Slim for two years. He’s genuinely interested in fountain pens, and is only just branching out into new brands, new makers, and fountain pen inks. And he writes with moderate-to-high pressure. There goes that blood pressure.
My logic: sharing my pen with him for the week would, at worst, net me a $20 loss. At best, he would learn more about his writing preferences and, perhaps, find a new pen he can afford on a teenager’s budget. A sacrifice worth making with the Delike.
My Delike was returned safely to me on Friday. The pen was in excellent shape. My student treated the pen well. No scratches. No nib damage.
More importantly: my student was all smiles. He wanted to talk purple inks. He wanted a darker purple than the Rose Noir I had inked in the Delike. I offered to share a sample of Robert Oster’s Muddy Crown when school restarts in a few weeks.
Daring accomplished.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. The clear standout pen and ink combo this week has been the Franklin-Christoph 03. Seeing line variation in small EF-sized letters brought me back to the FC-03 time and again throughout the week. Warped Passages is certainly wet enough to keep the EF writing smoothly. The SIG grind shows off. Down to the feed. Lesson plans, marking, reading notes, meeting notes, journaling.
SIG of dreams
TWSBI 580-AL (EF/M) – 1/4 (from 1/2 fill). Superb pairing. The narrow EF side of this multitasker nib handled task management and detailed notetaking without issue. The M side was my primary nib during a disciplinary meeting on Monday. A wider nib is more forgiving during quick writing. Pocket carry. Task management, meeting notes, scratch notes, reading notes.
Sailor Pro Gear (Z) — 1/5. Firehose wet. Shows sheen quite well on Tomoe River. This combo is so wet that it is relegated to journaling and roundtable discussion notes. Fast writing tasks: roundtable notes, meeting notes, journaling.
Delike New Moon 2 (EF) —1/2. The prodigal pen this week. I’m unaware of what trouble this pen got itself into throughout the week. Lent out.
TWSBI 580-ALR (B) — 1/2. Yozakura is an outstanding accent pen, especially against dark grey inks. The B nib brings out the best of Yozakura’s shading. Became a staple for my journaling this week. Journaling, accent reading notes, accent meeting notes, lesson plans.
Pilot CH 912 (SF) — 1/2. Narrow nib keeps Orange Indien bright. One of my favorite marking inks as it’s bright and not red. The SF nib brings out Indien’s shading quite well. Marking, editing, lesson plans.
Lamy Safari (B) — 1/4. Surprisingly wet, and so Rikyu-cha is heavily brown. My second-most used journaling combo. Journaling, lesson plans.
Montblanc 146 (EF) — 3/5. Strong combination. True EF line and a dark grey ink that dries quickly. The best dark greyscale combo so far. Daily driver. Task management, scratch notes, reading notes.
Notebooks. Work bujo: Hobonichi Plain Notebook. 11 new pages, ending on page 52. The first two pages are the weekly spread. Two more are notes from meetings. All but the final two are lesson plans.
The final two pages are lecture notes. I’m pacing out the reading assignments for my upcoming unit on court life in Heian Japan. My students read excerpts from three diaries of contemporaries around 1000 AD: one of which is Murasaki Shikibu’s diary.
Journal. Three shorter entries this week, amounting in five new pages. Only three of these pages were long-form journaling. The most recent entry focused on planning out my new computer purchase.
Briefly: my desktop is about to time out of receiving Apple’s security updates. My current writing mostly takes place away from the desk in my home study. I believe I have two options, a safe or a more creative next computer. I’m journaling through selecting a new laptop or an iPad Pro for my next computer. The jury is still out.
Written dry. All eight pens still have ink left. The Franklin-Christoph 03 is closest as it’s down to only the feed.
Eight pens in a six penvelope. Rules are for chumps
Newly inked. No newly inked pens this week. Self-discipline abounds – or so I tell myself.
The Collection
Incoming / new orders. No new pens or inks this week.
Outgoing / trades or sales. My Parker Vacumatic is packed up and ready for a trip to the pen doctor. The diaphragm busted last spring. The time has, at last, come to repair this lovely antique.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. Four more chapters of Heir to the Empire. I find myself resisting the urge to skip ahead to the next Thrawn chapter. Self-restraint has held out so far.
My partner and I are looking forward to finally wrapping up Name of the Wind this coming week. Spring break is awesome.
Nonfiction. My nonfiction reading was primarily work-related this week. Three book chapters on Heian Era Japan: one focused on a Buddhist schism. The other two highlighted literature and arts.
Music. The Piano Modern Classical playlist on Spotify. More music to sit neatly in the background while I focus on grading or writing or reading.
Failed title for today’s post: “There and back again: a Delike’s tale”
