For Christmas (actually it arrived in my hands on the evening of the 30th) I've received a very beautiful handcrafted #dipPen and yesterday I tried it.
The first surprise is that the nib (which they declare is a vintage one from the early 1900s) seems to be glued inside the pen. waitwhat? Don't they know that nibs get ruined with use and have to be changed?
Oh, well, I've tried it with my fancy nib test setup¹ and it's a beautiful fine/extrafine flexible nib that writes smoothly. Sadly I can't know which nib it is, but I guess that when it will get worn down I can try to pry it out and find out.
And then in the package there was a small bottle of black ink. That I tried with my fancy ink test setup² and was really horrible and hard to use even with a rigid nib, never mind the flexible one on the pen.
And ok, I get it that most people who buy a souvenir pen at a tourist attraction (like this one was) do so to keep it unused, but really, it's a pen, it's a tool! why can't they make a tiny bit of effort of making it usable for the few people who would want to actually try to use them³? It wouldn't take much, just a cheap off-brand german fountain pen ink (maybe they require too high a quantity to allow for rebranding? but there must be a solution that is still cheap)
This way they are going to spread the myth that writing was really hard in the past and we have to be thankful for having ballpoint pens (UGH), and discouraging young people who may have shown interest in writing with the tools that are actually nice to use!
And now, off to check whether that ink is usable on fancy paper, because this specific kit. WILL. BE. USED!⁴ :D
¹ a random scrap of paper and cheap but trustworthy Pelikan 4001 black ink.
² a consistent piece of the same printer paper (not fancy, but known to work decently with average liquid inks) and a variety of nibs (rigid extrafine, lettering, flexible)
³ I mean, other than the enthusiasts who are already well equipped with their own favourite inks, fancy paper and everything :D
⁴ At least the pen. the ink is probably not worth too much effort, except as much as I'm having fun being stubborn over it :D
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Catherine RW
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Catherine RW • •@Catherine RW fountain pens are nice, and excellent for day-to-day writing, but they are still a very different thing than dip pens, and if somebody is interesting in writing the way people in the past did a dip pen is an easier introduction than going directly with quills and/or reed pens.
With small ink wells, good ink¹ and a bit of care it isn't hard to completely avoid making a mess (unless you drop the ink well, of course).
Of course it depends a lot on the age of the niece, I expect that for a 1st or 2nd grader a fountain pen with cartridges is a much better choice, of course.
(I started using dip pens for fun in 4th grade; in my whole life I can remember only two dropped bottle incidents, and only one of them left permanent traces)
(and of course, this means that there will be another big dropped bottle incident tomorrow? :D )
¹ not *fancy* expensive ink. I've had good experiences with many cheap fountain pen inks, they only require either testing or asking somebody who has already tried them for recommendations.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •Mre. Dartigen [maker mode]
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •It's sounding like it might not even be proper fountain/dip pen ink at all.
Out of curiosity, what's the consistency like? What's it doing when you try to use it?
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Mre. Dartigen [maker mode] • •@Mre. Dartigen [maker mode] yeah, that's also what I'm suspecting, that they've taken a random cheap liquid ink and bottled that.
and it's very liquid, spreading out (and down to the other side) as soon as it gets close to the paper.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • •I told a fountain pen user friend of mine about this and he told me of an even worse story: his first *fountain pen* came with a bottle of ink. luckily the shop he bought it from knew what he was selling, and also gave him a bottle of cheap pelikan 4001 and the recommendation to never use the ink from the box, because it wasn't fountain pen ink. it was for dip pens only. The kind that will clog and ruin a fountain pen.
At least, if you put something inadequate in a kit with a dip pen you have to make a really huge effort to ruin it.