Counting down.

I have this week and next week scheduled for my classes' last paper.  This week, we're going over APA citation format in class, and then having a research day on Thursday.  Next week, they're freewriting on Tuesday, and workshopping/peer editing on Thursday. 

The week after, we move from papers to blogging for two weeks (four posts, total), and then we're absolutely done with class; final exams are scheduled for the next Tuesday for both classes (5/9), and will be nothing but students emailing me missing work during the time set aside for the final exams.  I won't be on campus for that.  And by the end of the day, I can and will be turning in final grades.

I am tired.  I'm ready for summer break from trying to cram new writing skills and bring out the ones present in my students. 

Fall semester's going to be rough.  I'm going to have back to back 75 minute classes.  I'll be done with the teaching by 10:45, though, and should be able to set office hours to be done by 1:00...which will give me a little while to go run errands, or crash until it's time to pick up the kids. 

Today, I'm working on grading paper 4 and revisions of paper 3 that were turned in.  I just wish the course site would cooperate more, instead of taking more than a minute to load the paper to grade, be sluggish on scrolling down as I read the papers, and take another minute to record the grade, then yet another to maybe load the next paper, or maybe just put me back on the gradebook's main page...where I have to select the next paper myself, and wait for it to load.

Needless to say, that is NOT the way it's supposed to work. 

I'm still working my way through the ones turned in through the course site for my earlier class; the paper copies are still in my bag, awaiting attention...and I forgot my freakin' pencil.  And I'm not comfortable grading in pen, because I tend to get nasty tempered and snarky with students who repeat the same corrected mistake from one paper to the next to the next.  And many do, even if more learn.

I'm still playing with the fountain pens I got for my birthday, last month, and despite loving my Conklins, I absolutely adore the lime green TWSBI Eco I got.  I'm DEFINITELY spending more on one of their Diamond 580s for the next pen I get (and one of their special ink bottles that make filling the pen a much less messy proposition).  The Eco holds a TON of ink, writes smoothly, and is just an all-around excellent pen (even if, as a piston-filler, it would NOT be a good pen to fly with filled).  It also doesn't really like to be carried on its side, jostled around.  It burps into its cap.  Doesn't do that if you carry it upright, though. 

I do plan to get either one of their vac-fill pens (which also have a special, less-mess ink bottle), or another piston fill eventually.  However.  Before that, I DESPERATELY need a new coffee pot--my current one takes fifteen minutes to brew 12 cups, if it's been freshly cleaned.  Otherwise, it takes longer.  And a brown-out will cause it to lose the clock, so pre-setting it the night before doesn't really work well.  That's fine for over break and summer, because I'm not in a hurry for it, but I have to be AT WORK by a bit before 8:00, for my first class.  And that's a bitch.

I miss my Cuisinart Grind-n-brew.  Fast, power blinks didn't wipe its clock settings, and I could put beans in and not mess with a separate grinder.  That's on my list for fall. 

Ink review

Just got my ink samples from The Goulet Pen Company. I've been waiting for them--there was one in particular I wanted to try. For the most part, the Parker Quink inks are good about not feathering in notebook paper, but I ordered a bottle of Parker Quink blue-black from Amazon, and got two very small bottles of blue, both of which smelled like paint, not ink. Shipped from India. Cannot return. I'll be emptying the bottles and refilling with other inks eventually.

However. That rather soured me on Parker bottled inks, and a little on the filled cartridges.

Once my current bottles are gone, that's going to be the last Parker ink I order through Amazon.* But I still need a good, non-feathering ink that doesn't bleed through on cheap paper (which is what I mostly use). 

I ordered a sample of Noodler's X-Feather black through Goulet Pens. As I said, it (and Noodler's Q-E'ternity, and scented inks sandalwood, frankincense, and myrrh from De Atramentis) arrived today. I've loaded one of my wetter-writing medium nib pens (a Hero 901) with the X-Feather, and tested it out.

Little feathering on Walmart brand notecards, but none on legal pads, comp books, loose notebook paper, printer paper, or recycled paper legal pads. It doesn't seem to bleed through on any of it, and only sort of shows through on the recycled paper.  

It's also a much darker black than my Parker Quink black.  I like that.  I like it a lot.  I just need to see if it does what Bulletproof Black does, and leaves solid residue clogging up the works before I use it in anything other than a cheap Jinhao knockoff of a Lamy Safari, or my just-as-inexpensive Hero 901.** 

Needless to say, I've got a new favorite black ink.  And one that's just over $12.50 for a 3 oz bottle (as opposed to $10 for 2 oz, like the Quink).  

*I may order any more Quink from The Goulet Pen Company, when I've run out of the plain blue.  It's my other half's preferred ink for color and behavior.  

 

**I bought my Hero 901 three or four years ago, for just under $3.  

 

New favorite pen

Last month, I ordered a new pen from Amazon: the Conklin Mark Twain.

This is it:



I love this pen.  It's a reproduction of the first self-fill type: the crescent fill.  It predates the lever fill by several years, even though Sheaffer wound up cornering the market with a better advertising department.

In my opinion, the crescent fill was a far better system.  There's a rotating ring with a slot that prevents the crescent from being depressed, squashing the presser bar against the ink sac, thereby expelling the ink.  There's nothing preventing you from accidentally raising the lever and expelling all the ink.

The pen is substantial, hefty without being too heavy.  Comfortably broad for larger hands, or small hands that don't like skinny pens anymore.  Filling is simple: line up the slot in the ring below the crescent, depress the crescent, and stick the nib in the ink up to the feed, and let go.  Repeat a few times with the pen in the ink, and you're good.  Wipe the excess, and start writing. 

I bought this in a fine nib.  It's a butter-smooth nib in stainless steel, and lays down a line finer than my Lamy EF.  The nib is fairly soft, which means if you want, you can achieve a bit of line variation, but it is not a flex nib, so you need to be careful not to spring it. 

It isn't a pen for beginners.  I've seen in reviews that some people have gotten their hands on one with a misaligned nib (scratchy), which needs a careful eye and careful fingers to fix.  It is easily fixable, but it takes a pen owner that understands what's going on.  I've seen complaints that it doesn't like to start writing when they set it down for a few minutes (cap it, you idiots), or that it's a hard starter in general (not my experience, but probably just needs cleaned).  I've seen complaints that it leaks--that leads me to a suspicion that they're inexperienced with self-fill systems, which can burp ink when they're near empty, from a little bit of air expansion when it warms from your hands while you're using it. 

My personal experience of using it, in the (slightly less than a) month I've had it in my possession is nothing like any of that.  It is, honestly, the best writer in my stable, beating out my favorite nameless antique lever fill by quite a bit in smoothness of nib, in the feel of the pen, and in the filling mechanism.

And that leaves aside the entire question of cool: this is a reproduction of Mark Twain's favorite pen.  The one he endorsed in ad copy in 1902.  And his signature is engraved on the back of the cap's trim ring (something not visible in the picture from Amazon).  As brilliant of a writer as this pen is, it's the other features that prompted me to buy it: the fact that it was the first self-fill mechanism type on the market, and the fact that it was one of the first celebrity endorsements in the history of advertising for pens. 

I am very, very glad I spent the money I did, even if I had my doubts about it as soon as I'd hit the order button. 

Random ramblings

We went up to my in-laws' house, yesterday.  Odysseus's much-older sister and her grandson (our kids' second cousin) visited yesterday, too, and the bigger boy brought water guns.  He'd obviously put significant thought into matching his water blasters to my kids' sizes.  The three kids had a blast, although the pixie wasn't happy with the aftermath: she got stripped down to the skin, and dry shorts put on (with no underwear).  She told me she was "terribly not comfortable" and wanted to go to the store for dry panties.

The imp...well, we had recently watched Guardians of the Galaxy with him.  He loved it.  Loved Groot, and loved Rocket.  The other boy had the refill bucket covered, and squirted the imp every time he tried to reload.  The imp, however, was using a watergun with a magazine.  Odysseus showed him how to detach it, reload it in the garage bathroom sink, and put it back.  The imp slaps the magazine home 'til it clicks, gets this huge smile, and says, "Oh, yeah."  Just like Rocket in the movie when he got ahold of a blaster (which the imp's watergun resembled). 

It was hilarious.

The imp also had a milestone this week: he lost his first tooth.  Poor little guy lost it at recess, and lost it in the rocks on the playground.  He bawled.  A lot. 

(The tooth fairy left him a note that she'd found his tooth on the playground, and brought him money anyway.)

I ordered a 10 pack of Hero 616 pens.  They arrived this last week--some of the nibs are slightly off-center with the hood, and in one or two, the nib tines were misaligned, which will make them scratchy and unreliable (but which is easily fixed).  I have two of them loaded with ink--green and red--and I'm very satisfied with the quality.  The pens themselves are slightly smaller than the 616 my mother bought for me, and have stainless steel nibs, rather than gold (like the one my mom gave me has).  They write incredibly well, and seem like they'll be nice, reliable writers. 

The cats are still trying to adjust to a different lifestyle and schedule of most of us being gone most mornings.  Sometimes, Shadow gets clingy, and sometimes she gets mad and won't interact with us at all.  Cricket...I'm not sure she remembers we've been gone after we get home. 

I've picked up my first set of papers from my students.  No, I haven't started grading yet.  I'll be working on grading starting later this afternoon; we'll be going to the local range after babysitting gets here for the pixie.  After that, I'll be much more relaxed, and in a far better mood for actually figuring the grades (which is the part I HATE).   We'll also likely be watching Clint Eastwood comedies later this evening, after the pixie goes to bed. 

I've got about four pages handwritten of The Schrodinger Paradox.  I've been too busy this week to sit down and type them up--the handwritten bits were written during a few minutes snatched here and there, while I was waiting for something, or when I had the draft book at hand and nothing else that needed done at the moment.  I should hopefully have some time for transcription this coming week.

random ramblings

So.  Sick imp was no longer sick when he woke up yesterday.  Ate two sausage links, and then ate well for lunch.  Which meant that we were able to go ahead and keep up with our plans yesterday to drop them off with Odysseus's parents, then go out for lunch.  He spent last night, and will be spending tonight, too.  And Grandma took them to the water park yesterday, and will be taking the imp (or already has taken, probably, by this point) back today.

Since the imp is at their grandparents' house, the pixie's here on her own.  I usually let her watch a lot of the things she likes that the imp doesn't, when he's gone, but today's a bit different.  Today, Odysseus took the pixie to her first movie theater movie: they went to see the new Minions movie. 

I've posted a half a dozen pens on my Etsy page.  Most of them are fairly inexpensive, but one is fairly rare, and it's rare to find another of the pens I've posted in as excellent of condition as it's in.  I've still got four more pens to fix (three to sell, one to keep as an exemplar of filler type).

My family has discovered the Dawn dish soap trick for fleas, and my little dog loves her bubble baths.  Mom says she huffs on the bubbles to blow them around. 

Shadow has been spending the early parts of nights sleeping on the imp for a while, now.  Last night, she spent most of the evening looking for her boy before she gave up and slept on his desk.  She's been sleeping on his desk for most of the day...and then decided she'd sleep on my recliner's footrest.

Cricket has been playing "the floor is lava" throughout the carpeted areas of the house.  Odysseus has three big, heavy plastic trunks in the hallway.  She jumps from the one closest to the living room doorway onto the pixie's desk, then from there to the back of the couch.  She jumps from the couch to the kitchen.  Does not seem to like carpet at all.

I've got just about one more month off before fall semester starts.  The kids' school starts on the Thursday before, sort of to give the kids a chance to get back into (or into for the first time) the swing of things.  And during this last month I have off (and once I've finally got this stupid UTI kicked to the curb), I'll see just how much I can get done.  The house has gone from debris field disaster area to a mere train wreck.  I'm not sure it's going to get better than that, given that I've got the kids following me and working on making new messes as I clean them up.  And eventually, I'll have to take time off and rework my textbook (again) and work on revising/revamping the class for next spring.  I've got a lot to learn for my plans, which should make my students better prepared to write in whatever their major is.

I'm just under a third of the way through the book I'm proofing.  It's slow going, because I hadn't been able to focus for long periods of time.  Too miserable.  I'm hoping I'll feel less like I have the flu tomorrow.

As for writing...I think I got through the most recent block, but I'm not entirely sure.  We shall see.

Random ramblings.

I am an idiot.

In the course of trying to keep a UTI under control until I could get to the doctor's office, I wound up giving my self a mild case of water intoxication.  With symptoms of nausea, lethargy, and dizziness, and a weight gain in one day of ten pounds.

A night and a day of mild diuretics fixed it, but it was a little unnerving to realize that the UTI wasn't the only thing wrong, and the other thing was something I'd done to myself.  No more drinking more than a gallon a day, and only that much when I'm busy and sweating (which I don't do much...which really sucks during hot weather).  

The kids are the worst of monsters for night owl parents: they're morning people.  Doesn't matter how late I put them to bed, they're up no later than 6:30 in the summer, and often emerging from the imp's room, where they're supposed to play and be quiet until at least 7:00.  No, it doesn't seem to matter if they can't see the sunrise--I think they feel it like vampires feel the sun setting in fiction. 

Why, no, I didn't get back to sleep this morning.  Why did you think to ask that?  ;)

Yesterday, the kids and I went up to Mom's.  I had Odysseus take us and leave us there, so that he could join us for supper, after he'd had a chance to take the unit test for the online class he's taking. 

It did not work out that way.  The kids had a ball, but the fucking course website was buggy as hell, and he didn't want it to freeze in the middle of taking his test and boot him out.  Here's hoping it works today, during the hour I have the kids playing in the front yard with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. 

But in any case, we did go to Mom's yesterday.  Where I found that yes, Mom actually did order me a pen that had been on my Amazon wish list.  It's a Hero 616, with a gold filled cap and a gold nib.  I'm pretty sure it's a reproduction of a Parker 51.  It's an extremely fine nib, very pretty, has an old fashioned aerometric filling system, and has a clear, plastic ring between the section and the filling system and barrel that shows ink level--something few of my other pens have.  It's a very nice feature. 

I've read in Amazon reviews that some  of these pens have a(n easily fixable) problem with leaking, but mine needed no tinkering before I could fill it.  And it hasn't burped yet, like some of my pens do when they're one of the older ones and get shaken about. 

Once we got home, the cats were incredibly possessive and clingy.  I don't know if it's because they missed us, or smelled my sister's and aunts' cats on us.

There wasn't much writing done, this week, and what was done was done longhand.  I need to get that gathered up (three different notebooks), and get that transcribed.

I am alpha-reading and helping with the first edit on a friend's book.  I can advise this: when it comes out in the Amazon stores, go buy it.  So far, it's really hooked my attention, and I'm only a few pages in.  Which I read while I was feeling my worst, wasn't interested in much, and still got hooked.

random ramblings

I need to start getting to bed earlier.  Especially since I need to cut back on the caffeine while I'm trying to stave off getting a UTI. 

It's gonna be a really, really pretty day.  I'm thinking about taking the kids to the back yard for a while.  I'd just kick them out, but because of neighbor complaints, we no longer have a yappy little dog that gives an alarm if someone approaches that she doesn't know, and we live in town. 

It really sucks.  I dimly remember having unsupervised outside time at their ages.  I wish I could give them the same in their own fucking yard, but it really is a different world of dangers: if it's not the dangers of stranger kidnapping (which actually does happen, no matter what people who quote statistics would say--and has happened near here within the last two years), it's the dangers of some shithead bully calling the cops for what they consider neglect.

And, given the whole issue with somebody calling the cops on the dog, I'm not willing to risk my kids.

We'll be taking the kids and going to PetSmart for some cat food within the next hour, hour and a half.  They'll have their pet adoption days going (i.e., kennel cages with dogs and sometimes cats) set up where the kids can coo over and pet the dogs), and the pixie loves watching the small rodents.  The imp loves the lizards (which seem to love him, too). 

We'd recently gotten the cats some catnip mice, and Cricket loves them.  She carries them around in her mouth, yowling with her mouth full of toy, then jumps up to play with them around the arm of the couch.  I don't mind so much with the toys.  It's when she does it with a real one that I get miffed.

Shadow doesn't care so much for the toy mice.  She'll play with them when she's bored, but she prefers these furry little craft fuzzballs that the pixie brought home after an art project.  They're like pom-poms, but...well, they've got a semi-solid center, and sparklies worked into the fibers sticking out in all directions.  She found one, day before yesterday, and...yeah.  Chaos in the kitchen.  She'd found it at lunchtime for the kids, and it was difficult and took several minutes to get them to stop squealing and giggling over the cat and back to eating their lunches. 

I've got the nibs, feeds, and sections cleaned up on the Parker VS, the Sheaffer White Dot lever fill, and have started on the Sheaffer Touchdown.  I'll need a small clamp before I can put new ink sacs in them--it's probably a bad idea to use my teeth to hold the sections while I stretch the sacs over the section nipples.  Other than that, I've got one more pen (a Sheaffer Fineline lever fill pen--one of their student pens) to fix.  To be honest, I'd kind of forgotten about that one. 

I have two pens I need to do writing samples for, six to take pictures of, and then three to write out of ink and clean up.  Then I'll have six more pens to post on my Etsy page.  After that?  There's the three more I'm going to go ahead and sell to finish fixing, test, write out a sample for, take pictures of, and post. 

Last month, I had someone from Taiwan buy three of my pens.  It came out to around $102 brought in, and I'm beginning to wonder if I really can turn this into a business.  It's kinda going to depend on my time, and how much I can find the pens for, vs. how much I can sell them for. 

Writing...I've hit another block.  I'm up to just almost the halfway point (and up to 21K words in part 1), and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to skip ahead and come back to write the filler up to the good part later.  It's a bit of a slog, and I'm thinking it has less to do with the actually writing, and needing more sleep.

Which takes us back to square one: I need to start getting to bed earlier.

Yay!

New pens are here!  Two of them do not need repairs, and the other two will have to be relegated to parts pens, since one is a cartridge pen with a cap that doesn't fit, and the other one has a cap that doesn't fit. 

The Parkette seems to be in perfect working order, even though there's some ink residue in the pen.  I'm in the process of soaking it clean. 

The other one that's working doesn't seem to have a brand name.  It's a maroon pen with a gold cap (with a bit of pitting and tarnish on one side of the cap), a hooded nib, a monogram in gold foil, and a triangular shaped grip section.  Much like two other pens I've had come into my possession.  The nib looks to be in better shape than the fixable one of the others like it. I shall find out for sure when I ink it up and try it out.

I'm thinking I need to order some different inks.  I love, love, LOVE the Noodler's inks--especially the burgundy--but I only have one pen that doesn't lay down so much that the ink doesn't show or bleed through most paper. 

That's for later, though.  I have a bottle of Parker's black Quink, a bottle of green and a bottle of red Waterman.  Those will do for now.  And maybe I can figure a burgundy from mixing a little bit of red and a little bit of black. 

Happy, happy!

I have four more pens I won from Ebay for $9.95.  One of them is a Parkette (one of the Parker brand pens that were the "cheap" pens they made, but was fairly high quality), and is the reason I bid at all.  Research says that the model I got tends to go for around $50 or so on Ebay, unrestored.  They go for a bit more once they've been fixed, and it's a simple, simple fix.

So.  When I get the bedroom clean enough I can get to my pen repair corner, I'll have seven pens to refurb. 

Before the bedroom got a clutter build up, I did get a good look at the Parker VS, and noted a neat feature: the feed is transparent.  It's going to be really pretty with a bright, bold ink flowing through under the gold nib.  

The other reason I'm fairly happy is that I found both the camera and the batteries yesterday before my get-up-and-go got up and went.*  I've got four pens to take pictures of tonight after the kids go to bed, and one to use the little bit of ink from before I clean it back up.**  I don't really enjoy taking the pictures of the pens, mostly because with the little camera I've got, it's a little hard to get good close-up photos to show details (like brand and type stamps).  But it will be good to get those five pens listed.

The third reason for my current happiness is that my son is reading to my daughter as they're taking a break from cleaning their rooms (and yes, it is just as cute as it sounds). 

random ramblings

The pixie had a fun weekend, last weekend.  Grandma took her to a princess party.  The pixie wore her bridesmaid dress from a friend's wedding last November, which we gave her to play dress-up in after she wore it at Easter. 

Instead of coming to her ankles like it did in November, it's about three-quarters of the way down her calves. 

She's growing so freakin' fast. 

The imp had a good weekend last weekend, too.  To keep him from feeling let down because it wasn't him spending the night, we watched Captain America with him.  He enjoyed it immensely.  I am considering Avengers for the next time the pixie goes to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa. 

So, yesterday, we got a reminder of just how insane Midwest weather is.  When I got up, it was a lovely, sunny day.  We made plans with a friend to meet at the park and have lunch so the adults could talk while the kids played. 

And, just as we stepped out the door to leave, it started pouring. 

Yeah, we went anyway.  It quit for a little while, after we got to the park, fed the kids a car picnic, and our friend arrived with her three youngest, and two extras.  And then, it started again.  The kids didn't care much--they actually enjoyed that the rain on the slides made the slides go faster--until they got cold.

We got our table and bench put together yesterday, while the kids were napping.  We had gotten folding chairs that would have matched perfectly, but...the first time Odysseus sat down on one, the wood on one of the back legs split at the henge.  The table and bench, however, are absolutely lovely, and fit the kitchen much, much better than the heirloom dining room set we had. 

As I said, I got my pens earlier this week--a Parker VS that needs cleaned up and a new ink sac (worth around $130), a Sheaffer lever fill pen that needs the same (worth around $90-$120), and a Sheaffer Touchdown.  I may keep the Touchdown, since it wouldn't bring more than around $40-$60.  It's a neat filling system that I don't have an exemplar of in my collection.  If I get as much done over the next week as I'd like to (including re-finding the camera and taking pictures of the pens I have fixed and ready for sale so that I can, y'know, sell them), I'll permit myself to fix them.

The cats have been a bit of a problem.  Neither cat had been inclined to sleep on top of the old table; both cats are inclined to sleep on top of the new table.  I don't mind them sleeping on the chairs or benches.  However.  I do not want their fat, fuzzy little bodies on top of the table. 

I didn't get a whole lot of writing done this week.  I've been a little busy with housework; however, I have gotten some done.  I had to write last night to get my brain to slow down so that I could sleep, and put in about a thousand words on The Schrodinger Paradox.  It's currently sitting right at 17K words (in part 1--what I've got done of part 2 brings it up to 19.5K--almost as much as I have written on Detritus, done in a far shorter amount of time, and 5K less than I've got done on the Normalcy Bias short story collection).  The djinn story is sitting around 1200 words, between what I have typed, and what I've got handwritten that needs transcribed, and it's not finished, yet.  That's the first draft.  The draft that goes into the collection will likely be between 5K and 8K words, since I expand quite a lot while I'm typing it in.  I tend to summarize a lot of what I have in my head while I'm writing long hand, and develop the summarized parts when I type it up.

Well, that was my week.  I've got plans for next week, but we'll have to see how that goes.

Pens!

I got my new/old pens yesterday, while we were out to lunch (the kitchen was unusable, due to me moving stuff around to get the family heirloom dining table that would require its own room taken out to storage).  The Sheaffer lever fill--a pretty thing with vertical brown-gold and black stripes--needs a new sac, as does the Parker pen (a VS, from 1946 or 1947).

The other Sheaffer pen, though...it's a touchdown.  Rather an interesting filling system, but not particularly valuable (though it's valuable enough that it would recoup the entire cost of the order...we shall see if I like the pen enough to ignore that).  The filling system, when worked, produces a noticeable vacuum.  It may work, and only need cleaned.  I'll try it out when the kids are down for their naps.

Right now, though, working on the pens will be a reward to myself for getting my kitchen back in working order.  I got most of what I'd planned yesterday done, but not all--the table and bench haven't been assembled and put in place. 

Update:  My Sheaffer Touchdown is not workable, but won't be any more complicated to fix than a lever or button fill pen.  I'll just have to find the right size of sac, cut it to the right length, and glue it into place.  

Ink

I've worked with a few fountain pen inks.  I've used Sheaffer's (cartridges), Parker's (cartridges and bottled), Waterman (bottled, since I don't have one of their pens), and Noodler's (bottled only--I don't think they do cartridges).

Sheaffer's cartridges are simple cylinders with a circle etched at one end that you have to punch the fang of the feed through.  The ink is...not bad.  You can get several different colors, since most hobby shops carry the Sheaffer calligraphy pens, and calligraphers tend to like different colors of ink to play with.  My Sheaffer calligraphy pen is one of their older, semi-transparent plastic No Nonsense pens, with a fine calligraphy nib.  I've currently got it loaded with the red cartridge because I was working on a calligraphy project, and thought the red against the sort of cream-yellow parchment worked best for it: Roy Batty's death monologue. 

The Sheaffer Scrip ink is...satisfactory.  The color is rich, and the flow is smooth and instant, even though I haven't picked up that particular pen for about three months.  Even though the pen is using a calligraphy nib (comparable to a broad fountain pen nib in how much ink is laid down), there's no show through, much less bleed through.

If you want to use Sheaffer ink, it does come bottled.  Prices range from about $9.27/50 mL (about 1.5 fl. oz) bottle (in the three packs) to about $14.50 or a bit more.  Yes, it comes in several different colors.  Skimming over Amazon, I saw most of my favorite ink colors: purple, blue, turquoise, green...only burgundy was missing.

Next up: Parker Quink.  I've used their cartridges (my first fountain pen was a red Parker Vector with a fine nib in red, which I'd still be using if it wasn't so skinny) for years, usually in their washable blue Quink. That never shows through, which permitted me to take copious notes on both sides of any notebook paper I used.  I still have about five or six cartridges (which are HUGE by cartridge standards--I could use the same one for a week of grad school note taking and fiction writing).  They are proprietary--they will only work in Parker pens.  However, Parker does make bottled Quink.  I have one in black "permanent" (which only means it takes a bit more than just water to get off).

The bottled ink is also quite well behaved.  I've used it in several different pens, with no show-through or bleed through, no matter what nib size, or how generous the pen is with the ink.  The main downside of Parker Quink is that it only comes in four colors: black, blue-black, blue, and red.  That's it.  No fun colors.  Just sensible business/grading colors.  If that's all you need, their bottled ink comes in 2 oz bottles, and ranges from $8-$12 on Amazon, depending on from whom you order it, and what color you order. 

Waterman bottled ink also behaves fairly well.  I've used their turquoise (Serenity Blue), their blue, their red, and their green.  I really like their green, and currently have it loaded in one of my Jinhao 250s.  It has never bled or showed through, and neither has their other colors I've used.  Their blue, though, is a little blah.  They also make their ink in brown, purple, blue-black, and black.  When I first ordered ink, though, Amazon didn't have a line on their purple, and I really wanted purple.  So...

Noodler's ink.  These inks are beautiful, and come in all colors.  I have their purple, burgundy, Bernanke Blue (very fast drying blue), Ottoman Azure (shades from deep blue up through turquoise, depending on line thickness and amount of ink laid down), Bulletproof Black, and Bad Belted Kingfisher (a navy blue, or blue-black, if you prefer).  Their colors are true, rich, deep colors...that tend to feather and show through on cheap paper like mad, when they're not bleeding through and spotting the page beneath.  I do love this ink.  I love it enough that I've gone looking for paper I can use it with--successfully.  Decent journal paper (which I use for fiction writing) works, as do the Sam's Club brand legal pads.  There are a few notebook brands that have good enough paper, but not very many.  And no, the specific nibs on the pens don't save your paper: I've got several different Noodler's inks in everything from a medium to a fine to an extra fine nib, and there's at least a little show through with all of those nibs.  It's normal with super-saturated inks.

Noodler's has more ink colors than any other manufacturer I've run across--I've seen ink in every color and hue of the rainbow.  Gorgeous stuff.

Another thing about Noodler's inks that is pretty special: they have several colors of ink they term "bulletproof": the inks are resistant to most forger's techniques, and are, therefore, safe to use on contracts and checks.  The inks themselves bond with the cellulose in the paper, and are mostly to fully waterproof, won't come off with acetone, acid, UV light, or any of the other commonly used tools.  I've got their Bulletproof Black--which is fully waterproof, once it's dry--and Bad Belted Kingfisher, which runs, but is still legible.  Both take for-bloody-ever to dry, especially on smooth checkbook paper, so you'll need a non-lotioned tissue paper to use to blot.   I have one pen loaded with the Bulletproof Black (which is a softer shade of black, not hard and sharp like some), and one loaded with Bad Belted Kingfisher.  Yes, I use them both for legal purposes, and honestly, I prefer using the blue on contracts over the black to make clear the difference between an original and a copy.

There you have it: my non-professional walk through of all four ink brands I've used.  I can't recommend any over any of the others--they all have their pros and cons.  I suppose it depends on what you want: standard colors that won't bleed through?  Gorgeous colors that will?  Washable or permanent?  The ink I would recommend depends on what you want to use it for, whether you want to use cartridges (in which case, if you've got a pen that takes proprietary cartridges, like Parker, Pilot, Lamy, or Waterman, you've got little choice), or whether you want to use a converter, or use a syringe to refill old cartridges with bottled ink, or whether you are using an antique pen (or replica) with a dedicated filling system and have no choice but to use bottled ink. 

I only wish I could afford to try some of the different inks I haven't tried yet.  ;)

Eager anticipation...

I ordered three more pens to fix.  They should be getting here sometime this week.  Two older Sheaffers (one lever, one I don't know how it inks), and one Parker.

From the pictures, it looks like the Parker is a Parker VS--a pen made between 1947 and 1949.  They look a lot like the Parker 51s, but have an exposed instead of a hooded nib.  They didn't sell well, because everyone at the time wanted the trendy (and slightly less messy) hooded nib.  A shame, really, because everything I've read about them says they're a joy to write with.

I shall find out what kind of shape it's in when it gets here.   And I shall have a lot of fun repairing it (should it need repairs), and getting it running again.

The lever filled Sheaffer should be a fairly straightforward fix.  And will need it, because I think Sheaffer quit making lever fills fairly early, because they kept playing with new and improved filling systems, then went to cartridge filled.  I think this pen is an early 20's model.

Then...there's the other Sheaffer.  It may be beyond my capabilities to repair, but then again, if it's a specific one of their filling methods, it may not need fixed, just cleaned and inked.  I will find out. 

I spent $60 to buy these pens.  They may well sell for double that apiece.

However.  The biggest draw for me is taking older pens and making them work again, and seeing different styles of ink filling systems.

I will post pictures, should anyone be interested.

YAY!!!

I just sold three pens!!!  I'm a little sorry to see one of them go, but...I'm hoping that the person (in TAIWAN!!!) who bought the little green Arnold pen loves it as much as I do. 

I have almost broken even on my pens.  The other two listed would have me breaking even.  And I have three more to take pictures of, one to clean the paint off of the cap for, and then I will be turning a profit.

Random rambling

The kids have three more weeks of school, starting Monday.  The pixie goes from eight to noon MWF, so I'll have nine days where I won't have children underfoot for four hours, and can get some housework done. 

Last week, the kids' school took school-wide achievement tests--the Stanford Achievement Test.  Yep, my kindergartener has taken a version of the SATs.  His teachers said he worked hard and did his best, so he got rewarded with a trip to the local bounce house yesterday afternoon.

Today, we took the kids up to their grandparents' house, and left them there while Odysseus and I went out on a date.  We ended at the new Avengers movie, in a 2:00 matinee, and I learned that what passes for popular music today may be popular, but it ain't music. 

The movie rocked.  There is no way to describe how it rocked without giving away spoilers.  It...just...rocked. 

We got back to rescue Odysseus's parents pick up the kids around 5:30, and the pixie was exhausted.  So was the imp.  I have hopes that they'll sleep in a little bit, then be a little quieter tomorrow.  If not, and if the weather is decent enough, I'll take them up to my mom's so Odysseus can get some work done on his final paper for his internship/research assistantship. 

And the cats have been...cats.  Alternately being clingy and annoying, and standoffish since we got back.  I had a long, wide stripe of cat drool down my arm at one point from where Cricket sat on my table with her head on my biceps, and purred with her mouth hanging open. 

I discovered that one of the pens I'd restored had a damaged nib--I think one of the tines may be broken, but I'll have to look at it under magnification to be sure--and a second one had a nib that kept slipping out, and would not seat with the feed.  You can imagine what kind of a mess that made.  Only one of the three I reassembled and tested yesterday worked, so...yeah.  Disappointing. 

I have two more re-sacked, reassembled, and ready for testing, but I'm a little tired tonight. 

And I've got a few more to do before I'm out of pens to fix. 

Why, no, I don't have an addiction...what makes you say that? 

I am done with teaching for the semester.  I'll have revisions coming in for my 8:00 class until 10:00 tomorrow, and plan to turn in grades no later than noon.  I'll have revisions coming in until 11:00 on Wednesday for the other class, and plan to turn in their grades no later than 1:00, and then I'm totally done for the semester. 

And...the sort-of hard science sci-fi story I had inspired has taken over totally.  I do not know what will come of this, but I'm gonna find out.  I think it's going to be fun...and something I might try to send to a publisher.

More than a little excited...

I bid on an unidentified vintage Parker button fill pen earlier this week.  It got here today, and I took a good, close look at the pen.  I thought I'd identified it as a Parker Challenger, or maybe a lady's duofold, based on the seller's pictures. 

That...was wrong.  Both have an imprint of the model name, and what I got only had the Parker name imprinted on the barrel.  So, not a Challenger or a Duofold.  That meant I had no idea what I'd bought.  So, I got on some forums (fora?) and did some research to figure out what I bought.  Boy howdy, did I figure it out.

What I actually have is better.  What I have is a Depression Time, also known as a Thrift Time.  It was very similar to both the Duofold and the slim Challengers, but was missing the imprint of the brand name.  Or a name imprinted on the nib, like the Duofolds often had. 

And what I have seems to be a bit rarer.

A lady's duofold would be worth around $90 to $120; a Challenger Deluxe (like what I thought it was) would be worth $120-$150.  My Thrift Time Parker?  I've seen them going on ebay for $200.  Or more. 

They are a little uncommon, to say the least.  And mine is in very good shape. 

But doing the research and figuring out exactly what model I have was an incredible lot of fun.

'nother new pen

This one is going to be mine: it's another Waltham--a pen company which has fascinated me since I learned of the company's shenanigans and ultimate fate.  I mean, seriously: a pen company whose owners were such stellar individuals that they cut one of the three brothers out of the war profiteering and tax evasion, which is what led to the company's downfall and breakup, has an interesting story, even if the pens are "third tier" pens (pretty or not).

And this one is a pretty pen.  Unfortunately, the nib is bent.

Here, you can see some of it--it's bent a little bit to one side, but bent down pretty significantly.

See what I mean?  Poor thing...

This pen is a button filler: unscrew the black cap on the back end to uncover the button (it squeals, by the way), push the button down, put the entire nib and a little of the section into the ink, then let go of the button and wait for about 5-10 seconds for the rubber sack to fill with ink.

Unfortunately, the button wouldn't depress.  It took a bit of application of the heat gun to pull the pen apart, where I found...pen poop. 

Impacted pen poop.

That's fairly solid hardened rubber and ink pieces.  It came out, with the aid of a pair of forceps, bit by bit...and with the pressure bar attached. 

Unfortunately, the pressure bar was rusted. (Pictured with the dental pick I used to scrape out the inside of the pen barrel).

I have one on order--it should arrive just after the sacs do, sometime around the end of the week, right when my grading schedule clears up. 

Once I have everything I need to fix the pen, I'll show pictures reversing the process, ending with a pen ready to load with ink and write with.

pen post lot #2, pen #5

One of the pens that came in the second lot of pens I ordered off of ebay really caught my eye because of the color: a lovely bright green.  It didn't rattle, and the section wouldn't come out of the barrel of the pen, so I set it aside until I had time to mess with it a bit. 

The brand name on the clip is Arnold; Made in U.S.A. is engraved on the lever.  On doing some research, I found that there is still a pen company under the name of Arnold or Parrot Pens, but that company doesn't make fountain pens at all anymore, if it ever did.  The Fountain Pen Network is where I've found the most info: Arnold was a third-tier cheap pen company at best.  They were supposedly low quality, and sold at $1.75 for a dozen. 

I'm not so sure about the quality assessment--the nib is a bit skippy, but the plastic of the barrel is in incredibly good condition: it feels solid, and is mostly unscuffed.  It's very plain, especially compared to the ones pictured in the thread I linked.

Here--why don't I just show you the pen, and the writing sample?

Simple little pen.  Kinda plain, since I can tell you're not seeing the color properly.

The shape is a lot prettier with the cap removed, isn't it?  And the color shows a little better in this picture. 

Yes, I was tempted to keep it.  Out of all of the pens I have, I don't have a green one.  I have several in burgundy, in black, in blue, and some reds.  But the only green I have is a Parker Vector with a medium nib, cracked barrel, and wrecked clip, and that one is a sort of pale gray-green that Parker calls Jade.  Not a true green.

But it is a nice pen, and I have several.  I'd like to sell it to someone else who'll enjoy having and using it, someone who'll appreciate it. 

And there are no modestly priced modern lever fill fountain pens, and so few vintage lever fills that don't need worked on before they'll work...I'd like to give someone else a chance to try out the filling system, and have fun with it.

random ramblings

I'm getting really tired of the ongoing fight to teach my daughter to eat quickly and efficiently.  It's coming to the end of the time when she can just graze all day.  She won't get snacks today.  She'll get meals at mealtimes.  I am too tired of dealing with it, and completely out of patience today.

The imp had two really, really good days, this week...and then he quit behaving and went from purple one day to orange the next.  He only just got green yesterday, and that after getting 9/10 on his spelling test.  I do not know why, or what to do with the boy, sometimes.

Right now, the two are playing in the pixie's room.  I can tell she's starting to wind down and get tired: she's getting extra-sensitive and whiny.  Which means she's getting sleepy.

I do not know what I'm going to do with the imp while she's sleeping today.   He'd be too loud outside, and he'd be chattering at me if I made him stay on the couch...I'd make him take a nap, too, but he doesn't really need one.

Couch and movie it'll be, I guess.  He's been pretty good since he got up.  I'll probably try to bribe him with Thomas the Tank Engine.  And maybe he'll conk out on the couch while he watches, and I can get a few quiet minutes...

Especially if I give him his V8, which he gets every other day*...

Last Wednesday, I was standing in the kitchen, making a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich for the pixie, when I noted Shadow creep under the chair the pixie's booster seat is fastened to.  A few seconds later, Cricket walked past.  Shadow waited until she was nearly all the way past, then jumped out and grabbed Cricket by the butt.  Cricket leaped three feet straight up in the air, then vanished.  Didn't see her again for almost half an hour, and don't have a clue where she hid.

But Shadow was very satisfied with herself.

As I mentioned yesterday, I found a bit of time--about an hour and a half--to work with my pens.  I got all of them either tested, or pulled apart and inspected, and I've put in an order for twenty latex pen sacs between 14/64" and 20/64", and one J-bar for the pen whose bar had rusted through and broken across the bottom of the J.  I should get them sometime within the next five business days.  Looking forward to it so that I can start fixing pens and getting them sold off.

I'll be posting another pen post, likely tomorrow sometime. One of the lever fill pens I function checked with water yesterday checked out.  It's the green Arnold I was half-tempted to keep.  I have it inked up (with Noodler's burgundy to contrast with the green so I can spot any leaks or other issues--and found only some minor burping), and have been using it today.  I'll tell y'all what I can find out about it tomorrow, and post some pictures of the pen, and of the pen with a writing sample.  It is a fairly nice little pen--a true green, like a wheat field, with a bit of chrome trim on the pen proper, and a chrome cap with a gold-toned clip. 

I have one more week on campus before I'm done, and I'll be using that to get caught all the way up on grading so that I can turn in final grades for the 8:00 class by 11:00 on Monday, and for the 9:00 class by 12:00 on Wednesday (just after the end of the final exam times for those classes).  All I have left is the workshop for paper 5, the papers I offered extensions to, the blogs, and any revisions turned in, so not much. 

It really shouldn't take all of my office hours, so I'll have some time for writing.  I'm still pecking away on a science fiction short story and Detritus.  I am still working on them when I get a few minutes to, but it's usually in a draft book long hand when I'm in the elevator, or waiting on being picked up.  I have a few paragraphs' worth written on both, but haven't had the time to transcribe and continue, given the time spent grading.

(Speaking of...I've been working on that a little while I've written this post.)

*There's 260% of the RDA of vitamin A for an adult in the juice.  I don't want my six year old son turning orange, even if it is his favorite color.

I have vintage ink on my hands, and I feel better.

Okay, at second look, I think I have a second pen that is in good shape where the sac is concerned...it expels bubbles in water when the lever is lifted.  It's a gorgeous green Arnold pen with a silver toned cap.  It's really, really ink clogged in the nib, though--I've got it soaking to try to get it all the way back in working order before I take pictures (and yes, I do plan on selling it despite how pretty it is). 

One of the pens, a Collins lever fill, had a sac.  Had.  Some nitwit had tried refurbishing the pen, and had put the nib section and sac back into the pen before the rubber cement was dry, and wound up gluing the bar inside to the sac...and the bar to the lever (though not too bad, on that--pulling everything got the lever to work).  It's going to be second to last on my list to repair, and will go up for sale as soon as I get it fixed and running right.

Sadly, I cannot find a pen feed for the Waltham with the broken feed glued together with dried ink, nor for the cute little Eclipse pendant pen.  Nor can I find a nib to fit the Eclipse pen.  I think those two, and the two pencil/pen combos are going to have to be parts pens.  Also, one of the Wearever pens I have (the one that was badly refurbished) is going to have to be a parts pen, due to the splits in the barrel.

I have two more Wearever pens, one lever fill one cartridge.  The cartridges haven't been made in about fifty years, and the piercing tip that punctured the cartridge is just a little too big for anything made modern.  I even tried a Lamy converter, and it wasn't quite big enough.  I've seen it recommended that the Wearever cartridge pens that are in good shape and without cracks can/should be converted to eyedropper fill...and I guess that's what's going to have to happen (yes, I'll post pictures--it looks to be an easy process, even if messy with the silicon grease).  That pen has a medium nib, while the lever fill (which is bent quite badly just past the lever box) has a flex nib.

I have another nameless fountain pen--the only markings on it are "Made in USA" and the engraved, gold-leafed name of whoever had the pen--that I managed to pull apart today.  It took the application of a heat gun and a pair of section pliers,* but it came apart.  I took pictures of the pen pulled apart, and with the shattered sac laying in shards next to it. 

On the left side of the top, there's a ring that fits down over the top of the barrel and lets the cap fit down tightly over the nib.  The cap is a sort of dulled gold-tone, sort of with a bit of brass look to it (probably cheap).  You can sorta see that the section where you hold the pen is shaped: a rounded triangle that makes it really comfortable to hold.  It's burgundy, which is difficult to make out with the lighting and the way the pic turned out. 

Right next to the barrel, between it and the pair of forceps I used to pull the bigger pieces out, you can see the rubber shards. 

Here's a better picture of the hardened/shattered rubber sac:

I've taken to calling the rubber shards "pen poop," mostly because they can sometimes be small enough to sift out through the lever box, and into my hand when I shake the pen. 

Although, I may need to find a different thing to call them.  Some of the pieces can be really sharp...

More pics to follow as I order and fit new sacs.