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Custom Edison Double-ended fountain pen

10/23/2015

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A while back, I saw that Edison was offering double-ended fountain pens. This seemed too handy to pass up. I carry an unfortunate number of pens with me in my pocket and in cases, all filled with different inks (what's the point of having a fountain pen if not to explore the vast array of inks available?) and this would be the classic two-fer. So, I ordered it in blue swirl ebonite and waited patiently. The clip end is a medium oblique nib, and the other end is a regular fine nib. It is a dropper filler.
This picture does not do it justice. It is quite dark, perhaps to be taken for black. but the color changes under different lighting. It is darkest under incandescent, and it is most blue in daylight. This in itself makes it fascinating to look at, beyond the usual hypnotic swirls of color in ebonite. It is a bit long for the shirt pocket, but does fit in some suit jackets, and it is comfortable in my large hands un-posted. As is usual with Edison nibs, they are adjusted perfectly for a good wet flow. I was concerned that if kept this in a pocket in a vertical orientation, it might drool in the end with the nib down, but this has never happened. I was also concerned the flow might be a problem when left without writing for a while. This has also never happened. It writes immediately.
I did experiment with inks for a while, and had an unfortunate need to disassemble the whole clip end to clean out an ink that I thought was well behaved. So in the interests of that never happening again, the oblique end has Sheaffer Blue, surely one of the most benign inks around. And I really genuinely like the color, having gone through quite a number of blues over the years. In the other end, I have Noodler's Antietam rather than another red. Sheaffer's red is a true red, and I thought about using it, but opted for the dried-bloody, rusty Antietam. It has no special properties, like never freezing on the surface of the moon or being so perpetual the writing remains as a wireframe even when the paper dissolves into dust. It is just a very nice ink in a unique color. 
So these two inks with these nibs cover the majority of my writing needs. So why do I have so many pens? I am not quite sure now.

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Custom Collier

10/27/2014

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The form factor of the Edison Collier has always appealed to me. The cap cannot be posted, but it is a wide and hefty pen. This sort of shape, aside from aesthetic appeal, I find to be comfortable for long periods of writing. I also was very interested in the pump filling system Edison began offering in the Menlo. So, I asked if I could get a combination of the new filling system with the Collier, and I was accommodated easily. Aside from the convenience of the pump system, it holds quite a bit of ink which can be viewed in the window, also a modification of the basic Collier design.

It is made in flecked golden acrylic, and many people have commented on how beautiful it is. I like to rotate pens like this in the light in idle moments just to get the full effect of the colors. The nib is steel, and has been modified to a 15 degree oblique, and it puts down a generous line of ink. It is a pleasure it use.

I did go through some searching for the right color ink. After going through a sample pack of my selections from Goulet (an excellent and cost-effective way to do it), I bought a bottle of Pelikan Edelstein Amber, which did not look good on the page nor was it particularly well-behaved - a great disappointment. I then gave a couple of full-week tests to some others, with a number from Diamine working well. I discovered that many brown inks are both unappealing and have a red or purple tinge making them unsuitable for business use (or any other use, really). The color of Noodler's Walnut was most appealing, but it both bled and feathered, so was impractical for every-day use on copier paper and the like. However, a color that matched the pen and was both well-behaved and attractive was Noodler's Golden Brown. It has wonderful shading, and it seems to me that it can be used in business circumstances.
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Edison Pearl

7/15/2014

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I wanted to share some pictures of an Edison Pearl fountain pen made by Brian Gray. The clean simplicity of the Pearl model is emphasized by the absence of a clip. While that makes it necessary to keep it in a pen case with other favorites, it is not an inconvenience. I just have to be careful about it rolling off the desk.


Two things make this completely unique. One is that it was turned from the very last of the Lucite in this pattern from the Sheaffer Pen Company in Iowa. While the factory closing is yet another tragedy of a passing American icon (it is now owned by the French company Bic, and production and whatnot is in Asia and Slovakia), at least I have this hand-made relic of another era. I selected the material because of the subtle beauty revealed by rotating the pen. It has the visual qualities of pens from the 1930's and 1940's.

The other thing that is unique is the customization of the nib. Brian is known for his pens, certainly, but should also be equally recognized for his skills as a nibmeister. This was originally a 1.1mm steel stub, and Brian customized it to be a 15 degree oblique, accommodating the strange way that I hold pens. This makes it possible for me to write as fast as I always do, and yet have the results legible (to me at least). I detest tooth, and this came smooth, but in my obsessive fashion, I further smoothed it with materials from Goulet Pens. It is now glassy yet responsive. It lays a wet, perfect line and never grows tiring in the hand with extensive use.

It is a wonderful writing instrument, summa cum laude. Visit the Edison Pen website and look at the innumerable possibilities.


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June 23rd, 2014

6/23/2014

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In my never-ending search for the perfect blue ink, I have found that the ones I prefer fall into families, or sub-categories of blue. That means it will be impossible to find the 'perfect' blue, unless I favor a family above all others, and I don't. However, I can find favorites among the families, and one family would definitely be cerulean.

Defined by Wikipedia: "Cerulean, also spelled caerulean, is a color term that may be applied to certain colors with the hue ranging roughly between blue and cyan, overlapping with both. It also largely overlaps with azure and sky blue, although cerulean is dimmer." The inks so classed are generally on the darker side and not like the sky colors, unless toward the end of day but before the pinks and purples of sunset. I am no expert. They exhibit a certain blue brilliance rather than the darker aspect of the blues, graying waters or storms or gathering darkness.

The two that I find to be exceptional are Noodler's Midway Blue and Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki. The Midway has a bit of green to it, perhaps less deep waters, while the Iroshizuku is definitely a deep sea blue. They both share a vibrancy of the sea, and I have had people comment on the attractive color of both inks. They behave well, and I will leave it to others to do proper reviews.

The examples above were on Springhill Vellom Bristol-cover Plus 16000 custom cut 3 X 5 cards written with an Esterbrook Jackson Stub #442 in a Koh-I-Noor #127 dip pen in my usual bad handwriting.




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    William Serad has a long-term fascination with writing instruments though he has the world's worst handwriting. He has never really learned to type.

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