I've been using calligraphy fountain pens since my first Osmiroid in the mid-1960s. At times, I'd use the occasional Platignum, but it just felt "cheap" and didn't work quite as well. BUT, I never had them leak. So now I'm forced to use "Manuscript" calligraphy pens, the only ones I can find in my city. Yes, the nibs are nice. But they leak. I'm much too cheap to buy a pen that uses only cartridges. So I always look for a pen with an included "converter". I have fine inks and really like the Pelikan 4001 black for my normal usage. In 1969, I was using syringes to refill the cartridges, before the converters. But the Manuscript pens leave me with black ink all over my fingers as I try to get the converter to actually fill the pen and get enough ink for several days. For use at parties and the like, I tend to use the Speedball Elegant writer that I can get in a set of colors by mail. I have trouble with remembering names, but if I write someone's name for them in 24 fonts, I remember them and they remember me. I've met a lot of people that way, and they tell me they've held onto those 3x5 cards with their names for decades. Who knew calligraphy was a way to meet interesting people? Oh, and those 24 fonts. Some of them are really not all that useful in everyday writing, ones such as Cyrillic, Greek, Phoenician, and the very first alphabet from 1850 BC that the Phoenicians simplified five hundred years later. And I do a few phrases in Chinese characters too, such as "one beautiful lady". Of course my computer has hundreds of fonts. But I keep these 24 fonts in "wetware" (my brain) and a simple felt-tip pen will charm someone at a party.
I've been using calligraphy fountain pens since my first Osmiroid in the mid-1960s. At times, I'd use the occasional Platignum, but it just felt "cheap" and didn't work quite as well. BUT, I never had them leak. So now I'm forced to use "Manuscript" calligraphy pens, the only ones I can find in my city. Yes, the nibs are nice. But they leak. I'm much too cheap to buy a pen that uses only cartridges. So I always look for a pen with an included "converter". I have fine inks and really like the Pelikan 4001 black for my normal usage. In 1969, I was using syringes to refill the cartridges, before the converters.
ReplyDeleteBut the Manuscript pens leave me with black ink all over my fingers as I try to get the converter to actually fill the pen and get enough ink for several days. For use at parties and the like, I tend to use the Speedball Elegant writer that I can get in a set of colors by mail. I have trouble with remembering names, but if I write someone's name for them in 24 fonts, I remember them and they remember me. I've met a lot of people that way, and they tell me they've held onto those 3x5 cards with their names for decades. Who knew calligraphy was a way to meet interesting people?
Oh, and those 24 fonts. Some of them are really not all that useful in everyday writing, ones such as Cyrillic, Greek, Phoenician, and the very first alphabet from 1850 BC that the Phoenicians simplified five hundred years later. And I do a few phrases in Chinese characters too, such as "one beautiful lady". Of course my computer has hundreds of fonts. But I keep these 24 fonts in "wetware" (my brain) and a simple felt-tip pen will charm someone at a party.