Hey guys I just made a video using my new Lamy Vista I got from Paradise Pen Co. check it out with this link 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69SSiKfJnM
welp my dad had a good birthday he enjoys the fountain pen and got a nice bottle of ink he enjoys. Now my dad says hes only using his fountain pen for stuff that and also keeping it as far away from the dog as possible.
Awesome! Glad he likes his gift
Also cool vid on the Lamy!
That’s great! Now you need a fountain pen too! 
It’s such a pleasure writing/drawing and being able to feel the nib glide across the page. You can even tell the difference in feel between inks and paper!
FYI, isellpens.com has some Jinhao’s for only $2.99. I got a couple when the were solid colors (not translucent) and they’re a Lamy Safari basically with a medium nib and wet line. Not bad at all. Of course they don’t flex like the Ahab which is a lot of fun too.
Here’s a picture of my modified Ahab nib. Now that Noodler’s sells them separately you can tinker away. This mod makes the nib flex much easier for lighter writing with plenty of flex. Easy to do with a dremel tool, just grind away equal amounts on both sides equally spaced of course. The stock nib goes straight across so all you have to do is carve a ‘hill’ into the nib behind the front shoulder. You’ll have to carve the feed out some (as shown in the Ahab paper with the pen) to keep up with the increased ink flow needed. Also, I would do about half as much as mine 1st and then see what you think as I wanted mine to flex with very light pressure which it does.
I got some J.Herbin Stormy Grey in. Some shading but the same sparkle/sheen as the red! I like Noodler’s Heart of Darkness too, black, just not as black as Noodler’s ‘black’. Ha ha ha You know what I mean! Lexington Grey is also dark for a grey but a good one and bulletproof too. For a lighter grey I really like Kiri-Same (Autumn Shower). Got it to write Basho’s poem with:
All along this road
Not a single soul
Only, Autumn’s end
Ahh the lure of fountain pens and ink…
That modification looks really cool! I will definitely have to buy an Ahab nib to try this on, probably another feed too since I’m really happy with the way my primary Ahab is writing.
Gotta look into that Stormy Grey, I love the gold sheen on the red! I do want some more greys though, I thought they would be too light for me, but once that shading kicks in, it really looks sophisticated, and complex on paper.
And yes, for me its more inks than pens, but I definitely agree, they are so much fun to play with
I like it, but you have to want flex with light pressure. You can see the red sheen from the Diamine Majestic Blue on the feed I noticed. A new feed might be worth it if you like yours now, I really carved mine out and opened up several vents.
The SG is nice! Looks like they added the gold hematite to the Ocean Blue now too!
I’m the same way with inks, colors I wasn’t interested in at 1st are now appealing. I’ve got a box of inks and only a few pens. 
The Goulet blog had a nice drawing of Noodler’s Cactus Fruit Eel ink… It’s a nice color and their eel series has lubrication properties that work great in drier nibs/pens.
http://files.gouletpens.com/Pictures/Blog/Monday-Matchup/MondayMatchup-Week33-1.jpg
That cactus fruit looks cool too! Another in the long list of Noodler’s inks I need to buy, lol. It is awesome that one company puts out so many great inks, but I wish I didn’t want so many of them 
Nice vid too, I’ve often wondered about jinhao pens, but I never get around to buying one
I’m a fountain pen lover as well. I used to use Rotring 600’s, but the brand dissolved after a corporate buyout. The newest pen I have which I now write almost everyday is the Twsbi 580, the standard clear piston filler, in an EF sized nib. I prefer small size because I do a lot of technical writing, and need to be able to write small formula symbols and numbers.
I also recently inherited some antique Parker and Waterman pens from my grandfather, thankfully the gold nibs are still in good condition, so I could probably get a good price on restoration.
I also keep telling myself, not to buy any more ink till I use it up, but I now got five full bottles, which will amount to a lot of letters to family, and a lot of notebooks filled with math formulas etc.
Those Parkers and Watermans are probably really cool pens! I really need to get around to getting a vintage flex pen, but I’m just not a pen buyer, I’m an ink buyer ;D five bottles is nothing, lol, I’ve got a shelf of inks.
I use a Lamy Al-Star as my everyday driver, I need to get a fine or extra fine nib for it, this medium is actually too fat for my handwriting, but it works for now, I just write a bit larger than I would like.
Five’s a good start, but like gijoey says, soon that won’t be enough! ;D Once you start to appreciate the properties of the ink and subtle color differences on different papers and several pages later you start to get a little used to a certain color. Then you start to notice how there’s a lot to try even in the same color range. Then some sheen while some don’t and some shade in a larger range than others so its easy to have fun and enjoy them all. Then of course you will start to mix colors to come up with something just you may want and it’s an original.
The TWSBI 540/580 is a great pen imho. I’ve loved mine! I have the fine and a 1.1mm stub. Write every time and hold a lot of ink.
The Levenger L-Tech 3.0 is said to be similar to the Rotring I think? Might want to give them a look?
The new Lamy Al-Star in burnt orange looks great imho. Plus they’re available in Germany now and a good deal even with shipping. Plus you get every nib option over there. I like the 1.1mm stub’s!
Couldn’t have explained ink addiction better myself my girlfriend hates that I buy so many reds, but they just aren’t the same! Even Noodler’s Nikita and Conway Stewart St. blazey, with their near identical hues, still have different properties on paper.
I do want to try a few different pens though, I need a fine nib
Forgot to mention I have 4 different colors of the Jinhao Safari looking pens and for $4 each they are OK. Lightweight plastic feel/durability but they do the job. Medium size wet nibs on mine. Just picked them up to keep some different ink colors ready to go. The nibs do dry out in a week capped so you need to wipe them with a damp paper towel to get them going if you let them sit a while, which I do. Don’t have to worry about that with TWSBI, Lamy, Pilot, etc. as they usually write instantly upon uncapping.
Thinking back, I actually started out with 5 inks too. These are the inks I started out with and why.
- Noodler’s Heart of Darkness. Black - Great on all types of paper, bulletproof, and I liked the book. Just a good standard black with great reviews and a big 4.5oz bottle.
- Diamine Red Dragon. Red - Just wanted a darker red ink to start with and great reviews. Thought it looked good on cream colored paper and similar to dried blood.
- Private Reserve DC Super Violet. Bright Purple - the wife wanted something that stood out and was bright. Also came in a big 110ml bottle and had good reviews.
- Noodler’s Bad Belted Kingfisher. Dark Blue - wanted a business level bulletproof blue to go with a black and I like Kingfisher’s.
- Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian rose’s. Dark Purple/Black on top with some pink rose underneath - Got this one for the unique color with good shading and to draw with as it was designed to go with the Flex-Nib Ahab pen. *I’ve read this one has been changed/updated from the original.
I’m thinking on getting the Lamy nexx fountain pen what are your guys thoughts of it
Looks about the same as the Safari, so I’d call it good to go 8)
Same nib as the Al-Star and Safari so it should be fine. The soft grip should be more comfy too. Their nibs have been called ‘nails’ but that is subjective as to what you like. A newer FP user might like or be better off with a stiff nib as they are stronger and less prone to damage like springing the nib (folding it over or bending it) or dropping the pen and it landing on the nib. I’ve liked most of them personally and like the variety (xf, f, m, b, db, 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 1.9mm) and easy nib swap on those pens.
Goulet did a review a while back you may find helpful.
Wanting to try the R&K Morinda red! http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/274622-rohrer-klingner-18-inks/ Looks nice!
After seeing more chromatography on the ink reviews, even that looks like something fun to do, and see what colors the inks are actually made up of! I like Lexington Grey and it’s chromatography shows a light blue in it.
http://inks.pencyklopedia.pl/wp-content/uploads/Noodlers-Lexington-Gray-chromatografia2.jpg
That looks like an awesome red! And I’ve never heard of chromatography, but then again I don’t do much online in the way of fountain pens beyond following a few brands on facebook, so I bet it’s a really interesting thing to try, I may have to look into that too since I love inks so much
Didn’t know what it was either until I started to look up some ink reviews. Didn’t know so many people wrote ink reviews either, from blogs to websites! Chromatography basics are easy enough it turns out. Just cut coffee filters or similar into a rectangle. Draw a circle with the ink or a drop of it on one end. Then just suspend the piece over a glass of water (or alcohol I read, maybe for waterproof inks?) with just the tip of paper in the water but not the ink mark and wait.
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/165/169061/GIFS/AAAVBCN0.JPG
One page I read mentioned having a class write a ransom note for something with one of multiple different branded black or blue pens. Then do a chromatography dot/test for each pen that belonged to different ‘suspects’ to determine which pen was used to write the note. http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Education/learninglabs/lab_downloads/EL_ink_chromatography.pdf
oh man, that looks cool! I’m probably going to have to try that soon
Today I inked a demonstrator (clear) Noodler’s Konrad with the last of my old bottle of Noodler’s Luxury Blue ink. The exciting part is I ground the nib into a fine stub. The nib has some feedback to it, but it isn’t terrible. A good first effort that has room to improve. It was a lot less difficult than I expected. It also didn’t hurt that i was experimenting with a $2.00 nib and not an expensive gold nib