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This June marks completion of my second year writing here. To anyone who reads, I appreciate your time and interest.
May’s pens were the Montblanc 144R, Montegrappa Venetia, and a Decimo.
Robert Oster Dutch Peach is an excellent color but I didn’t know if the readability would hold up writing on multiple paper types at work. Happily, it did and I’ll make it part of the work rotation.
Diplomat Blue is good, if average. The Venetia tends to let inks evaporate more than other pens between uses and the blue would run much darker when starting up. Honestly, it looked better in that state because it displayed a pleasant amount of sheen.
Moulin Rouge is another ink from Herbin’s Paris Collection. It offers moderate shading, which the recent cursive italic grind on the Montblanc could showcase.
As May ended, I added the Pilot Quatro for use in my new gaming journal. I flipped between a Parker Jotter and Zebra Sarasa Grand for work, having emptied the Decimo. The Montblanc and Montegrappa ran their course. I had a want for something more substantial, so I turned to the Newton Prospector.
Large but light and balanced, the Prospector always feels great to hold and write with. The stub nib and ebonite feed keep ink flow juicy. FWP Grape Ice Pop came about from the weather turning hot for a few consecutive days and thinking a popsicle would be nice. Grape was always my favorite popsicle flavor.
I hadn’t thought about inking anything else and then I hit add to cart on something that caught my eye. Well, two things.
Earlier this year, Diamine recently released a new series called Forever Ink comprised of permanent pigmented inks in a wide range of colors. Nick Stewart has a showcase of the colors here. While I don’t do anything nearly as pretty or interesting with ink as Nick does, I was quite interested by the idea of what Diamine offered with this series.
While shopping for multipen refills at JetPens, I saw the Forever inks and decided to try out Passion Flower. I also indulged a curiosity about Lamy’s A nib and when my order arrived, I put the two together in my Vista.
Passion Flower is an attractive purple that flows well and dries quickly. It offers some shading with my writing style, and that’s fine by me. I’ve yet to test the water resistance.
Lamy describes the A nib as “ideal for beginners” because of a larger, more rounded tip. After using it for 10 minutes I felt convinced it should be Lamy’s standard medium nib. The consistency it offers at multiple angles strikes me as exactly the bedrock you’d want to base all your nib grades from. To be fair, I am dredging up some past frustration with inconsistency among Lamy’s steel nibs. Regardless, I prefer this A to any non-italic Lamy steel nib I’ve used before. The Vista went to work with me the next day and was a joy to use. I love it when a plan, which was entirely unplanned, comes together.
