Ink Trivia

Using a twist converter with Ink Bottle

One of the many joys of using a fine fountain pen is availability in the wide assortment of bottled ink to choose from. Whether conservative or flamboyant, there is an ink to fit every personality and your every mood. You can always dip a pen for inking, but using a pen converter provides a longer lasting ink reserve and allows your ideas to flow.  Some may be a little leery of exploring using a fountain pen converter. Here are some detailed easy instructions to take out the mystery of converters.

1.) Unscrew the neck from the pen barrel and insert the open end of the converter.
2.) Dip the pen in ink up to the hole in the nib. Be careful not to jam the nib point into the bottom of the bottle.
3.) Twist the black converter screw top clockwise three or four times to fill the ink reservoir.
4.) Ink remaining on the neck or nib should be wiped off with a clean tissue or cloth before use.

You are now ready to write!

Question: When was the first pen reservoir invented?





















Answer:  As an answer to 10th century ruler Fatomid Caliph of Egypt demand for a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib in was created in 953.

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Spring with MontBlanc’s Pink Ink

Celebrate spring with Mont Blanc’s Pink Ink. It is the perfect ink to spruce up any diary or journal and get your doodling juices flowing.

The bright pink box that the ink comes in is a departure from Mont Blanc’s typically understated packaging, but that is part of the fun with this ink.

Mont Blanc Pink is probably not going to be an everyday carry for most folks, but if you like pink you will like this shade. It is a fun ink to doodle with as it shades well and dries fairly quickly. I inked up my Hot Pink Safari so I could test different nib sizes. The larger the nib, the darker the ink appears.

I also compared it to another popular pink ink, Iroshizuku  Kosumosu (Pink). The Mont Blanc Pink is a tad brighter and a slightly deeper shade of pink than the Kosumosu.

Pen used for the Mont Blanc Pink Ink is a Pilot Prera Pink, with a Calligraphy (CM) nib. Pen used for Iroshizuku Kusomosu is a Pilot demonstrator with a Calligraphy (CM) nib.

-Linda, Pen Boutique Ltd, Columbia Store.

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Pen Trivia - Left Handed Writers and Nibs

Bias against left-handed people is discrimination, conscious or not, against people who are left-handed dominant. Approximately 10% of the world's population is left-handed. Yet many common tools are designed solely for use by right-handed people, making them difficult, painful, or unsafe for left-handed people to use. These range from simple objects such as scissors to dangerous machinery such as power saws. Even in relatively "modern" societies, left-handed people historically have been—and in some places still are—forced from childhood to use their right hands for tasks which they would naturally perform with the left, such as eating and writing.

Left-handed people who speak Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, or any other right-to-left script do not have the same difficulties with writing. The right-to-left nature of these languages prevents left-handers from running their hand on the ink as happens with left-to-right languages. Because writing when moving one's hand away from its side of the body can cause smudging if the outward side of the hand is allowed to drag across the writing, it is considered easier to write the Latin alphabet with the right hand than with the left. Furthermore, it is considered more difficult to write legible Chinese characters the left hand than it is to write Latin letters, though difficulty is subjective and depends on the person in question.

Left-to-right alphabets can be written smudge-free and in proper "forward slant" with the left hand if the paper is turned 1/4 turn clockwise (90 degrees to the right), and the left hand is drawn toward the body on forward strokes, and left to right on upward strokes (as expressed in directionality of the text). It is also possible to do calligraphy in this posture with the left hand, but using right-handed pen nibs. Otherwise, left-handed pen nibs are required in order to get the thick-to-thin stroke shapes correct for most type faces.

Luckily Pelikan and Lamy offer left-hand fountain pen nibs for the left-handed writer.
http://www.penboutique.com/pelikan-pens.html?cat=291
http://www.penboutique.com/search?q=pelikano+480

Pen Boutique carries many of Lamy’s left handed nibs including:
http://www.penboutique.com/lamy-pens.html?cat=215&type=435
http://www.penboutique.com/search?q=lamy+logo


Question: When was the first pen nib invented?




























Answer: The first pens were reeds, bamboo, and bird feathers (quills), and quills were used extensively from the 5th through the 1st century BC, notably for the Dead Sea scrolls. By 79 AD, Romans were using metal-nib pens dipped in ink.

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