Another Word for Nerd

Karen at Exaclair was kind enough to recently send me a bottle of J. Herbin’s “Eclat de Saphir” fountain pen ink to test out and review. In addition, she sent a small Rhodia note pad.

I wasn’t able to get to it for about a week, but tonight was finally able to ink up a couple of pens and try it out on various kinds of paper.

Click on any picture to go to its Flickr page with larger sizes available.

The ink in (and out of) its package and the Rhodia pad:

The pens used for the test – a Lamy Safari Special Edition with a Medium nib, and a brand-new Hero 329 with a fine/extra-fine nib:

The paper – Field Notes, Moleskine, Staples’ “EcoEasy” brand bagasse (sugarcane) paper, Rhodia pads, and a Doane Paper Idea Book:

First, the skinny Rhodia pad. This is 80gsm/21.3lb paper.

The Rhodia paper squeaked during the Q-tip swabbing; it seemed that the paper was so smooth (or had a coating on it) that the ink took quite a while to dry.

Next, the Field Notes notebook:

This paper (Boise 50lb) soaked up the ink like a sponge. Drying was almost instant, but at times the Lamy Safari felt like I was writing with a felt-tip marker.

Third was a Moleskine pocket notebook. No problems with the ink or the paper.

Fourth was Staples’ “EcoEasy” brand of “bagasse” paper, which is made from sugarcane refuse instead of wood or cotton. It’s very thin, but has a decent feel to it:

Last was a Doane Paper “Idea Book”:

None of the various types of paper exhibited any feathering, or major bleed-through to the point where the back side of the paper would be unusable – even on the sections used for the q-tip swab test.

The J. Herbin ink seemed a little thinner / more “watery” than the Noodler’s ink that I’m used to working with. There were no flow problems in either pen, and no staining issues other than the my hands and fingers.

So far I like the J. Herbin “Eclat de Saphir” ink, and am thinking of putting it in my 1941 Parker Duofold when that pen’s current filling of ink (current Noodler’s Dark Matter) runs out.

Tonight I hand-wrote, hand-addressed, stamped, and sealed sixty-five thank you notes. They’ll be hitting the post office tomorrow morning.

Again, thank you everyone for your contributions, moral support, kind notes, condolences, and everything you’ve done for me since Amy’s passing.

I wrote the majority of the notes with my 1941 Parker Duofold filled with Noodler’s “Legal Lapis” ink. When the fill of Legal Lapis ran out about 3/4ths of the way through, I switched to Noodler’s “Dark Matter” ink (because the bottle was right next to where I was working, and the LL was across the room).

The first 49 notes were on folded thank-you cards that I picked up at Office Depot today, and the last 16 were on nice G.Lalo stationery cards that Amy bought a couple weeks before she passed away.

I couldn’t find pen storage trays on eBay that I liked, so I bought some cigar boxes and made my own.

These pictures don’t show my blue Lamy Safari or the Parker 51 that’s currently out for repair.

The slotted felt trays are from GoPens. Total cost for this project was about $30.

I’ve finally got to the point where I feel comfortable sitting down and writing out (using my 1941 Parker Duofold filled with Noodler’s Legal Lapis ink) thank-you notes for everyone who helped out, sent money/flowers/food, or just expressed their condolences at Amy’s passing.

If you were one of these people and I have *not* contacted you yet asking for a postal address, please email me and let me know where to send the card.

Is there a 12-step program for people who like color variety?

My fountain pen ink collection:

Noodler’s:

Vintage Parker Quink Blue-Black:

I’m going to try to get the Moleskines shipped out this week, and get the promised “long term” review of the Clairefontaine “Basics” notebook up in some fashion or form.

I hope it’s understandable that I’ve had some extenuating circumstances over the past couple of weeks that took priority over everything else.

Aaron Svabik at Pentiques recently did a restoration job on a 1941 Parker Red Striped Duofold I got off eBay, and made a video of the process:

My first Parker fountain pen, purchased off eBay about a month ago, was this Parker 21:

Originally sold on eBay as a “Super 21″, when it arrived it turned out to be a normal 21 with a Super 21 cap.

This quickly became my favorite pen (as it has a Fine-Medium nib) and daily writer. I carried it around in my shirt pocket and used it for everything.

Unfortunately, after about a week it started slowly seeping ink into the middle finger of my writing hand. Close examination revealed hairline cracks in the hood (the part of the pen that holds the nib).

I was able to repair the cracks with a minute amount of SuperGlue, and then used shellac to seal the threads of the hood to the section. This worked fine, and the pen stopped leaking.

A few days ago, I was flushing the pen out with water at the sink in my bathroom, when I set it down for a moment. It rolled off the counter, and fell to the floor. When I picked it up I saw what I expected – worse cracks near the clutch ring on the hood.

More superglue and shellac were ineffective this time.

At this point, I’ve retired the pen to storage. I’d like to replace the hood, but the one source on the Internet that has (green and red) Parker 21 hoods has not yet replied to my email inquiry. Sending it off to a “pen doctor” would cost more than I paid for it in the first place.

Sure, I could just go buy another 21 on eBay – but this pen was my first Parker, has a GREAT nib, and it’s just a sentimental thing.

I won a bid for what was supposedly a Parker 51 on eBay last week, but when the pen arrived it was an *actual* Super 21 – a 21 with a 51-style nib, and the same cap that my dark-blue 21 has. However, it has issues – it was stored nib-down for a long time, and all the ink dribbled out, flooded the cap, and stained the hood. What ink was left in the pen has dried in the collector. I’ve flushed, filled, and soaked it in water twice so far, and it’s still not flowing to my satisfaction.

So, right now, my count of “Working Parker fountain pens” is “one”, it being a Parker 51 Special currently filled with Baystate Blue ink.

Update: Since this entry was written, I’ve picked up two more Parker 51 Specials off eBay, and will be putting the Parker 21s into my parts box. Unfortunately, they’re just not worth the cost to fix.

First, I’d like to thank Karen Doherty, VP of Marketing at Exaclair, Inc., for sending these review samples. Exaclair is the exclusive US distributor for Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Quo Vadis and Exacompta products and J. Herbin inks.

Yesterday, I gave away all of my unused, still-shrinkwrapped Moleskine notebooks. I’ve just not been happy with the quality of their current production, and the way their coated paper works with fountain pens (and I’ve tried various pens and different inks).

I contacted Karen a couple of weeks ago when she mentioned having review samples of the Clairefontaine “Basics” notebooks available. I requested one of the clothbound lined 6″x8.75″ models, and she sent a black one along with a squared Rhodia mini pocket notebook, both of which arrived today.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive review – just a quick first look at both notebooks. I’ll do another review with my thoughts after some long-term usage (at least 2-3 weeks).

First, I want to apologize – my camera stand and clamp lights are packed away in a box right now, so this is all on-camera flash.

The Clairefontaine “Basics” notebook has a black cover, with a glued cloth binding. The Clairefontaine logo is unobtrusively embossed on the front cover, while the back cover is blank. There are 192 pages (96 sheets) of 90gsm (24lb) white paper (environmentally friendly) with violet/light purple lines. The inner cover pages are blank, and are glued to the cardstock cover:

This tends to make the first page or two of the notebook unusable for me, but I just view it as somewhere to doodle in boring meetings.

The most important part – the pen and ink test:

This is pretty much every pen or ink that I have easily available to me without filling any empty pens. This paper is a pleasure to write on – it’s not rough, but it’s got enough texture that a nib isn’t going to skip or slide across the page. Only the Noodler’s Lexington Gray had any really noticeable feathering, and I’ve found it to do that on most any paper I use it with lately. I was particularly surprised by how the Parker Super Quink Blue-Black came out, as that’s an old 1960s bottle (with a price of 39 Cents on the box) that I just received off eBay today.

There was no discernible showthrough or bleeding of any of the inks to the other side of the page; even with the Noodler’s Baystate Blue that will soak through Moleskine paper in a heartbeat.

So far, I’m happy with the Clairefontaine “Basics” notebook; I’ll report back on it in a couple of weeks once it’s been subjected to my office doodling. I tend to draw geometric shapes and then fill them in, which gets interesting with fountain pen ink.

The mini squared Rhodia notebook has slightly lighter paper – 80gsm vs. the 90gsm Clairefontaine. The squares are printed in the same light purple/violet color. The cardstock cover is coated with some sort of waterproofing, and it works! I wrote my name on the inside cover with Noodler’s Aircorp Blue-Black, and put the notebook in the path of my desk fan. Five minutes later, I picked it up and ran my finger across it – I now have a blue right index finger. All of the ink completely wiped off the cover.

I did another basic ink test:

Not as many as last time, but I made sure to include the vintage 1960s Super Quink and the Noodler’s Baystate Blue.

You can see in this picture that the ink shows through the other side of the page more than it does on the heavier Clairefontaine paper. However, it’s not bleeding through or is so bad that you couldn’t use both sides of a page. For a pocket notebook like this, I don’t really think some minor showthrough is going to be a concern.

So far, I’m really liking the Basics notebook, and if things go well I’ll pick up a few more (they’re available with black or tan covers when clothbound) to replace my stack of Moleskines.

Look for a long-term use report in a couple of weeks, and I’d like to again thank Karen at Exaclair for giving me the opportunity to review these two notebooks.

After getting into fountain pens as a hobby, I discovered that the vast majority of my stock of Moleskine notebooks, which worked fine with Pilot G2 pens, don’t work very well with fountain pens and my preferred inks.

As a result, I’m be giving away all of my unopened (still in the shrinkwrap) Moleskine notebooks.

The list:

- Set of two ruled Volant notebooks, pocket size, light and dark green (gone to Rebecca)
- Set of two ruled Volant notebooks, large size, light and dark green (gone to a neighbor)
- Set of two ruled Volant notebooks, large size, light and dark blue (gone to Jonas)
- Set of three squared Cahier journals, large size, red (gone to Sarah)
- Set of three squared Cahier journals, large size, blue (gone to Hellenek)
- Large hardcover squared notebook, black (gone to Titivillus)
- Large hardcover ruled notebook, red (gone to Mrs. Bill)

I’ve not yet decided on what my Moleskine replacement will be, but I’m leaning towards something that uses Rhodia/Clairefontaine paper.

Update: All of the Moleskines are spoken for. Enjoy!