PigPog

I have a Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.3mm pencil, which I’d filled with Pilot Eno 2B leads, because I get on better with softer lead. The problem was that it wore down very quickly. I couldn’t use it for taking notes at work, because I’d have to stop to click more lead out three or more times when writing down an address.

Today, I finally got around to trying it out with Pentel AIN HB grade lead, and it’s much better. Yes, the line isn’t as dark, so it’s not quite as easy to read, but I can write several lines between clicks.

---

Ever since we started selling Diamine Inks at Cult Pens, I’ve been using almost nothing else. Until today, I’ve had good experience with every colour I’ve tried – Prussian Blue, Steel Blue, Umber, Saddle Brown, WES Imperial Blue – all have behaved very well. I picked up a bottle of Blue-Black last week, and loved the colour so much I flushed out both of my current pens, and filled them up with it.

I had flow problems with my Sheaffer Clipper Snorkel fairly quickly, and switched to the Pelikan M600, which never misbehaves. I started having flow problems with that, too.

By this afternoon, both pens were writing unevenly and skipping.

I’ve flushed them both out, and fed them both Waterman Blue-Black, and they seem fine again.

I love Diamine inks in general, and every other one I’ve tried has been great, but the Blue-Black does seem to be quite different stuff.

---

• Parker Executive – the rebirth of the old Rotring Quattro – surprisingly nice.
• Today’s LOLcat is CPR Cat.
• Bonus LOLcat: It’s Called Food.
• We have Waterman ink in bottles now.
• DIY Planner: Basic Fountain Pen Restoration, Part 1.

Flock

I’ve started trying out Flock again, since it reached version 1.0 recently, and first impressions are pretty good. If this post looks strange, impressions may be starting to dip – I’m attempting to post this using Flock.

It seems to be able to run the AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox, and Google Browser Sync seems to be working ok. I’m not entirely convinced it’s still working in Firefox, but that may be another problem entirely.

The problem I had before with Flock was down to memory management, and I don’t know yet if that’s fixed. It’s not really Flock’s problem as such – Firefox doesn’t seem to manage memory at all well, and Flock adds features on top of Firefox.

Update: Flock hung when I tried to post this – on the plus side, though, it recovered it when it restarted and I opened the blog editor again. It hung again when I tried again, so it doesn’t look like the blog editor likes our installation of Drupal.

Bad Pen Mojo

Today hasn’t been such a good day for pens. My new Clipper Snorkel seems to be having some intermittent feed problems – the ink flow just stops. I’ve just given it a good flush through, then flushed through with some very dilute detergent a couple of times, then rinsed thoroughly and refilled with ink. We’ll see how it gets on after that. If it still happens, I’ll probably try different ink next, and if all else fails, maybe have to ask Andy to have another look at it.

I then remembered that my Tucky needed filling, but as soon as I pulled the filler out, the blind cap popped off and fell on the floor. I attempted to put it back on, and it fell on the floor again. On further examination, it was a strange little setup that was obviously only supposed to be put together with the aid of a special Sheaffer tool. I managed to improvise with my Victorinox, and all was well again.

I Should Blog More

I should blog more. That’s hardly an original start to a blog post, especially one on a long-neglected blog, but there you go.

I’m using Emacs for much of my day-to-day stuff at the moment, working in PlannerMode. I never use the ‘Schedule’ section (I use Google Calendar), so I’ve changed it to ‘Blog’ instead, with the idea of tapping a blog post into it during the day, then posting at the end of the day. If you’re reading this, it worked. Once.

So, what’s been happening recently? We’re still enjoying Devon. My calculator obsession seems to have faded somewhat, leaving me quite settled with the HP 12C financial calculator. There are far more powerful things around, but they’re sitting unused in a drawer. The 12C just does the basics really nicely.

I’m left with my current obsessions being pens, notebooks and Emacs.

Pens

I have bought a few new pens recently:

A Sheaffer Tucky Vacuum-Fil set. I bought these on eBay, at a surprisingly good price. They work perfectly, and the vacuum-fil mechanism works smoothly, giving a good fill. They date back to somewhere between 1943 and 1949, so they’re doing well to still be going and in such good condition.

A few cheapies from an antiques shop in Sidmouth. I pop into antique shops from time to time, but I’ve never before actually found any fountain pens. This time, there was a little box full on the counter, £3 each. I grabbed an unknown lever filler, in full working order, a Sheaffer No Nonsense cartridge pen, a four-colour ballpoint, and a Conway Stewart No 116.

The Conway Stewart is the most interesting of the bunch – not a fountain pen as we know them now, but an ‘Ink Pencil’. The nib is like the nib in a real technical pen, like a Rotring Isograph. It’s a metal tube with a wire in the middle. The wire is pushed up by the paper, and moves a weighted seal to stop the ink from flowing. It has cleaned up quite nicely, but needs a new sac. I’ve ordered a set of sacs from Ian at Cathedral Pens, so I should be able to get it fixed up when they arrive.

I’ve also finally bought something from Andy’s Pens – a Sheaffer Clipper Snorkel, and a (reasonably) matching pencil. It’s a very nice looking pen, with a good smooth fine nib.

Photography

I’ve been taking plenty of photos recently, but not getting around to processing them and uploading them. I’ve been catching up on that a lot today – lots of new pics in my Flickr Photostream – you can just start at this one and keep clicking on the next in the photostream to go through them, if you like.

Some of the best ones to finish this up on, then I shall wallow in the bath for a long time before it’s Top Gear time…

Maybe if this idea works out, I’ll post again in less than a month.

Maybe.