Editing The Pen Addict 62/transcript (section)

== Lefty Nibs ==


'''Ana Reinert:''' I have. And, again, the lefty nibs are really designed to accommodate... They really only come in handy. And this is something that I pretty firmly believe. If you're getting into, like, the stub or the cursive style, you want to do that, you know, sort of calligraphic wide nib that for some lefties, especially if you're an underwriter. So, you're writing below the line of your paper, a left-handed chiseled angle. So, it's... Basically, they chisel the angle of a calligraphy nib where it's a little bit lower on the left-hand corner of the nib than the right hand. So, it's kind of angled down. It helps left-handed writers recreate sort of that sort of calligraphic look a lot easier. But it will not work if you're an overwriter. Okay. So, do you have... Oh, I was going to say the same thing with, like, a flexible nib. If you're overwriting and pushing the pen, you're not going to get any of that line variation. You really need to write underwriting to get the line variation of those flexible nibs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I didn't think about that. Now, have you had any issues with, like, a standard stub or italic nib? Do you use those? Do you prefer them? Do you have trouble with them?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I have... Depending on how wide they are, I try to stay in that sort of 1.1 millimeter and smaller area with a stub. And I'm pretty good with those. And I can... Some of them I can actually use. Depending on how good the flow is, I can actually use as an overwriter.

'''Ana Reinert:''' My favorite is a vintage Estabrook, which is their fine stub. And it's about... I would guess it's probably about a 0.6 or 0.8 millimeter. It's much narrower than sort of what people think of as that 1.1 millimeter stub. That's my... And I, like, that sold me on stubs. I was like, I'm in. I love these.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's kind of the range that I like, too. Like, sub 1 millimeter stubs. I can write with those all day long, just with my normal writing. I love that. I'm going to get... There will be more of those in my future, for sure. Now, Myke, you just bought your first stub nib. Was it... Did you buy a Twisby Mini with a stub? Or am I confusing something?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, no. It was a Twisby Mini that I got with the 1.0... I can't remember. Stub.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's 1.1 or 1.5. I think it was the 1.1, I think. I can't remember. I think it was the smaller of the two. So, are you still using it, enjoying it? That's working well with your handwriting style?

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's pen I... It's my daily pen now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dang. That's awesome.

'''Myke Hurley:''' 1.1. Okay. I decided not to go too far too soon.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The thing that I find the most interesting with the stub nib is how I can either use it like a normal pen, or I can make it, like, stub. I don't really know how you would say it. Like, I can either use it, and it will just look like a regular fountain pen for me, or I can just angle the nib, and then I can start getting the thicker lines, which I tend to just do more out of fun than anything else. Right. Like, sometimes I'll be like, oh, I'll just turn it, or just because it feels smoother or whatever. But because I guess I'm not using a stub nib for what it is intended to be for, I don't tend to notice that I can't use it properly, if that makes sense. I just find it to be an excellent writing experience.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it works pretty well for me. And I think that, you know, there might be a bit of the fact that I'm finding that Twisby's writing instruments are of a quality unlike any other, is maybe part of the reason why I have pretty good luck with it. And maybe if I use something else, it wouldn't be so much. But like, because for example, I own a fine Twisby nib, and it's the only fine nib I've ever been able to use.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ah, that's right. That's interesting. Is that on the ROC one? Yeah. Is that what it was, or was it something else?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, it was on the ROC.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. And you're still enjoying that fine of a nib?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I haven't used that since I got the mini. Um, but yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But it works for you as a lefty that the Twisby F nibs are no issue? None. Okay. That's great.

'''Ana Reinert:''' When I, um, that's interesting because when I got my Twisby mini, I got it with a fine nib on it. And it was, and I had had a, um, a 540, a diamond 540 with an extra fine. And I thought, well, I'll try the fine nib. And it was, um, too broad for me just for daily writing. And, you know, again, I like my nibs on the finer side. So I actually, um, ordered an extra, extra fine nib, swapped it out. And so now I have a fine nib laying around that fits on a mini. Are you interested?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Okay. By all means I would love it. Yes.

'''Ana Reinert:''' So you can switch it out on your, your mini with your 1.1. That would be amazing. Thank you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No problem. Now wait, wait, we, we might have a hitch in that, in that plan. The minis take a smaller nib size.

'''Ana Reinert:''' It was for a mini.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, it was for a mini. Okay. I thought you said it was for a 540. My fault. My fault. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, cool. That's awesome.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Intercontinental trade agreement.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We're not, is this Star Wars now? Is that where we are?

'''Ana Reinert:''' We're smuggling nibs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. That's awesome. Well, on a, I guess keeping it on, on, on the fountain pen, uh, topic here. Let's talk about inks real quick. Cause I know Myke and I have talked about this before. And even for right handers and fountain pens, inks are a huge challenge. Um, you know, the dry time, if you're using a nice paper, nice, smooth, non-absorbent paper, like a rhodia, you're talking a lot of these inks, you're talking 30 second dry times. Just, no, there's no two ways about it. There's no getting around it. I, I say it doesn't phase me, you know? I mean, of course there, there's a little bit of hesitancy for something that dries extremely long, but you know, I, it, if I, there's an ink I enjoy and it happens to have a long dry time, that's not going to turn me off for it. But for a left-hander, that's a entirely different story, right?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yes, it can be. And it, it does have a lot to do with what kind of paper you plan on using and how wide the nib on the pen is. Obviously a 1.1 stub is going to put on a, put down a lot more ink, you know, on your paper, which right-handed people deal with as well. Um, you know, so it's, you really have to kind of start thinking about tailoring the inks that you use with the, maybe more with the nib than maybe the pen. So, I mean, the one that, um, is kind of always recommended to, uh, left-handed writers is the Noodler's Bernanke inks, which were just the, there's a Bernanke blue and a Bernanke black that are specifically designed to dry very, very quickly. Um, so if that's, if that is an issue, if you're an overrider and you want something to use in your office, that you can just write and write and not worry about whether or not you're going to end up walking to your next meeting with the palm of your hand all blue, I would say use Bernanke inks. But a lot of the other inks, you know, especially the big brands, um, like, you know, the Parker inks, um, you know, those sort of standard blues and blacks do tend to dry a lot faster. It's when you get into the really, um, sort of niche colors. Um, I, I'm discovering strangely enough, a lot of pinks take a long time to dry and reds. Um, those are the ones I did a test with, um, I found, uh, Statler, um, cartridges at my local office supply store. And I tested all of the colors and they were all packaged together. There were five colors and, um, the pink in that set was much more liquidy and took much longer to dry. Then the, there was a brown and a green and a red and those all drew dried much quicker. So even within the same line, like from the same manufacturer, there's, I think, um, fluctuations in how long it takes the inks to dry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wow. That's pretty interesting. I hadn't thought about that too much, except, you know, if I've done, you know, like a bottle test, I understand that, you know, like if I'm doing one type of noodlers compared to a different type there, you know, they're just many, might be manufactured completely differently. But if I'm using the same, you know, like standard product line, I would think it would be reasonably close, but that, um, it sounds like it was pretty far off dry time.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Yeah. And I haven't found any real logic to it, but I do have noticed like pinks and sometimes oranges tend to take a little bit longer to dry. And I think maybe that's because there's so much pigment in the colors to make them really bright.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, maybe so. I'm up to go now. You, you got me interested now. I'm up to go. I'm up to go check that out. Myke, Myke, did you ever use those Bernanke samples that you got? Did you ever test that out?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I was going to, um, and then the problem I had was there's not enough ink in test bottles that I have for the TWSBI, uh, system. So it was like the piston system to bring the ink in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So we know the answer to that, right, Anna? So, yeah, what is the answer?

'''Ana Reinert:''' You have to buy a whole bottle.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, get a syringe.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Oh, but you can't really syringe, um, one of the TWSBI minis without totally disassembling it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Nope. I do it. I do it for all my ink tests. I use a TWSBI mini 1.5 millimeter stub. I twist it out from the, from the middle.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Ah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Dump the, dump the ink out. Yep. Dump the ink back out. Clean it out. Clean out the nib. Get the syringe and pop it back right in the, right back in the hole.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, there's your answer. Syringe.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I still feel strange about trying to find and buy a syringe, though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like someone, someone told me on Twitter or app.net the other day, you know, about, you know, tracking all, all of my pin buying habits. I said, I guess I just stopped posting my syringe pictures.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Because you feel a little creepy. Like, I don't know where I would find one. And then how you go about buying one without looking shady.

'''Ana Reinert:''' First off, the syringe that, that most people use for filling ink is a very large gauge.