Here are those photos of my two V-mail inks in pens. For those of you who are reading this who AREN'T pen geeks, these are the fruits of my Sunday excursion to the New England Pen Show in Boston, my first-ever pen show. It was ever so much fun. If you're not a pen-and-ink geek, then this post may not mean a whole lot to you. More letter stuff coming later, I promise - but I gotta share the pen-and-ink goodness with my fellow fountain pen nut readers.
I learned recently from the The Fountain Pen Network (FPN) forums that Boston Brahmin Black is indeed part of the V-Mail series. (For more background, see my Noodler's inks from the New England Pen Show post.) So the two inks shown at the top of the page, Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black, are both in that series. Oh, and you gotta view this one large to appreciate it.
Both the Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black are shown in Autopoint Big Cat pens, which I got as part of Richard Binder's nib-smoothing kit. I haven't even played with the smoothing kit itself yet, because these German "student pens" are already pretty nice and smooth.
Have I mentioned I am in love with Midway Blue? I am in love with Midway Blue. Excellent shading. Great, bright color. Dries really quickly. Hooray!
But I must also show you my new baby. I splurged (a calculated splurge, as I'd been considering this for month) on a Pelikan M200 with a custom Binder-ized nib (for those who aren't pen geeks yet have read this far, Richard Binder is a famous "nibmeister," or master of fountain pen nibs, known for his fine work and specialty nibs) of the XXXF Needlepoint variety. I tested one at his table and knew it was for me. This puppy is SUPERFINE, baby! For those of you that get letters from me, you already know of my penchant for reeeeeeallly fine nibs (and fine = thin, the opposite of a broad nib). I've never written with anything this fine before. You can see it in the photo at top with the Noodler's Squeteague. I am in love with my new pen.
Here's a bit of pen porn, a close-up of that needlepoint nib:
Oohhhh yeah. You can view this one large if you want to, too. Mmmmm.
Coming soon, back to letter-writing goodness - I'll have another really long, photo-filled post featuring the work of one of my intrepid correspondents, who did a photo documentary of every step of the wax seal process.
Happy writing! Go write a letter!
