Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

In jewelry, this pair would be called a demi-parure. I am dusting off that word and putting it here because the Moore 72 belongs to a time when women had parures and reticules. And tiny hands.

The seller described the pen and pencil as made of plastic, but I think the material is black celluloid. There is a very faint smell that could be camphoraceous. The tops are pearlized plastic, and add Art Deco sleekness to the set.

The pencil is the heavier of the two. Only the pen has an imprint.

The pen comes with Moore’s Maniflex nib. In my experience, Maniflex nibs are not full flex, but semi-flex. This one is no exception.

The set just radiates cuteness. The shiny black surface reminds me of a little girl’s black patent Mary Janes.

Here’s a writing sample.

They make the Nakaya Long Piccolo look like a humongous predator.

I hope I don’t get addicted to collecting sets!

Good pens can come by way of good pen friends, and this set would not be here without the kindness of Andy Russell. In my little pen world, he’s the Conway Stewart-and-other-English-pens encyclopedia.

Students who struggled through Shakespeare might catch the allusion. Ophelia said, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance” in Hamlet. My Rosemary set came in a presentation box, whose colors make me think of Van Gogh’s sunflowers caught in the rain. Then, as now, pens were popular gifts. According to writetime.co.uk, Rosemary pens were established in the early to mid 1920s.

The golden-colored foil lining is mostly intact. Inside the box is a product leaflet and a black reticule. (I love that word. Reticule. Mmm. So much better than purse.)

Rosemary seems to have been a sub-brand of National Security, which in turn was a mark owned by British Carbon Papers, Ltd. British Carbon outsourced the manufacture of these pens to other English pen makers, including Conway Stewart.

Inside the reticule (made flirty with a swinging tassel!), everything a bright young lady zipping around the city needs. A pencil to dash off a grocery list, a powder puff in crushed silk to freshen up between appointments, a ringtop fountain pen for thank-you notes, and a pocket comb to smooth adventurous ringlets before rushing home.

Here’s another shot of the set.

Whoever owned this set took it out once in a while to admire it, and used the pen and pencil sparingly.

I have many RMHR (red mottled hard rubber) pens in my collection. These are very fine examples. I’m lucky they were kept in their reticule, away from sunlight. And the imprints are stunning. I love how the y descender in Rosemary loops up and becomes a sprig of what else, rosemary.

The nib is smooth and firm. I wasn’t able to take pictures of writing samples; I’ll do that next week.

Thanks, Andy, for paving the way for me to have this sweet piece of history.

You know how people band together to petition companies to bring back products?

I’m sure we won’t get enough to bring back the Osmiroid Drawing Pen Set, but for the sake of entry-level fountain pen obsessionistas, we should try. Where else can you get a nib with an overfeed, a medium stub and a copperplate nib in one package, together with a lever-filling pen body?

Seven assorted nibs. This was a great find on eBay, what I like to call a blurry photo win.

These are compatible with Esterbrook Renew-Points, according to Richard’s Pens (scroll down), but I haven’t tried that. There are more than enough nibs here for hours of playtime: Rola Extra Fine, Rola Hard Fine, Rola Soft Fine, Rola Hard Medium, Rola Soft Medium, Copperplate and Sketch.

I do have another Sketch nib in another Osmiroid. This one has most of the iridium intact, but it feels like it was the most-used one in the group.

The “hardness” or stiffness of the nib is achieved by changing the shape. The soft medium has sloping shoulders to allow the nib to feel “soft” while in use, whereas the hard nib has broad shoulders that taper to a stub-like shape. Even the feeds are different.

Is there enough difference in the way the nibs write to make each one valuable for someone who loves to draw?

Like most nib choices, it comes down to 1) feel in the hand during writing and 2) line on paper. The Sketch nib is slightly oblique, slightly stubby, and semi-flex.

I’ve enlarged all these samples for a better appreciation of the quality of the lines.

The Copperplate nib has very long tines, which allow it to become semi-flex, even if the metal itself feels like thick steel.

The medium hard and medium soft stubs don’t look that different on paper, as you can see. The difference is in how they feel while being used. The medium hard feels like a steel calligraphy nib; the medium soft feels closer to a standard gold nib.

I got mine for less than USD 50 on eBay. Good luck hunting down your set – it’s worth it.

That’s what I call it. I wonder if it has an official name.

The original owner’s initials are engraved on the cap band. I’ve taken to calling this the “Why Not” pen as a result.

The imprint on the barrel is fairly strong. I don’t think W.N. used this pen much. Why not? I have no idea. “Safety screw cap” means – I believe – that unlike unthreaded caps, screw caps allow for gradual release of pressure, so no nasty ink surprises when a cap is pulled off.

There’s also an imprint on the cap.

And another on the feed. Mabie Todd was apparently huge on brand building, and stamped “Swan” onto every part of the pen that could be mistaken for a part from another pen. (So what about those quotation marks? Were they for emphasis? In today’s usage, quotes behave like an aura of irony around a word. To wit: They’re “dating.” She’s “interesting.” He’s “enthusiastic.”)

On to the nib. (Which is also branded Mabie Todd Swan). The beautiful metal overfeed makes sure the nib never runs dry. Here, you can see the ink pooled under the overfeed, ready to be commanded by gravity and capillary action.

Here’s what the overfeed looks like from the top.

Caloy asked me if the overfeed restricted how the tines behaved during a downstroke. It doesn’t seem to.

I dropped Pilot yama-guri ink into the barrel and the pen just wrote by itself.

Early Swan nibs are almost always generously flexy, and this is no exception. It’s already in regular use.

There, I’ve said it. It’s a very flexible nib, the closest to vintage flex of all modern nibs, but being in a cartridge/converter filler and having such a stingy feed just cripples it. Pilot, do us all a favor. Change the feed and make an eyedropper for this poorly-served nib. You should have an eyedropper in your archives!

When I first got my Pilot 742 FA, I was very impressed. After several fills, I couldn’t ignore how often it would stutter in the middle of a stroke – the ink flow simply couldn’t keep up. I think for a normal (read: non-flex addict) user, this would not even emerge as a problem. I cracked the feed when I tried to remedy the flow problem.

I pulled out the FA nib, and after several failed tries, found a Vacumatic feed that seemed to fit, and installed both in a Waterman 12.

I have taken to calling it the Frankenpen Xtreme.

The FA nib tended to stand away from a flat feed, so there was no flow. The Vac’s rounded feed worked a lot better.

And here’s how it behaves now.

I keep hearing “don’t mess with the zogan” in my brain. I hope it goes away soon.

The standard Platinum 3776 body is executed in ABS resin, with a brushed matte surface reminiscent of the Nakaya hairline finish. Higo-zogan, gold inlay on steel, is applied to the cap band. I chose the ginkgo pattern over the sakura. This pen is a reissue; Phthalo of FPN has the original, which came out in the 1970s.

You can see the texture of the gold inlay up close. Higo-zogan is used on sword fittings and even fashion accessories.

I quite like this shot of the nib with the ink pooled around the breathing hole in the shape of a smile. The ink is Private Reserve Cosmic Cobalt. Platinum kept the section shiny, but I wish they had given it a matte finish just like the rest of the pen. Still, the contrast in textures can also be pleasing.

Here’s a tighter shot of the nib. I did have the option to choose a music nib for this pen, but chose a fine nib to make it more of a daily writer.

As usual, the Platinum fine is smooth and silky. I’ll post doodle and writing samples in a follow-up entry.

I assume that’s the name because it’s the only one in the Koh-i-noor catalog. I ordered one out of curiosity. Koh-i-noor has always been an art brand to me, and I never thought they would have a fountain pen in their lineup.

The brushed silver-colored body with incised rings and the black accents conspire to give the pen a huge “junior executive who aspires to own a MacBook Pro one day” vibe. This pen is in the same league (and price range) as metal-body Inoxcrom pens. It flares out slightly at either end, a design touch that I like.

I had hoped the knob on the end with the clip would be a click button, but no. It’s where you post the cap.

Posting could make the pen uncomfortably long for smaller hands, but it makes sure the cap doesn’t roll about on your desk. The cap pops off. The section unscrews from the rest of the barrel so you can replace the cartridge or attach an international converter.

The nib is very smooth, and firm. If you’re looking for a starter pen, or a gift for someone whom you want to lead into fountain pen addiction, this is a good choice.

(Edited – my bad, it’s the 7240 according to this eBay listing.)

This is a limited edition release from Pilot inspired by its Iroshizuku line of inks. The Custom Heritage 91 feels like the Custom 74 only with flat ends, and with less nib variety.

Because I am a big fan of the Iroshizuku yama-guri (mountain chestnut, a brown verging on black) and yama-budo (wild grape, an intense purple) shades, I decided to get the matching pens. This is like buying a leather bag to match a bra – theoretically possible, and quite likely enjoyable, but not the first thing that comes to mind.

There is a lot of activity in the fashion pen segment in Japan, as seen in the latest releases from Pilot and Sailor. The Sailor Pro Gear line, in particular, has seen an explosion in variants – pink demonstrator, mica on blue, slimmer, shorter, Hello Kitty. Pilot reintroduced the Elabo in more fashion-friendly body colors. I’d like to see more matching shades in the Custom Heritage 91 line. (Yu-yake would be like the orange Capless, only juicier.)

This image comes closest to their color in real life:

I chose a fine nib for the yama-budo and a fine-medium for the yama-guri. The nibs are #5 Pilot nibs, the same size as the ones found on the Custom 74, and rhodium-plated to match the sword clip and cap and barrel trim. The nib has a little give. Not enough for flex, but certainly enough to make doodling a delight.

The nib on the yama-budo still needs cleaning. I went ahead and inked it anyway.

Happy happy joy joy.

The latest Nippon Art release is called “Origami,” and Crane is my favorite from the series. Prior to that was Ukiyo-e, or the woodblock print series. Done in the hira maki-e style, Ukiyo-e had Vidro (which I used to own, before I sold it to a friend), Courtesan, Sharaku and Festival.

Festival is what I now own.

The book is a collection of short stories by Richard Matheson, whose best-known work is likely “I Am Legend.” That was adapted into Omega Man with Charlton Heston and the eponymous movie with Will Smith. I figured the samurai on the pen needed some eye candy, and the lady on the cover seemed willing enough to be ogled.

It’s a lot of detail to squeeze onto the surface of a medium-sized pen, but the technique succeeds.

The warrior’s other arm has a cartoon dragon tattoo.

The cap has simply-rendered, eyecatching fireworks.

The nib is a standard Namiki/Pilot fine. I believe these pens are also available with medium and broad nibs, but I rarely see those.

Here’s a quick sample of the line it makes. A standard fine still has its charms. The ink is Caran d’Ache Caribbean Sea. I used cross-hatching over a hasty scribble of Aqua Procolor (water-based) markers.

I googled “Osmiroid 75″ and discovered that one  of my favorite flex nib artists wrote about his Osmiroid sketch pen on the Fountain Pen Network. It’s good to know that someone seems to like this unusual nib as much as I do, albeit he did write his review 5 years ago. (Antoniosz, if you’re reading this, do you still have that pen?) That review also has a very informative scanned image of the nib options available for the Osmiroid 65 and 75.

The Osmiroid 75 is a piston filler. The nib screws out, just like Pelikan and Esterbrook nibs.

At first, I thought the tip of the nib had worn down; and then I realized it was really this almost-stub. An large overfeed helps keep the tip supplied with ink. There is also a slit on either side of the rectangular cut-out in the middle of the nib, which reminds me of slits cut in steel nibs to make them more flexible. The feed is an unusual configuration as well.

My pen has a tiny crack near the ink window, which I hope to be able to seal. So far, though, it hasn’t been a problem.

Note the slight parting of the tines. Because of the shape of the nib, though, this slight spread makes for a wide line.

It’s a sweet nib for both writing and sketching.

I used Noodler’s Golden Brown in it before Noir Diamant, in an earlier sketch. The variety of lines that can be achieved by both changing the angle of the nib to the paper and the pressure is quite pleasing.

If you’re into fountain pens more for the result rather than the pen hoarding part of the hobby, you can’t do much better than a pen like this.