Inked up my new TWSBI ECO Plum w/Onyx with Tono & Lims - Antares, another one of their very usable fluorescent inks in the Star Light Series. I hope they make even more of these! The three I've tried so far have been great. Hoping to have time for a proper swatch this weekend. The pen color leans a bit more pinkish/fuchsia in person than I expected from photos but still close enough to red for me. Looks great, otherwise your standard well-behaved TWSBI ECO. #FountainPens #FountainPenInk

Back home and resting after all that travel and peopling. Greeted by several packages: The new TWSBI ECO Plum w/Onyx, a Preppy Wa Neko, Tono & Lims Antares, Akkerman 13 Simplicities Violet, and Akkerman Out of the Blue. Also a Sailor Hocoro 2.0 stub dip pen and a Pilot Juice Up Gel Pen w/white ink. Not pictured because it went directly to my wife: A Sun-Star UFO pen case. Will flush & ink the TWSBI and Preppy when spoon supplies replenish, and get better pics. #FountainPens #FountainPenInk

On August 1st I swapped the O-rings on my Hongdian M1 and M2 with thicker O-rings and now just shy of three months later I checked them both. They wrote immediately (no hard starts or skips) and the converters are both still full. Ref:

Mastodon

Jim P.resents (@jimp@masto.ai)

Attached: 1 image Finished cleaning the M1 and M2, soaking did the trick. Had to disassemble one of the converters because it somehow got water b...

They were already pretty good at sealing but when left that long both would normally have hard started or need some help to flow again. So I'd highly recommend that change: New o-rings are 8mm OD, 5mm ID, 1.5mm wide. #FountainPens

I was trying to be good, but Vanness and JetPens both have the new TWSBI ECO Plum (finally a Red-ish one), and JetPens also got the new Preppy Wa line in (with the Neko), so... Happy accidents may have occurred. #FountainPens

Clicky pen updates again: Jinhao 20 re-test sat for a week (2x) and picked right back up, zero hard starts. Either they improved the design or I got lucky. Calling this one a win. Curidas had the same result, zero hard starts, works great, just huge/clunky mechanism. Endless Phantoms: 50/50. Both had Colorverse ink, one with Aquarius Whispers is perfect, one with Supergiant seems to have dried a bit in the nib and won't write. Soaking nib a bit to see what happens. #FountainPens

Keep forgetting to post this Bookaroo notebook I ordered a while back. I rather like it. This one is A6 and is going to live in the center console of my wife's car. Very handy/portable. Paper is quite good, FP-friendly. Stickers I added seem to hold on pretty well on the outside. It has several intro/TOC pages and several tear-out pages at the end. It opens and lays reasonably flat. Low UV reaction. Bookmark ribbon and elastic strap closure, and an outside pocket. #FountainPens #Stationery

Managed to get the Jinhao 9019 clean. I ordered a pack of very thin-walled nut drivers intended for working on RC vehicles/drones (4mm, 5.5mm, 7mm, 8mm). 7mm worked perfectly and didn't need any stressing/pushing to fit like the deep well socket that didn't work. Screw removed easily, took things apart and rinsed/scrubbed/swabbed and now it's all clean. I carefully aligned the inner cap and made sure not to overtighten the screw when reassembling it. #FountainPen #FountainPens

Cobalt Blue Asvine C80 w/Stub nib I ordered back in June(!) finally arrived today. No time to ink it up yet, but it looks nice. I like the color mix on this, mostly dark blue with a little black and some light blue shimmer here and there. Not too much. No inner cap or o-rings so I don't have high hopes for it sealing well, but maybe I can at least pop an o-ring on there. #FountainPen #FountainPens

Cleaned a few stubborn pens out today. Seemed like no amount of soaking and flushing would get them to run clear. Parker Vector, Kaigelu 316A, and Jinhao 80. These will probably be left un-inked and get stored for now. They are OK, but not ones I use frequently. I really like the italic calligraphy nib in the Parker, it just doesn't seal all that well. #FountainPen #FountainPens