Fountain Pens, Inks, and Journaling

For Christmas 2020 I was gifted a TWISBI 580ALR and Diamine inks. I really took to fountain pens and have been (more or less) maintaining a journal since then. Things I have learned about myself:

I am absolutely a cheap pen guy, but I'd like to start branching out into slightly less cheap pens
I like medium-ish nibs so I can see ink effects (shading)
Shading is my favorite ink effect (SHADING)
I like rotating between a handful of favorite colors, and color coding is an easy way to separate entries
If a pen isn't a demonstrator and its color doesn't roughly match the ink color I will constantly pick up the wrong pen. I put Diamine Amber in a spare green Jinhao for a while. It was hell, I tell you.
Sometimes you just need the right pen for an ink. I hated Diamine Amber in a EF Wing Sung, but when I put that ink in a modified M Jinhao I loved it.

Usage/Organization

I have long given up on the bullet journal method (see ex1, ex2). The Bujo Index is a great idea, but I don't use my journal for reference so chronological dating is usually enough.

Currently the journal is most useful for brainstorming and basic records of events. I do go through phases where I add lots of decorative doodles and sketches, but sometimes I do a 180 and have nothing but date and a brief project note.

I would like to return to journaling daily, so with the Leuchtturm I'm trying to get back to it. My goal is to record the day's notable events at a minimum, but ideally I'm also using the journal for story brainstorming and other creative tasks.

Notebooks

I currently prefer softcover dot journals with 2 bookmarks and an elastic strap. After thinking people freaking out about paper on r/fountainpens were being silly, I am forced to admit the quality of the paper/notebook definitely matters if you care about ink effects and ink can look radically different on various papers. I currently like white dot paper that doesn't ghost, and I've found I prefer less pages because by the time I get X pages in the thing is beaten to hell and I'm ready for a fresh book. I'm 2/3 through the P&G and it's starting to look janky and soiled (150 pgs, so 50 to go!).

Miliko A5 Dot - Started out with a Miliko A5 dot spiral leftover from my Bujo days. These are really serviceable notebooks, but when I switched from this offwhite paper... (filled March 22)
Pen + Gear Journal - Reliable beater. There were a few Walmart journals lying around when I finished the Miliko, this one has whiter paper than and I immediately noticed the difference in ink effects. (shelved October 22)
Leuchtturm 1917 - Fancy gift journal. Shows off ink much better than the others, but has incredible ghosting and is slick so ink easily smears. I've been mostly using it for ink tests and quotes, but I decided to start filling it up.

Pens

Documenting the great pen journey. Marlin ordered a bunch of cheap pens, half of which I haven't even tried. I tried and failed to get a glass dip pen a while ago for swatches (ordered, but order cancelled). I could remove the feed from one of my other pens in the meantime. I had my eye on a Majohn/Moonman N6 or N10 because it has a glass converter and can be capped.

TWISBI Diamond 580ALR - The OG. It's a good pen with good weight and is my most comfortable, but it's difficult to fill from a Diamine bottle (matters because I have a crap-ton of Diamine inks). It currently holds whichever purple ink I most prefer.
Moonman A2 - An eyedropper pen. Marlin sanded/modified the nib so it's super wet and and sometimes dumps a lot of ink, making the control inconsistent, but it's very convenient to fill. The wetness allows sheen on inks like [Diamine Aurora Borealis](https://mountainofink.com/blog/diamine-aurora-borealis?rq=borealis), which doesn't show sheen with any other pen I've used.
Wing Sung 3008A - Inexpensive demonstrators. I have spent a lot of time sanding the nibs and some are still a bit scratchy. These demonstrators have large ink-capacity, which is good because I've found Diamine ink bottles don't really accomodate siphon pens so I have to do a little extra work to refill them. I used to like these, but I've since moved on to...
Jinhao 599 - These are sold as extra fine, and I split the nibs with a razor blade to make them medium nibs. They require NO SANDING in my experience, they're just incredibly smooth nibs out of the package and the nibs are easy to remove and clean. The downside is they have small ink capacity (though this isn't necessarily a problem if you like to cycle inks and it's easy to refill these with a syringe) and they aren't always comfortable to write with. The housing is understandably cheap and several have cracked.

Inks

The inks are what I love. This is the part that brings me joy. Dayspring Pens has a great primer on ink types. We binged on Diamine inks to start, as you can see.

All notes subject to change given experimentation.

FAVES

All in modified EF nibs (probably "mediums"). My favorites ended up being colors I never would have guessed.

Diamine Amber - A yellow-orange ink. Too light to read in an EF and I hated it, but in a broader nib the shading on this ink is glorious.
Diamine Ancient Copper - Often-recommended brown ink with good shading even on smaller nibs.
Diamine Auora Bourealis - Excellent teal ink with okay shading and a red sheen that comes out in wetter pens.
J. Herbin Bleu Calanque - This was an impulse purchase, no research, just really liked the storefront swatch. This is a rich wet teal. I detect some shading but I like the color overall.
J. Herbin Rouge Grenat - Narrowed down to this one after researching red shading inks that would retain a darker red and not go pink. It is glorious, seeing it wet on the page is a joy. Beautiful dark red shader and the 5oz bottles are just the right size and price.
Iroshizuku Kon-Peki - A rich blue shader. Once again, did not like this in EF, but it really grew on me in M. It's Marlin's favorite, which is good because the bottle is huge.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MAYBE SOMETIMES MOOD

These are fine inks, but I'm not always in the mood for them for whatever reason. Some I wrote with a while simply wanted to switch to something different.

Diamine Imperial Purple - A quality purple and I like the saturation, but it doesn't shade... .
Diamine Monboddo's Hat - A daaaark purple. This was one of my favorites for a while, but I decided I wanted something more saturated and swapped it out with Imperial.
Diamine Oxblood - Highly recommended for a reason. A solid dark red. I'm interested in the green sheen, but so far it only sorta comes out in really wet nibs on bright, quality paper (Leuchttrum)
Diamine Oxford Blue - Super interested in the potential sheen in this one (pink) but I don't have a pen/paper that adequately show it off.
Diamine Polar Glow (sample) - Dark blue with BIG pink sheen and much wet across nibs. I finished the sample and enjoyed it, but I like to try a different blue/pink sheen next time.
Jacques Herbin Emerald of Chivor (sample) - Very well-known pthalo green with red sheen and shimmer. It's a fancy ink, pretty wet, and too nice for my beater journal. I'd like to revisit it when I move to the Leuchtturm. At the moment, it seems like a deeper (sheener-shimmer) version of Aurora Borealis.

FAIL

Some inks fell flat for me, though.

Diamine Cocoa Shimmer (sample) - Brown shimmer ink. Shades even on F nibs but I couldn't get the shimmer to come through even on my best paper. The champion is still Antique Copper.
Diamine Meadow - A light green. It's... weird. I disliked it in F. It's ok in M, but I'm super picky about my greens and I really just want something richer and more robust. I'm going to try switching ot a wetter pen.
Diamine Msytique (sample)- Purple shimmer ink. Muted, doesn't wow me. I think I prefer more vibrant purples.
Diamine Sherwood Green - This dark green doesn't do it for me. Too foresty, and I read it's a shader but I couldn't see it.
Diamine Writer's Blood - I admit I may have gotten this purple/red wine ink for the name. I like Oxblood better.
Noodler's Antietam - Tried Marlin's bottle. A red brown that's a bit too muddy/muted for my tastes, felled by Antique Copper.

Shopping Notes

TaoBao for Moonman

Cult Pens is in the UK, but you can get Diamine bottles for less than a sample in the US.