Ink + Converter

mulligano

mulligano

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745
Location
Fife
A couple of days ago I got my very first fountain pen - a Lamy Safari. I've been reading about converters and reckon I'll get one from here.

As well as this, I want to try some ink. I'm looking at the J Herbin Empire Green from the same place.

I am just wondering if anyone has used this site, and if it is any good?
Is the J Herbin ink any good?

If I've made some glaring error, then please let me know - I'm completely new to all this.

Thanks.
 
mulligano said:
A couple of days ago I got my very first fountain pen - a Lamy Safari. I've been reading about converters and reckon I'll get one from here.

As well as this, I want to try some ink. I'm looking at the J Herbin Empire Green from the same place.

I am just wondering if anyone has used this site, and if it is any good?
Is the J Herbin ink any good?

If I've made some glaring error, then please let me know - I'm completely new to all this.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Not familiar with the vendor - Herbin inks are OK but can be a bit lacking in depth of colour - Vert Empire in particular is a bit weak IMO.
 
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Not familiar with the vendor - Herbin inks are OK but can be a bit lacking in depth of colour - Vert Empire in particular is a bit weak IMO.
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I agree Vert Empire is rather a weak green, almost greyish (it is however quite a popular colour). I would also recommend Diamine Umber or Delamere. This does all depend on what you are looking for in the colour.

If you are worried about who to purchase from then I would recommend Cultpens. Excellent company to deal with and extremely fast delivery.
 
Check out bureau direct's discount code on twitter.

One ink brand that I'm really really impressed with is Pelikan's Edelstein range. My 25 feels like it's writing on glass!
 
Thanks for the recommendations - I suspect this is a rabbit hole I'll regret going down.

I've had a look at those two sites and come across the Cult Pens deep dark green, the Diamine umber looks promising as well. Perhaps I'll splash out on both. The Edlelstein looks really good, but not having a smaller (cheaper) bottle on cult pens makes me think I'll hold off on that one for now.
 
Bureau Direct is an excellent company to deal with,,reliable and friendly.
There are so many inks worth trying out and Herbin is a pretty good performer with a wide range of colours to choose from.
You should check out the reviews on the Fountain pen forum,, just about every brand and colour will be there and the reviews tend to be well written.
The Safari should serve you well by the way and the converter is definitely worth having.
regards, beejay
 
I've used Bureau Direct and they were pretty good. The free delivery isn't the fastest but OK (on a par with Amazon free delivery).
Post-sales support is flawless - when they say "no quibble" they really mean it.
Sign up to their newsletter and you will get a 10% discount code.

Cult pens is very well regarded on here but my experience of them wasn't as good - might just have been unlucky.
 
I have ordered through Cult Pens twice and thought they were excellent, my orders were placed in the afternoon and my delivery was the following day. It was also free as it was over £10. I can't comment on their customer service, I didn't have any need to contact them further regarding either of my orders.
 
I placed an order with Cult Pens last night, as I wanted to try their "deep dark" inks. I got the deep dark red and deep dark green as well as the Diamine Umber and a converter. Hopefully I won't have to use the customer service, but it's good to know that there are other good vendors to use.

The only problem is that I think I'll have to get a few more pens to use all this ink!

Next purchase will be a good quality notepad.
 
The ink and converter arrived on Tuesday, but I couldn't wait for my cartridge to run out so I got a new Lamy in town today - a vista.

After "flushing" it (which removed a fair bit of blue ink), I loaded it with the Diamine umber; what a gorgeous colour of ink! I think I'll need to buy a few mores to try them all out.
 
+1 for cult pens, the safari and deep dark green.
So good I bought a second pen and converter :)
And then a pen pocket for the front of my note book and little pen holder for my diary, oh and a bottle of deep dark blue in case I get bored of the green.
You can see where this is heading can't you...
 
mulligano said:
The ink and converter arrived on Tuesday, but I couldn't wait for my cartridge to run out so I got a new Lamy in town today - a vista.

After "flushing" it (which removed a fair bit of blue ink), I loaded it with the Diamine umber; what a gorgeous colour of ink! I think I'll need to buy a few mores to try them all out.
Click to expand...

Excellent news, sir. Glad you hit on an ink that suited your taste. The Safari is a brilliant pen for the price, when I'm in the office I use my Visconti HS Lava Bronze, however when I'm out and about it's with a charcoal safari clipped to my pocket book. I get equal pleasure out of both pens. I do love the fact that you can swap the nibs on a Safari in seconds when you feel like a change.
 
That Visconti looks gorgeous, although a tad out of my price range! Are there any particular nibs worth exploring as a total novice? Or should I stick to my medium for now?
 
mulligano said:
That Visconti looks gorgeous, although a tad out of my price range! Are there any particular nibs worth exploring as a total novice? Or should I stick to my medium for now?
Click to expand...

Ideal nib size depends partly on how large your writing normally is.

This is sbrebrown's guide on the subject:

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Svq3M7sPU[/video]
 
As above.

I also switch around depending on the size of the page I am writing on. I have quite bold writing so on small pads I tend to stick with a fine or medium depending on the nib manufacturer.

I have a fine nib in my Visconti however it writes more like the medium in my Montblanc. To confuse matters even more I switch between a medium and a broad nib in my Safari again depending on paper and ink being used.

The Lamy nibs are relatively inexpensive so it's worth playing around until you find what you like. Swapping them out is a very quick procedure.
 
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