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iA physical (paper) notebook
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Posted by NickG
Dec 9, 2023 at 09:42 AM
Amontillado wrote:
>Neil Gaiman writes the first draft of his books with
>fountain pens. I believe he favors the Pilot Custom 823, moderately
>priced for a bespoke writing instrument at around $300.
He does love the Pilot Custom 823 (so do I - I have 3!!) but I remember him saying that he uses a Lamy 2000 for his day-to-day writing and the 823 as a signing pen. But that was some time ago.
Posted by satis
Dec 9, 2023 at 10:58 PM
It should be pointed out that nowhere in IA’s post about its upcoming notebook does it say that the paper is fountain pen-friendly. And when you’re talking about a niche notebook like this, if it doesn’t say it’s fp-friendly you can probably expect to see feathering, bleed, and/or spread.
Nothing wrong with fountain pens, although it easily becomes a rabbit hole one jumps down when deciding on the best combination of section thickness, nib choice, ink type and fp-friendly paper. I’ve gone through many experiments over the years, and despite finding combinations that I enjoy writing with I still keep handy gel pens for use on cheap paper and Post It Notes. Some modern gel pens are so pleasurable to write with and so convenient with random paper types that I use fountain pens much less than I used to.
The fact that ink flows via capillary action in fountain pens and doesn’t require pressure on paper makes long bouts of writing easy and less tiresome, but it doesn’t make writing with a regular pen prohibitive.
Lamy nibs are butter smooth, maybe too smooth - part of that rabbit hole is sometimes discovering that you like the pencil-like feedback of a nib like those on Sailor pens. I’ve become partial to pens with large ink capacities, and these days you can get excellent results with cheap pens that have large reservoirs like the sub-$30 TWSBI Go.