I am still learning about fountain pens. I watch a lot of videos and read a lot of reviews, web sites, and do research on pens that I have just purchased or want to purchase. I want to learn from others who went before me, so have spent some of my spare time reading and watching.
One thing on the Lamy 2000 I discovered today is actually good news. I used to have a bottle of Waterman ink which I eventually depleted and found a bargain blue-black ink by Hero. I have been using the Hero ink for a couple of years now, since I only had the one fountain pen that I was using regularly. So that was the only bottle on hand when I started buying other pens and use it to ink them as well. The good part of that is that I got to see how they compared one to another using the same ink. The bad part is that I was disappointed a little bit in the Lamy with the Hero ink. I ordered a bottle of Diamine Oxyx Black ink that arrived today. Not knowing if I would like it or not, I got a small bottle to try. The first pen I inked with it was the Lamy. I excreted out the old ink, flushed the pen well, and put in the Diamine ink. The Lamy writes much better with that ink than with the other, so I am at least happy that my higher priced pen is writing nicely now rather than being a bit of a downer.
Also, my little town has a lot of antique shops. It is known for having that theme for its downtown shopping, so I figured I would start looking in those stores to see what vintage fountain pens I could find. I picked one shop to visit today and we looked around. We only found one fountain pen, an old 1960's Sheaffer 304 cartridge (later called a "Student") pen. For just $4, I figured I would give it a shot. I probably need to clean the nib since it still had an old cartridge in it. While there I also found an old Warren Mfg. 1890 dip pen, which is also in the picture. I will see whatever finds I can hunt up over time. I have primarily been finding pens via ebay, web sites, and private sellers so far.
One thing on the Lamy 2000 I discovered today is actually good news. I used to have a bottle of Waterman ink which I eventually depleted and found a bargain blue-black ink by Hero. I have been using the Hero ink for a couple of years now, since I only had the one fountain pen that I was using regularly. So that was the only bottle on hand when I started buying other pens and use it to ink them as well. The good part of that is that I got to see how they compared one to another using the same ink. The bad part is that I was disappointed a little bit in the Lamy with the Hero ink. I ordered a bottle of Diamine Oxyx Black ink that arrived today. Not knowing if I would like it or not, I got a small bottle to try. The first pen I inked with it was the Lamy. I excreted out the old ink, flushed the pen well, and put in the Diamine ink. The Lamy writes much better with that ink than with the other, so I am at least happy that my higher priced pen is writing nicely now rather than being a bit of a downer.
Also, my little town has a lot of antique shops. It is known for having that theme for its downtown shopping, so I figured I would start looking in those stores to see what vintage fountain pens I could find. I picked one shop to visit today and we looked around. We only found one fountain pen, an old 1960's Sheaffer 304 cartridge (later called a "Student") pen. For just $4, I figured I would give it a shot. I probably need to clean the nib since it still had an old cartridge in it. While there I also found an old Warren Mfg. 1890 dip pen, which is also in the picture. I will see whatever finds I can hunt up over time. I have primarily been finding pens via ebay, web sites, and private sellers so far.
