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Put your elbow on the table. Allow your forearm to rest on the table crossed in front of you. Now put a piece of paper underneath it so that your arm is right-side-up relative to it.

Or. I like how fountain pens make my writing look better. At least, in my pinion, my writing looks better.

Your forearm is from your elbow to your wrist. I do not think how your explanation on how to write with your forearm parallel to your body is accurate.

Hey Boris, when you write, do you normally keep the piece of paper directly in front of you, in front of your non-writing hand, or in front of your writing hand? I find that when I keep a piece of paper in front of me, I write with the paper juuust slightly tilted, and if I keep it in front of my non-writing hand, I start twisting myself toward the paper and tilting the paper nearly 90 degrees from me, and if I put the paper in front of my writing-hand, the paper's pretty much vertical.

Oh. I keep it in front of me while holding it with my none writing hand while my writing hand writes.

Parallel to the width of your body, not the height.


I still think of having a pen and an inkwell when it comes to fountain pens. I don't really expect them to look modern. My dad had one in his office that I wasn't allowed to use (being all of about 4). The one time I tried, I made a grand mess of things. I've just got my Pilot V-pen thing now, but I find it writes too thick for most of my purposes, and the ink is heavy.

I have a souvenir feather pen that I've yet to try and use. Came with a bottle of sepia ink. I think I should go find some black, since I'm not too fond of the sepia, though I suppose I could try some art. My sister did some art with a fountain pen and ink bottle, up until the ink dropped on her page and she had to madly work it before the ink set. No more bottle after that!

Oh, I should have thought of that.

I see. Well, if you don't want to use bottled ink, then our only other options would be to purchase disposable fountain pens or see which pens use ink cartridges and which kinds. Some pens use universal cartridges, and others use their own brand cartridges, but you knew that already. I'd probably continue purchasing bottled ink, even if my bottle fell over.

You mentioned that pen has a cartridge? Do you fill it from a bottle? My sister just kept dipping into it.

I love a good pen, but I'm also cheap. My last pen purchase was another Zebra Flight. Wonderful pens those! But they haven't yet released refills for them and people are annoyed.

I did mention a cartridge, but you don't use a bottle to refill them. In fact, you don't refill them. Once the cartridge runs out of ink, you take out the cartridge and insert another one. Just be sure to clean our nib before inserting another cartridge if you are using a different coloured ink. This is a lamy safari cartridge. I believe it is possible to refill them if one really wanted to, but they are supposed to be disposed of once they run out of ink. Than can also be turned into something to clean your pens.

Zebra flight? I do not recall hearing about those, but they do sound interesting.

They are just ballpoints, but they write very smoothly and I like the lines. Zebra makes a number of refillable pens but the Flight is not one of them yet. They're are only about $1-3 I think, each, but I always like to avoid waste.

Ah. I fancy roller pens and fountain pens, but ball point pens are great! I hope the flight pens get refills soon.

Well...that's my learning for the day. I didn't know there was a distinction between ballpoint and rollerball pens.

Looking it up, the Zebra Z-Grip Flight is a ballpoint. I had a rollerball pen (Uni-Ball Vision) and loved it right up until I took it on a plane and the cabin pressure caused the ink to push out the pen nib and visibly drip on my paper. It's been bleeding slightly ever since. I do not advise taking any liquidy pen on a plane if you want to preserve it.

Yeah, that's a risky business, and one I'm not willing to take with my fountain pen... want to purchase another pen... I wanna buy fountain pens for a bunch of people.

I currently have roller pens... my favourite one is the black ink one.

I love having a good pen, but I can't afford to spend too much money on pens that I burn through regularly.

Oh? That's interesting. Fountain pens were made to last a while... unless it's a disposable pens (i.e. pens that you throw out once you run out of ink).

I have used a fountain pen before, but it was years ago. I do know how to write with one, but it takes some getting used to.

I recommend cheap fountain pens so you don't waste a lot of money if you conclude you do not like writing with fountain pens, but I have heard that the following pens are good for those who are new to fountain pens.

• Pilot Metropolitan
• Platinum Preppy
• Pilot Varsity
• Lamy Safari
• Jinhao x750
• Pilot P'Tee One
• JinHao x450
• Parker Vector
• Nemosine Singularity
• Cavecosport (I do not know how to spell it correctly)
• Faber-Castell Loom
• TWSBI Diamond 580