Sleepy djinn figures she has two choices.

1) I could go to bed. 2) I could babble about fountain pens for a while. So, pens it is! ^_~ I did not have to eat crow regarding the customized italic nib after all. From the photos Laura took of my writing, Mr. Binder doesn't think I'm rotating my pen as I write, and so he asked me to send the nib back so he can check its alignment. Which I did. So now I'm waiting for it to arrive there and get fixed and come home, and hopefully work this time. The "rotating the pen" theory was one I could take or leave. I could believe I'm doing so (although not by much if I am), but at the same time I have other pens I have to rotate the opposite direction to hit their sweet spot (my little pearl-and-white Prick, for one, and the grey Sheaffer tipdip I just fixed last week), and they feel different. This one felt more like it needed to be tipped up rather than twisted back. I do have to say that I think Pelikan makes the nicest fine nibs I've yet tried in my not-terribly-expensive pen explorations. I'm told they have trouble with extra-fines and sizes above medium, but both fine nibs I've gotten have been so smooth. If someone wanted to try a fountain pen for the first time and was OK with the money, I'd definitely suggest an M150 or M200 with a fine nib as a first pen. The M200 marbled colors are lovely if you like them, the black in either is a nice stately pen if you don't, and you can easily (and cheaply) change nibs until you find the size you like without having to buy a whole new pen. The only down side is that either one might be a bit small for some people, but the length is fine if you post the cap, and someone coming from ballpoints isn't going to have any trouble with the diameter. Let's see. Since last I babbled, I finished fixing up two Sheaffer Tip Dip Craftsmans (Craftsmen?), one grey and one burgandy. Sheaffer's burgandy is a very pretty color. I'm about to swear off buying Craftsmen from eBay, though. You see, the sac protectors in the Craftsman pens are made of steel, and will rust when exposed to water. A Touchdown will suck in a small amount of water even if the sac is toast. Many sellers test the pen with water to see if the filler is working, and don't know to open it up and make sure it's dry inside. (Heck, if they knew that much, they wouldn't test with water until they'd cracked it open and made sure the sac was pliable.) Of two I've purchased off eBay, both have arrived with rusted sac protectors. One was past the point of saving -- its carcass is in the parts bin. Except for the section. I'm still trying to get the interchangeable nib out. The second pen just took some steel wool to clean up, thankfully. There is a spot where the rust went through the coating, but it wasn't too bad, so I coated it with carnuba wax to protect it and it should be fine. Nonetheless, I think I'm going to limit Craftsmen to in-person sales. I can tell if one is rusted the moment I turn the blind cap (nothing quite like that crunchy feel), but I have to be able to handle it. Despite that issue, Tip Dips are just totally bitchin' pens. Awesome filling system, easily interchangeable nibs. Best kept secret in pendom. Luckily, Cadet tip dips don't have the problem Craftsmen do. They have a chromed brass sac protector, which survives water ingress much better. And, as an added perk, the one I bought at the same time as the second Craftsman arrived in working order. Just needed a little ink cleaned off the cap, a little grease put on the Touchdown tube, and some ink cleaned out of the nib, and good to go. :) So, there's three pens restored. I also finished with a full sized lever fill (which really only needed a shim on the section and a polish, but still!), and the most adorable little black-and-white gentleman's vest pocket pen. Originally I thought it was a lady's purse pen, but when it arrived it had a stain on the cap where a glued on clip was, and no longer is. The glue stain wouldn't come off, but it isn't terribly obnoxious, and I think it's an interesting part of the pen's history. And also I've got another a mini purse pen to the point where it just needs to be waxed and it's ready for the collection box. I probably overstate the importance of a clip or its absence in determining whether my mini pens were ladies' or gentlemen's, but it's a convenient dividing point nonetheless. I had a humbling realization. I was thinking "I've got to get some of these pens in my work box fixed and turned around so I can get some cash flow back" (for more pens, of course). Then I looked at what's actually IN my workbox. There's the mini pens, but they're mine. There's a couple of first-year Touchdowns, but they're also mine. Then there's some no-name lever fillers I got to practice sac replacements on, before I learned how easy a sac replacement is. *sighs* I'll be lucky if I could break even on those. (Of course, if I can't, I'll keep them to give to friends or something. But still.) So the good news is that, at most, I've got maybe $50 tied up in inventory. But the bad news is I've only got about $50 in inventory. ^_~ I swear Esterbrooks are coated in cocaine or something. Even the good nibs are too rough for my taste, and I keep saying I don't want any more. Yet I find myself continually drawn to them. I keep looking at them for sale. I keep using them. I've actually got two Esties inked up right now. Two! And I am desirous of inking the third. WTF? At least they're easy to fix up. Esties are kind of the old Volkswagon bugs of the pen world. They're easy to fix yourself, they run forever, and they have no heaters. ^_~ I'll also say that Touchdowns are really satisfying to work on. Relatively complex filling system, and yet I can get one (that isn't rusted) in working order in half an hour if you don't count drying time for the shellac. They're just really fun.