Oh yeah, Jinnayah's gettin' herself a new nib.

...
Doesn't quite have a ring to it, does it?
My 0.5 mm cursive italic nib from Binder sucks. Bad. It's rough. And since the writing sample included with it (this time, grr) suggests that Binder thinks this is acceptable quality, I'm not inclined to send it back to him AGAIN to get it fixed. Actually, as soon as I get the pen written out of ink, I'm just going to sell it. There are people out there who like a lot of feedback from their nibs; I'm just not one of them. At all. So, this is what the penultimate nibmeister can do, huh? I am unimpressed.

(I am also unimpressed that I'm STILL trying to get the Taccia sorted out, too. It's been in his workshop for a week without so much as a peep beyond 'it's here', so I finally gave up, wrote again, and asked for an update. You know what? I had three items in that order, and they messed up every one of them.)

But ya know what? I learned that Pendemonium does custom nib grinding. Well, I knew that, but it took me a while to figure out how to arrange it. Best of all, the nib grinding fee is only $15. Hell, I'll bite for that. Can't do much worse than Binder did, for less than a third of the grinding cost, and if it's better, I'll (finally) have a nice 0.5 mm cursive italic for $40 -- much better than the $70 the current POS cost.

(I'm resentful about the quality level of my expensive custom nib. Does it show? ^_~)

In any event, at worst I'll end up with another data point on what a fine cursive italic should feel like when writing. Of course, if I don't like Pendemonium's either, I may give Deb Kinney a try. I'd give Mottishaw a go, but I don't know that he'll work on the steel M200 nibs, and I don't want to either pay for gold or wait 6 months to get through his queue with a pen of my own.

While I was ordering from Pendemonium, I was a bad girl and got a bottle of Rohrer and Klingner ink in magenta. Sight unseen except for the monitor swatch, since Pear Tree doesn't carry this brand. Here's hoping I like it. (Like I've ever met a magenta I didn't like. ^_~) And a few other things, but that's the big one, and the one I feel guilty about.

Sadly, I crunched the numbers, and we won't be able to go to the Chicago Pen show this year. But, assuming I'm still on the pen thing, I'm wanting to drive up to Pendemonium and test drive a Namiki Vanishing Point. They fascinate me, but the way I hold my pens and the way they've placed their clips may not get along. I'd like to try one in person. If I like it, I'll get myself one. It not, I'm thinking a Sailor Sapporo. (I don't know if Pendemonium carries those. But I'm sure they'll have something I want.)