cheap italian fountain pens

I got a pack of a dozen Italian piston fillers recently on ebay. They
have cute, tapered plastic bodies, medium-narrow and semiflex
gold-plated fine nibs. Very light-weight. Also an ink window. Nothing
fancy, but they write as well as anything I've tried up to about $50 a
pen, and they were only $37 for the lot including shipping. Look sort
of like the old scripsert Sheaffers (of the cheapest class I mean). A
few days ago another dozen went for about $30. Look under 'Italian
fountain pens' if you're interested. I'm virgiliopoeta on ebay. Be
nice and don't bid against me if I ever try to get another pack. : - )

The nibs are a little scratchy, but are easily smoothed by running the
nib back and forth over the columns of the Lincoln memorial on the
obverse of a Lincoln penny, with the columns vertical like a ladder,
and holding the pen perpendicular to the 'ladder'. Hope this doesn't
sound too stupid to the experts here, but it really works. Don't use
any pressure though, just let the point slide over the metal a few
hundred times. Also helps to loosen them up by flexing the nibs,
pressing gently down onto paper.

Hey that works great. Not a big change, but a palpable reduction in
scratchiness. Now, the trouble is that it doesn't sound good. Not
techincal. So what are we doing? Burnishing! Um, lets see . . .
column burnishing. Sounds good. As in "No, all its needs is a bit of
column burnishing."



The nibs are a little scratchy, but are easily smoothed by running the
nib back and forth over the columns of the Lincoln memorial on the
obverse of a Lincoln penny, with the columns vertical like a ladder,
and holding the pen perpendicular to the 'ladder'. Hope this doesn't
sound too stupid to the experts here, but it really works. Don't use
any pressure though, just let the point slide over the metal a few
hundred times. Also helps to loosen them up by flexing the nibs,
pressing gently down onto paper.

(svejk) wrote in message om...
Hey that works great. Not a big change, but a palpable reduction in
scratchiness. Now, the trouble is that it doesn't sound good. Not
techincal. So what are we doing? Burnishing! Um, lets see . . .
column burnishing. Sounds good. As in "No, all its needs is a bit of
column burnishing."



The nibs are a little scratchy, but are easily smoothed by running the
nib back and forth over the columns of the Lincoln memorial on the
obverse of a Lincoln penny, with the columns vertical like a ladder,
and holding the pen perpendicular to the 'ladder'. Hope this doesn't
sound too stupid to the experts here, but it really works. Don't use
any pressure though, just let the point slide over the metal a few
hundred times. Also helps to loosen them up by flexing the nibs,
pressing gently down onto paper.

Call it Gibsonizing. Or Lincolnizing. Or memorializing. Or
scalarization. Or pseudo-stilbose (from the Greek). Or polissage (from
the French - my favorite). Or polition (from the Latin). Or...

Call it Gibsonizing. Or Lincolnizing. Or memorializing. Or
scalarization. Or pseudo-stilbose (from the Greek). Or polissage (from
the French - my favorite). Or polition (from the Latin). Or...


De-scratcherization, using a copper de-scratcherer.

"Yours for only 3 payments of $29.95, and if you call in the next FIFTEEN
MINUTES, we'll include a free roll of 50 de-scratcherers!"
delete what doesn't belong there

Satrap
I find delusions of grandeur to be absolutely true