Goulet Nib Tuning Supplies

You've been asking us for this for some time now, and we've finally delivered. We've been working diligently for months now to source out and develop the most useful nib tuning supplies that we could for the fountain pen enthusiast. These are tools that you can use to smooth and clean your nib to get it operating to your liking.

DISCLAIMER: Of course, I have to have a disclaimer here...doing anything to modify/smooth your nib will pretty much void all pen manufacturer's warranties, so make sure you understand what you are doing and you must be willing to accept responsibility for any wrongdoing during your smoothing process. You're basically going 'rogue' for most pen companies here, so make sure that you're only smoothing nibs on pens that are either out of warranty or that you feel confident enough that you'll never need to use the warranty. Don't blame me if you screw up your nib :) 

Okay, all that said, the stuff we have here isn't really all that scary, if you are cautious and study up the correct way to use them. I will be posting videos showing how to use each one of these over the next week or so, to help you understand just that. But I wanted to make this post for those of you who already know how to use these, to let you know you can now get them all at Gouletpens.com.

So here are the new nib tuning supplies we have available:

Goulet Loupe, $12.50

This little guy is quite handy, and essential for checking the alignment of your nib tines and inspecting it more closely than you can with your naked eye. We sifted through gobs of different loupes out there and found that the ease of use and affordability of this little LED-powered 15x loupe give just about any level of fountain pen enthusiast the ability to see what's going on with their nib.

Goulet Loupe, 15x power with built-in LED's

Goulet Loupe, allows you to inspect your nib for proper tine alignment easily

Goulet MicroMesh, $4.95

This 12,000 grit abrasive is the most aggressive approach you should take towards smoothing your nib, and you'll want to be really careful when you use it. It's used for smoothing out a scratchy nib. Basically, don't use it unless you know what you're doing. I'll definitely put out a video on this one.

Goulet Micromesh, an abrasive sheet to smooth scratchy nibs

Goulet Mylar Paper, $4.95

This is a less aggressive approach to nib smoothing than Micromesh. There are two grits, 1-micron and 0.3 Micron, and they're used to take a nib from pretty smooth to super-smooth, if you're so inclined.

Goulet Mylar Paper, used to take a pretty smooth nib and make it glassy smooth

Goulet Brass Sheets, $3.95

These are really more of a cleaning/maintenance tool, used to floss your nib to keep it clear and flowing smoothly.

Goulet Brass Sheet, used to floss the tines of your nib to keep ink flowing smoothly

These products have been a huge effort of mine in recent months, and I really feel that they are great tools for the avid fountain pen enthusiast to keep their pens at optimal performance. I will be posting in-depth video tutorials on how to use each of these products. They are also all available as a nib tuning package set for $21.95.

I'd love to hear what you think! Leave me a comment below and we'll chat.

Write On,
Brian Goulet

Mailbox Monday #50 (wow, really?)

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person who writes to me. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with you! At least I've felt compelled enough to share it with you 50 times so far!  I'll be posting highlights of some of my more interesting email questions every Mailbox Monday. These are some emails of mine from the past week or so:

I have received my first two Noodler's inks from you (Nikita and Heart of Darkness). Both with an eyedropper. That makes your responsible in me liking this "technology" :D. Both pens are OK, but the nib is too small for me (I am the medium to broad guy) and the quality also isn't the best. I love the ink in the pen body and how it moves there back and forth. The capacity is not that important for me as I plan to use them only in the office with the ink bottles in my drawer. I know I can have this effect also with an piston filler, but it doesn't feel the same (I know, I'm weird). Can you give me some tips which pens are the pest for an eyedropper conversion. The pen has to be a clear demonstrator as I want to see the ink and the colors. It should have the "classic style" nib (TWSBI style and not Lamy or Preppy style) and be available in different sizes (mainly M). The nib should be very smooth of course. I do not want to convert an expensive pen, so I think, the price limit should be EUR 50,00 (ca 65 - 70 USD). Do you think you can point me in the right direction?

Yeah, the free pens that come with those inks are okay, nothing to get too excited about (except watching that ink slosh!). You can see all of the eyedropper-convertible pens we have here. It sounds like you want something with a clear body though, and that narrows the search quite a bit. I think the pen that would have pretty much everything you want would be to get a Noodler's Clear Ahab which comes with a flexible nib. Converting it to eyedropper is easy, I have a video on that here. You should then get a Goulet nib of your choice, and put that in the pen instead of the flex nib. It's easy to replace, video here. That would give you a clear pen with a beautiful ink-sloshing body, with a reliable conventional nib for a total investment of $35. 

Currently using Rhodia A5 lined. Would like to move up to A4 lined or anything as close to 8.5 X 11 as possible Got all excited about Habana until I saw it was only available in "blank" 1) Would prefer cream and not white paper with narrower rules that wider 2) Also like the pockets in the back of the Rhodia. Looking at the Apica Premium but not sure Maybe too much to askfor in one journal but willing to compromise, of course,. Whatever you can suggest. Thanks

The Habana A4 in blank is currently the only A4 bound notebook from Clairefontaine/Rhodia/Quo Vadis in the US. There is an A4 Rhodia Webnotebook in France, but they're not imported into the US. We looked into it, but the minimum quantities are too high for us, and the notebooks would cost around $45 each! So currently, there is no Rhodia A4 in the US, the Habana is only in blank, and Apica doesn't have a pocket. There is always the Leuchtturm1917 Master, that might meet all your criteria. The paper isn't quite as good as the other brands I just mentioned, so that's a compromise. 

Any advice on an elegant way to fill a cartridge converter from that narrow opening in the Noodler's 4.5oz bottle lids? I'm thinking of using a syringe and just injecting ink into the converter. Also, what do you do with the eyedropper to keep them from making an inky mess when you set them down?

Well, there's pretty much two ways you can go about it. One is the ink syringe like you mentioned, and I have a video on how to do that here. The other way to do it would be to take something like an ink sample vial and fill that with your eyedropper, then fill your pen from that. The neat thing about this method is 1) you don't need an ink syringe, so you have having to clean that out or even buy it in the first place, and 2) you can fit a lot more ink the sample vial than you'll use on one pen filling, so you can use and reuse that one vial to fill your pen, so you're having to open up your bottle less. Whenever you're working from a large bottle of ink, it's never a bad idea to use a smaller vial or bottle to fill from more regularly, so that you're keeping the large bottle 'contaminated' as little as possible. That's one advantage, but the more tangible benefit is that you will only have to use the eyedropper to fill your vial once, and you'll be able to fill your pen probably 10 times from that vial before you need to refill it.

As for the dropper itself, if you're filling a separate vial, then you won't ever have to set it down...problem solved! Otherwise, there's nothing magical, you'll just need to put something like wax paper, a thick wad of paper towel, or something else to keep the ink from getting on whatever you set it down upon. 

How do you flush the Platinum Preppy with a marker tip or highlighter tip or do you just use the tip until it is unusable and replace with a new tip?

Well, it's sort of a felt material so it won't flush out like a fountain pen will. The pen itself can be, but the tip won't clean so easily as a fountain pen nib. It won't be as easy to change colors like a fountai pen, you'll pretty much have to change tips. One thing you can try is to soak the tip in water (or maybe a 10% bleach in water solution) to clean it overnight. 

Brian, is there a package of ink samples in the color black that are a mixture of water based and waterproof ink? As an artist the difference is crucial and very important. I am looking for a package like so on the site but, have not come across one. If not, what are some conventional inks would you recommend, this will minimize straining my brain looking for a particular one in this abundance of inks.

We don't have a sampler pack of both waterproof and non-waterproof black, I'm sorry to say. We have one just of waterproof, so you can look at those and see what is most appealing, then I can recommend some conventional ones if you'd like. Or, if you want to search for yourself, you can go here to see all the black inks we have, go here for water resistant ones, and you can then deduce which inks aren't water resistant. Many artists revere Platinum Carbon Black as the best black in to use if you want waterproofness. Some good conventional blacks would be J. Herbin Perle Noire, Monteverde Black, Lamy Black, Aurora Black, and Pelikan Edelstein Onyx. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling more emails into my next Mailbox Monday post!

Write On,
Brian Goulet

Comparing the Lamy Al-Star, Safari, and Vista

It's a common question, what's the difference between the Lamy Vista, Safari, and Al-Star? I remember asking the same thing in my early fountain pen days, because I would read about these popular pens all the time. These are all staple pens in the fountain pen community with a loyal following. This video is intended to clarify exactly what each pen offers and what sets them apart from each other.

Here are the main differences:

• The Safari and Vista are the exact same pen, except the Vista is clear
• The Safari and Al-Star are (essentially) the same dimensions, the Al-Star is a hair bigger in diameter but not noticeably
• The Al-Star is made of aluminum and the Safari is made of plastic, the aluminum tends to dent and scratch a little easier than the plastic
• The grips on the Safari and Vista match the rest of the pen, the Al-Stars all have smoky translucent grips regardless of color
• The Al-Star is slightly heavier (22g) than the Safari and Vista (17g)
• The Vista only has a silver clip, the Safari and Al-Star both have silver and black clips, depending on the color of the pen (the clips are not interchangeable)
• All Lamy pens (except the Lamy 2000) have interchangeable Lamy nibs in EF, F, M, B (both steel and black) and 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 1.9mm italics (steel only)
• Both the Safari and Al-Star come in a range of colors, and Lamy releases limited edition colors for both on a regular basis
• All three pens accept both the Z24 and Z26 Lamy converters, as well as proprietary Lamy ink cartridges
• The Safari and Vista both sell for $37 (list, US) and the Al-Star sells for $47 (list, US)

This should help to clear things up! If I missed anything, let me know in the comments.

Write On,
Brian Goulet