Off with their heads!

Or, more accurately, "let's change their heads."  My other hobby besides cycling, as some readers may recall, is the collecting and restoration of fountain pens. As with bikes, I also like to see if parts play well together when mixed and matched in ways unintended by the manufacturers. This involves different combinations of parts, mostly nibs, feeds and sections, to achieve what is to me the most satisfying combination for the writing experience. Ball pointers can't relate, I know. When you write with wet ink that glides across the page, and the width and intensity of your line changes to suit the mood of the either the author or the text being laid down, well, it just brings a whole new level to the doing of it. Here is a shot of some of the pens in my current user line up. The user line up consists of 20 +/- pens and the make up changes as some pens are cleaned and returned to display while others take their place with ink inside. Here is a picture taken tonight of the users with mixed and matched parts: (forgive the jargon which follows. Pen people will decipher it okay)



 From left to right they are...

 An early Pelikan 100 (ca 1930) with a 1920's flexible Waterman #4 nib.
 A 1995 Pelikan "Originals of Their Time" 1931LE with an actual 1931 era Pelikan 100 nib.
A 1990s Pelikan 150 (featuring a Chris Burton custom binde) and an old style M600 OM nib
A Columbus (celluloid by Yamazaki) Academia with a Sailor Magellan nib.
A 2008 Bexley Watley with a 1920s Waterman Ballpoint nib
A 2008 Dani-Trio Cum Laude with a Waterman 200 series OB nib.

  They all write really nicely.  Anyone need a snailer? I'm all caught up here.  :)