Underrated Grey Inks & America's Future Teaching Cursive | Pencast 127

I used to read quite a bit about handwriting analysis. They would say "handwriting is brain writing." It helps develop the brain. Could that be why they've done away with it? It does fit a pattern 🤔

I recently acquired a long discontinued grey Mont Blanc fineliner cartridge - it looks like pencil lead when used, it might be my favorite grey 'ink'.

Happy belated birthday Drew from CA!🎂 🎊 🎈 Very happy to see you had a great relaxing special b’day! This is why I watch the Pencast…Goulet Pens works hard to curate great products and create great Pencast episodes…it’s nice to see that Brian and Goulet Pens allows you all to have weekly mental health day. I look forward to the end of my 6 day work week to watch the Pencast. Though I don’t comment all the time I save the two hours to listen and laugh all the two jokes and life experiences you two talk about. But it will be my one year anniversary for the pen hobby for me now next month…so I am ready to seriously build my collection. Time to make my Goulet Pen wishlist. Thank you for an awesome year of learning with pen hobby! Stay safe and awesome both of you! I have a video request…can you please do a video for pen cases and pen storage? eg. Rickshaw cases etc. Best things for portability of pens for EDC and for travel…thanks in advance!

I like Drew's idea for handwriting in schools, though I'd tie in history, language, civics and philosophy as well.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is totally worth a visit. They have a whole space section, not just the shuttle.

My go-to brown ink has been Iroshizuku Tsukushi (RIP). I still have a mostly full bottle, but I am auditioning replacements. When I want glitz, I use Diamine Cocoa Shimmer. For painting over in watercolors, I use De Atramentis Document Brown.

I am a High School Counselor, and I get a LOT of comments about my pens from parents who grew up in India. They all say that they remember having to use them growing up.

I use Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun every day. It's a great colour.

Watching the change of nibs without removing the converter on the lanyard pen made me very nervous. If I did that the ink would pour out everywhere....

I want to love something like how Drew loves Waffle House

Glad to see the 2000 win the bracket.

Your filtering tools confirmed for me that it was what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I already had two... (Sorry!) I have since picked up a 2000 in stainless.

For me, it"s the perfect pen: quick access with the snap cap, large capacity with the piston filler, large enough to write unposted (which I prefer) but posts deeply enough to not drastically change the feel of the pen, good sealing cap, reliable writing experience, durable enough for daily carry, not too "out there" but still clearly a fancy pen.

Still want a BIG NIB though...

The Homo Sapiens would have won the whole thing for me, with Euphoria coming in second place.. They are the 2 pens I use the most.

The NCAA bracket is 64 — not 32.😅😉

Guys, what is the shelf life of ink, and what is the best way to store fountain pen ink. Is one way better than others?

I love my HS, but Sailor's 21K nib is the best gold nib on the market, period. And re: innovation - why change perfection?

VP v. E95 - both nibs are fantastic. but, the utility of the VP just moves it forward....slightly.

Early in my fountain pen journey, I ordered a bottle of Noodler's Earl Gray from Goulet Pens, probably after a video on shading inks. It remains one of the biggest surprises how much I like the ink! I have always had at least one pen inked with it and use it every day. I must be getting great batches, because it is always well behaved for me on a variety of papers. I often use it for first inking of a pen as baseline ink. I have even used it for calligraphy projects on laid paper. I love the shading, as well as the waterproof component. I've since purchased the larger bottle and keep an ink miser in the 3 oz. bottle since I refill so often. I also enjoy Diamine Earl Grey, but it doesn't tick as many boxes for me. Thanks for the great episode, and Happy Significant Birthday to Drew!!!

Drew, I'm thankful for your thoughts on cursive as a creative/artistic outlet. I never thought about it, but it 100000% clicked for me. I'm a software developer and have often had the desire to have an artistic outlet. I spend so much time in front of a computer that I rarely need to write anything down. However, I find myself spending my evenings winding down, practicing my penmanship, or testing fountain pens; it is incredibly gratifying. Having fountain pens with different inks and nibs also adds to the art. What I'm writing is irrelevant; writing is satisfying enough for me. I've always had the desire to draw but never the talent. Cursive writing with fountain pens really scratches that artistic itch.

Hey Goulet Team. I have a question for the next pen cast. My wife rinses her pens and let them soak in water over night. Is that ok to do? I’ve done it myself a few times but it dawned on me that I’ve never seen you or other pen companies talk about soaking overnight and wondered if doing that could damage fountain pens. Thanks!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with anthropomorphising your pens, after all, let’s face it all pens have or develop their own personality, if only in terms of writing feel. So there’s nothing wrong in celebrating that. When you imbue your pens with a GPP (genuine people personality) or not… the key to life is to love your pens! Love your inks and love your notebooks!!

I agree that cursive and fountain pens should make their way to schools. Fountain pens are more eco friendly than going through 1,000 pencils a year. Also, maybe kids would keep track of their pens better than an easily replaceable pencil. I wish cursive was more valued.

Ngl it’s so weird as a game dev to listen to the goulet cast talking so much abt games lol. Feels surreal 😂 like… a videos game!

Did I do the right thing? Last night I went to my local fountain pen shop looking to buy a yellow ink. I was going to pick up a 3 dollar Diamine when my friend talked me into buying a bottle of Buttered Popcorn that was 7 times more expensive. I stil could not comprehend how I ended up with a whole bottle of Buttered Popcorn. For those of you who has used it, was it worth it?

As far as brown inks, I have really enjoyed: Montblanc Toffee Brown, Waterman Absolute brown and Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz

And I'm on Brian's side here regarding nib sizes. Writing with extra fine is scratchy and unpleasant for me compared to a good medium or broad. I would rather write with a pencil 😂 sorry Drew

We learned cursive in kindergarten and 1st grade in the 1970s.

Diamine Moondust, Diamine earl grey, Diamine graphite, j herbin stormy seas, wearingeul I am a Cat!

Loving that corgi shirt!!

As for browns: KWZ Smells Like Coffee, KWZ Cappuccino, Monteverde Chocolate Pudding, Robert Oster Café Crema, De Atramentis Coffee Brown, Private Reserve Chocolat

Yall. The VP can take a cartridge, which is the most travel friendly filling system, completely negates the capacity argument, and can even be refilled easily with a syringe, which heads off any arguments about ink variety limitations. And it actually has a fine nib option, which the 2k doesnt — the 2k nib sizes are practically broad, broader and broadest.

Brian demonstrating why the commenter asked for Rachel's description of Studio's numbering system.

Any recommendations for a gray ink with red highlights, sheen, or shimmer?

I grew up in Germany and we had to write with fountain pens, ballpoints weren't allowed until 9th grade. Mostly people just continued using fountain pens. I learned to write with a Pelikan and in 5th grade my mom bought me a Lamy AL-star in silver, which I used until I graduated in 2006. It looks battered, but I still own it to this day! I also used fountain pens in university sometimes. If had a TWSBI in school, that would have been awesome, because I ran through a lot of cartridges back in the day. Sadly we were also only allowed to use royal blue ink in school

Hi guys! I'm so inspired by your passion for the fountain pens. I'll be attending to the Washington DC show. I saw that you participated last year or years before, do you know if they will have workshops or seminars that I can attend? I already purchased my ticket 😅

It was funny to me when you mentioned that part of the E95S’s “goodness” is that nothing ever falls off or snaps off. Just a few days ago, while cleaning my E95S, the post that the cartridge/converter attaches to fell out, and since the front part of the barrel is so deep, I had no idea what was going on down there. Long story short, the entire guts of the pen ended up falling out, including the feed, leaving an empty shell with the inlaid glued nib. Which was very upsetting, not least because the E95S is my favorite pen. I ended up using another E95S-shaped pen (a vintage I got from ebay) as a template and managed to restore my pen to something resembling its original form (or at least, its innards are in the vicinity of where they should be). I just have to be extra careful cleaning and re-inking now. On the plus side, I got the chance to thoroughly scrub the feed (with a non-special non-Drewlet feed brush, unfortunately), and how often do you get to thoroughly clean the feed on the E95S? Either way, at the conclusion of my impromptu pen dissection, ink flows out of the nib when it is touched to paper and, to my knowledge, ink does not spontaneously make an egress out of any undesired orifices. And it is still my favorite pen. 😊😅 (And it is filled with Blue Water Ice, also one of my favorites!)
Thank you for another great episode, and happy late birthday Mr. Brown! 🌴🦃🌴

P.S. Thanks to 126 previous episodes of listening to Mr. Brown wax rhapsodic about his favorite 1984 movies, despite knowing almost nothing about current movies and oft-mentioned classics, let alone movies from before my birth, I managed to name 5 1984 top 10 movies purely due to his VCR collection! (Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, Splash (I remembered that one because of his previous mention of the Tom Hanks breakout fun fact), Footloose, and Gremlins) Thought he might appreciate that! 🌴🦃🌴

My goto grey is a grey you don't carry. It's what used to be called Oyster Grey and is now called Cool Grey by Montblanc. It is a slightly lighter grey with tiny hints of brown and some lovely shading.

Can anyone really underrate gray inks, LOL.

Happy Belated Birthday, Drew!
We started learning cursive in 3rd grade, but were not allowed to use ink at all until 6th grade. I seem to remember having a Pelikan (or perhaps Schaeffer) fountain pen, so my love of these pens started early.
Stalactites and stalagmites: think of ants in your pants. When the mites go up, the tights go down!

You need to define "cursive." Different styles of cursive are used in different countries. The American system uses the Palmer method, which is the ugliest cursive script I have personally ever seen, and I hated being forced to learn it as a child. Hated it SO MUCH I am still full of rage nearly 40 years later. The Palmer method is a crime against humanity. It ought to be outlawed by the Geneva convention. I would never, EVER put a child through it. Other countries use different (and better, more legible) scripts. The Marion Richardson script was popular in the UK, for instance. D'Nealian was popular on the Continent. I myself had horrible handwriting from the time I was forced to learn cursive in 3rd grade all the way up until high school, when I got a fountain pen and a book about the Italic script and taught myself how to do it. It took a whole year for me to unlearn that Palmer Method mess. For these reasons, I am glad that our school system has dropped cursive requirements, and if they bring them back there'll only be more kids like me who have had any love of penmanship beaten out of me by being forced to copy such an ugly and useless script. Burn the Palmer Method. Burn it WITH FIRE.

Y'all. I know I am late watching this and you will probs never see this comment but how, HOW, could you pick that Lamy 2k felt-tip looking wannabe over all the joys of color and sparkle of Sailor Pro Gear?! I'm not surprised given Brian's love for the 2k but I AM disappointed.

My bracket probably would have put the PG versus the VP and that VP would have won.

Waffle House, light hiking, caves, mineral shop... I think I need to copy Drew's whole 40th birthday celebration when I turn 40 next year.

The year is 2033. The USA has mandated fountain pens for all students. Ian Schon's net worth surpasses that of Elon Musk.

My fave Grey: kiri-same

i LOVE grey as a colour. A good dark grey is so cool! the issue I often have with grey inks particularly is that a lot of times it's not a lighter black but swings more toward one or more of R/G/B so like looks light black but a little green added (def. agreed on Diamine graphite being a little green) in etc. The other issue is, shading can look odd with grey, sometimes it can look like black ink that's fading in places but that's a personal preference thing IMO. (YMMV obv).

MY faves so far (in order of preference): Monteverde Smoke Noir (lovely grey, to my eyes and on most paper it is a true grey - not really too much shading and variation), Lexington Gray (quite a neutral grey too and has some nice shading) and de atrementis silver grey.

The E95 is a beautiful pen, but I have yet to find something that even comes close to the Waterman Carene.