The Smoothline is utilised here as a dip nib. Having written about it before it was worth trying both the gold and silver nibs with Waterman’s Intense Black fountain pen ink. Used a cotton handmade paper bought off the internet of unknown make. It was a bit fragile in that erasing the lightly drawn pencil lines to write on as spacer guides pulled at the surface. These papers are colour washed I feel to provide antique/vintage look. However. The overall results here are nice. It was only a test of the nib performance. In future? See how it handles a few considered decorative flicks and flourishes to enhance the overall look. Also a little artwork. Writing with a dipping procedure feels different somehow. A reluctance to find freedom in your writing for fear that an over enthusiastic approach will result in the ink collected in the nib’s curvature leaving the party early. By dropping onto the paper and blotting! But as a uniformly slowly written test……it works well.

So. The longevity of writing capability on one dip into the ink is great. At least a sentence and a bit more besides. The flow of producing the letters is smooth. The gold being a little smoother than the silver for glide. It will be worth doing a few more experiments with these two nibs. May avoid India/China inks though. They may prove to be too invasive on the metal. I need more colour choices with fountain pen inks if I’m honest. I have cartridges with various colours. But some of my favourite pens have converters housed within.

There is a previous blog of mine regarding the Smoothline as a fountain pen. More information on the link below:

https://graysummerstwo.com/2022/02/23/smoothline-nibs-worth-looking-into/