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Comment by noufalibrahim | Hacker News Reader

I practice calligraphy regularly and use a fountain pen and a mechanical pencil for all my daily notes.

I used a Waterman expert for a long time till a "friend" dropped it and destroyed it. Since then, I bought a Noodlers Ahab. The company had a quirky sense of humour and with a black ink called "heart of darkness", who can resist? I bought it primarily because the nib is flexible and you can use it for pseudo Copperplate and Spencerian scripts (which I use for headings). https://www.amazon.in/Noodlers-Ahab-Flex-Nib-Fountain/dp/B00...

The mechanical pencil I use is a Pentel Graphgear 1000. It's easily the Mercedes Benz of mechanical pencils. Pentel is generally good at this but the Gg 1000 takes it to the next level. It's very well balanced, comfortable to hold and has a few small features that protect the delicate parts quite well. https://www.amazon.in/Pentel-Graphgear-1000-Drafting-Pencil/...

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Does the Pentel have a mechanism to rotate the lead? I use a Kuru Toga for that reason, and quite like it, though the machining tolerance could be a bit better, i might try a Pentel for that reason but worry about the lead getting flat on one side as I write.

Only the Kuru Toga have this system. You might want to try the Pentel Orenz which is another approach, with the (retractable) metal sleeve following the lead. Both features seem to me to "get inbetween" me and the pencil while drawing, that control over sharpness is nice, even with 0.5 leads. So ultimately I prefer to go with the Graphgear or the Pentel 120 A3DX (cheap, light, comfortable, reliable, but no retractable tip).

I am kurutoga fan as well. Love the rotating lead and consistent writing due to that. Sadly I keep losing the eraser cap and can't seem to find it online. Any suggestion?

Good question. I used to used cheap ones back in the day and developed a habit of manually rotating as I write. It's become instinct and part of my muscle memory so I don't need this as a feature though I see its value.

No. Unfortunately this is where Kuru Toga shines. It's the only pencil I have for this reason.

I use fountain pens for my daily notes, and a mechanical pencil where a fountain pen isn't practical.

Fountain pens in "rotation" at the moment:

    * TWSBI Vac Mini, EF
    * Pilot Stargazer, F
    * Sheaffer Snorkel, F
    * Pilot Resin Falcon, SEF
    * Pilot Vanishing Point, 0.7mm stub
    * Noodler's Boston Safety Pen, with a vintage Parker flexible gold nib
    * Sheaffer Legacy Heritage II, custom 0.4mm "smoothed" stub

I have around 200 more fountain pens in a china hutch next to my desk, so there is no lacking in options if I want a chance of pace. The ones I listed above get >80% of my use, remain inked, and are in descending order of how often I use them. The rest are either parts of my long-term collection or I've purchased to repair and resell online.

I have two mechanical pencils that I use religiously - a Rotring 800 that I carry with me, and a Uni-ball Kuru Toga that I keep on my desk.

Noodler's Ink is at https://noodlersink.com

Pentel is at https://www.pentel.co.uk

Love love love me a Graphgear 1000, I keep buying them so I can have one in every car, one in every desk, one in workbench, one in my pockets - bought three for my daughter for Christmas so she'd quit borrowing mine.

Protip: The pencil has a long enough moment arm to snap 0.5 mm lead easily - 0.7mm diamond lead is WAY stronger than 0.5mm.

I'm still searching for my holy grail felt-tip pen which would be a small-nib (.5mm or less?) chisel point (or equivalent.) Any suggestions? Most of the calligraphy markers I've tried aren't suitable for small writing.

No idea. I don't use felt tip markers for calligraphy. I use pilot parallel pens https://www.amazon.in/Pilot-Parallel-Pen-3-8-Cartridge/dp/B0... for quick drafts and a proper dip pen set for serious work.

I can see that, it's pretty much the standard progression for flat edge pen work.

Felt tips -> Pilot Parallels -> Flat metal nibs with specific inks.

I believe that there are no such pens, because I have also searched without success.

For large writing, with chisel point width of 1.0 mm or larger, there are many felt-tip pens from at least 4 or 5 manufacturers, and also fountain pens with wide nibs suitable for variable-width lines, e.g. Pilot Parallel pens or Rotring Art pens.

For small writing with variable-width lines caused by nib shape, like you want, I have seen only dip pen nibs, which are inconvenient for casual usage.

Cut a 1mm nib with a sharp knife?

You can normally find Pentel Twist-Erase pencils in office supply stores; they aren't as well balanced as the Graphgear but I prefer them because they come with the equivalent of ~10 pencil erasers attached, and I do a lot of erasing because I produce bad ideas almost as frequently as I produce good ideas :)

I bought https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00006IFB4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_... to refill the erasers as they run out. I don't usually use them. I prefer a regular one but I wear them out when on the road.

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