Something a bit different from the usual keyboards and gadgets today. I’m going back to school. Fully analogue. Ink and paper, because the lovely people at Esterbrook have very generously sent me one of their Estie Nouveau Bleu fountain pens to try out.
I don’t do much writing by hand these days. In fact, when I do make notes and draw out thumbnails/roughs to type from I mostly use the Supernote as opposed to pen and paper. If I sign books I usually use a Sharpie, and when I sign a contract I do it digitally. My handwriting has never been the best, and I’ve been writing in the standard ALL CAPS dad scrawl which so many (mostly) men seem to fall into since I was in my teens.
I honestly can’t remember the last time prior to receiving the Estie Nouveau Bleu that I used a fountain pen, but I’m guessing it’s been close to a couple of decades. Even so, I have a handful of “best” pens and nice notebooks because, well, everyone who writes does, don’t they?
So, can I do the Estie Nouveau Bleu justice with my Primary School level cursive? Let’s see.
The Estie Nouveau Bleu will take ink cartridges but Esterbrook were also kind enough to send me a bottle of Cobolt Blue ink, so I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to do things “properly” and fill the pen that way. As you can see from the video posted above, filling the converter from the ink bottle is a pretty easy and straightforward process. Yes, I did get ink all over my hands, but that’s because I’m a clumsy fool who has never done this before.
By now I’m used to all the different layouts, switch types, key profiles, etc that are on offer when dealing with keyboards, but I was pretty naive about the range of options which exist within the realm of fountain pens.
The Estie Nouveau Bleu I was sent is a Regular sized pen (Oversized also available), with a Palladeum trim (Gold trim also available), and a Medium nib. The range of nib sizes was a surprise to me; Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, Stub (used for Calligraphy), JBG (used for Journaling), Scribe (an Architect nib), and Needlepoint are all options.
What’s obvious, now I think about it, is that the type of nib you use doesn’t just affect the thickness of the line on the page, it’s all about the amount of ink that flows and, therefore, it also has an effect on the drying time of the ink. So, the Medium nib gives a line that’s slightly thicker and chunkier than my Shaeffer rollerball, which in turn is slightly thicker than your bog-standard supermarket biro (which, of course, I have hundreds of). Given the choice, having tried a Medium nib for a little while now, I think I’d like to try a Fine nib to see if that made my writing a bit more legible, and reduced the possibility of smudging.
I can definitely feel a difference in the way I write with the Estie Nouveau Bleu. I know that seems like a stupid, obvious, thing to say, but what I mean is that even pens like the Shaeffer, which I previously thought of as “smooth”, feel kind of squeaky and scratchy in comparison. The ink flows really easily, and the pressure you use to write is a lot more even; it feels much less scrawly and more flowing and natural. I feel like I’m guiding the pen along on the surface of the page as opposed to engraving marks into it (which is often the case with a biro).
Although it’s probably hard to see for anyone else, given that my handwriting is pretty bad, I also definitely feel like there’s increased legibility to the writing I’m doing with the Estie Nouveau Bleu, even when I’m scratching away in my ALL CAPS speed writing. Psychologically, writing with a really nice pen also makes me want to write more neatly and nicely, and that can only be a good thing.
I don’t think I’m about to start writing out all my prose in longhand like Neil Gaiman and Ramsey Campbell do any time soon, but the Estie Nouveau Bleu has definitely made me think differently about ink and paper writing. I’d like to do more of it. For anyone who writes, a pen that’s a pleasure to write with seems like a pretty important piece of kit.
