Do you prefer Indian?

I've got pens, probably more than I should, a good percentage of those are ones I bought to fix.  When I actually get around to fixing them, I'll post that for sure.  While searching out more fantastic inks (I love Quink, Diamine, Herbin, and Noodlers) that would work in an eye-dropper pen (I'd been meaning to buy one for years) I came across a review for a hand-made pen by Ranga of India.  There are hundreds of brands out there I don't know, but something about India surprised me.  It shouldn't, the Sub-continent and surrounding lands have been masters of ink for thousands of years.  Indeed, some of the worlds most beautiful illuminated texts are in Sanskrit.  What really surprised me is that their starter pen, entirely hand-made to order, was $19.99 including shipping.  A bespoke pen for less than 20 dollars.  That I had to try.

I first purchased the bottom pen, the Ranga model 2.  I have not been able to locate this pen on the Amazon or Ebay Ranga stores recently, so it is possible it is no longer offered.  It was $19.99  The top pen is the Large Duofold $29.99.  Both are made from the basic choices of Ebonite.  The model 2 is 5.75" and the Duofold 6".  Clearly, though, the Duofold is a more robust build, big enough no to fit in my largest two-pen case.  

Here are the same pens posted.  Both wear their caps securely, and look very nice.  They write well whether posted or not, but I prefer the balance provided posted, especially with the model 2, which can be a little light without the cap.  Posted they are each 1" longer than closed, so 6.75" and 7".

The Duofold: I don't own any of the original vintage Parkers, but per all I can find, this is a bit more generous. Take it as an homage to a classic.  The clip is appropriately generous, and nicely curved, giving it a little more presence that the slender one used on the 2.  I have it loaded here with Herbin Ink, Orange Indien.  It holds a whopping 3.5 cc's, and I've not had any problem with it being an eyedropper.  The nib writes like a fine, and is nicely smooth.

The Model 2: Nice and slim, and very classic looking.  I writes like a bigger pen, very comfortable, not cramped, which might be because of the curve to the body.  It writes best posted.  The clip is slender, modern, and naked, presumably epoxied the the cap.  I have it loaded with Mont Blanc Mystery Black.  It flows well, but not as well as the Duofold.  This could be one of two things: the smaller nib does not have enough surface area to draw as quickly, or the thicker Mont Blanc ink is better suited for a medium or medium-fine nib.  Once going, it flows well, and as with the Duofold, no problems with burps and such as one expects with an eyedropper.  

The Duofold is brown swirled Ebonite with a black cap, and the model 2 green swirl.  The basic colors offered are black in two finishes and olive, green, and brown swirl.  Speaking of the Ebonite, there are some beautiful options for an upcharge, usually marked in their description as "Rare."  If you want something different, these rare options can be quite striking.  Prior to these pens, I have never owned an Ebonite pen.  It feels warm to the touch and is smooth without having the sticky feel that acrylic can.  Beyond the Ebonite, Ranga also offers acrylic, and Ebonite with clear acrylic, their take on a demonstrator.  

Shipping has always been faster than estimated, and the customer service is excellent.  One receives an email fairly quickly requesting your choice of color, and any further correspondence is timely.  I like to support someone practicing a craft when I can, rather than purchasing from a factory/bulk producer.  When I can do that, and get a product better than what I could buy for the same price, it's even better.  

Growing pains, the horrors of a young shaver

I'm not unusually tall or hirsute, but as a child, I came into that early.  By 6th grade I was one inch shorter than I am now, so 6', and shaving every other day.  It didn't help that I was not especially gifted in sports, and just a little pudgy.  While boys struggled to grow a wisp of a mustache, I was being told to shave by teachers when I missed a day.  As with any pre-teen, I was also starting to get acne.  Shaving teen acne just makes acne worse.  Fun.

I remember asking at the end of 4th grade asking my father to shave my face after he finished cutting my hair.  He could actually cut hair pretty well, so never had that buzz cut most fathers give, and he had the proper tools for a shave.  That was the pace of things with facial hair, it needs a shave when my hair needed trimming, every few months or so.  But things changed pretty quickly after that.  By the end of the summer my father handed me his old Remington electric shaver and encouraged me to use it.  So, there I was shaving my face with an aging razor while getting acne.  Remington Microscreen certainly didn't shave closer than a razor, and unfortunately, I didn't get my money back.  Things just got worse.

Junior high was a horror of problematic acne, razor burn, facial rash, and attempting to figure things out.  I also found out I was allergic to aluminum, so most antiperspirants were out, ugh.  What a mess.  Sometimes I'd raid my sisters bic razor singles, but usually I just went two or three days, waiting for my face to heal, at which point my whiskers were long, and the famed Remington Microscreen would proceed to rip my face apart, chewing my follicles like they were bubble gum.  I'd go to school with a rash and bleeding acne.  WHEEE!

The above picture is a warning.  If you see anything resembling this, do not use it, or even think about it, unless you have the finest peach fuzz imaginable.  This will tear your face clean off.  

It went on for some time, exactly, through college.  For a graduation present I got a pen (that will be spoken of at some point) and razor,a really nice razor.  It was a Merkur Futur.  

The Merkur Futur is adjustable, very smooth shaving, and heavy enough to be comfortable in the hand.  I used it off-and-on for nearly 10 years.  Why off and on?  While living in Southern California the double-edged blades were kept behind the counter at most drug stores, or just not sold.  Crazy, right, but they were one of the most stolen products.  If you've spent all your money on coke, I guess you have to steel the blades.  Oh, and then when living in the East Bay, I could hardly find them because they were "Ecologically insensitive."  WHAT?!?  Like those plastic cartridge, or disposables are really eco-friendly.  I didn't feel like growing a beard, so I'd shave with that old electric, and then when I could find blades I'd buy all I could find, use them up, and then suffer.  My only complaint about this amazing razor, is that some of the parts used in its construction are not, as the Germans would say, rostfrei.  After a decade, it started having major problems.  Uneven shaving, and a loose handle.  I looked carefully, and it was actually blowing apart from the inside.  I decided, unwisely, to try a top notch Panasonic electric.  Mistake.  But due to a no return policy, it still sits in a drawer.  That's one of my main complaints about razors, I understand about the sanitary aspect, but some are amazingly expensive, whether electric or safety, and quite an investment.  Hopefully you'll find some help here.  So what's a razor-burned, full-bearded dude to do?

Find it at your local junk store.  That's what I did.  While looking around for brass instruments at the local vintage and antique cooperative, I found two razors, a Gem 1912 and Gillette flare tip Super Speed.  The Super Speed is part of a broad family called one piece or butterfly razors, since the head opens like a butterfly.  I don't think I paid more than $20 for the two, and unlike earlier, was able to get double edged razors at the local drug store.  The shave from both of these are superior to anything I had used before this point, and are still two of my go to razors.  

I cleaned them thoroughly, soaked them in alcohol for a day, and then took an old toothbrush loaded

up with the finest car polish I had and scrubbed.  Clean, sterile, and newly shiny. 

The Gem 1912 (left), obviously a single edge. when newly loaded, can remove a heavy 3 day beard without a thought.  The Gem stainless blades blades are sharp enough to use against the grain after the initial shave with the grain.  It is aggressive and can, if handled improperly, cause bleeding.  The learning curve was about 3 shaves.  It is worth the scrapes.  

The Gillette Super Speed (right) is a much easier shave.  It doesn't handle the heavy multi-day growth, but as a daily shave, is very nice, probably one of the best I've used. It is not as close, but very gentle.  Mine is a 1959 (E) first quarter (1).  I have read that the Super Speeds from the 40's are even better, but the best come from 1951 and '52 when the brass shortage forced Gillette to make the handles from either stainless or aluminum.  There is an Aristocrat model that is open comb (like the ball-end 3-piece razors from the 20's) that I would imagine is a very close shave.  That I'd love to try. 

To note, both of these tarnish, the Gem much more since when purchased almost all the plating was worn down to the bare brass.  I repolished both again after a few months.  They never tug the skin when tarnished, but can when newly polished.  I suggest, if you get one of these vintage razors, gently polishing only once as part of the cleaning process, and letting them patina.  

So, now I've been using double and single edge razors exclusively for 12 years.  I have never had a rash, since, no bumps, no burn, and I can shave every day without worry.  In that time, it has also become harder to find those vintage razors for a reasonable price.  I have been lucky to get a number of them, never paying more than $12, but now my local shops, when they do have them, are all marked well over $25, and often in worse shape.  If you find them, buy them.  Try it out.  And try all the different blades available to you, many sites have tens of choices, if not hundreds, for double edged, and at least a few single edged.  

Learning to write

Learning to write was, shall we say, traumatic.  It's not that I did not want to learn to write, but was never good at it.  My first scribbles at home were as anyone might expect, wiggly, large, backwards, and malformed.  Kindergarten was the first real test of my skills, with basic math and three letter words.  I quickly found that if I could not read my own writing, neither could anyone else.  I did not finish that year with a penmanship grade higher than a "U," unsatisfactory.  If you do not know this system, it went something like this, E - Excellent, G - Good, S - Satisfactory, N - Needs improvement, U - Unsatisfactory.  So, Kindergarten, and I was already failing penmanship.  

I clearly remember working on my writing skills during the summer, working through the copy book, and using the handwriting tablet provided by the school.  You know the paper, with a little dotted line 2/3 up each space to indicate where the body of each lower-case letter is to go to.  I remember it looking good, and I was proud of what I had done.  I was even using the yellow pencil, and not the fat, red, beginners pencil.  I returned to school certain I would pass penmanship and not look like a fool.  My first assignment, copying words from the board, earned me another U in penmanship.  HOW?  Adding to my trauma, I was now made to use a big red pencil with a bright blue triangular grip announcing to the world at large that I was incompetent with my handwriting.  

I continued to struggle with my writing through all of the grades that they actually graded you on your penmanship, that was third in my school.  Never once did I break N.  If anything, my writing became worse when we were required to use a pen.  I had those horrible BIC Cristal pens, which scratched across the paper, did not lay down enough ink, blobbed at the end, and were so tiny my hand cramped using them.  I should have realized the teachers made me use the grip for a reason, so I would not have to grip the pencil like a crab just to hold it steady.  Rather, I found that if one popped the cartridge out and pull the top off, the taper of front and slickness of the barrel made for the perfect spit ball tube.  Combine that with a cornet mouthpiece (we all started music in third grade) and one could get a wad to stick to the blackboard from across the room.  Brilliant.  The second half of primary school was filled with returned papers with underlines asking indicating words they could not read.  I first experimented with the family typewriter at some point in here, acquiring a portable Royal as well, at a garage sale.  I was so enamored with it that I walked all the way home to get my saved money, and getting back just as they were packing up.  I had $20 in change and singles.  I lugged that monster 1 1/2 miles uphill.  Still have it.

Progressing to junior high, I actually had some anxiety about writing, I remember my siblings telling me there was a lot of in class writing.  The summer prior, in my wanderings about Berkeley with my best friend, I found a pen.  It was a Parker (like the Rialto) that took cartridges.  Being Berkeley, there were stationers about, lots of them.  So I stopped in and asked what kind of refill it took.  They handed me a pack of black cartridges.  I took it home and was hooked.   

My handwriting changed.  My nerves about the in-class essays changed, everything looked great, until I found out about how fast these cartridges ran out.   Back to the stationer.  Again, for $2 I got a converter, which let me refill my pen with ink from a bottle.  I purchased a second Parker, a fairly cheap one, something I'm sure was under 10 bucks.  And it came with a converter!  Joy, now two pens, full every day for school.  I still have those pens 30 years later.   The top one is the one I found, and the bottom the one I bought.

I ran against ups and downs during my Jr and Sr high years, teachers that applauded me for using a proper "Writing instruments" while others complained that I wasted paper because the ink bled through (paper is for a whole other post) and I used only one side.  The day my grandfather, who was one bad-ass engineer, saw me writing with a fountain pen was one of my writing highlights.  In response he pulled out his engineers field drafting kit, given to him by his brother-in-law.  He carefully put together the pens, and dipped them in a bottle of India ink.  He spent minutes concentrating, just pulling straight lines, then carefully lettered his name, and cleaned all the pens.  "That's why none of those new drawings look write, there's no soul."  He then handed me that kit.  To this day, I have not had the strength to use it.  

What am I saying?  I'm not really sure, but if we're going to write, we should choose something we're comfortable with.  I think I'm also saying, we should be open to some older technologies that use fewer resources, last longer than a year or two, and by spending a few extra bucks (sometimes, not, that's another post) employ people in a craft that can sustain them financially, and brings us joy at the same time.  

What the hell is Watchthis.guru?  That's a good question.  Essentially, it is a site dedicated to reviewing, or contemplating things past that still have meaning, or relevance to the modern world, but are thought of as old-fashioned.  What do I mean?  Think about the razor you use, be it electric or cartridge.  Both cost a bundle, both shave fairly well, and both replaced the safety razor, which replaced the single edge, which indeed replaced the straight (cut-throat) razor.  The last three give a superior shave, last for decades, and are cheaper to use.  We've all been hornswoggled into thinking that something is better about that electric or cartridge, trust me, they're not.  So it is a blog for, somewhat anachronistic, curmudgeonly, nitpicky, knowledge thirsty, historically bent, guys and girls talking about what bugs, interests, or excites them.  Enjoy! (explanation points, by the way, as are "by they way" and parenthesis, completely overused).