This was it! Thanks - makes much more sense now. Thanks!
I find that they're great for headings, titles, dates, etc - a little emphasis in my notes. With that said, my pilot metropolitan's stub nib has also always been really scratchy too, and hard starts a lot. It's always been one of my most disappointing pens.
One of my favorite stub nibs is a Jinhao 80 (Lamy 2000 clone, usually sub-$10). I swapped out the Jinhao nib for a Lamy 1.1 stub, and it writes like a dream!
Nice - I had misread this as Diamine Earl Grey at first, and was very confused ("I've used this before and don't remember any orange tones!"). But it does look beautiful!
Saddle Brown also looks very nice and versatile. Do you think that you need a medium nib to get the full spectrum of shading? I've sometimes been disappointed with browns that are too light with an F nib (bought a sample of Robert Oster Caffe Crema, but it really was too light for my daily use unless in an M, B, or stub).
That is a pretty fascinating ink - seems to be a totally different color depending on nib and paper...
Definitely had that same mixup briefly.
TROMPE was the one that clued me in, though. Definitely love a good trompe l'oeil...
Wow, I really enjoyed that one!
Lots of great fill (spoilers)
First, the triple stacks in the NE and SW: CLEARASMUD // TORTELLINI // EARLYBIRDS and IMPRIMATUR // SPOONERISM // HERDEDCATS. I almost stood up and applauded!
The downs are great too. TROMPE l'oeil, TORPOR, CLAWFOOT (with TUB for good measure), TEDLASSO, a great bit of light misdirection in the clue for STEEPENS, RANRIOT, DEALIO.
Working in both a good Always (PADS) clue and MIRENA to get away from the usual old white guy bias? Cluing TASSEL in the burlesque sense? JET clued in relation to Ebony magazine? I'm here for all of it!
Essentially a perfect Friday for my taste. 👏👏👏
Yeah, really agree - but I was surprised by the lack of rebuses or other tricks. Seemed much more like a Wednesday? But still fun!
That was... something.
Yeah that was definitely the worst of the fill... Not super fun, that one