Incoming - What do you have coming in the mail??

[letschat7]

I used to have some gold Cross pens and gold nib fountain pens.

 

[M@elstrom]

I was looking at the Fenix T6, Olight O'pen and Thrunite offerings but settled on the Nitecore based purely on aesthetics (and pricing), plus I EDC torches/flashlights anyway... I won't deny the laser pointer was tempting

 

[vicv]

I was looking at the Fenix T6, Olight O'pen and Thrunite offerings but settled on the Nitecore based purely on aesthetics (and pricing), plus I EDC torches/flashlights anyway...

I tend to use whatever disposable pen is closest at hand. Lol. But I've seen some of those mechanical pen posts show up on Reddit. There's people out there that like just about everything. Hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it

 

[PaladinNO]

@TPA @Monocrom
I'm not at all into fountain pens. I've had one, and all it ever did was making a mess. ^^

But with regard to UV-reactive ink, I have had a thought to do a UV night sky painting in my bedroom ceiling for some time now.
I already have a deep, dark blue-purple paint, but the fluorescent paint I backordered along with it ended up being "sorry, the manufacturer no longer makes that". And so the whole project stopped, as that paint was exactly what I wanted, and there was no suitable alternative available locally.

As for pens, as such, I already have 2x SureFire EWP-02 (Blue and Black - sadly missing the Pink one). Ballpoint, taking Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 refills.
Very well balanced, and unlike cheap pens, they actually work when I need them to.

 

[Monocrom]

For full disclosure, I do have a sizeable fountain pen collection. Everything from the cheap stuff, all the way to a few fountain pens that collectors would consider to be their Grail pens. (I'm never parting with my Visconti Homo-sapiens. Had to track down a seller in Great Britain just to get the two split initial plates to put on the top of the cap so that it showed off my initials. No sellers in Italy nor America.)

I also used to work in the industry selling pens for Colorado Pen Company. Before they filed for bankruptcy, re-structured and came back as Paradise Pen, but then went back to being Colorado Pen company.

There's also another fountain pen I'll never part with, but only because it was a frickin' headache to get it working. Replaced the nib, replaced the feed. Still wouldn't work! Okay, has to be the converter. There's literally nothing else. Bought about 8 universal fountain pen converters from a bunch of different companies, at different prices. Started jamming one inside of the pen after another until I finally found one that works. Ironically, it was the 2nd converter out of the 8 that I tried. Now she works reliably! I'm NEVER parting with that Monteverde fountain pen for the rest of my life! After everything I went through to get it working properly.... I might request to be buried with it!

But yeah, I still sometimes use cheap fountain pens. Great place to start if anyone isn't sure if fountain pens are right for them, Platinum Preppy. Surprisingly good considering how cheap they are.

 

[letschat7]

There is a pen seller I highly recommend near where you lived called Fountain Pen Hospital. I highly recommend them and used them back when I was in high school. I rocked a Mont Blanc back then and used Southworth ivory parchment paper.

 

[Alaskantinbender]

 

[Monocrom]

There is a pen seller I highly recommend near where you lived called Fountain Pen Hospital. I highly recommend them and used them back when I was in high school. I rocked a Mont Blanc back then and used Southworth ivory parchment paper.

Oh yes, I remember FPH. That was back during my initial fascination as a pen enthusiast. Back when I wore a much younger man's clothes and had the nearly empty wallet of one. Still, I don't walk into establishments where I can't afford what they're selling. Went to FPH twice. Got treated like garbage the 2nd time I went there. Older store employee tried cheating me by insisting a certain brand's red ballpoint refill was exactly the same as another brand's red ballpoint refill. His very immature insistence that he was right, is why I never returned. I even remember the two brands.

Close to 30 years ago, and I still remember every detail of that visit. Funny, events from that far back are either every detail for me or literally nothing at all.

As far as MB goes, oh.... I could tell you some "fun" true tales involving our customers, and an actual MB official store literally a few yards away from us; back when I used to work at Colorado Pen company. (That damn MB store is still in business nearly 30 years later!)

I will say that their Limited Editions are worth every penny.

 

[vicv]

This thing is quite a bit smaller and lighter than I was expecting. But wow, it's nice. I believe it has the MN 20 installed in it. It's a thin bulb with a purple base. And an MN 21 in the spare carrier. Just turning it on in daylight you can tell this is bright. Looks brand new too. I presume it is someone's safe queen. Tail works perfectly. Only thing I'm not sure about is that there are no witness marks on the tail cap. So I don't know where lockout and everything is. I tested it and unfortunately, the MN 21 is burned out.

 

[tex.proud]

For years I've carried the 325 lmn Cree XP-L HDS EDC Rotary 18650. When I got it, I was of the mind that I'd never get a light that runs that silly cr123 battery. For years I didn't. Fast forward, and now I have a handful of lights running cr123, 16340, or 18350. I don't recall any more what I had against the cr123 back then.

So I finally ordered the EDC Rotary cr123 with the Samsung LH351D 5000k emitter. Gonna be a long 3 weeks, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[rrego]

Sofirn D25L LH351D 5000K High CRI.

*Received today. It's a nice budget headlamp. Time will tell on long term durability. Usage pending as it only arrived today, but it is lighting my late night CPF visit on the low 30 lumen mode.

 

[ebuchner]

This thing is quite a bit smaller and lighter than I was expecting. But wow, it's nice. I believe it has the MN 20 installed in it. It's a thin bulb with a purple base. And an MN 21 in the spare carrier. Just turning it on in daylight you can tell this is bright. Looks brand new too. I presume it is someone's safe queen. Tail works perfectly. Only thing I'm not sure about is that there are no witness marks on the tail cap. So I don't know where lockout and everything is. I tested it and unfortunately, the MN 21 is burned out.

Here's an anecdote. The purple base version of the MN20 (before the introduction of the later model black base with engraved markings) used to *occasionally* fail by exploding into a cloud of fine glass dust and tungsten oxide with no warning instead of just burning out. There's a thread from years back detailing how another CPF user also got a great deal on a classic crosshair logo M6 with Lexan lens, made note of the classic purple lamp, was warned in the same thread of the same hazard, and then reported back that the lamp did later explode and ruin their classic lexan KT-4 head. Of course, at that time warranty replacements on all parts were still feasible so it turned out okay. So I guess run it with as little or as much caution as you think is right. I'll see if I can stumble across the thread later.

That said, I think the case was that most of the catastrophic failures occurred pretty early on in the service lamp of the life. So if the previous owner used it enough to burn out one of the lamps, then maybe they also put enough hours on the MN20 to get it past the catastrophic infancy failure threshold.

 

[vicv]

Here's an anecdote. The purple base version of the MN20 (before the introduction of the later model black base with engraved markings) used to *occasionally* fail by exploding into a cloud of fine glass dust and tungsten oxide with no warning instead of just burning out. There's a thread from years back detailing how another CPF user also got a great deal on a classic crosshair logo M6 with Lexan lens, made note of the classic purple lamp, was warned in the same thread of the same hazard, and then reported back that the lamp did later explode and ruin their classic lexan KT-4 head. Of course, at that time warranty replacements on all parts were still feasible so it turned out okay. So I guess run it with a little bit of caution. I'll see if I can stumble across the thread later.

I was actually just reading about the exploding purple MN20s. Guess an order to lumens factory is needed. Too bad. I used it for about 30 seconds last night. Probably the most impressive beam I've ever seen.

 

[ebuchner]

I was actually just reading about the exploding purple MN20s. Guess an order to lumens factory is needed. Too bad. I used it for about 30 seconds last night. Probably the most impressive beam I've ever seen.

Whenever I run a high-risk lamp arrangement I use the $48 turbohead also from Lumens Factory since it's still available and comes with two swappable reflectors. This paid off big time (relatively speaking) for me a few years back when a FM/CL1909 bulb exploded in it instead of my precious KT-4. The HO-M6R also performs *very* well. It seems to sit right between the MN20 and MN21.

 

[vicv]

Whenever I run a high-risk lamp arrangement I use the $48 turbohead also from Lumens Factory since it's still available and comes with two swappable reflectors. This paid off big time (relatively speaking) for me a few years back when a FM/CL1909 bulb exploded in it instead of my precious KT-4. The HO-M6R also performs *very* well. It seems to sit right between the MN20 and MN21.

Their turbohead does look nice. I remember when they developed it. I've heard the ho-m6r is the best overall lamp you can buy

 

[Monocrom]

Lately, a ton of knives. (Honestly, I'm surprised myself.) Two most noteworthy being a Spyderco Paramilitary 2 and a Spyderco native 5. Though far more on the way than that. A vintage Gerber coffin-handle Bowie, and a vintage Gerber Paul knife w/ original open-top leather pouch have already arrived from two different sellers (Won both auctions on eBay recently. Great prices on both. Surprised no other bidders kept bidding.)

Flashlight related: Nothing stupendous.
- 2AA Mini-Mag. Tac. switch for LED models from some company.
- 2AA dark grey LED Mini-Mag. rated at 332 lumens
- Carson 3AAA red LED cluster light
- Thick leather open-top belt pouch for 2AA Mini-Mag. model.
- 2AA bare aluminum Mini-Mag. LED w/ 2 output levels and all the accessories such as colored lenses, lanyard, pen clip, etc.

Tac. switch from eBay. Originally saw it on Amazon. For about $20.oo I figured why not? The rest of the items purchased from B&H, with the Carson tossed in as a freebie since I bought the 2AA dark grey LED Mini-Mag.

None of the lights really needed at this point in my Life. Just wanted them. Truth is, same goes for the knives.

 

[JohnTz]

Custom HDS Tactical. It will be a long three weeks.

 

[vicv]

My E2E came in. I never realized how tiny this was going to be. I was expecting barely smaller than my A2 aviator, but this is much smaller. Has the factory twisty switch and
MN03. Also came with a longer lumens factory clips, one of their E1 – LED inserts, and one of the sw01 fatty McClicky tailcaps. The third picture is my homemade cr123a spacer for trying the led drop in as I don't have any 16650s. Measured 275 lumens and I believe it's the 4000k nichia 319a. The mn03 is 130 lumens

 

[Monocrom]

Size-wise SF E2E was one of the best EDC lights out there just before the end of the Incandescent era of dominance.

 

[vicv]

Size-wise SF E2E was one of the best EDC lights out there just before the end of the Incandescent era of dominance.

Can't wait for darkness. I will carry this in my left hand, and my M6 in my right.!😎