Yet another new pen...

This one's the Platinum Carbon desk pen I found at Jetpens (and now available at Goulet Pens as well!)...someone here recommended it, and thank you!

It IS a desk pen, so it has the long handle that some enjoy--for instance our correspondents Liz Steel and Alissa Duke!  Both like the long, elegant lines of the Lamy Joy pen, much like Rotring's Art Pen.

I like the idea IF the cap will stay put on the end of the pen when it's in use, but in this case it doesn't. (Lamy Joy and Rotring both do.)

So I decided to throw caution to the winds and tweak it.

The pen comes with a Platinum Carbon ink cartridge, so I just unscrewed the barrel and marked how far down the cartridge came, and used my little fine toothed saw to cut below that mark...

 

You can see the length of the cartridge here...

Ooops. It broke a bit 'cause my saw got cattywompus (you know what that is, right?)  So I just filed it off an a rather rakish angle, and polished it...it's a very handy size now, very portable...

The cap stays on EITHER end beautifully now, so I don't have to worry about losing it...it's faceted so it won't roll off my page when capped, either...and yep, it's a shortie, but the cap extends it to a comfortable working length.

It's got a very nice extra fine nib, so I got lots of detail on this old piece of weathered wood...not much flex, which would be nice, but still...makes a nice effect.

This is pretty inexpensive for a fountain pen--$12--so I don't worry about making it work FOR me, and taking the saw to it.  Now I love it, and plan to get a couple more, one for my travel kit!

Platinum carbon cartridges come with a little ball-bearing in them to keep the ink stirred up, too...nice, since it IS carbon and the heavier particles can settle if you use it in ink bottle form...

The ink is waterproof under most circumstances, so you can add watercolor almost immediately.