PEN MANFACTURERS that want my money

Black sharpies are a quid at screwfix, buy four. Post office pack of four 7 quidish, hth.

.
thar ya go


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STAEDTLER-LUMOCOLOR-Permanent-Pens-x4-Superfine-Fi...

.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STAEDTLER-LUMOCOLOR-Permanent-Pens-x4-Superfine-Fine-Duo-Marker-BLACK-/272379103097

7 sheets for 4 pens

Aye, and they'll try and harangue you into buying some insurance or other while taking  your money.

banksy ?

£7 for 4 pens?

poundshop sells 4 permanent pens for....

mixed colours. £1.50 for 4 black pens? acceptable?

rainbow nation

Quite right. Too dull otherwise.

politically correct pen thread? ? really ? FK me.

they're not allowed to sell packs of black pens only.

Any packs of pens have got to be representative of the make up of pens across the UK population - hence the multi-colours.

And you cannot just use the black pens - it has been ruled that this would be discriminatory (indeed racist) to make the black pens do all the work.

That's why you cannot buy packs of black-only pens.

HTH

bought a pack of black pens today.

racist ...

bet you voted Brexit as well

(and live oop t'north)

Popped into a well-known stationer this morning to buy a Derwent Soft Art Eraser. This is the best there is for removing pencil lines from cold pressed paper without damage and happens to be coloured black. They now only stock them in a twin-pack with a hard white eraser which is worse than useless.
Mememe is right, politically correct stationary is de rigueur.

stationery...

but you can use an a because I liked your post.

funny thing you notice when you use black ink pens, if you spill water the ink looks green or blue. So its dark? not black in a lot of cases.

Don't think there is such a colour as absolute black.

they must be using a soluble dye zorro. Chinese ink made from grinding an ink stick is a suspension of carbon black (soot) and dilutes to greyish tones. Probably unsuitable for technical pens, I suppose it might clog them.

yeah - bought the blocks of ink on ebay. you can buy a refillable brush pen that's pretty good. Got one from Hong Kong thru ebay. really nice.

Never thought of trying it with a water brush, I have one of those from Derwent somewhere. Good idea, Chinese ink is fun to use.

got to shell out for good brushes for ink or watercolour.
thankfully oil paint you can get away with sticks if you want to do it that way.
i like makeup sponges - for some stuff.

Gave up with oil paints 30 years ago because of asthma. Vel suggested trying acrylics and I've bought a set but not got round to doing anything substantial with them yet. Still have my old palette knives which I could use.
Agree with you regarding watercolour although there's no need to go over the top with high priced sable hair brushes, modern synthetics are pretty good.
Have you tried Chinese calligraphy brushes, Zorro? I had a set when I went through a brief phase some years ago. I think they were made from squirrel hair.

I found a pack of cheap black ballpoint pens in Poundland...£1....I buy them in a pack as I am always losing them

If you don't use a ballpoint pen for a few months, it seems to dry out and won't write, even if there's plenty of ink left. Any tips on getting the think to work again?

what you need to do is continue to use the pen and write your poems, grocery lists, 300 page novels or whatever as normal.
You won't be able to see anything but what will have happened is that the pen has left an imprint on the paper.
You then turn the paper over and, with a lead pencil, lightly shade the paper.
The text of your poem, etc will appear and taking a mirror, hold the paper close to the mirror and you will be able to read what you've written.

Alternatively, use the pencil for writing in the first place, or

But a new pen and use that.

HTH

You can get the ink out if you remove the refill, pull off the plastic tube and squeeze it. You can then dip a matchstick into the ink and write scratchily with that. Be careful though as the ink gets everywhere and won't come off.

Good thinking mememe

Foin...

we Betfairians are nothing if not ingenious.

What I liked about your idea is, with care, the match could be used to start a fire, or just light something.  Brilliant.

Yes, be careful to write with the white end and you can use the red end later to set fire to your script.

Forgive me for gatecrashing this existing discussion, but it seems to be an appropriate thread for a discussion on pens.

I want to be able to write info on some DVDs and CDs, ensuring that no damage is done to the actual disk.  Which pens are suitable for this task please, assuming a bog-standard felt-tip pen won't hack it?

A link to a product itself would assist.

Thanks if you can help.

Do you mean this sort of thing?
.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-x-FINE-TIP-CD-DVD-PERMANENT-MARKER-PENS-RED-GREEN-BLUE-BLACK-Cheapest-on-Ebay-/272248587529?ha****m3f6347c509:g:tQwAAOSwDuJW04uD

I agree with Zorro about pens being in assorted colours when you only want black.

Thank you Diva.

I rarely use that auction site anymore so any other pen suggestions welcomed.