And don't forget the obsession with Rapidographs!!... from the delerious 0000 to the boisterous 4.0
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This is DEFINITELY ISOBARB's fault. The impressionable young ISTOHOW was permanently affected/inflicted by the "curse of the fine line" that ISOBARB cast upon him.
Good catch, curse-caster!
Alas, as another sign of the ultimate decay of Western Civilization, instead of countless hours spent searching for an ever-decreasing set of sources of replacement parts and suitable non-clogging inks of appropriate blackness, not to mention those spent carefully cleaning and refilling those monuments to German skill, ISTOHOW now just buys boxes of Pilot "Precise" pens.
You can buy a dozen "V5" Pilot Precice pens for about what a Rapidograph body used to cost, and you don't have to mess with cleaning and refilling. You also don't feel so bad when you lose one or mangle the point when putting an excessive amount of emotion into that exclamation point... Even better, I just discovered that my employer keeps boxes of them in our supply cabinet. (Down Dogbert! Down! No... I still buy my own boxes, but if I forget to carry my pocket-protector-full variety of colors when I DO go in to work, I can borrow one for awhile from them. I always give it back, because I know if I keep it I'll just lose it the way I lose mine, and I have a lifetime supply at home...)
I do miss all that care that a true "technical drawing pen" required. It gave me a bit of "quiet time" during which I could reflect upon what had been written and might soon be writ with "my" pen. "My" pen was unique, and we had sort of a bond, my pen and I.
Now I don't have time for that kind of bullshit. If the pen's out of ink, throw it away and pick up a new one. Nobody reading the words or viewing the picture will know I used a Pilot instead of a Rapidograph, since they both result in 0.5mm lines.
Still, I miss my Rapidograph. No, what I really miss was the days when cleaning and refilling my Rapidograph could be the most important thing on my agenda for the day.
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I am afraid that we are going to be faced with another mano-a-mano over this, Paul. For openers, there is uni-ball vision micro waterproof/fade-proof.
M
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and I can attest that this is indeed a fine line, instrament... but it's no Repodigraph!
iso
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I use those as well, but seem to get better results from the Pilots. Neither has the emotional satisfaction of the Rapidograph, though....
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Second point conceded immediately. ::::scritch scritch scritch scritch::::::::