Author Topic: Fountain pens  (Read 19326 times)

ravenbait

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #100 on: 11 July, 2022, 10:48:18 am »
I have A LOT of pens.

I have EVEN MORE ink.

I have hypergraphia, and its tool of preference is a fountain pen and ink, so I have to feed it.

For cheap and robust, it depends on whether you want a European (slightly fatter) or Japanese (they go ultrafine) nib. For the former, assuming you get on with the triangular plastic grip, a Lamy Safari will do just fine. The major issue with Lamy I have is that it's a PITA to disassemble the converters for easy cleaning. I keep a couple of sections of inner tube for this purpose (they are press fit, and after you've yanked them apart a couple of times, it becomes easier). The slightly more upmarket version is the Al-Star, of which I have a number from when I was collecting the limited editions. Same pen, really, just aluminium. The big advantage of Lamy is the easily-interchangeable nib, which means you can have one pen, many line options. They do a good range of nib types, as well.

Otherwise, I would recommend the Platinum Preppy or the more expensive aluminium version, the Plaisir. You really can't go wrong with a Plaisir. If you want a fatter line, get the medium or broad. I am an EF person, personally. The converters unscrew for easy cleaning, and you can get adapters to make international standard cartridges fit if you really want to.

As another option, A TWSBI Eco is a robust, well-made piston filler for not much cost. Worth considering.

I don't think you can go wrong with Diamine inks. I've spent way more money on fancy inks, including some group buys of limited editions from places like Thailand, and you can't beat Diamine for value.

Sam
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"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

ravenbait

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #101 on: 11 July, 2022, 10:50:02 am »
TWSBI question

A few years back I found myself in a pen shop in Hay-on-Wye, they had a display of TWSBI pens and so, well you know, N+1 and all that...

..anyway there is a weird thing with this pen, it will write fine for a while then the flow just dries up. I've finally got around to looking into this problem and have discovered a number of recommendations for drilling off the little bit of plastic that would be used to open the cartridge if this pen took cartridges. Has anybody done this and will it work?

What model is it? Some of the piston fillers (and definitely the Vac) need the screw on the top of the pen loosened fractionally to allow air flow, otherwise the ink can't come out because of the vacuum. It's to stop leakage when it's not in use.

Sam
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"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

Clare

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #102 on: 11 July, 2022, 10:57:41 am »
It’s an ECO-T

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #103 on: 11 July, 2022, 11:50:59 am »
I got into fountain pens a couple of years ago. All mine are cheap Chinese pens from Ebay.

My favourites, all clear plastic where available:

Jinhao 992, very cheap but good quality, smallish but fits perfectly to a A5 notebook. Comes with cartridge converter.


Wingsung 3013, heavier and a bit bigger, vaccum filler, I think a copy of the Twsbi vac filler.


Wingsung 3008, piston filler, like a cartridge converter but built into the pen.

Jinhao 51a, based on the Parker 51 hooded nib pen, comes with cartridge converter.

Hero 616, has been made for decades, exact copy of the Parker 51, inc the rubber ink sac which you squeeze to refill.

Delike Element brass bodied pen.

I started off with the normal Diamine fountain pen inks but they are completely non waterproof and I don't use them anymore. I now use "document" inks which are permanent, and are "waterproof" by fountain pen standards.

The first is Diamine Registrar's iron gall ink which is an interesting ink which reacts with oxygen changing it into a water insoluable ink. The ink I mainly use is Koh-I-Noor Document Ink which reacts with the paper fibres.

You can reshape the nib with a fine diamond stone and/or abrasive papers if the nib is not to your liking, eg into an italic from the the usual ball tip, or a fine from a medium, or just to make it smoother to write. Or even more flexible to get line width variation.

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #104 on: 11 July, 2022, 11:57:03 am »
Fountain pens are weird because even the most expensive pens are made mainly from plastic, only they call it "precious resin", believe it or not  ::-)

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #105 on: 11 July, 2022, 12:02:57 pm »
Here's my set:



The wooden one (at the bottom of pictures) and the case was made by a colleague in the office
just before I retired last year. I don't know where he got the nib from, but it is not as good as the
ones on the Lamy pens (above).

ravenbait

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #106 on: 11 July, 2022, 01:31:37 pm »

I started off with the normal Diamine fountain pen inks but they are completely non waterproof and I don't use them anymore. I now use "document" inks which are permanent, and are "waterproof" by fountain pen standards.

Not everyone needs waterproof. But if you do, De Atramentis are reportedly good. I use Platinum Carbon when I want to be sure something will last forever. If it weren't for the dodgy politics, I'd suggest Noodler's bulletproof inks are some of the most interesting waterproof inks you can get.

Quote
You can reshape the nib with a fine diamond stone if the nib is not to your liking, eg into an italic from the the usual ball tip, or a fine from a medium, or just to make it smoother to write. Or even more flexible to get line width variation.

You can, but I would recommend not doing this with anything more expensive unless you're absolutely sure you know what you are doing. If you are not, The Pen Doctor will sort you out.

https://www.thependoctor.ltd/

Sam
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"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

Wowbagger

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #107 on: 11 July, 2022, 01:48:04 pm »
Fountain pens are weird because even the most expensive pens are made mainly from plastic, only they call it "precious resin", believe it or not  ::-)

In another use, "resin" musical instruments can be very good indeed, compared to "plastic" ones.

The distinction is that an expenssive resin recorder will have been worked from a solid block, whereas a cheap plastic one, which my be OK for school use, will come pretty much shaped straight out of the mould. The price difference could be in the range of £20-30 for a Yamaha plastic, compared to about £400 for a Bernolin resin one.

I don't know if this distinction is applicable to fountain pens as well.
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ravenbait

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #108 on: 11 July, 2022, 02:04:44 pm »

In another use, "resin" musical instruments can be very good indeed, compared to "plastic" ones.

The distinction is that an expenssive resin recorder will have been worked from a solid block, whereas a cheap plastic one, which my be OK for school use, will come pretty much shaped straight out of the mould. The price difference could be in the range of £20-30 for a Yamaha plastic, compared to about £400 for a Bernolin resin one.

I don't know if this distinction is applicable to fountain pens as well.

It does. Most of the pen makers I know hand-turn their pens from resin blanks.

Sam
https://ravenbait.com
"Created something? Hah! But that would be irresponsible! And unethical! I would never, ever make... more than one."

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #109 on: 11 July, 2022, 03:35:32 pm »
Fountain pens are weird because even the most expensive pens are made mainly from plastic, only they call it "precious resin", believe it or not  ::-)
Whereas we would call it carbon fibre?
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rogerzilla

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #110 on: 12 July, 2022, 04:57:50 pm »
Pelikan bodies are made from celluloid, which is a very old form of plastic.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #111 on: 12 July, 2022, 05:05:35 pm »
Okay, nice!

Follow up question on ink.  I would like to try something that is neither blue or black.  I was thinking along the lines of a dark charcoal; dark sepia brown; dark moss type colour.  Something that is nearing the darkness of black but not as harsh.

Montblanc racing green was a great dark colour but they discontinued it a few years ago. If you find any NOS its worth buying.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Wowbagger

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #112 on: 12 July, 2022, 08:16:15 pm »
My favourite ink - I suppose it must be my favourite as it's the one I use most - is an attractive green named Beethoven. This is manufactured by Diamine. I regularly fill my Pelikan with Beethoven.
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Woofage

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #113 on: 17 July, 2022, 09:24:56 pm »
Pelikan bodies are made from celluloid, which is a very old form of plastic.

Just the outer layer  ;). It starts off as a block of alternate coloured layers of celluloid which is then sliced vertically to make a striped sheet. This sheet is then cut to the correct size, formed into a tube and the barrel is insert-moulded around this. I've been lucky enough to have two tours of the Pelikan factory near Hanover so I've seen the process first hand.

Sadly, Pelikan has had difficulty in sourcing the celluloid material recently so the classic green, red and blue striped pens with the transparent ink window are now no more  :(.
Pen Pusher

Wowbagger

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #114 on: 18 July, 2022, 07:01:06 pm »
...

Sadly, Pelikan has had difficulty in sourcing the celluloid material recently so the classic green, red and blue striped pens with the transparent ink window are now no more  :(.

That's a great shame! I really like mine and write with it almost every day.
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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #115 on: 20 July, 2022, 07:20:36 am »

In another use, "resin" musical instruments can be very good indeed, compared to "plastic" ones.

The distinction is that an expenssive resin recorder will have been worked from a solid block, whereas a cheap plastic one, which my be OK for school use, will come pretty much shaped straight out of the mould. The price difference could be in the range of £20-30 for a Yamaha plastic, compared to about £400 for a Bernolin resin one.

I don't know if this distinction is applicable to fountain pens as well.

It does. Most of the pen makers I know hand-turn their pens from resin blanks.

Sam

I have an Irish flute (which I don't play anymore) with a mouthpiece turned from resin. It has rather a good sound and looks decent.

Back on subject; years ago I used to take notes using Rotring art pens. Main issue with these was that the cap clipped onto the body in such a way that it transferred ink. Wore out 2 of these.

Have a hankering to get a fountain pen for notes and dawdling again. Currently my desk has three nice wooden boxes; two of those boxes made for 'gift' pens, where the pen looks pretty but is awful to use (ballpoints with cheap refills). Third box is a classic school pencil box with sliding lid. Would feel guilty getting a fountain pen to use as well!

Wish I'd bought that rotring newton fountain pen back when they were affordable (before being sold off).

[edit] ok I feel old. Signatures of York have closed. Owners retired after 28 years. I remember when they opened their original shop!
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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #116 on: 20 July, 2022, 07:36:35 am »
[edit] ok I feel old. Signatures of York have closed. Owners retired after 28 years. I remember when they opened their original shop!

You and me both. That was a lovely shop with great staff.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #117 on: 20 July, 2022, 07:45:19 am »
[edit] ok I feel old. Signatures of York have closed. Owners retired after 28 years. I remember when they opened their original shop!

You and me both. That was a lovely shop with great staff.

My kids loved it. Being allowed to try out different pens, different inks. The couple who owned it delighted in having children who just enjoyed writing. Sorted out my son's writing issues (cramp, poor writing) by getting him a lamy safari. Amused the school, but they ceased complaining about him not writing and them being unable to read what he did write.


Quite taken by the idea of the collapsible mini pens, like the Ohto Tasche
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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #118 on: 07 September, 2022, 09:49:30 pm »
https://fountainpendesign.wordpress.com/

goes into great detail on fountain pen design and how they work.

rogerzilla

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #119 on: 15 September, 2022, 10:15:50 am »
What make of pen did KCIII have all that trouble with?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Bluebottle

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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #120 on: 18 September, 2022, 03:32:50 pm »
Possibly a Mont Blanc solitaire, apparently:

https://twitter.com/PurePens/status/1568562012979855360

But he's had so many pen related issues, who knows which ceremony this was.

Did see one person say, "Gotta love how the reddit fountain pen community has already identified Charles' leaky pen as a Mont Blanc, solidifying their reputation as royal pain in the ass pens"



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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #121 on: 03 April, 2023, 07:32:25 pm »
Have a Safari which works well (should possibly have gone XFine instead of fine), looking for a second pen which would be narrower so that it will fit in my retro filofax (because I am so 90s).
Any thoughts?

Also, how do I get ink from a jar into my pen without covering my hands and/or my pen in ink?
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Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #122 on: 03 April, 2023, 08:17:08 pm »
Narrow pens:

Lamy CP1

https://www.lamy.com/en/lamy-cp-1/

Hongdian Black Forest

Diplomat Traveller Fountain Pen

Muji aluminium fountain pen

Ohto Tasche

Cross Classic Century

Caran d’Ache 849

From t' interweb:

Quote
Having said that here's the most affordable thin pens I can think of:

Muji Aluminum

Jinhao Shark

Jinhao 35

Jinhao 911

Jinhao 51a

Platinum Preppy/Plaisir/Prefounte

Sheaffer VFM

Hero H610

Hongdian Forrest series (Black Forest, Light of Hope and some other colors available)

Majohn (Moonman) F9

Parker Vector

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #123 on: 03 April, 2023, 08:35:44 pm »
Refilling:

I presume a cartridge converter or piston filler, just a steady hand as you turn the screw with the nib dipped in the ink, ink will get on the "section", wipe off with a bit of tissue/cloth/rag (can be washed and reused).

Alternatively, use a syringe to transfer ink from the bottle to the cartridge converter.

Re: Fountain pens
« Reply #124 on: 04 April, 2023, 01:22:10 am »
Cheers for the comprehensive response.  Have you had luck with the Jinhao , they seem very readily available on eBay?  Also, do all the models take converters?  I looked up the Shaeffer VFM which apparently doesn't.
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