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Classic fountain pens

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Re: Classic fountain pens

#121

Post by trilobyte »

frereubu wrote: post #100
nunuvit wrote: post #2

For anyone with a budding or casual interest in fountain pens, the Lamy Safari is the way to go. They're plentiful, inexpensive, rugged, and have plenty of nibs, cartridges, and refillable cartridges to experiment with. Just pick your color and start using it to figure out what you value in a pen. Don't let the grip shape scare you off, you might like it more than you thought, but if not it won't ruin the value as an…

The problem I have with the Safari is that I don't write much and they dry out before I use them much. My Kaweco Sport lasts for ages, and I think it's to do with the fit of the screw top compared to the relatively loose clicking mechanism of the Safari cap.

I use a refillable cartridge on my pens and have dialed in about how much ink I should load at any given point in time based on my writing habits. It might help to play around with that.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#122

Post by quantgenius »

mcguire wrote: post #113
quantgenius wrote: post #50

This list is certainly not classic fountain pens. They are mostly machined pens made by small batch producers with generic nibs and two with somewhat "different" nibs I wouldn't normally suggest most people get. These are pretty good pens but not what I would get as a first pen. Here are the pens I would suggest you consider if you don't know a lot about fountain pens. If you are a fountain pen collector, I'm mostly…

I haven't been keeping up; does TWSBI still have quality problems with their plastic? The last I heard, there were a lot of reports of parts breaking. TWSBI was always good about replacing the parts, but I heard too many stories about someone's second or third replacement cap breaking.

I haven't had any trouble with TWSBI's bought in the last 2-3 years. Besides they have a crazy good lifetime warranty. I've had a pen stepped on, emailed them and told them so and they shipped a replacement barrel to me for shipping cost. Ditto a replacement wrench that I lost.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#123

Post by slowmovintarget »

jimmyjazz14 wrote: post #91
nunuvit wrote: post #2

For anyone with a budding or casual interest in fountain pens, the Lamy Safari is the way to go. They're plentiful, inexpensive, rugged, and have plenty of nibs, cartridges, and refillable cartridges to experiment with. Just pick your color and start using it to figure out what you value in a pen. Don't let the grip shape scare you off, you might like it more than you thought, but if not it won't ruin the value as an…

I have a number of fountain pens but the one I keep coming back to is the Pilot Kakuno, they are super cheap but they just feel so good in hand especially for sketching and drawing.

Pilot somehow pulls off miracles with their steel nibs. The Kakuno has the same nib as the Metropolitan or the Explorer, and they're great. Even better, the Kakuno can (just barely) fit the CON-70 converter for a nice big ink reservoir instead of the wee CON-40.

Granted, refilling cartridges with bottled ink and blunt syringes works really well, too.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#124

Post by thisisauserid »

I bought a Pilot Vanishing Point on a whim just assuming I'd love it. (No wait, it was after some HN thread around five years ago, I think.) Anyway, it's so amazing that I've never considered another fountain pen.

What am I missing?

Re: Classic fountain pens

#125

Post by noufalibrahim »

tristor wrote: post #84

I collect fountain pens (and other types of pens) and paper/stationary. I have been writing extensively by hand for many many years. While it is not my overall favorite, I think it's important for folks to know that from a writing quality and feel perspective that modern low-cost pens are actually /very/ good, and are the way to go. The Platinum Preppy is every bit as good as the majority of classic fountain pens, an…

Interesting. I don't collect but i do calligraphy and use a fountain pen as my main instrument. I use a noodlers Ahab primarily because of a flexible nib. I used a Waterman for a long time till sometime I lent it to dropped it. I also have a Lamy gifted to me it. It's good but i prefer a narrower nib.

I concur with your point about the ink. I used to use private reserve but recently shifted to Waterman and I'm happy. I prefer the colour of the later. Another important thing is the paper. It needs a bit of a bite that produces a scratchy sound. Also, older paper that's exposed to humid environments tend to bleed the ink causing bad writing.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#126

Post by bborud »

mpalczewski wrote: post #110
quantgenius wrote: post #50

This list is certainly not classic fountain pens. They are mostly machined pens made by small batch producers with generic nibs and two with somewhat "different" nibs I wouldn't normally suggest most people get. These are pretty good pens but not what I would get as a first pen. Here are the pens I would suggest you consider if you don't know a lot about fountain pens. If you are a fountain pen collector, I'm mostly…

I would not reccomend TWSBI for beginners, I find that the nibs are way to finicky. I needed to tune mine a bit before it wrote well. Pilot and Lamy are great out of the box.

Funny, I've had the opposite experience. That might be down to things like hand size, how you hold the pen etc.

I've had 3-4 Lamy pens and they have all ended up wither being given away or thrown in the bin because the nibs tend to be either dry or scratchy for me. I think I have only one regular Pilot pen and it works well for me. (I did try a flex nib Namiki Falcon, and that just didn't work at all for me. Namiki/Pilot are the same company, right?).

Re: Classic fountain pens

#127

Post by germyj »

MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #57

One thing that hasn't been mentioned so far. We've seen comments that "race to the bottom" (Lamy Safari, Pilot Preppy, ...), or that aim for "timeless classics" (basically any gold nib - Sailor 1911, Pilot Falcon, ~$150+ pens). There's a third way though. The "actual piece of history". In my opinion, no pen is better for this than a Parker 51. This for me is the embodiment (and a parent of) "the consumer fountain pen…

Seconding the 51! Excellent pen for the price.

If one doesn't mind jumping through a hoop or two regarding shipping, vintage Montblancs are just about as cheap from Japan as the 51 is in the US, and sometimes cheaper. The 12/14/32/220/etc are smaller than the flagship Meisterstucks, but they're also about 1/10 the price and really quite nice quality. Recently I've paid 30-50$ per pen to develop a little collection; the 220 was most expensive at 70$.

Piston fillers that are still going strong after decades, minimal maintenance, pleasant gold nibs.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#128

Post by ssnistfajen »

nimbius wrote: post #3

For those of us that arent raking in the FAANG dosh for a 3 figure pen, give TWSBI a try. theyre just as good. https://www.twsbi.com/

TWSBI leans towards the thicker side for me personally, but it's a great workhorse pen for anyone who uses fountain pens daily on real writing tasks. TWSBI Eco's ink reservoir size and ease-of-use is simply unrivalled among competitors in the same price range.

Re: Classic fountain pens

#129

Post by noufalibrahim »

bborud wrote: post #116
tristor wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true, the pen, ink, and paper work together to form a system. They all have some effect on all of the variables such as flow, ease of movement, drying time, etc. For the most part modern ink are better in every aspect compared to classic inks.

I'm not sure I understand the difference between modern and classic inks. Is there a definition somewhere? (I have 20-25 ink bottles of ink and by trial and error I've roughly figured out what ink works in what pen. I probably should know more about inks given that I write a lot, but I haven't made any systematic approach to figuring this out :-))

One data point i can contribute is calligraphic inks. Using normal fountain pen ink with a square nib dip pen will produce writing that will spread even when dry. The binding agent in the ink is designed for much smaller strokes.

Calligraphic ink (i use Windsor Newton) is quite different and forms something like a scale on the paper when dry holding everything in place. You can feel the texture of the writing when it's drym

Re: Classic fountain pens

#130

Post by quantgenius »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #118
quantgenius wrote: post #50

This list is certainly not classic fountain pens. They are mostly machined pens made by small batch producers with generic nibs and two with somewhat "different" nibs I wouldn't normally suggest most people get. These are pretty good pens but not what I would get as a first pen. Here are the pens I would suggest you consider if you don't know a lot about fountain pens. If you are a fountain pen collector, I'm mostly…

Regarding Noodler's Ink: Most of his popular inks are fairly consistent. Noodler's Ink Black being by far the most popular. For black inks I prefer Heart of Darkness. It is a deeper, richer black, though it isn't as well-behaved on bad paper. Noodler's Navy is also very good. (I have many bottles from this brand.) But if you want a safe-in-any-pen, just works, generally great ink, I'd have to recommend Pilot Blue-Bla…

While I love many Noodler's inks and have many bottles from him too, while this used to be the case, this hasn't been my experience recently. In my experience the inconsistency has if anything gotten worse recently. Worse, the bottle will sometimes contain ink that is different from the label.

I recently bought a bottle of Noodler's Navy to replace a bottle I actually emptied that was bought maybe 5-6 years ago. The ink inside the bottle was almost certainly Noodler's Aircorp Blue Black, which I also have.

In my experience, and based on anecdata from friends who also use fountain pens, Noodler's inconsistency and quality control issues have gotten MUCH worse in the past 2-3 years.

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