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Fingers Were Meant to be Inky

/ / Babble, Conspiracy, Fountain Pens / 6 Comments

My White Whale and the Dark Deception It Uncovered

Some Things Are Way Harder Than They Should Be

Moby Dick: The great, white whale who for so long eluded and tormented Captain Ahab, invading his dreams, becoming the subject of his infamous obsession, and eventually leading to his demise. We all have one, don’t we? That one thing that’s always on our mind…that just eats at us night and day until we capture it, defeat it, or figure it out.

For some in the fountain pen world, the white whale is a rare pen model, color, or date of manufacture (or a combination of all three). For me, it’s about 1/100 of a penny’s worth of plastic: a simple … Read More

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Yiren 860 Fountain Pen Review

Yiren 860 Fountain Pen, uncapped

Next up in my “Cheap Inexpensive Chinese Fountain Pens” series, another winner from one of my favorite Chinese brands…

Yiren 860 Fountain Pen

Price: $7.00
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Standard International Converter (& Cartridges)

About the Pen:

I’m a really big fan of gunmetal-colored pens. It’s just classy, you know? Eye-catching. I often peruse eBay in search of cool-looking pens that won’t break the bank. Quite often, I find interesting Chinese pens for under $10. I’ve purchased and used a number of them, and I’m always happy when I find new designs that I haven’t seen before. I stumbled on an auction for this beautiful little Yiren 860, and immediately fell in love with the gunmetal and gold colors.

Given the terrific success I had with another Yiren pen, I pounced on the 860 like a rat on a Cheeto. And I’m not sorry about it, either…. Read More

/ / Babble, Commentary, Fountain Pens, Ink / 2 Comments

If I … Could Save Slime … In a Bottle …

Classic example of SITB (Slime in the Bottle) with a sample of Private Reserve Ink

After I got into the hobby of collecting fountain pens, I (of course) started sampling all kinds of ink to go with them. After ordering like two batches of samples, I started reading these horror stories about a condition called SITB, or Slime (or stuff or s#$t) in the Bottle happening with a brand of ink called Private Reserve (PR). There were a few reports of it happening with other brands, but PR seemed to be responsible for the bulk of these reports.

After hearing about this issue, I decided to just avoid the brand, although I still had a few samples that I bought before hearing about it.

Fast-forward to tonight. I wanted my eight-year-old son to practice his penmanship, so I brought out his Kakuno and asked him what color ink he wanted. He chose dark red, so I grabbed my sample of Private Reserve Black Cherry and a syringe and went to fill it up.

I had trouble sucking up the ink in the syringe, and I was thinking “what the heck is going on?” I pulled the syringe out of the sample bottle and found a semi-solid wad of ick crammed into the needle.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that tonight was my first and last experience with Private Reserve. Gross.

Have any of you experienced SITB with PR or any other brand? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Duke 116 Fountain Pen Review

Duke 116 Fountain Pen, Capped

Straight from the “Well, it’s not quite as inexpensive as my other Chinese Fountain Pens” files, I present the Chinese, yet somehow also German…

Duke 116 Fountain Pen

Price: $18.00
Nib: Medium
Filling System: Screw-Type Piston Converter

About the Pen:

Despite their relatively inexpensive prices and questionable quality standards, Chinese fountain pens offer some of the nicest and most interesting designs out there. I find that taking a chance on various Chinese pens is kind of an adventure. You never really know what you’re going to get. Some are stinkers, others are studs. The Duke 116 is closer to stud than stinker, although there are some aspects of the pen I’m not very fond of. And if I do say, the pen is quite a looker.

Duke 116 Fountain Pen, Uncapped

About the Company

Duke is the “street name” for the Shanghai G-Crown Fountain Pen Company, which is a Chinese company based in…you guessed it…Shanghai. The weird thing is that they also go by German Duke Lux Pen GmbH, suggesting that they’re a German company. GmbH indicates that the company is registered in Germany as a Limited Liability company. Soooooo…is it a Chinese company or German?… Read More

/ / Fountain Pens, Reviews / 12 Comments

Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen Review

Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen, retracted

The short version of this review: Oh my God! For a slightly longer version, keep reading…

Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen

Price: $140.00
Nib: Extra Fine (Oh my, yes!)
Filling System: Pilot converters & cartridges

About the Pen:

Around 1964, Pilot introduced a high-tech and remarkable writing instrument: a fully retractable fountain pen they called the Capless. Over the next 60 years, they’ve made a number of refinements and design changes, such as changing the original twist-to-retract mechanism to the pushbutton style we see today.

A note about the “Vanishing Point” and “Capless” names: The official name of this pen has gone back and forth a number of times (as has the brand name between Pilot and Namiki). I believe it is still called the Capless in many parts of the world, but it’s marketed as the Vanishing Point in the US.

The current incarnation of the Vanishing Point is as technologically advanced as it is elegant.

Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen, close-up image of the pen's Nose & Clip
… Read More

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Quick Nib & Ink Comparison #1

Comparison of some fountain pen nib writing samples to compare line width and inks

I just finished up two reviews and have three more pens inked up for the next round, so I have a pile of pens around me ready to write. I figured I’d capture writing samples from each of them for a quick comparison of nib grades and inks.

The first four samples are all from “Extra Fine” nibs. I use the quotes because it’s very, very clear that different companies have different ideas of what the grades mean.

The last two samples are from Chinese pens. The nibs aren’t marked, but I generally expect Medium grades from these. Of course, the concept of “Medium” varies wildly among Chinese pens, so take that for what it’s worth. Both the Duke and Yiren pens write a finer line than my Jinhaos. Whether this puts them into the Fine/Medium category or just the Medium category probably depends on your own definition. For me, I put both squarely in the “True Medium” column.

So after comparing these samples, I have a few thoughts on the matter:

  1. Yes, it’s true: Japanese pens are finer than their Western counterparts of the same grade. The Lamy 2000 EF (German) is much broader than the Pilot VP EF (Japanese). The TWSBI Diamond 580AL EF (Taiwanese) falls somewhere in between. I expected the Pilot to be comparable to the TWSBI, but it’s about half as broad as that. I’d almost call the Pilot EF closer to Ultra Extra Fine…but I’ll reserve judgement on that until my Platinum “official” UEF comes in, and I can see how it compares to the Pilot.
  2. The Goulet EF nib (made by JoWo, a German company) is even broader than the Lamy 2000 EF. It seems to be slightly finer than the Duke and Yiren pens, though, so I’d probably classify the Goulet EF as Fine/Medium.
  3. What does the term “EF” even mean? I’ve got four EF samples here, and they’re all vastly different. The difference among them is striking. I recently tried a Visconti EF DreamTouch nib…and that was easily the broadest EF (or F for that matter) nib I’ve ever written with. What gives?
  4. Chinese fountain pens are a real adventure. Their QC is up and down, and you never really know what to expect from their pens (I’ve tried three Jinhao pens so far, and haven’t had the best of results from them…I have to wonder what everyone else likes about them). So far, this Duke and Yiren both seem like really nice, consistent writers. And they’re both beautiful pens, too.
  5. Yiren is the Chinese Bigfoot! How cool is that? I have no idea if the pen is named after that creature, but it makes me smile to think that it is.

So what are your thoughts? Are the nibs on your pens just as “all over the place” with regard to line weight, or has you’re experience been more consistent?

/ / Fountain Pens, Reviews / 14 Comments

Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen Review

Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen in black Makrolon with an EF nib

In my first review of a gold-nibbed pen, I present the beautiful yet slightly frustrating…

Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen

Price: $160.00
Nib: Extra Fine
Filling System: Piston Filler

About the Pen:

So after the saga of the Grail Pen that Wasn’t, I decided to tone it down just a bit and take a stroll down Entry Level of High End Boulevard. Up to now, the majority of my pens have been in the sub-$20 range, with a handful of mid-range pens (about $40-$80) peppered in for an extra dose of shiny bits. Buying a Visconti Homo Sapiens was a thrilling, disappointing, and eye-opening event for me. It was a beautiful pen…oh yes, it was (Lava! It was made from freaking Lava!). But it didn’t work out for me as a useful writer and it was WAAAAY too expensive to be just a showpiece. So I traded it in for three (count ’em THREE) pens that are considered among the first tier of the high-end fountain pens. The first one I’m going to review is this luscious little polycarbonate wonder: the Lamy 2000 (look for reviews for the Pilot Custom 74 and Vanishing Point in the near future).

I was kind of surprised. I had every intention of tearing into the Vanishing Point first, but once I picked up the Lamy, I just couldn’t put it down. So sit down, strap in, grab yourself (insert Beavis joke here) a mug of tea, and read on to find out how good it really is…. Read More

/ / Fountain Pens, Reviews / 3 Comments

Dikawen 821 Fountain Pen Review

Dikawen 821 Fountain Pen, Uncapped

Next up in my “Inexpensive Chinese Fountain Pens” series, I present to you…

The Dikawen 821 Fountain Pen

Price: $9.50
Nib: Medium/Broad
Filling System: Screw-Type Piston Converter & Standard International Cartridges

About the Pen:

It’s no secret that I love Chinese fountain pens. They’re typically inexpensive and they offer some really fantastic designs. Sure, some of them flat-out suck, but I enjoy the adventure of trying them out and finding the gems amid the duds.

I was drawn to to the Dikawen 821 by two things:

  • I just loved the juxtaposition of the dark, marbled wine-colored barrel against the milky-white color of the cap. I’ve seen plenty of silver-capped and gold-capped fountain pens, but I’ve never noticed a white-capped one before. I thought it looked classy in the pictures.
  • The second thing this pen had going for it was that it was made by Dikawen. I recently reviewed the Dikawen 839, and absolutely loved it. If the 821 were to look as good as it did in pictures AND write as well as the 839, buying one was a no-brainer.

… Read More

/ / Fountain Pens, Reviews / 4 Comments

Baoer 100 Fountain Pen Review

Baoer 100 Fountain Pen - Capped

As I go tiptoeing through the Chinese fountain pen tulips, I have discovered a true gem…

Baoer 100 Fountain Pen

Price: $4.00
Nib: Fine / Extra Fine
Filling System: Screw-Type Piston Converter & Standard International Cartridges

About the Pen:

I’ll admit, I had some pretty low hopes for this pen. I found it on eBay for just under $4 (including shipping from China). I was lured in by the crazy shape of the nib housing. It’s a hooded nib labeled as a cayman (and another vendor called it a “shark mouth”) design. And it does resemble a mouth…probably closer to a shark than a cayman, but whatever.

In the picture, the pen looked a little ugly, but the section’s “mouth” shape looked cool, so I bought one. It took like 47 weeks to get here (that’s an exaggeration), and the first thing I thought was that the pen looked a whole lot nicer in person than I had expected. It’s a fairly small pen, but very classy and understated looking. I immediately loved the way it looked.

But the biggest surprise was the way it wrote…. Read More

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Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Review (A Frankenpen Special)

Monteverde Invincia Fountain Pen with a Goulet EF NIb

This is a Frankenpen special review for a modified…

Monteverde Invincia Deluxe Fountain Pen

Price: $80.00 + $15 for the nib
Nib: Goulet EF
Filling System: Screw-Type Piston Converter & Standard International Cartridges

About the Pen:

The Invincia was one of the first pens I purchased, and until recently, was the most expensive pen in my collection. When it arrived, I was pretty much blown away by the way it looks. It’s a beautiful pen. All the hardware has a shiny black finish, and the stub nib was black to match. Classy! I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Unfortunately, the pen didn’t write nearly as well as it looked. I think it was a matter of the feed not being able to keep up with the ink demands of the stub nib. It just kept drying up, requiring me to prime the feed (i.e., forcing ink into the feed using the converter)…. Read More