Inspired by /r/fountainpens, a place to discuss pens, writing, ink, paper, and whatever else makes your pen flourish.
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Broad nib and Diamine Communication Breakdown ink. It’s my only Sailor pen. I wish I could write something smart about it but it just writes! The engraving on the nib is a bottle of sake together with a cup and three sakura petals falling into the cup.
So I ordered a box of Green Vert Amazone cartridges from Jaques Herbin inks a little bit ago, just cracked the box and the first cartridge I pulled out was purple! I didn't expect that, and the rest of the cartridges appear to be the green I ordered. I have to wonder how often that happens.
I tend to gravitate to cheaper pens including a lot of Chinese-manufactured versions of more famous pens (clones / knockoffs), and thought it might be interesting to post some of them?
This one is one of my favorites: the Wing Sung 601. This pen comes in a variety of different plastic-body colors, which are also great - I have a burgundy version of this pen which works beautifully. The style and hooded nib are clearly an "homage" (read:clone) to the Parker 51. The history between Parker and Wing Sung is interesting and complex, and has been described in detail elsewhere with respect to Hero (which owns Wing Sung.
There is a great review of this pen at The Gentleman Stationer. The version that I have is a "Flighter" all steel body (around $25 on eBay, a bit more expensive than the plastic body version but not by too much).
The pen's big highlight is the vacumatic filling system, which works beautifully. The body of the pen acts as the reservoir allowing it to hold a ton of ink for a pen this small. I find that the pen writes very well and is tremendously reliable - never a hard start, and the construction of the pen and hooded nib have meant that there are no problems whatsoever with drying out. I've picked this pen up after a few months of no use and it writes immediately. The steel body adds a little heft, which I like, and the pen is extremely durable. The hooded nib also makes for a good "stealth FP" experience, if you're in a setting where you don't want to draw too much attention to the pen.
All in all, it's a great pickup for not a huge amount of cash, and has found it's way into heavy rotation for me.
As I said in the post title, I bought this as a self reward. It was between this and a Waterman Carene L’Essence de Bleu, but I ultimately settled on this. Haven’t even inked it yet - wish me luck!!
Figured I'd make my first post here with my newest pen. This was a little gift to myself for 49 successful orbits of the sun. A polished Gravitas Skittle Paisley. I've wanted this one from the first time I saw it.
Sláinte.
Designed and 3D printed by me to fit an Ikea Alex drawer unit, my pens and Diamine inks.
I got some TWSBI Swipes to play with and I am really pleased with them. I have some beaten up Lamy Safaris that have probably seen better days and I love my Vac 700R so I thought I would try them out, and take the opportunity to offer a little bit of content. I hadn't realised the community had moved!
A gift from my wife. A La Grande or 146 with an oblique broad nib.
Just finished cleaning up my latest addition from eBay, a circa-1920 Waterman's Ideal 452 1/2V.
Hard black rubber with a sterling silver overlay. It has a fine nib with a little flex and a nice bit of bounce. It's a miniature pen at just under 4 inches long, but feels nicely balanced when posted and is a lovely writer.
I've replaced the ink sac and given it a good clean and polish, but it's in great condition and didn't need much more than that.
Suggestions for inks are very welcome!
Hi all, I picked up a Parker 45 at an antiques store last year and wondering if anybody has ideas about the era / any other distinguishing features.
I am guessing it's pre-1970s because it has the inverted conical clip screw: image. It's unclear to me, though, if they made these sorts of steel cap / gold clip / plastic body hybrids (e.g. as a variant of the 45 Classic), or if I bought a franken45 with a flighter cap.
In any case, I don't really care because the pen works great! Medium nib, smooth as butter, and I like how it looks. But this is my first vintage pen foray and I'd be interested to know more about it's history!
More images here if helpful (edit:figured out how to get them to display in line!)
