The Fountain Pen Thread

Actually for a pen your right in the money for a great pen qith everything you want and very few compromises entry level to serious pens but premium pens non the less give me a few moments to put out some options for you to see what your tastes are like

 

Oh boy! We need a popcorn munching smiley!

 

Was thinking more along the lines of a rum swilling smiley!

 

the Pilot Custom Heritage 92, this is my absolute favorite everyday pen, it is very well built, has a gold nib available in the standard fine, medium and broad sizes, keeping in mind that Japanese nib sizes run about a size smaller then the german or north american counter parts I use a medium which is more of a fat fine by our standards, with a north american retail of 220 it seems out of line, but from a Japanese dealer you can grab this at around 125.00, there is a few guys on ebay with stores and BINs on this I have dealt with Pisuke2005 has them. Their cool feature is having a large piston, you turn the end cap that raises and lowers a piston inside the body to put ink in the pen. It also fully disassembles for very easy cleaning. the nib does offer character in its writing, but no calligraphy with this guy it wont give that huge of a variation.



Edison pens are made by an american craftsman (like our knife guys here), we at B&B have a long history of making our LE yearly pens with him and they are always a great pen (We are very close to one so you may wish to wait to hear more about that before you do anything), most of the retail offerings are around 150.00 bucks, with a steel nib, but they are amazingly smooth and nice steel nibs. The retail pens are simple cartridge converter pens, meaning they use disposable cartridges of ink, or a converter that can be inserted to use with bottled ink, although it doesnt have the larger ink capacity of the Pilot, there are more then a few body choices and colours available, Gouletpens has quite a few to look at. But Edison also does custom work to order, and you can have many body shape, and material options, as well as different filling mechanisms available direct through his site (edison pens), but like I said hold out till the LE comes out as it always offers great value.

 

Sailor has a legendary reputation for amazing nibs, you can get a regular 1911 (round bullet ends) or professional gear (Flat ends as seen above) again gold nibs and trim, their attention to detail in a very understated package is a great offering, the Japanese dealers are the way to go here as well, Pen uses a cart converter option but just outside of your budget for a few dollars more you can get what sailor calls the realo, which is a piston filling pen. Platinum is another pen to look at that will follow the looks and feels of the Pilots and Sailors as well

 

if you can let me know what kind of body style you are after, we can narrow down what you would begin to look at, you know, if you were going to buy lol

but we can update you on a special pen that may or may not exist shortly

 

Theres lots of others but its a good place to start with gauging your tastes, and any of them would be great pens to own anyway

 

I've been wondering about reputable places to buy pens (Sailor has my interest, currently, but the Edisons look really nice, too...).

Also, how is ebay for vintage pens? I always worry that everything I there is a knock off.

 

Fpr new japanese pens Engieka is the cheapest and fastest for me.. but his pilot selection comes and disappears, I dont know why

Pisuke, kendo karate are good sellers for store and bin on ebay

 

Ebay fpr vintage, well you had better have a good eye and hope they took pictures of the stuff you need to see, but its always a crap shoot. Ive only been burned once though. Pen shows are your best bet for that stuff , random finds at antique stores are the next

 

Or Richard's monthly pen tray. Or Penguin Pens.

 

Expensive prices though

 

You'd think James was a high school girl in an air force town the way he fawns over Pilots. What you need is a vintage Sheaffer, I got those in spades. Before he pipes up again, I feel obligated to remind him who got him off the cheapo Chinese pens way back when he didn't know how to write a cursive "Z". Now then, about those bulldogs you was talking about?

 

Jason sent me a vintage wearever and a bag (yes a bag) of noodlers army green lol

 

I think past performance evidence is leaning towards you being responsible for the bag o' green. You should be thankful that I had the mistrust of the Canadian Post to pack it in a Ziplock bag.

 

I like my Pelikans but I would feel lost without my Pilot Vanishing Point in my pocket while at work.

I used to really like vintage Sheaffers now I want them gone. Too many Touchdowns wear out too quickly after repairs.

 

I could send you my address.

 

I'm down to two I'd part with... Just hasn't gotten around to trying to sell/PIF them. One is an Imperial with the diamond triumph nib (Imperial IV?) that leaks and the other is a post war pre-touchdown Sovereign in red celluloid. I'm hanging onto Grandmother's Sovereign.

 

Just found a Sailor 1911 for $70 beig sold by Engeika. What do you all think?

 

snap it up !!!