There’s a lack of photos on this thread….

I assume you don’t want chopsticks pix.

Porsche TecFlex It was bought as part of a payoff from house related finance out of nowhere. I have the match propelling pencil and rollerball bought by my ex. They are in “silver”/“gold” though.

Nice

Go on… Show us your chopsticks 😉

Thread bump!

This came last week, always wanted one and saw it at a decent price.

Nice and weighty, feels good to write and fiddle with, makes you hands smell of brass like the handrail on a pub bar! Can Chuck it in a bag with my keys and it won’t suffer. Nib is broad, I’m left handed and fine nibs get a bit scratchy at the angle I write at.

The suction filler holds about 1ml of ink, so cartridges are probably a better plan. The lid needs to be on the end to write with otherwise it’s too short, and it’s not brass/brass contact – there’s a nylon bush inside to give a nice sliding fit. I think the thread in the cap is nylon too though, so over tightening would strip it fairly easily.

👍

Sadly i just can’t use brass pens, i get a metallic taste in my mouth. Sad as i have a brass namisu i can’t use now

@bobsummers- what’s the weight like? I like a heavy pen. I recently picked up a stainless steel Lamy 2000 which is just lovely to write with, such a nice, balanced weighty thing to hold.

On paper it doesn’t seem heavy, 50grm iirc – balanced even with the cap posted, but you do notice the heft. It’s basically double my Twsbi Eco… Definitely try one if you can before buying.

I like the shape, I’ve never seen the plastic Sports but I’d like to try one too. Interested to see how the patina develops.

To feed my nasty pen habit, I bought a Schneider Easy on Monday. Only about £3.70 for a nice cheap pen that writes well.

Oops, bargain Lamy Al-star and various Diamine inks ordered from Cult Pens….

Just a wee update.

I mentioned these lamy safari knock-offs a while back.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pen-Similar-As-Lamy-Safari-Luxury-Fountain-EF-Nib-Dark-Matte-Ink-Classic-/373797436748?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

After trying nearly every kind of ink cartridge, and getting a lot of ink spilling out the pen, I decided to try the bundled piston reservoir.

I bought some Waterman ‘intense black’ ink (slippery slope?), and the pen has worked brilliantly. No ink seeping out.
Saying that, the manufacturers describe the nib as ‘EF’.
Comparing it with my lamy EF, I’d say the lamy copy is more ‘EEF’.

The build quality is as good as any lamy safari.

So, if you use bottled ink and good quality paper, then it might be worth a look.

As for the Pelikan ‘Twist’, I still find their ergonomics to be absolutely spot-on.
It’s just a shame that the barrel materials are so cheap that the cap doesn’t stay put.
I’ve remedied this by placing some stickers on the barrel.

Their rollerballs are great too. Biros were never designed for serious (student) note-taking. But Pelikans rollerball system seems to fill that niche.

Oooh, glad this thread popped up.

Last Christmas I got a nice fountain pen and some blue Diamine ink. Lovely thing it is too.

Problem being, the ink never “sets” and touching a note made months ago can still easily smudge it.

Is there a better ink I can drop hints for Santa to buy me for this Christmas?

@scruff9252 –  That’s strange. I use Diamine ink (bottle and cartridges) and once it’s dried it doesn’t come up unless I get the paper wet.

That is odd, i am using various diamine inks and they all dry fast. Am a lefty so would notice if it wasn’t.

Hmmm. How peculiar.

I’ve been using these notepads which I’ve slowly been working my way through since the start of lockdown.

I wonder if my note pad has the wrong type of paper? Rubbing my thumb over a note from March this year and it still smudges quite easily (I’m not a sweaty mess, honest!).

Yeah it’s probably the paper rather than the ink. It’ll be coated or something.

Get some Rhodia notepads.

Dry nib Sir?

I’ve got a Lamy AL Star that I really like with a “F” nib. With Lamy cartridges it works perfectly and doesn’t dry out. However, I’ve been using a Lamy converter (Z28) and Diamine bottled ink for a while now but it keeps drying out on me, sometimes after just an hour or so. Any ideas what the problem could be?

Don’t ask our King, he seems to have lots of issues with fountain pens.

Has it been that long since I looked at this thread? Actually hadn’t really thought about it, although I did buy a new pen a little while back, a clear Lamy, saw it in WHSmith, and realised that I had a black one from way back that I’ve mislaid, so bought it, and realised it’s actually a really nice thing to write with. I’ve got it with a little notebook that I write quotes and sayings in. I also came across a Parker that I bought many years ago, 70’s perhaps? Dunno, had it a long time, it was very dried up, so I soaked it in warm water to clean out all the dried ink and got some fresh cartridges and realised just how smooth it writes, just a really nice writing instrument, and not an expensive one by any means. Really glad I found it.

Do fountain pens help improve handwriting. My handwriting is normally a frantic scribbled mess, written in haste. I can produce decipherable handwriting but takes time and effort.

Would one force me to improve?

I think that’s a Parker Vector – many a child in the 80s would have had one (I did)

@jamiemcf

Definitely. A fountain pen will help improve your handwriting.
Compared to ballpoint and rollerball pens, the fountain pen requires very little pressure on the nib.

Though, in practice, it’s all about hitting the sweet spot between nib width and paper quality.

For little £, I’d recommend trying the ‘Flair’ brand for starters. There’s a lot of variation in nib widths, so a selection of their fountain pens is recommended.

Thanks. I may give one a go. Keep a ballpoint to hand for hastily scribbled notes while on the phone.

@ElShalimo a couple of things regarding the pen drying up. Sometimes with a new converter they benefit from being flushed through a few times with water. Eject current ink back in to the bottle and draw water in and out of the converter through the nib.
Additionally some inks are just prone to this, I find mont blanc Irish green or whatever it is called clogs up. You could mix to inks together to try.
You may well have tried these of course

Definitely. A fountain pen will help improve your handwriting.

How about if you’re left-handed?

@fossy

Dammit! You beat me to it! Heheh.

I got one of these at half-price:

Ergonomic School Fountain Pen – STABILO EASYbirdy – M Nib – Right Handed – Blue/Light Blue https://amzn.eu/d/hK3KoBo

Fantastic and comfy, but like most of these Stabilo brand ergonomic pens, the cap does not ‘post’ on to the end of the pen whilst writing.

I prefer the counterbalance of the cap at the opposite end of the nib.
I’m sure that late Stranglers keyboard player, Dave Greenfield commented on how awkward it was to play without wearing rings on his fingers. It just didn’t feel right.

A fountain pen won’t help improve your spelling.

Ooooe!

I think that’s a Parker Vector – many a child in the 80s would have had one (I did)

You’re probably right about it being a Vector, I wasn’t a child in the 80’s, though; 50’s and 60’s, yes! 😁

It’s a nice, simple pen, but it writes really nicely. The Lamy Safari just wouldn’t go, though, so I’ve put a new cartridge in. I did a bit of a search on the subject, it seems the ink used in Lamy cartridges is a bit ‘dry’, so if left for a while it thickens up and clogs the pen. Another search has led me to cheap sets of syringes with blunt needles, so it’s perfectly possible to clean out the pen and a dry cartridge, then refill it with different ink, so I’m going to get some syringes and try Waterman ink, it’s thinner so hopefully the pen will survive longer periods unused. Also an opportunity to try some different ink without buying lots of packets of cartridges. A set of syringes and needles is only £3, and I’ve already got the bottle of ink, so a cheap way of keeping it going.

I do like the Safari, the bevelled end is a great help for keeping the nib at the right angle.

It seems that the Vector is still available, Amazon do it for £9.94, so a nice cheap option for anyone thinking about trying a fountain pen. Mine has to be over forty years old, and worked perfectly with a fresh cartridge fitted.

Parker do an updated version, the Vextor XL, slightly bigger barrel, in a frosted translucent plastic – personally, it doesn’t look as classy as the original, which easily looks to be worth twice the price.

Seems there’s a stainless steel version too, but I’m happy with mine, I might get another, just in case, like…

Here’s the Vector XL…

https://www.parkerpen.com/vector-xl-pens.html

Update on refilling cartridges with bottled ink – it works really well! The syringes have needles several centimetres long, so dead easy to suck up ink, and it takes seconds to refill a cartridge, so considering how much a pack of cartridges cost a much cheaper option. The Lamy does seem to be easier to get started if it hasn’t been used for a while, plus it gives access to a much wider range of different coloured inks as well; keeping a few empty cartridges handy to refill when needed with the ink colour du jour.

tomorrow is Fountain Pen Day !!

who knew?

https://www.fountainpenday.com/

As per a number of other people, I recognised my handwriting going down the tube after a lot of typing, and rather carelessly getting into bad habits with scribbling stuff with ballpoints and rollerballs. Then I came across my old school fountain pen, a Parker something that I’d have been given as a teenager, around the mid 1970s. A bit of work with some warm water to flush the old, dried-up ink out of it, and it’s a pleasure to write with again. Am only using Quink, but even with just that, it makes you want to take a bit of time when making notes in meetings etc.

Not sure what model it is, but it’s doing the job for me at the moment.
(Sorry about the blue-ish colour cast on the photo, the sunlight had gone for the afternoon by the time I took it)

i bought a Lamy a few weeks ago as a result of this forum, mostly for the doing the crosswords. And also some weird coloured inks just because… What a strange path an MTB mag has taken me down.

who knew?

Well, not me, certainly!
I know I don’t write often enough, but I don’t really have much to write about. Birthday and Christmas cards are the things I write most often, and shopping lists, just to fix things in my mind; if I don’t write them down, even if I don’t check the list, it sort of fixes things in my mind.

My Montblanc Slimline.
This was given to me by a friend for being his best man when he got married in 1983.

Just to answer Cougars question, yes, I think its improved my left handed scrawl as I find they glide easier over the paper as I’m in effect pushing the nib into the paper as a lefty, rather than dragging it as I would right handed.

Just never let anyone else use your fountain pen though as the nibs tend to aquire a bit of ‘memory’ to them (basically bend slightly to fit you).

TWSBI Ecos are a decent (reasonably) affordable one if you want a piston filler.

Holy thread resurrection Batman:

I’ve got a Lamy AL Star fine nib and it keeps drying out. I’m using diamine ink in a pukka Lamy converter but it also dries out with genuine Lamy cartridges at times. I think the nib is the issue.

Is the Medium nib more user friendly and less prone to blocking?

EDIT: I asked this question a year ago but alas the F nib seems to be the issue

I only use medium nibs on my lamy now. Partly for the reason you gave but also because they feel smoother