With a fine steel nib.

Hi,

I noticed that the sole mod of this community seems to be an inactive account.

Although this community is very civilised, I wonder if a) there should be another mod from an active account, or b) we have the power to add a mod.

Salutations, squawkers and waddlers. I haven't done one of these in a while.

The reason for that is, well, boring old pragmatism. I like fountain pens, and I have a handful of them, but due to the majority of my work being digital by nature one way or the other I don't write a whole heck of a lot down on a daily basis anymore. I do a little, and because of it having a pen around is still essential. Obviously I prefer to use a fountain pen. But I don't write enough when all is said and done to justify having more than one fountain pen inked up at a time. I know how some of you do, but an ink fill for me can easily last a couple of months. If I kept multiple pens inked up I'd never get anything done in between all the time I'd spend unclogging and cleaning them out.

Therefore my pen rotation schedule is pretty slow. Lately I've been using this:

This is a Majohn A2 Press, and yes, it's that pen. You know the one.

The A2 is, let's call it... inspired by the Pilot Vanishing point to a significant degree. So much so that parts between the two are actually interchangeable.

The A2's a damn sight cheaper, though, and has several construction differences starting with a plastic body (in this variant, anyway; they make a metal one now) with a faceted look. The facets do in my opinion give it a very subtle Art Deco/1920's sort of vibe but it's understated, not totally in your face like so many things are these days that are trying hard to evoke whatever bygone era.

The A2 is, of course, retractable. No cap. You press the long plunger on the end like a regular ballpoint clicker pen and the point retracts into the body, with a little trap door closing behind it to keep it from drying out. Because of this the A2 is just as long "posted" as it is put away, minus the length of the point itself. That's about 5-1/2" in total when retracted. You can neither make it any shorter nor any longer.

The A2 is a fairly fat pen by the standards of my preference, but it's not as fat as any of the turned wood or trendy brass models I seem to see on display these days. The thickest point is at the silver band in the midsection where it unscrews, and it measures 12.33mm or 0.485" at that point. So strangely enough, that means it is a few thou thinner than an OG Vanishing Point, which is: 13.38mm or 0.526". It's slight, but enough to be noticeable.

I prefer a slim pen, and preferably one with a straight body, and the A2 is neither. The whole thing is tapered down at both ends like a very emaciated football. This carries on all the way down to where you grip it to write, which I found a trifle disconcerting at first (and the Vanishing Point is exactly the same way). You get used to it. Right along with getting used to the pocket clip being on the "wrong" end of the pen, up by the point rather than at the tail, and totally immobile. This is presumably a hedge against leakage since the pen'll always be pocketed with the tip up in this configuration.

The elephant in the room? What elephant? Oh, yeah. That elephant.

Apropos of nothing, you can get an entire replacement mechanical assembly for the A2 for about $19 online. The point and nib assembly, metal cap for behind the cartridge, a little cleaner bulb, a spare converter, the works. This enables the possibility of committing violence to your A2's nib that you would never in a million years consider inflicting on your Vanishing Point, and clicking undo on that if you fuck it up will cost you less than a single Jackson.

The problem, you see, is that the Majohn is one of those newfangled Asian pens whose maker assumes the sum total of your desire in life is to have the thinnest and sharpest needle point on your fountain pen in the history of the universe, and to hell with all other considerations. The A2 comes in "fine," which is extraordinarily fine, and "extra fine," which is so sharp as to be practically useless. At least by my standards. I understand this sort of thing is very popular in hemispheres where people write tiny in pictoglyphs and need to cram them into little boxes on forms, or something. But that's not what I do. I prefer an italic or, even better, an oblique nib. There's no sense in being anachronistic if when you hand someone a written page they can't immediately tell. Where's the fun in that?

So I took a whetsone and I hacked a spare A2 nib assembly into the widest oblique point I could manage before I started to destroy the plastic feed and nib support. The net result is 1.3mm and, well, I prefer even a little wider. But it'll do.

Mine is therefore probably the only A2 Press in the world that'll put down this.

My A2 is now a pretty wet writer (evidenced by the feathering on the cheap copy paper I just doodled that on) but kicks out a line approximately a zillion times bolder than it did when it was stock. The stainless steel nib the A2 comes with is pretty thick vertically at the root, which I had to cut into to accomplish this. So there isn't a ton of line width variation between horizontal and vertical strokes, but there is some and I'll take what I can get.

I currently have it loaded with some Diamine Shimmering Seas, which is one of their "shimmer" inks that's supposed to present a metallic sheen. It works best in a broad pointed pen, so it does pretty okay out of this one. The effect is pretty tough to photograph.

The above comparison is inescapable every time the topic comes up. Yes, I do own a genuine Pilot Vanishing Point and no, I generally don't leave the house with it. The Pilot has a lacquered brass body and is significantly heavier than the Majohn, has a nice soft and refined click, and generally feels more premium overall. As you'd bloody well expect it to, for what it costs. It's a very fine pen (both in terms of construction and line width) and while Pilot does make a "stub" nib for it, the widest and only size you can get is a poxy 1.0mm, and a replacement unit is north of $100. That is, just for the nib assembly.

So for daily use I'll stick to my hacked up clone, thanks.

A tiny brass pocket pen.

Push cap, takes international short cartridges. Patinas with age. This one is about a month old.

P.S. Post a pen from your collection! Let's get this community going!

Was quite impressed with this pocket pen.

All metal body, good clip, smooth steel nib, converter included. All for about £15.

1 and a quarter turn twist cap.

Farting cat finial.

Arguably competing with Kaweco AL sport IMHO.

I finally completed my collection of all six colorways of the Asvine V126 fountain pen. All of them have Asvine medium nibs, and I've been delighted with how well all of them feel in the hand and lay down ink. I'm also mighty happy with the inks that I've paired them with, although the shimmer in the Heart of Gold means that I need to spend more time on maintenance than the others.

Brand new Pelikan Twist came with multiple scratches at the top of the barrel. One on each side. All about the same length as the one in the photo except for one that goes under the sticker (not counting the mould line on that side).

Kinda feels a bit 1st world problems but I'm poor and this is the only Pelikan I will ever (short of winning lotto and getting incredibly lucky) get to own and feels disappointing to get a brand new pen that's already scratched.

Is the cartridge coming with Preppy really too short to reach the back of the barrel? Never seen that in a fountain pen and looks unnecessarily risky design. I am wondering if the vendor sent me the wrong cartridge.

I am about to buy a Platinum Plaisir, Lamy Al-Star, or a TWISBI Eco (or possibly all of them) but I can't decide which nibs. Even physical shops around here don't have inked pens to try. Problem is different makers and countries describe nibs differently, eg with Japanese F often being like European EF apparently.

Any tips? I hate scratchiness and like some stroke variation, but I generally prefer finer nibs usually on cheap paper. If that means anything, my Muji pen is about right but a liitle too scratchy. My old Pilot F is excellent.

Hello folks!

I'm still rather in the "shallows" as of yet, I have a handful of pens (Lamy, Platinum Preppy, Donegal Pens) and only a couple of bottles of ink (I rather like Noodler's 54th Mass.). One of the areas in the hobby that I'm least knowledgeable in is paper. So, I'm hoping that you folks have some recommendations, both for myself and my sibling who is a bit of a fountain pen enthusiast but has sensory sensitivities.

What are you favorite papers, both loose leaf and bound, for texture, color, and any other properties? Preferably, nothing too bright/with fluorescent pigment.

Bonus question: I really like muted colors (desaturated in digital-speak but I think that doesn't write mean the same with inks). Any suggestions for good inks on that category?

Sailor Shikiori Sansui – Yutsubame

Has a reddish coral shade. The great thing for me about this ink is that shading is visible using the fine nib, and if lucky, there's also shading using extra fine nib.

I'm new to the fountain pen hobby and I fell in love with shading inks. My goal probably while doing this is finding shading in for Fine and Extra Fine nibs (my handwriting gets uglier with wider nibs).

Don't they look similar?

The Sailor writes so much nicer.

I hope somebody can help. I received my Kakimori brass nib today and the experience is horrible. It wrote okayish for about 10 lines but stopped since then. The only way to make the ink flow is to keep it more then 45 degrees angled or pretty much flat.

I cleaned it with a toothbrush multiple times and dipped it in ink a lot. I colored two A5 pages to get the ink going but it didn't help.

Do you guys know something I can do to make this nib work normally? I assume it should be able to write in an angle the same as regular pens?

Ferris Wheel Press – the Carousel in Fine (0,7, which should coubt as a medium), with J Herbin scented Bleu plénitude ink.

My Pelikan 4001 Blau Schwarz bottle ran out so I bought a bottle of Parker Quink Blue Black. I don't think I like it as much, it feathers and bleeds much more and the colour is not as dark. It's not a bad ink but I've got 57ml of it to go haha. The Pelikan ink is just terrific in my opinion. It is very well behaved and shades beautifully from light blue in the lines to a deep dark blue in the shades. It even smells like some kind of inky soy sauce. As you can tell I'm slightly in love with it so I'll miss it.

From left to right:

• TWSBI Diamond Mini Classic 1.1mm stub nib
• Pelikan 140 M(?) nib
• Unknown Kondor pen
• Lamy CP1 F nib
• Lamy joy 1.5mm stub nib

The TWSBI is the only pen in this collection that I actually bought. The rest came into my possession through family and as such are mostly older pens.

The Pelikan 140 is by far the oldest and my current favorite alongside the TWSBI. From what I've been able to find, this one was manufactured somewhere between 1955-1963. It is also the only pen in my collection with an actual gold nib.

The Kondor, just like the TWSBI and Pelikan is a piston filler and has a in my opinion strangely shaped nib. It is slightly scratchy unfortunately.

The Lamy CP1 is the pen that I used the longest out of all of these and was my daily driver during my later school years. Back then I had an M nib on it which I later switched for an F. Despite it being a beatufil sleek pen, I rarely use it anymore since the grip section tends to accumulate some ink near the front. This combined with my very close grib means that I always get ink on my fingers when writing with it. I am not sure if this is a defect of my specific pen or is something that has been fixed in newer models as this pen is apparently also quite old, based on the "Made in W. Germany" inscription under the clip. This pen also tends to be kind of unwieldy when used with the cap posted, as the cap is made of a much heavier metal than the rest of the pen, making it unbalanced.

The Lamy joy is a pen I briefly tried but found to have a much too thick nib for my daily use. Compared to the TWSBI it is also kind of scratchy.

I brought a TWSBI Go with a fine nib a while ago.

From day two it had issues with the feed drying up extremely quickly when using Diamine Scribble Purple ink.

It dried out slightly slower when using Lamy black ink but for some reason it would fling out drops of ink when uncapped or jostled (so much fun finding random ink blobs on your dark mouse mat).

Tried flushing the pen with water, taking the nib out and cleaning it with soapy water to no effect.

I was about to return the pen but I found a random post that suggested flushing the entire pen with soapy water and cleaning the nibs slit would fix the issue.

Seeing as I had nothing to loose and doing so wouldn't damage the pen I gave it a try. I ended up using some cotton sewing thread to clean the slit as that was all I had to hand.

After cleaning the pen with soapy and clean water, cleaning the nib, drying, reassembling and reinking I gave it another go.

And to my surprise it writes like a dream now and has no random ink going flying.

While I know how I went about fixing the pen wasn't the best method I thought I would post about it anyway.

Hey everybody! I am not sure if this is super helpful to anyone but I just wanted to share that you can use a fountain pens for the essay section of the AP Literature exam. I just finished with it and I used my Lamy 2000 M nib with Lamy Black ink. I experienced limited feathering, no bleed through, and limited ghosting. Overall, it worked pretty well and I would recommend it if any else wants to try it.

First fountain pen of my life. Parker Vector with "Medium" nib. I've already had it for two weeks, and although this was only meant to try out fountain pens, I think I'll keep it, since the nib is a great compromise between being smooth while not being fussy with office paper. Already chewed through a cartridge. Only bad thing with the pen is that the grip is a little meh – my fingers don't really like it.

My next will probably be a Lamy (mostly Safari). Any recommendations for the nib size so it fits my criteria?

So a while ago I thought that I would get a Lamy fountain pen to see if it would help with my handwriting.

So off I go looking around at what is available and find the Lamy Safari, then I find the Lamy Al-star which cost a bit more than the Safari and I prefer metal pens due to my gorilla sized hands.

So I buy the Lamy Al-star with a fine nib, some Lamy blue black cartridges and a converter.

Wasn't really happy with the blue black ink (wasn't dark enough) so I went looking and found the Diamine blue black ink which is my new fave.

Got a small bottle of that plus a bottle & cartridges of Lamy black ink and a EF nib for the Al-star.

Time goes on and I see people talking about the TWSBI ECO and the Platinum Preppy pens.

So after some debate I visit my local fine pen and stationary shop (kind of dangerous to my wallet) I am now the owner of a TWSBI ECO with an EF nib, a PP with EF nib, Platinum Pigment Carbon Black Cartridges & a A5 Rhodia Webnotebook.

All was good for a while then I had a need for a better pen to carry in my bag.

So today I purchased an Kaweco AL Sport with EF nib, another Platinum Preppy with a fine nib, a box of Kaweco perl black cartridges and a box of Diamine blue black cartridges.

Hopefully I have enough pens for now but something tells me that I don't.

White oak, walnut, and Baltic birch ply. 3d printed pen dividers. It’s heavy and pen dividers are slick, so it doesn’t travel, but it’s held up really well.

Open pic.

Ordered this made from a then-fellow Redditor a few years ago, haven’t come across anything that writes better yet. I’ve found the extra weight helps increase the legibility of my handwriting.