I did find some that are more pen, less firearms!

S.T. Dupont Mozart in sterling silver:


One of my favorites for everyday use, a Visconti Voyager in Coral Celluloid:


A really cool Wahl, a modern version of a vintage classic:


A selection of vintage Sheaffers in gold overlay, from the 1920s to the 1980s:


Bill R.

Love that Wahl.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I've never used one, but I suspect being a lefty might be a problem.

It is. Well, it is not a problem if you like your ink smeared everywhere and the writing illegible. Never worked for me because of that exact issue.

Very nice collections!

What is a good starter pen? Easy to write and such?

Riley- in my opinion, 2 very good starter pens are, (1) The Pilot Metropolitan, and (2) The Lamyy Safari, and (3) the Lamy Al-Star.
You can check the out at the website for Goulet Pens, at: www.gouletpens.com

The Pilot Metropolitan is about $15.00 and the 2 Lamy pens are just a bit more, the Lamy Safari is about $25.00 and the Lamy Al-Star is $36.50.

Trying to resist a pen addiction, trying.

My girlfriend has a collection of fountain pens and inks. Mainly Lamys and some Pilots.

I am wanting to get her another for her birthday coming up but not sure which direction to go.

Her most spendy one that she has is a Pilot Vanishing Point.

Any recommendations on something comparable or a step up? She seems to like more modern style pens.

I was thinking a Pilot Custom 743 or 823? Or any other recommendations? $250 ish price range.

EDIT: I am seeing the difference between the 743 and 823 is mainly the filling system on the 823 and the extra types of nibs on the 743.

I think I am leaning towards the 743 with a fine/medium or soft/fine/medium nib. ?

And Edit #2... She hates gold and it seems the 743 only comes in black and gold. So may down step to the 912 with a SFM nib. Almost $100 cheaper which seems odd. Is it that much of a lower pen? Only real difference I can see is it has a #10 nib vs #15... Does that make a huge difference? Same Con 70 converter. Seems to get great reviews.

Other recommendations/brands?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lude4life,

Went with the 912 with SFM nib. She has some standard Fine nibs and Medium nib pens. The Soft Fine Medium should be a good in between.

Found it on Amazon for $150 new from Japan. Comes with Con-70 converter. I'll get her some more ink as well.

Beautiful Pen, I think she will be very happy!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
Trying to resist a pen addiction, trying.

I'm with you Brad. I knew better than to open this thread. The last thing I need is a new expensive collector type hobby!

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by Appliance Brad:
Trying to resist a pen addiction, trying.

I'm with you Brad. I knew better than to open this thread. The last thing I need is a new expensive collector type hobby!

Jim

It's not expensive. You start out with a $20-$25.00 pen, then move to a $75-$100 pen, then to a $250.00 pen, then to a $400+ pen and then.....................................Well that is all the farther I have gotten........................but it is not the end.

In my best Roseann Roseanna Dana voice, "never mind".

There are some really incredibly beautiful vintage and contemporary fountain pens.

Everyday: Pilot VP in M. I need to order a stub nib for it, as I write better with that type of nib.

Journaling: F-C Model 66 with a 1.9MM music nib

Pilot Parallel: Purely for letter writing, and mostly so I can use J. Herbin d'Chivor. (DO NOT put that stuff in a nicer pen.)

Pilot Metropolitan 1.1MM stub: cheap, and writes well (enough, at least.)

Platinum 3776 in B, and Lamy Logos: Not really used. The 3776 is a decent pen, but a bit small. The Logos has an irritating nib. I'm debating about buying a gold nib, as its a handy size, or just giving up on it.

Platinum Preppy pens: Good for Baystate blue/other inks which will be hard on a pen.

Lamy Safari in fine on order.

I have a few, some new and some old.

I like the Pelikan pens because they don't leak, they write well, and they hold a good amount of ink. They're also really easy to clean out. I just don't find them that exciting, though.

My favorites all seem to be Viscontis. I like how they look and I like their nibs - they put down a lot of ink and the nib spreads with pressure so there's variation in how dark the strokes are, especially with wet inks. All my Viscontis are fine or medium nibs ground italic.

To me, this is as good as it gets. I don't carry it all that often because you could buy a new Sig for what it cost and have some left over.

Visconti Divine Proportion.



When I carry a pen, I normally carry one of these.

Pelikan M625
Visconti Opera
Visconti Wall Street
Visconti Homo Sapiens



Some old pens I bought because I found them interesting (historical models in interesting material patterns).

Waterman (54, I think)
Conway Stewart 58 in Tiger Eye
Parker Vacumatic in Blue Pearl (I think this is the smaller size).



I have a whole drawer full of inks. There have to be at least 30. It isn't convenient to count right now because they're mostly still packed up from when I moved.

Probably my favorite for regular use is Mont Blanc Toffee Brown, which is funny, because it's the only Mont Blanc ink I have - I got there after trying probably a dozen brown inks trying to find the right one.

Otherwise, I have a whole bunch of Noodler's inks, Pilot Iroshizuku inks, and J. Herbin inks.

Here's an example of the shading I mentioned when you use wet ink with a wet nib pen (the stroke width variation is from grinding the nibs italic, basically making it flat on the end instead of a ball):




I don't have any pictures of it, but an interesting pen I got a few days ago...

https://www.winkpens.com/

If you've ever used a glass dip pen, this is basically a fountain pen that uses a glass dip pen nib. They advertise it as being able to use basically any liquid for ink (they say they got "wink" from "wine ink").

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maladat,

What do you guys think of your Visconti? I've been thinking about a Visconti bronze age

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
What do you guys think of your Visconti? I've been thinking about a Visconti bronze age

The bronze Homo Sapiens is probably my favorite pen that I regularly carry.

The material feels great, it's warm and and little bit grippy. The push-and-twist cap works well, I haven't ever had one fall off and it is faster than threaded. The pen is a vacuum fill (the Divine Proportion and Wall Street are, too - the Opera has a cartridge converter in it) and holds a ton of ink. None of my Visconti pens have ever leaked, and they don't dry out very fast either.

About the only downside is that the vacuum fill means it is really a pain to flush every bit of ink out of the pen. This isn't the pen for someone who changes inks on a daily basis.

I'm really liking the Lamy Safari with the F nib and black T-10 cartridge. However, I'm ordering a M or Broad nib and some better archival type ink. I'll use this for a bottle or two of ink and then start looking at others.

Now I'm also looking for pen to use for larger nibs for calligraphy type writing. Mainly for addressing greeting cards and such.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Now I'm also looking for pen to use for larger nibs for calligraphy type writing. Mainly for addressing greeting cards and such.

Might want to take a look at www.mrpen.co.uk and his Italix Churchman's Prescriptor pen with extra wide italic script nib (also available in oblique left or right). It's a wide 1.75mm number that sounds like what you're looking for. sbrebrown has some nice youtube reviews of MrPenUK offerings.

Riley- you might want to invest the $4.95 for a Z-24 Convertor for your Lamy Safari pen. It will then allow you to refill your pen from a bottle of ink. Plus, getting a convertor will be cheaper than buying ink cartridges in the long run.
You can try these online vendors, all are very reliable suppliers:
www.gouletpens.com

http://www.andersonpens.com/Default.asp

https://vanness1938.com/

Started out many years ago with an old Scripto pen. Now have a couple that I made from pen kits with nice wooden barrels. Also have a gift pen from Ryan Krusac.
He is one of my best friends, and is a custom pen maker. He has had a booth at most of the large pen shows in the U.S. for several years including the Columbus Ohio show.
For your viewing pleasure http://www.fountainpenstudios.com/