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.

Manufacturers always say never to mix inks unless they're selling you a range of mixable inks, yet I have never had a problem when refilling pens that weren't 100% clean. What are the worst reactions you ever got from mixing inks on purpose or by accident?

I own a rainbow of beautiful colors, mostly from Diamine, but what I really miss a a truly black ink for formal days. I have a big bottle of Parker Quink Black, but I almost never use it as it's actually a middle-to-dark-gray ink even with my flowiest pens.

So what are your favorite, deeply saturated black inks?

Bonus points if it's (very) affordable and easily available in Europe (so no noodlers).

~~'Nother Pen Disorder~~

New Pen Day!

Look, I have a bit of a... thing... for pens with two specific attributes. Italic or oblique nibs, and retractable fountain pens. I haven't seen anyone make a combination of the two, but.

Here's a retractable that is, at least, very cheap. Which is kind of unique in its field, because I'll bet you most of the other options you can name are pretty expensive. The most budget friendly I know of so far is the Majohn A2 Press, which will still run you $30. More if you want one of the nicer variants.

This, however, is the Oaso K016 and it'll run you less than ten bucks. I only learned about it recently. Maybe this is old hat to some of you. But I'm going to talk about it a lot now, because that's what I do. Look, just count your lucky stars that I don't crank out 30 minute long youtube video essays instead, okay?

It is cheap and very cheerful, and aimed squarely at schoolchildren. It comes in a variety of plasticky colors, but I had to get the "Deep Sea Green" because green is, clearly, the superior color for most things. The grip section is kind of a dusty forest green but I'd call the body section more of a seafoam sort of color.

This pen comes in the below pictured rather garish packaging, which is labeled almost entirely in Chinese. Which makes sense, considering this pen is apparently manufactured (per the box) by "Shanghai Youshang Stationery Co., Ltd."

This is made to appeal to the Asian market, and if all that didn't tip you off the kawaii mascot certainly should. The box, by the way, says:

• OASO Youshang
• Seal Press Pen
• K016 Push-Type Tip Extraction (i.e. it is a clicker pen)
• Budget Friendly
• Writes Smoothly
• Upright Pen Grip
• Universal Ink Cartridge
• Sealed Pen Tip - Thermally Insulted (i.e. won't dry out) and Corrosion Resistant (i.e. stainless nib)
• Inlet and Outlet Sealing Valve

And at the bottom:

• Youshang Submarine Cabin (your guess is as good as mine)

I'm paraphrasing some of these. The rear:

• 0-3 Sad Onions (Actually, it says, "Warning: Contains small parts, not suitable for children 3 years or younger.)
• Please use universal ink cartridges with the same specifications as the Youshang ones, with 3.4mm diameter
• Ink Cartridge Replacement Instructions

The rest is rather self-explanatory except:

• When installing (lit, "replacing") the ink cartridge for the first time, leave the pen tip down for about 30 seconds before writing.

The bottom lists the manufacturer's contact info, and claims that the product documentation and photography was done in Shanghai. No surprise there.

At the very bottom: "Write The Future." I thought we were supposed to fight the future?

Anyhoo. This is indeed a retractable fountain pen.

I said that already. It's a very basic model, all things considered, and pretty much every component except the nib and pocket clip are made out of plastic. One thing that jumps out at me about this which is different from all the other retractables that I own or have handled, is that it is not upside down. Or rather that it is upside down relative to all the rest of them. When clipped to something the point is downwards, as opposed to the Pilot Vanishing Point, A2 Press, Platinum Curidas, and Lamy Dialog which all clip with their points up. This is more like unto a ballpoint and the inverse of most fountain pens -- even non-retractable ones. But it does keep the clip out of your grip area for people who hate that sort of thing. Time will tell if this turns out to be a bad idea from an ink retention standpoint. Maybe don't carry this in the pocket of a really nice shirt.

The K016 unscrews as you'd expect, and the nib assembly remains captive in the grip section. I was a little surprised to find that in addition to the four blue cartridges the pen came with, it also had a fifth empty one already installed inside. So I dutifully filled this with some black Sheaffer Skrip ink I had lying around.

The grip section is slippery plastic, but has three flat sections giving it a somewhat triangular profile. You're not going to mistake it for premium, but at least it's not tapered down its entire length ready to squirt out of your grip like a watermelon seed. Like some pens I could mention. (Pilot, I'm looking at you.)

There must be some way to get the feed and nib out, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how. I haven't messed with it with too much gusto because I don't want to break it. Yet.

You install the cartridge the usual way via pressing it against the tube on the end of the feed. But that illustrates that the clicker mechanism is not in fact in the business end, because the whole thing squishes down against the spring when you do so. The K016 has a very stout spring in the nose and amount of force you have to apply gets progressively greater the further out the point goes, culminating in having to give it an alarmingly hard shove to get it fully deployed. That's a little strange. But it springs right back out -- whatever ratchet that toggles between the deployed and retracted position is on the other end, under the button.

The exposed nib is very short, extremely stiff, and is supported for most of its length with the solid plastic feed:

The nib is a 0.5mm so you can quibble amongst yourselves if this counts as a "medium" or a "fine," but I will say as a habitual italic nib user that it's annoyingly fine by my standards. It is stainless steel, and while the online description claims that it is "iridium" I'm not entirely certain I believe this for two reasons. One is the writing feel, and two is that the package doesn't actually mention that anywhere.

Something about that 3.4mm diameter cartridge rung a tiny bell in my brain as well. That's because I measured one just like that while doing some home research on this thing the other day, vis-a-vis compatibility with the Zebra "V Refill" for the V-301. Well, those are the same as these. Totally interchangeable; this is indeed the same old China Standard cartridge that is currently flooding the East Asian markets.

The K016 has this in the end for sealing off when not in use. It's a little different from the usual mechanical trap door arrangement in the fancier retractables. Poking it with a paperclip reveals that it is in fact rubber. I suspect this accounts for the bodacious shove you have to give it to get the point out, since this'll surely add a whole bunch of friction to the equation.

It also introduces the possibility that over time the rubber could perish. So there's a fun thought.

But I've spent all of these words without talking about the only thing that really matters in a pen. So, how does it write?

Well, it writes.

I'm damning with faint praise, I am. But you are definitely not going to mistake this for a premium pen. The nib is decidedly scratchy and catches frequently on ordinary paper, which made inking my doodle at the top of this a real chore. The point is very sharp and very stiff, leading to no expressiveness whatsoever. The ink flow seems to be much lower than average, such that the Sheaffer Skrip I'm using which is usually very prominently black comes out almost grey because it's spread so thinly.

This is not a pen that rewards variations in stroke, and it punishes writing quickly. You have to scribble pretty fast to get it to actually skip, but I did manage to do so (it's visible at the end of my scroll in the headline image) but the faster you write the thinner and less defined the lines get. This is a pen much more at home methodically plonking down katakana, not racing across the page in cursive.

Maybe it'll work better with the ink it came with. I'll try that later and see.

The point is also too fine for my liking but that's my problem. I don't do fiddly little glyphs as small as possible in neat boxes. I do big spiky seriffed letters, a lot of them, fast.

What's everyone's problem, though, is that it seems very sensitive to both rotation and angle against the paper, and getting either of these even the slightest bit outside of the very narrow zone that it likes makes the output even worse. Further, since so little of the nib's length sticks out, the bottom face of the grip section cruises really close to the paper at all times. I could see it would be definitely possible for a user with small hands to naturally hold the thing at an angle such that the plastic hits the paper, which is sure to cause some grief.

(What that sticker says, by the way, boils down to "Kindness Tip" and "Don't Point Your Pen At Anyone." Stab, do not the crab.)

But on the bright side, this pen is so cheap that you won't have to hire out a hitman if somebody steals or breaks it.

Got this one when getting into the hobby a couple of decades ago. I think this might be my first gold nib, and one of only a couple left in my collection. Stainless steel styling and outer profile not too far off from a Parker 75, and the squeeze fill mechanism is actually a deeply seated converter very similar to Parker cartridges. But then, the clip is more Sheaffer, and that gold conical nib DEFINITELY is. It’s not quite the experience of the 1940s Sheaffer, but it’s quite nice in its own right.

I don't know how your elementary school worked but we used to write on paper with a x-height line and a ascender line. As you can see I still need those lines lol. I wonder why these are not the standard lines you get on your lined paper. They are much better then the single big ones. The total line height is only slightly more than standard lines. If I had kept writing on this, maybe my handwriting might not have suffered as much.

So it’s only sort of nice, and this one is only my “first nice pen” in the sense that my first nice pen was another blue marbled Phileas in M. That pen walked off somewhere, and this one is the replacement. It’s still a nice writer, but the nib is just not quite as nice as the one it replaced.

That Private Reserve Naples Blue has been around since Y2K, I’m pretty sure, though hell, I coulda got it a couple years after that. I’m old now, the bygone years of shirking my studies blend together, LOL.

It’s still in good shape, no odor or mold that I can see, maybe a touch darker than I recalled, and still just as much of a pain in my butt to get out of a pen as it ever was. Had to flush the Waterman here four times just after dipping.

Ranga Abhimanyu Brass

This is almost certainly a late 1940s model, though maybe early 50s. The lever fills were phased out for all but black after the war. Re-sacced this one many years ago, IIRC with the polysac out of a Sheaffer converter, but I’m not inclined to crack it open to verify. Conical 14K triumph nib in a western F/M. Smooth with a hint of feedback, and no flex whatsoever. This was a thoroughly midrange offering, meant to be used daily. It slotted in between the Admiral and Craftsman below it, and several models and trims above it. The 1/4” gold fill band is the giveaway. The nib is STOUT, and the gold fill on the clip and band has held up beautifully.

They were not fucking around with these pens. Even this one retailed for around ten bucks in 1949, making it an $80-100 pen today, roughly equivalent to the cheapest solid gold nib pens from major makers today, funnily enough. Really though, general purchasing power inflation is a weird analogue in this product category, which changed so drastically in the 60s and 70s.