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Dryden Designs Fountain Pen

J

Jughead

Hey no problem I always enjoy checking out a new pen, especially if it turns out to be a good one!

Since the whole Dryden Designs thing seems so murky, I'll just assume they have some kind of ties to international organized crime and leave it at that. 😉
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
My thanks to Jughead for posting his review of the Dryden. This was a great sanity check for me. My second Dryden came, and writes as good as the first one. I tried to find out if Michael Dryden was real, or a fake Western front name (and "story") for a Chinese company. The Las Vegas address on Amazon is an office in a business park South of the airport (viewed on Google Maps), and is the office of YJE Tax Accounting Company (not Dryden, and I did call them to confirm). There is a lot of conflicting information about this company, and Michael Dryden online...so it took me a couple hours of research. There is a real Michael Dryden in London who is an artist. So he may be the actual developer of the pen and the Dryden Designs company, OR someone has appropriated his identity to represent the pen company. In today's world, nearly everything is smoke and mirrors.
Interesting work. I’m guessing that it’s not a real guy / story.
 
J

Jughead

True.
If I saw “this nib can also cut through a shoe” I’d be hooked.

Another confession from me ive added mechanical pencils to my obsession list. Once I discovered.9 and 1.3 leads the whole world opened up.
I forgot to mention that after I saw this I decided to try my first 0.9mm mechanical pencil and am digging it. It's just a cheaper Pentel "Graphlet" I got to try out but I do like that lead size. I have some 2.0 lead holders I don't use much so am not sure about the 1.3mm but I do like the 0.9. I usually tend to use 0.7mm's.

So thanks for the recommendation! One good thing about mechanical pencils is that even the really good ones are generally a lot cheaper than fountain pens!
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
I forgot to mention that after I saw this I decided to try my first 0.9mm mechanical pencil and am digging it. It's just a cheaper Pentel "Graphlet" I got to try out but I do like that lead size. I have some 2.0 lead holders I don't use much so am not sure about the 1.3mm but I do like the 0.9. I usually tend to use 0.7mm's.

So thanks for the recommendation! One good thing about mechanical pencils is that even the really good ones are generally a lot cheaper than fountain pens!
Excellent. So glad you like the .9. I have several 2.0 holders too. I find the slight annoyance of sharpening the tip an inconvenience. But I use a 2.0 with red lead as a highlighter. I’ve experimented with soft darker leads like 4b. I’ve found most mechanical pencils are around $10 so I agree on the affordability!
 
I bought two Dryden's. One has arrived but I can't get it to stop skipping. Not badly but just enough to annoy me.
 
J

Jughead

I bought two Dryden's. One has arrived but I can't get it to stop skipping. Not badly but just enough to annoy me.
If you didn't do it, I would suggest you clean the pen thoroughly with some water and dish soap and try it again. Even if that's not the culprit, it shouldn't be that big a deal to figure it out and get rid of the skipping.
 
If your Dryden still does not work, after trying Jughead's process, you can make a return on Amazon...for a replacement or a full refund. I hope the second one works better than the first. My two Dryden pens have worked amazingly well for a less expensive product. Remember you only have 30 days to request a refund or replacement.
 
It's hard to beat a Pilot Metropolitan. It proves the adage that price is not a good indicator of quality, it's a fairly loose relationship, very evident in the shaving realm.

I don't collect these things, I have a couple Lamy Safari pens, a M and a F nib, and I probably will never buy another fountain pen. I have a few others, as well, but never use them. I just keep the Lamy pens clean and loaded. Works for me.
I cannot stress this enough. I have one semi-expensive pen (a Waterman). It writes great, and I've come to love it (though I didn't at first). That said, a pilot Metropolitan is every bit it's equal in writing quality... if not superior. The Waterman wins in style, for sure, but dang it currently costs 4x what the Pilot does and I would dare say the Pilot writes a bit better.
 
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