Quite so. Mine is over 20 years old and still in great shape. Never needed any repairs.
The voice of experience ?
-R
Help will a fontain pen work for me
- Thread starter crankymoose
- Start date
Quite so. Mine is over 20 years old and still in great shape. Never needed any repairs.
The voice of experience ?
-R
I'm very new to fountain pens and my choice was the highly deemed parker 51.
It's only been weeks, but I have not experienced any leakage or dryness problems. Starts immediately every time even if I haven't used it in few days. And I've sometimes carried around it in my jacket's pocket.
You won't call it 'pretty' but certainly has a vintage look that I like quite a bit.
It's only been weeks, but I have not experienced any leakage or dryness problems. Starts immediately every time even if I haven't used it in few days. And I've sometimes carried around it in my jacket's pocket.
You won't call it 'pretty' but certainly has a vintage look that I like quite a bit.
The MontBlanc Solitaire Carbon Steel LaGrand Fountain Pen is my pen of choice. The Steel and Carbon Fiber make a strong statement. It's also a great conversation starter.
Image "borrowed" from www.stylofinepens.com
Image "borrowed" from www.stylofinepens.com
Guilty
But it was 1984. What the hell did I know? I was on the flight because of a girl.
My hormones were screaming so loud I'm surprised the Japanese fellow next to me could hear the in-flight movie (which was "Romancing the Stone", BTW).
Did I get the girl despite my fountain pen faux pas?
I can hear her breathing in the next room as I type this...
I have a Pelikan M200 some guy in Germany was selling on EBay for something like $65 Buy-It-Now. A great little pen. Holds a massive amount of ink. Light as a feather, you can write for hours with it without your hand cramping. I have many pens, but the little Pelikan has become my daily user.
Pelikan, Lamy are great recommendations. I'm mostly a Caran d'Ache man, myself. Their Ecridor line is tgorgeous and top quality, their (steel) nibs perform better than many gold ones. Fairly affordable as well.
- Thread starter
- #27
This is probably a stupid question but I found a waterman converter at colorado pens, do I need more then 1 for each color ink I buy? Has anyone purchased from colorado pen as they have a nice selection of the Pelikan, Lamy and other pens some of you were referring to.
No, absolutely not. You may want to rinse the converter when you go from one color to another so you don't accidentally blend the old ink into the new one when you reload, but I don't worry about that even because I like my black to be a little red and I like my red to be a lot black. Best when loading a converter to fill it and unfill it two or three time, all the time while it is submerged in the ink, to get rid of air bubbles.
I actually took a half empty par bottle of black ink and mixed it with a half empty bottle of parker red ink and got a great dark red mix [and a mess on my desk, but that's another story]. So you can tell I don't mind blending. But just rinse when you swithch from color to color and you'll be fine.
Its more of an issue when switching between different brands of ink - as they may not mix that well.
However, I'm lazy and tend to use just a few brands of ink that I can mix and match without problems.
FWIW, the Waterman ink is very good - works well in all my pens and has good writing characteristics - its also very reasonably priced. I've yet to try the Noodlers ink that lots of folks seem to rave about, but its on my list.
WRT the point about steel vs. gold nibs, I agree with Stauff that a good steel nib can write every bit as well as a gold nib. In fact, I have steel nibbed pens that write better than some of my less expensive gold-nibbed pens. Also, while the gold nibs used on vintage pens had a lot of flex to them, most modern gold nibs are relatively stiff, so there's less of a difference between gold and steel nibs from a flex perspective than was the case historically.
However, I always suggest a steel nib for a first FP - one, why spend the $ if you're not sure you're going to like using an FP. Also, newbie FP users tend to bear down on their FPs a fair bit at first (especially if they're used to using a ball point) and can ruin a gold nib.
I have Noodlers Burgundy and Midnight Blue, and have used them in a Parker Sonnet and Parker Duofold. Honestly, I don't know what the fuss is all about. The ink quality is fine, but I find the flow not to be nearly as smooth [maybe it's quality impairs its performance] as Parker ink, so I honestly don't use the Noodlers very often.
The guy at my pen store said he thinks Noodlers is only popular because they have such variety of color, not because it's any better than any other good ink. I think there is more to it than that - their "bulletproof" line is unique and I think the ink is high quality, though since I favor extra fine nibs that quality may be impairing the flow, at least with Parker nibs, for me.
Of course, not only YMMV, but YPMV (your pen may vary - different inks are better in different pens I hear).
Noodlers ink is nice but I also like Private Reserve. It's cheaper and they have a good variety of colors.
I give a second vote for the Lamy 2000. I use mine every day at work and at home for writing letters (yes, real pen on paper letters)! It is a nice pen but very understated unlike some of the flashier pens about. Personally I prefer it's stark simplicity and look. I use Waterman ink and never have issues with it drying up. It always works perfectly. Not cheap but not over the top expensive like some of them.
I am actually on my third one. The first I lost one drunken night out. The second one lasted about 5 years or so then suddenly the filler mechanism broke. Since they supposedly have a lifetime guarantee I decided to test that out.
The shop I bought it from had closed down but I discovered they now sold pens online. I contacted them and they said I could drop it off at their residential address which was handily walking distance from work. They would then deliver it to the local importer to have them check it out. I had to pay the local courier costs only - about $5).
Anyway, they sent it off and couldn't fix it so they had to send it back home to Germany. Apparently they couldn't fix it either since they sent back a brand new pen. No charges. No questions asked. Absolutely brilliant service.
When they say lifetime guarantee I think they mean it!
Simon
I am actually on my third one. The first I lost one drunken night out. The second one lasted about 5 years or so then suddenly the filler mechanism broke. Since they supposedly have a lifetime guarantee I decided to test that out.
The shop I bought it from had closed down but I discovered they now sold pens online. I contacted them and they said I could drop it off at their residential address which was handily walking distance from work. They would then deliver it to the local importer to have them check it out. I had to pay the local courier costs only - about $5).
Anyway, they sent it off and couldn't fix it so they had to send it back home to Germany. Apparently they couldn't fix it either since they sent back a brand new pen. No charges. No questions asked. Absolutely brilliant service.
When they say lifetime guarantee I think they mean it!
Simon
I have a Waterman Laureat and it came with a converter. I like it a lot, and I think you'll get along with it well, too. Suzuki's words apply to the converter, too: no hot water! I found that out the hard way.
Heh. I only use the MB because I got it cheap. I, er, "borrowed" it from my dad. Works pretty well, though it's a medium nib, and I'd really prefer a fine nib. I'll probably wind up buying a Pelikan before too long.
- Thread starter
- #36
To follow up and resurrect an old thread, the Waterman I had I tried everything except a new nib which I probably should have especially when the nib broke and not thinking I threw the pen out 
Based on recommendations here on B&B I got a Lamy Safari, my main reason for never picking up a Lamy before was looks. I figured I would take a chance on the Safari before getting the 2000 that way for only $24 if I didn't like it I wouldn't be out much.
Comparing the Lamy to the Waterman, I saw a comparison that fits it is like comparing an old Jaguar to a modern Honda, when it was working the Waterman wrote and looked very nice however that when it was working was few and far between, the Lamy on the other hand just keeps working flawlessly and it feels great to grip and write with as well.
Based on recommendations here on B&B I got a Lamy Safari, my main reason for never picking up a Lamy before was looks. I figured I would take a chance on the Safari before getting the 2000 that way for only $24 if I didn't like it I wouldn't be out much.
Comparing the Lamy to the Waterman, I saw a comparison that fits it is like comparing an old Jaguar to a modern Honda, when it was working the Waterman wrote and looked very nice however that when it was working was few and far between, the Lamy on the other hand just keeps working flawlessly and it feels great to grip and write with as well.
I am curious about this. I recently flew to New Orleans and had my loaded Lamy Safari pen in my carry on messenger bag and it made the trip just fine. It was the cartridge that came with the pen. Do they leak less then say a converter?
I have the Phileas from Waterman, and numerous other pens. I have constantly inked 3-4 of them, and the Phileas is the quickest to dry.
That is because of the cap opening behind the clip, which you can check when you fill the cap with water, it will leak quickly from there.
One fix I tried on a Parker Frontier with the same opening [but at top of the cap], is that I rubbed bees wax on the top of the cap, and melted it with hairdryer. It helped, and the Parker stayed "wet" for over a week, where the Phileas would dry in a day.
If you want inexpensive user pen, with great quality, and with excellent "staying" ability [mine doesen't dry in over a month!], try the Lamy Safari, for around 25 USD...
cheers,
Nenad
P.S. oops, just saw you already got the Safari
nice pen, excellent user...
That is because of the cap opening behind the clip, which you can check when you fill the cap with water, it will leak quickly from there.
One fix I tried on a Parker Frontier with the same opening [but at top of the cap], is that I rubbed bees wax on the top of the cap, and melted it with hairdryer. It helped, and the Parker stayed "wet" for over a week, where the Phileas would dry in a day.
If you want inexpensive user pen, with great quality, and with excellent "staying" ability [mine doesen't dry in over a month!], try the Lamy Safari, for around 25 USD...
cheers,
Nenad
P.S. oops, just saw you already got the Safari
nice pen, excellent user...
