Do you use a fountain pen?

[Robbo 27]

Hosenbugler said:

Thanks to all who commented regarding my request concerning import duties, etc.

I did mange to get some time and did some digging , apparently the import duty on pens/writing instruments is 3.7% , which seems a strange figure, could be a lot worse though! I'll get collared the 20% vat for sure though.

Apparently, for HMRC assistance, the commodity code is 9608300000 . Does anyone think that if I get the vendor to note that on the outside of the package, it will help speed things through customs?

On another subject, does anyone have any opinions on Diamine Ink's ?

I dont think there will be much of an issue in delays through Customs, any delay is more likely to be from Royal Mail charging their fee, writing to you saying pay up before we release this parcel.

Personally I dont rate Diamine and would rather buy almost any other ink and especially those made by pen manufacturers. the quality of the inks is only average and they are in my opinion a little dull, they also do usually do not shade when used which is a feature I like to see in an ink. To their credit they have a huge range of colours and if it is important to you to write in mint green or sunshine yellow then Diamine is your best choice. They are also one of the cheaper inks.

A failing of the brand is that their bottle design, the 80ml size, is a large flat bottomed bottle and if you have a large nibbed men such as a Montblanc or a Jinhao 159 you will find that you cannot fill your pen when the bottle is half empty.

Many people will say that they use Diamine products and have no problems, personal choice and your money. It doesnt help when you read comments by others, elseewhere, which say Diamine inks are terrible because..... and one reviewer on another forum, who recieves many bottles of ink direct from Diamine to review/publicise, maintains that they are not aware of any issues. Some unkind people might think that this reviewer could be biased in their opinions, although I would doubt that of course.

Diamine also do a range with particles in the ink to reflect light, it is their Shimmer range. It is accepted by Diamine that these particles have been known to block pens and that is a matter of record, although Diamine continue to sell these Shimmer inks.

So plus points are low cost and broad colour range.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Thursday 27th April 16:23

[ClockworkCupcake]

Somewhat ironically, those two pens have just arrived!

The Jinhao X750 is just a Jinhao X750, so nothing to report there.

The Baoer 801 is quite a nice pen and a little bit different. The finish is very nice, with a mottled design that looks much more expensive than it is. The barrel is plastic, but the threaded insert is metal. The section is also metal, and has a pleasing ground finish to it. The cap is also plastic, with a sturdy Parker-esque metal clip.

The length of the pen is very similar to the Platignum 75 (middle in the picture), and slightly shorter than the Jinhao 126 (top of picture)





The nib has an pleasing two tone to it, in gold and steel, and has a modern clean design to it.



The converter is a screw type and is good quality, and has a plastic and metal construction.



It inked up easily, and writes smoothly with a good flow.



I'm really pleased with it.

(All pics are thumbnailed. Click for a larger version)

[Robbo 27]

ClockworkCupcake said:

Somewhat ironically, those two pens have just arrived!

The Jinhao X750 is just a Jinhao X750, so nothing to report there.

The Baoer 801 is quite a nice pen and a little bit different. The finish is very nice, with a mottled design that looks much more expensive than it is. The barrel is plastic, but the threaded insert is metal. The section is also metal, and has a pleasing ground finish to it. The cap is also plastic, with a sturdy Parker-esque metal clip.

The length of the pen is very similar to the Platignum 75 (middle in the picture), and slightly shorter than the Jinhao 126 (top of picture)





The nib has an pleasing two tone to it, in gold and steel, and has a modern clean design to it.



The converter is a screw type and is good quality, and has a plastic and metal construction.



It inked up easily, and writes smoothly with a good flow.



I'm really pleased with it.

(All pics are thumbnailed. Click for a larger version)

That Baoer is a good looking pen, reminds me of a 1970s Parker called the 88 Rialto, looks well made too.

[ClockworkCupcake]

Robbo 27 said:

That Baoer is a good looking pen, reminds me of a 1970s Parker called the 88 Rialto, looks well made too.

Gosh, yes that is *very* similar isn't it!

Yes, it is a good looking pen and is indeed well made. It's of the same standard as a Jinhao, rather than the poor quality of a Hero.

[dapprman]

Robbo 27 said:

The Mad Monk said:

Is that legal nowadays?

I dont know MM, they are tough cookies at MB, I have seen them threaten legal action for using their pics, including threatening forum owners who allow such pics to be made available, they also take the attitude of we decide who sells our products. They specifically dont like cheap deals on the internet.

If that's FPN then it was suspicious that just a week or two later Wim and at least one other owner/mod were shown around the MB factory and allowed to look at the new specials before they were released. I suspect the threat of this being stopped was the real reason - great forum but bad for MB and Pelikan shills.

[AlexC1981]

Robbo 27 said:

.....I appreciate that you are in Amsterdam but this is not a script for a porn film.

Says the man who managed to get three "cracks" a "pointy end" and a comment about big nipples into one sentence.

Robbo 27 said:

Glad to have helped.

If the crack is on the pointy end of the cartridge you may want to think how that crack has occurred and perhaps the Jinhao nipple is fractionnally too large for the Waterman cartridge, I am concerned that #2 will also crack, which sounds like a very good reason to see if Akkermans have better fitting cartridges available.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Thursday 27th April 16:19

[AlexC1981]

RizzoTheRat said:

Just spotted this shop as I was walking through town. Love the look of their ink bottles, €15/bottle does seem a little steep though (ETA: Or it did until I saw the price of some of the other inks on their site).

http://www.vulpennen.nl/en/AKKDM01.html

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 27th April 14:10

What a brilliant design. I was thinking about getting a Mont Blanc "shoe" bottle or a Waterman/Pelikan bottle, which can be turned 45 degrees.



Parker/Quink bottles are rubbish. Easy to tip over because they are narrow and you can't get to the ink in the bottom.

I spilt about a third of my Quink Washable Blue on the table and carpet the other day. I know I have said how good washable blue is previously on the thread, but it really is good stuff. I just blotted it with kitchen roll, then tipped a mug-full of warm soapy water over what was left and blotted that up. There wasn't a trace of a stain.

[Robbo 27]

AlexC1981 said:

What a brilliant design. I was thinking about getting a Mont Blanc "shoe" bottle or a Waterman/Pelikan bottle, which can be turned 45 degrees.



Parker/Quink bottles are rubbish. Easy to tip over because they are narrow and you can't get to the ink in the bottom.

I spilt about a third of my Quink Washable Blue on the table and carpet the other day. I know I have said how good washable blue is previously on the thread, but it really is good stuff. I just blotted it with kitchen roll, then tipped a mug-full of warm soapy water over what was left and blotted that up. There wasn't a trace of a stain.

The Lamy bottles are quite useful too, they have a dip in the base of the bottle and a supply of tissue. The ink is a bit dryish though.

[Hosenbugler]

Robbo 27 said:

I dont think there will be much of an issue in delays through Customs, any delay is more likely to be from Royal Mail charging their fee, writing to you saying pay up before we release this parcel.
Personally I dont rate Diamine and would rather buy almost any other ink and especially those made by pen manufacturers. the quality of the inks is only average and they are in my opinion a little dull, they also do usually do not shade when used which is a feature I like to see in an ink. To their credit they have a huge range of colours and if it is important to you to write in mint green or sunshine yellow then Diamine is your best choice. They are also one of the cheaper inks.
A failing of the brand is that their bottle design, the 80ml size, is a large flat bottomed bottle and if you have a large nibbed men such as a Montblanc or a Jinhao 159 you will find that you cannot fill your pen when the bottle is half empty.
Many people will say that they use Diamine products and have no problems, personal choice and your money. It doesnt help when you read comments by others, elseewhere, which say Diamine inks are terrible because..... and one reviewer on another forum, who recieves many bottles of ink direct from Diamine to review/publicise, maintains that they are not aware of any issues. Some unkind people might think that this reviewer could be biased in their opinions, although I would doubt that of course.
Diamine also do a range with particles in the ink to reflect light, it is their Shimmer range. It is accepted by Diamine that these particles have been known to block pens and that is a matter of record, although Diamine continue to sell these Shimmer inks.
So plus points are low cost and broad colour range.

Thanks for taking the time with such a full answer. For a couple of colours I need I may have to go to Diamine , as I cannot find any other suppliers of the colour. Is their registrar's ink any better?

I'm wondering if there is any specific recomendations you can make, ink wise, I'm looking for a deep , rich Jet black, a bright Emerald Green, and a very rich red,perhaps pillar box red.

[Robbo 27]

Hosenbugler said:

Thanks for taking the time with such a full answer. For a couple of colours I need I may have to go to Diamine , as I cannot find any other suppliers of the colour. Is their registrar's ink any better?

I'm wondering if there is any specific recomendations you can make, ink wise, I'm looking for a deep , rich Jet black, a bright Emerald Green, and a very rich red,perhaps pillar box red.

The Diamine Registrars ink is known to cause problems, it is a saturated ink and has caused pens to become blocked. If you are prepared to flush the pen between fills then you should be ok. I would recommend Montblanc Permanent Black ink, in bottles so that you can still flush the pen out from time to time.

The Writing desk shows a good display of inks

https://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/showproduct.php?b...

I would also check out Pilot inks at Cultpens

http://www.cultpens.com/i/q/PL22271/pilot-iroshizu...

These are higher priced inks but a bit special.

You will see that Diamine have a huge range of greens at low prices, they also do a 2.5ml sample kit with a supplied syringe.

My favourite red ink, for colour, performance, bottle and ease of use is the Montblanc Cornpoppy Red

[motco]

Robbo I have just remembered another archaic natural material: gutta percha. It's a sort of hard rubber too, being chemically a polyisoprene, but I have no idea whether it was ever used to make pen bodies. Perhaps you know?

[Robbo 27]

motco said:

Robbo I have just remembered another archaic natural material: gutta percha. It's a sort of hard rubber too, being chemically a polyisoprene, but I have no idea whether it was ever used to make pen bodies. Perhaps you know?

I had heard of the name but I didnt know where from. An American pen company called Salz Brothers used it in the 1920s. they had a range of pens called Black and White, I have only had one, it wasnt a well made pen at all, I restored it as I would with hard black rubber, I didnt own it for long though.

Rubber pens from this decade will have some oxidisation and turned green or brown now, some collectors like a pen to show its age and think that the patina should be preserved, opinions vary. The problem is that as soon as you use the pen the natural oils in your hands tends to start the renovation project on their own.

[motco]

Robbo 27 said:

motco said:

Robbo I have just remembered another archaic natural material: gutta percha. It's a sort of hard rubber too, being chemically a polyisoprene, but I have no idea whether it was ever used to make pen bodies. Perhaps you know?

I had heard of the name but I didnt know where from. An American pen company called Salz Brothers used it in the 1920s. they had a range of pens called Black and White, I have only had one, it wasnt a well made pen at all, I restored it as I would with hard black rubber, I didnt own it for long though.

Rubber pens from this decade will have some oxidisation and turned green or brown now, some collectors like a pen to show its age and think that the patina should be preserved, opinions vary. The problem is that as soon as you use the pen the natural oils in your hands tends to start the renovation project on their own.

Interesting, thanks!

[flight147z]

Checking back in - it's amazing how far this thread has come!

Had my LAMY Safari (which replaces my Chinese copy) for a while now - I'm glad I found this thread and started using a fountain pen again!

[Robbo 27]

flight147z said:

Checking back in - it's amazing how far this thread has come!

Had my LAMY Safari (which replaces my Chinese copy) for a while now - I'm glad I found this thread and started using a fountain pen again!

What amazes me about this thread is that many people have found their own core interest, in search of better handwriting, restoration - and there has been some superb work done, collecting, history, or simply having a hobby that can be shared amongst the family and useful at work.

Like yourself, many started have started out with a £1 Chinese pen and have moved on to more expensive offerings or looked for equally good value pens of a different style.

Pleased you like your Safari, one of the plus points of that pen is the range of nibs you can buy and they are so easy to change.

[wong]

For all those who have vowed to stop buying cheap Jinhaos :-

They've released the 992 - slightly smaller than the 450 and 750, plain, minimal decoration, probable size 5 nib, 6 demonstrators and 6 solid colours.

Review on FPN below (more comparison pictures with 450, 750, lamy safari etc. on page 2 of link)

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/3215...

[RizzoTheRat]

Oh you bd

I've already had the Mrs asking how many pens I really need, and this is expensive for a Jinhao at £1.60.

I'll let you know what they're like in 6 to 8 weeks time

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 28th April 11:40

[Robbo 27]

If you are looking for something different there is an English pen maker called the Worcester Pen Company, worth having a look, they are not too expensive

http://worcesterpencompany.co.uk/

[The Mad Monk]

RizzoTheRat said:

Oh you bd

I've already had the Mrs asking how many pens I really need, and this is expensive for a Jinhao at £1.60.

I'll let you know what they're like in 6 to 8 weeks time

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 28th April 11:40

I can't find it at £1.60. Any chance of a link, please?

[Robbo 27]

The Mad Monk said:

I can't find it at £1.60. Any chance of a link, please?

Found it at 99p

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jinhao-992-All-12-Colour...