Do you use a fountain pen?

[Desiato]

RizzoTheRat said:

After an initial foray in to surprisingly good cheap Chinese Jinhao pens, I've been mainly using a Lamy safari for a while now. However on Saturday I accidentally walked in to my local pen shop and was impressed that they let me try out half a dozen different pens in the €50ish range before I decided on an extra fine nibbed Lamy Studio. Probably cost a few euros more than buying online but I'll happily pay the difference for a chance to try out several first. Much as I like the Safari the extra weight of a metal body is nice.

Your Lamy experience doesn’t surprise me at all, I have a cheap Lamy ABC that I use for Red lining documents and drawings and it writes lovely.

[Robbo 27]

Looks a nice pen, will the Safari nibs also fit perhaps?

And very envious that Akkermans is your local pen shop.


This is my current daily user, all brass and weighs a ton.

[alorotom]

Robbo 27 said:

Looks a nice pen, will the Safari nibs also fit perhaps?

And very envious that Akkermans is your local pen shop.


This is my current daily user, all brass and weighs a ton.

That's a thing of beauty what make/model is it??

Out of curiosity - what's the thoughts on getting pens sent away for servicing ... Specifically thinking about my James Dean MB that has had considerable daily use for nearly a year now and whilst not showing wear I did read about servicing??

[Sway]

alorotom said:

Robbo 27 said:

Looks a nice pen, will the Safari nibs also fit perhaps?

And very envious that Akkermans is your local pen shop.


This is my current daily user, all brass and weighs a ton.

That's a thing of beauty what make/model is it??

Out of curiosity - what's the thoughts on getting pens sent away for servicing ... Specifically thinking about my James Dean MB that has had considerable daily use for nearly a year now and whilst not showing wear I did read about servicing??

That's a bloody good question - I'm a year with my daily use JFK Montblanc.

Would love to get the nib tweaked a little too, into a gentle smooth stub.

[Robbo 27]

Sway said:

That's a bloody good question - I'm a year with my daily use JFK Montblanc.

Would love to get the nib tweaked a little too, into a gentle smooth stub.

Montblanc have a service facility,they charge around £70 and will return the pen to like new condition, you can send the pen off directly but I would deal though one of their shops if you can

For other brands, if you just need a polish and improvjng the ink flow I would approach this company

http://www.classicpenengineering.co.uk/

There are very few people who can reshape a nib and really make it work, John Sorowka is up there with the best of the best. The difficulty is that he has many requests for work which dont go ahead, he says he could spend all his day answering emals pm how to do stuff. If you are really serious about the work then let me know by PM. A word of advice though, stub nibs are not for everyone, many like the theory but not the practice, me included. I would buy a TWSBI eco with a stub nib, it will cost you around £30 and be cheaper than the nib work.

MB do a nib swap for new pens, but not I think for older LEs.


The brass pen came from

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-brass-Octagon-poc...

The seller calls this colour bronze, to me its old brass.

It costs under £4 and is a copy of a Kaweco which cost over £50, some people have no problems with Kaweco pens, I have had three and they have all been unreliable.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Tuesday 22 October 05:30

Edited by Robbo 27 on Tuesday 22 October 05:32

[alorotom]

Robbo 27 said:

Montblanc have a service facility,they charge around £70 and will return the pen to like new condition, you can send the pen off directly but I would deal though one of their shops if you can

For other brands, if you just need a polish and improvjng the ink flow I would approach this company

http://www.classicpenengineering.co.uk/

There are very few people who can reshape a nib and really make it work, John Sorowka is up there with the best of the best. The difficulty is that he has many requests for work which dont go ahead, he says he could spend all his day answering emals pm how to do stuff. If you are really serious about the work then let me know by PM. A word of advice though, stub nibs are not for everyone, many like the theory but not the practice, me included. I would buy a TWSBI eco with a stub nib, it will cost you around £30 and be cheaper than the nib work.

MB do a nib swap for new pens, but not I think for older LEs.


The brass pen came from

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-brass-Octagon-poc...

The seller calls this colour bronze, to me its old brass.

It costs under £4 and is a copy of a Kaweco which cost over £50, some people have no problems with Kaweco pens, I have had three and they have all been unreliable.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Tuesday 22 October 05:30

Edited by Robbo 27 on Tuesday 22 October 05:32

Super useful info Robbo ... Appreciated

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Robbo 27 said:

The brass pen came from

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Retro-brass-Octagon-poc...

The seller calls this colour bronze, to me its old brass.

It costs under £4 and is a copy of a Kaweco which cost over £50, some people have no problems with Kaweco pens, I have had three and they have all been unreliable.

Thanks Robbo. At that price it's worth a punt even just for use as an Object d'Art

Duly ordered.

[Sway]

As always Robbo, you're a gent.

Smoothing and ink flow it is, with a full clean out...

[8Ace]

Thanks Robbo - will have a look at that.

The nib looks like a standard #5 nib, which means it's easily swappable for others. I've bought a few 0.7mm italic nibs from ALiExpress and I love them - a mid point between normal and 1.1mm italic and less sharp on the corners.

[Robbo 27]

8Ace said:

Thanks Robbo - will have a look at that.

The nib looks like a standard #5 nib, which means it's easily swappable for others. I've bought a few 0.7mm italic nibs from ALiExpress and I love them - a mid point between normal and 1.1mm italic and less sharp on the corners.

It is a #5 nib, I swapped it for another nib although removing it was not easy, I would really like to see the results with an itallic.

I have a stub nib in a Twsbi eco which I dont use so much, I think its a 1.1mm, you have given me the idea of trying it out in this brass pen.

Must admit I like the weight and look of the pen, it feels different, looks like it could have been made in the 1930s. There are Youtube videos which should you how to apply paint stripper to the pen and take it back to shiny brass, to be honest I think that the result looks damn awful.

[dapprman]

Robbo 27 said:

Looks a nice pen, will the Safari nibs also fit perhaps?

And very envious that Akkermans is your local pen shop.

With the exception of the 2k, all Lamy nibs are interchangeable - I just got the limited edition Scala (already have a Scala, like the feel/comfort) and had the nib swapped for a gold one. I also know someone who swapped a gold nib on to a Safari. One note - there is a slightly more expensive version of the gold nib now, which is meant as a replacement for the Imporium and does not have a breather hole - think it's purely for decorative purposes though. (btw the Aion nib may be a slightly different shaped nib, but it can be swapped both ways with the other non-2K pens).

I can see a downside of living near Akkermans - the constant requests from friends for bottles of their inks, especially when the new batch of Diamine/Akkermans SBRE Brown comes in (which I personally rather like and think is worth the hype)

[RizzoTheRat]

dapprman said:

Robbo 27 said:

Looks a nice pen, will the Safari nibs also fit perhaps?

And very envious that Akkermans is your local pen shop.

With the exception of the 2k, all Lamy nibs are interchangeable - I just got the limited edition Scala (already have a Scala, like the feel/comfort) and had the nib swapped for a gold one. I also know someone who swapped a gold nib on to a Safari. One note - there is a slightly more expensive version of the gold nib now, which is meant as a replacement for the Imporium and does not have a breather hole - think it's purely for decorative purposes though. (btw the Aion nib may be a slightly different shaped nib, but it can be swapped both ways with the other non-2K pens).

I can see a downside of living near Akkermans - the constant requests from friends for bottles of their inks, especially when the new batch of Diamine/Akkermans SBRE Brown comes in (which I personally rather like and think is worth the hype)

The Studio uses the same nib as the safari, but I've got for an extra fine which I think make my writing slightly more legible than my fine nibbed Safari, which in turn is a massive leap in legibility over a biro

I'm just on their standard Royal Blue (one of the few washable ones), their bottles with the ball in the top are things of beauty though.

Now you've got me wondering if I need to start having different pens on different coloured inks though seeing as I've not got a couple of decent ones that I'm using regularly...

[dapprman]

Lamy bottles are some of the best out there - the nib cleaning blotting strips are also useful. Their inks ... - there's an awful lot of different inks out there, a very deep, colourful, hole. Personally Lamy black is my normal for that colour and I am far from being alone in considering their turquoise one of the best. Shame about Lamy green and red though (and this year's special - (not)-bronze.

[Sway]

If anyone wants it, I've a bottle of Montblanc Homer blue I'll not use (used to fill a pen once) - free to whoever PMs me first with their address.

I'll be honest, I'm really not a fan - supposed to be the blue of the Aegean, but to my (admittedly colourblind!) eyes it just looks like a cheap washable blue.

However, I'll not judge if someone does like it!

[Sway]

If anyone wants it, I've a bottle of Montblanc Homer blue I'll not use (used to fill a pen once) - free to whoever PMs me first with their address.

I'll be honest, I'm really not a fan - supposed to be the blue of the Aegean, but to my (admittedly colourblind!) eyes it just looks like a cheap washable blue.

However, I'll not judge if someone does like it!

[Du1point8]

Sway said:

If anyone wants it, I've a bottle of Montblanc Homer blue I'll not use (used to fill a pen once) - free to whoever PMs me first with their address.

I'll be honest, I'm really not a fan - supposed to be the blue of the Aegean, but to my (admittedly colourblind!) eyes it just looks like a cheap washable blue.

However, I'll not judge if someone does like it!

I will take it, but your pm doesnt work

[Sway]

Du1point8 said:

Sway said:

If anyone wants it, I've a bottle of Montblanc Homer blue I'll not use (used to fill a pen once) - free to whoever PMs me first with their address.

I'll be honest, I'm really not a fan - supposed to be the blue of the Aegean, but to my (admittedly colourblind!) eyes it just looks like a cheap washable blue.

However, I'll not judge if someone does like it!

I will take it, but your pm doesnt work

It's yours.

I'll drop you a pm later on, hopefully that'll work (no idea why PMs don't work on my account!).

[Sway]

PM sent - let me know if you haven't got it.

[Robbo 27]

Sway said:

(no idea why PMs don't work on my account!).

If you click on your user name, then Account Details comes up, then Public Profile. It could be that the box at the bottom needs to be ticked which allows others to contact you by email.

[Du1point8]

Sway said:

PM sent - let me know if you haven't got it.

Just charging up my old phone that the PH email is associated with... will be back shortly.