Do you use a fountain pen?

[Robbo 27]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Absolutely! If you scroll back to earlier in the thread, many of us went a bit nuts on sub-£5 Chinese pens from Jinhao, Hero, and Baoer.

Also, my daily writer is a Lamy Safari with the smoothest nib you can imagine (although I think I have Robbo to thank for that).

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Friday 31st January 18:33

It was a pleasure CC, I am happy that you are enjoying the pen.

The Twsbi Eco is a good pen with a lot of engineering for the money, the Twsbi company includes a spanner and a bottle of grease with the pen and also instructions on how to take it apart. If I could give you one piece of advice LM, leave the pen as it is unless there is a problem, some people take the Eco apart just because they can and they seldom put it back together as good as the factory, the reassembly process can also create wear, tear and air leaks when removing the nib and feed.

As long as the piston moves up and down then dont touch it, if there is a need to take the pen apart whatch the vid on Youtube from Jet Pens first.

[anonymous-user]

Robbo 27 said:

It was a pleasure CC, I am happy that you are enjoying the pen.

The Twsbi Eco is a good pen with a lot of engineering for the money, the Twsbi company includes a spanner and a bottle of grease with the pen and also instructions on how to take it apart. If I could give you one piece of advice LM, leave the pen as it is unless there is a problem, some people take the Eco apart just because they can and they seldom put it back together as good as the factory, the reassembly process can also create wear, tear and air leaks when removing the nib and feed.

As long as the piston moves up and down then dont touch it, if there is a need to take the pen apart whatch the vid on Youtube from Jet Pens first.

Thanks for that.

I have left the pen in one piece thankfully, and won’t attempt any form of disassembly!

It was easy to fill and the case, spanner, grease etc being included was a nice touch from Twsbi.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Robbo 27 said:

It was a pleasure CC, I am happy that you are enjoying the pen.

I am - very much so. Thank you again.

Robbo 27 said:

some people take the Eco apart just because they can and they seldom put it back together as good as the factory

Men.

[Exige77]

Robbo 27 said:

Exige77 said:

Anyone familiar with Diplomat pens ?

I’ve been asked to to some work for them so was wondering if there are any owners on here.

Seems a French family bought the company but they are still made at their traditional site in Germany.

I have only owned one about 15 years ago, a cheapie costing £7 from ebay.de. The pen was a very simple cartridge pen but had a very good gold nib, yet another pen that I wish I still owned.

Generally, Diplomat have a reputation for producing excellent nibs and a different style, the only issue I have heard of is with regards to the clips being a little flimsy.

Not sure that Diplomat have a UK agent, I havent seen them at any pen show.


eta. I didnt know this, Diplomat pens are in the UK, I have found them on the penheaven site

https://www.penheaven.co.uk/pen-brands/diplomat-pe...

Edited by Robbo 27 on Friday 31st January 17:51

Diplomat are being distributed in the UK by Manuscript which are in Bridgenorth.

They are the people that make the Leonardts nibs

Edited by Exige77 on Friday 31st January 20:45

[dapprman]

Was going to say - Diplomat are quite easy to get hold of in this country. The Zeppelin influenced Aero is very popular. The steel nibs are meant to be as good as the gold ones (not tried a gold) and rival those from Faber Castell and Leonardo Officiano Italiano as the best steel nibs out there. While the Aero is close to £200 I seem to remember the same nib is on their Magnum, which is closer to £20 and also well liked.

[toastybase]

I’ve just had my Mont Blanc sent out for a full service today.

I drive the 160 miles out to London in order to drop it off at the shop. With that distance I made it into a weekend and stayed over and visited the natural history museum yesterday.

Scones and coffee for lunch there and now I’m just pottering around London for the day before heading back early tomorrow morning.

[Robbo 27]

toastybase said:

I’ve just had my Mont Blanc sent out for a full service today.

I drive the 160 miles out to London in order to drop it off at the shop. With that distance I made it into a weekend and stayed over and visited the natural history museum yesterday.

Scones and coffee for lunch there and now I’m just pottering around London for the day before heading back early tomorrow morning.

Sounds like a very good weekend. I have taken a couple of 146s into MB Royal Exchange and was very pleased with the result, pens came back looking like new and they replaced the barrel for no extra charge.

[RizzoTheRat]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Absolutely! If you scroll back to earlier in the thread, many of us went a bit nuts on sub-£5 Chinese pens from Jinhao, Hero, and Baoer.

Also, my daily writer is a Lamy Safari with the smoothest nib you can imagine (although I think I have Robbo to thank for that).

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Friday 31st January 18:33

Same here, although I've found the Chinese ones tend to dry out quickly if not used for a day or two. I found them a great way to play around with different thicknesses and weights of pen before buying something a little more robust. I now have a Lamy Safari and Lamy Studio which uses the same nib (although I have a Fine in the Safari and an Extra Fine in the Studio). The Studio is my every day pen and writes beautifully but I'm slightly disappointed that the clip scratches the matt black finish off.

I also have this thread, and Robbo in particular, to thank for getting me back in to using fountain pens 25+ years after using a Parker 25 at school.

I have the added advantage of a decent pen shop in town ( PW Akkerman) which causes me to drool a bit every time I go past, they were really helpful and happy to let me try several different pens before I bought the Studio. I'll definitely be going back to them when I fancy stepping up a price bracket again.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

I was an an antiques fair at Epsom Race Course yesterday, where they were incidentally filming an episode of Bargain Hunt, and I saw this:



I didn't buy it though - look at the gap on the tines!

[Robbo 27]

Like a sad git I would be compelled to squeeze those tines together.

It looks too smart to be a shop display, perhaps it was liberated from the Parker head office at Newhaven

[dapprman]

Bought some second hand pens recently (too new for some of you ) however the seller (who's giving up on his collection) gave me a freebie Waterman. I've checked and it's been reconditioned (I believe by Gary Lehrer at GoPens) and holds water with no problems (I rinsed it out and may yet try using it with Pelikan 4001 ink). I believe the model is a #2 with military clip, however if anyone here is any the wiser I'd like to know.



Having looked on line at photos to try and identify it, I'm still left uncertain as to if I'm correct about the model. A number of things at note are the clip has a ball end (which I believe is the military clip), also the clip is secured at the top by a metal finial (most Waterman lever fillers with ball clips seem to have the ball entering the cap near the top for securing internally). Additionally of note the curved ends to the cap and barrel, the single ring on the cap, and the Waterman #2 nib. The lever is on the underside. Oh and it's US made.

[Robbo 27]

I think it iis a Waterman 301 V with a military clip, many were made in Canada in the late 30s and often sold in a leather pouch set with a pencil as a Christmas gift for military personnel.

The nib should read 2 or 2A and is not as flexible as other Waterman nibs of the time.

Gary Lehrer is mentionned, he wrote a box with Max Davis on Watermans, called Waterman Past and Present.

[dapprman]

Nib is stiff for the time and only says Waterman, Ideal, 14-kt. Barrel says Made in the United States of America and i note has IDEAL stamped on it - silly question - could this be the model ?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

dapprman said:

silly question - could this be the model ?

Well, you could try typing "Waterman Ideal" into google.

[Robbo 27]

The company started out as the Waterman's Ideal Pen Company, I think they started in the 1880s, they later chaged their name, more than once, but kept the word Ideal in their branding, today the marketeers would probably have chosen the name as the Ideal Pen Company, and it would be made by Waterman Limited.

Waterman kept the Ideal brand for many if not all of their models from the 20s through the 1950s. It wasnt as if they had a lesser model range that wasnt quite so ideal!

Edited by Robbo 27 on Friday 21st February 12:27

[Parkette]

There used to be a time when you asked a question and you received a comprehensive answer that you would actually say 'Thank you'.

Lesson learned.

[McGee_22]

Not a fountain pen but I managed to get hold of the Dunhill AD2000 carbon fibre keyring that exactly matches the pens. It's a magnificently engineered piece of kit that unscrews to reveal a screwdriver - the last one I had seen for sale was c10 years ago and at £250 was a little beyond my means, but one popped on the bay of dreams recently and now my set is complete.

[Parkette]

Nice objects aren't they? Something about superbly designed and engineered, makes you proud to be British and supporting British companies.

[McGee_22]

Parkette said:

Nice objects aren't they? Something about superbly designed and engineered, makes you proud to be British and supporting British companies.

My collection has increased somewhat since that photo was taken...

[The Mad Monk]

Proper pens at sensible prices.

https://www.dunhill.com/gb/men/view-all-writing-in...