Your least expensive but most loved pen(s)?

[Titivillus]

I have one of those Sailor "Ink Pens" and really like it, it writes like a superfine italic and I converted mine into an ed filler so figure that I might need to refill it sometime in 2007.

Keith,

 

Where can one buy those Sailor Ink Pens? I saw someone else mention them here, and I'm intrigued.

 

Thanks!

Nicole

 

P.S. I think I'll be sending some business your way when I receive some goodies from Ebay.

Maja got me two from the Daiso store up in Canada. Maybe sh or someone else nearby would be interested in doing a 'pen run'!

 

 

Kurt H

[Keith with a capital K]

I too got mine from Maja and I recall her saying something about the store needing to restock them...

 

Maja ?

[Maja]

I too got mine from Maja and I recall her saying something about the store needing to restock them...

 

Maja ?

Sorry! I've been away from the pen boards for a couple of days....

 

Well, they got them in, but I had to make a total of 3 trips to the store and back when they sold out...Twice I came back empty-handed With gas prices and a big Buick as our only car (we took it off my in-law's hands), coupled with the distance to drive, I've had to stop making those pen runs, and I don't want to make any promises other than to say that if we are in the area, I can check in that Daiso store. I think someone else in the Vancouver area is buying up a lot of those Sailor pens!!

[aunt rebecca]

at the nyc pen show i bought a beat up waterman that badly needed cleaning and a sac. geoff berliner charged me 8.00 or 10.00 dollars. Elaine took it home resacced it, cleaned it up and lo and behold i had a wonderful flexi nib waterman pen that soon became a favorite. :bunny1: :bunny1: :bunny1:

[Moondrop]

..

Edited November 11, 2006 by Moondrop

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I have a Parker Reflex and a Rotring Artpen. Both good. If your Reflex is bad, maybe you can talk to Parker's service center.

 

Dillon

[ushat]

I have a Hero that cost precisely nothing and is a splendid writer. I bought one Hero from a Singapore firm and this other one was added to the package as a freebie. It isn't perfect, the cap doesn't close absolutely securely.

 

It's vaguely Parker 75-ish in shape and style and has a predominantly blue cloisonne enamel pattern. The nib is perfect for me. I can't say why. There's some sort of strange process that gives you a "perfect pen" every once in a while. Of course, it's totally reliable, doesn't skip, leak or blot but that's true of many pens. This one just has that extra "factor X" that you find so rarely.

[Anne-Sophie]

I'm exclusively into the least expensive pen user category.

 

My free Blue Phileas gifted by my family is the journal writer, it never leaves home.

 

The blue Lamy Safaris a medium and a bold are my daily on-the-go writers, still stickered after many years of use and shlepped around in their individual hard plastic case. The blue pens are filled with Waterman Florida Blue.

 

The Green and Black Phileas is filled with Watermen Black and will be filled with Waterman Green or a mix of both pretty soon.

 

The purple Sheaffer school pen is filled with Waterman Violet.

 

Two Hecter Pen one in Mauve is waiting to be filled with Herbin Violette Pensee,

and the other in dark Turquoise, Blue, Grey is waiting for me to come up with a mix that will match it's awsome color.

I was thinking of using Waterman South Sea Blue as a base and add Florida Blue to darken the color and a tiny amount of Waterman Black or Herbin Gris nuage. What do you think?

 

I bought the cool colors in the Waterman line, all soft the pinks in the Herbin line, as well as violet pensee, poussiere de lune(burgundy) and gris nuage.

 

I love pink and I would like to find matching pens for my pink Herbin inks. I was thinking of the Taccia pens but at around $60 too expensive. Any suggestions of modern and cheap pink pens?

 

Sorry for spelling errors. I have been working almost exclusively in French for the past week.

[grasshopper]

I love pink and I would like to find matching pens for my pink Herbin inks. I was thinking of the Taccia pens but at around $60 too expensive. Any suggestions of modern and cheap pink pens?

Hi Anne-Sophie,

 

(ahem!) i too (ahem!) think that (ahem!) pink (ahem!) is quite a pleasant colour. :ph34r: I just got my hands on a bottle of shah's rose, thinking that it was one of the nicer pinks around, based on scans only of course. At the same time, i got J Herbin's lie de the and lierre sauvage, and only then did i notice that J Herbin has got a nice selection of pinks!! Perhaps you could do an ink review of those pinks you have sometime??

 

:ph34r: I'm also looking for a pink pen or two... :ph34r: I've only noticed that platinum has one model in pink, though it's going for around $70. I didn't know that Taccia has some too. Let's update each other on this as we go along, what do you think?

 

My current favourite "cheap" pen is a free silver Waterman L'etalon (or rather the predecessor to the L'etalon, as i have been informed) with a fine nib, that my wife was given as a souvenir from an airline.

[papyrus]

I picked up one of the rOtring Cores (on sale at Swisher's for $15 including converter). I went with the all black one which seemed the least goofy looking one. This thing is huge, larger than a Pelikan M800. Writing performance is excellent, no flex though, and also the dimpled nib itself looks a little ugly. Snap in of the huge cap when posted is nice. The one thing that is really poorly designed is that through the ink windows you can only see the metallic parts of the converter, not the ink level. Anyway, for the price I will not complain too much, it's just another beater...

[Velma]

This week, my cheap pen favorite is a Hero 329 (they run about $15, if memory serves, but I got mine from an on-line pen friend who doesn't like fine nibs). The Pelikan Future (about $20) is also lovely.

 

It all depends on your definitions, though. I love the italic extra fine Platignum calligraphy pens, which used to cost about $4, back in the 1980s; and the Sheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pens are cheap and cheerful.

[ElaineB]

I finally got a Core, too, because I generally like Rotring pens and I wanted to see what all the recent fuss has been about. (When Richard Binder admitted online that he had a Core and it was a good writer, that did me in! My curiosity got the better of me.)

 

It is indeed a good writer. Very pleasant nib, smooth, starts up instantly every time. But the pen is completely wrong for my hand and my grip. It is the positively most uncomfortable fountain pen I have ever used. I have been playing with it for a month, trying to figure out what I'm doing that is so unsuited to this pen, but I give up. I think my fingers are just too small. My boyfriend tried it and said it was comfortable for him. He's got much larger hands.

 

Anyway, it needs to go to a better home than this one. If anyone wants it -- $10 and it's yours, postage included. This is the all-black model, and it comes with a converter. Only been inked once. PM me if you're interested.

 

ElaineB

[Dillo]

I finally got a Core, too, because I generally like Rotring pens and I wanted to see what all the recent fuss has been about. (When Richard Binder admitted online that he had a Core and it was a good writer, that did me in! My curiosity got the better of me.)

 

It is indeed a good writer. Very pleasant nib, smooth, starts up instantly every time. But the pen is completely wrong for my hand and my grip. It is the positively most uncomfortable fountain pen I have ever used. I have been playing with it for a month, trying to figure out what I'm doing that is so unsuited to this pen, but I give up. I think my fingers are just too small. My boyfriend tried it and said it was comfortable for him. He's got much larger hands.

 

 

 

ElaineB

Hi,

 

That means I can not use a Core either. Around how thick is it around the grip?

 

Dillon

[KCat]

Hi,

 

That means I can not use a Core either. Around how thick is it around the grip?

 

Dillon

i'm not sure it has as much to do with hand size as much as how you grip the pen. What i find uncomfortable are the ridges where my middle finger supports the pen. that's my "calloused writing finger" but it's still too uncomfortable. For brief efforts it's a fun pen to use and very reliable. But it's one of those grips you either love or hate. Circumference is about 1.75". Since it isn't round I really can't tell you the diameter. Best way I can describe it is a 7/16" diameter with a saddle-shaped chunk cut out. If i could put a little thin layer of cushioning around the grip, I'd be able to use it for longer period of time, I think. my hands are probably about average female hands, fingers a bit thin perhaps (ring size 5.5)

 

the "feel" in terms of width, to my hand is only a little larger than an m200.

 

p.s. - given Pam Braun's current price on these pens, trying one is a pretty cheap process even if you don't like it.

Edited June 3, 2005 by KCat

[ElaineB]

My problem with the Core is that the nib feels like it's in the wrong place! When I hold a pen, I expect the nib to align my index finger -- as sort of an extension of the finger. With that weird cut-out grip on the Core, I can hold the pen comfortably enough, but the nib feels completely out of alignment. It's too high! It's perhaps a half inch further away from my hand than I expect. I kept playing around with different hand/finger/paper positions, but I just couldn't get used to it.

 

But my boyfriend said he didn't have that feeling at all, that it felt fine to him. So I think that if you've got thick (i.e. guy) fingers, the nib ends up back in decent alignment with your hand and the grip is comfortable.

 

That's my guess, at least. I was disappointed, though. I'm usually pretty adaptable to different types of pens, but this one defeated me!

 

ElaineB

[KCat]

My problem with the Core is that the nib feels like it's in the wrong place!

i think that's an accurate description of how it feels to me. I'd like it slightly rotated and not so "high" as you pointed out.

[pathologyliu]

This week, my cheap pen favorite is a Hero 329 (they run about $15, if memory serves, but I got mine from an on-line pen friend who doesn't like fine nibs). The Pelikan Future (about $20) is also lovely.

 

It all depends on your definitions, though. I love the italic extra fine Platignum calligraphy pens, which used to cost about $4, back in the 1980s; and the Sheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pens are cheap and cheerful.

The price of Hero 329 in China is 10RMB(a little more than 1USD) What a big profit to sell a Chinese pen to a westerner!!!

[ElaineB]

Liu, here's a web site that will be interesting for you to see:

http://www.hisnibs.com/hero-top.htm

 

We pay quite a bit more for the Chinese pens than you do!

[pathologyliu]

But when it comes to the foreign FPs sold in China , the price is extremely high.

Parker Duofold International 4790RMB (480USD)

Parker 100 3380RMB (340USD)

Parker Sonnet Sterling 1980RMB (200USD)

Parker Rialto matte 480RMB

Waterman Carene Sea Green Shimmer 1880RMB(190USD)

[Carrie]

I picked up my Hero 329 on EBay and I think it was $9:99 for 2. The only websites I've found selling Hero pens have been in the States and they're more expensive than EBay. My least expensive, but most loved pen has to be my Hero 616 "Doctor" pen which is a lovely smooth writer and I like the fine nibs of the Hero pens, mine tends to get carried about with me as my everyday pen.

 

Psyologyliu, just looking quickly on a couple of pen websites for a UK comparison to your prices, Parker Sonnet Tartan is £140, Duofold £200 or Waterman Carene £130. All far too expensive for me and I guess working out even more expensive for you in comparison with general cost of living.