Xfountainpens Is Good To Go!

[mooshi]

I must say, I'm pretty impressed. With permission, I present... :

 

On one of those drunk-from-exhaustion-but-still-can't-sleep nights, I had xFountainpens in the back of my mind from reading a thread about a free ink deal earlier in the day.

 

Lo and behold, I stumble onto their site. With repackaged Diamine inks (Chesterfield) for a few dollars per bottle with free shipping included for orders $15 and up, I figured, why not?

 

I get lost in all of the ink offerings, looking at all of the swabs available. I'm a sucker for Blue-Blacks and iron gall inks. Tossed some Vault into the cart. But that's only what, $7? I need to get to $15! Now what?

 

Then I remember the deal. Buy a Knox pen ($14.99) and get a free 50mL bottle of ink. So I toss a pen in my cart. But I can't decide between the ink colors for my freebie. They have Night Sapphire, which fulfills my blue-black addiction. I'm not a huge fan of regular black inks, so Obsidian was out of the question. That leaves Amethyst.

 

Do I go for the safe blue-black? Or try out this purple, which is my favorite color? I remember sitting there and browsing the site on various tabs, trying to make up my mind.

 

In the end, I chose the safe option of blue-black (Night Sapphire).

 

Upon checkout, I see the little comment box. I took a shot and figured that it couldn't hurt to try. I type in my dilemma about choosing between the two inks for my freebie 50mL bottle. I ask if they could possibly send a 25mL bottle of Amethyst and a 25mL bottle of Night Sapphire in lieu of the single 50mL bottle, but mention that it's understandable if the wish could not be granted.

 

I pay and head to sleep.

 

A few days later, I get an email, answering my comment. Mind you, I had ordered this when I was drunk from exhaustion and actually forgot about it the following morning.

 

Whoo! The fine people at xFountainPens have granted my small request and the package was being shipped as we exchanged correspondence.

 

In a few days' time, the package shall be in my grubby little hands. Until then, I'm just happy for the good experience.

 

Could the shipping and handling have been done a little quicker? Yes. But I'm pretty sure it's a small operation and for free shipping with only a minimum purchase order of $15, I can live with it. The customer service I've received an far makes up for it. Tracking states that it from shipment to delivery would take about 3 business days, so it's not a big deal - from start to finish, assuming no more delays, the whole process will take 1 week from order to receipt.

 

Now to wait for the package...

 

TL;DR?

Customer service is great, though the time between order and shipment could be a little quicker. They read my little comment at checkout and granted my little wish.

[MrThoth]

Your experiences mirror mine with xFountainPens. I've found them friendly and easy to deal with.

[mooshi]

 

My order came a whole business day early. They even dropped in an extra mini 3mL sample of Sapphire for me! (Looks a lot bigger than 3mL though!)

 

I left the house to do some yoyo-ing, so I hadn't gotten a chance to try the Knox yet.

 

Edited September 27, 2014 by mooshi

[Lamyrada]

i ordered a Knox Aristotle for $15 and Also the FREE 50ml Amethyst color.I am fascinated by it, though i am a black, blue and brown person. Another member mentioned that buying directly from Diamine you can get a good deal in quantities. There i went -of course, they haven't arrived yet- and soon i will have 5-6 colors to choose from and test and fill pages and pages with color nonsense. Are we suckers or not!

Edited September 27, 2014 by Lamyrada

[TheRealScubaSteve]

I have a Galileo from them as well. It's a solid, smooth, and wet writer in my experience. The Night Sapphire is a pretty nice ink - much like a darker denim. It lightens up quite a bit in a finer or dryer ink wish may be of interest to some. I'm curious to see what you think of the Obsidian. It's a pretty decent color, but I've had a lot of issues with it drying on the nib/feed in 3-4 pens. Very difficult to get to flow again.

 

I had heard some poor experiences with xfountainpens ( I think on FPN ) so I placed my first order with caution. I've had nothing but great CS and would certainly recommend them. I had one hiccup in an order that they promptly took care of.

Edited October 1, 2014 by TheRealScubaSteve

[mooshi]

i ordered a Knox Aristotle for $15 and Also the FREE 50ml Amethyst color.I am fascinated by it, though i am a black, blue and brown person. Another member mentioned that buying directly from Diamine you can get a good deal in quantities. There i went -of course, they haven't arrived yet- and soon i will have 5-6 colors to choose from and test and fill pages and pages with color nonsense. Are we suckers or not!

I'm thinking that I'll pick up a Galileo next. I'm pretty surprised with the quality of these pens, and the allure of 50 whole mL of ink for free is irresistible And free shipping with $15 purchase? Irresistible, I say!

 

Yaaaay! Another brown/blue/black person! Those are always in my daily rotation. I picked up the Amethyst because purple happens to be my favorite color (but I don't do more than use purple ink for accenting my notes).

 

 

I have a Galileo from them as well. It's a solid, smooth, and wet writer in my experience. The Night Sapphire is a pretty nice ink - much like a darker denim. It lightens up quite a bit in a finer or dryer ink wish may be of interest to some. I'm curious to see what you think of the Obsidian. It's a pretty decent color, but I've had a lot of issues with it drying on the nib/feed in 3-4 pens. Very difficult to get to flow again.

 

I had heard some poor experiences with xfountainpens ( I think on FPN ) so I placed my first order with caution. I've had nothing but great CS and would certainly recommend them. I had one hiccup in an order that they promptly took care of.

 

I did not pick up the Obsidian. I'm quite happy with the Archival. Once I get through my current bottle, I'll happily pick up the 100mL one. I'm actually leaning toward using the Night Sapphire over my Noodler's 54th as my daily ink!

 

I also didn't read too much about good experiences with xFountainPens, but I took my chances. And I'm sure glad that I did! Quite the happy customer.

 

*** Question for the two of you ***

 

Did either of you get the little 8mL bottle like the one in my photo above? I really want another one, but I'm not sure if they're inserted into random packages or are included in every order. I ended up giving mine away in a gift-pack that I made for a new girl at school, thinking I could easily find the small Nalgenes locally. But I was wrong... the smallest I can get around here are the 30mL size and to order online, the best option is $13 for a 12-pack via Amazon. I just want 1 or 2 bottles. I'll be travelling a lot in the coming months in preparation for graduation and starting my new career. I know I could use the Goulet vials, but I just really like the mini Nalgenes a lot.

Edited October 2, 2014 by mooshi

[TheRealScubaSteve]

I did not pick up the Obsidian.

 

Oops, I misread. I'm not a fan of black ink at all, but I grabbed it since it was free. I figured I might one day have use for a black ink.

 

*** Question for the two of you ***

 

Did either of you get the little 8mL bottle like the one in my photo above?

 

No, and I'm totally bummed! They must have seen my address and decided a Massh**e didn't deserve a freebie! That little bottle did look like a cool size, especially for mixing small custom batches of ink. Maybe if you e-mail Debra and bribe her with promised future orders of goodies she would include a couple empties for you.

[mooshi]

 

Oops, I misread. I'm not a fan of black ink at all, but I grabbed it since it was free. I figured I might one day have use for a black ink.

 

 

No, and I'm totally bummed! They must have seen my address and decided a Massh**e didn't deserve a freebie! That little bottle did look like a cool size, especially for mixing small custom batches of ink. Maybe if you e-mail Debra and bribe her with promised future orders of goodies she would include a couple empties for you.

haha! I would feel bad because they had already been nice enough to set me up with two different 25mL bottles in lieu of the single 50mL freebie!

 

I must say that she is wonderful at answering my e-mails, though. And as long as their CS continues this way, they've got themselves a repeat customer.

Edited October 2, 2014 by mooshi

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Sometimes I wish that all I get is poor customer service. That way, it'd be easier to convince myself I didn't need a new pen or ink.

[mooshi]

Sometimes I wish that all I get is poor customer service. That way, it'd be easier to convince myself I didn't need a new pen or ink.

haha True! I'm sitting here, looking at Amazon, wondering if I want to pull the trigger on the dozen 0.25 oz Nalgenes. At this point, I'd be certain to have the bottles in time for next week's travels whereas xFP would be cutting it close, if I'm even able to grab a bottle.

 

I'm trying to be good since I really could just use the Goulet vials and save money for the upcoming move... but those Nalgenes....

 

My justification is that I would totally "need" the Nalgenes for the impending move.

Edited October 2, 2014 by mooshi

[TheRealScubaSteve]

The Goulet vials are pretty good, but I often tighten them. And tighten them again. I've never had a leak, but I guess I'm just paranoid. You'd better get the nalgenes, they seem to have more threads and tighten much better. You wouldn't want to risk a spill during the move, now would you?

 

Hmm, I hope I wasn't supposed to discourage you from splurging . . .

 

I only wish that the Nalgene's had a little bit of a wider mouth. That's the one thing I hate about the sample vials and Chesterfield inks is that I find it nearly impossible to not get ink all over the pen body. Years ago I had small Nalgenes about 1/3 smaller than the 50 ml containers xfountainpens uses. They had a nice wide opening that I used for travel shampoos.

 

*Edit: What's the link on Amazon? I can't seem to find them except for a case of 2,000 for only $615. Way too many for me - maybe I could organize a group buy. On second thought, a buck a piece is quite pricy. I'd rather buy a bottle of ink.

Edited October 2, 2014 by TheRealScubaSteve

[mooshi]

The Goulet vials are pretty good, but I often tighten them. And tighten them again. I've never had a leak, but I guess I'm just paranoid. You'd better get the nalgenes, they seem to have more threads and tighten much better. You wouldn't want to risk a spill during the move, now would you?

 

Hmm, I hope I wasn't supposed to discourage you from splurging . . .

 

I only wish that the Nalgene's had a little bit of a wider mouth. That's the one thing I hate about the sample vials and Chesterfield inks is that I find it nearly impossible to not get ink all over the pen body. Years ago I had small Nalgenes about 1/3 smaller than the 50 ml containers xfountainpens uses. They had a nice wide opening that I used for travel shampoos.

 

*Edit: What's the link on Amazon? I can't seem to find them except for a case of 2,000 for only $615. Way too many for me - maybe I could organize a group buy. On second thought, a buck a piece is quite pricy. I'd rather buy a bottle of ink.

I have no problem using the Goulet vials. haha I just REALLY Like the Nalgene bottles! They're cute.

 

The tiny bottle that I had was able to accommodate my FPs just fine, with room to spare. The one I didn't try was the Pelikan M205. The bottle that I was given looks like it has a narrower mouth than the "narrow mouth" that I had linked to. The one from the Amazon link looks like the caps from the 30, 15, and 8mL bottles are interchangeable.

 

The 8 and 15mL Nalgene are hard to come by these days, let alone in the wide-mouth variety. Wish I still worked in the lab!

 

I'm just being picky and not at all thrifty. haha! After a hiatus from buying FPs/FP accessories (har har... I read that in Hank Hill's voice ), I'd jumped right back in, head first, buying things left and right. haha!

Edited October 2, 2014 by mooshi

[jasonditz]

Most of the pens I've bought from X have been disappointing, but I love their bottled inks, as well as the international cartridges.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Hank Hill is usually not a violent man, but I've witnessed what he is capable of first hand. He takes ballpoint pen users to the grave.

 

http://media.giphy.com/media/13nER8agWZeeI/giphy.gif

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Most of the pens I've bought from X have been disappointing, but I love their bottled inks, as well as the international cartridges.

 

I have a couple pens from them (and honestly was drawn in because of the free ink bottles), but I have been quite surprised with how well they write. Both of them write very smoothly and very wet, which I like. I've not tried any of their cartridges. Which colors do you like?

[mooshi]

Most of the pens I've bought from X have been disappointing, but I love their bottled inks, as well as the international cartridges.

Which pens did you get? I got the Knox one specifically because I kept reading about people switching out their nibs for Knox ones, so I gave it a chance. I'm actually pretty happy with it, despite the fact that it writes broader than what I normally use.

 

I am loving the Chesterfield Archival Vault right now.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Both my Galileo and Aristole (EF) write quite broad, too. It's somewhere between a medium and a broad range (at least in Japanese terms). I shudder to think how quickly I'd give them away if I had ordered a medium. Three words and the page would be full!

[mooshi]

Both my Galileo and Aristole (EF) write quite broad, too. It's somewhere between a medium and a broad range (at least in Japanese terms). I shudder to think how quickly I'd give them away if I had ordered a medium. Three words and the page would be full!

I'm kind of curious to see how the broad would write! I've never bought any nibs that were marked higher than an F.

 

The EF I have on the Avicenna right now is on par with one of the Lamy EF/F I had in the past. I suppose I should have expected that, considering that they're German nibs. (I still feel that the Lamy wrote even more broad, but I can't say for certain since I gave them all away.)

Edited October 2, 2014 by mooshi

[TheRealScubaSteve]

I lust after a broad nib's wet, gushing lines, but I'm afraid that I'd never use a pen with such a broad nib because my writing tends to be on the finer side. I could definitely go for a Japanese broad, I think, but given how my two Knox EF nibs write a broad would be like using a paintbrush.

 

 

In fairness, my Lamy is significantly drier than the Knox.

Edited October 2, 2014 by TheRealScubaSteve

[mooshi]

I lust after a broad nib's wet, gushing lines, but I'm afraid that I'd never use a pen with such a broad nib because my writing tends to be on the finer side. I could definitely go for a Japanese broad, I think, but given how my two Knox EF nibs write a broad would be like using a paintbrush.

 

In fairness, my Lamy is significantly drier than the Knox.

http://scontent-a-lax.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xpf1/t51.2885-15/1391405_1537610476456089_2146394547_n.jpg

 

I was feeling adventurous and decided to grind down my Knox nib. This was just on a 1200 grit diamond sharpener, so I'll be smoothing it out on some Japanese whetstones when I get the chance this weekend.