Airmail 69T Or Reg D

[comfortableshoes]

The Airmail 69T /Reg D is an Indian fountain pen that I purchased from Kevin at FountainPenRevolution.com It costs $16 plus shipping. I call it the Reg D due to the markings on the pen, but Kevin lists is as the 69T. For this review and currently for writing I've got the pen filled with Camlin Royal Blue, a very nice regularly colored blue ink.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5323/6897041650_c4af743ae6.jpg

Airmail 69T Fountain Pen by lessherger, on Flickr

 

This is a good looking fountain pen. Of all the Indian eyedropper pens I've ordered this is the best looking. The blue swirled acrylic is shiny and bright the surface is perfectly smooth. The clear acrylic portion of the pen is also perfectly smooth and crystal clear. The clear acrylic has the thickest wall of all the pens I've ordered from FPR and would not crack easily. It's very sturdy feeling. The pen is thick, but not too thick just enough to encourage a loose relaxed grip which is fantastic for long periods of writing. The section is made of the same swirled blue acrylic as the cap.*

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5032/7043135671_ce4f0f9c8f.jpg

Airmail 69T Fountain Pen by lessherger, on Flickr

 

The trim is all silver colored while the fine pointed steel nib is gold colored. I always find this odd. The nib arrived quite scratchy. I used the macro lens on my iPoo touch to find out that the tip was not aligned, the left side was higher than the right. I was easily able to adjust this down. I then ran it over a nail buffer to smooth it out. I further adjustted the nib to write a wet line, rather than the somewhat dry line it was writing. Writing and sketching with this pen is now pure joy. In it's scratchy state it was okay, adjusting the nib would have sufficed, but the added smoothing of the nib just made it better.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/6897039682_37dcf84029.jpg

Airmail 69T Fountain Pen by lessherger, on Flickr

 

It is an eyedropper pen. For sealing it all that is needed is a small amount of silicone grease, I went ahead and added a small o-ring. Before tuning the pen I noticed some blobbing but I suspect that won't be the case now that I've adjusted the pen. The pen holds around 3ml of ink, which is pretty standard as far as eyedropper pens are concerned. It's also a pretty lengthy amount of drawing, especially with it's fine nib.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7066/6897038360_1e071142be.jpg

Airmail 69T Fountain Pen by lessherger, on Flickr

Over all, now that this pen has been tuned to perfection I'm quite happy with it. It's a great fine pointed pen that is great for writing or sketching.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5337/7043132163_7d47f91d5a.jpg

Airmail 69T Fountain Pen by lessherger, on Flickr

*The pen does have a faint "Noodler's" vegital resin odor to it. It's much fainter than any of my Noodler's pens.

 

Pens in the photo: Top Lamy Safari w/ a sealed roller ball barrel converted to eyedropper, the 69T, TWSBI 530 and at the bottom a Kaweco Sport.

**Edit- incorrect ink identified.

Edited April 4, 2012 by comfortableshoes

[Uncle Red]

Wow, that is nice looking. I like the way the barrel looks full of ink. Thanks for sharing.

[mcbender]

These interested me recently, because as far as I can tell it's basically a much less expensive knockoff of the Recife Crystal (which is a rather nice pen). I picked up a couple not too long ago and I've been less than satisfied so far; your suggestions to mess with the nib are good ones and I'll have to see if I can make mine write better. Personally, though, I think the Recife is well worth the higher price; there's really no comparison.

[comfortableshoes]

I have found that putting a macro lens on my iPod touch to be indispensable in tuning up these cheap nibs. You can get a cheap cell phone wide angle and macro adapter on eBay for about $15 including shipping, it attaches with a little stick on ring and a magnet. The quality isn't amazing but it does the job. Photojojo has one that is $20 and much better quality. Combine that with an inexpensive nail buffing stick and you're in business.

 

The nib definitely needs to be messed with, otherwise it's pretty scratchy. After conquering this pen I smoothed and tuned up my TWSBI to be buttery smooth. I would never recommend this pen to one of my beginning students it would frustrate them. But for someone who likes to tinker, it's a good pen for just that.

 

I have not seen a Recife Crystal, perhaps it's something for me to look forward to, as I really like the size of the 69T.

 

 

These interested me recently, because as far as I can tell it's basically a much less expensive knockoff of the Recife Crystal (which is a rather nice pen). I picked up a couple not too long ago and I've been less than satisfied so far; your suggestions to mess with the nib are good ones and I'll have to see if I can make mine write better. Personally, though, I think the Recife is well worth the higher price; there's really no comparison.

[mcbender]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely look into it.

 

As far as the Recife Crystal goes, a word of caution if you decide to look for one: they come in two sizes, the larger of which is the same as the Airmail pens (they really do look remarkably similar), but it's very difficult to tell the difference between the large and small Recife from pictures alone. I found that out the hard way when I bought my second Recife, and wound up with the smaller model which I find less pleasant to use.

[tmenyc]

I have the same Wality 69 and love it. It's at work on my desk, goes to meetings, occupies a semi-permanent slot on my rotation. the nib was pretty scratchy but I smoothed it down. After awhile you learn which inks work well in it, and right now it's got Noodler's Blue and seems to like it. I know exactly how far down I can use the ink before I can start expecting it to blurp on my paper. Nice user pen.

I didn't know until now that it's a copy of a Recife pen! That's worth looking into...

[paolino_paperino]

Would you identify the bottom pen in the group picture of the OP? I find it intriguing.

[hari317]

Nice to see the enthusiasm for the model 69T also called the 69TL. It is a nice solid pen and it was the first Wality that I bought and used for years. Wality is one of my favorite Indian pen brands.

 

Actually that REGD on the barrel is shortform for "Registered". Airmail is a registered trademark.

 

Best

Hari

[hari317]

Would you identify the bottom pen in the group picture of the OP? I find it intriguing.

 

Kaweco sport?

[comfortableshoes]

It is a Kaweco Sport my take everywhere and abuse pen. It's ALWAYS in my pocket. It's also been converted to eyedropper and can be used down to the last drop in the barrel without a burp or blurp of ink on the page.

 

 

Would you identify the bottom pen in the group picture of the OP? I find it intriguing.

[comfortableshoes]

I have the same Wality 69 and love it. It's at work on my desk, goes to meetings, occupies a semi-permanent slot on my rotation. the nib was pretty scratchy but I smoothed it down. After awhile you learn which inks work well in it, and right now it's got Noodler's Blue and seems to like it. I know exactly how far down I can use the ink before I can start expecting it to blurp on my paper. Nice user pen.

I didn't know until now that it's a copy of a Recife pen! That's worth looking into...

It is an excellent user pen that is for sure! Once smoothed it's just so comfortable.

 

Nice to see the enthusiasm for the model 69T also called the 69TL. It is a nice solid pen and it was the first Wality that I bought and used for years. Wality is one of my favorite Indian pen brands.

 

Actually that REGD on the barrel is shortform for "Registered". Airmail is a registered trademark.

 

Best

Hari

 

@Hari, good to know that RegD is not a pen name but the registration mark. That TOTALLY makes sense.

[rockydoggy]

The Recife Crystal was one of my earliest purchases of what seemed to me a very pricey pen at the time (back in 1980s or maybe even the late 1970s?). I recall agonizing over whether I should spend the money. I'd been looking for a second Crystal and saw an eBay listing a couple of years ago for one described as imprinted with some kind of Mickey Mouse imagery. Hardly anyone else bid on it so I got it cheap--turns out that the clear barrel is etched with what I guess are supposed to be overlapping Mickey Mouse ears--the texturing feels nice and it looks abstract enough that you would simply think that the pen'd been customized in some fashion. My affection for the Recife Crystal led me to buy one of these Airmail eyedroppers. And mine has written great from the get-go without any adjustment at all. One additional note: as with my Recife, I can let my Airmail sit for a shamefully long time unused, and it starts up promptly. Nice pen.

[comfortableshoes]

The Recife Crystal was one of my earliest purchases of what seemed to me a very pricey pen at the time (back in 1980s or maybe even the late 1970s?). I recall agonizing over whether I should spend the money. I'd been looking for a second Crystal and saw an eBay listing a couple of years ago for one described as imprinted with some kind of Mickey Mouse imagery. Hardly anyone else bid on it so I got it cheap--turns out that the clear barrel is etched with what I guess are supposed to be overlapping Mickey Mouse ears--the texturing feels nice and it looks abstract enough that you would simply think that the pen'd been customized in some fashion. My affection for the Recife Crystal led me to buy one of these Airmail eyedroppers. And mine has written great from the get-go without any adjustment at all. One additional note: as with my Recife, I can let my Airmail sit for a shamefully long time unused, and it starts up promptly. Nice pen.

I just took a look on the 'bay for them and they are really expensive now, but they look exactly like the Airmail. What is the nib like on the Recife?

[fncll]

Did you increase flow by widening the feed channel or applying some pressure to the nib or other? I need to do this with my Airmail. This is the one thing I have trouble with both of mine.

[rockydoggy]

I don't have either of my Recifes at hand (I'm on the road) but I'm pretty sure that those nibs are both medium, running a tad fine, which is ideal for me. My Airmail (like other Indian eyedroppers I have) is a fine. I've tended to run Cross/Pelikan or MB ink in these, so other brands might get you different results. Bottom line is that the nib on my Airmail is definitely finer than the nibs on my Recifes.

 

A side note: I was surprised to see that the body of my Airmail was stained slightly from what I'm pretty sure was either MB or Cross blue. I should add that the ink had been in there for a while (it took weeks for me to write it out), but I wouldn't've thought that such relatively benign ink would stain.

[mcbender]

My Recifes have two-tone steel medium nibs, while all of my Airmail pens are fine (and look to be plain GP steel). The nib and feed are completely different between the two pens, it's only the overall appearance and body style that's the same.

[comfortableshoes]

Did you increase flow by widening the feed channel or applying some pressure to the nib or other? I need to do this with my Airmail. This is the one thing I have trouble with both of mine.

 

I widened the feed channel with a piece of aluminum can I cut to about 2x2 inches and scraped it repeatedly through the channel. Since the aluminum is so soft it only took small amounts out at a time.

[Muncle]

Thank you for this review. I now have another company to start looking around and keeping an eye out for.

 

I have to say, lately Indian and Chinese pen companies are impressing me a lot more than any of the big ones!

[PDW]

Pens in the photo: Top Lamy Safari w/ a sealed roller ball barrel converted to eyedropper, ...

 

Could you give a few details of how to do this?

[comfortableshoes]

Pens in the photo: Top Lamy Safari w/ a sealed roller ball barrel converted to eyedropper, ...

 

Could you give a few details of how to do this?

 

I bought a rollerball and a fountain pen at the same time, swapped the bodies. On the rollerball body I filled the holes in the back with a craft glue call E6000, I could have done it with silicone sealant. E6000 cures to a waterproof rubbery seal overnight. I squeezed a fair amount onto the end of the pen and rubbed it in with my fingers, then made sure it was dry before filling. A little silicone grease on the threads and I've got a super sturdy eyedropper that doesn't blob or leak. I know to refill it when the ink flows like I turned on the hose.