A few years ago I got a Retro 51 Tornado fountain pen, mostly because I loved the way it looks. It was sort of unpredictable and I could never make it write well enough. A fellow writer I meet for coffee every week mentioned to me her husband wanted to get her a fountain pen and I thought about my Retro. I cleaned out the nib and something told me to blow into it and alas! Some clogged dried ink came flying out. I flushed it out well and it has been writing like a charm ever since in my Moleskines.

So I began looking online for other pens and inks and such.

I am primarily interested in acquiring a small stash of cheaper pens that resonate in some way for me. I also want to experiment with different inks--primarily blacks, blues and browns.

Since then, I've bought a LAMY Safari in Charcoal, which I love. I have recently gotten very nice deals on a Waterman Kulture Demonstrator and four mystery Sheaffers on eBay which are on their way to me. I now need to get some converters and ink bottles.

I must say with the fountain pens and my recent discovery of quality writing pencils, I've found my daily writing practice has become more exciting.

You might want to look at Chinese pens like Hero's - the 329 Parker 51 clone is supposed to be excellent for Moleskines:

wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Moleskine_Friendly_Fountain_Pens

And www.hisnibs.com is supposed to be the place to go be to go for Chinese pens in general, although you can sometimes get prices that are even better on ebay. A new 329 should cost between $10-$15.

You can also get great deals on the Rotring Newton FP on ebay (you might have to use ebay uk) from "Penseller From France" - there are reviews on this site, it's also recommended on the Moleskine link above, and was considered a good pen at $100 - now you can get it for perhaps £20.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to FPN! Hope to see you around.

Thanks. I am dying to get a Parker 51. I was going to wait a couple weeks and try to find one on eBay when I had cash, but I may just try out one of these Hero pens in the meantime just to see what the whole 51 thing is about. I do love the look of the pens as I am a big mid-century nut.


I just bought converters for my Waterman and my Retro and inked them up. The Retro is a much better writer with Noodler's black. However, it takes such a tiny converter, I end up getting ink all over my fingers as I have to hold it so close to the bottle.

I've never inked from a bottle before, so perhaps I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Still waiting for my mystery Sheaffers to come in the mail. Very excited.

isellpens has 329s for $5. Anyone know what the difference is between these and the ones hisnibs.com has for $15?

$10? :ph34r:

welcome!

naughty chrisb! ....and welcome AP

I couldn't resist.....

Turns out that the $15 one is an older version of the same pen.

went ahead and ordered an old school 329. Of course, I ended up seeing someone selling 3 of the old school ones for $10 on eBay. LOL.

always happens.

I ordered three 329s for $15 and then sulked, because I thought they'd be the less-wonderful new models. What tipped you off to the model?

^just recommendations from people here.

I also want to eventually get a Parker 51. I love the mid-century design of it. So I got one of these as a stopgap until I can afford to blow some $$ on a Parker.

You could get a Hero 100, possibly Hero's highest quality pen(?). These are said to be very close indeed to the original Parker 51 - and some of the design changes are improvements. I believe they are made in an ex-Parker factory. I've seen them ebay for $30 new. Reviews are easy to find.

My 329's have just arrived - even though I only ordered them 4 days ago and they had to come from Singapore. Or possibly Thailand. It's embarassing - but now I can't find any ink! I'll order some Aurora Black and post a review.

^At $30, I think the 100 is too close to what I can get a 51 for on eBay, so I'm just shooting for a 51 at the moment. The 329 was priced well enough to just get on an impulse.

Welcome aboard to the Fountain Pen Nuthouse!

Welcome fellow Brooklynite. Are you from toidy toid and toid or what?