UK-based members looking for absurdly cheap fountain pens upon which to practise nib grinding etc. might be interested to know about something that I spotted in my local Tesco supermarket this evening: a fountain pen with cartridges for 49 pence! I did look for a 'Made for Tesco by Omas' engraving, but I couldn't see one. It must have been the light...

Neil

What about a Marks & Spencer by Montegrappa

I've got a few crappy pens I'll send you if you like. Might take a while from NZ.

PM me your address if you like.

Gary

Thanks so much for the very kind offer, Gary. I actually have a few cheap pens that I keep meaning to experiment upon; I was just mentioning the 49p bargain in case others were interested.

Neil

Neil,

I was actually shown one of these pens on Saturday (at the WES Council meeting). The person who bought it also had a couple more cheapies: a brightly coloured one by (I think) WH Smith for about a pound, the other by BIC. This last one is actually quite a nice pen! OK, it will set you back a whole fiver (minus the mandatory penny) but I certainly wouldn't be embarrased to own and use one! Like the others it accepts international standard sized cartridges.

Martin

You'll find some of these cheap cartridge pens will also work perfectly as eyedropper fillers, too.

Ray

I've remortgaged the house and splashed out on one of the Tesco bargains (which actually turned out to be 48p, one pence cheaper than I thought). Strangely, it's not quite as bad I thought it would be. I don't think that my Vacumatic has anything to worry about, but I was amazed to see that you can get a bit of line variation out of the nib. And the blue ink that comes with the pen is quite a nice colour. As the pen takes international-sized cartridges, I suppose that you could, if you were doing something that might involve damage to a decent pen, load up with something nice (a Herbin cartridge, perhaps) and write away without a care.

Neil