Hello from Australia

[MrSnrub]

Greetings all! Here is the story of my introduction to the world of fountain pens...

 

When I was about eight, I received my first fountain pen, along with a bottle of Quink. The pen was a red "Queen Youth" and was made in Japan - in retrospect, I can say that it looked an awful lot like a Parker 21 clone.

 

This was in the early 90s, so fountain pens had long since ceased to be an everyday writing instrument for most people. Having used nothing else but ballpoints up until then, it was a real novelty to use this strange pen that you filled from a bottle of ink. I can still remember my parents demonstrating the ritual of unscrewing the barrel, and pumping the little metal bar to fill it up.

 

Of course, I only had it for a week or so before I snapped the end off one of the tines

 

Fast forward to last month, and I came across a web page with reviews of mainly ballpoints, but they did mention fountain pens. That made me remember that first fountain pen of mine, and I got to thinking, "Hmmm, I wouldn't mind a *proper* fountain pen..."

 

A scant few weeks later, and I now have:

 

Pelikan M200 green marbled, medium nib (inked up with Waterman Havana Brown)

Lamy Vista, fine nib (inked up with Waterman Florida Blue)

Copper Esterbrook J, 9556 fine nib (inked up with Pelikan Violet)

Parker "51" Aero MkI Navy Grey, Lustraloy cap (inked up with Aurora Black, sadly the iridium is missing from the nib, although some gentle sanding on 2000 grit wet/dry has helped a little)

 

I guess I have my "proper" fountain pen now... four times over! Must... curb... addiction...

[Slush99]

Welcome! it is really hard to curb that addiction...

[playpen]

Welcome to our world! Where in Australia are you?

[JRodriguez]

Welcome. The background info was great. I'd love to hear what you think of each of the pens when you have a chance.

[MrSnrub]

Hi playpen, I am from just out of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria.

 

JRodriguez, here's my first impressions of my pens...

 

The Pelikan M200 is very smooth to write with and also (to my eye at least) has a very "classic" look to it. As others have observed, the Pelikan nibs run wide, and the medium is perhaps a little oversize for my cramped writing style. It is lighter than I expected, too. The only other niggle that I have found is that it doesn't always start on the first attempt.

 

The Lamy Vista has an excellent, wet nib; it starts first time, every time, and is just as smooth as the Pelikan. It is my "workhorse" pen, and goes with me to work every day. The only shortcoming of the pen is that the clip doesn't provide nearly enough grip if the fabric of your shirt isn't thick enough (the pen slides around in my pocket and has already fallen out once!)

 

Haven't used the Estie or the Parker "51" much yet. I can't fault the Estie so far, although when cleaning the renew point, the nib came loose from the feed and I had to reseat it.

[ballboy]

Nice catch up with the pen collection after all that time!

[southpaw]

Hello and welcome aboard.

 

You want to curb your new-found addiction, so you registered here?!?!?! :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd: :ltcapd:

 

Anyhow, welcome to a forum of FP addicts, who are only too happy to encourage one another!

Edited April 23, 2006 by southpaw

[Ruaidhri]

Welcome aboard

Great to see you have a 51 in that bunch. A quick visit to someone like Richard Binder, John Mottishaw or any of the other heavy duty nib folks would probably have it writing as a 51 should. Just a thought - and I've no connection with any of these nibmeisters.

Check out the Parker Forum sometime.

Regards,

Ruaidhrí

 

BTW - does the ink not fall out of the bottle when you open it down there :bonk: