Choose an inexpensive everyday but lovely

[washati]

OK, I need help and I know I've come to the right people. I began my love affair with a Parker Vector and blue Quink Ink. I am on a quest for the perfect (!) cheapie, and keep buying all kinds of things I dont like.

Want:

-M nib

-medium-wet

-light

-small or midsize

-dare I say, italic? That is not a requirement.

What do you think?

Lisa

[jbb]

I like Shaeffer School pens ($5-$10) and Waterman Philieas ($30-$40). Also, have you ever tried Pilot Varsity ($2)? They're wonderful though not meant to be refilled.

[Samovar]

My latest cheapie is an orange Pelikano. It's a very sturdy pen and write medium wet with a medium nib. I got mine for 20$ canadian, a pretty good deal.

[Anne-Sophie]

I will add Lamy Safari or Vista to the mix. $20 Lamy Converter for Safari $5 prices from Pendemonium.com

 

No relationship other that happy customer.

[aircraft_electrician]

I'll second the vote for Waterman's Phileas. It was my first FP, and it meets all of your requirements except for the size. It's not a large pen, but it's definitely not small either. The kind of broad medium nib is smooth as silk and a rather wet writer. It's not a heavy pen, it weighs about the same as my vintage Snorkel.

 

I've read that in a few polls of non-pen folk the Phileas was chosen as the more expensive pen over obviously (to us, at least) more expensive models from Parker and Mont Blanc, so it's not a cheap-looking pen.

 

On the other hand, Hero makes some nice pens that are thinner and lighter and even less expensive. The 329 is about the same size and shape as Parker's 61, and is pretty light weight, but as far as I know it can only be had with a fine nib.

 

The Tornado from Retro 51 is also pretty nice, and the plastic versions are pretty light weight, but as far as I know they are cartridge only; I haven't been able to find a converter to fit mine. It's a pretty wet writer, and I like the size, about the same diameter and just a bit shorter than my Parker 51. The metal versions are just a bit heavier than a Vacumatic 51, but the plastic ones are lighter.

 

Really, my recommendation is just find a pen shop where you can get each of these in your hands, but if you can't, any of them would be a good choice.

 

Good luck in your search,

Tom

[Cloud]

Hello,

 

You should try in the marketplace, you can get a very nice pen for a great price. The first 3 pen I bought I got them from a store, then I started going to marketplace or ebay and found that I payed more then twice as much as I should have. In other words, I could have had 5 pens instead of 3!

 

I'm going to try the danitrio 27$ pen next week. http://www.stylophilesonline.com/06-05/06alum.htm

 

Or I would recommend a pelikan piston filler. you could start with de m200. Not too pricey. These are very good pens. I have one and it's always with me. Good ink capacity, always start, never skips and nice smooth wet nib.

 

Good luck

 

Claude

[sonia_simone]

washati, tell us what you've bought that you don't like, and what didn't work about those.

 

You might really love a Pelikan Go!, although they're rather overpriced now. But they're still not expensive, and they fit your criteria very well.

 

The Phileas is a really exceptional pen for the price, and if you get a Kultur (basically the same pen with slightly different body style) on ebay or in the Marketplace, they're dead cheap.

 

You can have one of the nibfolk here grind a pen to an italic for you from a medium or broad nib for quite a reasonable sum, if you want to try one. Dillo and Dennis Lively (DWL) could both handle that for you. Dillo put a .6 mm stub on my $27 pen and now I can hardly put it down.

[Lisanti]

I have a great fondness for the Parker Frontier. I don't know what the retail price is, but you can get them for $20 or less on Ebay. I have several, and they are among the smoothest writing pens I have. They are about the same size as the Phileas/Kultur, maybe a little smaller, and come in several colors. I like the flighter, but the teal "chromaflair" is cool as well, especially with the golden nib. Nice Parker medium nib and fairly wet writers, too. (the pens with the black nibs are, for some reason, a little drier writers - go figure).

Can you tell that I really like them?

 

Joan

[lisa]

I have a Parker Frontier comming and hopefully I feel the same about it as Joan does.

About the Waterman Kultur, they are nice and light and feel really good in my hand but the ones with a fine nib that sell a lot on ebay right now is not what you're looking for. The line is twice as fine as my other waterman fine, and much scratchier. (I was stupid enough to try and smoothen with inapropiate tools it and make it worse ) But if they start selling with M nib at that same low price I probably won't be able to resist.

 

If the Pelikano is still as good as it used to be 15 years ago, I can recommend it wholehartely. Very reliable pen.

 

EDIT

BTW, what have you all tried that you didn't like?

Edited October 11, 2006 by lisa

[wiglaf]

Hero 100 or Safari al-star

 

Tony

[twdpens]

If you want to give an italic a go then an excellent value-for-money option would be a Lamy Safari, Vista or Al-Star. Lamy italic nibs come in 1.1mm, 1.5mm and 1.9mm widths.

 

Martin

[blueiris]

I love my Lamy Safari pens, but I would consider both of mine to be medium-dry writers, rather than the medium-wet writer that you want. The Safari is lightweight, and I'd say it's mid-sized. I ordered mine with a custom-ground cursive italic nib from Pendemonium.com (no affiliation with that company), and the upcharge for the service was quite modest. I know there are italic nibs available from Lamy, and that might work if you want a broader italic (I wanted one a bit smaller than the 1.1 size, plus I wanted it to be cursive and not straight-cut italic). For me, it's a great knock-about pen because it doesn't feel or look precious, and it's sturdy.

 

I've tried the Waterman Phileas, and it writes a little wetter than the Lamy, but to me it feels bulkier than the Safari. My friend loves it, though.

 

If you want to spend a little more, the Pelikan M200 series is quite nice, a little shorter than the Lamy, and very lightweight. My Pelikans have been medium to medium-wet writers.

[Ray]

The Lamy Safari is a great pen, but reading your original request it may be a little big for you. The Parker Frontier is a little smaller, and it's my favourite budget pen.

 

Ray

[jsonewald]

How much does "cheapie" mean to you? Less than $10, $20, $?

[meanwhile]

An Esterbrook J bought off ebay might be your best bet - the interchangeable nibs will let you look for an italic replacement nib. (Although you might be better off with a stub, or stub italic - look at the nib articles on www.richardspens.com to discover why).

 

Other than that, I'd go for a Waterman Phileas/Kultur in what they call an F nib, but is actually an M. For more money the Pelikan M200 is an option, but the Kultur writes considerably better with the standard nib.

 

**However** the Pelikan has an interchangeable nib and you could buy a nice stub at Richards Pens, which would turn it into a thoroughly superb pen. I have a black M200 that I bought for my girlfriend then decided wasn't her sort of pen. It's had less than half a tank of ink put through it, and has an M nib: PM me if you're interested - I'd probably want to sell it for half the US new price at Richards Pens, plus UK to US postage.

 

Martin's idea about the Lamy is interesting, but my memory is that it is quite a large pen, and I'd say those Italic nibs are designed for caligraphy use rather than normal writing - even 1.1 mm is VERY wide. A normal everyday Italic (which is usually actually a stub!) is about 0.6-0.7mm.

[lisa]

Other than that, I'd go for a Waterman Phileas/Kultur in what they call an F nib, but is actually an M. For more money the Pelikan M200 is an option, but the Kultur writes considerably better with the standard nib.

Maybe the phileas F nib is wider (my other waterman F is wider too) but the Kultur, I can assure you, is definitely a fine nib, and so scratchy that on inferior paper it bothered me to the point of changing pens.

[fjf]

One of my favorite cheap but great pens: a pelikan m200. Piston filler, interchangeable nib (just unscrew it), good looking...

 

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?c...m200&category0=

 

http://mitglied.lycos.de/exclusivepens1/IMG_5150.jpg

Edited October 11, 2006 by fjf

[murchmb]

If you can find one, a Pelikan M75 GO fits the bill.

[meanwhile]

Other than that, I'd go for a Waterman Phileas/Kultur in what they call an F nib, but is actually an M. For more money the Pelikan M200 is an option, but the Kultur writes considerably better with the standard nib.

Maybe the phileas F nib is wider (my other waterman F is wider too) but the Kultur, I can assure you, is definitely a fine nib, and so scratchy that on inferior paper it bothered me to the point of changing pens.

Well, that's nothing like my Kultur F!

[Samovar]

If you are interested in the Pelikan Go, PigPog wrote a review about it:

 

http://pigpog.com/node/2432