Stipula Model T, Colourful Modern 'flex'

[Iranna]

Iranna, you should go to a pen shop and ask for the little things I mentionned to be done. If the guy knows how to do it, it should be between free of charge and 10€, because it really takes 2 minutes to be done. It was done just in front of me. Pull nib and feed out, enlarge conduit, set nib back on feed, put a scalped blade between the tines, and place unit back inside the pen.

 

There are no penshops in my country so my only option is to send it to someone. The pen functions well enough with the right ink, so I haven't been that active in seeking to have it tweaked anyway.

[Stompie]

Nice review and good comments from a lot of folk - thank you!

 

Iranna - why not just get a scalpel and do it yourself? If you have a Noodlers Ahab or even a chinese cheap pen, you can practice a bit. It is really not all that difficult to adjust nibs.

[drgoretex]

Iranna, I've just solved the problem with the T.

I've had it done by the person who sold it to me, Mr Arabian from Styl'Honoré in Paris.

 

- Tines were spread a tiny little bit

- Ink conduit was enlarged (with a scalpel)

- Nib was fit just a little deeper in the section (so the distance between the end of the feed and the tip of the nib is now smaller by 1 mm).

 

The pen has a wetter line, doesn't skip anymore, and the flex is preserved, without having to bend the nib back to its original position (it's still bend upwards a little, but it works like a charm now).

 

I think the great misconception with this pen, is that the nib is too flexible for the ink-flow. But with a little tweaking, it's now all good, nearly as good as my old beloved vintage flex pens.

 

And therefore, my mark goes from 13/20 to 16/20. Real modern flex, at a fair price. Just requires some tweaking from an experienced hand.

 

 

 

I'm not surprised you had to get the channel opened up. I have three Stipulas: A Vedo Giorno (which I love), the FPN Passaporto and the FPN Modello-T. All three are very dry writers. The wettest is the Vedo, which manages fairly well with wet ink, but try to load with Pelikan Royal Blue and it is a bit too dry. It won't write well at all with a drier ink like R & K Salix. As for the FPN pens, both are so dry that even with the wettest of inks, they write far too dry to be useful. I think I will have to follow suit and will have to open up the ink channel on both of these.

 

As for the T-nib. I agree with the most of the above comments, that it can't really be used as anything more than 'bouncy'. However, I expect that this should change if I open up the flow.

 

Cheers,

 

Ken

[Korybas]

Just to inform the people here that, for some weeks now, I have loaded ESSRI Iron Gall ink into my Modello T, and it still writes like a charm, even if the ink now is a bit drier than Noodler's HOD. I am positive I like the pen's behavior with the ESSRI.

[breaker]

nice review and pics!

thanks!

[GirchyGirchy]

Where'd you buy the pen? Very pretty!

[empyrean]

You sound like me!! Go into a pen shop for some 10 dollar ink, come back home with a new pen! Looks like you got the pyrite color. I've had my eye on that one :ph34r: , but was suspicious of the one-size-fits-all titanium nib. Wouldn't like to rebend a nib. Thanks for the review! Guess I will take my eye off the stipula for the moment

[nafi]

I've had the Model T for about a month now, and this is one pen that I would definitely want to buy in a B&M shop. There are huge variations between different samples of the same pattern; so much that you might fall in love with one and hate another! Picking the "right" nib-feed assembly turned out to be a second challenge: The first two I tried were very wet writers (beyond a matter of taste) even with no pressure / flexing; and a third one refused to write completely, with no ink traveling to the feed after bottle-filling with the converter. Only the fourth one we tried seemed to be OK right out of the box (with minor railroading). Thank God the owner of the pen shop was a real FP nut, seemed to be a little embarrassed instead of hating me for nitpicking, and I even got a nice discount!

 

And what did I do with that nib? I ruined it within a couple of days! Now, a word of caution: Do NOT overtighten the cap! As I had to find out in the most painful way, the distance between the tip of the nib and the end of the cap (when capped) is less than the diameter of a human hair! So, I ended up with a twisted, badly disfigured nib. Time to visit my pen restorer... Fortunately, the nib was brought back into shape in a couple of minutes, and tuned to write smoothly and without a hint of railroading. Now it is a beautiful pen that also performs well.

[olivier78860]

Where'd you buy the pen? Very pretty!

Thanks GirchyGirchy. I bought it at Styl'Honoré, a small shop in the center of Paris; Mr Arabian, the owner, is a real FP nut and is a charming person. If you have the chance to pay him a visit, it's in the 1st district, a short walk from the Louvre museum.

 

I've had the Model T for about a month now, and this is one pen that I would definitely want to buy in a B&M shop. There are huge variations between different samples of the same pattern; so much that you might fall in love with one and hate another! Picking the "right" nib-feed assembly turned out to be a second challenge: The first two I tried were very wet writers (beyond a matter of taste) even with no pressure / flexing; and a third one refused to write completely, with no ink traveling to the feed after bottle-filling with the converter. Only the fourth one we tried seemed to be OK right out of the box (with minor railroading). Thank God the owner of the pen shop was a real FP nut, seemed to be a little embarrassed instead of hating me for nitpicking, and I even got a nice discount!And what did I do with that nib? I ruined it within a couple of days! Now, a word of caution: Do NOT overtighten the cap! As I had to find out in the most painful way, the distance between the tip of the nib and the end of the cap (when capped) is less than the diameter of a human hair! So, I ended up with a twisted, badly disfigured nib. Time to visit my pen restorer... Fortunately, the nib was brought back into shape in a couple of minutes, and tuned to write smoothly and without a hint of railroading. Now it is a beautiful pen that also performs well.

 

I have noticed this flaw too, nafi. One has to rebend the nib to its "before flexing" shape before closing the pen. I was thinking it was a minor design flaw but now you mentionned your issue, I'll pay extra attention to it. Thanks for the heads up !

 

I'm still using this pen daily, even if it's far from having the superb flex from my vintage pen (it's more the M-2B+ flex here), it's perfect to make beautiful curves.

[Chi Town]

I have the original Black Model T, but your's is such a beautiful pen that I may op out and get one like it.

[revdrjaydwright]

Reading this conversation has been so helpful. I just purchased the FPN Model T from a user on the classifieds and have been experiencing the dry writing / skipping. I'm glad to know a quick tune will get this guy writing well. It's such a lovely pen, and I do enjoy the spring in the nib.

 

Thanks, Olivier78860 for a great review!

[Veda2013]

I'm not sure why the dryness on many of the pens mentioned above. I have the Etruria and Model T with these nibs and both are very wet writers. Basically a super wet european M. Even with the 13 year old Omas2000 blue ink it's extremely wet making signing documents a slow but pleasurable process. I kinda miss the super smooth but dryer 18K Stipula nib actually but the T Flex nib is a super consistent smooth writer with some softness.

[GutSchrift]

Thanks for the review (especially handwritten). I've been thinking about getting one of these myself lately and I believe that your review convinced me to go ahead with my original thought and get another m1000.

[dspeers58]

I got this pen about a month a go, from a great sale that Eric on FPGEEKS offered on a number of beautiful pens. In any case I got this pen, and I love it! Thanks again Eric!. The converter is already split and I wrote to Stipula and they are sending a new one. The pen is beautiful. It is well balanced and writes wonderfully, qualifications....with the right ink, (seems to write much better or much worse depending on the ink,eg loves Visconti Blue, Brown/sepia, Waterman serenity/florida blue, but not Mont Blanc Midnight Blue et al, although it does write well, it just does not flex well), and with a very light touch. Right now I have Florida Blue in the pen, as a eyedropper, and it is a dream to write with. It has a different sort of feedback, but with a light hand, it does write very well. It does not require a lot of pressure to get some line variation, but it is not like a Namiki Falcon or Waterman flex nib, which can stand a bit more pressure. It does not seem to snap back all the way. The metal seems less tempered/softer. However, with a very light hand, the pen will give a nice, almost fine line, and with a bit of pressure, one can almost hit a broad line. One thing to remember, is that you kind of have to compare the nib to itself, when comparing flexibility. That is, how does it write under little to no pressure, and so on, until it railroads. This pen is not meant to be treated like an old waterman flex nib. They seem to have a stoutness that the Titanium does not.

Edited May 27, 2013 by dspeers58

[poldy]

ive had my demonstrator for a month. nice nib. good pen. i lucked out with a problem-free nib. have had many problematic titanio nibs.

 

just adding how killer it is as an eyedropper. holds a ton of ink and no leaks. plus its really cool to watch all the ink sloshing around inside.

[kpyeoman]

Out of curiousity, does anyone happen to know who makes these nibs for Stipula (I'm assuming they don't manufacture them in-house)?

 

Any guess on how much ink the pen can hold when filled with the eyedropper?

 

Does the pen have a decent girth, or is it more on the thin side (especially at the section)?

 

Questions, questions.

[olivier78860]

I would say the nibs are made by Bock.

The section's diameters are at the ring, 1cm, and where it meets the barrel, around 1.25cm.

The barrel has a volume which is comparable to the following pens: Waterman Kultur, Platinum #3776's one, Parker Premier.

Let's say, if we simplify and compare the barrel to a cone, with a 13 mm base diameter, and a 75 mm height, it will hold around 3 ml of ink.

[olivier78860]

Just to complete the review.

I have had this pen for quite a while now, but every time after inking it, I noticed I was always removing the ink and putting it back in the box.

 

Some opinions might not be the same, but I think the nib is a real let-down, and I am now trying to replace it by a rigid nib.

 

The problem is coming from the bending/rebending operations. The nib is now wasted (so long for titanium's resilience) and it has become a skipping machine.

 

Because of the lack of experience I had with the pen when I wrote this review, I now feel obliged to correct my approach, and say:

 

Even if this pen has the appearance of flexibility, don't flex the nib, which will deteriorate with use, within a short time.

Since flexibility is this pen's only advantage, I would recommend you put your money into something else.

[dspeers58]

Olivier78860,

 

Sorry to hear about your experience with the pen. Have you written to Stipula about it? The only thing that I have noticed, that was not communicated clearly in my previous message, is that I, who have a very heavy hand, (ala ballpoint use), have had to learn to use a light hand, not only with this Stipula, but also with other flex pens, (the the only ones that seem to stand up under a fair amount of pressure are some older watermans and some of the newer Japanese pens, e.g. the Falcon, Pilot 74 Soft fine, and the Platinum 3776 soft fine, not that I push them too hard (I have learned by springing a vintage nib), but that they seem to have a very stout bit of temper and SNAP back, where as the Stipula seems to be a softer nib, which will flex under MUCH LESS pressure)). Again, with the lightest touch, this pen will write beautifully. No pressure needed to start. Like a 21k Sailor, which only needs to be lightly dragged across the page, no pressure, this nib writes beautifully. With pressure it flexes from medium even to broad, but it seems to start to skip if one puts too much pressure on it. (I am reminded by the video review of Tomoe River Paper by Fountain Pen Day on FPN, who gets his Nakaya to railroad). I really think that this pen has much less tolerance to being stressed than some of the tempered gold nibs, and certainly compared to some of the stainless (however, the Noodlers and Serwex stainless will bend under pressure). I wonder if Stipula would be willing to replace the nib with one of their gold or steel nibs for a fair price or even free. The nib does seem to be easy to adjust/remove etc.

Edited June 3, 2013 by dspeers58

[olivier78860]

Dspeers58, I have quite a few vintage pens with wet noodles or even semi flexible nibs.

And a few not so vintage also with semi-flex to flexible nibs (Onoto 261, Pilot Custom Heritage 92, Montblanc 149, Pelikan M1000)

I have never experienced this problem. I think it is due to the inner bad quality of the nib, and I am seriously wondering if using titanium for flexibility is such a good idea.

I might have been unlucky with mine, but reading how Stipula responds to problem (a few to several months), I think I'll take the easy way, and replace that Ti nib with a steel one myself.

 

The pen in itself is really nice, light-weighted, balanced, has a good ink capacity when used as an eye-dropper.

The nib and feed unit is friction fit, so, it is not that hard to remove it.

 

But, regarding the price I paid for it (190€), I think I didn't make a good purchase. If I had paid 90€ for it, I would not complain that much.