Ebonite Pens Made By Airmail Wality

[indfpens]

Hello everyone. I am a young fountain pen user from Mumbai, India, and this is my first post.

 

Being in Mumbai, my first encounter was with the Airmail pen company, already well documented here, especially by Hari317. Their factory is my second home-I am there every week, looking at how stuff is made and going through all the pens they have. Although I now know everyone there, I am closest to Mr. Nirmal, who humbly tells me he knows less than half of what his brother does! Very often, we talk for hours over 'chaai'. Recently, while we were discussing Deccan pens, he removed a very old box of ebonite pens made by them, and I am going to document this pen.

 

 

It was made entirely on a lathe machine in two colours-brown and green. The pen has been out of production for many years, and I got what were the last few pieces. I have requested Mr. Nirmal to make these pens again, and it should be available to everyone soon(but in very small quantities). If not, I have the last few models and will consider myself very lucky!

 

 

 

These pens have the standard monotone yellow wality nibs, tipped fine. They are average nibs, and usually require minor adjustments. After scraping the feed channels with a pocket knife, and aligning the tines, this pen writes decently well, putting down a wet, fine line. It does have a fair amount of feedback, which, to be honest, I do enjoy sometimes. Whenever I want a buttery smooth pen, I always have my Deccan and Kim Jumbo!

 

As compared to other Indian pens(Gama, Deccan and Kim), this is actually a small pen. I like the size, and find it to be perfect, comparable to the medium sized pen by Prasad Pens(Tenali-documented by shrujaya)

 

Along with this, I have a few other wality pens that are quite rare, and I will document them soon.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please excuse my horrible photography and any other mistakes I have made, as I am fairly new to this forum.

 

Do take time out to appreciate the effort that has gone into making this pen-it was made ENTIRELY on the lathe, by hand. I have seen the making of the 69A(documented by Hari), and boy, it is a time consuming process.

 

[Anirban4u]

Hi,

 

Welcome to FPN.

 

I remember this pen from my childhood. Though I'm pretty sure I lost this model, I'd search again when I visit.

Do you have a model number or something for this ?

[mhguda]

Hi, and welcome to FPN . You come bearing a wonderful gift; thank you for your post and information, and also your effort to get this model made again. That would be a real boon: it is a beautiful pen. Think how it would look in glossy black!

I'd agree with you about the Wality nib: but they are easy to adjust exactly to one's liking...

[indfpens]

Thank you, mhguda and anirban. I'm afraid I don't have the model number.

[rwilsonedn]

What a wonderful review! Thank you for telling about your experiences and for posting the photos. I had no idea that Airmail/Wality had ever made hand-turned ebonite pens, so this was fascinating. It would be wonderful if they returned to making a few of these as premium pens.

ron

[indfpens]

Pleasure! Absolutely, yes, ebonite is quite beautiful!

[Scribblesoften]

Those are very nice pens. You are lucky to have them and to have your wonderful relationship with Mr. Nirmal.

[indfpens]

Thank you scribblesoften! I have 2 extra and they will go for $18 each inclusive of shipping. PM me if interested.

[Revolution]

Please someone confirm if any of the following Ebonite or not ?

Airmail 444,Wality 71JB,58C,69T/RegD,69A

I'm looking for flexible and fine nib inexpensive pens.

[indfpens]

No revolution, none of them are ebonite. All of them have stiff, fine nibs. If you want a flex nib, you can check with Kevin at www.fountainpenrevolution.com (No affiliation)

[Revolution]

Thanks!

[sajiskumar]

Hi indfpeuns, welcome to fpn and thank you for sharing this wonderful information. Hope i could buy this pen from indian market soon. Thank you for insisting them to make this pen again.

[GHigley]

I bought the green Wality/Airmail ebonite from Kevin at FPR in the last year. I really like the pens looks and size and I'm a big fan of ebonite. The nib is a weak point, but appears to be a #6, so it may be swappable. It is an eyedropper fill only and as such occasional ink drops may be inevitable, but this one seems over the top. Straight out of the box it blobs quite frequently. I will try heat setting the feed or a better nib next time I'm in the mood to work on a pen.

 

I've an FPR Triveni ebonite in brown with the flex nib that I've used only as an eyedropper, though it comes with a converter. Not one drop of ink has ever blobbed out of it. I've never had to work on it either. Also available in the Jr. size and in very bright colorful acrylics. Highly recommended as a superior alternative to the Airmail ED.

Edited January 18, 2015 by GHigley

[mhguda]

Hi GHigley, I saw your post about Wality/Airmail EDs blobbing, and I'm surprised you ran into that problem. I've stopped counting the number of Airmail/Wality EDs in my collection, and I've not seen the regular blurping you describe - though sometimes, when I take an almost empty pen on the road, I may get some drops from them unexpectedly. Mostly, my Walitys are among the best-behaved EDs I have!

So maybe in your case the nib and feed don't sit snugly enough. You could try pushing them into the section a little bit to get a tighter fit, before you go the heat-setting route. (it's less work). If you try this, please report back to let us know if and how it worked out for you...

[flummoxed]

Nice find, I'm envious of you folk in Bombay/Madras/Hyderabad!

[indfpens]

GHigley-some of my Wality pens do blob. But what mhguda says is right-try that!

Flummoxed- I still have many airmail pens left, and all of them have polished, hand ground nibs and well set feeds. PM if interested!

[deepak23]

Was lucky enough to get hold of these 69EBs. Beautifully done and has harware similar to the 69A (acrylic).

 

Adding in to what mhguda said, all the 69 pens require the nib to be quite deep inside the section. The bottom of the W of the Wality imprint on the nib should line up with the section. Will look a bit odd, but these pens need it to be so to work well..

[GHigley]

Was lucky enough to get hold of these 69EBs. Beautifully done and has harware similar to the 69A (acrylic).

 

Adding in to what mhguda said, all the 69 pens require the nib to be quite deep inside the section. The bottom of the W of the Wality imprint on the nib should line up with the section. Will look a bit odd, but these pens need it to be so to work well..

The nib was deep into the section when received and I left it so. I've disassembled/cleaned and will try getting the nib as far into the section as possible next go round. When I saw how deep it was inserted, I thought that might have been the problem! If having the nib even further in doesn't work better, I'll give heat setting a go and possibly a different nib. I was getting ink blobs at all fill levels. I love the pen other than the burping issue.