Cheap, 'boring' Pen. Need Recs.

[Beechwood]

What about the Jinhao 599s.

I think they take international carts, are all plastic, and are nice and wet.

All sorts of colours available too.

 

I'm personally not a fan, as I like metal bodied (heavier) pens but they would fit the bill.

 

Ian

 

 

Just had a 159 delivered and I am so impressed, especially at the £2 purchase price. Quality is very high, nib performance is excellent although a little stiff.

 

A pen to be recommended IMHO

[Djehuty]

Hmm, let's see... most of my cheap pens are metal-bodied, because I have the opposite problem: my hands have troubles, including increased pain from increased death-grippage, when the pen is too light. But I do have a few, I think.

 

One quick browse through the pen box later: I have a Waterman Phileas which is all plastic and quite light, and there's my $2.00 Wality. Unfortunately, I can't find this exact same pen online, but many of the Wality/Airmail pens are inexpensive and made of plastic. A couple of my Chinese pens (one Kaigelu and one Luoshi) are plastic, but they manage to be heavy anyway. And I have what may or may not be a Parker 45, which is also of light plastic.

[LostInColor]

Probably too small.... The JetPen Chibi:

http://www.jetpens.com/JetPens-Chibi-Mini-Fountain-Pen-Fine-Nib/pd/12697

[Sailor Kenshin]

Probably too small.... The JetPen Chibi:

http://www.jetpens.com/JetPens-Chibi-Mini-Fountain-Pen-Fine-Nib/pd/12697

Hey, that's cute. And it does take international carts. Thanks.

[Ian the Jock]

I had a look through my pens, and the Reynolds Accent fits the bill perfectly, it's cartridge only, all plastic, "proper fountain pen shape" and I bought 2 for around £3.50 on ebay.

The only downsides are, that, although very common in India there doesn't seem to be many knocking about.

And

It's quite good looking (if that's a downside).

 

Apart from that...bang on, I think.

 

I pif'd one recently in the fun caption comp pif on the pif forum if you want to look at it.

 

Cheers

Ian

[Ian the Jock]

Found this. Comes to $1.30 per pen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12PCS-JINHAO-599-Transparent-4-color-medium-nib-fountain-Pen-/131473496409?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e9c6e5959

 

Gee, I wonder what the inspiration for this design was?

 

I do not know if they are wet writers - or writers at all!

 

Both of mine wrote, and wet too.

 

Ian

[domnortheast]

Tesco's do a fountain pen, all plastic, international cartridges for £1.50 or so....maybe £1.99 here in the UK but probably as much use to you as a chocolate teapot as you're in the US.

 

Dom

[Manalto]

Both of mine wrote, and wet too.

 

Ian

 

Perfect! I'll get them! Wait... they're not for me. (Got a little carried away there, I guess.)

[Sasha Royale]

The Jinhao 599 seems to do all you describe. They come with a converter, so

you will have to buy cartridges. Flush thoroughly before first ink. If not wet

enough, dip a toothpick ½ inch into dish detergent, then twirl it inside the ink of

a cartridge. Twice should be enough. More, if you wish.

 

Over a five-week period, I bid $3.01 on every one I saw on Ebay (about 50) with

free shipping. I won six.

[doggonecarl]

Rotring Surf.

[captain1796]

The Pelikan Pelikano kids pen. Writes unfortunately as well as some of my expensive pens.

[Sailor Kenshin]

The Pelikan Pelikano kids pen. Writes unfortunately as well as some of my expensive pens.

Lol...why 'unfortunately?'

[AAAndrew]

+1 to the Pelikano. it's actually an amazingly good, cheap pen. That's probably why the "unfortunately" because when you spend 10x for one pen for what you spend for the other, you hope that the first will somehow be better for use. But we all realize fairly quickly that with fountain pens, this just isn't true.

 

I bought one for my son, and it came with a cute cartoon printed cartridge. It is smooth and solid and comes in colors.

[Sailor Kenshin]

+1 to the Pelikano. it's actually an amazingly good, cheap pen. That's probably why the "unfortunately" because when you spend 10x for one pen for what you spend for the other, you hope that the first will somehow be better for use. But we all realize fairly quickly that with fountain pens, this just isn't true.

 

I bought one for my son, and it came with a cute cartoon printed cartridge. It is smooth and solid and comes in colors.

I agree! But more often than not, standard internationals don't fit the Pelikano.

 

Neither do standard international converters! I bought a Pel converter last year.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I know it has already been mentioned, but I also really like the JetPen's Chibi. I use mine for ink testing. But I really want to try doing some nib grinding this summer when I have free time again.

 

I also bought some Monteverde Mini-converters to go with them. Fun stuff! They have replaced the Platinum Preppy as my favorite cheap pen.

[Octo]

I'll ordered a couple of Jinhao 599 to test Lustre Dusted inks and like the pens. They take std. international carts and come with a converter. I hadn't expected to like the ink windows, but do, because they show how much gold is in the converter after an overnight sit. The nibs are good on the ones I bought and the plastic pens are very light. Nibs are either XF or M from isellpens where I bought mine.

[captain1796]

I'm fairly certain that the Pelikano takes an international cartridge. Even looked online. Oh, and I say unfortunately because my kids starter pen shouldn't write as well as my 600 dollar Nibmeister equipped super 500 limited edition half demonstrator magnetic filler thing pen. I just keep telling myself it's the ball nib.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I'll ordered a couple of Jinhao 599 to test Lustre Dusted inks and like the pens. They take std. international carts and come with a converter. I hadn't expected to like the ink windows, but do, because they show how much gold is in the converter after an overnight sit. The nibs are good on the ones I bought and the plastic pens are very light. Nibs are either XF or M from isellpens where I bought mine.

They do look colorful. I have one open-nib solid color that's dry and stingy, but it came from China. Will check isellpens.

 

Then I found this:

 

Cute. Cheap. Famous name.

[grainweevil]

Oh, no, I wouldn't go near the Papermate. I had one in its incarnation as a Berol Handwriting pen and the cap cracked within the lifespan of its first cartridge. (Mind you, that's not usually a problem because most people seem to lose the little thing first.) It's also a wick-type feed - don't know what your plans are, but fwiw should that be a factor.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Too late! Already on its way!

 

As a kid, before fountain pens, I LOVED the Papermate brand. Didn't even realize they made fountain pens.

 

Recently I bought a colorful pack of ballpoints and they are surprisingly good, comfortable writers that cost next to nothing. There were so many in the pack that I shared them out with some young friends.

 

Hope the fountain pen lives up to my Papermate memories.