Help With Yafa Fp

[superpacker]

Any info about this pen is appreciated. A bit mysterious. Most of all how to fill it! Can't seem to tell if it's just sealed shut from dried ink, or there's a special fill method I don't know about. Either way nervous about applying pressure to open and where.

 

Don't know if it's a good pen. Saw it in an antique mall on clearance for $8. It's made in Taiwan, but with the most springy iridium nib I've seen (German nib) so thought it was worth a gamble. It's very good looking pen, although I thinks it's just a plastic body. It has metal appointments, although the plate is super thin.

[shawndp]

If not for the Yafa branding, it would like like one of those knockoff pens... Yafa makes a BP called the Riatta that shares a lot of the same design elements. To me, it resembles a Platinum 3776 but the band around the cap looks like a Montblanc 146... The bad news is that Iridium Germany on the nib is a very good indicator that the nib is not German (merely that the tipping material was sourced from Germany). It should be a cartridge type pen, but dried ink is holding it back - give the nib a bit of a soak and see if there is ink in it.... Unless I am mistaken, it is not what is universally heralded as an "antique" and $8 is a touch high to me. But, if it writes well, it won't be so bad.

[superpacker]

Yes, I realized certainly not antique. I agree, greatly resembles a Platinum, but I too doubt it's a knock off. Thanks for your imput!

[Drone]

@superpacker

 

Interesting Post - Thank You...

 

The "gold-tone" collar on the section and the nib are tell-tail signs of a Chinese knock-off. How heavy is the pen? If the pen is heavy - like it is made of brass inside instead of being a pen made of acrylic resin (plastic) then it is very likely an attempt by Yafa to do a Platinum #3776C knock-off (I wouldn't put this past Yafa).

 

But to be fair, the gold-tone collar also looks like the collars on Platinum's low-end "Balance" series. But given the embossing on the larger cap band and the position of the smaller cap band, I still feel like this pen is an attempt to copy the Platinum 3776, if-not other high-end "cigar" pens like MB.

 

(Or you might be posting Photo-Shopped blurry pics of a virtual Franken-Pen that actually doesn't exist 'superpacker'? Sorry, I have to ask - for the record...)

 

I recommend you do this: Contact Yafa and point them to this thread and "demand" they respond to what exactly this pen thing you show in your pictures is. I'd be interested to see if they reply (doubt it). Here's the link to Yafa's homepage, contact information will ensue after a bit of digging on the Yafa site. I think Yafa is "based" in California.

 

http://www.yafa.com/

 

Yafa is known for buying-up vintage fountain pen brand-names that have gone out business and releasing (retreading) newly manufactured pens that are really manufactured in China and/or Taiwan (or even India/Pakistan) under the vintage labels they pick-up (e.g., Conklin),

 

Same goes with Yafa's influence over the dying fountain pen industry in Italy. After all, does anyone remember the now legendary Stipula Splash debacle - a rebranded Pakistani-made $2 School-Pen that sold for many times more at retail under the Stipula name? Yeah, convince me Yafa had nothing to do with that.

 

Anyway, I don't want to 100% bash Yafa here. Yafa did do a pretty good job with the retread branded "Conklin All American" pen (even though it has nothing to do with the original "Conklin All American", by design). But that's only one half-decent pen (of many that aren't) coming out of Yafa (IMHO). Yafa has potential - if they get their act together.

 

Oh yes, let's not forget the whole first production-run of the "New" Conklin All American Pens came out with "Toledo Ohio" misspelled on the barrel. Heck Yafa's Conklin All American retread pens have NEVER even seen Toledo Ohio, where the original Conklin company was primarily based! I venture to guess the folks making the pens for Yafa in China don't even know know if they're misspelling Toledo Ohio or not. The bad molds are made, the defective pens are made, and Yafa shipped and sold them anyway.

 

Best Regards, David