Burnham No 44

[Kerzenflamme]

Hi guys, I'm not really a fountain pen maniac but I did quite enjoy reading posts here. I used fountain pens a lot as a teenager and in primary school but due to being scared of losing the pens at uni and at work I then stopped using them, even though I write A LOT. A few months ago I started using fountain pens again and my attention was somewhat drawn to flex nibs.

I bought a Noodlers Konrad which wrote a bit meh. Railroading, hard to flex, and just writes so wet it was hugely impractical due to the drying time. It now has a 1.5mm stub and writes really well.

 

I then bought a Burnahm 55 which needed a new ink sack on ebay which unfortunatley arrived with a broken barell so I got a refund but the nib seemed to be rediculously flexible. I then bought another Burnham 55 which was sold as non flexible. Unfortunatley that one used a different nib size, however, once the nib and feed were adjusted it flexed pretty good actually. During that time I also bought a Burnham 44 which arrived with a well writing but stiff Fine to Medium nib.

 

I dropped the Burnham 55 at work a few times so that barell broke too which made me realize that vintage flex pens are probably not for me so I'm buying a Noodler Neponset which I will mod so I get some nice flex w/o issues out of it. I'm not really after huge line variation but more after the tipping letters get when the pen flexes into its original position (rounded, rather than square shaped with a stub). So a Medium nib which flexes to like 1.5 or 2mm is ideal for me.

 

Either way, I still had the Burnham 44. I cleaned it, fitted a new ink sack and replaced its nib with the flexible nib from the first Burnahm 55 which I bought. The feed on the first Burnahm 55 was older and was too big for the 44. (funny how all Burnhams seem to have different barrell, nib and feed sizes)

 

This is the result:

 

http://oi66.tinypic.com/ibb30x.jpg

Normal white printer paper.

(went a bit overboard with the waterdrops and one hit the "Writing" xD)

 

http://oi65.tinypic.com/2dmcim9.jpg

 

http://i68.tinypic.com/30ldvgj.jpg

 

The pen is very small. It's quite hard to hold if it's not posted. It's 10cm long capped, 9cm uncapped and 12cm posted.

Then nib is incredibly soft. It's really hard to not flex it. It doesn't have superhuge line variation but hardly any railroading and it's easy to flex with quick writing. The pen also writes incredibly dry. As you can see there isn't really much difference in drying time and those are inconsistent too. The pen does occasionally have starting issues when attempting to write a new word/letter. I'm sure this is caused by the tines not being properly aligned. I did bend them slightly so they are more aligned now but I think they are still coming somewhat apart. Looks like the previous owners were holding the pen at a 45° offset angle to the paper to the right so that the right tine is now sitting slightly above the left one. I found by tilting the pen somewhat towards that side it starts writing again but ideally the nib needs to be straighted properly.

 

Cost was I think about 10 pounds for the Burnham 44 and 5 pounds for the ink sack. The initial 55 Burnham was like 15 or 20 pounds but I got that money refunded.

 

Either way I don't want to break this pen as it is actually a nice pen and nice writer so it will go as a birthday gift to my sister. Meanwhile I will be working on my überflex, non railroading Noodler Neponset. Haha. See you then.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Kerzenflamme

[the_gasman]

I'm pleased to see someone else having fun with a cheap Burnham 44. I imagine that yours, too, has a beautiful opalescence. I bought mine for about £13 and spent another £10 on a wrecked Conway Stewart "International", which I bought solely for the beautiful little oblique stub nib.

 

 

 

The Burnham 44 had a dreadful GP steel nib, which was severely corroded within the section, so I was about to either throw the pen away or sell it on Ebay. Fortunately, I thought that the nibs/feeds from both pens looked similar sizes so I had a play at swapping the Conway Stewart nib to the Burnham. Wow! Am I pleased with the result. The pen writes with a lovely smooth wet line, which has a gratifying amount of variation in line width. I have been using it a lot for the last few days (since I did the nib swap). "The Tiddler" will no longer be banished to either bin or Ebay.

 

Cheers,

David.