Caliarts Ego - A New Chinese Piston Filler

[taike]

http://i.imgur.com/dLbgcfnh.jpg

 

This pen really puts a lot together:

• Piston filling mechanism
• Clear demonstrator / clear feed
• 2.1ml ink capacity
• Healthy size - 141mm capped / 131mm uncapped
• Pilot 78G-compatible nib
• Fully disassemblable
• Less than $10

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q3NKFBih.jpg

 

More info and photos: https://www.scrivinor.com/article/fountain-pen-find-the-caliarts-ego-piston-filler?locale=en

[Miaxina]

Thank you for the review! Sounds like a good alternative to the wing sing piston filler with an even friendlier budget

 

I hope they hit eBay or aliexpress soon

[Notgatherox]

I have one and like mine a lot, it's a good daily workhorse

 

 

~Epic

[Tasmith]

I like the splash of red on the piston seals!

[ac12]

I have one via Straits Pens of Singapore.

I was very surprised at how well it wrote.

It has a Chinese F nib, which is very similar in width of the ink line, to the TWSBI EF nib, that I compared it to.

Rather smooth writing with Sheaffer blue, on made in Brazil notebook paper.

BUT the blue ink out of the F nib was too light for me.
Note that this is a problem with ALL narrow nibs. A medium color ink will look light and faded out of a narrow nib, as your eye sees more white paper that ink. So the narrow nibs really need a DARKER ink to compensate for the narrow ink line.

The next ink will probably be Noodler's Forest Green, as that ink seems dark enough to look good out of the narrow nib.

 

IMHO, it could replace the TWSBI Eco as the go to inexpensive/starter piston pen. But it has the usual problem of many Chinese pens, that it only has ONE nib size. That is a Chinese F/Western EF/XF, which may be too fine for some people.

[plumo]

IMHO, it could replace the TWSBI Eco as the go to inexpensive/starter piston pen. But it has the usual problem of many Chinese pens, that it only has ONE nib size. That is a Chinese F/Western EF/XF, which may be too fine for some people.

 

What size nib is it? Is it compatible with a Jinhao 159 nib, for example, which is supposed to be equivalent to a No 6 western size nib?

[ac12]

 

 

 

What size nib is it? Is it compatible with a Jinhao 159 nib, for example, which is supposed to be equivalent to a No 6 western size nib?

 

Don't know, have not pulled the feed, and don't intend to.

However, I am pretty sure that it is NOT a #6, as it does not look that large.

[taike]

My best guess is that it's equivalent to a #5. Certainly not as large as a #6. But it's a Pilot 78G type nib so proprietary. The Wing S 659 & 698 use the same type of nib.

[Seele]

The Ego has already started appearing on eBay, but I have acquired mine a bit earlier.

 

Its piston drive system needs careful setting up to ensure the piston itself is fully retracted when the main drive body is screwed home; I have not seen too many pictures of these pens with a fully retracted piston, so I disassembled mine and after some tests, managed to achieve that.

 

Another interesting point is that the piston mechanism body - which includes the flats on to which the wrench holds - is made out of somewhat soft plastics, and the dimension is not always a good match to the wrench. In other words, if the wrench is not too tight, it might get the flats rounded up rendering it unusable. Thankfully I ordered a spare unit, and will get a couple more on the stand-by.

 

Since I also have a Lorelei, I found that they both use identical feeds with thin tails. Caliarts can also supply black feeds which appeals more to me, but of course it is a personal thing.

[plumo]

My best guess is that it's equivalent to a #5. Certainly not as large as a #6. But it's a Pilot 78G type nib so proprietary. The Wing S 659 & 698 use the same type of nib.

 

Do you mean that I wouldn't be able to match a Fude nib to the Wing Sung 698 feed but I would be able to transplant both Fude nib and feed to the section of the Wing Sung as long as they both fit the equivalent of a western No 5?

[taike]

 

Do you mean that I wouldn't be able to match a Fude nib to the Wing Sung 698 feed but I would be able to transplant both Fude nib and feed to the section of the Wing Sung as long as they both fit the equivalent of a western No 5?

 

The Wing S feed used in the 659/698 is different from the one used in the Caliarts Ego. They're not interchangable. The tails that fit into the section are different.

 

Caliarts Ego feed (photo Taobao)

 

 

Wing S 659/698 (photo Taobao)

 

 

 

 

Both feeds use the same 78G-type nibs, however. So if you want to get a fude nib, you'd just swap nibs. The trick is finding a 78G fude nib. Unfortunately, I've yet to see those available. Maybe others have dug deeper.

 

The spare nibs I can find are all just F or EF

 

Wing S 659/698 nibs (photo Taobao)

 

 

Caliarts Ego nibs/parts (photo Taobao)

 

http://gd3.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i3/57157854/TB24bXyirplpuFjSspiXXcdfFXa_!!57157854.jpg_600x600.jpg

Edited June 17, 2017 by taike

[taike]

 

Its piston drive system needs careful setting up to ensure the piston itself is fully retracted when the main drive body is screwed home; I have not seen too many pictures of these pens with a fully retracted piston, so I disassembled mine and after some tests, managed to achieve that.

 

Another interesting point is that the piston mechanism body - which includes the flats on to which the wrench holds - is made out of somewhat soft plastics, and the dimension is not always a good match to the wrench. In other words, if the wrench is not too tight, it might get the flats rounded up rendering it unusable. Thankfully I ordered a spare unit, and will get a couple more on the stand-by.

 

Since I also have a Lorelei, I found that they both use identical feeds with thin tails. Caliarts can also supply black feeds which appeals more to me, but of course it is a personal thing.

 

I've yet to disassemble the Ego so that's good to know. It's also interesting that the Lorelei shares common parts!

[Seele]

 

I've yet to disassemble the Ego so that's good to know. It's also interesting that the Lorelei shares common parts!

 

Taike,

 

With specialist makers of feeds and such components out there, it would be a very silly thing to try to make your own, and by using available parts, it also means not all of the features are used. For instance, the Lorelei is a C/C pen using the Sailor C/C standard, but the thin feed tail means the plug for connecting to the C/C has extremely thick wall. When the same feed is used in the Ego, it also means that the ink reservoir never gets totally emptied, and the inside of the barrel needs to have the longitudinal ribs to stop the piston from ramming what's basically the plug for connecting to the C/C. These are aspects of design, engineering and production planning, which I think are quite fascinating.

[zubzub]

Man I want to buy one, but I just bought 3 Wing Sung 698s because I loved the way they wrote. Then today I bought a Wancher Crystal Double Compact because I wanted an eyedropper. I'll have to circle around and pick these up at another time. Spent too much money this month already

[Seele]

Man I want to buy one, but I just bought 3 Wing Sung 698s because I loved the way they wrote. Then today I bought a Wancher Crystal Double Compact because I wanted an eyedropper. I'll have to circle around and pick these up at another time. Spent too much money this month already

 

zubzub,

 

I just went to have a peek at the Wancher Crystal Double Compact; seems like a C/C with the option of eyedropper operation, seems a little costly to me, but I am sure you'll like it

[zubzub]

 

zubzub,

 

I just went to have a peek at the Wancher Crystal Double Compact; seems like a C/C with the option of eyedropper operation, seems a little costly to me, but I am sure you'll like it

 

I bought it for under $19 including shipping on eBay from Engeika. I sniped it last minute so I'm just as excited for the pen as I my bidding skills.

[Lexus77]

Looks like a very beautiful pen. I'm thinking of ordering one. Can't really go wrong for that money.

[studiohead]

 

 

Don't know, have not pulled the feed, and don't intend to.

However, I am pretty sure that it is NOT a #6, as it does not look that large.

 

It takes get this a Pilot Steel Nib from the Metro. A #5 maybe hacked to fit.

 

(Disclaimer, I am the one who sold the pen to AC12)

[RocketRyan]

Interesting pen, thanks for showing.

[ac12]

 

 

 

It takes get this a Pilot Steel Nib from the Metro. A #5 maybe hacked to fit.

 

(Disclaimer, I am the one who sold the pen to AC12)

 

Bring some to the SF Pen Show.