Lecai Acrylic Eyedropper With Waterman #2 Wet Noodle (Also Stock Review)

[Honeybadgers]

Nib is worth about 12 of these pens

 

That said. The lecai acrylic eyedropper is a chinese acrylic fountain pen that is, for lack of better words, damned near perfect. It's every bit as well made as a franklin cristoph. The acrylic is super clear, the overall fit and finish is superb, it's got a ton of threads for a very secure grab, but has five engagement points so the overall thread on to off ratio is about 1 3/4 turns on and off, yet engages eight super fine threads. Glassy smooth. Threads themselves are possibly some of the cleanest. I've. Ever. Seen. They are so smooth and fine they feel like a textured grip themselves, and are long enough to actually do the job of a grip, too.

 

The section is gently tapered and nice and thick for its size, very proportional, with a small, unobtrusive step between it and the threads.. The pen is smallish (a little shorter capped than a lamy 2000) and nicely tapered, it slides into and out of a pocket very well. It writes nicely unposted (very similar in size to the lamy 2000) and posts securely and nicely, also similarly to a lamy 2000. I've used it all week and haven't seen the caps scuff the acrylic yet, which seems to be a high quality. Feel in the hand is just awesome. it's got a perfect weight and balance. Light, but not featherlight, especially when filled to the gills with ink. It's no pencil thin pen, so CP-1 fans will be disappointed, but it's a bit wider than a jinhao 992. The cap has an inner lip that gets thicker right where the section stops to create a smaller air gap and further improve any dry-out risk. Very smart.

 

It holds about 3-3.5ml of ink, pretty cavernous. I've gotten it down to about 1/2 full and no burping, so my fill with monteverde fireopal will be taken as low as possible, which would have taken a while with the standard F (western EF) nib or the delike bent nib that also fits perfectly. The included feed is clear, but for this hackjob, I used a delike feed that is identical, but black, since I had to heat the feed over a candle to bend it up so it would fit the waterman nib.

 

Before I get to the waterman hack, the stock nib is great. A little dry for my taste out of the box, but smooth with a hair of feedback and no scratchiness. It's completely unadorned apart from an "F" but is shaped identically to a delike nib, so I presume it (since the feeds and screw-out sections are the same shape) is made on the same machines. I made it a little more wet by taking the nib out and pressing down on it with my thumb against a table and it's just right. If you want a "custom" writing nib for this, ebay sells a pack of two nibs, EF and bent, for delike pens, that fit this perfectly. The bent nib is actually a fine architect nib, which is awesome.

 

Honestly, my ONLY complaint with this pen is that I wish it had a small nub somewhere on the cap that acted as a roll stop. It's completely smooth so it will roll. Some people dig that, others not so much, but I like its clean, smooth design. And the cap and barrel's clear segments of undrilled acrylic just add some class to the feel. The section segment of the cap is hazed, which I really like, since it hides any scratches and imperfections and dirtiness that can form in the feed, and returns to crystal clear just where the nib starts.

 

And it fits a waterman #2 wet noodle from a 52 1/2 V like a charm. And the feed actually keeps up. Granted, it won't flex all day long to the limit without railroading, but needlepoint to ~1.1mm it's happy to do. I prefer to just take it to B or so, but it's really not complained with a full millimeter of flex. I had to use the aforementioned candle to heat and bend the feed into a banana to mate decently to the nib, but it's now possibly my favorite pen in my collection.

 

The only other odd thing to note is that this comes rattling around in a little box with a syringe. And by syringe, I mean HYPODERMIC. It's a little death stabber, and the needle doesn't screw into the syringe like modern US syringes. So be careful, and as soon as you get it, run it along a piece of fine sandpaper or on a brick to blunt it because you're gonna get hurt by its little 14 gauge poke.

 

You can get this pen as of this writing for $8-10 on ebay. And it's a steal. It'd be a good deal at $25. It's the quintessential modern eyedropper, but from china. You have to have one in your collection, and I'm heavily tempted to buy a jowo #5 gold nib for it just so my waterman can have its nib back

 

And now gratuitous pictures. Seriously. Buy this pen. You can also see all the fun silver sheen of monteverde fireopal. What a spectacular ink. the haziness/imperfections on the clear sections are just my grubby fingerprints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[fountainpen51]

Thanks, It looks splendid, they are breaking the market. I hope they start in a short time to use size # 6 on most of their pens.

[Honeybadgers]

I concur, a #6 is a more useful nib size in modern times. But it would require a larger pen, as I can't jam a #6 nib into this pen's cap. Maybe two sizes, one with a #6 and this one with the 5 as a pocket pen (it could honestly be made shorter and still hold a solid 2-2.5mL ink and be a super amazing pocket pen.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[Feanaaro]

I have this pen, and I like it, but I would not say it's perfect. My problem is that the number of turns required to uncap it is absurdly high. I use my pens mostly to take notes, and even when I write for longer periods I still pause from time to time, thus a relatively quick "uncapping experience" is important for me. Other than that it is a great eyedropper for a very affordable price, but the cap-turns thing irks me since it is such an unnecessary issue to have...

[Honeybadgers]

1.5-1.75 turns is pretty common in the pen world. Sure, some pens are under 1 (the waterman 52) around 1(kaweco sport, wing sung 698) but 1.5-1.75 is definitely the most common in my collection, with the platinum 3776, pilot 74/91, pilot penmanship, etc.

 

I think this pen does have an excuse for needing such high thread engagement is because the threads are so small and light. I'd be worried about it stripping threads off if it had less. And the threads are so smooth I just don't find the constant capping and uncapping of a note taking session that problematic. I also only cap my pen with a half turn at most if I'm pausing in class.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[crahptacular]

I have this pen as well, and like Feanaaro, the number of turns required to unscrew the cap is much, much higher than what you're describing. Perhaps they have improved the design recently (mine was from the beginning of June 2017), but mine takes exactly 7 full rotations to unscrew. Mine only has a single engagement point for the threads, which would probably explain the difference. It is definitely inconvenient for on-and-off writing, and far out of the norm compared to every other pen I've owned or handled.

 

Otherwise, I agree that it's very impressive for its price point. I won't go so far as to say it matches my Franklin-Christoph demonstrators, but it definitely provides great bang for the buck. My pen has a few tiny bubbles in the thicker parts of the plastic at the end of the cap/body. They're pretty much unnoticeable unless you're looking for them, but very slight imperfections are still there, which I haven't experienced in my half-dozen FC demos. Small sample size, of course. It might also be worth noting that the transparent feed (same kind as in the Wingsung 698 and probably a few other models) is extremely prone to staining. I personally don't mind (and in my opinion, if you're using a fully transparent demonstrator you shouldn't expect it to stay that way forever) but it's definitely the most vulnerable part of the pen as far as staining is concerned, even more than threads, which are always a pain to clean out of any model of pen.

 

All in all, this would probably be the first pen I recommend to people who are interested in fully transparent, eyedropper demonstrators. It's hard to beat in terms of value! I do wish they offered more nib options, as I usually prefer big fat nibs on my eyedroppers. I'm just not patient enough to get through 3 mL of ink with a fine nib...

[Jamerelbe]

My acrylic eyedropper arrived yesterday, and hasn't been inked yet - but uncapping only takes about 1.5ish rotations for me too. Looking forward to trying it out - for the price it looks to be very well made!

[Feanaaro]

Yeah, I haven't counted the number of rotations, but it's definitely closer to 7 than to 1.5, it takes an eternity to uncap. I wonder whether there would be any way to discerne between the many-rotations and the few-rotations models, since on eBay they all still look exactly like mine (bought around last September I think).

[Honeybadgers]

Sounds like they've redesigned the thread. yeah, SEVEN is absolutely freaking absurd! The current model is definitely 1.5

 

I'd guess these things are selling fast enough that we're all getting the 1.5 model.

 

I'd say it's got seven turns worth of threads, but the new cap has five engagement points, so the overall thread rotation is very reasonable now.

 

So let it be known - the old model was silly in that regard, but the new one is just fine.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[Feanaaro]

Can you share the link you bought it from?

[Jamerelbe]

Can you share the link you bought it from?

 

I ordered mine from https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LECAI-Transparent-Acrylic-Fountain-Pen-0-5-0-6mm-Nib-For-Glitter-Colorful-Ink/263230268468?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=562225801117&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Just tried inking it up with Diamine Pink Glitz (a shimmer ink) and, sure enough, no joy - the shimmery stuff clogged it. Not entirely surprised - some pens are better than others at coping with particulates. I'll try again with a regular ink once I've cleaned it out properly, and post my findings!

[hari317]

The listing picture shows a case feeder (separate nib feed housing). Can anyone confirm if it is indeed there in the received pens? also the nozzle at the end of the housing, does it fit a international std converter?

 

 

 

Thank you.

[Honeybadgers]

Yes - Mine has an unscrew-able nib unit housing. No, no converter will fit it (the nub is too big for SI, it might fit a platinum converter but the opening is too small - eyedropper only.

[Honeybadgers]

 

I ordered mine from https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LECAI-Transparent-Acrylic-Fountain-Pen-0-5-0-6mm-Nib-For-Glitter-Colorful-Ink/263230268468?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=562225801117&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Just tried inking it up with Diamine Pink Glitz (a shimmer ink) and, sure enough, no joy - the shimmery stuff clogged it. Not entirely surprised - some pens are better than others at coping with particulates. I'll try again with a regular ink once I've cleaned it out properly, and post my findings!

 

 

Eyedropper pens are particularly bad with glitter inks. The problem is that the more ink in the pen, the more glitter. the more glitter, the more stuff to clog it.

[Sheaffer270]

Very tempted to pick one up and fit it with a nemosine 0.6 italic....

[Feanaaro]

So, the pen has definitely been redesigned, mine did not come with the nib housing, the feed+nib were simply friction fit in the section itself. Or maybe I inadvertently got a knockoff?

[crahptacular]

@Feanaaro

 

My experience is the same as yours once again. The pen I have does not have a separate nib housing; the feed and nib are friction-fit. If you got a knock-off, then so did I!

[Jamerelbe]

Mine has a screw-out nib housing, but I didn't notice this till @Honeybadgers pointed it out in this thread. Good thing, too: some of the glitter from my shimmer ink had gotten caught between the housing and the grip section...

[Honeybadgers]

If only visconti had thought to use a screw out section in their $1000 divina metro, I'd still have mine. Stupid pen had ink get caught in that area and rendered the most gorgeous pen ever designed completely unusable.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Honeybadgers

[Honeybadgers]

Down to about 1/4 full and it has not burped. Also it refuses to dry out when left for a few days and overall is a pretty much perfect pen.

 

This thing is a real beast of a daily carry pen. It can hold a swimming pool full of ink and actually use it - I'll report back if this thing actually decides to finally burp.