Favorite Pens That Are So Unloved, It Drives You Mad.

[Tas]

Urban seems to be pretty unpopular, but among the modern Parkers I really love the urban. The shape also is very evolved and shifts the balance downwards making it a nice writer

 

Yay !

 

[GoldenNibs]

Literally any third tier vintage pen like Arnolds, wearevers, Epenco, etc. I have a weird patterned Arnold pen and pencil in black with green and white lines wrapping around the pen. It has a steel nib and is one smooth writing pen for a third tier dimestore type pen.

[IndigoBOB]

FPR Ebonite Himalayan for $25 !!!

 

https://fprevolutionusa.com/products/fpr-himalaya

 

The best deal in ebonite that I know of and a very good writer.

 

 

+1

[Flippy]

Urban seems to be pretty unpopular, but among the modern Parkers I really love the urban. The shape also is very evolved and shifts the balance downwards making it a nice writer

I think that's mainly because of Parker's moving off the production to China. Unfortunately, anything that comes out of China is apparently of "poor quality"

 

I too love the Urban, which also brings me to her another pen, the IM. It is a balanced and beautifully made pen, and quite inexpensive too.

[Arkanabar]

I'm clearly going to have to reconsider modern Parkers. The Parker FP cart is probably just about the best design for such a thing out there. It is vastly more functional than the international short cart.

 

Given that my preference is for a mid-girth (9-10.5mm), lightweight pens, preferably not with a screw cap, what modern, entry-level Parker would y'all recommend?

[Runnin_Ute]

I'm clearly going to have to reconsider modern Parkers. The Parker FP cart is probably just about the best design for such a thing out there. It is vastly more functional than the international short cart.

 

Given that my preference is for a mid-girth (9-10.5mm), lightweight pens, preferably not with a screw cap, what modern, entry-level Parker would y'all recommend?

My impression/experience with modern Parker pens (specifically the IM) is not very good. I have two. They write well enough, but regardless of ink are hard starters and dry out quickly. I have never been able to adequately remedy the situation. I wouldn't call them light either.

 

The ones I have are heavier than my 45 Flighter, just using the "which feels heavier?" method. They seem to post securely though. I haven't used them recently and don't recall what the balance is like. I have one with a Medium and one with a Fine.

 

I really wanted to like the pen, but it just didn't want to cooperate.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Runnin_Ute

[MercianScribe]

Osmiroid 65...but I can't say it drives me mad. Because that leaves more for me to find.

 

I love 65s! I have... many! I much prefer the old pattern, the cigar shaped ones, but I have some of the others too. I much prefer them to 75s too.

 

To the Morrison and Moore brands mentioned above I will add Grieshaber and Eclipse. Grieshaber nibs are usually very nice. Eclipse pens are still a bargain on eBay until the word gets around.

 

I don't have any Eclipse, but I did just today get a Marxton which is quite nice. It's a Big Red looking variant, but the black stripes are painted on, not BHR with the RHR. Its nib is delightfully flexy though. Looking that up, I found that Eclipse had soooo many sub-brands!

 

Eclipses are starting to fetch some crazy prices though, now.

 

Burnham. The most gorgeous celluloids, and yet everyone goes off to buy Swans and Onotos and Conway Stewarts.

 

and really there's not a whole lot of love out there for the French brands, but I have some Edacoto, Bayard, Meteore pens that are really gorgeous. Stylochap, Matcher Colombes... apart from Waterman, French pens remain a little corner of the fountain pen universe that's not well known outside the Hexagon.

 

It doesn't drive me mad, though. If everyone else overlooks the quality of these pens.... life is a bit cheaper for me :-)

 

Burnhams are great, but I wouldn't say they're so unappreciated. They certainly seem to command a good price. Their flex nibs are excellent!

 

I've been stalking Edacoto and Bayard for some time, but they're really expensive on eBay.

 

Literally any third tier vintage pen like Arnolds, wearevers, Epenco, etc. I have a weird patterned Arnold pen and pencil in black with green and white lines wrapping around the pen. It has a steel nib and is one smooth writing pen for a third tier dimestore type pen.

 

I have a beautiful, comfortable, practical combo that I think is Arnold. I've only had one Wearever (a Zenith) and it was one of the smoothest nibs I've ever come across, with easy line variation - so much so I could hardly believe they were considered third tier. It's one of the few pens I kind of regretted getting rid of.

 

As for my main unappreciated pens... call me mean-spirited but I'm not just about to advertise them on a board of however many thousand pen nuts and watch them suddenly rocket in value!

[bob_hayden]

Arkanabar, what do you like about the Parker cartridges? For me the taper to the slim end creates a space that tends to trap ink by surface tension. And the non-Penman ones tend to be a bit cloudy so it is hard to see the ink level. The fat, untapered Sheaffer USA cartridges did not have those problems as much, and AFAIK are the only design in which the cartridge is held in place securely. That said, I (but not everyone) have had good luck with the Parker Betas from India ($7 and up on eBay where today they are fairly scarce) and I (and I think most others) like the Frontier ($20 and up).

[sidthecat]

Early Moores seem a little undervalued for their quality. In the Thirties they started monkeying around with the nibs, and what a falling-off there was.

[Ian the Jock]

Huahong

Brilliant Chinese pens of very good quality for very little money.

 

And Picasso

Real quality pens, and the fact that they are made in China shouldn't come into it, but being so seems to automatically rule them out for many people, which is a shame.

 

Ian

[Noihvo]

Arkanabar, what do you like about the Parker cartridges? For me the taper to the slim end creates a space that tends to trap ink by surface tension. And the non-Penman ones tend to be a bit cloudy so it is hard to see the ink level.

 

[gibbs]

I have to agree on the parker vector I have had mine for years and the thing seems bulletproof it's been dropped nib first several times, I've left it inked for months picked it up and its started right away.

 

For me, I'd probably say it's the 45, in my opinion, they are a great pen which is unfortunately overshadowed by the 51 which is a great pen and I wonder if I'd get on better with mine if I had it serviced it.

But there are some things that I feel for an edc pen the 45 is better at

[artart]

Diplomat Magnum Soft Touch, one of my smoothest nibs, neither wet nor dry, just right

a pen that I feel gets less attention that it deserves (but it doesn't drive me mad)

[KLscribbler]

It has to be the Waterman Harmonie for me. Not well known, now long-discontinued. Doesn't seem to have been well-received in its time.

 

I still consider the medium nib on my Harmonie to be one of my all-time favorite steel nibs. It is not only smooth and lusciously wet, but the tipping has this unique... wedge-like shape, I don't really know how to describe it - it's something more felt than seen, when writing with it, the nib tipping doesn't feel too rounded or "blobby" as modern round nibs often are, but rather it feels like the tipping is shaped such that its contact surface with the paper is somewhat triangular. Like a reversed duck's foot, if you can imagine that. It makes for a really stable and confident writing feel, and perhaps because the tip-to-paper contact area is a bit larger than it would be on typical round nibs, it also lays down a wider and wetter line than the average Western medium. This is a particularly good nib for fast writing and prolonged use. And it provides a wonderful reprieve from the monotonous "iridium BLOB" writing feel one gets from so many modern nibs.

 

On another note, I must add my voice to the chorus of approval for the Parker Vector in this thread - really a nice solid dependable workhorse. My father's college pen was a black Vector, and it later became my high school pen as well! Two generations of hard use and none the worse for wear. Janesville made good stuff back in the day...

[tragique]

Surely the Lamy Safari is one of the most popular affordable pens around. Not sure I get the point about people disliking a particular color. If people prefer it in a different color than the green you mention, it's still the same pen, isn't it?

 

I don't feel like I'm really in the know on pens that other people have missed, but I do like Moore pens, a vintage brand that seems to get discussed less than many others. I have four now, an L-72, L-82, L-94, and a Moore Junior, and am on a quite non-urgent lookout for others as they turn up.

 

Or come to think of it, there is my Haolilai 801F. It's a good quality pen with a 14k nib (not just plated) that's a bit different from what you usually think of when people say "Chinese pen". In fact, I'd rate it very close to the mid-range Pilot series, such as the Custom 74. The only reason mine isn't used more is that the nib is a bit broader than I usually prefer.

 

Not totally unknown, in fact I recall at least one thread about it here, but it does tend to get lost in the throng. I had a picture of it on Photobucket, and still have the picture somewhere on my computer, but it's not convenient to hunt for it now.

 

I'm a big fan of Moore as well. Those pens are criminally underrated. There are some interesting discussions about them on here, but they are few and far between.

[Nosferatualso]

A lot of people sneer at Parker Vectors as being "school pens" -- but I love mine. They're inexpensive, they come in fun colors, and they're little workhorses.

For vintage, a brand that gets overlooked a lot is Morrison. They were were a second tier company and made some very nice pens. I have 5 at this point (although I still need to get a couple of the ringtops re-sacced). I keep hoping that someday I will be able to get a sterling filigree overlay to match the gold-filled filigree on a couple of my ringtops (the first one of which has a very sweet and juicy M or B nib on it, but has a bad habit of unscrewing itself from the cap while I have it on the lanyard, so it doesn't go out of the house any more...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I love vectors!!

[MuddyWaters]

Their being unloved doesn't bother me except that there are less reviews (fountain pen porn) and they are less carried by local stores: full line of Faber castell pens.

[langere]

I don't think Retro 51 pens get enough love. The Tornados are kind of spunky, not very pretentious, but good and dependable writers. Many have interesting and even beautiful designs.

 

Erick

[bob_hayden]

 

Diplomat Magnum Soft Touch

 

I looked it up and it appears very similar to the Diplomat pens that used to be the default FP at Staples.

[GoldenNibs]

Early Moores seem a little undervalued for their quality. In the Thirties they started monkeying around with the nibs, and what a falling-off there was.

I just sold this lovely Moore combo pen. Wrote really nice with a great nib. Combos do not really appeal to me so I let it go.