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Video Review: Penbbs 355 "bulkfiller"


alanlight

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Thanks for doing a great review of this new pen. I'm not familiar with bulkfillers, does it have an ink shut off like vac fillers do? I'm wondering how this would do on a airplane.

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We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

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Thanks for doing a great review of this new pen. I'm not familiar with bulkfillers, does it have an ink shut off like vac fillers do? I'm wondering how this would do on a airplane.

It does (I should have mentioned that...).

I would think it should do just as well as a vac filler on an airplane, I'll take it on my next flight and find out for sure...

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Well i believe 2005 it is the year of the birth for the PenBBS forum . :)

I love Fountain Pens, with hooded nib in the classic style, Parker 51/61 type .



Ionut - Marius

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You did not engaged the click mechanism at the top of the pen ( it is similar like the one in Wing Sung 3008 click lock mechanism ) !

I love Fountain Pens, with hooded nib in the classic style, Parker 51/61 type .



Ionut - Marius

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Thanks for sharing! I can't wait for mine to show up it's a M Demonstrator just like yours. When the knob is screwed down how much ink is in the area near the nib? It seems like there is a tiny camber for ink but I thought my PenBBS 456 had one but doesn't really write much unless the rod is loosened like on most vac fillers (Pilot 823, TWSBI Vac700, etc). The Canid Bulk Filler seems to have an area that is maybe 20% of the volume available to write with when it's screwed down. This looks more like just a few drops of ink worth. So I would like your impressions.... No matter what I'm really looking forward to getting mine!

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Great review. The notes I had to mention were all already mentioned above, about the PenBBS establishment date, the click-lock piston engagement not being used, and the forward chamber of ink in front of the shut-off valve (as well as the feed itself) holding a bit more ink.

 

I think it's great that you didn't have to use the click-lock as I was slightly worried about the use of the pen if/when it wears out

 

Also, I ordered the Galaxy after my holiday LE pen order was cancelled for being out of stock, and this makes me regret not getting the clear demonstrator. After a fresh fill, that completely full reservoir looks fantastic.

 

I'm very happy with what you've shown of the medium nib, and am happy to have one coming on the Galaxy 355 and another in a nib charm.

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Great video overview, thanks. It really should be in the reviews section.

 

One thing though; technically the 355 would be a syringe-filler, not a piston-filler.

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Thanks for this review. Definitely a lovely pen, from where can I purchase this?

 

 

eBay but most of the time the prices are too high there. Etsy at the PenBBS store is the best and easiest. They first show up at a place in China but it's a big pain to setup a forwarding service and such.

 

The official PenBBS shop on Etsy is out of the 355 but will have more shown when they put out the next materials. Just keep an eye on it. It's still available on eBay..

Edited by Driften
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Using a forwarding service (I used Superbuy) is actually quite easy. It's just like any online order, except it's a two step process:

 

1. Vendor ships to forwarder.

2. You pay forwarder and they ship to you.

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Are they licensing the Bulkfiller mechanism from Conid?

 

 

It doesn't use the Conid design for the rod to lock/unlock the piston head from the body. It just being a syringe/pull filler where the rod screws into the piston head is older than Conid and was patented in 1898.

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Conid uses a really sick hook and eye system for the piston head to lock into. the 355 seems to use a simpler friction fit with a little snap.

 

Someday I'll own a bulkfiller kingsize in the titanium demonstrator with the huge #8 14k nib.

 

I wish I had the funds to just get one of the smaller models and a FNF adapter to use a 3776 nib. But they're just so damned expensive, even sans nib

 

Maybe my tax refund will result in that option.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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Would a Bock #6 fit the 355? I'm not a fan of the original F nib. Thanks.

 

 

It should a Jowo #6 B went into my 456 and 323 no problem, a Bock should just as well. I bought my 355 with a M nib any day now I should know how that works out. The spec on the PenBBS M is 0.7mm which is just over a western M and happens to be my sweet spot. I might not need to swap this nib out.

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if a JoWo fits, a standard bock will. JoWo's tend to have broader shoulders than bocks.

 

I'm on duty but my wife just told me that my box with my 355's has arrived. perfect timing too, my Pilot 823 just ran out of ink. One of my 355's is going in my case for extensive testing with penbbs 262 orange ink

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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if a JoWo fits, a standard bock will. JoWo's tend to have broader shoulders than bocks.

 

I'm on duty but my wife just told me that my box with my 355's has arrived. perfect timing too, my Pilot 823 just ran out of ink. One of my 355's is going in my case for extensive testing with penbbs 262 orange ink

 

 

Congrats... mine is still MIA but hope will show up any day now. Mine was a eBay buy shipped via SpeedPAK last seen clearing US customs on the 7th.

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Got my 355 with M nib today and I filled it up with Montblanc UNICEF Blue and its working great. Nib is smooth and good. The pen did a 95% fill in two strokes of the piston. I'm happy with this pen. I also see no reason to replace the nib like I did with the F nibs. Not that the F's aren't smooth just not wide enough for me. The M works great and not seeing a big need to swap it to a B.

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I got both of mine yesterday and I'm not super impressed with the F nib - it was dry and kind of skippy. Opened it up and it's wetter now but still just feels slippery on the page, not smooth, just like it's gliding on the tipping material, not a pool of ink - the M nib on the galaxy model was much better - smooth and wet and consistent - but nothing different really from their standard nib. The F isn't all that F either. it reminds me of a lamy z50 F nib. That's not a good thing. The M is a pretty broad medium, very pelikan-esque. Of the two, I recommend the medium despite being a much bigger fan of F nibs.

 

As for the filling system, my galaxy one was VERY stiff, and required a few very uncomfortable taps on the table with the rod engaged to dislodge the piston, though once free, it feels much better. The clear model was much better - still stiff but not terrible, and after the initial fill, has been just fine.

 

The clear model is polished wonderfully inside and out, it looks great. The galaxy... holy meh, batman. Why are people going nuts over it. The acrylic has no real pop, nothing going on. It honestly looks more like cheap noodlers resin than the ultra high quality acrylics I'm used to from PenBBS. Not only can you not see the rod to know if it's engaging with the piston, but you can't see the ink level, and my galaxy will not post. At all. Cap just falls off. The clear one posts just fine (but not as deeply/well as the 456)

 

On the whole, I have complaints about both the 456 and 355 that are not shared between each other. The 456 I think is, on balance, a much better pen, better sorted. My only gripe about that pen is that the cap threads are metal and the section is acrylic, so it feels kind of rough. the 355 is acrylic on acrylic and the threads are machined wonderfully. And of the two, go for the clear 355 or wait for some new colors, because galaxy is super duper "meh" and I'm definitely going to be re-selling that pen with one of my custom stacked nibs. I'm probably going to nib swap the clear 355 too, because I really don't like the F nib very much.

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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