Need Help Finding A Thin Pen For My Wife

[SlowRain]

You think she's weird? You should see the guy she's married to.

Edited November 12, 2019 by SlowRain

[Honeybadgers]

You're on an internet forum for fountain pens.

 

Definitely weird.

[SlowRain]

My wife, of her own volition, said over lunch today that she needs an extra-fine nib. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a new convert to fountain pens.

[Honeybadgers]

get her a lamy CP1 with a fun stub or broad (the EF nib sucks) and grab a $2 EF from china for it (better QC and more proper EF line) so she can have multiple nibs. it's thin, light, great, cheap.

[bemon]

Get yer hands on a Cross Century Classic fountain pen. They're thin, light weight and stylish. Dainty even.

 

Pros:

Lightweight

Classic design

durable metal construction

Cap threads on to both ends of the barrel for posting.

 

Cons:

Cartridge only

Medium only nib (as far as I know)

[Honeybadgers]

If you want cross, the spire is as thin as pens get apart from that weird sailor that costs way too much money these days.

[DrDebG]

I know she won't go vintage/second-hand.

 

What are the Caran D'Ache 849 nibs like? The pen is weird-looking to me, but she may go for one simply because it's pink.

 

I have the pink one and I love it. It is smooth and very comfortable. I highly recommend. Of course, I have a fine. But I imagine the EF would be quite nice.

 

Truthfully, for a second pen, that is elegant and eminently suited to the professional woman at the same time, and has a gold nib, I would recommend a Waterman Carene.

Edited November 15, 2019 by 5Cavaliers

[bemon]

If you want cross, the spire is as thin as pens get apart from that weird sailor that costs way too much money these days.

I thought the Spire was basically a Classic Century?

[Honeybadgers]

I thought the Spire was basically a Classic Century?

 

The spire is a screw cap and has an 18k nib, and the century looks thicker to me.

 

NOS spires are on ebay for about twice the price too, $60-70.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[bemon]

 

The spire is a screw cap and has an 18k nib, and the century looks thicker to me.

 

NOS spires are on ebay for about twice the price too, $60-70.

I was always interested in the Spire but never ended up taking the plunge. It looked more or less a styled version of the Century.

 

I'm talking about the Classic Century, not the Century 2. The Classic has a screw cap too, but a steel nib. I thought it was medium only, but it looks like a fine option can be found. Very similar profile but a different clip. I assume the Spire is cartridge only too?

[Honeybadgers]

I was always interested in the Spire but never ended up taking the plunge. It looked more or less a styled version of the Century.

 

I'm talking about the Classic Century, not the Century 2. The Classic has a screw cap too, but a steel nib. I thought it was medium only, but it looks like a fine option can be found. Very similar profile but a different clip. I assume the Spire is cartridge only too?

 

I'd wager the spire is way thinner based on pictures, it's not only cartridge only, it only takes a specific thin cartridge (I convert the cartridges into aerometric converters with a latex sac and they work great)

 

the spire is ludicrously thin. it'a a screw cap and screw post (a half turn for each.) and the clip has that classic cross shape but it's really, really well suited for sliding over everything, including jeans.

 

The spire is genuinely a pretty incredible pocket pen. You just have to get used to kind of tightening the cap on with a little extra pressure, or it can unscrew itself in a pocket because of how few threads it takes to uncap (but the flipside is it's lightning fast to unscrew). Once I got use to that, it's never come unscrewed, and I love the way it writes and feels in the hand. Super agile and not too light, perfectly balanced and usable posted or unposted. It always finds its way back into regular rotation whenever I put it away, it's so thin that the #5ish nib looks HUGE on it. It has a tiny section that isn't super uncomfortable, but I just hold it behind that on the flat part and it's perfectly comfortable to write a long time with.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[bemon]

 

I'd wager the spire is way thinner based on pictures, it's not only cartridge only, it only takes a specific thin cartridge (I convert the cartridges into aerometric converters with a latex sac and they work great)

 

the spire is ludicrously thin. it'a a screw cap and screw post (a half turn for each.) and the clip has that classic cross shape but it's really, really well suited for sliding over everything, including jeans.

 

The spire is genuinely a pretty incredible pocket pen. You just have to get used to kind of tightening the cap on with a little extra pressure, or it can unscrew itself in a pocket because of how few threads it takes to uncap (but the flipside is it's lightning fast to unscrew). Once I got use to that, it's never come unscrewed, and I love the way it writes and feels in the hand. Super agile and not too light, perfectly balanced and usable posted or unposted. It always finds its way back into regular rotation whenever I put it away, it's so thin that the #5ish nib looks HUGE on it. It has a tiny section that isn't super uncomfortable, but I just hold it behind that on the flat part and it's perfectly comfortable to write a long time with.

Yeah, that slim Cross cartridge with the step downs? The Century Classic uses those. It's so slim it's elegant in my mind. Still, I'm trying to sell mine. Agree it's a capable pen. I've been working on selling through my collection and sold 4 pens to someone last week. He asked if he could look at some other other pens I've got up for sale and I showed him the Cross pens. 2 Century II's and 2 Century Classics. He picked them up and his words were "Actually those look pretty good. But Staples and college graduations kind of ruined Cross."

 

I actually carry a Century Classic ballpoint as my pocket pen at work. It's thin enough that I can keep it in a leather sleeve. Which is more to protect my pocket from inksplosions than protect the pen.

[jameswatts]

I recently bought a Caran d’Ache Ecridor and it’s one of the best writing pens I’ve ever used. Seriously. I understand why Tom Stoppard uses one of these to write his plays. A GREAT pen.

[coinlvr]

Parker 51

[Honeybadgers]

I found another LUDICROUSLY thin pen. it's like half the width of the cross spire. And it's a gorgeous mottled ebonite, and only $22. And the nib is a japanese extra fine. And it's an eyedropper that holds a ton of ink.

 

It's even usable unposted and posts really nicely

 

The guider mini. Only downsides I found are that it's indian, so some little "handmade" flaws like my feed has a tiny chip near the end, and there's a little chip in the finial and the clip feels a little rough around the edges. The cap is nearly 3 turns to open (though it is still fairly quick since it's such a tiny diameter it just kinda unscrews REALLY fast) the section needed silicone grease to stop burping because the threads were bone dry (but it doesn't burp at all once I did that), and the nib was super dry when I got it, required setting it on a hard surface and pressing on the breather to open it up, but now it's a smooth, precise japanese EF width, writes a treat with medium flow, and has a really nice vintage feel.

 

The nib is like a vintage #1 or maybe a bit smaller

 

 

https://fprevolutionusa.com/collections/guider-fountain-pens/products/guider-mini-fountain-pen

 

for $20 I genuinely really highly recommend it. it's adorable, looks nice, feels nice, and once I spent about 10 minutes fiddling with it, writes wonderfully. I feel it fits in my hand just fine even unposted, and I have big hands. The nib even has some nice bounce and is a perfect, precise japanese EF line.

[txomsy]

Great find! That is a really gorgeous tiny little pen! Looks exactly like what I have been looking for for a long time, only more beautiful... I'll have to wait some time before ordering one, but it is now clearly on my radar. Thanks for the tip.

[Honeybadgers]

As long as you're willing to add some silicone to the section threads and pull out the nib to tune it a bit, I seriously can't recommend it enough. it's really, really fun to use and genuinely quite practical.

 

Have noticed no burping or drying out issues and the nib is wonderful once I opened it up a smidge.

[jmnav]

I don't know what "expensive" really means in your context, but a Parker 75 "ciselle", the sterling silver model, is a lot of a bang for the buck and, with patience, can be found at just a little over 100$.

Edited November 24, 2019 by jmnav

[SlowRain]

for $20 I genuinely really highly recommend it. it's adorable, looks nice, feels nice, and once I spent about 10 minutes fiddling with it, writes wonderfully. I feel it fits in my hand just fine even unposted, and I have big hands. The nib even has some nice bounce and is a perfect, precise japanese EF line.

 

That looks interesting size-wise, but perhaps the ebonite won't be pretty enough for her. Also, I just spent an hour last night trying to get two of Noodler's free Charlie pens to write better and couldn't, so I imagine my pen-tinkering skills aren't up to the task of something like this.

[A Smug Dill]

So now I know where to go from here: Japanese EF. I'm looking for a thin, light, understated, elegant Japanese EF pen.

Something in the Platinum Vicoh line of products, then. You might be able to get a Platinum PTL-5000A with a 14K gold EF nib, although that pen is more understated than pretty. (I'm very happy with mine.)