Cheap Piston Fillers

[Carrie]

What cheaper piston fillers would people recommend? I did like the idea of the amount of ink the Pelikan M200 held even if I didn't get on with the actual pen. I'd also be looking at something with a fine or extra fine nib.

[woodwindmaster06]

Probably the cheapest (least expensive) piston filler would be a M200 or a vintage pelikan which you can get at really good prices!

Don't know of anything less expensive than that because piston fillers are typically on the higher end models.

[Carrie]

I bought an M200, but just didn't get on with it at all (don't know why, initially I'd thought it was because the nib was bigger than I was used to, but as my current favourite pen is a Duofold Centennial then I think I can safely discount that theory). Anyway, I was wondering what alternatives are out there.

[contravox]

The Sheaffer Intrigue is a modified piston filler. You might want to check those out at www.penhero.com. I think the current price is about $60, but they are discontinued and supplies are starting to get low!

 

Robert

[Mike]

Pelikan's M75 "Go!". Not a bad pen, if you don't mind a medium nib. Piston-filler, of course, and holds a quite respectable amount of ink.

[Apollo]

Hi Carrie, how much are you willing to spend on a piston filler? Are you looking for something under a hundred quid, or less?

 

An alternative to the Pelikan M200, (albeit more expensive) is the Lamy 2000. It shouldn't cost you more than £90-£100 in the UK.

[KCat]

i believe that some of the Wality's are piston fillers?

 

if you can find Senator windsors or Regents those are decent little pens.

 

a Pelikan 120 can be found for about $30 and a 140 for a bit more. These are vintage Pelikan piston-fill pens. the 120 has a GP nib while the 140 is the same pen with a gold nib. occasionally you can stumble on other cheap, often german-made piston filler pens that are no-names.

 

the M75 is popular and not too hard to find. I wasn't wild about it but that's just personal taste, not a question of quality really.

 

i'm an m200/400 junkie myself and think that despite my general approval of the 120, 140, and Senators - the m200s are still sturdier and i like that as a modern pen i will not have issues with trying to get repairs done. Chartpak folks are great.

[rak]

It depends on how much you want to spend. But for $100, you can choose a Lamy 2000 or a Pelikan 250. Both have gold nibs. I have a Lamy 2000 and find that its ink capacity is fantastic. As previously mentioned by others, you could go vintage Pelikan. I also have a Pelikan 140 and find that the ink capacity is superb and that it writes very well. Repairs from Pelikan through Chartpak in the U.S. has been very good for me and very prompt. Pelikan is the only company that I know of that uses piston filler system in its low end and high end line.

[tburke0]

the M75 is popular and not too hard to find.

They can even be found here on FPN...

 

 

FPN Marketplace Link

[jsparks]

The Wality 52 is a piston filler. You can easily get them on ebay for $10 to $20 brand new (or got to retrodesk.com or isellpens.com, no relationship except a satisfied customer). They have pretty fine points and are larger in diameter than a Pelikan M200, somewhere between the size of a M600 and M800. I have seen some other Wality piston fillers on ebay, but haven't tried them. I really like mine, they are my most used pens.

 

John

[Carrie]

Hi Carrie, how much are you willing to spend on a piston filler? Are you looking for something under a hundred quid, or less?

 

An alternative to the Pelikan M200, (albeit more expensive) is the Lamy 2000. It shouldn't cost you more than £90-£100 in the UK.

Hi Apollo, I'm not sure how much I'm looking to spent, just curious what is out there for a possible future purchase. I've got to admit that the Lamy looks tempting after reading your review. You're not far off in your price guess, the Writing Desk is selling them for £89.

[wimg]

Pelikan's M75 "Go!".  Not a bad pen, if you don't mind a medium nib.  Piston-filler, of course, and holds a quite respectable amount of ink.

Hi Mike,

 

They are available in F too. I have both, and had them both in both colours.

 

The tipping on them is very hard, btw, so that should be rather durable.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

Hi carry,

 

If you want a more expensive pen, you could opt for Aurora, Montblanc, Omas, Stipula, and I am sure many more.

 

Montblanc 146, 149, and may of their vintage predecessors are pistonfillers. The Aurora 88 comes in 2 sizes and is a pistonfiller (and probably many of their other models too). Omas has many models, all pistonfillers, and Stipula has Saturnos, Etrurias, Duettos, Alinaris, and a bunch of other models that are pistonfillers or have pistonfillers in the series.

 

The cheapest of this bunch is probably the Aurora 88, which sells from around GBP 125 (190 euros, smaller model) over here in continental Europe. The rest are all more expensive, except maybe for some of the other Aurora models. Oh, Visconti makes many pistonfillers, too.

 

There are probably more. Best thing to do is check the different pen sites to get an idea on models and prices, I think, like fountainpenhospital.com, swisherpens.com, penseller.com, pens.it, etc.

 

Anyway, HTH,

warm regards, Wim

[tburke0]

They are available in F too. I have both, and had them both in both colours.

wow! the fabled F-nib m75! I'd heard they existed... Is the trim on these red & green or are there different colors for these mythical pens?

 

Could there even be a B-GO? My mind has just been expanded Thanx Wim!

 

Tom

[JimStrutton]

Ok so what is a Pelikan 150? There is an e-bay seller in Germany who has these on his site. UK price is GBPs 28 plus postage, so not too expensive.

 

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PFG-SHOP_Pelikan_...1QQftidZ2QQtZkm

 

Would this be an updated model?

 

Jim

 

PS This guy also sells some very good leather pen cases on occasions, I have bought from him and was very happy.

[Michael Wright]

Ok so what is a Pelikan 150?

A Pelikan 150 is one size down from a 200. It uses a different series of screw-in nibs. I have one, and although it is a nice pen, it is just too small for me (and I find the 200/400 a very comfortable size).

 

I don't think there is very much available in PFs at this point in the market. The Senator pens have been spoken well of for quite a long time, and the Wality pens more recently, but I haven't tried them myself. In the second-hand range, there are Pelikan 120s and 140s, and you could try the Montblanc 12/22/32 series of pens. They're well made, nice nibs, and unpopular, so they don't attract the normal MB premium. The 12 is the Meisterstueck model, the 32 the economy pen. I've had a 12 since new (1966), and the only problem is that the plastic of the hood is prone to splitting (a number of companies started using polyethylene (?sp) at this time, IIRC, and it turns out, after many years, that it wasn't a brilliant choice).

 

Best

 

Michael

[JimStrutton]

Ok so what is a Pelikan 150?

A Pelikan 150 is one size down from a 200.

Thanks for the info Michael, probably too small for me to then!

 

Jim

Edited September 29, 2005 by JimStrutton

[Guest Denis Richard]

Ok so what is a Pelikan 150? There is an e-bay seller in Germany who has these on his site. UK price is GBPs 28 plus postage, so not too expensive.

Hi Jim,

 

the 150 is the smallest Pelikan piston. I think it officially is not in the Souveran, but in the Tradition line. I had one a while ago. It has a gold plated steel nib and is all that a Pelikan can be... just very very tiny It was way too small for me.

 

Denis.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

The M300 series is the very smallest, but the price puts it out of range.

 

Dillon

[wimg]

They are available in F too. I have both, and had them both in both colours.

wow! the fabled F-nib m75! I'd heard they existed... Is the trim on these red & green or are there different colors for these mythical pens?

 

Could there even be a B-GO? My mind has just been expanded Thanx Wim!

 

Tom

Hi Tom,

 

As I mentioned, both the F and M nib sizes come in both colours. I did have them both. There is/was no B available, unfortunately (would have been great for italicizing ).

 

Many of the European school pens only come in F and M, to cater for kids rather than collectors and calligraphers. Only few brands make more nibs available for writing at school, and often it is for lefties in that case, like ball point nibs (the famous KF and KM nibs), and left obliques occasionally (OM most of the time).

 

One of the exceptions is Lamy, which has nibs for all of its cheaper pens that can be interchanged between them. As a result, because of larger production numbers I guess, it is possible for them to have a slightly larger range of nib sizes (EF, F, M, B, OF, OM, KF, KM, and even italics, although not sure whether those are the untipped Joy ones - they do fit ). Even so, quite often the less common sizes need to be ordered separately, especially since they started shipping them in a dozen or so per box of the same size (loose nibs that is), rather than a selection of nibs in a box.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim