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I've got some pen/nib combos that have been prone to hard starting, starved feed and/or railroading with a converter so I decided to eyedropper fill them and have been very pleased with the results. It seems to have created more consistent ink flow in all of them. The converter pens that had been frustrating me: Magna Carta Urban Fude Franklin Christoph 02 with an EF sig Franklin Christoph 19 with a Kirk Speer Naginata Togi Asvine C80 Other pens I turned into eyedropper fillers: Noodler's Ahab with FPR Ultraflex nib Noodler's Ahab with Kanwrite Titanium flex nib Noodler's Ahab brush pen. I have found that generally I dislike cartridge converters and find them a bit prone to hard starting and ink starve. Exceptions to this problem have been a Platinum 3776 and a Pilot Classic 74. My favorite pens up to this point have been the multiple Opus 88 pens I have. I love the O88 eyedropper system. I use my pens mostly for drawing and mostly fill them with Noodler's Black. I need a waterproof, archival black ink. So far I am very pleased with the performance of all of these pens as eyedroppers.

Hi, I just got an Asvine V126. It is a vacuum filler and almost exactly the same size and shape as the Pilot Custom 823 which is so expensive. The big difference is the blue frosted acrylic material the pen is made out of, and of course it just has a steel nib rather than the Custom 823's gorgeous 14k nib. It is really quite attractive, and seems much more substantial than the Wing Sung 699 that everyone talks about as a clone. I had a 699 but it almost immediately broke--the barrel cracked. This seems better made to me and it writes quite smoothly. The quality reminds me more of PenBBS pens. I like it, although I am not a big fan of vacuum filling pens--this goes for the Pilot Custom 823. Don't get me wrong, the Pilot Custom 823 has a much smoother nib. It glides across the page, while the Avine pen has some feedback and absolutely no flex. The Custom 823 bounces a bit when you write, the way that lovely gold nibs do and it has some variation. I did a short review on YouTube of the Asvine at:

A link is provided in the short's description (just click on the 3 dots to the right). Asvine is providing a 50% off coupon for the gaskets (apparently Amazon's maximum coupon), which will provide you with two gaskets and a converter.

Only on Amazon currently, in polished ($56) or brushed ($60) titanium alloy. Cheaper than the Moonman Ti136 but with less character IMO. The overall look is rather bland compared to the Ti136, which uses gold trim to add some color and interest. I like Asvine pens and I’m sure this is a good pen, but it hard to muster much enthusiasm for it at this moment.

I have been testing a new Asvine V126 Plunger-Filler demonstrator fountain pen that I purchased from an Ebay seller in China. Here are some photos: Here are my early impressions: I used the plunger filler mechanism to fill the pen with blue-black ink. A single push inward drew up only about one-third of the capacity of the mechanism. I did not try multiple plunges at that point, as I was curious how much a single plunge would draw in and did not want to waste ink just to test the pen as a writer. The pen feels great in the hand. It weighs 28g with the ink at 1/3 capacity. The cap itself contributes 9g to that total. The cap can be posted securely at the end of the barrel. The nib is a gold-plated medium steel nib and has a bit of give, which makes the writing experience aesthetically pleasing. The pen wrote immediately and smoothly, and over the days it continues to do the same, with no hard-starts. The acrylic of the body and cap feels to be of high quality and durability. The clip is firm but has enough natural give easily to fit into a pocket. So far, so good. I really like this pen, which is a pleasant writer. I'd be interested in the experiences of others who have used this pen or its equivalent (i.e., non-demonstrator). In particular, what has been your experience with how much ink gets drawn into the pen with the plunger-filler?

Asvine released a wrench for their fountain pens. Inadvertently, I think they unveiled their next model, the P50, a piston-filler with the same piston knob shape as the P36.

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