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So Id like some input. I found and ordered an Omas 360 piston fill. This is the large size. I bought this pen to use and not abuse, but. not worry about scratching either. So Im looking at it, and its marked 000/360 PROTO. So now based on how expensive these pens are, Im wondering if I should just stash it away. The pen was probably unused before I inked it. Looking forward to your opinions.

Hello! It has been quite some time since I have posted on here. I hope all are doing well. I stumbled upon a GoPens catalog from March 2007 which contained a "1975 Parker 75 “Ecossais” in Black" (item #28). Would anyone browsing this forum happen to know the story behind this pen, and the eventual fate of it? I am interested in any information regarding this seemingly-prototype color/model! I've reached out to the webmaster of GoPens and am awaiting a response, but am afraid that since it has been so long since the listing, they will not have much information regarding it. Regards, Zwomg

A year ago I "accidentally" transformed a pen I failed to finish into a prototype (kind of capless bulkfiller). This pen had several issues like an uneven finish, flow issues, ink burping when retracting the nib, no clip, bad ebonite quality: not the ideal workhorse. Here is the journey to this prototype improvement... Overal view of the 3 versions: All the pens have both an inkview and a view on the capless mechanism, an ebonite feed, and hold a large amount of ink. V1 has a flexible size 2 eversharp gold nib, V2 an V3 have a cursive italic nib ground from an Pelikan M100 B nib. V3 has a stronger clip and a matching ebonite insert. V3 is made of german ebonite which seems to oxidize much less than V2 made of japanese ebonite. Evolution of the "capless" mechanism: For those pens the nib unit is activated by rotating the pen grip section. In V1 the nib unit screw (the "elevator screw") is directly set into the back of the ebonite feed which caused the feed channels to be deformed thus preventing the air to flow back to the barrel which caused bad flow issues. V1 "guts" are made of bronze and ebonite, V2 and V3 are made of stainless steel. The V3 nib unit fixed this issue with the nib housing (green) friction fit and epoxy glued into the nib screw. A crescent hole into the nib screw allows ink to flow into the nib feed. The V3 has also a modified screw shape which better regulates ink flow allowing the nib not to be too wet. An issue from V2 feed was that when the nib was retracted the breather hole burped ink onto my fingers. This was corrected in V3 adding a second breather hole "the burping hole" (blue arrow) which is hidden behind the end of the grip section: the pen still burps ink when the nib is retracted... but inside the section preventing ink stains. Evolution of the pen cap: V1 has the trap-cap mechanism directly inserted into the ebonite of the barrel with very fragile and sensitive to wear holes. V2 has a stainless ring which supports the trap-cap mechanism, the main issue with this design was ink drying in the nib after 2 to 3 days without using the pen holding the nib upwards. V3 fixed this issue inserting a friction fit bronze insert into the stainless steel ring, thus reducing the opening of the pen, preventing air to penetrate finally preventing the nib to dry. Evolution of the barrel back end screw: The back on the barrel is closed by a double sided screw with a hole in it allowing the piston rod to glide. In V1 this screw was made of ebonite which allowed free gliding but was not sufficient enough to precisely guide the piston rod the right way... In V2 it was made of stainless steel with problems of piston rod gliding. This was solved using a bronze insert into this double sided screw. Exploded view and plans of V3: And here it is with its 30 parts and countless milling/turning operations! Only one problem remains: the trap-cap is passively activated by the nib itself and goes back to its closing position with a spring blade. Had no problems with this but it appears to be fragile and... ulgly! Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks and enjoy FPN back again!

So Id like some input. I found and ordered an Omas 360, piston fill. This is the large one and a piston filler. I bought this pen to use and not abuse, but. not worry about scratching either. So Im looking at it, and its marked 000/360 PROTO. So now based on how expensive these pens are, Im wondering if I should just stash it away. The pen was probably unused before I inked it. Looking forward to your opinions.

This is a bit of an essay! Apologies. The first Sauvage F.P. (as I understand it) was the Moonstone Blue (AT 0316-1). It was one of four styles listed in the 2008 catalog. By 2010 the Moonstone had disappeared, only to be replaced by new styles: the ever-popular Azurite Blue and the Stingray. The Stingray F.P. was AT 0316-6. The next Sauvage was Ivory/Pearl. It appeared in 2011 listed as AT 0316-13 In 2012 the first of the "Zodiac" pens appeared: the "Dragon" pens, black and red, AT 0316-8 and AT 0316-9. The eagle-eyed will spot that between the 2010 Stingray and the 2012 Dragon there was a theoretical AT 0316-7. I have never seen one. I can think of three possibilities- 1. It never existed. Cross hopped over 7. (This possibility is the least exciting and the most likely.) 2. There is an unlisted Sauvage, in an unknown style. 3. There was a prototype 7 that never went into full production. Can anyone throw light on the "missing" AT 0316-7 ? PS - The FP serial would be AT 0316-7. The rollerball, if it existed 0315-7, and the ballpoint 0312-7. PPS - I have never had much luck asking such question of Cross, but if anyone knows of a contact, that would be great too.

At the end of last week, September 15, I believe, an FPN member listed three pens for sale in the Classifieds section: 2 Eversharp and one Bexley. That particular Bexley pen is described as a Bexley 10th Anniversary Limited Edition in green pearl with red veins. The seller states, “With some help, I determined that this pen was a prototype, as it is missing the normal laser engraving and it has a blind cap to access the converter. The regular production models do not have a blind cap. I find that to be a strange description for this pen as The Noble Savage, in his review of a production Bexley 10th Anniversary Pen (September 8, 2005) in Lemon states about his pen, “One thing that I like about Bexley pens is that the top of the cap can be unscrewed so you can do some spring cleaning on your pen.” and “I also noticed that there is a blind cap and you can actually fill the pen without having to unscrew the section from the barrel to fill it up.” I am wondering about this pen’s description as Bexlevy sold a doppelganger of this pen on eBay September 5, 2017 and the title of the sale is: “Bexley Fountain Green/Red Tenth Anniv Overstock Rhodium Trim” and the description states, “Made from a quantity of left over parts from our long sold out Tenth Anniv Collection. This pen is a Green and red striped acrylic in a Cartridge converter filling pen. It has a black grip section and comes with the converter.” Now I am wondering: How can one determine if a particular, non-production, Bexley Fountain pen is a prototype pen or an overstock pen? Can anyone here provide an answer? CC

We have all seen the dozens of books telling the story of the Waterman fountain pen beginnings and we all know about the L.E. Waterman and A. A. Waterman problems,, but... ...have many seen and read this tidbit of information? It's a fascinating read and actually makes one wonder if the details are genuine or if some of the Waterman historical facts could be erroneous?! Because I love history and things that are old (although my hubby is younger), I found this a very interesting read. Just wanted to share...thoughts? The missing pieces? (With thanks to Daniel Kirchheimer).

Along with 5 other members of the FPN ‘fraternity’, I was sent a complimentary prototype of the Blackstone Axiom – a new pen design from the JustWrite Pen Company based in Queensland, Australia. It’s taken me a few months to get around to this review – mostly because of the ‘busyness’ produced by moving house in the lead up to the Christmas-New Year season – but the upside of this is that I’ve had quite a bit of time with this pen – and I have to say up-front, my appreciation for the pen has only grown in the time I’ve been using it. There are a couple of issues I think Kevin and the JustWrite crew may want to give attention to (remembering this is an advanced prototype, but not necessarily the final product), but on the whole I’d call myself a fan of this pen. In the interests of full disclosure, this is not the first pen I’ve received from JustWrite, in return for an impartial review – you can search FPN for the others if you wish – and I received a much earlier (much uglier!) prototype of this pen, some months ago now, before most of the development work had gone into it.. I won’t be ‘scoring’ the pen out of 10 – I’ll save that for the final product – but will do my best to outline what I find appealing about the pen, and any design improvements I think the pen would benefit from. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Appearance & Design As @mehandiratta pointed out in his recent review (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/302314-pen-review-blackstone-axiom/), the Axiom was not designed completely from scratch: the finial, cap ring, barrel ‘blind cap’, grip section and clip all bear a striking resemblance to the Churchill Fountain Pen Kits available from www.beartoothwoods.com. Having seen an earlier prototype, though, I can tell you that a lot of thought and care has gone into the construction of the pen, appropriate selection and incorporation of materials for the barrel and cap, and finding the best nib option. The version of the pen I received came with silver-coloured ‘furniture’ and a carbon fibre finish. The ‘kit pen’ elements of the pen – that is, the black domed finial and the ‘blind cap’ – neither excite nor repel me. They’re quite functional, and appear to be made of solid brass, so I expect they’ll also be durable. I’d probably prefer a little less silver (three rings around the blind cap is one or two rings too many, in my view!), but that’s only a minor quibble. Apart from the curved endings, the pen is pretty straight up and down – with a slight ‘step up’ from the barrel to the cap. http://i.imgur.com/gYBGb58.jpg What I really love about this pen is the carbon fibre weave that covers and encases the barrel and cap. It’s dark and reflective at the same time, and has a kind of three-dimensional look to it (though it’s perfectly smooth to the touch). I could stare at the finish all day, if I didn’t have other things to do (like work, for example, and spending time with my family…). 2. Construction & Quality The Axiom is well-constructed from good quality materials. Not only the finial and blind cap but also the inner tube for the barrel and cap are made of solid brass, giving the pen a real heft (see below for weights and measures!), not to mention the feeling of durability. In the nearly 3 months I’ve had this pen in my possession, it hasn’t picked up any appreciable bumps or scratches (except perhaps on the silver-coloured clip and rings?). The cap screws on to the barrel behind the grip section – if you prefer to hold your pen further back, neither the threads nor the slight step up to the barrel should cause you any difficulty. The grip section is made of plastic, but beautifully moulded – functionally, it’s one of the things I like most about the pen, as it enables me to grip it securely and with real comfort. The clip is slightly springy, but holds securely in my pocket – and I found the shape appealing. http://i.imgur.com/9pqsl54.jpg My only gripes in terms of the construction (and these are minor) are that the chrome finish seems a little less durable than the rest of the pen, and that there was a bit of glue visible (purely cosmetic) where the threads for the blind cap have been glued in to the end of the barrel. Again, this is a prototype, and I’d expect that these minor blemishes will be dealt with in the final product. I’m also not sure whether I’d prefer to be able to completely disassemble the pen, or whether I’d prefer the finial and blind cap to be glued together. The tinkerer in me likes being able to pull my pens apart – but there’s always a risk of not being able to put them back together properly! 3. Weight & Dimensions There’s no doubt about it, this is a fairly substantial pen – especially in terms of its weight. The capped length of the pen is 140 mm; uncapped it’s around 120mm, and posted it’s around 160mm. I had no trouble posting my pen securely (I think DCWaites had some difficulty with this), but I normally wouldn’t bother – it makes the pen long and unwieldly, and it’s already a little too heavily weighted towards the back. The pen cap has a consistent diameter along its length of 15mm, compared with 13.5mm for the barrel. The hourglass shaped grip section is ~10mm at its narrowest, and ~11mm at either end. Its shape encourages the user to hold it at the narrowest point, and with a #6 nib I find that very comfortable. http://i.imgur.com/klcOaZ8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/X7MU7HA.jpg [From top to bottom: Diplomat Excellence A, Blackstone Axiom, Jinhao 159] In terms of weight, I appear to have lost my scaled, but the official figures from Kevin are as follows: weight capped = 50g; weight uncapped = 30g; from memory (when I weighed them previously) that’s about right. 4. Nib & PerformanceThe Axiom came fitted with a ruthenium-coated stainless steel #6 JoWo nib – with a second (1.1mm stub) nib thrown in for good measure. Apart from their size designation and some scrollwork near the tip, the nibs are unmarked. I’d never seen a ruthenium-coated nib before – I found the dark (but not black) coating very appealing. My experience with the B nib was absolutely glorious – one of the smoothest nibs I’ve ever written with, producing a generous flow of ink. The 1.1mm stub nib offered a little more feedback than I’d expected, but otherwise also performed extremely well. The nib and feed are friction fit into the grip section, making them easy to swap in and out – but the spare nib came as a ‘nib assembly’, including nib, feed and grip section, and I believe this is how Kevin intends to sell replacements when the pen is released. My only concern here was that in swapping over nibs, the ring that sits between the grip section and the barrel threads needs to be swapped over too – I think I’d be happier if each grip section came with its own ring. http://i.imgur.com/yFbbyoI.jpg http://i.imgur.com/FZSqOCM.jpg I made the decision fairly early on to ink this pen up with J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor – an ink that contains gold particles, and doesn’t flow so well in some of my other pens. The pen handled this with ease. If left unused for more than a few days, I had the occasional hard start – but again, I’d blame that on the ink rather than the nib. I had no difficulties at all when I first inked the pen up with Blackstone Sydney Harbour Blue! Other reviewers have noted that the pen is somewhat back-weighted, even when uncapped. I found this a bit disconcerting at first – and it’s still probably my main criticism of the pen – bearing in mind that it’s not a light pen, so that the ‘imbalance’ was a little off-putting at first. Removing the brass finial made a bit of a difference – the pen’s centre of gravity shifted from 2/3 towards the end of the pen barrel, to about halfway along – but it was still noticeably back-weighted. I suspect that the threads that are glued into the back of the barrel (into which the blind cap screws) are the other part of the equation – and the relatively lighter weight of the plastic grip section. All of that said, I have to admit, after 3 months I no longer notice the back-heaviness of the pen – I just enjoy the experience of writing with it, especially with the B nib! 5. Filling System & MaintenanceThe Axiom will take standard international cartridges (short or long, I think!) – the supplied cartridge converter was nice enough (plastic and metal construction), and worked for me with no hassles. Maintenance with this pen is very straightforward – as mentioned above, it’s pretty easy to pull apart and put back together. http://i.imgur.com/8czUQ8x.jpg 6. Cost & ValueI’m not sure that the final price for this pen has yet been determined – but assuming a retail value of AU$100 / US$73ish, I’d say the value for money is pretty reasonable, especially given the quality of the materials that have gone into the manufacture of the pen, and the magnificent JoWo nib. 7. ConclusionAesthetically, this pen is going to appeal to some people and not to others – and likewise the weight. I’m quite happy to wield a heavier pen (I have quite a growing assortment of heavy Chinese pens, and the Karas Kustoms INK is up there too), but I know some pen users prefer to stick to pens made from ‘precious resin’ and/or cheap plastic. I’m really happy with this pen, though, and it’s spent the last 3 months inked up and ready to go. I’d like to see the back-weighting issue addressed if possible – I’m not sure whether that’s straightforward, or a massive headache – but apart from that, I’m pretty impressed with the Axiom. Congratulations to Kevin and the JustWrite team – here’s hoping the final product is ready to go soon!

Recently I saw this 120 Merz und Krell on Ebay and was curios enough to buy it. The seller guesses that it may be a prototype. Have a look at the pictures, that shows a normal 120 and the odd one to compare: I do not see any difference comparing the capsNo difference at the filling knob and nib endSame imprints and cap ring inscriptionsThe barrel color is darker on the odd one The big difference is the ink window. The odd one has a striped ink window, double the length of the normal one. It even shows with the cap on.It has fine longitudinal stripes in the barrel color on clear transparent plastic. I do not know how the barrel of the normal one is manufactured, but the ink window of the odd one shows clear seems on the nib and barrel side and seems to be glued in. Is there someone out there that could shed light on the origin of this pen?

Visiting Fountainbel to have a nib (or two) tuned, I got a chance to snap these fabulous prototypes of his bulk filler - prototypes 100% engineered, designed and handcrafted by himself. The bulk filler is now being made and sold by Conid (conidpen.com).