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Vintage Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Technical Fountain Pens


Tadeusz

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Hello,

As I was prowling the ebays for fountain pens, I came across a lot of 5 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Technical Fountain Pens. 4 of the pens (marked with a grey band and a 0 on the box) are unopened with a fifth pen marked 00 with a yellow band on the box.

 

I have a general grasp on technical pens, but have no idea about these.

 

What inks would I use (if I were to purchase them), are they so valuable that I would not want to open the 4 unopened boxes?

 

Any information would be a great help.

If pictures are needed, here is the ebay link= http://www.ebay.com/itm/300950363132?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

Hopefully there will not be a sudden bidding war erupting against me after others see this :-)!

 

Regards,

Tadeusz

Edited by Tadeusz
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I think they might even have the original dis-assembly tool for the nib, on some of the boxes it says "with point key"

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I once had a 3 pen set of those. Back in the days before CAD, when you had to do "Mechanical Drawing" by hand with a T-Square and French curves, those were very popular. Must be a ton of them floating around. They were an improvement over that adjustable pincer nib on a handle that we got with our instrument kits.

They are not made for cursive writing. (difference from a Stylo discussed in other threads.) They are made for drawing lines, curves, and printing.

I used Higgens India ink and a bottle of the cleaning solution to get the ink out after use.

These days I think they fall into the curio, and special collector status.

YMMV

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I used one of these in university with regular fp ink. The brown doing have a very fine line for my notes. I really liked it. This was before access to Japanese fine nibs. Even on non fountain pen friendly paper they did not bleed. I have been trying to find a replacement for years. My been band still works with a rather broad stroke

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RLTodd & acolythe,

 

Thank you both very much for your responses. I was in need of a fine writing pen for use on the forms they hand out at this place, very, very small gaps between lines. I think that these could work well for that purpose.

 

Regards,

Tadeusz

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I do have one question, I understand that they are not designed for cursive writing. However, would they work for normal writing (print) or cursive?

 

Also, how thin would the line on the no. 0 rapidograph be?

Edited by Tadeusz
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Generally speaking Rapidograph technical pens can be used with waterproof technical inks as well as standard fountain pen inks. In either case their nibs are meant to be cleaned regularly otherwise these pens will clog and stop working. So -- it's a good idea to buy a Kohinoor cleaning kit, e.g.

 

http://www.dickblick.com/products/koh-i-noor-pressure-pen-cleaning-kit/

 

and make good use of the bulb that comes in the kit! And if you use technical waterproof inks you'll want to use the Rapidoeze that comes in the kit instead of just water to clean the nibs.

 

The starting price for this set of 3060 pens seems kind of high to me. I'm thinking it may be that you could find an auction of just one size 0 pen (and a new or NOS 3065 or 3165 size 0 is a good place to start IMHO) to try it out and see if this system works for you.

 

In any case -- I should emphasize that I've never used any of these older 3060 pens -- only the newer 3065 and 3165 models so perhaps someone else can comment on anything unique about the 3060 pen -- in particular, I'd be curious whether or not their nibs are compatible with the bulb cleaner, etc.

 

-- Constance

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I have seen these going for $15 by themselves! The thing about buying this many is that if I end up not liking them, I could always sell them for inflated prices, just like all the other model 3060 rapidographs I've seen!

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A size 0 is officially rated at 0.35mm. The line you get will vary somewhat of course depending on ink and paper.

 

The nibs on these pens are basically a tiny wire that projects from a tube. So when you use them you don't want to put *any* pressure on the nib when writing or drawing with them.

 

Also, you may find you need to hold the pen at a higher angle than normal to get continuous ink flow -- but that definitely depends on the ink and the individual pen.

 

That said, you can certainly write cursively or draw freehand with Rapidographs. They are in fact used by many pen-and-ink artists.

 

Around here we're lucky in that our local brick-and-mortar art store (Daniel Smith) has a demo size 0 Rapidograph (model 3165) they keep inked up with white Ultradraw waterproof technical ink for people to try out on black paper.

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Dear conib,

 

That's great to hear! Thanks for the information, I think I might just have to pick these pens up!

 

Regards,

Tadeusz

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They are not at all very valuable.... in fact they are common..

I was lucky enough to find a set of 5 with different nibs in the factory box with all the accessories...

After giving them a real good cleaning with Rapidoeze my daughter decided they were perfect for her pen and ink drawings and uses them with Noodlers Borealis Black (a lot easier to clean than India Ink).

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Oh, and I should also mention that depending on the paper and how much contact the nib makes with it, the nib wire may pick up paper fuzz. So you might want to have handy a little makeup sponge soaked in water or Rapidoeze to wipe the nib on occasion, if you find that's happening to you. (However many artists just gently pull the fuzz off with their fingers -- YMMV on which technique works for you.)

:-)

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