Six Years Of Hard Use Later - A Combined Review Of A Great Many Fountain Pens (Including Sailor, Pelikan, Aurora, Lamy, Pilot, And More)

[mongrelnomad]

It would be great if this review format inspired others to do similar things, maybe even a separate review forum or index.

 

I couldn't agree more. I also think they should be counted as reviews of all the included pens...

 

I was quite surprised when I wrote my review covering my long-term experiences with twelve of my full-size pens. Yet, when I went to search for it, I couldn't find my review under any of the pens, finally finding it in the "other" section. Anyone considering any of the pens would no doubt benefit from seeing its relative merits and weaknesses when compared to its peers - exactly how I feel about this thread's review.

 

(I hope you don't mind if I post a cheeky link to the review for anyone interested.)

[dspeers58]

Thanks for reflecting on these pens. I have to agree with you about the VP. It is well designed and is very useful when you are using it on and off throughout a meeting, class etc. It is the pen I use the most. Got Binder to do two special grinds for me, a stub and CI and I love the variation that this brings to the way the pen writes and it does add a bit of feedback to the nib.

[thehobbit]

Interesting read. Don't be afraid of a fine 823. I made it my ONLY FP. Works just about fine on any paper I come across.

[85AKbN]

enjoyed your long term review.

[bizhe]

This is a question I have to deal with a lot, because students write in their exams on what my university calls "green books" - like blue books, but recycled paper. They're cheap, thin, nasty paper, and most fountain pens either get scratchy and gross, or lay out so much ink that it bleeds through, which is *bad* for grading when they're writing two-sided.

 

For this, I use my Lamy Safari M loaded with a Noodler's non-bulletproof - for grading, I use Greun Cactus, although Waterman's inks also work well here. I really think that the lower-end pens are really built with cheap paper in mind - they're for students and first-timers - and something about that nib really reacts well with thin paper. I think of the nib as *insensitive*, which is a plus in this case - it kind of reacts the same to all sorts of paper. Where other nice pens it feels like the paper is *pulling out* the ink, with the Lamy's, it feels like the pen is *laying down* the ink, in the same way on any kind of paper. In this respect, the Lamy Safari is better than the Lamy 2000 - it always felt like the Lamy 2000 was more in contact with the paper, and certain paper would pull out way more ink, but the Safari seems to be more recalcitrant.

 

When I care less about bleed-through, I tend to use the Pilot Vanishing Point M with a nice flowy ink, like Private Reserve or Sailor's or something. Again, I think Pilot made their clicky-pen with utility in mind, and it lays down a similar amount of ink for many different papers. It *feels* alright. However, there's a touch of bleed-through on thin recycled paper - so it's unusable for grading two-sided exams.

 

The Pilot VP works excellently on cheap legal pad paper, which is what my department eats and breathes.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. I'm surprised to learn that waterman inks were good in this respect. I had assumed that their good flow would lead to feathering.

[WirsPlm]

Thanks so much for the reply. I'm surprised to learn that waterman inks were good in this respect. I had assumed that their good flow would lead to feathering.

One thing to know about Waterman inks is that they can be very, very acidic (like, battery acid acidic), which is why I don't use them at all. Obviously YMMV on how important this it, but it's something to keep in mind.

[bernardo]

Very interesting reviews; really helpful. Thanks for sharing!

[rorschah]

Thanks so much for the reply. I'm surprised to learn that waterman inks were good in this respect. I had assumed that their good flow would lead to feathering.

 

It seems to depend very much on the pen. Some pens (like Pelikans and the Lamy 2000) dump so much ink down on the page that it feathers easily. Or it feels like the paper is sucking ink out of the nib. Other pens (I'm thinking here of the Lamy Safari) seem to put ink out… it almost feels like on top of the paper, in a thin line? I know this at least for sure: waterman's out of a Lamy 2000 feathers like crazy, and out of a Lamy Safari of the same nib size doesn't.

 

I think I had the same effect withs one of those cheap Pilots… I think it's a feature of the cheaper steel nibs. Either accident, or actually engineering for cheap paper.

[Montblanc owner and lover]

Very interesting...

[dgturner]

I have noticed similar changes in the use patterns for many of my pens as well. Though the specifics of my changes are different, the baseline rationale is the same (it took time to decide which did the best for the tasks at hand). I will admit to being surprised multiple times.

My Sailor 1911M Medium went through the most change: I originally purchased a MF nib, but due to the angle of my writing I was unable to consistently hit the sweet spot (but when I did...). I had the nib swapped to a medium and was disappointed in the size of the line; as time has passed i find it almost always in my pocket -- it handles my standby ink of choice better than any other pen I own (an iron Gall ink).

Some pens see much less use than I would have thought simply due to the size of the line they lay down (my '45 Parker Vac is the best example, plus it cannot post and it is almost to short not to post).

[rudyhou]

thank so much for sharing. i enjoyed reading it all the way through. it's always good to learn about someone's experience in using pens for many years. i had many a times dream the possibility of getting a pilot vanishing point. it was all i could think about when it first came out. then i convinced myself that where the clip is positioned, on the grip section, will not be suitable for the way i would hold a pen to write with. your review has started to ignite my past affair on dreaming for a clicky fountain pen.

[ArchiMark]

Thanks for sharing your perspectives on your pens....

 

As others have said it is very valuable to read your thoughts after such long-term use.

 

Great idea for others to do as well....

 

[kazoolaw]

 

(I hope you don't mind if I post a cheeky link to the review for anyone interested.)

 

I hope you don't mind if I disagree with much of what you've written.

 

This is entirely different than saying your review is worthless: on the contrary the text and the photos do a terrific job explaining why you are drawn to/repelled by certain pens. The time you spent considering and writing the review makes the time spent reading and responding well worth it.

 

gary

 

ps-the oversize review is also well done.

[Daisy25]

Great review and great discussion. Since I'm also an academic doing a lot of writing, this was just spot on for me. And, hey, now I have new pens to consider.

[deepak23]

My current problem is that my only piston filler is not that usable for me, and all the pens I really use are converter fillers, and I can run through 2 or 3 converters full in a single all-writing day, so these days I have to roll with multiple pens just to keep in ink.

 

Get one of the big Indian eyedroppers with a custom nib fitted in. Ink should last you for a week!

 

Deepak

[cybaea]

 

Get one of the big Indian eyedroppers with a custom nib fitted in. Ink should last you for a week!

 

Deepak

 

Or an Ahab in eyedropper mode with a Goulet nib of your favourite size. Lasts a long, long time and relatively accessible if you are in the US and not too bad in Europe.

 

If only the Goulets did a ~0.8mm italic that would be perfect for me....

[auto winder]

This is really interesting to read, thanks for sharing!

[mateo44]

Great write up. I really enjoyed it.

[lowks]

Indeed! Thanks for writing this interesting review!

[mohan]

Thanks.This is really interesting.