What Technically Superior Pens?

[Sasha Royale]

1. 1884 Waterman -- It had an osmotic feed to control flow of ink onto the paper.

2. Parker Lucky Curve -- "self-filling" fountain pen.

[RajAlexander]

The TWSBI 580 been tagged though not mentioned yet, a good, solid, fully user serviceable piston filler with all the tools included. Someone mentioned the 1911 earlier, this is probably the piston filling equivalent of the AK-47. Surely that's a first?

[Randal6393]

Technical virtuosity? Don't see that so much. Trying to meet the customer's needs? Well, that all depends. Seems as if very few companies spend much time or concern finding out what the customer needs or wants. As befits a generally conservative tool like the fountain pen, I will admit.

 

I would shout out Nathan Tardiff and his pens as great examples of a willingness to experiment and yet adhere to the basic technology. His Nib Creaper was a first attempt at providing low-cost flexible nibs. Went to the Ahab because the Creaper was not enough of a good thing. Needed the larger nib to help with the flex, needed a larger ink capacity. So he went with a piston-converter, definitely a large capacity combined with a tried-and-true converter system. When the Ahab seemed to be too much pen for many customers, he designed the Konrad. Now whatever you feel about Mr. Tardiff's politics and personality, you owe it to yourself to try one of his pens and see if it is for you. If you are looking for an inexpensive flex pen.

 

Me, I have several Ahabs and Konrads and feel that they are great pens for the money. I don't mind adjusting the pens for my convenience, in fact, I enjoy that aspect of the pens.

 

Have fun,

[thatotherguy1]

The TWSBI 580 been tagged though not mentioned yet, a good, solid, fully user serviceable piston filler with all the tools included. Someone mentioned the 1911 earlier, this is probably the piston filling equivalent of the AK-47. Surely that's a first?

Not, IMHO, until the cracking issue is fully alleviated. The takedown part of it is nice and helpful, but to call it a reliability standard in its field would be a bit ambitious. I know that the cracking was more of an issue on the 540, but IIRC there have been reports of cracks forming in non abused 580s. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

That said, the 580 is an incredible pen for its price. Having a decent quality piston filler sell for $55 is almost unheard of, let alone a well designed one such as the TWSBI. I don't yet have one, but that will change eventually.

I'll concur on the Lamy 2000. No, it isn't cutting edge now, but it was so well designed in the 60s that it's still relevant now without being changed. There are rather few pens, I would imagine, that were designed as the company's flagship 50 years ago and still retain that position, being continually produced for all that time with almost no changes. It's a great design IMHO.

[Arkanabar]

It's really, really hard to surpass the aero-metric Parker "51" for technical excellence, when the goal is a reliable, well-behaved, effortless writing instrument.

 

Of course, for gee-whiz technological coolness, none of my pens surpass my PFM, last of Sheaffer's Snorkel fillers, and the first of their inlaid nib pens.

[Icywolfe]

Pilot Justus95 and Justus. Adjustable nib. Then the Sailor's special nibs. Pilot Falcon nib which is like a modern flex.

[Algester]

technically superior fountainbel has used CONID as a stepping stone to his engineering skills with the bulk filler so CONID maybe expensive but that filler

Pilot Capless Japan ingenuity got the best of it you really have to check the pen's history to see how much Pilot's designers experimented with the pen to this point (case in point a lever trap door with gravity aiding the sliding of the nib)

Pilot's Shiro nib who says steel nib can't be flexible it simply rivals vintage flex yes BETTER THAN NOODLER'S

Pilot's nomikomi-shiki a gravity filler for lack of better sense of word...

http://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2012/12/nomikomi-shiki.html

Pilot's Justus it's there with the Capless

Pilot's pulsating plunger filler which is now known as the CON-70 is it different from a normal button filler in some ways it was as it didnt used a membrane

http://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2012/07/shiki.html

Pentel's .2 mm lead seriously... .2 MM lead

Steadler's clutch less 2MM mechanical Pencil (Japan branch)

Steadler Japan is different in that any "pencil" with a 2MM lead is technically called a clutch pen but they made it into a mechanical pencil even at 2MM

http://i.imgur.com/hsLIQkN.jpg

Mitsubishi's/uni-ball Kuru-toga

Platinum's failed attempt at a suspension pencil that Zebra took it further and called it the Delguard

Tombow's Air Press

Ohto's Pro mecha (I mean where can you find a pencil where you can highly configure your lead release per press)

 

 

Japan has the weirder stuff but hey thats Japan... people still consider it the land of the weird

Edited February 7, 2015 by Algester

[stevekolt]

 

Thought the homo sapiens with lava had a hidden converter system and only the crystal editions had the power filler

 

 

Well it's all about execution of the design.

The maxi size, both bronze age, and steel age now come with the power filler system...

[WaskiSquirrel]

Two (possibly 3) came to mind.

 

1. The Lamy 2000 is a great example of a lot of existing technologies being brought to their peak and truly refined.

 

2. The Pilot Custom 823 is a surprising pen. It writes well, has a bit of flex, and has a nifty filling system.

 

3. I'm going to add the Noodler's Konrad, mostly because it takes old and some luxury technologies and puts them into an affordable package.

[Pickwick]

I have the Rotring Initial which has the technological advance of an air pressure control system, claimed to work at a height of 30,000 feet. If anyone is interested, I have over the past four years been trying to get sponsors for an expedition to the Himalayas and climb mount Everest, in order to prove this claim!

 

My appeal to you guys has been disappointing so far.

[brunico]

I think most of these examples are just minor improvements to existing technology. Retractable nibs, and even adjustable nibs, have been around a long time. Newer examples may be technically superior, but I wouldn't count them as an achievement, just a refinement.

 

The Sailor double-layered nibs - and even triple-layered nibs - look innovative to me, and the Pilot Parallel is a radically different concept of the nib from anything that had gone before. It solves the problem of very broad nibs (having three tines means an extra tine to keep in adjustment), and I'm sure it would be possible to go beyond the 6mm that Pilot offers.

[Algester]

I have seen something wacky from Japan though pelikan nibs facing each other that may look like the 360 nib... it looks like a drafting pen on steroids...

[canadian]

When I was younger (grade 6), I used to rotate the pen and write with the nib upside down when I wanted to write fine. I tried this with the Lamy and it works too, but it will be nice if pen manufacturers do something to support this style. I.e. you can write medium when you want, and simply turn the pen to write fine, without any scratching etc.

[Oldane]

There are many, but if we define "technically superior pen" as pens which are rugged daily writers which work flawlessly year in and year out and which is easy to handle (filling, cleaning, ink capacity), the Pelikan piston fillers come to my mind. It's not at all a new technology - it's from around 1930 - but it is still today one of the best and most reliable pens money can buy so there's not really any need to change it's design.

[jar]

When I was younger (grade 6), I used to rotate the pen and write with the nib upside down when I wanted to write fine. I tried this with the Lamy and it works too, but it will be nice if pen manufacturers do something to support this style. I.e. you can write medium when you want, and simply turn the pen to write fine, without any scratching etc.

 

There have been many pens designed just for that, none successful enough to warrant their continuation.

[Joe in Seattle]

+1 Visconti Homo Sapiens. It writes differently than any other pen I own. I enjoy writing with it like no other.

[senzen]

For me technical superiority has to do with reliability, durability, ergonomics, not so much with technical prowess; so for instance a computer which doesn't have the latest processor or a gazilion RAM but does have a reliable operating system is technically superior. Of my pens, and I don't have the widest range or extensive experience with vintage, my Pelikan m400 amazes me because it writes smothly, has never ever failed even when not cleaned for a long time, is comfortable to hold, lets me see ink levels, survived during my period of pen destruction (I didn't know any better), and the nib is gorgeous; while Waterman, Lamy and unknown brands have all have problems. Muji is the other brand that has never failed, it's a shame they don't sell the converters at the store.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Technical virtuosity? Don't see that so much. Trying to meet the customer's needs? Well, that all depends. Seems as if very few companies spend much time or concern finding out what the customer needs or wants. As befits a generally conservative tool like the fountain pen, I will admit.

 

I would shout out Nathan Tardiff and his pens as great examples of a willingness to experiment and yet adhere to the basic technology. His Nib Creaper was a first attempt at providing low-cost flexible nibs. Went to the Ahab because the Creaper was not enough of a good thing. Needed the larger nib to help with the flex, needed a larger ink capacity. So he went with a piston-converter, definitely a large capacity combined with a tried-and-true converter system. When the Ahab seemed to be too much pen for many customers, he designed the Konrad. Now whatever you feel about Mr. Tardiff's politics and personality, you owe it to yourself to try one of his pens and see if it is for you. If you are looking for an inexpensive flex pen.

 

Me, I have several Ahabs and Konrads and feel that they are great pens for the money. I don't mind adjusting the pens for my convenience, in fact, I enjoy that aspect of the pens.

 

Have fun,

👍👍👍👍👍

Edited February 8, 2015 by FOUR X FOUR

[Algester]

There have been many pens designed just for that, none successful enough to warrant their continuation.

but the Hero 360 still seems to be around but I think I saw something... I'm not sure how useful it would be but to some it might be a horrific example...

its related to the Pelikan nibs I stated on my previous post but...

http://i.imgur.com/KqpNNpW.jpg

from a nib guy in Japan... from the site of...

[Fountainer]

I would vote for Aurora piston fillers. They have the backup reservoir system, that allows you to magically get a bit more ink from it when you though it was empty already. I like the idea and like their designs.