Faber-Castell Loom Or Ambition?

[pgcauk]

Several years ago I was tempted by the Loom in matt Gunmetal, really for the color (I am not surprised the brown Lamy 2000 was a big hit, there's very few decent brown pens!) with an EF nib. Oh my gosh I loved and still love that pen, which became an absolute everyday carry (before that I rotated pens with the days of the week!). The nib "relaxed" a bit with use and became quite springy, almost a flex, with an ef hairline on the upstrokes but a really nice expressive range. After a couple of years of everyday pocket carrying the pen clip snapped. I was so upset. GVonFC wouldn't offer any help (too "low end"?!) so I ended up buying a second copy "for spare parts" and just swapping the cap over. The spare had an M nib and somewhere along the line I picked up another Loom in Olive with an F.

Ambition I love the looks (I prefer slim to cigar shapes, my workhorses are Lamy CP1s) and eventually, when the sales were on, I treated myself to an Ambition in Pearwood with a B nib. The short section is not a bother for me as I naturally hold it by the (lovely) barrel (and, if posted, quite high up to get the balance point). The B nib is crazy smooth, almost disturbingly so, and I find the ink starts out dark and gets lighter as I write, but probably a different ink would be fine? Hmm, the short section does lead to inky fingers whenever you need to unscrew the barrel, but I am used to inky fingers! So the regular complaints aren't an issue for me, but I have backed off from using it as a "pocket pen" as the cap's grip is unreliable, and I was getting exasperated with ink stains on my shirt pocket (or, worse, the pen falling out of notebooks, leaving the cap attached!). Still thinking of getting a 2nd though, but will add in a pen case to carry both!

So; great nibs, classy designs but not flawless!

Hmmm, the F and M nibs don't seem to have the flex of the EF, but I haven't used them nearly as much, so might loosen with time? If I do get a 2nd Ambition though (a pink one for annotating and marginalia!), deffo another EF nib.

[senzen]

Situation:

 

I've had a pearwood Ambition for some time but never really got on with it, as it seems to dry out quickly and develop starting problems; I made do with Bleu Austral as it came out much darker which I happen to like. The cap doesn't close as firmly, it rattles a little which in itself didn't bother me much, but made me think it might benefit from a little bit of tape inside.

 

Solution:

 

I used some masking tape and that not only stopped the rattling but made the pen more reliable; duct tape was too thick. Ink still tends to go darker after a while but the level inside the converter doesn't go down as fast, which makes me think this feed somehow solidifies ink more than in other pens; it took a lot of cleaning to get rid of Bleu Austral.

 

For some reason I think this pen needs to be used with green ink but I tried Sailor Souten and was rewarded with a smoother feeling nib, while even with Iroshizuku Chiku Rin you can feel it dragging on smooth paper; of course that will probably be the excuse to seek a green Sailor ink in a 50ml bottle, I'm trying with Vert Empire at the moment even though that has found its place in two other pens. 

 

Conclusion:

 

I find Ambitions really good looking, perhaps that small hack can make them reliable, I've avoided other models from the brand for this reason.

 

[AlexItto]

I like to buy my pens in groups of three (at least). This allows me to own several colors of pens I love, try several inks at the same time with similar nibs, and to mix and match colors on pages, which helps me read and study when I write.

I now have Ambitions in pear, coconut and walnut. They are my nicest-looking pens so far (I'm still new in this).

I must say that the final section has been a bit of a challenge, but I am forcing myself to write better, with my full arm (as opposed to just fingers or wrist). Keeping my fingers on the barrel helps. Looking for my next set of 3. Considering Diplomat Aero, Kaweco AL Sport and Recife Soyuz right now.

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, AlexItto said:

I like to buy my pens in groups of three (at least). This allows me to own several colors of pens I love,

 

#metoo

 

‘Groups’ of three or more pens of a given model in different colourways ordered at once:

• three Faber-Castell Essentio Aluminium
  (and, subsequently, another to replace the pen in my wife's choice of colour that has gone to join her fleet)
• four Faber-Castell Essentio Carbon
  (at the heavily discounted price of the entire pen, just to get one of each nib width)
• five Pelikan Classic M20x 
  (joining the others we have here, making a total of thirteen, including double-ups of colourways that both my wife and I like)
• three Tibaldi Bononia 
  (still waiting for them to arrive)
• three Aurora Ipsilon
• three Pilot Prera Iro-Ai
  (still sitting new and never inked/tested inside a crate of surplus pens)
• eight Platinum Plaisir
  (and, subsequently, three more)
• three Sailor Lecoule
• five Sailor Profit Jr
• five Platinum Prefounte 
  (and, subsequently, two more to replace the two I gave away)
• three Moonman M100
• four Moonman M200
• three Kaco Edge
• three Delike New Moon 3
  (and, subsequently, two more new colours)
• four Delike ‘Handmade Nature Wood Barrel’
• four Delike Shepherd Boy
• five Jinhao 51A with different wooden barrels 
  (and, subsequently, the white pine one as well)
• ten Nemosine Singularity in four different colours 
  (not counting the stash of demonstrators I already had at the time)
• three Nemosine Fission

and so on, not including “rats and mice” stuff such as Platinum Preppy, Monami Penna, Wing Sung 3008, Jinhao X450, etc. that I bought by the handful. In a lot of cases, though, I didn't actually know whether I'd enjoy writing with those pens, much less love them, but I simply leapt head-first into acquiring them. As it turned out, I really dislike using the Nemosine Fission, and I find the Faber-Castell Essentio Carbon to be awkwardly balanced.

 

Not all bought at the same time, but we also ended up with three Faber-Castell Ambition pens over time, and I'll soon have a total of three Faber-Castell Loom pens (even though I only ever ordered two, and am still waiting for them to arrive).

[AlexItto]

Interesting!!

At some point I also considered Faber Castell Ondoros, but couldn't get interested in other versions beyond the wood-barrel one. Black and Orange just didn't catch my fancy.

This gruppings are of course easier with cheaper pens. I now own five Kaweco Sports (plastic), four Pilot Kakünos, five Lamy Safaris, four Schneider CEODs (nicest surprise so far!) and four Caran d'ache 849s.

[AmandaW]

On 9/13/2021 at 1:56 PM, A Smug Dill said:

three Sailor Lecoule

 

Do you still like the Lecoule? I am tempted by the adult Teal but concerned how well it resists drying out in the warmer months (ie most of the year here!)

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, AmandaW said:

Do you still like the Lecoule?

 

A qualified yes, I'd say. It's a competent writing instrument, and comfortable enough to use; for US$30 or less, there is sound competition in the market — including from, say, Faber-Castell Essentio which turned out to have some Chinese-made parts, although its nib is no doubt German — but that does not make me like the Sailor Lecoule less, and I'd say it's still a good buy if a thoroughly Japanese pen is what one wants.

 

What I see as the Lecoule's shortcoming is the steel nib of seemingly inferior production value, as opposed to functional value, compared to steel nibs with the 1911 imprint (e.g. on the Sailor Procolor 500 or new Profit Casual); and the seriously lightweight AS resin pen body (also a characteristic of the Procolor line) makes it feel cheaper than the heavier PMMA resin pen bodies of the Sailor Professional Gear Slim in the same form factor.

 

I have three Sailor Lecoule (after selling a fourth one I ordered to someone, here at cost while new-in-box and immediately upon its arrival at my home) and three F-C Essentio Aluminium here, and given the flimsier nib on the Lecoule that is only available in a single nib width (MF), if I'm to spend another US$30 on a pen I would probably choose another Essentio over the Lecoule.

 

(I'm not deliberately understating the price of the Essentio Aluminium; that is about what I paid for each of the three I have, and the Essentio Carbon cost me even less. I bought my Lecoule pens for less than that, but then I got them quite some time ago.)

 

On the other hand, for ≤US$30 I'd probably buy another HongDian N1 instead of either of those, if that was also an available option.

 

4 hours ago, AmandaW said:

I am tempted by the adult Teal but concerned how well it resists drying out in the warmer months

 

The cap of the Sailor Lecoule is very effective at preventing ink evaporation. I can't say the same for any of my F-C pens, although 1. the Essentio seems to do OK compared to the Ambition; and 2. I need to do more investigation about the effectiveness of a simple fix I can apply to the cap of the Ambition.

[mtcn77]

On 8/31/2021 at 2:04 PM, pgcauk said:

I find the ink starts out dark and gets lighter as I write

Hi, just found the quote I wanted to report back to.

Both my pens came with slight issues of tine alignment. The pens just wouldn't align laterally with the nib seated all the way back on the feed.

 

However, here is the good part: if I would seat the feed with the nib it just a bit more forward, both of the nibs would sit on the feed with perfect tune.

 

It seems after they tuned the nibs in the factory, either during the assembly, or through use the nib slides too far back and slips to one side. You cannot rotate it afterwards, once it is set distorted. I think this is the problem, since the pen also becomes very stiff.

 

PS: I meant to start off on the wet start, moderate thereafter flow at the beginning. I read somewhere that the length of the ink slit determines wetness, shorter the wetter. In that case, sliding the nib out does make it more consistent. Slower at the start and smoother thereafter.