Budget Fountain Pens, Paper And Ink

[prashant.tikekar]

Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestions. Yes, Airmail Wality series is on my wishlist. And about Kanwrite, I couldn't find their products on Amazon. I mailed them a month back and have got no reply from them.

Mobile no of Owner of Kanwrite

Mr. Sandeep Awasthi is +91 93054 56599

You can contact him on WhatsApp. He is active and is prompt in replying.

[panna]

@RohanOrhanHaron - quick question, can the Camlin Presa be used as an ED (with some silicone grease) or as a converter? I've been seeing it being sold with cartridges.

[vijaych]

 

I ordered an ASA DAILY with a Schmidt converter from ASA's Website. Unfortunately, couldn't contact ASA before purchase. Let's see, when it would reach me.

 

 

Hi Vineet,

I can understand your feelings. I am also novice like you, started fountain pen journey one and half year ago. I started with camlin 47. I like fine nibs, but camlin 47 writes fine to medium. so I did not like the pen that much. Later I bought Pilot Metropolitan based on the recommendations and reviews on youtube and FPN. I love this pen. I never had ink dry issues. Use Bril royal blue. It is better than camlin ink, as chelpark inks are out of production, probably the best ink made in India.

IMO, Indian ebonite pens are as good as well known brands like pilot and lamy. I bought a ebonite pen with a ambitious nib for Rs.200/- and Swarna Pen with a third party nib for the same price and I interchanged the nibs. Now this swarna pen writes as good as Pilot metropolitan. I like it morethan metropolitan. So, always experiment with the pens you will find your favourite pen.

Good luck...

By the way how is ASA daily.... do you like it?

[mssethi]

Thanks for your recommendation, I really want to have Kanwrite products (a flex nib pen and the Kanwrite desire). Are there any Indian Ebonites which can be classified in the category of heavy-duty pens? Durable, good for daily use and with a decent nib that would never let you down? which will allow you to have the luxury of not carrying a roller pen as a backup? I am willing to increase my budget if such a product exists!

[mssethi]

Vineetkgiri

I have been using a Kanwrite Desire for the past 4 months, initially with a flex nib and later on with a regular medium tip nib. I use it with cartridges and hv a spare cartridge in the pen itself, and it is the only pen I take to work everyday.

For a flex nib Heritage is the right choice. Heritage with a regular nib is a heavy duty pen , else you could consider an ASA or a Gama ebonite. They are heavy duty pens.

[mssethi]

 

Do you have a pen like that ? How does that write ? I was curious about Krishna pen's custom grinds.

[mssethi]

I believe Krishna has stopped pen manufacturing for the time being.

[Dip n Scratch]

I found out the hard way that the Wality nibs used on the Airline pens cane be 'variable' in quality.

I blamed the pen and disposed of it. It was an ebonite Wality 69, my first Eyedropper and my first Indian pen.

I learned how to treat a scratchy nib with micro-mesh to make it write smoothly. It is a very fine abrasive pad.

I have a Wality 69A and a Click Bamboo that are both fitted with Ambitious nibs.

The Click needed corrective action & I can imagine how disappointed you would be if you had parted with hard-earned money on it. I treated it to an Ambitious nib because that is what I had in Medium tip for the India #8 size.

 

If you are using the pen at work, then the available paper may have been bought in to feed a photocopier & is too absorbent of fountain pen ink. Therefore if your writing is very small it won't look very nice at all. The paper fibres soak up the ink very fast & the writing appears to spread out. We call that 'feathering'.

There is not much that you can do about really bad paper in a workplace.

[AnuragTukan]

Hi Vineet,

I can understand your feelings. I am also novice like you, started fountain pen journey one and half year ago. I started with camlin 47. I like fine nibs, but camlin 47 writes fine to medium. so I did not like the pen that much. Later I bought Pilot Metropolitan based on the recommendations and reviews on youtube and FPN. I love this pen. I never had ink dry issues. Use Bril royal blue. It is better than camlin ink, as chelpark inks are out of production, probably the best ink made in India.

IMO, Indian ebonite pens are as good as well known brands like pilot and lamy. I bought a ebonite pen with a ambitious nib for Rs.200/- and Swarna Pen with a third party nib for the same price and I interchanged the nibs. Now this swarna pen writes as good as Pilot metropolitan. I like it morethan metropolitan. So, always experiment with the pens you will find your favourite pen.

Good luck...

By the way how is ASA daily.... do you like it?

Hey

Could you please tell me where I can find those 200INR pens?

[vineetkgiri]

 

 

 

 

Hi Vineet,

I can understand your feelings. I am also novice like you, started fountain pen journey one and half year ago. I started with camlin 47. I like fine nibs, but camlin 47 writes fine to medium. so I did not like the pen that much. Later I bought Pilot Metropolitan based on the recommendations and reviews on youtube and FPN. I love this pen. I never had ink dry issues. Use Bril royal blue. It is better than camlin ink, as chelpark inks are out of production, probably the best ink made in India.

IMO, Indian ebonite pens are as good as well known brands like pilot and lamy. I bought a ebonite pen with a ambitious nib for Rs.200/- and Swarna Pen with a third party nib for the same price and I interchanged the nibs. Now this swarna pen writes as good as Pilot metropolitan. I like it morethan metropolitan. So, always experiment with the pens you will find your favourite pen.

Good luck...

By the way how is ASA daily.... do you like it?

When I started this thread one and half years ago, I was just taking my first steps. I wasn't well oriented with the concept of "feedback" in fountain pens. I expected fountains pens to write smoothly out of the box. Now after a year or so, I love my metropolitan. But I don't use it often. I treat my ASA daily as my heavy duty pen and it has never disappointed me. One of the reasons I don't carry Pilot metro because I will need good quality paper to really enjoy the pen. ASA daily is a good pen, I used it to make notes for my dissertation and I have to admit that during my long session's of writing, the pen performed pretty well without tiring my hands on poor quality paper (I haven't learned Spencerian script which uses shoulders and wrist, I rely on fingers more). Unfortunately, I used Pelikan royal blue which is not an ideal ink for notes making. Recently I visited Chennai and I managed to buy Bril royal blue and Bril black ink. I also purchased the new Camlin royal blue ink. I love the color of Camlin royal blue more but Bril is equally good. I feel bad when both of these inks are overlooked by the fountain pen community (Although I shouldn't generalize). I gifted my Jinhao and preppy to some friends. Now I am only left with two pens (4 if I count my dud Camlin and parker vector calligraphy set). Frankly, I don't see any reason to upgrade now. I think I have found my holy grail pens. This ebonite pen you are talking about with ambitious nib, How can I purchase it? I don't want it for self-use (hopefully ) needed to gift a pen to someone.

[vineetkgiri]

Vineetkgiri

I have been using a Kanwrite Desire for the past 4 months, initially with a flex nib and later on with a regular medium tip nib. I use it with cartridges and hv a spare cartridge in the pen itself, and it is the only pen I take to work everyday.

For a flex nib Heritage is the right choice. Heritage with a regular nib is a heavy duty pen , else you could consider an ASA or a Gama ebonite. They are heavy duty pens.

Have heard a lot about Kanwrite pens, but I am really hesitant to invest in new pens now . I will purchase it someday . The premium pricing of Gama has been a deal breaker for me. I am happy with my ASA daily.Thanks for your suggestion !

[vineetkgiri]

I found out the hard way that the Wality nibs used on the Airline pens cane be 'variable' in quality.

I blamed the pen and disposed of it. It was an ebonite Wality 69, my first Eyedropper and my first Indian pen.

I learned how to treat a scratchy nib with micro-mesh to make it write smoothly. It is a very fine abrasive pad.

I have a Wality 69A and a Click Bamboo that are both fitted with Ambitious nibs.

The Click needed corrective action & I can imagine how disappointed you would be if you had parted with hard-earned money on it. I treated it to an Ambitious nib because that is what I had in Medium tip for the India #8 size.

 

If you are using the pen at work, then the available paper may have been bought in to feed a photocopier & is too absorbent of fountain pen ink. Therefore if your writing is very small it won't look very nice at all. The paper fibres soak up the ink very fast & the writing appears to spread out. We call that 'feathering'.

There is not much that you can do about really bad paper in a workplace.

I learnt my lesson on "feathering" a few years ago. But I must confess Pelikan royal blue performed admirably on pathetic papers. I was really impressed with the ink. But I realized in the long run, it fades and is not ideal for notes making. As far as Wality is concerned a lot of people have complained about Wality being darts out of the box. But they seem to impress everyone with some nib tweaking. I have kept my Camlin trinity just for this purpose, to learn the art of repairing the nib. However my attempts are really making the pen worse. I really want to attend some pen repair workshop in my country.

[vijaych]

Hilal Pen stores, Hyderabad, I bought few spare ambitious nibs as well.

Edited April 18, 2019 by vijaych

[vijaych]

@ AnuragTukan, Vineetkgiri

 

 

I bought this pen from a small local shop in Hyderabad, I replaced the nib with Ambitious nib bought from Hilal pen stores.

 

Vineet , I like the FPs which write finer. How fine is ASA daily compared to Metropolitan.

[vijaych]

[vijaych]

sorry for bad pics....

[vineetkgiri]

@ AnuragTukan, Vineetkgiri

 

 

I bought this pen from a small local shop in Hyderabad, I replaced the nib with Ambitious nib bought from Hilal pen stores.

 

Vineet , I like the FPs which write finer. How fine is ASA daily compared to Metropolitan. image 1.jpg image 2.jpg

I don't think there is a pen which can compete with pilot's fine steel nib. No European or Indian nib can perform like the Japanese nibs. They are amazing. If you want that "springy " feel, then you must invest on Platinum or Pilot gold nib pens, this is what I have been told by many people. I have heard Kanwrite fine nibs are also good. My Metropolitan is of medium nib but I have used Metro with fine nib too. In short the ASA daily (M) performs like other European nibs. In budget section I have yet to find a pen which writes smoothly and "pleasantly" like the pilot steel fine nibs. Also thank you for the pictures, it's a beautiful pen. Getting this in Delhi would be difficult.

Edited April 18, 2019 by vineetkgiri

[vijaych]

I don't think there is a pen which can compete with pilot's fine steel nib. No European or Indian nib can perform like the Japanese nibs. They are amazing. If you want that "springy " feel, then you must invest on Platinum or Pilot gold nib pens, this is what I have been told by many people. I have heard Kanwrite fine nibs are also good. My Metropolitan is of medium nib but I have used Metro with fine nib too. In short the ASA daily (M) performs like other European nibs. In budget section I have yet to find a pen which writes smoothly and "pleasantly" like the pilot steel fine nibs. Also thank you for the pictures, it's a beautiful pen. Getting this in Delhi would be difficult.

 

I am too a great fan of Japanese nibs...

 

Any ebonite pen around 500 INR or more would be good. Replace its nib with ambitious nib, you will have your EDC. By the way Ambitious company is located in Delhi.

 

I will try to post writing samples of both metropolitan and my ebonite pen.

Edited April 18, 2019 by vijaych

[rdugar]

 

 

 

When I started this thread one and half years ago, I was just taking my first steps. I wasn't well oriented with the concept of "feedback" in fountain pens. I expected fountains pens to write smoothly out of the box. Now after a year or so, I love my metropolitan. But I don't use it often. I treat my ASA daily as my heavy duty pen and it has never disappointed me. One of the reasons I don't carry Pilot metro because I will need good quality paper to really enjoy the pen. ASA daily is a good pen, I used it to make notes for my dissertation and I have to admit that during my long session's of writing, the pen performed pretty well without tiring my hands on poor quality paper (I haven't learned Spencerian script which uses shoulders and wrist, I rely on fingers more). Unfortunately, I used Pelikan royal blue which is not an ideal ink for notes making. Recently I visited Chennai and I managed to buy Bril royal blue and Bril black ink. I also purchased the new Camlin royal blue ink. I love the color of Camlin royal blue more but Bril is equally good. I feel bad when both of these inks are overlooked by the fountain pen community (Although I shouldn't generalize). I gifted my Jinhao and preppy to some friends. Now I am only left with two pens (4 if I count my dud Camlin and parker vector calligraphy set). Frankly, I don't see any reason to upgrade now. I think I have found my holy grail pens. This ebonite pen you are talking about with ambitious nib, How can I purchase it? I don't want it for self-use (hopefully ) needed to gift a pen to someone.

 

Thanks Vineet! You're journey and very helpful posts (and thanks to others for the responses) have given me a few ideas. I'm looking for reliable, daily writing pens in India.

Thinking of acquiring Asa or Pilot Metropolitan. I want to send it as a gift and convince my mother to write with them

Edited September 20, 2019 by rdugar

[vineetkgiri]

Thanks Vineet! You're journey and very helpful posts (and thanks to others for the responses) have given me a few ideas. I'm looking for reliable, daily writing pens in India.

Thinking of acquiring Asa or Pilot Metropolitan. I want to send it as a gift and convince my mother to write with them

I am happy that this thread helped you. Just an update, Pilot metropolitan is a good pen, but mine has an issue. After I clean and dry it completely, and refill it, the pen seems to develop a flow issue. It takes two days to write normally. I have tested it with cheap inks like Bril, camlin, daytone, quink and even with some foreign inks like Diamine majestic blue. Mine only works best with pelikan royal blue, and it makes very faint lines immediately after being inked. I think Indian 3 in one ebonites which have ebonite feed are the safest pens and the most reliable writers. My Asa daily has a plastic feed but it hasn't given me any problems so far. It writes consistently with any ink that I have filled in it.

Edited October 9, 2019 by vineetkgiri