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First Impression: Fpr Indus


LizEF

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TL,DR: It blurps. :( Edit: No, it doesn't, Liz just didn't shove the nib and feed back in far enough - see subsequent posts between me and Anthony. :) Am now very happy with this pen. :D

 

Just thought I'd give a quick first-impression post on the Fountain Pen Revolution Indus I just got. I got the blue demonstrator version, via Amazon:

21jNPsP-WXL.jpg

At arm's length, it looks like above photo. Up close, it needs polishing. :) Given the price, and that it's not from someone turning out massive numbers of them (i.e. not like Pilot making the Metropolitan), this is to be expected.

 

Measurements:

It's thinner than I expected (though my expectation was imaginary): The barrel is 11mm diameter. The grip ranges from 9.5mm at the metal ring to 10mm just before the cap threads. Uncapped, it's 124mm long; capped, it's 133mm; posted, it's 150mm (but the inner cap prevents it from posting securely - the turning knob hits the inner cap before posting is very secure). The pen weights 14.6g, 8.9g for the body, and 5.7g for the cap.

 

Filling:

This is where the pen is fabulous - it fills with almost no air bubble at all - on the first fill! Don't ask me how they did that when most piston turners require you to empty and refill to reach their max, and even then have quite a large amount of air still in the barrel, but this thing just sucks the ink right up immediately. :) I find the piston easy to operate. The cap seems air tight - no air escapes when I blow into it, but I can operate the piston when the pen is capped without any apparent resistance (unlike my TWSBI Eco), so the inner cap may not be sealing as well as it ought. The pen can be completely disassembled, which is nice if you need to deep-clean or grease it.

 

Nib / Writing:

The nib appears to be a 5.5 per the FPR website. It and the feed are friction fit. There's no breather hole, but it has a very long nib slit like the Noodler's flex nibs. It's 2-tone with some scroll work on the silver part, and on the gold part, it has "FPR" and "Flex" running from near the grip toward the tip on either side of the slit.

 

I'd say it writes between a western F and EF, closer to the EF side, slightly fatter than a Japanese fine. It's also wet. I decided to fill it with Diamine Misty Blue, because I have oodles of the stuff (mistake - I like the ink, but 80mL is a lot of ink). The nib is quite smooth "out of the box", more so up and down and even on curves than cross-wise, which feels a little rough. But I feel no need to smooth it further (something I've done with quite a few nibs), at least, not right now.

 

I find it fairly easy to flex. I've never written with a vintage wet noodle (or any other variety), but I have a Visconti Homo Sapiens palladium nib in EF and a Pilot Falcon SEF. Ranking them in order of pressure required, from least to most: Visconti, Pilot, FPR. So it does take more pressure, but I don't find it difficult at all.

 

The Problem: No Problem:

I like this pen. I'd love to keep it and use it a lot as I love the flexy action, therefore, I'm gonna keep it and love it's flexy action, cuz all that blurping stuff was my fault, not the pen's!

 

I thought I had the nib and feed well-seated after cleaning (they're a very, very tight fit), but they weren't quite in all the way. At Anthony's suggestion, I tried again and got them to go in a hair farther. After 7 minutes of writing, no sign of blups, and the ink color is more normal, the flow not as wet.

 

Important lesson: the nib and feed on this guy are really tight, so if you take them out for cleaning, make extra certain you've got them back in all the way!

 

but it blurps after about a sentence or two, and while it takes longer, it even blurps if I'm always flexing. Ink starts accumulating under the nib and drips down off the bottom of the feed. I can usually see the drop in time to tip the pen up and prevent it, which is why there's only one drop on the writing sample below. Others were narrowly averted, or got on my fingers.

 

My other pens that fill directly don't do this: TWSBI Eco, Visconti London Fog (though my brother's Charlie pen never stopped and I gave up on it). My cartridge / converter pens don't do this (with the exception of 3 Nemosine Singularities, which I can "fix" by using a different converter and filling it directly rather than through the feed; I think if I wrote long enough, however, the feed would become saturated and blurp, not sure).

 

I've heard altitude and being in the desert (both me) can make this problem worse, so maybe that's got something to do with it, don't know, but I'm disappointed. Sigh. I wonder if the material it's made of doesn't also make the problem worse (e.g. as compared to the TWSBI and Visconti).

 

Here's a sample of my writing with it - sorry, it's a bit of a mess. Big version here, if you want to zoom in. The picture doesn't show the shading on the flexing very well, but it's quite nice, until it gets too wet.

 

http://www.paradoxcommunity.com/vps/fprindussmall.jpg

 

Conclusion:

It would be a great deal for the price, and lots of fun to get all flexy with, if it didn't blurp. Am bummed about that.

 

It's a great deal for the price, and lots of fun to get all flexy with! Am very happy. I'm gonna go play now. :D

 

A video of someone flexing with it can be found here. And one on disassembly can be found here.

 

Hope this is useful to anyone considering this pen.

Edited by LizEF
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Hi Liz,

 

I'm sorry to hear this... if you want to yell at me, go ahead. :(

 

I haven't encountered any problems with the two I have or I would have spoke up. Mine are not demonstrators, but I don't see how that would make any difference though. :unsure:

 

I'd contact Kevin; he's pretty good with customer service.

 

Sorry, again. :(

 

 

- Anthony

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Hi Liz,

 

I'm sorry to hear this... if you want to yell at me, go ahead. :(

 

I haven't encountered any problems with the two I have or I would have spoke up. Mine are not demonstrators, but I don't see how that would make any difference though. :unsure:

 

I'd contact Kevin; he's pretty good with customer service.

 

Sorry, again. :(

 

 

- Anthony

 

Not your fault, Anthony. I was sure yours had no trouble or you wouldn't have recommended it. And it's not like you're the one making it, and you can't be the only one for whom they work. I think these pens made in India of whatever this stuff is just don't like me and my brother.

 

I'll ponder contacting FPR - not sure it's worth a lot of back and forth.

 

Thanks,

Liz

Edited by LizEF
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Hi Liz,

 

Thanks for your kind words. :)

 

Btw, have you tried pulling and re-setting the nib and feed... or pushing them in a little... sometimes all it takes is a fraction of a millimeter to make all the difference.

 

Thanks again. :)

 

 

- Anthony

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Hi Liz,

 

Thanks for your kind words. :)

 

Btw, have you tried pulling and re-setting the nib and feed... or pushing them in a little... sometimes all it takes is a fraction of a millimeter to make all the difference.

 

Thanks again. :)

 

 

- Anthony

 

Dude! You're a genius! I thought I had it well seated after cleaning (it's a very, very tight fit), but I decided after your post that I may as well try again, so I donned a rubber glove and tried to shove it in a little further, heard a little clicky sort of sound as it moved a microscopic amount, and I've just managed to write for 7 minutes without anything like a blurp, both regular and flex. It's also not as wet, so the ink is more the color I'm used to. :D

 

Thank you!

 

Now I have to go correct my posts and review!

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OK, I've done some strikethroughs and added corrections to clarify that this pen does NOT have a blurpy problem. :D I can highly recommend it for anyone looking to have some flexy fun. :D

 

Thanks again, Anthony! Appreciate you not giving up even though I had! :blush: :)

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:blush: Thanks, Liz. You're welcome.

 

That's great! I'm glad it worked out so well for you. :)

 

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED to correct typo.

Edited by ParkerDuofold
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:blush: Thanks, Liz. You're welcome.

 

That's great! I'm glad it worked out so well for you. :)

 

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED to correct typo.

 

And, in between my post and yours, it underwent a good test - doing a couple of logic puzzles. When I'm doing those, the pen doesn't spend a ton of time writing, but spends the whole time nib down and uncapped - no blurps at all. And then I wrote some more to fill up the blank parts of the paper - no issue. I think it's safe to say we have a winner. Here's a link to a big picture of my pen, for interested parties.

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This thing likes to get ink between the nib/feed housing and the section. While there are slots designed for a screwdriver, the plastic is very soft, and the size doesn't match any normal screwdriver (I have a ridiculous number of them - both the "regular" kind and the kind with bits, powered and manual). So, get used to ink in there.

 

On the other hand, the piston comes out easily - which is nice, because ink gets stuck around it and won't come out without disassembly.

 

Still happy with the pen, just FYI. I may see if my brother can 3D print me a custom doohickey to unscrew the nib/feed housing (though I'd still do it only rarely, if at all).

 

Diamine Misty Blue worked well - flowed fast enough to keep up with lots of flexing. Diamine 1864 Blue Black did not - liked to run dry and railroad, took a long time to refill the feed so I could flex again. (Just in case anyone was wondering.) Have yet to try a third ink. Think I'll try Waterman Inspired Blue. (I want to put Anderson Pens Oshkosh Denim in there, but it's a bit dry. Maybe if I added glycerine... Time to do a search... :D )

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  • 1 month later...

I also have this pen, mine also did burp, but after i heat setted it worked fine. Too bad i got rid of it because the pen dries out way too fast.

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I have same pen and problem. Mine burp too and sometimes just runs dry. Also I have to constantly push nib back in, because it bit too loose fitting. Heat setting didn't helpo. Ring on top of the cap also unscrews, which makes clip loose. But for the price, and because it came overseas, I'm just going to accept these little flaws.

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