Dollar 717I - The Most Underrated Pen Ever? Written Review + Bonus Pictures

[Sui-Generis]

 

 

 

 

[Mr.Rene]

mine leaks...

[gillum51]

i've actually had one of these for years. its a little small for my taste, but I filled it recently and it really writes very well.

[mhguda]

I too have had one - a blue one, with a slightly different nib - for years, use it off and on. Nice enough pen. Two or three years ago I bought a box (10 or 12 inside) from Asapens, for a student project. They're cheap, sturdy, and easy to figure out for people not used to writing with fountain pens. The box were all clear demonstrators, which the kids thought was cool. And also helpful, to show capillarity in action...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the review. One of my go-to ink tester pens, and I believe, also used that way by a big pen show.

[inkstainedruth]

Somebody gave me one a couple of years ago and it writes pretty well for being basically a $5 pen with a plastic feed. But I have found that I have to keep adjusting the piston as I use up a fill, which is kind of annoying at times.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Now i'm curious... a pen this cheap... and it works! (apparently pretty reliably...)

 

Thanks for the review

[txomsy]

Thanks for the review. That is a nice pen indeed.

[sansenri]

Yes, it's a good pen. If I'm not mistaken it's made in Pakistan.

It's almost a shame the pen is slightly small and that the plastic looks a little cheap, but it does it's job pretty well.

The one thing that strikes favourably is the nib, a surprisingly nice nib at this price.

I keep one in the office drawer as a back up.

[txomsy]

Yeah, it is made in Pakistan. A dirty cheap piston filler, which marks it high above its average. It's been around for long and it certainly is very underrated, IMHO.

[sciumbasci]

A good pen indeed, I can't do anything but praise it. Dollar inks are equally good.

[Sui-Generis]

I'm so very glad everyone has enjoyed my little review. ^_^

 

I'm also glad so many people are enjoying the fountain pen hobby without it being 18k this and 'carved from the bones of unicorns' that!

[gillum51]

A good pen indeed, I can't do anything but praise it. Dollar inks are equally good.

I didn't know they made ink. I'll have to look for it.

[Honeybadgers]

For how obscenely cheap they are...

 

Agree completely. They FEEL cheap, no doubts there. But I got a box of 12 and every single one of them wrote perfectly, so they're doing something right.

 

I didn't know a demo model existed. I like it a lot. Mine are all red or blue.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Honeybadgers

[txomsy]

How do they hold the ink? I mean, I've got a Serwex piston filler that seems to allow for a lot of ink evaporation. Does ink evaporate quickly in these pens?

[sansenri]

They are reasonably good, don't expect them to last forever, as they will dry out after 7-10 days unused, but that is not so bad for this type of pen.

As Honeybadgers says their big strength is the nib, they write well, no adjustments needed and they do it better that several other low cost pens which however still cost several times more...

[ENewton]

They do write amazingly well for the price--much better than, say, a Kaweco Sport, which is many times as expensive--and are generally well behaved, although I've found that they start burping when the ink supply gets low.

 

 

[Seele]

I use mine occasionally, and the nibs are rather good as stated by our fellow correspondents. That said, I think the piston can be a bit better: in the picture posted by sansenri, you can see the piston as fitted to the end of the threaded piston rod, which has only one piston ring to effect sealing against the internal cylinder. For mine, the piston can thus wobble a fair bit, which may or may not have some effects on an absolute air seal. If the piston has two rings, wobbling can be eliminated, giving a smoother action and extra assurance of reliability.