Submarine pens

[antarmukhee]

Has anybody used fountain pens from submarine pens? Any comments on the quality of the fountain pens?

They have a good range of designs of both ball/roller and fountain pens.

https://www.submarinepens.com/product-category/fountain-pen/page/2/

 

[hari317]

Yes. I was given a set in 1999. I am not sure this is the same. If you remember Flair pen sets of those days the quality is similar. 

[antarmukhee]

7 minutes ago, hari317 said:

Yes. I was given a set in 1999. I am not sure this is the same. If you remember Flair pen sets of those days the quality is similar. 

 

Thanks.. Never used Flair pens..

The novelty that attracted me to these pens is the magnetic cap..

[hari317]

Ok. My example might be fairly early as I got it in 99 and they say they started a little over two decades back. 
Prices seem v reasonable. 
 

let me dig out my old set. A very dear friend gave it to me as I was leaving the city for a new job. 

[antarmukhee]

20 minutes ago, hari317 said:

let me dig out my old set.

 

 

That would be great, Hari.. Let us know how you find the nibs.. Thanks..

 

[pbhat]

    A few days back, I was at the T1 terminal of Mumbai Airport, casually roaming around the gates, and I had about 30 minutes to board. My eyes came to a small pen store kiosk selling Submarine and Swiss brand pens. On closer scrutiny, they have lovely-looking Jumbo ebonites and some acrylics on display. Interested, I checked with the guy in the store, and he happily gave me a black ebonite tester pen to test. It wrote decent. Ebonites are in three finishes ie. glossy black, Yellow black ripple, and a Rich brown and navy ripple. Both ripple versions have glossy black sections and glossy black parts on the cap and body. The fit and finish were top-notch with no material-based defect sometimes seen in ebonite, and the black part (which are separate subunits glued or screwed - not sure) makes it look beautiful. It has a converter-based filling system, can't say whether it can be used as an eye dropper.

    I picked the rich brown and navy blue ripple version as it looked the most gorgeous. The nib is a black-toned screw in type Broad 'B', and it came with a spare Medium 'M' nib in a neat case. The nib size is 7, and the feed looks like it is plastic. The converter is a universal Schmidt turn type of very good quality.

    I was eager to touch base to ink the pen on my first day in the office. I retained the Broad nib and filled the pen with Pelikan Brilliant black. I started writing without any trouble and it wrote a bold line with the right amount of wetness. In the first few days, it used to skip a bit in certain nib positions, but that has been corrected.

Now it's about 2 weeks old, and the pen has become my favourite and my best buy in recent times. The pen is big and well-balanced, and the gunmetal finished clip is right and writes beautifully. The pen is not on the Submarine website, and as the date of manufacture on the box is March 2025, it must be a new launch from Submarine, and the manufacturer's address says Mumbai (my own city). Any negatives? The ripple on the body and cap could probably be better aligned, and the clip could be slightly better, but that is nitpicking.

 

[Harish N V]

27 minutes ago, pbhat said:

    A few days back, I was at the T1 terminal of Mumbai Airport, casually roaming around the gates, and I had about 30 minutes to board. My eyes came to a small pen store kiosk selling Submarine and Swiss brand pens. On closer scrutiny, they have lovely-looking Jumbo ebonites and some acrylics on display. Interested, I checked with the guy in the store, and he happily gave me a black ebonite tester pen to test. It wrote decent. Ebonites are in three finishes ie. glossy black, Yellow black ripple, and a Rich brown and navy ripple. Both ripple versions have glossy black sections and glossy black parts on the cap and body. The fit and finish were top-notch with no material-based defect sometimes seen in ebonite, and the black part (which are separate subunits glued or screwed - not sure) makes it look beautiful. It has a converter-based filling system, can't say whether it can be used as an eye dropper.

    I picked the rich brown and navy blue ripple version as it looked the most gorgeous. The nib is a black-toned screw in type Broad 'B', and it came with a spare Medium 'M' nib in a neat case. The nib size is 7, and the feed looks like it is plastic. The converter is a universal Schmidt turn type of very good quality.

    I was eager to touch base to ink the pen on my first day in the office. I retained the Broad nib and filled the pen with Pelikan Brilliant black. I started writing without any trouble and it wrote a bold line with the right amount of wetness. In the first few days, it used to skip a bit in certain nib positions, but that has been corrected.

Now it's about 2 weeks old, and the pen has become my favourite and my best buy in recent times. The pen is big and well-balanced, and the gunmetal finished clip is right and writes beautifully. The pen is not on the Submarine website, and as the date of manufacture on the box is March 2025, it must be a new launch from Submarine, and the manufacturer's address says Mumbai (my own city). Any negatives? The ripple on the body and cap could probably be better aligned, and the clip could be slightly better, but that is nitpicking.

 

This is surprising. Never knew submarine would make such a pen. Looks great 

[pbhat]

Finding such a well-made ebonite pen at an airport terminal is most surprising to me!

[K Singh]

1 hour ago, pbhat said:

    A few days back, I was at the T1 terminal of Mumbai Airport, casually roaming around the gates, and I had about 30 minutes to board. My eyes came to a small pen store kiosk selling Submarine and Swiss brand pens. On closer scrutiny, they have lovely-looking Jumbo ebonites and some acrylics on display. Interested, I checked with the guy in the store, and he happily gave me a black ebonite tester pen to test. It wrote decent. Ebonites are in three finishes ie. glossy black, Yellow black ripple, and a Rich brown and navy ripple. Both ripple versions have glossy black sections and glossy black parts on the cap and body. The fit and finish were top-notch with no material-based defect sometimes seen in ebonite, and the black part (which are separate subunits glued or screwed - not sure) makes it look beautiful. It has a converter-based filling system, can't say whether it can be used as an eye dropper.

    I picked the rich brown and navy blue ripple version as it looked the most gorgeous. The nib is a black-toned screw in type Broad 'B', and it came with a spare Medium 'M' nib in a neat case. The nib size is 7, and the feed looks like it is plastic. The converter is a universal Schmidt turn type of very good quality.

    I was eager to touch base to ink the pen on my first day in the office. I retained the Broad nib and filled the pen with Pelikan Brilliant black. I started writing without any trouble and it wrote a bold line with the right amount of wetness. In the first few days, it used to skip a bit in certain nib positions, but that has been corrected.

Now it's about 2 weeks old, and the pen has become my favourite and my best buy in recent times. The pen is big and well-balanced, and the gunmetal finished clip is right and writes beautifully. The pen is not on the Submarine website, and as the date of manufacture on the box is March 2025, it must be a new launch from Submarine, and the manufacturer's address says Mumbai (my own city). Any negatives? The ripple on the body and cap could probably be better aligned, and the clip could be slightly better, but that is nitpicking.

 

Seeing this pen from them for the first time. Looks good 👍 

[K Singh]

1 hour ago, Harish N V said:

This is surprising. Never knew submarine would make such a pen. Looks great 

Likely made by some OEM would be my guess 🤷

[hari317]

3 hours ago, pbhat said:

    A few days back, I was at the T1 terminal of Mumbai Airport, casually roaming around the gates, and I had about 30 minutes to board. My eyes came to a small pen store kiosk selling Submarine and Swiss brand pens. On closer scrutiny, they have lovely-looking Jumbo ebonites and some acrylics on display. Interested, I checked with the guy in the store, and he happily gave me a black ebonite tester pen to test. It wrote decent. Ebonites are in three finishes ie. glossy black, Yellow black ripple, and a Rich brown and navy ripple. Both ripple versions have glossy black sections and glossy black parts on the cap and body. The fit and finish were top-notch with no material-based defect sometimes seen in ebonite, and the black part (which are separate subunits glued or screwed - not sure) makes it look beautiful. It has a converter-based filling system, can't say whether it can be used as an eye dropper.

    I picked the rich brown and navy blue ripple version as it looked the most gorgeous. The nib is a black-toned screw in type Broad 'B', and it came with a spare Medium 'M' nib in a neat case. The nib size is 7, and the feed looks like it is plastic. The converter is a universal Schmidt turn type of very good quality.

    I was eager to touch base to ink the pen on my first day in the office. I retained the Broad nib and filled the pen with Pelikan Brilliant black. I started writing without any trouble and it wrote a bold line with the right amount of wetness. In the first few days, it used to skip a bit in certain nib positions, but that has been corrected.

Now it's about 2 weeks old, and the pen has become my favourite and my best buy in recent times. The pen is big and well-balanced, and the gunmetal finished clip is right and writes beautifully. The pen is not on the Submarine website, and as the date of manufacture on the box is March 2025, it must be a new launch from Submarine, and the manufacturer's address says Mumbai (my own city). Any negatives? The ripple on the body and cap could probably be better aligned, and the clip could be slightly better, but that is nitpicking.

 

Nice buy. Surprised to hear of this pen shop at T1  congrats on your new purchase and nice to hear from you on FPN after a long time. 

[pbhat]

My new acquisition Submarine ebonite flanked by two ACR's on either side. You can estimate the size of the Submarine which is truly a jumbo but very comfortable to hold and write uncapped.

[K Singh]

8 hours ago, pbhat said:

My new acquisition Submarine ebonite flanked by two ACR's on either side. You can estimate the size of the Submarine which is truly a jumbo but very comfortable to hold and write uncapped.

This gives a clear idea on its size. That Submarine is a Jumbo indeed. Nice 👍 Also, rare to come across Clipless version of Kim Jumbo. It's a beauty 👌

[inkstainedruth]

Just finding this thread now.  

@pbhatWhen I saw the photos of the pen you found at the Mumbai airport back then, the ebonite of the barrel struck me as being very similar to that of the Noodler's Methusaleh's Pine Cone Ripple Konrad (which is probably not that all surprising since the Noodler's pens are manufactured in India).

Also really liking the look of the ebonite on your latest acquisition, although -- sadly -- I suspect that the Jumbo would be too big for my "girly" hands to use comfortably.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pbhat]

2 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Just finding this thread now.  

@pbhatWhen I saw the photos of the pen you found at the Mumbai airport back then, the ebonite of the barrel struck me as being very similar to that of the Noodler's Methusaleh's Pine Cone Ripple Konrad (which is probably not that all surprising since the Noodler's pens are manufactured in India).

Also really liking the look of the ebonite on your latest acquisition, although -- sadly -- I suspect that the Jumbo would be too big for my "girly" hands to use comfortably.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Probably the OEM may be the same as the Noodler pens. Even though it's big, its very well balanced and I should say one of the most comfortable pen in my small collection to write with and I never write posted.