I got this pen today

[zmija]

Hero 565 & 616

 

Oh... These pens are quiet cool and so bad at the same time

There's a lot to talk about here...

[boilermaker1975]

Three pens arrived today. Two Lamy Safaris and a Pelikan M805 black/blue.

 

Edit: I forgot to order converters for the Lamys,  😡

 

 

[Russprechtl]

1 hour ago, boilermaker1975 said:

Three pens arrived today. Two Lamy Safaris and a Pelikan M805 black/blue.

 

Edit: I forgot to order converters for the Lamys,  😡

 

 

I never have understood why Safaris and Al-Stars come without converters. It's especially baffling when even extremely inexpensive models do.

[boilermaker1975]

7 hours ago, Russprechtl said:

I never have understood why Safaris and Al-Stars come without converters. It's especially baffling when even extremely inexpensive models do.

 

I think that is why I forgot. This is the last day for Cult Pens' Winter Sale. So I just need to come up with $160 of stuff to get free shipping. Actually $192 because I have bought enough at Cult Pens that I have enough points to always get 20% off every order.

[InkyProf]

My Pelikan M600 in red tortoise arrived today from Kirk Speer. I think my description of the Imperial grind was a little misleading; rather than try to put it into words, here’s a writing sample and a closeup of the nib in profile for @Gloucesterman. The effect is actually pretty crisp, while still being forgiving to use (as intended). Only a quick dip but so far I like it a lot!

 

[awa54]

On 12/29/2025 at 8:48 PM, Penguincollector said:

  My in-laws’ Xmas cheque magically turned into this lovely full silver Pilot Elite made in 1975:

 

 

 

 

 

I really love mine! The heavy cap feels good, though I like the balance of the aluminum or stainless caps better...

[Penguincollector]

1 hour ago, awa54 said:

 

 

I really love mine! The heavy cap feels good, though I like the balance of the aluminum or stainless caps better...

 

   I really enjoy the weight of silver pens. I have an unorthodox grip as well, and I think a bit of back weight, like the silver cap on this pen and the Silvern- or the brass piston in some pens, helps me out. 

[inkstainedruth]

@boilermaker1975 Most of my Safaris and al-Stars have come from e-businesses who will give the option in the listings if you want to add a converter (or a pack of cartridges) to the order.  I think the only one that I bought in person was the Harry Potter series "Ravenclaw" pen, which I got at the Lamy SoHo store in NYC before they closed up shop (I'd actually gone in to look at a Lamy Studio -- I had been admiring the look of them -- but discovered that it was a bit too heavy for me).  So ended up seeing the  Harry Potter series pens on display and bought the "Ravenclaw" pen because I liked that color the best.  And of course, it was the first version of the series, with the engraved barrel designs, so not exactly cheap....  

I actually paid less for the Lamy LX than I did for ANY of my Safaris, because I got that pen when their old US distributor was having a closeout sale.  And ironically, the only "standard" color Safari or al-Star I ever bought was the blue one my husband wanted, when I was putting in an order a few years ago for that year's al-Star SE color.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[boilermaker1975]

@inkstainedruth Needing the converters, along with today being the last day of Cult Pens' winter sale, was motivation to place an order. Of course the two converters were $12.28 and I had to get to $160, after a 20% discount, to get to free shipping. So I ordered every ink Waterman makes, a few Diamine inks, a couple of Lamy inks (although these were $2 more per bottle than I could get them in the US), and a few broad nibs for my Lamy Safaris.

[inkstainedruth]

Oh, I understand completely.  I have a bunch of samples (and possibly even a few bottles of ink) I've never opened because of adding stuff to orders to get to the threshold for free shipping.  

I have this huge spreadsheet on my laptop of what company has X or Y or Z as far as pens and inks and such, and who has what and for how much and what their "free shipping" threshold is.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ceramicist]

5 hours ago, InkyProf said:

My Pelikan M600 in red tortoise arrived today from Kirk Speer. I think my description of the Imperial grind was a little misleading; rather than try to put it into words, here’s a writing sample and a closeup of the nib in profile for @Gloucesterman. The effect is actually pretty crisp, while still being forgiving to use (as intended). Only a quick dip but so far I like it a lot!

 

Wow! That is a gorgeous pen! What makes the nib "Imperial?"

[InkyProf]

45 minutes ago, Ceramicist said:

Wow! That is a gorgeous pen! What makes the nib "Imperial?"

 

Thanks! I was very excited to get this pen last year, but not at all excited by the stock Pelikan nib, which was a stiff, round fine that wrote a shapeless line closer to what I think of as a western medium, so I sent it to Kirk Speer in short order for modification, including, I think, a slight width reduction. His website describes the Imperial grind this way: "half sphere - removes top half of nib to create stub like line variation with round nib feel." I've read comparisons between this grind and a Franklin-Christoph SIG (stub italic gradient), but the shape is very different, now that I see it in person.

[jchch1950]

On 1/29/2026 at 10:58 AM, Russprechtl said:

I never have understood why Safaris and Al-Stars come without converters. It's especially baffling when even extremely inexpensive models do.

One reason, besides price, can be a distinct invitation to use cartridges. Selling cartridges is another source of income for certain pen companies.

[AmandaW]

Lamy has a significant range of inks, surely they want to sell those too?

 

The stupid thing is that here in Australia a major office supply chain has plenty of Lamy pens on the shelf, but no converters (not even online to click and collect). 

 

And the store I was at today had a decent range of Pilot Iroshizuku inks and Con-40s, but no Pilot pens. 

 

No pen for me today. I tried. 

[A Smug Dill]

42 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

And the store I was at today had a decent range of Pilot Iroshizuku inks and Con-40s, but no Pilot pens. 

 

Are you talking about Officeworks?

Last year several Officeworks stores were selling (select colours of) Pilot Prera iro-ai, each pen packaged with a CON-40 converter inside a ‘gift box’, for AUD $9 each. Officeworks's price for the CON-40 on its own was/is something like $8.75. It's been a long time since I've seen Officeworks actually stock any other Pilot fountain pen model, e.g. the MR (or MR1, i.e. the designation used by Pilot Corporation in Australia for the MR Metropolitan collection; the ’Metropolitan’ not being itself the name of a pen model anywhere in the world including the US market).

[AmandaW]

48 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Are you talking about Officeworks?

Yes. I have previously seen Prera, Kakuno and Explorer pens, but this store with it's impressive line up of inks and hangsell Con-40 packs had no Pilot pens (and no empty spaces to indicate having had any).

 

I really really wanted a new pen...and waiting weeks for a postie not so much. Yeah, one of those days. So I got a few Sakura Moonlight instead. Gel pens... oh the shame. 

[Ceramicist]

10 hours ago, InkyProf said:

 

Thanks! I was very excited to get this pen last year, but not at all excited by the stock Pelikan nib, which was a stiff, round fine that wrote a shapeless line closer to what I think of as a western medium, so I sent it to Kirk Speer in short order for modification, including, I think, a slight width reduction. His website describes the Imperial grind this way: "half sphere - removes top half of nib to create stub like line variation with round nib feel." I've read comparisons between this grind and a Franklin-Christoph SIG (stub italic gradient), but the shape is very different, now that I see it in person.

Thank you for the explanation!

[Misfit]

There’s a matte blue Pilot Explorer now. I used to like the matte blue Pilot Vanishing Point or Capless whenever I saw it in catalogs. If I were to get another Explorer, I think the matte blue would be the one. 

[Misfit]

On 1/28/2026 at 2:27 PM, zmija said:

Hero 565 & 616

 

Oh... These pens are quiet cool and so bad at the same time

There's a lot to talk about here...

I like how you used the notebook elastic to hold the pens. Why are they bad?

[InkyProf]

 

Arrived last night, two Italian cartridge-converter pens from the Leonardo family, a Radius 1934 Settimo Italia Verde, number 20/100, and a Leonardo Momento Zero Pausilya. The Radius came with a medium steel nib and the MZ with an elastic EF, but I also acquired a medium left oblique ground by Joshua Lax from Stilo & Stile and have put that in the Radius for now. (No writing samples yet, although I dipped quickly to make sure everything was in order.)

 

Two initial comments: the MZ “Pausilya” is a new regular-production material for 2026; what wasn’t clear in the promotional photos, however, is that the multicolor effect here is achieved not by the presence of “flakes” of multiple colors within the resin, but by the contrast between the teal-colored flakes and the brownish background color of the resin. In this, it’s quite different from older material like the Pietra Marina, which is more thoroughly filled with flakes of contrasting colors. The effect is still nice, and almost certainly nice enough to keep… but would I have gone ahead with it if I’d been looking at it in person? I’m genuinely unsure.

 

The Settimo Italia Verde is a limited edition. The tricolore is a little kitschy, I know, but I like it anyway. 🙂 The material is great in person — lots of depth.