Hello from the Netherlands

[Alma Conklin]

Hello fellow fountain pen lovers

My name is Alma and I'm from Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I am 26 y/o and I have always been very fond of my fountain pen(s) but I never really indulged into the world. For the past few weeks I've been immersing myself in brands, inks and even pencil cases. I really like pens with lots of colours. Brands like Conklin, Sailor, Visconti and Cross are my thing. I'm a big fan of the Van Gogh series.

 

I'm going to London in August and I'm looking for the best shops to go to and/or a place to buy the Conklin All American Rainbow Limited Edition.

 

I always use a converter. I have some Schneider blue, red and green cartridges left, let me know if you want them. I own Herbin Rose Cyclamen, Diamine Marine, Diplomat Red (not very happy with it) and Schneider Rose, Bermuda Blue, Apricot & Lemon Cake. I just ordered Visconti Café Terrace at Night ink.

 

A little more about me besides the fountain pen passion: I am autistic which allows me to deep dive in my interests. My main obsession is Arctic Monkeys and I owe David Bowie a lot. Thirdly I have a passion for language. I have studied linguistics (best subject evah!) for 18 months and French language and culture for four years. I work at an optometrist as a service employee.

 

My own go-to shops: the Pen Shop in Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Perreyon in Lyon, France.

[LizEF]

Welcome to FPN, Alma!   Glad you've joined us.

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[OCArt]

[A Smug Dill]

Welcome to FPN.

 

Will the Rainbow Limited Edition be your first Conklin All-American pen? I don't have any, but I'm always a bit wary of Conklin after reading more than a few anecdotal reports that the All-American has pretty poor cap seal effectiveness; the ability to prevent ink from evaporating and drying out in under three months of non-use (or very sporadic use) is a big thing for me in the selection and evaluation of fountain pens. I'd love to hear about your experience with Conklin pens; and (or but), if that will be your first All-American, you may want to search for some reviews online about the model's performance.

 

As for colourful pens, many Chinese-branded pens these days are quite colourful, so you may want to have a look on market platforms such as AliExpress.

[Recursion]

[amberleadavis]

[Alma Conklin]

10 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Welcome to FPN.

 

Will the Rainbow Limited Edition be your first Conklin All-American pen? I don't have any, but I'm always a bit wary of Conklin after reading more than a few anecdotal reports that the All-American has pretty poor cap seal effectiveness; the ability to prevent ink from evaporating and drying out in under three months of non-use (or very sporadic use) is a big thing for me in the selection and evaluation of fountain pens. I'd love to hear about your experience with Conklin pens; and (or but), if that will be your first All-American, you may want to search for some reviews online about the model's performance.

 

As for colourful pens, many Chinese-branded pens these days are quite colourful, so you may want to have a look on market platforms such as AliExpress.

Hi, thank you for your post! I don't own a Conklin yet. I don't think I will sporadically use my pen though. But the more pens I will have, the lesser I will use each of them... I think of first buying the Cross Botanica Green Daylily. Are you a fan of Cross?

[Alma Conklin]

Thank you everyone for making me feel so welcome!

[mallymal1]

[A Smug Dill]

45 minutes ago, Alma Conklin said:

Are you a fan of Cross?

 

I’m afraid not.

 

Out of the brands you’ve listed, I only like Sailor and have quite a few pens of that brand here. The Cross Peerless 125 has a gold nib made by Sailor, but alas, that turned out to be the only good thing I found about the pen. My wife has kindly taken that pen over into her personal fleet of pens; otherwise it, along with the Cross Townsend Titanium Herringbone I bought some twenty years ago, would probably never see any use in my hands.

 

[mhguda]

Hi Alma from Nijmegen, and welcome to FPN.

I studied in Nijmegen and lived there for 8 years, during which I discovered walking for pleasure.

Fond memories...

I hope you will enjoy your time here with us, and discover many new fountain pens to enjoy! (I know I did!)

[Wahl]

Hi Alma

I am a Conklin fan

 

https://i.imgur.com/7Ycitgi.jpg

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! So glad to have you as a member!!

[Alma Conklin]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

I’m afraid not.

 

 

What do you dislike about Cross?/What is the problem?

[Alma Conklin]

7 hours ago, mhguda said:

I studied in Nijmegen and lived there for 8 years, during which I discovered walking for pleasure.

Fond memories...

That's so nice! Did you discover the Pen Shop back then, if it existed when you were around?

[mhguda]

I'm afraid it's many years ago - I don't think it existed then... where is it located?

Actually, I looked it up. No, it did not exist then...

Not far from it I think there was an old music shop...

Edited June 27, 2022 by mhguda
additional info

[mizgeorge]

Hello, and welcome

[A Smug Dill]

On 6/28/2022 at 6:31 AM, Alma Conklin said:

What do you dislike about Cross?/What is the problem?

1. I bought my Cross Townsend Titanium Herringbone fountain pen with a steel M nib two decades ago, back when I knew very little about fountain pens, except for what I saw in department stores, but I came from a family that (blindly?) favoured Cross Classic Century ballpoint pens — which, to be fair, I didn't mind when I was a teenager — and I enjoyed my Cross C-Series Carbon Black rollerball pen greatly, so I had perhaps unduly high expectations of the Cross Townsend rollerball and fountain pens, in terms of the writing experience. I wasn't at all impressed with them.
2. Back then, I didn't even know about the existence of Extra Fine nibs — because department stores here tend not to stock anything but pens with Medium nibs, or the very occasional Fine nib — that I could ask for a pen fitted with an EF nib instead (or at least refused to buy any that weren't). That part was my own “fault”. All the same, I didn't have a good writing experience or get satisfactory writing outcomes from that Townsend fountain pen.
3. I didn't find the cap seal on the Townsend to be tremendously effective, even though it's not as poor as on the Parker Sonnet.
4. Montblanc, Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker, and Cross are, in my mind, ”department store ‘luxury’ writing instrument” brands because of the early, and ongoing, exposure to them primarily in department stores, and the sort of thing that people buy for birthday, graduation or retirement presents when they can't think of something meaningful to buy, or know enough about pens to buy from an informed position. That colours my view of those brands; my prejudice is due at least those brands' chosen marketing strategy, even if it does not necessarily mean they're inherently second-rate in technical performance.
5. Furthermore, A.T. Cross, along with Parker, being American brands, fall automatically in my mind into the class of things that need to prove themselves to be at least as good, if not better, than European competitors at the same price points. My family of the previous generation liked Cross and Parker, and back then being made in the USA seemed to garner esteem automatically with (Hong Kong) Chinese; but my experience with writing instruments of those brands have been OK-but-uninspiring at best on the whole, and when it comes specifically to fountain pens, Waterman and Rotring were far more satisfying.
6. Now, with Cross and Parker pens no longer made in the USA, I feel they have even more to prove if they want to stay at the table of the big boys. They're not winning; but I'll give credit to Cross for sourcing nibs made by Pilot and Sailor, if it isn't going to manufacture nibs in-house. I've given Parker two or three more chances, and it disappointed me over and over, so now it's firmly one of the, “I'll consider buying one if it's 80%-off” brands.
7. I though the fit and finish of the Cross Peerless 125 was OK, notwithstanding the pen body being made in China; but I thought the retail prices for the product line in various markets were taking the pith. Furthermore, while the Sailor-made nib is as good as any of those on my beloved Sailor pens, I just don't get along with the size and geometry of the convex gripping section.

That's as honest an answer as I can give you. I didn't have a good time with either Cross or Parker fountain pens, even when I bought “premium” models that aren't just sold in department stores as graduation presents; and, now that I know “enough” about fountain pens and having several hundred of them, I feel I'm in a position to say I see nothing particularly good or worthy (at least when compared with the competition) about Cross and Parker fountain pens, when to the majority of fountain pen users today globally, “heritage” of old brands doesn't invoke nostalgia, and doesn't mean a thing if it's not backed by present-day technical excellence.

[Alma Conklin]

11 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

1. That's as honest an answer as I can give you.

Thank you for elaborating. I appreciate it a lot. I still have my eyes set on the botanica green daylily, I just can't let go of its beauty. I think once I experience a Cross first-hand, I will be able to form my own opinion.

After taking a closer look at the Cross I want to buy, the grip part looks sliding to me, since the width at the side of the nib is clearly smaller than at the body side. Is that a common problematic feature of the brand?

 

On Chinese brands, which do you recommend?