In search for a Jowo 6 try

[Perrocartucho]

Good morning,

 

Although I feel like fountain pens have allways been "my thing" I am not more that a newer, though I ask for help.

 

Although I own a couple of interesting pens (a vintage Parker 51 from my grandpa and a Pilot custom 74) I feel like I should try a Jowo nib.

 

What would you suggest as an affordable way of trying a Jowo nib.

 

Perhaps buying a compatible fountain pen plus a steele Jowo nib?

 

 

Best regards

 

Rafael 

[Jamerelbe]

Lots of pens rely on JoWo to supply their nibs - often custom-made to suit their pens.  TWSBI and Diplomat are two brands I can think of that make their own pens, but rely on JoWo for the supply of their nib units.  

 

If you're based in Spain, it would be worth checking in with fpnibs.com - Pablo and Esther sell TWSBI and Diplomat pens, but also a few different brands that will take a standard JoWo nib (they used to sell their own pens, the Rondo and the Marbella, which took a #6 and a #5 nib respectively, but these now seem to be missing from their website).  I have bought a number of nibs from them over the years, to swap into pens I already had in my collection - plus the Rondo and the Marbella of course!  They are very friendly to deal with, and Pablo is happy to tune and/or custom grind nibs on his pens (price breakdowns are available on their website).

 

Looking at fpnibs current offerings, I suspect your most "affordable" option would be to buy a TWSBI pen - these range in price from €19 (plus taxes?) for the TWSBI Go, which is a very fun (plastic) pen with a unique filling mechanism, up to €56.20 for a Diamond 580 AL.

 

Another option I can heartily recommend is to check out Ranga Pens (rangapens.com), who hand-make their pens (in India), and offer them with Bock, JoWo, or Schmidt screw-in #6 nibs - or you can ask them to install a Ranga nib unit.  The housing of the latter gas identical threading to a JoWo nib unit, so you can buy one of these from fpnibs and swap it in if you want!

 

 

[Jamerelbe]

Just to add: JoWo nibs are fairly stiff but smooth writers (when they're properly tuned, which you can expect will be the case if you buy from fpnibs.com).  Definitely worth trying out!

[Jamerelbe]

Sorry, one more thing to add: Ranga quite regularly post "Group buy" offers on the Fountain Pen Network, with prices a little lower than on their website.  Their prices have trended up over time (as they've gained in popularity and diversified the range of materials they offer), but they're still a great price for a hand-turned pen!

 

You can check out their latest group buy here: 

 

 

[txomsy]

Other ones you may want to consider are the Gravitas fountain pens. They have very nice pens, well machined and at a reasonable price.

 

[Perrocartucho]

Thankyou a lot, I will explore all the options.

 

The australian flag makes me time-travel though as a junior engineer I worked on a MLS system (ILS like) in Sydney for a numbre of weeks, I enjoyed the country and the wonderfull people down under ....

[Karmachanic]

Some othe brands that sport Jowo nibs: Opus 88, Leonardo, Conklin, Edison, Faber Castell, Franklin Christoph, Taccia, and TWSBI

[Jamerelbe]

13 hours ago, Perrocartucho said:

Thankyou a lot, I will explore all the options.

 

The australian flag makes me time-travel though as a junior engineer I worked on a MLS system (ILS like) in Sydney for a numbre of weeks, I enjoyed the country and the wonderfull people down under ....

 

Glad to hear you've had a chance to visit 'Down Under', and enjoyed the experience - I visited Europe many years ago with my family, but sadly didn't make it to Spain!  Maybe another time, if the opportunity presents itself...

 

12 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

Some othe brands that sport Jowo nibs: Opus 88, Leonardo, Conklin, Edison, Faber Castell, Franklin Christoph, Taccia, and TWSBI

 

Thanks, that's a good list - though I noticed some Opus 88 pens use Bock nibs (which are also worth trying out).  I'm not sure whether @Perrocartucho is keen to try a 'stock' JoWo nib (#5 or #6 nib unit), or a pen and that uses custom-manufactured JoWo nibs - the experience could well be different, as the custom-made nibs have their own unique architecture as specified by the client.  Also, companies like Diplomat (especially) also seem to do their own quality control on their nibs before they sell them - as do Edison Pens, who really pride themselves on the high quality of their whole product.

[Karmachanic]

6 hours ago, Jamerelbe said:

some Opus 88 pens use Bock nibs

 

My understanding is they started with Bock and changed to Jowo.  Don't recall when.

[Perrocartucho]

Thankyou all for the great advice, It is my understanding that I still lack the knoledge to appreciate a customized nib, though perhaps the very begining would be buying a standard "stock" jowo or bock nib to later try those modified ones.

 

By the way, I have started grinding one of my cheap Jinhao 159, into a stub shape with not much discouraging results, it writes quite well and at least I can realize of the modificated nib since it hits the paper. 

 

 

[dms525]

This may not be relevant for some one who just wants to sample a JoWo nib, but maybe it is. All JoWo nibs are not the same. Many pen makers tune their nibs before shipping to retailers or customers. Some do a better job than others. I don't have experience with every maker mentioned by others, but I can enthusiastically endorse Leonardo, Edison and fpnibs JoWo nibs.

 

The best "bang for the buck" (or € ) in my opinion would be a Ranga pen fitted with a nib bought from fpnibs. 

 

Also, as of my last TWSBI purchase (many years ago), they were using #5 nibs. My experience suggests the #6 nibs are more enjoyable to use. YMMV, of course.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[Jamerelbe]

6 hours ago, dms525 said:

This may not be relevant for some one who just wants to sample a JoWo nib, but maybe it is. All JoWo nibs are not the same. Many pen makers tune their nibs before shipping to retailers or customers. Some do a better job than others. I don't have experience with every maker mentioned by others, but I can enthusiastically endorse Leonardo, Edison and fpnibs JoWo nibs.

 

The best "bang for the buck" (or € ) in my opinion would be a Ranga pen fitted with a nib bought from fpnibs. 

 

Also, as of my last TWSBI purchase (many years ago), they were using #5 nibs. My experience suggests the #6 nibs are more enjoyable to use. YMMV, of course.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

 

I'm inclined to agree with David's assessment re Ranga pens with a nib from fpnibs - if you like acrylic and/or ebonite pens, and are happy with the cost that's involved.  [Incidentally I've never really loved the clips Ranga uses, nor are they especially useful on their longer pens - which won't sit in a regular pocket anyway! - so I tend to go for their clipless option.]  I think Ranga are still happy to take US$5 off if you want to order a pen *threaded* to take a JoWo nib unit, but shipped without a nib.  If I were in your shoes, though, I'd pay full price to get one of their Ranga nib units in the pen - these have identical threading to a JoWo, and are Indian-made (Kanwrite) nibs that I've found to be nice writers in their own right.  If you end up buying multiple Ranga pens, you can swap and interchange between them - as long as you opt for the same threading on all of them!

 

David is also right (of course!) to warn you that all JoWo nibs are not the same.  Edison Pens (whose pens are pretty pricey) offer a premium service in this regard, and their pens are pretty well guaranteed to write beautifully out of the box.  Ranga historically just pull a nib out of their pile and ram it in without checking for quality - so you may have some work to do yourself if they send you a dud.  [This was especially bad when they used cheap Indian nibs in all their pens - I haven't gotten a single dud from them since I started buying their Kanwrite nibs, and suspect they may have lifted their game since they began to target the international market more aggressively.]

 

TWSBI's cheaper pens mostly use #5 nibs, that's true - unless you buy a Diamond 580, which uses what I'd call a #5.5 nib (same diameter feed, but the nib is a bit longer and has more of a 'wingspan').  Or you could go for the Vac 700R, which uses a #6 nib.  A word to the unwary, though: all of TWSBI's nibs are manufactured by JoWo to TWSBI's specifications, which means they're NOT standard JoWo nibs.  Pablo from fpnibs.com used to sell JoWo stock nibs to fit into TWSBI pens (before he became a TWSBI distributor) - but he had to modify their curvature slightly to ensure a fit.

 

If your budget will stretch to it, I'd say you have nothing to lose (and a lot to gain) buying a pen from Ranga and a nib (or several!) from fpnibs.com.

[A Smug Dill]

On 7/20/2022 at 9:09 PM, Perrocartucho said:

What would you suggest as an affordable way of trying a Jowo nib.

 

If, by “affordable”, you mean (among the) “least-cost”, then to answer is probably to buy a (factory, or rebranded, whichever is cheaper) JoWo #6 nib unit and a cheap Chinese fountain pen (e.g. certain Jinhao models) that is compatible with it, then pull the piece of metal in the JoWo nib unit out of its plastic housing, to replace the nib as supplied and fitted in the Chinese pen.

 

It is certainly a way.

 

Otherwise, “affordable” to me semantically means what you can afford. If you can afford to spend (and hence risk) US$100 on “trying” a JoWo nib. So buy the supposedly “best” pen within your budget, even if you could possibly buy two other pens instead of it, or therefore just spend half (or less) on just a pen as an experiment. Just because a pen is of better quality, has a better (brand) name, and/or has better resale value, it does not automatically follow that you will like it better than something that costs you less. You can't tell in advance whether you'll think the $40 pen with a JoWo #6 nib is “meh” because of the other qualities of the pen, but would have been in love with a particular $90 pen that happens to use a #6 nib of JoWo manufacture; or just that you don't like JoWo #6 nibs after all, and would not be satisfied by either pen or consider them good value-for-money.

 

As far as I'm aware, Diplomat Excellence and Aero pen models use #6 nibs of JoWo manufacture; and, having tried three of them, I personally think their (EF) nibs are excellent, and I love the Diplomat pens I have. However, firstly you can forget about treating those pens as a glorified (if enjoyable-to-use) holder for JoWo #6 nib units; I don't think the nib units can be screwed out and removed from the pens' gripping sections, although of course they can be pulled out of the housing. There's also the consideration of what you could do if you don't like such a pen. If buying such a pen, using it for a week, and deciding that JoWo nibs are not really to your liking, but there would be a net cost/loss to you of $24 to you to sell that pen to someone else, with nothing but knowledge (about your likes and dislikes) to show for it, would it be cheaper or more “affordable” than spending $26 on a JoWo nib unit and a Chinese pen that can take the nib (but not the screw-in nib unit), then deciding you don't like it, but can't really recoup your cost by selling what you have, even though you still have a pen you don't particularly enjoy writing with?

[Perrocartucho]

I do agree with you in the affordability meaningless word (if not explained in full).

 

I was in search of some superior writing experience that is not in the Jinhao cheap fp I have bought for less than $10 in the latest years.

 

Perhaps a fountain pen arround the $100 frontier will be the "affordability" I am in search for.

 

And I think I know understand that it is not worth it buying a entry pen, given this hobby requires the hole thing to be good enough, not just the nib.

 

I am intending to buy a Ranga pen with the condition of being compatible with Bock / Jowo especimens keeping in mind the #6 size.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Perrocartucho said:

And I think I know understand that it is not worth it buying a entry pen, given this hobby requires the hole thing to be good enough, not just the nib.

 

Personally, I like the Fine Writing International ‘Planets’ series of (c/c-filled, but also explicitly designed and marketed as being usable as eyedropper-filled) pens, enough to buy three of them. They're compatible with what I understand to be ‘standard’ JoWo #6 nib unit, housing and all; and, with or without having done more inspection and/or finishing work on the nibs after JoWo has delivered them to FWI, none of the EF nibs I got were bad out of the box. (Wancher's Crystal II is essentially the same pen model, no doubt manufactured in the same factory from the same mould but simply rebranded differently. However, I haven't found Wancher's rebranded JoWo #6 nibs to be as good.)

 

(At least) 3 of the Opus 88 eyedropper-filled pen models also use compatible JoWo #6 nib units, although Opus 88 calls the one it supplies (and spare nibs it makes available for retail sales) “#12”. I have one such pen, and am certainly not intending on buying another. I think FWI delivers better nibs; and the ‘Planets’ pens are significantly cheaper, too, as well as offer spring-loaded inner caps à la Platinum Slip & Seal.

 

Edison Pen Company also use compatible nib units. I've found its nibs very good; but then the prices start from about 80% to 100% more than that of an Opus 88 Demonstrator. I like my Edison Collier, but would probably prefer to have three or four FWI pens for the same spend.

 

Diplomat is the one that really stands out to me, among those brands that use JoWo #6 nibs; but (not that I mind at all) the nib units are not removable simply by unscrewing them from the gripping sections.

 

If, by “JoWo nib“, you don't automatically mean size #6, then a Faber-Castell Ambition (of which I have three here) will come with a very good JoWo nib of a smaller size, although F-C's EF nibs are nowhere near as fine and crisp as the EF nib on an FWI or Diplomat. (Yes, the nib unit can be unscrewed from an Ambition.) Even an F-C Essentio Aluminium (of which I have several, including some for giving away to friends because they're such good pens) will deliver a good German-made JoWo nib, although the Essentio's pen body is made in China.

[Perrocartucho]

Good morning, yes I mean Jowo #6. I have seen the wancher web and the ones with the Jowo nib have good looking.