Kim ACR Flat-Top Jumbos

[K Singh]

I am a huge fan of Kim Jumbo pens made by ACR Sir and have been lucky to find these pens over a period of time, all thanks to other fellow enthusiasts and collectors in this hobby 🙂

 

Here are three variants of their flat-top model which are similar in girth, and thus very comfortable for someone like me who prefers Jumbo pens.

 

Left to Right:

 

Kim ACR Big Dwarf: Though the smallest pen among the three, it feels like a mini-jumbo pen thanks to its wider girth which is at par with the bigger variants. It's also very similar in dimension to Ratnamson Supreme (see comparison pics). The nib on this was tuned by Dr.Sreekumar and it writes beautifully.

 

Kim ACR Big: Also known as Krishna Lyrebird, this pen has lacquered layer over the pen body and as such it still looks shiny even after years of use. And with Dr.Sreekumar's nib grind, this pen is a joy to write with as well.

 

Kim ACR Jumbo: This was the last Kim Jumbo pen (along with another round-top Kim Jumbo, not shown here) which was sold by Krishna pens(Calicut). I was lucky to get both pens from them two years ago. Also a very good writer.

 

You can refer to kiwipens.com for the dimensions of these pens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[subbu68]

You are lucky to have them. 

 

A few years back I had sought to purchase a couple but the price kept me off. Now I believe it is not sold anymore. 

 

regards 

Subbu

[K Singh]

3 hours ago, subbu68 said:

You are lucky to have them. 

 

A few years back I had sought to purchase a couple but the price kept me off. Now I believe it is not sold anymore. 

 

regards 

Subbu

Yes, these are not sold anywhere now. I stayed away from eyedropper pens for the first few years of my hobby and ignored pens like this. Now I wish I had bought these pens when they were easily available here.

[subbu68]

1 hour ago, K Singh said:

Yes, these are not sold anywhere now. I stayed away from eyedropper pens for the first few years of my hobby and ignored pens like this. Now I wish I had bought these pens when they were easily available here.

Good I got a few of ED pens (list in my earlier post) and thoroughly enjoy using them. More than that it is the bulging eyes of my colleagues (a lot of them are UAE citizens) when they see the demo pens with colourful inks - Gama, ASA, Airmails and the mottled ebonites in various colours 😉

 

[Prof Drew]

Thanks for the info. I had wondered if this pen was simply only available domestically. The designs were very interesting.

[K Singh]

6 hours ago, Prof Drew said:

Thanks for the info. I had wondered if this pen was simply only available domestically. The designs were very interesting.

These pens were sold by few sellers here once- Kim and co in Calicut, Krishna pens in Calicut, Dr.Sreekumar from Palakkad, and kiwipens.com for international buyers. Besides these, have also heard about one or two pen sellers from South India who sold these pens. They are no longer available with anyone now unfortunately. Production has fully stopped 3 years ago or so.

[Prof Drew]

Thank you @K Singh

I liked the design, but understand that many of the people doing lathe pens are not so young and that prices have gone up in the last few years. Thanks.

[K Singh]

7 hours ago, Prof Drew said:

Thank you @K Singh

I liked the design, but understand that many of the people doing lathe pens are not so young and that prices have gone up in the last few years. Thanks.

You are right. And when the skills are not passed on to younger generation, the product/brand too becomes extinct. 

 

Prices have indeed gone up. If you are looking for good value-for-money pen, PLP pens is still a good option. I shared a post on them earlier

[Prof Drew]

2 hours ago, K Singh said:

You are right. And when the skills are not passed on to younger generation, the product/brand too becomes extinct. 

 

Prices have indeed gone up. If you are looking for good value-for-money pen, PLP pens is still a good option. I shared a post on them earlier

Thank you for the PLP suggestion. I am looking at their page and will probably place an order. Have a great weekend!

Do you know of a good place for affordable Indian vintage pens? Or maybe someone interested in trading some Japanese (non-makie vintage pens).   Cheers, Andrew

[Prof Drew]

3 hours ago, K Singh said:

PLP pens is still a good option.

Thanks. I just ordered a PLP Scenic Model in Ebonite. Thank you again for the suggestion.

Now I should keep off the FPN for a bit while I pay off my pens      Cheers.

[K Singh]

57 minutes ago, Prof Drew said:

Thank you for the PLP suggestion. I am looking at their page and will probably place an order. Have a great weekend!

Do you know of a good place for affordable Indian vintage pens? Or maybe someone interested in trading some Japanese (non-makie vintage pens).   Cheers, Andrew

You too enjoy your weekend. 

 

There are many places to buy/sell or even trade your fountain pens online. I couldn't figure out from which country you are. Because there are some Facebook groups specific to particular country as well. Then there is pen_swap group on reddit, fpgeeks forum, and eBay of course, but the problem with eBay is they often show pens at such ridiculous prices so you have to be careful there. 

 

Finally there are also some Indian fp buy sell groups on Facebook, but I have mixed experience purchasing from them. Some are honest sellers, but most of them unfortunately don't even share the proper condition of the pen while selling so there is lot of risk involved, and I have no idea if they ship abroad or not.

[K Singh]

7 minutes ago, Prof Drew said:

Thanks. I just ordered a PLP Scenic Model in Ebonite. Thank you again for the suggestion.

Now I should keep off the FPN for a bit while I pay off my pens      Cheers.

Cool. Looks like a nice pen.

[Prof Drew]

34 minutes ago, K Singh said:

 

There are many places to buy/sell or even trade your fountain pens online. I couldn't figure out from which country you are. Because there are some Facebook groups specific to particular country as well. Then there is pen_swap group on reddit, fpgeeks forum, and eBay of course, but the problem with eBay is they often show pens at such ridiculous prices so you have to be careful there.

Thanks and greetings from Hawai'i/ USA. There is no FP store in my state, so everything is online in any case. Besides FPR one rarely sees Indian fountain pens.

 

Yes, I noticed that some ebay sellers are certainly making a business out of buying, reselling at inflated prices. Sigh. I've enjoyed lurking on FB but never tried the reddit or fpgeeks forum.

 

 

30 minutes ago, K Singh said:

Cool. Looks like a nice pen.

Thank you again for your messages. I tried to reach the owner with Whatsap, but must have missed him. He now has a website though, which seems to have worked. It was nice to see a photo of the master at work on the site as well...   https://plppens.com/

 

Thank you again for your kind messages. Happy writing!

 

[K Singh]

24 minutes ago, Prof Drew said:

Thanks and greetings from Hawai'i/ USA. There is no FP store in my state, so everything is online in any case. Besides FPR one rarely sees Indian fountain pens.

 

Yes, I noticed that some ebay sellers are certainly making a business out of buying, reselling at inflated prices. Sigh. I've enjoyed lurking on FB but never tried the reddit or fpgeeks forum.

 

 

Thank you again for your messages. I tried to reach the owner with Whatsap, but must have missed him. He now has a website though, which seems to have worked. It was nice to see a photo of the master at work on the site as well...   https://plppens.com/

 

Thank you again for your kind messages. Happy writing!

 

Welcome. Many of the Indian penmakers like ASA, Ranga, Lotus do ship internationally as well. And you already know about FPR. But since you asked about Indian vintage pens, it's really hard to suggest a good source based on my experience.

 

Here even in India, I've bought old pens that came with cracks/dents on cap, and some other body defects which were not shown in pics. The sellers here even sell used/poor condition pens as NOS or mint. That's why I myself am very very careful while purchasing from them. And have seen the same thing on eBay where the pricing is even more ridiculous, for pens in horrible condition at times. So we have to proceed at our own risk there.

 

I think I may recommend the reddit pen_swap group over eBay, as the sellers are often users like us there, and sometimes I even see some US specific sales post there. Do take a look there as well.

[Prof Drew]

58 minutes ago, K Singh said:

Welcome. Many of the Indian penmakers like ASA, Ranga, Lotus do ship internationally as well. And you already know about FPR. But since you asked about Indian vintage pens, it's really hard to suggest a good source based on my experience.

Thank you Mr. Singh. I bought one Gama Eyas from FPR, which I treasure, along with a number of his other offerings. I love my Ranga Markandreya . I keep waiting on ASA for the right pen. He seems like a very nice person with quality materials, but the website often shows out of stock. I haven't tried Lotus yet. Their student pen looks my style and budget .

 

In terms of vintage, I am attracted to the idea of Ratnam or Ratnamson as the idea of Swadeshi is exciting. I'll have to wear my HMT watch the day I get one. And ink it with Sulekha.

 

Since I also like Japanese pens, I am interested in Pilot-India history too. I don't mind dents so much. I suppose I dream of browsing at the Fountain Pen Hospital or some shop someday. I've never been to India before. (It seems amazing, although I was a bit overwhelmed by the traffic sounds in the background of Indian FP YouTube shows or Delhi Crime (Netflix)  

 

But maybe I should try to contain myself too. One can only use so many pens at a time. Must have time for writing too

Thanks again!

 

[K Singh]

30 minutes ago, Prof Drew said:

Thank you Mr. Singh. I bought one Gama Eyas from FPR, which I treasure, along with a number of his other offerings. I love my Ranga Markandreya . I keep waiting on ASA for the right pen. He seems like a very nice person with quality materials, but the website often shows out of stock. I haven't tried Lotus yet. Their student pen looks my style and budget .

 

In terms of vintage, I am attracted to the idea of Ratnam or Ratnamson as the idea of Swadeshi is exciting. I'll have to wear my HMT watch the day I get one. And ink it with Sulekha.

 

Since I also like Japanese pens, I am interested in Pilot-India history too. I don't mind dents so much. I suppose I dream of browsing at the Fountain Pen Hospital or some shop someday. I've never been to India before. (It seems amazing, although I was a bit overwhelmed by the traffic sounds in the background of Indian FP YouTube shows or Delhi Crime (Netflix)  

 

But maybe I should try to contain myself too. One can only use so many pens at a time. Must have time for writing too

Thanks again!

 

Yes, ASA pens have limited stock on their website at times. I had the Lotus student earlier, but sold it later as the section was too slim for my liking.

 

Even in India it's tough to get a Ratnam or Ratnamson pen. There is a website penhouse.in which does have Ratnam pen in stock from time to time, and they ship internationally as well from what I hear. 

 

And I just remembered that I saw one ASA pen for sale in that reddit group today. The seller was from US only I think. Might be worth checking out.

 

Yup, traffic is an issue in many cities here 🙂

[Prof Drew]

7 hours ago, K Singh said:

Yes, ASA pens have limited stock on their website at times. I had the Lotus student earlier, but sold it later as the section was too slim for my liking.

 

Even in India it's tough to get a Ratnam or Ratnamson pen. There is a website penhouse.in which does have Ratnam pen in stock from time to time, and they ship internationally as well from what I hear.

Thank you again for your kind advice. I suppose the law of supply and demand is real when it comes to pens, which do not last forever.

It has been interesting to learn about India and pens there. My limited knowledge about India was more from undergraduate philosophy readings, Gandhiji, or food or in my current field, the work of librarian S. R. Ranganathan.

 

Regarding traffic, I was spoiled by visiting and living in some cities that had nice public transit and were very walkable. It makes it much easier to explore a place, especially as a tourist in places like France. Japan was fun on bike too in small towns, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough for traffic in Indian cities. Someday, I hope...

[K Singh]

16 hours ago, Prof Drew said:

Thank you again for your kind advice. I suppose the law of supply and demand is real when it comes to pens, which do not last forever.

It has been interesting to learn about India and pens there. My limited knowledge about India was more from undergraduate philosophy readings, Gandhiji, or food or in my current field, the work of librarian S. R. Ranganathan.

 

Regarding traffic, I was spoiled by visiting and living in some cities that had nice public transit and were very walkable. It makes it much easier to explore a place, especially as a tourist in places like France. Japan was fun on bike too in small towns, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough for traffic in Indian cities. Someday, I hope...

Cool. It would be nice to travel to such beautiful countries 🙂

 

I read Gandhiji's book "My experiments with truth" last year. Though he didn't say anything about Fountain Pens, there was an interesting paragraph regarding his thoughts on handwriting. Will share it here.

 

[Harish N V]

Hi. 

 

I saw your post just now. Lovely pens here. I love the crimson one. Generally thanks for initiating this rich feed. I love the crimson ebonite pen. It's great and Lovely ambitious nibs on them

[K Singh]

5 hours ago, Harish N V said:

Hi. 

 

I saw your post just now. Lovely pens here. I love the crimson one. Generally thanks for initiating this rich feed. I love the crimson ebonite pen. It's great and Lovely ambitious nibs on them

Thanks. The crimson one is also the best writer among the three 🙂