a newbie's adventure into Indian fountain pens

[1pen2pen]

opening thoughts:
it occurred to me, as i begin this new experience, that instead of keeping all my discoveries with Indian pens in an "ink journal" like i do for all my other pens i might try sharing it here. the truth is i've always been an India fan-boy from afar -- started cooking "authentic" Indian food 40 years ago, for example -- and have suddenly realised that Indian fountain pens and ink is a perfect way to get a little sampling more of the culture from afar. so no agenda, just looking for some fountain pen enjoyment from another corner of the world. please feel free to comment and share your observations as i explore some new, and very promising, fountain pen adventures.

[1pen2pen]

so, my first experience with Indian fountain pens -- albeit second hand -- came when i discovered TheWetPen channel on Utube and watched all 27 or so videos Matthew had posted on Indian fountain pens. he's lucky enough to go to India fairly frequently so is able to sample some of the greats of the Indian fountain pen scene.

inspired by Matthew i placed my first Indian pen order on 14 Feb 2026: 3 pens from PLP Pens, one of the Indian makers that does fairly traditional, handmade pens. i think this is what's inspired me to look into Indian pens seriously, the traditional designs and materials, and the handmade ethic of many Indian pen vendors. after too many years with cheap, plastic pens and a lot of (occasionally excellent) Chinese mass-produced pens i'm ready for something solid, reliable, and down to earth in an artisanal kind of way. i've also recently learned of ebonite and find i very much like it, so that too has inspired all this.

 

my PLP order is marked as "Processing" and, while i haven't heard from them directly, i respect the effort that goes into a handmade tool and will assume work is in progress: we'll see what we see when we see it.

[1pen2pen]

my second little poke at Indian pens was visit to the Kanwrite website and an order of various items they had on offer. i'm aware these are factory produced pens and that's fine. as i think i mentioned earlier, i'm into this for the adventure so getting to know Kanwrite a little seems fitting.

i placed this order on the 15 of Feb and received it today, the 24th. excellent shipping time via Fedex and perfectly good packaging of the order. so far so good.

 

first pen inked was a Kanwrite Heritage : nice looking pen, "Brown Swirl" iirc, with a "piston" style filler and a Broad nib. the build quality is satisfactory but the fittings already show a little corrosion. the nib is a nail but it's not a dry nail so there's that to be thankful for. all in all it's not a bad pen for £20 and i do appreciate the ingenious filling mechanism: a converter-style stem hidden under a blind cap that fills the barrel of the pen quite nicely.

 

second pen up was an Emperor model in Teak, again with a Broad nib: i do like a wooden pen and this one seems nicely done for a modest £12. i appreciate that the finishing on the wood leaves it feel a bit raw instead of being smothered under some nasty lacquer to leave an annoying plasticy feel. of course the wood here will stain but i'll happily accept that trade off.

 

update: i feel i would be remiss if i didn't mention that the Emperor came with a large converter -- i'm assuming it's a Kanwrite design -- that holds one full CC of ink. AND there was an ink reservoir included that holds 2.5 CC of ink. the converter screws out and the reservoir can be screwed in to replace it, this effectively converts the pen into an eyedropper. very nice! i find myself wishing these innovations were more common in the fountain pen world.

 

so far so good but it remains to be seen how these pens are tomorrow and in the coming days

 

photo: from top down, the Emperor in teak finish, the Heritage in "Brown Swirl" (iirc), and an all-black Desire Noir with a M-flex nib (comments to follow).
 

[Aravind_A_2310]

8 hours ago, 1pen2pen said:

my second little poke at Indian pens was visit to the Kanwrite website and an order of various items they had on offer. i'm aware these are factory produced pens and that's fine. as i think i mentioned earlier, i'm into this for the adventure so getting to know Kanwrite a little seems fitting.

i placed this order on the 15 of Feb and received it today, the 24th. excellent shipping time via Fedex and perfectly good packaging of the order. so far so good.

 

first pen inked was a Kanwrite Heritage : nice looking pen, "Brown Swirl" iirc, with a "piston" style filler and a Broad nib. the build quality is satisfactory but the fittings already show a little corrosion. the nib is a nail but it's not a dry nail so there's that to be thankful for. all in all it's not a bad pen for £20 and i do appreciate the ingenious filling mechanism: a converter-style stem hidden under a blind cap that fills the barrel of the pen quite nicely.

 

second pen up was an Emperor model in Teak, again with a Broad nib: i do like a wooden pen and this one seems nicely done for a modest £16. i appreciate that the finishing on the wood leaves it feel a bit raw instead of being smothered under some nasty lacquer to leave an annoying plasticy feel. of course the wood here will stain but i'll happily accept that trade off.

 

so far so good but it remains to be seen how these pens are tomorrow.

Nice to hear about your experience with Kanwrite. FYI, the emperor is actually a metal pen with a wood-like finishing.

 

Regarding PLP, if you want to, you can shoot an email or whatsapp them using the contact info on their website:

https://plppens.com/contact-us/

 

 

They do take their time, as some times, it is made to order.

[1pen2pen]

wow! i'm impressed that the Emperor is actually a metal pen! i've worked with wood for many years and it had me totally convinced, i never thought to question it. they did a good job on it, can't deny that.

thank you for the PLP info, though i do think i'll leave them to their work for the time being. i've worked in Customer Service for many years and i know that time taken away to answer questions -- especially those that aren't strictly necessary -- can steal time away from getting done what really needs doing.

 

back to the Kanwrites: the last pen in the photo is the Desire Noir with an M-Flex nib and an ebonite feeder (£16). this one was a surprise! when you pick it up and ink it it just seems like a run of the mill plastic fountain pen, nothing special. but that nib + feeder IS something special. i wouldn't call it a "flex" nib really but it certainly does have more "personality" than your average steel nail. the pen is a little skinnier than i normally go for but i do find it very comfy to write with and the ink flow is superb: i will definitely be looking out for more of those M-Flex nibs in the future. it turns out i'm not the only one who liked the Desire Noir as it now belongs to my Mrs who also appreciates a good fountain pen.

[1pen2pen]

a brief update on that Kanwrite order. another pen that i received in that order was a Kanwrite Saloon (see below). it's a slender eye-dropper pen, slip-on cap, cost roughly $5. when i first filled it a couple drops of ink dribbled out through the nib and i was worried i had a problem on my hands. not the case! since then the Saloon has been a trusty little friend for jotting down quick notes and a calming scribble now and then. i noticed and appreciate that the finial on the cap matches the body of the pen. dollar for dollar it's probably one of the best little pens i have in my "good value" category and i've become quite fond of it.

my only issue with the Saloon to date has been that it dries out rather quickly if you leave it uncapped for more than a minute or two. i'd not call that a fault so much as a thing to remember -- "Saloon likes to rest in cap" -- when using it. since it's a slip-on that is no hardship at all.

 

 

in other Indian pen news i would like to present my first two Ranga pens, ordered from India on the 21st and 24th of February and received (together!) in the UK on the 2nd of March. amazing service! of course all came in the lovely hand-sew wrapping of white plaincloth that everyone talks about and frankly i found hard to believe before i was actually holding it in my hands.

 

 

we have a Ranga Bamboo (Regular) in Black/Yellow and a Ranga Abhimanyu in Green/Red Ripple (apologies that my exposure is off the mark here). the Bamboo was perfect straight out of the box and i've done nothing with it but fill the converter and write with it. lovely, lovely pen and i'm pleased with everything about it.

 

the Abhimanyu was a bit of trouble to start, the nib was mis-aligned and i just wanted to get down to business with it so i swapped in another Jowo <B> that i had on hand, tweaked that ever so slightly and was soon enjoying that too. super comfortable in the hand and the only question i have with it is "why am i not writing more?" a good question to have i think, yes?

let me just say this up front before things get out of hand without an explanation: i am besotted with these Rangas and i absolutely adore pretty much everything about them! the material is lovely and feels wonderful in the hand; the designs are a delight because they are so unlike every other pen i own (dozens of European pens and literally hundreds of Chinese offerings); and the Jowo compatibility is a true gift to an unrepentant nib-swapper like myself. i've had a crush on Indian culture for close on 40 years (my Indian friends have told me i'm a decent cook of traditional Indian cuisine, all thanks to Julie Sahni it must be said): these Indian ebonite pens are new to me and have added a whole new dimension to that old love. marvellous discovery and a great pleasure to have and use. no one will be surprised to hear that there are more on the way.

[tommym]

3 hours ago, 1pen2pen said:

...we have a Ranga Bamboo (Regular) in Black/Yellow and a Ranga Abhimanyu in Green/Red Ripple...

 

...there are more on the way.

 

My first Ranga (my 4CS) was in Black/Yellow, too! My last Ranga pen (that I acquired through a trade) was an Abhimanyu!  I never thought the Abhimanyu would become the most comfortable fountain pen I have ever owned. It just doesn't look the part (especially in a matte finish), but I guess everyone's hand is different. My Abhimanyu is the first pen I ordered in a matte finish, and it does add another layer of tactile feel to ebonite. It feels silky? compared to the polished finish. It is more prone to spot shining and ink staining than the polished versions, but still worth consideration, just for the experience.

 

Note that Ranga does take custom requests (within limits) for their pens. One thing I wish I had known sooner was that they can provide a black section on most of their pens. It looks classy on some pens, not so much on others. In the photo below, I requested a black section for the pen on the right. A black section can mask ink stains if that is an issue for you. I inquired about providing a black cap too, which Ranga said was no problem, but I decided to go with just the black section. 

 

Tommy

 

 

 

[1pen2pen]

small bit of news on the Indian pen front: i've just eyedroppered my first Indian pen! the Ranga Abhimanyu was the subject pen today and I followed the procedure given by hari317 here. all went well, there was enough ink forced into the nib unit at the end to wet the nib nicely, and so far so good. i did notice that the nib seems to run a little wetter than before -- i'd heard that switching to eyedropper fill might do this -- but i also switched ink brands in the process (Iroshizuku to Diamine) so it's not an apples-and-apples comparison. no matter, all is well and i'm looking forward to see how things go:

 

[1pen2pen]

recently received an order of Kanwrite Architect and Ultra-Flex nibs, just to see what those were about. i'n no calligrapher so maybe the Ultra-Flex nibs are lost on me but the Architect nibs have become fast favourites, thank you very much. available with plastic or ebonite feeders it's hard to go wrong with these. since they come in Jowo-compatible housings -- as well as the other standard German nib brands -- they're very convenient for me to be swapping in and out of my growing roster of Jowo-nibbed pens. i'll be ordering more of those nibs at the first opportunity, happy days!

 

in other news i've got another Ranga order in the works, though a special order i've added is going to slow things down a bit. it'll probably be early April before i'll have the new lovelies in hand. i've been communicating with Mr Kandan M.P. who has been a pleasure to deal with, helpful and patient while i fumbled my way through the decision making processes.

 

as it happens i stumbled across a very worthwhile "shop visit" video on Utube which i highly recommend to anyone already into Ranga pens or considering doing so. if you search for "N2vTi4Vg1iI" in the Utube search bar the video from the "Nibs and Chips" channel should be top of the list. it's 6 years old but still relevant i think. unfortunately it seems to have been the last video "Nibs and Chips" published, but such is life on social media.

[1pen2pen]

introducing the latest addition to my little Ranga family: a Ranga-PSP Miwok in Black/Green Mottled ebonite:

 

 

bought it on flea-bay the 1st of March, received it on the 19th. shipping from Peyton Street Pens in the US cost pretty much the same as shipping from India, though this particular model is exclusive to PSP as far as I know. it's slightly longer and roughly the same girth as the Abhimanyu Regular.

 

nice pen, of course, easily up to Ranga's high and very satisfying standards. i have to say that i find the section on this one is particularly comfortable in use. i've done a couple extended writing sessions and one simply forgets about the pen while you're using it which, i suppose, is probably something we're all aiming for.

 

all in all i like it, i'm happy to have it, and i'd recommend it to anyone in the US looking for a modestly sized, clipless but very comfortable writer. i will say that it wasn't noticably cheaper than ordering direct from India and there you have a much wider selection of nibs to choose from iirc. i'm currently in love with Kanwrite's Architect nibs which can be bought in Jowo-compatible housings so that's likely in the cards for this pen sooner than later.

[1pen2pen]

ok, time for my latest Ranga treasures:

 

 

from the bottom up: Ranga Model 3 in P23 ebonite (Grey Red Cream); Ranga Model 8B in P31 ebonite (Premium Black, Matte); Ranga Designer 02 in P06 ebonite (Red Black). the nib in the Model 8B is a Kanwrite Medium Architect nib in a Jowo housing direct from Kanwrite (excellent nibs btw), the others are stock Jowo nibs.

i rotate through these every other day or so and each time i think "oh, i love this one!". suffice it to say i love them all.  i do have a few comments to share:

• the Designer 02 is a work of art! what a great pen! every time i look at the thing i spent the next few minutes admiring it. good purchase me!
• the Matte on the 8B is very pleasing to hold and use. the section is perfect, the size is spot on, that torpedo shape is surprisingly comfortable, and that ebonite is just a beautiful thing to hold: very tactile and very "other" in that you know you're holding something different. definitely won't be my last matte ebonite pen.
• the Model 3 is a great contender for the perfect pen: perfect length, perfect girth, very comfy section, mesmerising ebonite. what an excellent pen! the maker of that pen is a master craftsman and deserves all the praise we can give him.

i don't mention that this or that pen is a "good writer" because they are all good writers. i think i own six Rangas now and none -- not a one of them -- has dry start issues of any kind. and believe me, i use many types of ink -- dye based, particle based, permanent, you name it -- so they are getting a good workout: zero issues. and given they're all cut for Jowo housings i can switch nibs freely and without concern that i'm ever going to get bored or stuck with a less than ideal nib. very sweet!

 

so what can i say? if you like fountain pens you owe it to yourself to try a good, hand-made ebonite pen: Ranga will not disappoint. i love all mine, and yes, i have more coming. until then ... enjoy your pens!

[tommym]

That Ranga Designer 02 looks crazy awesome! I never got up the courage to order one, as I lean more on the conservative side of things with my Ranga 4CS and Model 3 collection. Still, that Ranga Designer 02 leaves my second guessing myself after all these years.

 

🙃

 

Tommy

[jchch1950]

10 hours ago, tommym said:

That Ranga Designer 02 looks crazy awesome! 

 

🙃

 

Tommy

Maybe that is the reason that I would like to buy one.

[1pen2pen]

hey guys, because of the interest i thought i'd post a picture of the Ranga Designer-02 in its resting state (capped):

 

 

as you can see it's even more striking when capped.

one small note: you see that seam where the cap meets the body (the little red arrow).
for that i must apologise, normally that seam is virtually invisible.

my issue is that i fiddle with my pens a lot when i am writing, journalling, whatever, and i can't abide a sharp edge. so even though that edge is unnoticeable when you're actually writing, it is noticeable when you are fiddling with your pen, running your fingers over the design, etc. so i knocked the edge off with a wee file.

 

that's a bit of sacrilege, i know, and i do apologise to Ranga for it. rest assured that when you receive your pen the cap-body joint it absolutely perfect and unbroken to the touch.

 

ps. the ink is Wearingeul's Hound of Baskerville. extraordinary ink and, obviously, made for this pen.

[tommym]

1 hour ago, 1pen2pen said:

....so i knocked the edge off with a wee file.

 

that's a bit of sacrilege... 

 

 

I've done that on a few of my larger diameter seamless joint Ranga pens, too. Both the body and cap. 

 

🙃

 

Tommy

[1pen2pen]

as it happens i actually prefer the way they do it on the Abhimanyu pens, nice rounded edges on the cap-body joint suits me just fine.
perhaps some day they'll offer that as an option, though i'd hate to give their pen maker more work because of it.

[tommym]

47 minutes ago, 1pen2pen said:

as it happens i actually prefer the way they do it on the Abhimanyu pens, nice rounded edges on the cap-body joint suits me just fine.
perhaps some day they'll offer that as an option, though i'd hate to give their pen maker more work because of it.

 

Yes, that is the pen (the Abhimanyu) that gave me the idea.  And the Abhimanyu turned out to be the most comfortable pen of my entire fountain pen collection. The only thing I would have done differently was to add a clip to the pen: the Markandeya. 

 

Tommy

[1pen2pen]

i hear you, but for me it's the opposite: the models designed to be clipless are my favourite. Abhimanyu, Bamboo, Ranga-PSP Miwok, might even try a Model 5 someday if i'm feeling adventurous. i carried around a Pelikan 600 for years and years, i think that cured me of the clip habit.