DIY Planner - Pens & Pencils - Comments

Ah, okay. Maybe I'll give

SusanBeth — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 13:32:11 -0500

Ah, okay. Maybe I'll give it a try, after I burn off the 21 G-2s I have on hand. (Great back to school sale booty.)

BTW -- how much did FC refill cost?

I find the refill to write

jordanjm — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 02:55:03 -0500

I find the refill to write better than the G2. It is smoother when it writes, and the ink starts to flow faster as well. This is a way to get an honestly better pen without buying the outer casing too.

Why do you want to do this?

SusanBeth — Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:31:58 -0500

Is the ink better/smoother/whatever than the regular Pilot refill?

Or is it just a way to avoid paying for the more expensive outer casing?

nice review, thanks

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:48:57 -0400

You're spot on. I didn't write too much with the Varsity, so I can't comment on the fatigue, but its a fantastic pen. The fact that its an instant starter is really weird, especially for a cheap FP. FPs are notorious for slow starts usually, irrespective of price

It's certainly true that

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:36:02 -0500

It's certainly true that there's no direct correlation between price and writing quality (especially at the stupidly high end — more diamonds do not help it write better) and the best thing that you can do is get any pen overhauled by someone who knows what they're doing to prime the nib, get rid of any imperfections and so on. More expensive pens tend to be in a better condition out of the factory but it's not at all guaranteed. You may also find that the more expensive pens are tested before they're sent to do to detect definite duds.

At the extremely low end you generally find that cheap pens are hit and miss with scratchy nibs, leaky seals and so on. Personally I don't think that Lamy makes cheap pens.

Jinhao Fountain Pens

Helen350 — Thu, 7 Oct 2010 11:06:22 -0400

Three months ago I discovered the Jinhao Fountain Pens. In the past I used the Waterman and Parker Fountain Pens. However, I have been impressed with the Jinhao Pens I have ordered. I received my most recent one this past week. It has abalone inlays, and I cannot say enough about how smoothly this pen writes. For my Japanese Language class I went on Ebay, and was able to find 5 Chinese made fountain pens for under $20.00 (3 were Jinhao). I also purchased 3-other finer Jinhao pens, and I start each day deciding which one to carry with me. Apart from a Japanese made fine-nib pen the remaining future purchases, will be Jinhao. The pens are both attractive, eye-catching and write very smoothly. I currently use Parker Quink Ink, however, I am looking into purchasing Noodler Ink.

Also a pen turner...

PatrickT — Fri, 1 Oct 2010 15:32:51 -0400

and what a wonderful craft it is! I've been doing it a few years, and I strongly agree with the idea of making gifts that will actually get USED! Keep up the good work.

Possibly the

BobH — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:18:39 -0400

Possibly the cartridge/converter was not fitted correctly. It needs to pushed home with some firmness so as to pierce the seal and then 'grip' onto the tube that feeds ink to the nib. I looks like the cartridge was pierced but not pushed on to the feeder tube causeing ink to leak into the pen.

Bob H.

leaking or normal?

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:30:41 -0400

I just bought a Lamy Al-Star; it's my first fountain pen over $20.

As soon as started using it, the ink started to leak into the clear grip. It's not getting on my hands or running out of the pen or anything, but that whole grip section on the inside is now full of ink. Even though it's not a problem now, it seems like it could be a waste of ink and could also make it really difficult to change colors.

So, is this normal, or do I have a problem?

Thanks!

Which pen mechanism?

david bogie — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:22:59 -0400

Fountain pen people can be divided into pen users and collectors of delightful designs although many users are collectors of delightfully designed writing instruments. The key difference is "writing." As fountain pen users know, if the pen does not write well, that is, if the nib is no good, the pen is no good.
Handcrafted pens are only writing instruments if the body contains a suitably excellent section and nib. I could never buy a turned pen, no matter the beauty of design or competency of craft, without knowing exactly what's on the inside and what's going to hit the paper.

david boise ID

Very Cool

inetken — Mon, 2 Aug 2010 03:01:10 -0400

I think I just found a new hobby. I did a little research and it's a low barrier to get into. Who knows, I may have some pens on Etsty sometime :^)

Thanks for this post.
---
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.
--Groucho Marx

I bought my Vistas in the U.S and they all came with a cartridge

Anne-Sophie — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:07:44 -0400

As did my Safaris.

I bought a converter for each of them at the time of purchase and a couple of spares at a store and a pen show.

I have yet to use the cartridges which I keep in case I want to take my Lamy fountain pens on a trip.

I know that the Lamy Vista

SuperVpower — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:57:55 -0400

I know that the Lamy Vista and AL-Star are cheaper, but I bought both of them in Germany and they came with cartridges of ink...

Parker cartridges for Jinhao pens

john armitt — Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:12:37 -0400

I had the same issue with some of my Jinhao pens. The Jinhao cartridges are about 5mm shorter than the Parker Quink cartridges but I have recently been able to find Parker Quink mini cartridges which fit into the few Jinhaos that do not accept the full length Parker ones. These mini cartrtidges are now freely available and a search on eBay will also produce results. The downside of course is that the ink only lasts for half the time of the full length cartridge.

Part 2?

Mark Jungmann — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:06:46 -0400

Doug,

Did you write part 2? I tried looking through your articles but couldn't find it.

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