Large reservoir fountain pen recommendations?

In article . com,
wrote:

Any suggestions for a very large reservoir, fine to very fine tip nib
fountain pen? Slightly oversized pen is likely fine, but very
expensive ain't (again, I bought a Lamy Safari. ;^D $25 *with* the
converter). Dedicated reservoirs, so to speak, are fine, as I don't
have any plans to use cartridges.

Converters convert a barely usable cartridge pen (2 drops of ink) into a
completely useless hunk of plastic and metal (1-1/2 drops of ink that
refuses to flow). Just my opinion, of course.

There have been many suggestions for an eyedropper pen -- which requires
you to fill an open pen from an open ink bottle with an eyedropper. Good
for ink capacity, not great for the spotlessness of your clean white
shirt.

Lever fillers are simple mechanically, easy to fill, easy to keep clean
when filling, and hold almost as much as an eyedropper, as the inner sac
almost fills the barrel. Far more than a cartridge.

Naturally that is why they are no longer made -- where's the fun if your
customers can buy ink from someone else?

Esterbrook, the king of the low-end pen, is what I would recommend.
Although inexpensive they were very well made and had an extensive
selection of user-replacable nibs. Their nibs were steel and tempered to
different flexibility, tip shape, and the like. They were so well made
that they are one of the easiest to find because so many are still in
use. Also repair costs are minimal as a nib can be swapped in a few
seconds and a sac replaced inm a few minutes. There are quite a few
dealers who specialize in Esties, and they are all over eBay too.

Hope this helps,

Jon

--
jon fabian
looked good on paper
f a b i a n "at" p a n i x "dot" c o m

wrote:

snip


Any suggestions for a very large reservoir, fine to very fine tip nib
fountain pen? Slightly oversized pen is likely fine, but very
expensive ain't (again, I bought a Lamy Safari. ;^D $25 *with* the
converter). Dedicated reservoirs, so to speak, are fine, as I don't
have any plans to use cartridges.


Hi Ruffin,

Jon Fabian's suggestion is a good one, but I'm a fan of Esties. I
have another thought as well.

What about the Pelikan Level 65? It's an all plastic version of the
Level. It's large in size, almost oversized, and, as in an
eyedropper, the barrel is the reservoir. The advantage over the
eyedropper is the Level filling system. It's proprietary but the
bottles can be filled with any ink you desire once they're empty.

The Level 65 isn't available in the US, though. I bought three from
a Malaysia pen dealer a few years back. They cost less than $20 each
including the shipping.

HTH,
Mark Z.

mz writes:

What about the Pelikan Level 65?

It is no more produced. Pelikan Level L5 is still in production.


--
Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen * http colon slash slash iki dot fi slash juhtolv
"anorectic female speaking philosophy. mothers interfering in everyone's
privacy. politicians smiling over controversy. everybody's involved in a
conspiracy. saw it on tv, saw it on tv, the way my life could be." Kemopetrol

I have one. It writes great - I really like the nib.

But mine has a thermal leak - if I pick it up off my desk in the
morning, the heat from my hand will cause the pen to drip - it can be
quite a mess.

I have seen postings that people have this problem, and others don't,
so it appears to be just a chance problem. Its a cheap enough pen that
you can try without a lot of risk.



On Sun, 3 Dec 2006 23:01:13 +0000, Semolina Pilchard
wrote:

On Sun, 03 Dec 2006 20:56:50 GMT, BL wrote:

Gordon Mattingly wrote:

Thanks Gordon. Holy Toledo! 4.5 cc of ink in their big eyedroppers.
That's like 6x the capacity of an average cartridge (@ .75 cc). Wonder
how the pens write? -- B

They write very well but some users have reported leaking. That hasn't
been my experience, I hasten to add. I have one of the large eyedroppers
and a smaller piston filler and they both get used a lot. The eyedropper
can suddenly increase ink flow when the ink gets very low but that's a
common eyedropper problem rather than just a Wality one. If it's topped up
once in a while the problem never arises.

Another choice is a aerometric fill pen - this is a squeeze filler
with a fill tube. A (vintage) vacumatic is an example of this.

But most of the relatively cheap Chinese pens have fillers like this,
and also tend to be very parsimonious about ink usage. Hero, Genius,
and other brands.

www.hisnibs.com
is one source.

You can also order from Alan Koo
http://www.yichengtrading.com/

I have purchased from both with no trouble.

Most of these pens are pretty inexpensive, and are very usable,
including a large ink capacity. I find that I need to adjust the flow
of most of them to my taste, but this is also true of most more
expensive pens.



On 3 Dec 2006 09:51:48 -0800, wrote:

Not quite a "collecting" question, per se, but this group turned up
nearly every Google Groups "Lamy Safari" hit, so perhaps the query will
be excused.

I have a Lamy Safari with a converter for using my own choice of
[thankfully waterproof] ink. Great pen, esp after a few weeks breaking
in the nib, but 1.) I ordered a medium point on the advice of some
left-handed users, which apparently isn't such an issue with me after
all, and 2.) It barely holds enough ink for a day's use in the
converter's very small reservoir.

I was originally going to grab another Safari with a fine tip to
correct 1.), but started thinking I should put that dough towards
another pen with a larger reservoir and solve both issues.

Any suggestions for a very large reservoir, fine to very fine tip nib
fountain pen? Slightly oversized pen is likely fine, but very
expensive ain't (again, I bought a Lamy Safari. ;^D $25 *with* the
converter). Dedicated reservoirs, so to speak, are fine, as I don't
have any plans to use cartridges.

Thanks!

Ruffin Bailey

If I remember correctly, the Parker Vacumatics were not aerometric fillers.
They used the Vacuum filling system.

Parker 51's were aerometric, and had a nice reservoir of ink - also very
reliable.
Vac's were less reliable (but write really nicely).
"Mmm" wrote in message
...

Another choice is a aerometric fill pen - this is a squeeze filler
with a fill tube. A (vintage) vacumatic is an example of this.

But most of the relatively cheap Chinese pens have fillers like this,
and also tend to be very parsimonious about ink usage. Hero, Genius,
and other brands.

www.hisnibs.com
is one source.

You can also order from Alan Koo
http://www.yichengtrading.com/

I have purchased from both with no trouble.

Most of these pens are pretty inexpensive, and are very usable,
including a large ink capacity. I find that I need to adjust the flow
of most of them to my taste, but this is also true of most more
expensive pens.



On 3 Dec 2006 09:51:48 -0800, wrote:

Not quite a "collecting" question, per se, but this group turned up
nearly every Google Groups "Lamy Safari" hit, so perhaps the query will
be excused.

I have a Lamy Safari with a converter for using my own choice of
[thankfully waterproof] ink. Great pen, esp after a few weeks breaking
in the nib, but 1.) I ordered a medium point on the advice of some
left-handed users, which apparently isn't such an issue with me after
all, and 2.) It barely holds enough ink for a day's use in the
converter's very small reservoir.

I was originally going to grab another Safari with a fine tip to
correct 1.), but started thinking I should put that dough towards
another pen with a larger reservoir and solve both issues.

Any suggestions for a very large reservoir, fine to very fine tip nib
fountain pen? Slightly oversized pen is likely fine, but very
expensive ain't (again, I bought a Lamy Safari. ;^D $25 *with* the
converter). Dedicated reservoirs, so to speak, are fine, as I don't
have any plans to use cartridges.

Thanks!

Ruffin Bailey

Juhapekka Tolvanen writes:

"BL" writes:

Recife makes an eyedropper pen... others probably do as well.

In addition to Recife I know only these makers of eyedropper pens: David
Oscarson and Danitrio.

Ahh... I almost forgot this: Nathan Tardif (of Noodler's Ink fame) took
some cheap Kaweco Sport -fountain pens and turned them to eyedroppers.
They are sold via Swisher Pens:

http://www.swisherpens.com/
http://www.swisherpens.com/catalog/k...untain-pen.htm

They seem very interesting.


--
Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen * http colon slash slash iki dot fi slash juhtolv
"anorectic female speaking philosophy. mothers interfering in everyone's
privacy. politicians smiling over controversy. everybody's involved in a
conspiracy. saw it on tv, saw it on tv, the way my life could be." Kemopetrol

"Bernie Schmitt" said in part:

| If I remember correctly, the Parker Vacumatics were not aerometric
fillers.
| They used the Vacuum filling system.

Actually, 51's were Vacs until they went aerometric. So, put another
way, early 51s were Vacumatic fill.

john cline ii, who hopes that helps...

jon fabian wrote:
Converters convert a barely usable cartridge pen (2 drops of ink) into a
completely useless hunk of plastic and metal (1-1/2 drops of ink that
refuses to flow). Just my opinion, of course.
...
Esterbrook, the king of the low-end pen, is what I would recommend.
Although inexpensive they were very well made and had an extensive
selection of user-replacable nibs. Their nibs were steel and tempered to
different flexibility, tip shape, and the like. They were so well made
that they are one of the easiest to find because so many are still in
use. Also repair costs are minimal as a nib can be swapped in a few
seconds and a sac replaced inm a few minutes. There are quite a few
dealers who specialize in Esties, and they are all over eBay too.

I'm pretty close to agreeing with you on the first count -- I like the
Lamy + converter, but there's barely any ink in there. The daily
refilling isn't much fun, and running out of ink every now and again is
even less enjoyable. Glad I can pick my ink and the Safari writes
great, but feels like it's a golf pencil or taste spoon of ice cream at
heart.

I think I'll try the Wality first as they're slightly cheaper (and
fewer choices) than the Esterbrook, but I have the fear that, as I've
been warned writing with a fountain pen will do to you, I'll soon own
more pens than I'd like to admit. The Esterbrooks look like an
interesting place to go next.

Thanks much,

Ruffin Bailey

Gordon Mattingly wrote:
Try here for inexpensive piston and eyedropper fillers. Wality of India.
http://www.retrodesk.com/

Gordon Mattingly


I followed Gordon's link and bought one of the Wality eyedroppers. I
love it! A few questions... this is my first eyedropper and no
instructions came with it.

It's a big pen; how does it compare in size to, say, a Pelikan 1000 or
800? (Talk about opposite ends of the price spectrum!)

Where does one obtain silicone grease? I have some little tubes that
came with a hiker's water filter, but they are not available to me now.
I used beeswax on the threads and don't seem to have a leak problem.

This pen came with a large plastic "eyedropper." Is the pen intended to
be filled fully with one fill of the eyedropper? (Ignoring my wife's
advice to just put in a little (to see if it leaked), I squeezed in as
much ink as possible, about 1.3 droppers full. It turned out that was
too much, and when I screwed the pen together some flowed out. Live and
learn... maybe...)

Anyway, it's a super pen, especially for $20. Mine is full (now partly
full) of Private Reserve Sherwood Green.


--John
Registered Linux User #291592
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