On May 14 2013 10:38 Djzapz wrote: Quick bump: I got my Pilot Metropolitan and it's pretty darn good for the price. For $15 I didn't expect to get a fairly heavy pen with a nice box, but I did, and I like heavy. Also, it's about as scratchy as my Nemosine singularity, which means it's soft enough to be comfortable although not very soft.
My only complaint is the "squeeze" converter is not transparent so there's really no way to know how much ink is left in the pen. There's no way to know if the converter filled up properly in the first place. That said, it does seem to be able to hold a fair bit of ink.
You can look into getting a different converter. The squeeze filler you have I think is called the CON-20. The CON-50 and CON-70 pilot converters are piston types that are clear plastic.
The CON-70 is the largest and may not fit, so be sure to do a little research first if you want to get one.
-- My shipment of pens went out today. Should be here by the end of the week! I'm excited to try out Noodler's flex nibs.
Yeah I actually thought about picking up the CON-50 (hadn't heard about the CON-70) but I'm looking at $8 shipped from Hong-Kong, which seems a bit expensive for a plastic tube and a gasket. Ordering it alone is not super viable. I'll just use the stock converter at least for now, maybe it'll grow on me.
Edit: I believe the CON-70 is not compatible.
I have the CON-50 for my Decimo and it is an absolute waste of money. However, this might be due to the nature of the Decimo (it's a clickable fountain pen) which might change the pressure inside the compartment making ink spill all over the place. I have resorted to just using the default squeeze converter =/.
Btw I saw that you were buying a lot of different inks. Do you just have the one pen or do you already have several others? Because you will have quite the time washing your Metropolitan out everytime you change inks xD (I found it bothersome just to clean-up after my CON-50 exploded ink everywhere).
I have a Nemosine Singularity and a Parker Sonnet also, but I don't plan to switch out inks too often.
Thanks for the heads up though, I'll just put up with the squeeze converter. It's not too bad, just a bit inconvenient.
I just got a Lamy Safari with a converter and I have to say its far nicer to write with. Any tips for taking care of the pen? I was told wash it every three months by flushing cold water through it a few times and letting it air dry, is that about all I need to do?
On May 15 2013 00:10 Scaramanga wrote: I just got a Lamy Safari with a converter and I have to say its far nicer to write with. Any tips for taking care of the pen? I was told wash it every three months by flushing cold water through it a few times and letting it air dry, is that about all I need to do?
That depends on how much you write with it. There's a video within the last few pages on extensive cleaning you might want to watch.
If you use the same ink, you don't have to wash it with every fill. But you should rinse it out more than once every 3 months. Same ink, rinsing it as you describe is probably a good idea about every 3-4 fills.
If you want to change ink, you need to thoroughly clean the pen every time you decide to use a different ink. The reaction of the two inks mixing inside the pen can clog it and prevent your pen from working, so the previous must be flushed out completely.
I want to get a fountain pen because they look fancy and you can write all kinds of different ways with them. Then I realized I cant write for crap anyway and I would just have all of this really odd looking varying colors in my writing.
I am jealous of you people with the ability to hand-write properly.
On May 15 2013 16:11 TheRabidDeer wrote: I want to get a fountain pen because they look fancy and you can write all kinds of different ways with them. Then I realized I cant write for crap anyway and I would just have all of this really odd looking varying colors in my writing.
I am jealous of you people with the ability to hand-write properly.
I got my gosu handwriting from engineering classes. One of my professors demanded everything be presented perfectly. For example, we write in. for inches and in(^)2 for square inches. If the . was left off the in. or added with in(^)2, you would lose a quarter of a point. When the entire homework is 10~ problems and the max score is 10/10, you can see how much a quarter of a point is in relation to the entire work.
I had to draw a lot of free-body diagrams over and over and over, showing which direction the force was pulling or pushing on the rigid body. A lot of our professors actually demanded that we use rulers and protractors and stencils for circles and ellipses. That took far too long to draw things; it would literally increase homework time by 80%-120%. So I learned to draw nearly perfect lines by hand without a ruler. Of course you can tell a ruler wasn't used, but the line is so perfect no one cares.
Of course my writing got better at the same time. Being able to control the length and angle of the line is really something I take for granted these days. If I had a fountain pen I might be writing some interesting things.
On May 15 2013 16:11 TheRabidDeer wrote: I want to get a fountain pen because they look fancy and you can write all kinds of different ways with them. Then I realized I cant write for crap anyway and I would just have all of this really odd looking varying colors in my writing.
I am jealous of you people with the ability to hand-write properly.
I got my gosu handwriting from engineering classes. One of my professors demanded everything be presented perfectly. For example, we write in. for inches and in(^)2 for square inches. If the . was left off the in. or added with in(^)2, you would lose a quarter of a point. When the entire homework is 10~ problems and the max score is 10/10, you can see how much a quarter of a point is in relation to the entire work.
I had to draw a lot of free-body diagrams over and over and over, showing which direction the force was pulling or pushing on the rigid body. A lot of our professors actually demanded that we use rulers and protractors and stencils for circles and ellipses. That took far too long to draw things; it would literally increase homework time by 80%-120%. So I learned to draw nearly perfect lines by hand without a ruler. Of course you can tell a ruler wasn't used, but the line is so perfect no one cares.
Of course my writing got better at the same time. Being able to control the length and angle of the line is really something I take for granted these days. If I had a fountain pen I might be writing some interesting things.
When filling a pen does it matter if you leave the converter attached to the feed or if you take out the converter and fill it directly from the bottle?
These stores should really thank the OP for making this thread. I too was inspired and purchased 2 Lamy pens, 1 vista, 1 black. Its coming in the mail right now, but I'm super excited. Judging by the people's reaction in this thread to this specific pen, I don't think I'll have any problems with it at all! Thanks OP!!
On May 16 2013 02:07 ZerONine09 wrote: When filling a pen does it matter if you leave the converter attached to the feed or if you take out the converter and fill it directly from the bottle?
You generally just leave the converter attached to the feed and nib, plunge the nib into the ink and suck the ink up. You can check on youtube, people do it.
On May 15 2013 16:11 TheRabidDeer wrote: I want to get a fountain pen because they look fancy and you can write all kinds of different ways with them. Then I realized I cant write for crap anyway and I would just have all of this really odd looking varying colors in my writing.
I am jealous of you people with the ability to hand-write properly.
Nah, you don't need super nice handwriting (although your writing certainly looks better of course). My handwriting is shit and I still get the color gradation when writing with a fountain pen.
On May 16 2013 02:07 ZerONine09 wrote: When filling a pen does it matter if you leave the converter attached to the feed or if you take out the converter and fill it directly from the bottle?
I've tried a few times using the converter attached to the nib, and the converter itself, and have concluded that filling using the converter itself is better:
1.) Minimize ink waste - wiping off a drop of ink on the tip of the converter is easier than wiping off part of the section + the entire nib that you just dipped in the ink.
2.) Easier cleanup - you don't get ink on the section, nib, or the feed of a pen. A quarter of a single piece of toilet paper is sufficient to clean up the converter after filling it with ink, you need like five pieces of TP to clean up after a nib fill.
3.) The minimum fill height for the bottled ink is the size of your nib if you want to fill it up through that. If the ink level is any lower, you're going to get air bubbles in your converter, which means you either push them out and refill again (with fewer but still some air bubbles, repeat until satisfied), or end up with half a fill. Using a converter, you just need like one mm depth of ink to fill up.
On May 16 2013 02:39 Djzapz wrote: You generally just leave the converter attached to the feed and nib, plunge the nib into the ink and suck the ink up. You can check on youtube, people do it.
Yeah I saw videos of people doing both. I always did the nib into ink method.
On May 16 2013 03:13 Phael wrote: I've tried a few times using the converter attached to the nib, and the converter itself, and have concluded that filling using the converter itself is better:
1.) Minimize ink waste - wiping off a drop of ink on the tip of the converter is easier than wiping off part of the section + the entire nib that you just dipped in the ink.
2.) Easier cleanup - you don't get ink on the section, nib, or the feed of a pen. A quarter of a single piece of toilet paper is sufficient to clean up the converter after filling it with ink, you need like five pieces of TP to clean up after a nib fill.
3.) The minimum fill height for the bottled ink is the size of your nib if you want to fill it up through that. If the ink level is any lower, you're going to get air bubbles in your converter, which means you either push them out and refill again (with fewer but still some air bubbles, repeat until satisfied), or end up with half a fill. Using a converter, you just need like one mm depth of ink to fill up.
That makes sense with the clean up. I'll test the other method the next time
This thread has convinced me to get a fountain pen and work on my handwriting.
The Lamy Al-Star seems like a great pen, and it's great that it has all these options for nibs, but unfortunately I find the design to be terrible looking. Any suggestion for a good pen under 40$, or is Lamy king at that pricepoint?
The parker IM in chrome is more up my alley in terms of design, but I'm hearing a lot of negative comments about quality control and the general performance of the pen...
On May 16 2013 10:02 Skarjak wrote: This thread has convinced me to get a fountain pen and work on my handwriting.
The Lamy Al-Star seems like a great pen, and it's great that it has all these options for nibs, but unfortunately I find the design to be terrible looking. Any suggestion for a good pen under 40$, or is Lamy king at that pricepoint?
The parker IM in chrome is more up my alley in terms of design, but I'm hearing a lot of negative comments about quality control and the general performance of the pen...
Check out the Kaweco Sport, might be more appealing to you.
Pilot Prera's are available for $34 from http://www.stationeryart.com/ - I have never purchased from them, can't comment on service.
From reading many reviews, they seem to be 80-110% the performance of their counterparts (lets be honest, a lot of them are copycats of popular western pens), at 1-10% of the price - or less (See: Montblanc 149 vs Jinhao 159).
On May 16 2013 02:07 ZerONine09 wrote: When filling a pen does it matter if you leave the converter attached to the feed or if you take out the converter and fill it directly from the bottle?
Depending on how much ink you have left, there's a time where you have to use the converter by itself =/
From reading many reviews, they seem to be 80-110% the performance of their counterparts (lets be honest, a lot of them are copycats of popular western pens), at 1-10% of the price - or less (See: Montblanc 149 vs Jinhao 159).
Except these pens have the worst quality control of all time. I've heard of people getting a pen that literally falls apart when they take it out of the box.
It is possible to get them for 99cents + shipping, but it's probably worth it to just get a Metropolitan instead of taking the risk of getting a truly horrible pen.
EPT
