Tag Archives: fountain pen

Gravitas Skittle Polished

28 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Shiny rainbow colours have always appealed to me. Be it looking through the coloured cellophane outer wrappers of Quality Street as a kid, Cokin coloured diffuser filter sheets (082A) (see pictures at the end) when I was experimenting with photography as a student, the TWSBI VAC 700R Iris from a few months back, and now the Gravitas Skittle. To be honest the first time I saw a picture of Ben Walsh’s multicoloured creation I felt the pangs of want. The inner Gollum in me whispered ‘my precious’. Sure it was available in both matt and shiny forms, but to me those rainbow colours must cry out loud, not stay muted. Just a shame he sold out quickly. Very quickly.

Continue reading →

Magna Carta Elements Water

25 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

I like pens with uniqueness and character, especially when coming from countries with reputations for living in the past and blatant copying, and as such the produce of the Mumbai based family business Magna Carta Pen have been on my radar for quite a while. With an ever expanding range Hiren Kanakhara has been bringing his own style and design language to the fountain pen world. With most being metal bodied and using cartridges/converters, it was his Elements range that caught my eye. Not just because of appearing to be longer and sleeker, but more due to the filling system, for the Sky, Water, and Earth Elements pens use a pneumatic filling system. With Magna Carta also producing their own nibs and ebonite feeds, this means this pen is produced near entirely in-house, with the one possible exception being the sac used in the filling mechanism.

Continue reading →

2021 Parker 51 with Steel Nib

28 Friday May 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Towards the end of 2020 rumours then photos started to appear that caused one of the biggest stirs in the fountain pen world for a long time. Word had it that Parker were relaunching the ’51’ almost 45 years after previous production was stopped. Pictures appeared and the reaction was not good, especially after it became known that the cap would be threaded and the pen would come with a steel nib. Accusations were made of design laziness and there were even rumours (later shown to be false) that it was just an existing pen from a Chinese cloning factory.

Continue reading →

Platinum Curidas – One Year On

07 Friday May 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

It is now close on a year since I joined the masses and put in my order for a Platinum Curidas in Urban Green. It should be noted I was not caught up in the initial hype but rather garnered interest over time as I started to hear feedback from friends who’d been early adopters. As with so many the feed on mine cracked around one of the nib securing wings and while Cult Pens were happy to swap it for another pen or give me a refund I decided to keep it as the crack did not affect the writing nor ownership experiences and there was no guarantees Platinum had fixed the issue with newer pens, in fact I still do not know if this design flaw is still in place.

Continue reading →

High Street Fountain Pens for a Fiver

30 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Let’s be honest. Many of us when we started down the slippery slopes of the fountain pen world discovered a plethora of cheap Chinese pen on eBay and tried a few out. These mainly worked, but over time we realised they are just cheap copies of other makes and while some people do continue to use/buy them, others like myself stop. Thing is for disposable starter pens to give to friends and colleagues light they are hard to beat, so the question I set myself was could I buy pens just as good on the UK high street for £5 or less. The only stipulations being that the nibs had to have tipping (not just a butterfly fold) and the pens had to be refillable. As I know some of you may raise the question over the Pilot VPen V4, which in theory you can refill, I have included one of those as well as a bench mark, though you will have to pull the nib and feed once empty for it to really count.

Continue reading →

Replacing the Sac in my Father’s Parker Duofold Senior

23 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Last September (2020) I took possession of my late father’s Parker ‘New Duofold’ Senior fountain pen, which I part covered at the end of this piece. A week back I went to use the pen to find the ink had evaporated, and on refreshing with a little water I then found it appeared to be leaking around the base of the sac. Or so I thought. The net result was some careful disassembly to discover the real problem, and then the repair. The work itself was simple enough so I will be covering it here as an example of why you should not necessarily be scared to do repairs such as this, and will also include the mistakes I made and the bullets I dodged.

Continue reading →

Narwhal Schuylkill Porpita Navy

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Narwhal appeared on the fountain pen scene around a year and a half back producing cheap and cheerful piston filler pens with in-house made nibs. Based in California, this small start up has quickly developed a fan base and after a year released a new model, the Schuylkill, with a prominent ink window which is still visible when the pen is capped. Two limited editions were included with this launch, with 365 ebonite pens appropriately called the 365, and 800 of this the Porpita Navy finish in a unique acrylic.

Continue reading →

April 2021 Fountain Pens For Sale Part 2

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

I’m a bit stop/start when it comes to trimming the collection. I envy those who are able to just look at their pens, grab a number, advertise them and sell them (though in reality most still need to work their way through the various for sale sites/platforms). I actually composed this list a while back, but never acted until now and have split the total listing in to two as I’m posting these on the Fountain Pen UK Facebook group and do not want to abuse the freedom to occasionally advertise.

Note this is a UK only sale.

Continue reading →

April 2021 Fountain Pens For Sale Part 1

02 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Pens

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

,

I’m a bit stop/start when it comes to trimming the collection. I envy those who are able to just look at their pens, grab a number, advertise them and sell them (though in reality most still need to work their way through the various for sale sites/platforms). I actually composed this list a while back, but never acted until now and have split the total listing in to two as I’m posting these on the Fountain Pen UK Facebook group and do not want to abuse the freedom to occasionally advertise.

Note this is a UK only sale.

Continue reading →