List your Top 5 beginner/low-end pens

[frmamede]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the FP hobby and it looks fun, but sometimes daunting. I live in Brazil and we don't get much attention by most FP companies. Mostly we see parkers, sheaffers and the occasional pilots, always high priced (our currencie is about 4BRL to 1USD, but FP's tend to cost 10x it's price in Dolars). So, as a beginner, and not the wealthiest person, I tend to buy beginner/low end pens. Gotta learn more, before investing the big money in high end pens.

So that is why I started this thread. I wanted to know everyone's top 5 inexpensive pens (up to 100,00 USD). Don't know if we already have a thread like this (Couldn't find it, but I confess I still don't know much about Forum search mechanics), but though it would be nice to start a new one, and see the latest Top 5 feelings of people!

Also, as a newbie, I just love seeing pictures of pens. So if you feel like a visual post with a pic of your Top 5, I highy encourage you!

[TSherbs]

Do you own any pens yet? What do you like about a pen that you have tried?

[KrazyIvan]

My 5 beginner pens:

Pilot Metropolitan ~ $15 - If you can get from Japan, there are other colors but pushes the price up to $38
Lamy Safari ~ $25 depending on where you get it.
Kaweco Classic Sport ~ $25
Delta Serena - ~$100 You can find it for less, I've seen it for $80 on sale.
Karas Kustoms Ink ~$100 - built like a tank price is for the aluminum model but brass and copper are available at significantly higher prices and much heavier weight which will affect shipping costs.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the FP hobby and it looks fun, but sometimes daunting. I live in Brazil and we don't get much attention by most FP companies. Mostly we see parkers, sheaffers and the occasional pilots, always high priced (our currencie is about 4BRL to 1USD, but FP's tend to cost 10x it's price in Dolars). So, as a beginner, and not the wealthiest person, I tend to buy beginner/low end pens. Gotta learn more, before investing the big money in high end pens.

So that is why I started this thread. I wanted to know everyone's top 5 inexpensive pens (up to 100,00 USD). Don't know if we already have a thread like this (Couldn't find it, but I confess I still don't know much about Forum search mechanics), but though it would be nice to start a new one, and see the latest Top 5 feelings of people!

Also, as a newbie, I just love seeing pictures of pens. So if you feel like a visual post with a pic of your Top 5, I highy encourage you!

When you said, 'Inexpensive,' I was thinking $30-and-under. So here goes:

1. Pilot Metropolitan/MR: Near bulletproof, the only metal pen I can stand, comes in a variety of finishes and colors from subtle to eye-popping, F or M nib. $15-20.

2. Lamy Safari: Also near bulletproof, though tough plastic rather than metal. Staggering variety of colors, finishes, and nibs, fromEF to 1.9 italics, and nibs are easily interchangeable. You either love the iconic design and contoured section, or you hate it. Can be found under $30. LE colors can run in the hundreds. This is a collector 'thing.'

3. Platinum Plaisir: Yup, another bulletproof pen. Aluminum body in, yes, a dazzling variety of colors and finishes from white to black with blue, silver, green, gold, and pink in-between. F or M nibs. $15-20.

4. Platinum Preppy, the Plaisir's little brother: same nibs, in fact sections are interchangeable. Body color is ink color. Under five bucks. You can get one in every color.

5. Thornton Disposable Fountain Pens: Ten for twenty bucks. These are new to me, the nib seems medium-fine, and talk about EVERY color...this pack has them. So far, I like them a LOT.

[frmamede]

Do you own any pens yet? What do you like about a pen that you have tried?

Yeah! I own 12 pens, now. Of the "usual" brands, I own a Lamy Safari, a Pilot Metro, a Kaweco Classic Sport, a FC Basic, a Parker IM, a Sheaffer 300, a Sheaffer Viewpoint (Calligraphy pen) and a Montblanc "147". I also have two Heroes (240 and 616), a Crown and a Zoot (I think these are brazilian brands, since I've never heard anyone talk about them). Of the mentioned, my favs are the MB, the Parker IM, the Sheaffer 300 and the FC Basic. I tend to like pens that are large and have some "girth" to them, with a more "elegant" appeal.

Coleção Completa - Dez 16.jpg

But the purpose of the post was not to get indications for myself alone, rather than to learn about everyone's favourite inexpensive pens, and the criteria they use to make such evaluations!

[frmamede]

My 5 beginner pens:

Pilot Metropolitan ~ $15 - If you can get from Japan, there are other colors but pushes the price up to $38
Lamy Safari ~ $25 depending on where you get it.
Kaweco Classic Sport ~ $25
Delta Serena - ~$100 You can find it for less, I've seen it for $80 on sale.
Karas Kustoms Ink ~$100 - built like a tank price is for the aluminum model but brass and copper are available at significantly higher prices and much heavier weight which will affect shipping costs.

Wow! Just googled some pics of the Delta Serena, and it looks amazing! As for the Karas Kustoms, I'm not the biggest fan of that "industrial" look, but love pens that look durable and "strong"! Could be nice too, though!

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the FP hobby and it looks fun, but sometimes daunting. I live in Brazil and we don't get much attention by most FP companies. Mostly we see parkers, sheaffers and the occasional pilots, always high priced (our currencie is about 4BRL to 1USD, but FP's tend to cost 10x it's price in Dolars). So, as a beginner, and not the wealthiest person, I tend to buy beginner/low end pens. Gotta learn more, before investing the big money in high end pens.

So that is why I started this thread. I wanted to know everyone's top 5 inexpensive pens (up to 100,00 USD). Don't know if we already have a thread like this (Couldn't find it, but I confess I still don't know much about Forum search mechanics), but though it would be nice to start a new one, and see the latest Top 5 feelings of people!

Also, as a newbie, I just love seeing pictures of pens. So if you feel like a visual post with a pic of your Top 5, I highy encourage you!

When you said, 'Inexpensive,' I was thinking $30-and-under. So here goes:

1. Pilot Metropolitan/MR: Near bulletproof, the only metal pen I can stand, comes in a variety of finishes and colors from subtle to eye-popping, F or M nib. $15-20.

2. Lamy Safari: Also near bulletproof, though tough plastic rather than metal. Staggering variety of colors, finishes, and nibs, fromEF to 1.9 italics, and nibs are easily interchangeable. You either love the iconic design and contoured section, or you hate it. Can be found under $30. LE colors can run in the hundreds. This is a collector 'thing.'

3. Platinum Plaisir: Yup, another bulletproof pen. Aluminum body in, yes, a dazzling variety of colors and finishes from white to black with blue, silver, green, gold, and pink in-between. F or M nibs. $15-20.

4. Platinum Preppy, the Plaisir's little brother: same nibs, in fact sections are interchangeable. Body color is ink color. Under five bucks. You can get one in every color.

5. Thornton Disposable Fountain Pens: Ten for twenty bucks. These are new to me, the nib seems medium-fine, and talk about EVERY color...this pack has them. So far, I like them a LOT.

Funny you mentioned the Preppy. I wanted to buy a "7-pack", to try some eyedropper converting, but preferred not to. In "Mercado Livre" (kind of a brazilian Ebay) the pack costs 170 reais (about 50 Dolars). Thought it would be better to invest the money in nicer pens.

As to the Safari, Metro and Kaweco Classic Sport, I've had troublesome experiences. None of them came writing well out of the box, and as a newbie I don't know much about pen tunning yet! My Safari has some inkflow issues, the metro skips a LOT, and the Kaweco haunts me with hard starts...

[KrazyIvan]

Nice start and you already have some of the suggested pens. For me, the Lamy Safari was my "first" real fountain pen. I had 2 fountain pens before it but I lost one and the other sat unused for months with ink in it. The Safari taught me how to hold a pen properly and it also helped me regulate my grip from a death grip down to a feather touch. It took me 6 months to finally learn the grip and hold that now comes naturally with any pen.

Now, I tend to go for pens purely for aesthetics, then I look at a nib that I can use out of the box or modify with relative ease. Some feel it should be the other way around, look for the nib first. To a certain extent I agree, but if I find a pen I like cosmetically, and I can bend the nib to my will (figuratively speaking), I am good with that.

Franken pens (pens that may have been cobbled together from parts of different manufacturers) can be a good option too. Case in point, I recently purchased a Rotring Tintenkuli Stylograph piston filler modified to take a fountain pen nib. It has a Reform nib. I paid less than $40 and it is such a fun pen to use! The nib is what I would call a smooth italic.

[frmamede]

Nice start and you already have some of the suggested pens. For me, the Lamy Safari was my "first" real fountain pen. I had 2 fountain pens before it but I lost one and the other sat unused for months with ink in it. The Safari taught me how to hold a pen properly and it also helped me regulate my grip from a death grip down to a feather touch. It took me 6 months to finally learn the grip and hold that now comes naturally with any pen.

Now, I tend to go for pens purely for aesthetics, then I look at a nib that I can use out of the box or modify with relative ease. Some feel it should be the other way around, look for the nib first. To a certain extent I agree, but if I find a pen I like cosmetically, and I can bend the nib to my will (figuratively speaking), I am good with that.

Franken pens (pens that may have been cobbled together from parts of different manufacturers) can be a good option too. Case in point, I recently purchased a Rotring Tintenkuli Stylograph piston filler modified to take a fountain pen nib. It has a Reform nib. I paid less than $40 and it is such a fun pen to use! The nib is what I would call a smooth italic.

My first was the Sheaffer 300. The Safari came second by a few days (I had already bought it online prior to the Sheaffer, but it took longer to arrive). Judging by what you say, I may still have the "death's grip", since my hand cramps like crazy when I'm writing with the Safari.

As to the aesthetics x nib quality, I guess if I had the materials and learned how to tune I would also be more of an aesthetics kind of guy. But I don't have, and can't tune, so nib quality out of the box is very important! hehehe It's a shame. I can't find micro-mesh, mylar paper or even brass floss sheets here in Brazil, and shopping overseas is really troublesome, given our Customs (slow, full of burocracies and very high taxes. VERY HIGH TAXES! We usually pay 100% the product price in tax) :sad:

And about frankenpens, I still don't have the "guts" to buy any, since I don't know much and could be easily misleaded into a "bad buy". Bu look forward to "creating" some in my soon to be set up "Pen Lab"! hehehe

[KrazyIvan]

Smoothing materials might be as close as your local hardware store or auto parts/auto body store. You need various grit sandpaper up to 12000 grit which I found at my local auto parts store. You can even find the buffing pads for final nib polishing at beauty salon or drug stores.

[Scooby921]

Sheaffer No Nonsense (calligraphy set with multiple italic nibs to play with that type of nib and line variation...look for used sets on ebay)
Pilot 78G
Pilot Metropolitan
TWSBI 580AL
Esterbrook J (with a replaceable nib unit you can experiment with different nibs for pretty cheap without buying new pens all the time)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Wow! Just googled some pics of the Delta Serena, and it looks amazing! As for the Karas Kustoms, I'm not the biggest fan of that "industrial" look, but love pens that look durable and "strong"! Could be nice too, though!

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the FP hobby and it looks fun, but sometimes daunting. I live in Brazil and we don't get much attention by most FP companies. Mostly we see parkers, sheaffers and the occasional pilots, always high priced (our currencie is about 4BRL to 1USD, but FP's tend to cost 10x it's price in Dolars). So, as a beginner, and not the wealthiest person, I tend to buy beginner/low end pens. Gotta learn more, before investing the big money in high end pens.

So that is why I started this thread. I wanted to know everyone's top 5 inexpensive pens (up to 100,00 USD). Don't know if we already have a thread like this (Couldn't find it, but I confess I still don't know much about Forum search mechanics), but though it would be nice to start a new one, and see the latest Top 5 feelings of people!

Also, as a newbie, I just love seeing pictures of pens. So if you feel like a visual post with a pic of your Top 5, I highy encourage you!

When you said, 'Inexpensive,' I was thinking $30-and-under. So here goes:

1. Pilot Metropolitan/MR: Near bulletproof, the only metal pen I can stand, comes in a variety of finishes and colors from subtle to eye-popping, F or M nib. $15-20.

2. Lamy Safari: Also near bulletproof, though tough plastic rather than metal. Staggering variety of colors, finishes, and nibs, fromEF to 1.9 italics, and nibs are easily interchangeable. You either love the iconic design and contoured section, or you hate it. Can be found under $30. LE colors can run in the hundreds. This is a collector 'thing.'

3. Platinum Plaisir: Yup, another bulletproof pen. Aluminum body in, yes, a dazzling variety of colors and finishes from white to black with blue, silver, green, gold, and pink in-between. F or M nibs. $15-20.

4. Platinum Preppy, the Plaisir's little brother: same nibs, in fact sections are interchangeable. Body color is ink color. Under five bucks. You can get one in every color.

5. Thornton Disposable Fountain Pens: Ten for twenty bucks. These are new to me, the nib seems medium-fine, and talk about EVERY color...this pack has them. So far, I like them a LOT.

Funny you mentioned the Preppy. I wanted to buy a "7-pack", to try some eyedropper converting, but preferred not to. In "Mercado Livre" (kind of a brazilian Ebay) the pack costs 170 reais (about 50 Dolars). Thought it would be better to invest the money in nicer pens.

As to the Safari, Metro and Kaweco Classic Sport, I've had troublesome experiences. None of them came writing well out of the box, and as a newbie I don't know much about pen tunning yet! My Safari has some inkflow issues, the metro skips a LOT, and the Kaweco haunts me with hard starts...

Maybe try different inks? I couldn't get my first Safari to flow nicely, and since this was before the days of teh innerwebz, I had no idea how to fix it. These days I would try different inks, different papers, and check the tines under a loupe for alignment.

PS: 35mm film negative is a decent substitute for brass shims.

[Wade]

For someone wanting to dip their toes in the fountain pen pool for the very first time, I would never consider suggesting a pen pricier than $30. My own fountain pen habit is relatively young, having started around September 2015 for purely functional reasons, and my mentality at first was "$30... for a PEN?!" I had never spent more than $7-8 on a pen in my life before fountain pens, and I still shudder at the concept of spending more than $100. My priciest pens are a pair of TWSBI VAC-700s, well worth the price.

Ok, here's my list, all of them easily available, all can be found within a $30 price bracket:

1. Platinum Preppy/Plaisir (essentially the same pen inside, Preppy = cheap/disposable plastic body/cap, Plaisir = metal body/cap).
2. Jinhao X750/X450/159 (different shaped pens, but functionally identical nib/feed/converter).
3. Pilot Metropolitan.
4. TWSBI ECO.
5. Esterbrook Model J (or LJ/SJ, or Deluxe SM/LK) - if any vintage pens can be considered a beginner-friendly model these are it.

Honourable mentions:

• Pilot 78G (would have been on the list instead of the Metropolitan but I understand they're being discontinued)
• Kaweco Sport (pocket pen... you either love them or hate them)
• Lamy Safari (again, not everyone likes the ergo section shape, plus in all honesty, the Chinese Safari knockoffs are easily just as good *or better* for a fifth the price).

Cheers,
Wade

[frmamede]

Smoothing materials might be as close as your local hardware store or auto parts/auto body store. You need various grit sandpaper up to 12000 grit which I found at my local auto parts store. You can even find the buffing pads for final nib polishing at beauty salon or drug stores.

Well, I've been to local construction material stores, and didn't find such grit count. But autoshops is a good Idea! As for the buffing pads! My wife has got plenty lying around in the house! Will start some tuning soon, then... 😀

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[frmamede]

Sheaffer No Nonsense (calligraphy set with multiple italic nibs to play with that type of nib and line variation...look for used sets on ebay)
Pilot 78G
Pilot Metropolitan
TWSBI 580AL
Esterbrook J (with a replaceable nib unit you can experiment with different nibs for pretty cheap without buying new pens all the time)

Aside from the Metro and the Twisbi, are those all vintage pens? I liked them all!

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[Pterodactylus]

I know I wrote it already several times, but I would get also a Pelikan M200/205/215 which are with about 60-90€ within your 100$ boundary. (At least in Europe)

[frmamede]

Maybe try different inks? I couldn't get my first Safari to flow nicely, and since this was before the days of teh innerwebz, I had no idea how to fix it. These days I would try different inks, different papers, and check the tines under a loupe for alignment.

PS: 35mm film negative is a decent substitute for brass shims.

I'm trying that out this week. Just inked it with Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, the best flowing ink I own. On cheap paper it persists, on Rhodia it improves a little, but not much. Gotta try the loupe and the negativs. Tks for the tips!

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[frmamede]

For someone wanting to dip their toes in the fountain pen pool for the very first time, I would never consider suggesting a pen pricier than $30. My own fountain pen habit is relatively young, having started around September 2015 for purely functional reasons, and my mentality at first was "$30... for a PEN?!" I had never spent more than $7-8 on a pen in my life before fountain pens, and I still shudder at the concept of spending more than $100. My priciest pens are a pair of TWSBI VAC-700s, well worth the price.

Ok, here's my list, all of them easily available, all can be found within a $30 price bracket:

1. Platinum Preppy/Plaisir (essentially the same pen inside, Preppy = cheap/disposable plastic body/cap, Plaisir = metal body/cap).
2. Jinhao X750/X450/159 (different shaped pens, but functionally identical nib/feed/converter).
3. Pilot Metropolitan.
4. TWSBI ECO.
5. Esterbrook Model J (or LJ/SJ, or Deluxe SM/LK) - if any vintage pens can be considered a beginner-friendly model these are it.

Honourable mentions:

• Pilot 78G (would have been on the list instead of the Metropolitan but I understand they're being discontinued)
• Kaweco Sport (pocket pen... you either love them or hate them)
• Lamy Safari (again, not everyone likes the ergo section shape, plus in all honesty, the Chinese Safari knockoffs are easily just as good *or better* for a fifth the price).

Cheers,
Wade

Totally get you. I actually want to buy more expensive pens, but always feel it is a bit too much. At least for now, as a newbie.
I really want to get those Jinhaos and the Twisbi!

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[frmamede]

I've noticed no one is puting parkers or sheaffers on their lists. Is there something wrong with their beginner pens? I'm considering a Sheaffer Javellin, or a Sheaffer Ágio. Are those any good?

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[frmamede]

I know I wrote it already several times, but I would get also a Pelikan M200/205/215 which are with about 60-90€ within your 100$ boundary. (At least in Europe)

Here in Brazil they sell for around 660 BRL. In today's conversion it adds up to 184 Euros! I actually want a Pelikan Pen, but am considering the Pelikan Jazz or the Stola. More acessible.

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[KrazyIvan]

I know I wrote it already several times, but I would get also a Pelikan M200/205/215 which are with about 60-90€ within your 100$ boundary. (At least in Europe)

I have not seen them that price in a while, at least not in the US. I did score a W. Germany M150 on eBay for $45 when no one was looking. I also found a vintage 140 for $69 on Etsy but it is a beater.