Dutch HEMA Fountain Pen :::::: 'Philanthropic' offer for fellow FP lovers

[cees achterberg]

UPDATE: member 'heath' did an excellent review on the HEMA pen; it's right here: http://penpaperinkletter.com/hema-vulpen-fountain-pen-review/


The other day I bumped into these rather enthousiastic reviews of the Dutch HEMA fountain pens:


Well Appointed Desk: http://wellappointeddesk.com/2013/02/11/hema-vulpen-fountain-pen-review/ (http://wellappointeddesk.com/2013/02/11/hema-vulpen-fountain-pen-review/)



Stephen Browns Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9MlD5SAAbo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9MlD5SAAbo)

As these pens are only available in the HEMA stores in the Netherlands and Belgium and are not sold online,
I decided to make them available to you through the FPGeeks channels ...

From the Well Appointed Desk review:

"... In writing tests, the pen performed admirably.."
"...It writes very smoothly, silky even. I just love how it feels in my hand..."
"....The amazing thing about this pen is the cost a mere 3.25 (under $6). It kind of blows my
mind that this pen performs in the same league with pens five times more expensive..."
"... Unless you know someone traveling in Europe you could bribe to pick one up for you, this may be your holy grail of cheap fountain pens..."

The pens come in the colours Black, Chrome and Brushed Aluminium; features:
* Fine-Medium Iridium Point Germany nib
* Takes standard international cartridges or converter
* All metal barrel and cap

Prior to shipping I will check the nib & feed and align the tines and smoothen the nib if needed.

The pen is 2.99 EUR in the store at the moment. Including shipping, Bay/Pal fees and just a wee compensation
for my effort, I can send you the pen for 7.40 EUR --> about 10 USD.

I can combine shipping up to 10 pens, see table below:



amount
pen(s)
shipping
palfee
total


1
$ 4,05
$ 5,30
$ 0,66
$ 10,01


2
$ 8,10
$ 5,30
$ 0,82
$ 14,22


3
$ 12,15
$ 6,80
$ 1,04
$ 19,99


4
$ 16,20
$ 6,80
$ 1,20
$ 24,20


5
$ 20,25
$ 9,80
$ 1,47
$ 31,52


6
$ 24,30
$ 9,80
$ 1,63
$ 35,73


7
$ 28,35
$ 9,80
$ 1,79
$ 39,94


8
$ 32,40
$ 9,80
$ 1,95
$ 44,15


9
$ 36,45
$ 9,80
$ 2,10
$ 48,35


10
$ 40,50
$ 9,80
$ 2,26
$ 52,56




Just send me a PM if you want one or more for yourself ...


Handling & Shipping
* I will collect orders for a week and then pop off to the HEMA to buy the pens.
* I will ship once a week on Saturdays.

Terms & Conditions
* As you will understand .... No refunds or exchanges !
* PayPal only


7195


Cheers !
Cees

[heath]

Just bought one! Thanks for doing this.

[cees achterberg]

My pleasure !! ... I'll ship your pen tomorrow.
I got 4 orders so far .... pls spread the word :)

[Mesu]

Lot of countries excluded in your shipping. If acceptable to you, including them will increase your sales.

[cees achterberg]

TNX for the heads up .... will check & correct ..

[hunnymonster]

Some of those countries I'd not post to either but others (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea (South)) I'd have no issues with...

All about your trust in the postal system of the target country I guess.

[cees achterberg]

Should be corrected now ...

[writingrav]

What the heck. I got one too.

[cees achterberg]

Just went over to the HEMA .... this week's pens are in the mail ..

[79spitfire]

Sucked me in as well, just ordered a Brushed Aluminum,

Thanks, should be fun having a pen that's not readily available here!

[cees achterberg]

... and you won't regret it :)
I just packed it and will put it in the mail tomorrow ...

[hunnymonster]

Mine arrived today... Not tried it yet but it looks and feels way better than the price tag would suggest.

Point of interest - the barcode label says "stylo a bille" - when I was at school that was a ballpoint...

[cees achterberg]

I'd like to hear your opinion on the pen once you've tried it ...

In the store they are kind of mixed with the ballpoint version so I guess someone must have switched caps ....
I had to return one last week when it turned out to be a ballpoint when I removed the cap :-)

[hunnymonster]

Ah, but it was also "vulpen" so I guess they get confused in Belgium ;)

[hunnymonster]

Well it's certainly a pen I could happily use all day everyday as I did yesterday. Its nothing flash, doesn't feel like it will fall apart any time soon nor will I cry (too much) when it does fall apart. Not that I expect it to happen anytime soon.

Writes smoothly enough. Not too wet nor too dry. I can see me picking up a handful next time I'm in Belgium or the Netherlands.

[cees achterberg]

I'm really glad you like the pen !!

But why wait until you're in B or NL again? I'll gladly combine shipping so for every extra pen you only pay the pen and the additional stamps & PayPal fee ...


amount


pen(s)


shipping


palfee


total



1

$ 4,05

$ 5,30

$ 0,66

$ 10,01



2

$ 8,10

$ 5,30

$ 0,82

$ 14,22



3

$ 12,15

$ 6,80

$ 1,04

$ 19,99



4

$ 16,20

$ 6,80

$ 1,20

$ 24,20



5

$ 20,25

$ 9,80

$ 1,47

$ 31,52



6

$ 24,30

$ 9,80

$ 1,63

$ 35,73



7

$ 28,35

$ 9,80

$ 1,79

$ 39,94



8

$ 32,40

$ 9,80

$ 1,95

$ 44,15



9

$ 36,45

$ 9,80

$ 2,10

$ 48,35



10

$ 40,50

$ 9,80

$ 2,26

$ 52,56

[hunnymonster]

Salesman to the end... I'm in no rush and it is yet another excuse to duck out of tedious teambuilding exercises (read eating and drinking too much) at work...

[cees achterberg]

:) if only i were a salesman ... BTW I'm doing teambuilding sessions as well :)

[cees achterberg]

:bump:

[79spitfire]

It's a nice pen (mine came yesterday, nice fast shipping!) All metal, and it does write smoothly.

[HighLife]

DM sent, Cees.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[maksim]

These look a lot like the kickstarter Visionnare fiasco pens.

[earthdawn]

Well I jumped in too... ordered 2

What a great thing to do... Thank you again cees achterberg

[writingrav]

These look a lot like the kickstarter Visionnare fiasco pens.

Not so. The HEMA is just what it is. A less than $!0 pen, cartridge only as best I can tell,(I haven't found a converter that fits). The Visionnaire is much higher quality even if, as I've written, it is rather ordinary and it is hard to figure out why someone would have spent so much effort to create a pen that they could have purchased for $80 like a Shaeffer Prelude.

[hunnymonster]

cartridge only as best I can tell,(I haven't found a converter that fits).

I assume you've shaken the (small international) cartridge out of the barrel? I have tried a Kaweco converter in my mine (standard international) no issues...

[writingrav]

cartridge only as best I can tell,(I haven't found a converter that fits).

I assume you've shaken the (small international) cartridge out of the barrel? I have tried a Kaweco converter in my mine (standard international) no issues...

Yes. I found the cartridge and figured my Kaweco converter might work but I haven't had the time to try it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[cees achterberg]

These converters fit as well; I just fitted one in my HEMA pen ... http://www.ebay.com/itm/R17-10-PCS-Jinhao-Converters-Ink-Reservoir-Standard-Size-/160976196393?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257aedd329

[earthdawn]

Just got my 2 yesterday and they are a surprise to say the least.

I figured 2 for $15 shipped you just can't go wrong right... EXACTLY... I am more then surprised at how smooth they are. As well I actually like the ink thats in the cart that came with it. A nice even blue that flows well and dries pretty quick to. While it may be a little on the narrow side for my gorilla hands it is well balanced when posted and went to work with me today.

Really appreciate "cees achterberg" for going out of his way to get these pens for us as we would not otherwise be able to get them.

[HighLife]

My two arrived, today. I love receiving mail from other parts of the World. Kudos to Cees for obtaining, tweaking, and sending them - in a Force 9 storm, no less.

One is black and the other, silver. I opted to keep the black and presented the silver to my son as his first FP to see if it will pique his interest to write with one.

With the supplied cartridge, the pen writes very nice. It is actually one of the smoother writers in my collection. There's a nice amount of flow and it isn't "scratchy" to write with, despite the somewhat fine size. I typically use a medium nib, but this a fun one to use. Upon completion of the cartridge, I will add a converter and try some of my inks.

For the price, you cannot afford to not try a few.

Thanks again, Cees!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[heath]

This is the review I promised of the pen and experience ordering/receiving it. (http://penpaperinkletter.com/hema-vulpen-fountain-pen-review/)

[HighLife]

Take two... Apparently, yesterday's post never made it onto the forum.

My two HEMA pens arrived without incident from The Netherlands to Florida. I'll start by thanking Cees for purchasing, tweaking, and sending these to me. He even sent them during a Force 9 storm... What a man!

There really isn't much more that I can add that hasn't already been said. For the price, you cannot go wrong. The flow is consistent with the stock cartridge - which is actually a very nice shade of blue. The nib, which is a bit shy of medium, is very smooth and not in the least bit scratchy. I kept the black one for myself and presented the silver to my son, with hope that he may begin to enjoy fountain pens. When the cartridge is empty, I plan to use a converter with some of my daily inks.

Thanks again Cees, for doing this for the community.

Regards,
HL

[79spitfire]

One thing that I have found, if you are careful you can use a Waterman's long cartridge in this pen, and then it seems to write..... like forever....

[Scrawler]

This looks like an excellent school pen. I wish I had known about these before. I could have saved hassle and money by sending these to my nieces and nephews in Europe, instead of having a bunch of pens sent to me from China, then remailing them to England. When you consider what a load of throw away rubbish the Tesco pens many kids use, are, these are very good value. The supermarket pens many kids use at school are frustratingly scratchy and easily broken.

[cees achterberg]

:bump: added the link to heath's review in the main text

[cwent2]

@cees achterberg Just a short post to say thanks - pens write very smoothly and I am very impressed. Thank you for the prompt shipping.

I have had them for a bit, sorry didn't post sooner -- Something called Christmas distracted me!

Have a happy New Year!

Carl

[AnnieB]

I am enjoying mine also. I have used it for a couple months at this point and it's holding up just fine. It's definitely on a higher level than the cost would indicate. I haven't had to adjust anything and I've used it with a lot of different inks (diamine saddle brown, j. herbin violet, MB irish green etc). The thing that's surprised me maybe most of all is the fact that even though it's a 'tension fit' when you post the cap, I've used it now for about 2 months and it is -not- showing any distressing or marking of the barrel from posting the cap. The balance is quite good also (usually full sized pens are too big for my hobbit hands :) ). I guess the centre of balance when posted for this pen is close enough to the nib that it doesn't feel 'floppy' or unbalanced, even for my weensy hands.

I got the matte black version. Very nice pen. Thank you for doing this for us.