Rotring Newton f.p.
at least that's what I think this is.......... described occasionally as the 600, which I've a feeling it's not, but then again I could be wrong......... and by name association, linking itself with the genius of the British scientist Isaac Newton. The pen seems to have had a shortish production run - starting life in Germany some time around the late 1980s with the well known Rotring (literally 'red ring' company) famous for many decades for technical drawing pens. Think the name is now part of the Sanford group who also own the Parker name, and since cheapness always seems to creep into so many areas of pen manufacture, I suspect possibly many of the Rotring pens may even now be made a lot further east than Europe. I don't think any of the Newtons, 600s or Lava fountain pens survive still - just the technical drawing ones, but someone may know better than me on that.
Have a feeling that I've seen the design described as giving a nod to the Bauhaus movement - art into industry etc. - and you certainly wouldn't accuse this pen of being a pretty or delicate piece of kit, and suspect you could throw it down the stairs each morning for an entire working life without fear of damage.
This cost me £10 very recently in a U.K. charity shop, but it's not the sort of pen I would normally buy - too brutal looking for me and I can't get away from thinking it looks cheap, despite the fact that they go for silly money on ebay .... maybe this Bauhaus thing is a Teutonic related philosophy which goes over my head - maybe all new art styles seem out of place and avant-garde by their very nature, or it could be that I'm just too old for change.
When I cleaned the thing I discovered what appear to be two short fissures in the steel nib - believe they did produce the pen with gold nibs - anyway I've shied away from filling with ink, although I suspect it would probably still write o.k., albeit a bit nail-like. Perhaps these cracks have been caused by the use of acidic ink, which obviously wouldn't happen with a gold nib. You can see too that the tines are a tad apart, and if pressed very hard I get the feeling that a slightly thicker line would result, and it now has the correct Rotring converter filler.
Which is all a rather round-about way of asking if anyone knows of a source of replacement nibs - although I suspect the answer is a very loud no. Do other folk here like this pen and does it have any virtues I've overlooked, or is it just a niche arty fountain pen that lost its way in the C21. I get the feeling it will write like so many other stiff nail-like pens, but perhaps that's what folk want.
P.S. There is some very informative info. on the FPN, where these things were discussed a year or two back - I've tried not to plagiarise from that thread, but mention that source simply in case anyone should wish to read a more in-depth overview of these late C20 Rotring fountain pens - plus the fact that when I tried the Search here, nothing surfaced, so thought it would be useful to have a little information.
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- so not the Newton model then? In view of the fact it didn't cost me much I might have a go at re-aligning the tines. Perhaps the lack of red band on later pens implies those weren't made by Rotring maybe.
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