I think my life just changed

[techjunkie25]

I think we’ve all been there at one point in time or another, you know, buying pens. Well, buying pens with fairly reckless abandon...okay, some of us are still there.
Now mind you, I don’t mean buying ALL pens just to buy them. I’m talking about Pens that you genuinely have an interest in owning to try out.
In the past few weeks I’ve purchased:
1. Lamy Safari
2. Lamy Aion
3. Lamy 2000
4. Pelikan m200
5. Pelikan m400

I like them all, but I just had one delivered that I think tops them all.

1. Pilot custom 74- dark blue(from japan)

I’ve written with a lot of higher end pens, but I have to admit, for a sub $125.00 pen this thing writes better than most pens in its price range(in my opinion). The nib isn’t scratchy(medium) and it’s very well put together for the money. I’ve have been writing all day with it and I’m super happy with how it writes, and it may inspire me to pass on a few of my newly acquired pens.
I’m still debating the last part.....

I’m really impressed with the quality of writing that this pen provides. It is a gold nib, it doesn’t give much line variation, but I’m not really looking for that..I’ve been more looking at the usability of the pen on less than stellar paper at the office and while out and about(receipts, autographs and the like)

What kind of pen has done that to you?




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[Francisco_S]

Hi Techjunkie25....

The one pen that surprised me the most and didn't cost a lot of money was a Lamy 2000 EF nib I bought from Amazon. Classy, absolutely cool looking and I never had a problem finding its sweet spot, so it was just amazingly smooth and cool from the beginning.

I also had another great surprise with a Faber Castell Ambition F nib, also gorgeous and quite cheap!

Cheers!

[techjunkie25]

Hi Techjunkie25....

The one pen that surprised me the most and didn't cost a lot of money was a Lamy 2000 EF nib I bought from Amazon. Classy, absolutely cool looking and I never had a problem finding its sweet spot, so it was just amazingly smooth and cool from the beginning.

I also had another great surprise with a Faber Castell Ambition F nib, also gorgeous and quite cheap!

Cheers!

I’ve also found the same with the Lamy 2000. The nib is super smooth and the flow is amazing. Awesome pen all the way around


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[FredRydr]

You ain't seen nothin', yet.

[techjunkie25]

You ain't seen nothin', yet.

Care to elaborate? I’ve got a few Montblanc, Visconti and Montegrappa in the mix which I enjoy


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[FredRydr]

Care to elaborate?

There is so much in quality pens out there to write with, modern and especially vintage (IMHO), you will be impressed by new discoveries again and again.

[asw]

Absolutely agree....so many. For many years I travelled through the vintage market but recently these have all but gone to be replaced by some outstanding modern writers.

There are so many modern nib/pen combinations but I have recently been taken by a Sailor 1911L with togi nib....oh and like others in this thread, a Lamy 2000 is always in my pen case.

[CelticKnott]

This may sound lame, but for me I think it was the Pilot Vanishing Point. I got one of the ones with the 'special alloy' (aka steel) nib, so I'm not even talking gold nib here. I got it for just around $80 on Amazon. It's just so smooth and clearly so well made. It's not that a lot of the other, slightly cheaper FP I own aren't nice, but this is just in its own class somehow, quality-wise. And of course now I want it in every other color, and with the gold nib. :-p

[SIR]

I think we’ve all been there at one point in time or another, you know, buying pens. Well, buying pens with fairly reckless abandon...okay, some of us are still there.

Now mind you, I don’t mean buying ALL pens just to buy them. I’m talking about Pens that you genuinely have an interest in owning to try out.
... but... I just had one delivered that I think tops them all.

Try a Platinum Century #3776 on Tomoe River paper and tell us what you think then!

[FredRydr]

I think my life just changed

Well, don't let "buying pens with fairly reckless abandon" change your life too much. Think of AzJon's warning in the Pen Humor thread:

[Kaputnik]

I have a Custom 74 that is very good in its way, but doesn't get used that much because of the broad nib. I also have a Custom Heritage 91, which is basically the same pen, but with flattened ends on the cap and barrel, and an FM nib, which is more to my taste. I got a bargain on that one because the Amazon seller had advertised a Custom 74, and although I didn't really mind that much, I still mentioned to Amazon that it wasn't what I ordered, and got a partial refund. And the CH 92, which is a piston filler, and perhaps my favorite. And the Falcon (Elabo) with its oddly shaped nib. And a number of other Pilots. Something about Pilots, in the range where they start having 14k or 18k nibs without being luxurious otherwise, just clicks with me (did I mention the Capless Decimo?).

To answer your question, I think it was the Pilot Falcon that made me realize that there was a step up from those perfectly good affordable pens like the Lamy Safari, Pilot Metropolitan, and Kaweco Plastic Sport. I really could have stopped there. Oh well.

But there are a lot of other good pens out there, modern and vintage, and I'll never try them all

[pajaro]

Parker 51. Various Conway Stewart. Waterman Man pens. Cross Townsend.

[techjunkie25]

I think my life just changed

Well, don't let "buying pens with fairly reckless abandon" change your life too much. Think of AzJon's warning in the Pen Humor thread:

This is great!


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[amk]

My Lamy 2000 with the BBBBBBBBig fat nib did that to me. The first pen I really remember enjoying the act of writing, just feeling the pen and seeing the ink go down on the page, whoosh. I loved it. I still do.

Recently Pelikan has really impressed me with its modern pens. I'm using a couple of m200/250s right now and immensely enjoying them. I know the nibs aren't to everyone's taste, but as a writer with a pretty extensive note taking habit I find the slight bounciness and generosity of the Pelikan really enjoyable. My bank manager may have noticed already how much I like Pelikans :-)

[Replicant]

This may sound lame, but for me I think it was the Pilot Vanishing Point. I got one of the ones with the 'special alloy' (aka steel) nib, so I'm not even talking gold nib here. I got it for just around $80 on Amazon. It's just so smooth and clearly so well made. It's not that a lot of the other, slightly cheaper FP I own aren't nice, but this is just in its own class somehow, quality-wise. And of course now I want it in every other color, and with the gold nib. :-p

I was thinking the Pilot/Namiki vanishing point as well. My first one was an early faceted, resin body with 14k medium nib. I loved it so much that I purchased another one of the next generation with a 14k broad nib. They are both well into their second decade as daily users. Very smooth, fun writers.

[gbryal]

1. Pilot custom 74- dark blue(from japan)

Congratulations, it's a great pen. What I've found is once you find a very good pen that makes you happy, other pens, even great ones, don't significantly increase my happiness, they just increase the number of pens I have. Live with the 74 for a while and don't look too much over the fence for a while, is my advice. You can be confident it's not all in your head, it's a fine pen.

[myu]

PILOT makes great pens. Start looking into their past, for vintage models. You'll be amazed even further. Or try a Pilot / Namiki Falcon with FM or SF nib...

[Blue Note]

PILOT makes great pens. Start looking into their past, for vintage models. You'll be amazed even further. Or try a Pilot / Namiki Falcon with FM or SF nib...

Absolutely agree. I have a Namiki Falcon with F/M nib. A superb writer with a nice bit of flex.

[Wuddus]

Having just read through this thread, for me the answer is simply "a fountain pen".

I was made to use one at school, and our exercise books went from being filled with graphite in our younger years, to being filled with blots, splodges, inky fingerprints and then you kind of just fit the poor scratchy handwriting in wherever there was space left on the page. By the time I'd gotten to the point of a page being full of scrawled text without the rest of the inadvertent stuff, we were allowed to use ballpoints.

I still dabbled with fountain pens at home occasionally, and I got myself a cheap calligraphy set one year. The interest wore off too fast, as it only ever got used for Christmas and birthday cards, and I had to look up and practice the lettering every time. At work we had duplicate and triplicate pads, so a ballpoint was the weapon of choice there, and at home I had far too many "active" interests, that there just wasn't time for pens that needed looking after.

A few decades later, I have rediscovered them, and now have a couple of pen friends - who both write back to me with ballpoints. I like using a fountain pen now. It's no longer a chore, and I like the way the ink looks, and the fact that I chose it. I like the fact it takes a little care and preparation before I sit down to write a letter. I like the fact I have to be mindful of wet ink on the page.

I'm still early in my exploration of different pens, but if I'm honest, I'm very happy with all the cheapos that I've acquired so far. Same with the inks. I don't need "luxury items" to get a kick from it, because the fact that I didn't use a disposable ballpoint is luxury enough. I recently went through drawers, pen pots, and the other random places that pens end up accumulating, and threw out probably 20 pens that had dried up. I like the fact that I'm moving towards a pen drying up is a quick flush and refill away from being up and running again, and possibly even a change of colour. It's not really the pens and inks that excite me, it's the fact that using a pen is more than just a means to an end. Now I can enjoy the process too.

[Kulprit]

I own/have owned most of Pilot's custom line-up but just recently acquired a 74 in M. In the week I've had it I just can't put it down. I don't know what it is about that pen but I just instinctively reach for it first. Maybe it's the extra length or the narrower body, I don't know, but it's getting a lot more use these days than my former go-to pens (CH912 and Sailor Pro Gear Sigma).

I'm not going to say it's the best pen I own (it's not) nor that it's my favorite (it's not) but it is the one my hand gravitates towards. I certainly prefer it (and all the Pilot customs, for that matter) to any of the other pens you mentioned. My old CH91 in SFM was sublime, as is my CH92 in FM. I just had a coworker in my office today lamenting the fact that Pilot Customs have such boring aesthetics but superb nibs, while his Auroras and Viscontis have great aesthetics but poor nibs; wondering why no one can find a way to combine the two.


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