Need help, total confusion the deeper I dive

[GerMan27]

Hello everybody,
History:
it started simple.... I love fountain pains and using them since 30 years, no ball pens.
The last 20 years by accident with a italic/stub nib.

7 years ago I upgrades to Italix Churchman Prescriptor and a Noodlers Ahab.
Happy with the first one but Ahab was railroading after feed setting, only used it primed with signatures.
Wrote many many pages with the Italix, threads gave me blisters and one day the converters were not sealing properly and i got inky fingers everytime. Bought two new pens from Italix again stub but was not happy at all with the build quality.

Odysee:
This christmas I wanted to get back into writing and here begins my odysee.
Idea was that I want a new pen, best a flex pen for most beautiful handwriting.
But..... I normally write on cheap paper at work sometimes even copy paper -> wet flex pens will have even more awful feathering.
Therefore vintage pens especially with flex that are expensive might not be the best choice for me.
So I stumbled across "Fountain pen Revolution" and their ultra flex nibs.
My plan was getting a nice stub pen which can run drier (less feathering on cheap paper) than a flex nib.
Himalaya V2 was not adviced by the owner of FPR .
Ok decided on two Jaipur V2 and lots of nibs and options to keep them running over years.

In the meantime I got a mail something needs to be adjusted at my order and I read more and more about quite bad quality of the FPR pens but great nibs.....

Big mess:
So the big mess started. How about using just the fpr nibs in an different pen?
What pens do accept size 6 nibs? Maybe I should look into JoWo 6 instead, with FPR nib unit (ultra flex nib and ebonite feed).
Found the Opus 88 demonstrator looks like a great quality pen, also has stub.
But a second pen with flex nib and maybe fast ink change for more fancy colours with flex.... Opus eyedroppers will probably be worst for ink swapping.

And here I am.
Getting more expensive and more confused the deeper I dig.
What to do with my FPR order (got some nice discounts).... what pen to go to to have many years troublefree fun again????
Please help, I feel so useless atm. I just want a daily nice writer again and a fancy one as flex ist probably not good on cheap papers.
All the years I hade never problems with a pen uncaping and writing after weeks. I enjoy shading (lighter colors of not to wet writers or diluted some inks. Hate feathering and loving quality (metal or at least plastics that last a lifetime.

Ok enough written. 1000 thanks in advance to your advice and guidance! Dankeschön, Martin

[Jaguarish]

Hi Martin. My thoughts are that you should simply enjoy your FPRpens for a while before deciding what to do with them. From memory, their nibs are able to fit into your Noodlers pen, which is actually an excellent option (large piston filling and usually a nice celluloid). Meanwhile you could also acquire a Lamy or Kaweco, along with multiple nibs, which include italics and double broads. Or, if you would like a Japanese option, there are similar kits you can buy from Pilot labelled for calligraphy.

If you want to treat yourself, choose a pen that you like for its looks and feel, then ask a nibmeister to grind the nib to your preferred usage. You can do this easily at a pen show, or order a pen (new or used) from several nibmeisters who do this (e.g. Pen Realm, Nibsmith, and so on).

[Robalone]

Martin. Hi, there’s one sentence in your lament , that would seem to be the main culprit here….' I normally write on cheap paper , sometimes even copy paper…'
It is fairly well known that in the era (?) of fountain pen usage , paper was generally made / treated to be ink friendly, whereas most 'ordinary' paper these days is pretty hopeless for pens.

It could be that were you to start using a recognised fountain pen friendly paper , of which there are many, your troubles could be over.

I and many other users here have FPR pens and probably some have the 'ultraflex' nib ( which whilst being a passable attempt at reviving flex, is still VERY prone to railroading!) and it is almost compulsory to use a paper that can handle the ink without feathering and bleeding.
You will find that even laying down a super wet juicy line on good paper won’t feather or bleed til it dries.

Pretty sure this will help , but keep coming back here cos I’m sure everyone here would love to see you post that it has all been resolved, and you are happy writing with which ever pen you want. 👍🏻

[Robalone]

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[Motomachi10]

I tried flexible nibs and stub nibs, but after many months I gave up flexible nibs and kept using stubs for line variation.

[fountainpenkid]

I can sympathize with the paper problem…my lab only occasionally buys good paper and I don’t have the nerve to ask the office assistant to order that one…so I put up with the terrible bleedtrough and feathering from time to time. If the flex nib is tuned to write well with no pressure than it will still work, but some flex nibs are dry EF/needlepoints without pressure.
How bout you try a real pen? Maybe a Pelikan 400…certainly reliable and can often be found with senifex nibs. Probably less than $150 on eBay if you look around. Or look out for an OMAS 556 s (round) or f (faceted). Reliable piston fillers and wonderful flex. There was a time when companies had market pressure to make superb pens…that time is not now.

[Sandy]

Ink and paper are worthy of consideration.

I've found Parker Quink. Lamy's royal blue and Platinum's ink cartridges to be very good on poor quality paper. Flexible nibs can be quite wet in nature too, so it may be worthwhile getting some paper that you can use (at home) so you can do as much nice writing as you can.

If you are stuck with the paper at work, then you may be flogging a dead horse in trying to get a wet, flexible pen to write well on it. You may have to compromise a bit here and go for a more practical solution. I can't use wet pens or wet inks at work because the ink takes to long too dry and I need to write fast - so I have hard nibs with dry inks as my work pens so I don't get smears all over the place. Also a Pilot G2 or pencil is a better tool at times.