Low Cost Piston Fill Pens

[Armstrong]

What low cost piston fill fountain pens are available these days. By low cost I mean TWSBI class. I have several TWSBI's and love them. I got to wondering if there were others out there. Please feel free to include any Indian or Chinese pens of this type you know of. I am interested in any and all of the piston fillers though I do have a preference for larger pens. Don't let that stop you from listing a pen however. By piston fill I do mean an actual piston not a converter. Thanks a bunch for your info, it will save me hours of looking and probably a lot of guessing.

[Anne]

I like the Serwex 162 pens I have received from Fountain Pen Revolution. It was the first pen I was brave enough to use Registrar's Ink in.
It can be easily disassembled, even easier than the TWSBI. I am not sure if they still include these free with orders, but it was a fun surprise for me

[fqgouvea]

Fountain Pen Revolution has several models with pistons: Jaipur, Indus, Guru, and Dilli, at least. The Jaipur has an ebonite feed, which makes it particularly attractive. I have tried the Indus and the Dilli, both of which are fine if unexceptional.


Fernando Gouvêa -- fqgouvea@roadrunner.com

[Kaputnik]

If you're willing to go semi-vintage, you can probably find a Reform 1745, made in Germany. I got an apparently unused one on eBay a few years ago for $13.03 shipped, and I'm seeing some similar deals now, although I can't vouch for the sellers. You might need to put a dab of silicone grease in these to free up the piston, but the nib unscrews, so it's not hard to do. They are slim pens, which is a plus for me, might not be for you.

Noodler's has its low cost "Nib Creaper" piston fill pens for around $16. Haven't used one, and the Noodler's pens I have tried are a mixed lot (can't stand my Ahabs), but I have an older Noodler's piston pen apparently similar to the Nib Creaper, which is not bad at all. Again, quite a slim pen.

[pengeezer]

There are other lesser-known vintage German pens that may be inexpensive. Brands like Garant
and Tropen come to mind,though I'm sure there may be others. Reform(as has been mentioned)
is another example.


John

[Lady Onogaro]

Like Kaputnik, I have one of the Reform 1745 pens, and I really like it. The Nib Creaper is okay, but it took some getting used to for me.

[rdcalhoon]

You can get a Serwex 1362 from Fountainpenrevolution.com right now for $6 plus $3 shipping. FPR also sells a variety of nibs. I enjoyed my yellow 1362 until I stepped on it, but I am not in a hurry to replace it.
I also have the FPR Dilli, Guru, and Indus. I'll keep using the Indus and maybe pull out the others from time to time. All of these can be had for $10-$20. Take a look at the FPR site for several other piston fillers, some cheaper, some fancier.

My Reform 1745 is frequently in use. Like the other pens I mentioned it is a smaller pen which is fine by me.

My TWSBI Eco is a definite step up from all these, but also a step up in price.

I also was gifted a sweet little Goldfink OB piston filler, but who knows if you could find another.

[amk]

You can find some nice bargains in second line German pens if you're open to vintage. I have some nice Rodur, Ero and a Lux - the latter a sub-brand made for export, which I found in Lisbon's flea market, but then I did have to do some tinkering to get them to work. More recent Senators were made to the same design as the Ero (I think Senator took over the company, and simply rebadged the pen) and can be found NOS: I have a sweet pink demonstrator version. If you're lucky you'll come in below the price of a TWSBI, but you may have to look around for a while, since they're not as common as the Reform.

[bluesea]

Vintage Mont Blanc, Kaweco, Geha. You might even find a vintage Pelikan in your price range.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Vintage Mont Blanc, Kaweco, Geha. You might even find a vintage Pelikan in your price range.

For the price of a TWSBI?

[bluesea]

Vintage Mont Blanc, Kaweco, Geha. You might even find a vintage Pelikan in your price range.

For the price of a TWSBI?

I was thinking $40-65, although the Geha might be a little on the wishful side. YMMV of course.

There have been some nice MB and Kaweco lately, most with solid 14k nibs.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Montblanc-34...0AAOSwezVW0aRt.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kaweco-Dia-8...kAAOSwKtVW0Z6D

[Sailor Kenshin]

That MB looks especially nice. Let's see what it sells for.

[AltecGreen]

Dollar 717i.

They are cheap enough that we use hundreds for the ink testing stations at the SF Pen Show.

DSC_2103 by Ricky Chau, on Flickr

[Anne]

Dollar 717i.

They are cheap enough that we use hundreds for the ink testing stations at the SF Pen Show.

DSC_2103 by Ricky Chau, on Flickr

I like those!

[Quantum Sailor]

For around $20 for the pen and $15 for a new nib, if you decide you need a new nib, the Noodler's Konrad are pretty neat pens. The nib creaper too, just have to play with them to get them to write how you want them sometimes.

[Armstrong]

Personally, I have to stick with fatter sections because of arthritis. Skinny pens just fire it up after a bit. Doesn't mean I don't want to learn about the other pens though, I do. The Jaipur is a definite for the future. Thank you fqgouvea.

When you think TWSBI range, don't forget the 580's and 700's which get up into the $50-$70 range. So some of the near vintage or NOS secondary market of lesser known brands fit. Vintage fixer uppers from what I am seeing do appear fit the criteria. Not that I really know much about it right now.

I am learning a lot about the more 'internal' German market from this which does interest me. I was wondering if the market was essentially limited to TWSBI and various Indian offerings. Thank you multiple people! Where do you find these pens, Ebay certainly, other places? The problem with that type of info is that it is often local. Without the knowledge of the name brand or the pen, it is essentially hidden from my eyes.

Vintage is something I want to get into if I can figure out how to do common repairs. I have an idea for cutting cork pistons. Take a metal tube and spin it in a drill. Place a sharpening stone against the edge of the tube so that it cuts the tube down at an angle to the inner diameter. That would then make a decent cork punch I bet to make a piston repair with. So, sometime in the future I will probably get into vintage, particularly with a gold nib, that needs repair to function. Especially if it is a semi-flex. It looks like some of the lesser known German brands may also be a possibility.

Basically I am picking your brains, it is an education from which I will make future selections and I am grateful. What I do with these discussions is to boil them down and stick them in my Treepad database, usually as a table, as a reference. I could repost that info in a html web file if anyone was interested. It would be a small webpage you could pull up locally in your browser. Just drop me a line. So really it is quite invaluable to me that you share this knowledge with me. Honestly, I would know where to begin otherwise.

[schweitzerp]

That could be pretty cool!

[KBeezie]

If you want something a little bigger than a Dollar i717 there's the FPR Jaipur.

[Armstrong]

Yep, that is a definite. Thinking a flex nib possibly.

[DPWilkens]

A couple of my favorite cheaper piston fillers are the FPR Guru and the Noodler's Konrad. Both have taken a lot of tinkering and adjustment to get to the level of performance I like though. The Guru has a very small capacity but its not much of an issue for me.