Fountain Pens.

[brihacharan]

I was trying to capture the very essence & soul behind the art of writing & I chanced upon this quote that seemed to express the sentiment very appropriately.....


I fondly remember the different types of nib holders & nibs that my grandfather used for all his writing work....he even had a nib holder made of carved Ivory!
As for the nibs I recollect him washing them initially with soap & water to remove the oil on them that came with their original packing to ease the flow of ink!
Later he used to write with them (alphabets & numerals) on '0' emery paper to get the exact angle he desired & suited his angle of hold!!!



Gone are the days when we were taught to write / practice writing in sheets of paper that had 4 lines, insist on the cursors, flourishes, stroke the 't' and dot the 'i' precisely in capitals & lower case!
Even today I enjoy writing as & when possible, but the occasions are few and far between ....here's a sample of my writing I just penned using my Shaffer with a medium nib!


I'm still rummaging through my drawers to gather my motley collection of pens to photograph & post them...till then...
Briha

[goodboy_mentor]

Interesting topic. Refreshed the memory of school going days. Fountain pens were allowed from fourth class onwards. Ball point pens were strictly forbidden. One day before the festival of Holi, the naughty among the boys would bring couple of fountain pens and jerk them violently to sprinkle blue ink on the dress of other students before leaving for home. After passing the tenth class, stopped using fountain pens since no teacher or lecturer in college was bothered whether fountain pen or ball point pen is being used.

Never really purchased any of the costly variety of fountain pens. Usually bought the cheap one types, since if lost it would not cause much anguish. Among the "costly" were few of brand names Hero and Wing Sung. Remember had purchased three Heroes for princely sum of Rs. 20 each. Rummaged the school day "belongings" today, found only one of those Chinese pen today. Rekindled the desire to use fountain pens again. Inks of brand names Sulekha and Chelpark were most commonly used. Will try to find the stationary store that sells fountain pen ink.

Are the Hero and Wing Sung still available now?

[xl_target]

So, inspired by Mack, I thought it might be nice to own and use a fountain pen again.
So I went down to the local department store. They have a million different pens; ball,roller ball, felt tip, brush tip, etc. However, no fountain pens.
I guess I'll have to find a speciality store.

I went online and found some pens still being made in America but ...Mamma Mia, what prices.
It seems that only custom or speciality pens are being made in the US now.

Some examples:
American Pen
Franklin-Cristoph
Edison Pen Company
Bexley Pen Co.

[Hammerhead]

XL ..... Don't go for the U.S. pens, they don't go bang !!!

[Mack The Knife]

Essdee'72: I may have kick-started the journey down memory lane but your guided tour had me chuckling throughout.
The Parker 51 is still considered one of the world's most famous fountain pen. Like you, I got to see them but never had the opportunity to use them. Time I replaced the 1946 vintage Parker 51 Vacumatic that got pinched in the post. Thanks for a thoroughly entertaining post. BTW, I was in Bombay yesterday and saw that William Penn has restarted carrying Pelikan fountain pens. Apparently less than a week ago.

Brihacharan: Wonderful post! Just so no one takes '0' grade emery to their iridium (or similar) tipped nibs, I should point out that calligraphy nibs were and in many cases still are, untipped nibs. Will photograph and post pics of my nib smoothening 'kit' soon.

Goodboy_mentor: I did not come across Heros and Wing-Sungs during my school days but when I did, I found them far more expensive than their Indian counterparts. I am certain they are still available as they are still being manufactured in China.

xl_target: Good on you for wanting to give fountain pens another bash. However, please do not get disheartened if they do not work well at first. Fountain pens can be temperamental but initial cleaning and if necessary, a little tuning, is all that is usually required to get them working well. I would be happy to guide you, should the need arise.
Just remember that a fountain pen requires a firm (not tight) hold and not to bear down on the paper as you would with a ballpoint pen. Just let the nib glide over the page.
Let me know the maximum you would like to spend at this juncture and I could recommend a few to suit the budget.

[essdee1972]

Mack, if you come to Mumbai, why don't we meet up for a drink or two?

GBM, Wing Sungs, Heros, etc. are still available in some stationery stores in Mumbai (the mom-and-pop ones, not those big box types). And believe it or not, they cost Rs. 50. Yup! From Rs. 20 when I was in school (I passed 10th in 1987), to Rs. 50 now. I wonder why other things in the market don't have such gentle inflation rates!! However, I felt that the quality has dropped significantly, or maybe I have what marketers call selective retention, aka getting senile.

XL, you can try http://www.lamyusa.com. Safari is available for $ 37 (one model on sale for $ 27.95). There are also models of $ 350 and above, if you are interested!! I don't think you'll go wrong with a Safari. I personally prefer the fine tip, as I feel the medium dumps too much ink on the paper and takes forever to dry (my feeling).

I had a shocking experience with a fountain pen, just last week. My wife bought a Flair for the kid. The shopkeeper persuaded her that nowadays no one uses ink bottles, only cartridges. After some time, Junior complained of slow ink flow. I took a gander at the pen, and to my shock, it didn't have the vent hole just above the slit on the nib. There was a nice circular impression, but no vent hole! Shocking for a company which used to make decent quality pens till a few years ago! What next, a car without a steering wheel? Competition proving too much, I think. Even Camlin is gone into making silly "exam pencils"!

Speaking of pencils, did anyone notice how hard it is to get normal graded pencils like HB and so on? Most shops only carry those exam pencils and extra dark stuff.

[brihacharan]

essdee1972 » Wrote on Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:50 am

Mack, if you come to Mumbai, why don't we meet up for a drink or two?

Yes, Mack....why don't you?
Us Mumbai IFGians would certainly look forward to meeting you over a few frothies & banter!
Next time you hit Mumbai, please do give us 'buzz' / PM us!!!!
Cheers
Briha

Added in 1 hour 8 minutes 26 seconds:
Did it ever strike you that 'possessing a pen' is all that important?
Check this out!!!!!!!

Briha

[Moin.]

Here are some of mine that I use on regular basis. The first ones are handmade from Ebonite. You still get them at Deccan Pen Store in Hyderabad.... Rest are a few parkers sheaffers Lamy Safari and few Jinhao ( Chinese) ones.... Have my heart set on a very nice marble monteverde.. Lets see...




















The Purple one in the centre is a Wality ( made in mumbai)

http://www.fountainpenrevolution.com/airmailwality.html



Regards
Moin

[goodboy_mentor]

Goodboy_mentor: I did not come across Heros and Wing-Sungs during my school days but when I did, I found them far more expensive than their Indian counterparts. I am certain they are still available as they are still being manufactured in China.

Yes they were expensive than the locally made fountain pens. The locally made were usually sold for Rs 1 or 2. Few of better quality were around Rs 5 or 7.50 or upwards.

GBM, Wing Sungs, Heros, etc. are still available in some stationery stores in Mumbai (the mom-and-pop ones, not those big box types). And believe it or not, they cost Rs. 50. Yup! From Rs. 20 when I was in school (I passed 10th in 1987), to Rs. 50 now. I wonder why other things in the market don't have such gentle inflation rates!! However, I felt that the quality has dropped significantly, or maybe I have what marketers call selective retention, aka getting senile.

That's a good news, will try to find them in local stationery shops. The price is still Rs 50 probably because demand has shrunk greatly but supply has not decreased in similar measure.

[Mack The Knife]

Essdee and Brihacharan, many thanks for the invite but I rarely visit Bombay. Yesterday's was the second visit in 17 or 18 years. However, if Slingshot organises a trip to the sticks for a couple of days, preferably with some fishing thrown in, I would definitely come over.

I would hesitate to recommend a Lamy Safari with a fine nib when buying online as they could be troublesome writers, pre clean and tune. A medium or broad nib would be a safer bet. Having said that, all new pens must be cleaned properly before inking them up. Ditto when changing inks. If a pen is running wet (the way I like them) for your liking, switch to a drier ink, such as Pelikan 4001.

You do get fountain pen nibs without breather holes, eg. Mont Blanc Classic, Faber-Castell Loom, etc. I have also seen nibs with the circular impression but cannot recall the brand/pen at the moment.

To get your son's Flair working properly, I would suggest the following:
1) Check tine alignment. Align (very gently) if required.
2) Check to see if the feed contacts the nib fully and the feed is centered with respect to the nib's longitudinal axis.
3) Use an ear syringe to flush out the ink from the section, feed and underside of nib. If you can pull the nib and feed from the section, so much the better for cleaning purposes.
4) Use a 0.002" thick brass shim (no razor blades or anything in steel please) to floss the nib slit and clean the feed channel just under the nib slit.
5) Dry, reassemble, if required and test with water or ink. Ensure there is no oil or grease on the feed or nib as it inhibits ink flow.
6) If the pen is writing well but you would like to make it a slightly wetter writer, hold the nib and feed firmly between index finger and thumb and press the nib tip against your thumb nail. This expands the tines. Start with very gentle pressure and keep checking regularly. Increase pressure only if required and please do not exert so much pressure as to bend the nib out of shape.
7) Should you wish to decrease the ink flow, squeeze the sides of the nib towards each other very gently. Any undue pressure will make the tines cross and this is to be avoided.
N.B.: There are other ways of increasing or decreasing ink flow, which essentially consists of decreasing or increasing the distance between nib tip and feed tip, respectively and obviously within limits. This is a trial and error method and should only be resorted to if the above proves unsatisfactory.

Moin: Good to see you here. I have been wanting to go to Abids to check out the Deccan Pen store for some time now. Are those genuine Parkers (51? or 21? and 45) in the pics (third and fourth from the right)? If so, post some details and your impression of them.

[brihacharan]

"Mack The Knife" wrote - Essdee and Brihacharan, many thanks for the invite but I rarely visit Bombay. Yesterday's was the second visit in 17 or 18 years. However, if Slingshot organizes a trip to the sticks for a couple of days, preferably with some fishing thrown in, I would definitely come over.

Hi Mack,
Now that you have "cast the line", we'll work on Slingshot to organize an outing....enough for you to" take the bite"
The pointers you've given for an easy flow of the ink are 'eye openers' ....thanks for sharing!
Briha

[Mack The Knife]

Be great if Moin can also join. Fingers crossed that the dates chosen by Slingshot suit all, if not most, of us.

Added in 4 minutes 31 seconds:
Incidentally, whilst the plane was descending towards Bombay airport, I saw thickly wooded hills below, just before what I assume to be Thane Creek.
What area is this? Vashi?

[Moin.]

Essdee and Brihacharan, many thanks for the invite but I rarely visit Bombay. Yesterday's was the second visit in 17 or 18 years. However, if Slingshot organises a trip to the sticks for a couple of days, preferably with some fishing thrown in, I would definitely come over.

I would hesitate to recommend a Lamy Safari with a fine nib when buying online as they could be troublesome writers, pre clean and tune. A medium or broad nib would be a safer bet. Having said that, all new pens must be cleaned properly before inking them up. Ditto when changing inks. If a pen is running wet (the way I like them) for your liking, switch to a drier ink, such as Pelikan 4001.

You do get fountain pen nibs without breather holes, eg. Faber-Castell Loom. I have also seen nibs with the circular impression but cannot recall the brand/pen at the moment.

To get your son's Flair working properly, I would suggest the following:
1) Check tine alignment. Align (very gently) if required.
2) Check to see if the feed contacts the nib fully and the feed is centered with respect to the nib's longitudinal axis.
3) Use an ear syringe to flush out the ink from the section, feed and underside of nib. If you can pull the nib and feed from the section, so much the better for cleaning purposes.
4) Use a 0.002" thick brass shim (no razor blades or anything in steel please) to floss the nib slit and clean the feed channel just under the nib slit.
5) Dry, reassemble, if required and test with water or ink. Ensure there is no oil or grease on the feed or nib as it inhibits ink flow.
6) If the pen is writing well but you would like to make it a slightly wetter writer, hold the nib and feed firmly between index finger and thumb and press the nib tip against your thumb nail. This expands the tines. Start with very gentle pressure and keep checking regularly. Increase pressure only if required and please do no exert so much pressure as to bend the nib out of shape.
7) Should you wish to decrease the ink flow, squeeze the sides of the nib towards each other very gently. Any undue pressure will make the tines cross and this is to be avoided.
N.B.: There are other ways of increasing or decreasing ink flow, which essentially consists of decreasing or increasing the distance between nib tip and feed tip, respectively and obviously within limits. This is a trial and error method and should only be resorted to if the above proves unsatisfactory.

Moin: Good to see you here. I have been wanting to go to Abids to check out the Deccan Pen store for some time now. Are those genuine Parkers (51? or 21? and 45) in the pics (third and fourth from the right)? If so, post some details and your impression of them.

Mack yes those are Parkers belonging to my grandfather and I use them now. I will take some good pics and post....

Regards
Moin

[essdee1972]

Thanks, Mack! Will try them on the pen.

[Mack The Knife]

Welcome, Essdee. Let me know how it goes.

The pics below show my cleaning and smoothening 'kit' to the right and exteriors refurbishing and protecting stuff (2 tin cans) to the left.

Micromesh (light grey) for very scratchy nibs.

Light green Mylar sheet, 1.0 micron.

White Mylar sheet, 0.3 micron.

A couple of ear syringes.

2 nos. 0.002" thick brass shims (once the corners and edges get bent, use a scissor to cut the sheet)

Guitar wire for cleaning clogged breather tubes.

(N.B.: Micromesh and / or Mylar sheets should only be used after tine alignment and only if required.)

The tin cans:

Metal Burnisher for very gentle scratchless cleaning of metal surfaces.

Renaissance Wax for a protective coat on various surfaces, especially on those pens that I use regularly.