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RayF
22212
Sep 10, 2020
If this pen is the buyer’s first Fountain Pen, I predict a very short romance.
polisman
13
Sep 10, 2020
RayFwhy?
RayF
22212
Sep 10, 2020
polisman It's a novelty pen geared to EDC nuts with a fetish for metals--has very little to do with real fountain pens or purpose they were originally designed for.
polisman
13
Sep 10, 2020
RayFGotcha, thanks for your opinion!
Honeybadgers
371
Sep 11, 2020
RayFI agree that it looks like it wouldn't be fun for most people to use (screw post pens are generally a big gamble and the lack of a clip makes it very unuseful for many) but what makes a metal FP inherently bad? And FP's were initially designed and intended to write. The way they wrote (often very flexible) was to match the style of writing people did. A modern schmidt nib is going to write how most people do. Simple cursive or print. Flexible nibs are fun, but honestly really, really shit for everyday use with how we write - usually fast notes, not longhand letters or statements. There's also nothing wrong with metal. Some people prefer the cold feel of metal, or prefer the heft (particularly if they have somewhat shaky hands, it can help tame that) or need the durability. I've used a brass delike alpha (basically a kaweco brass sport with a 1cm longer barrel so it can use a proper converter) as an improvised glass punch when my spring punch failed and I had to get at a patient down a 40ft embankment that wasn't breathing. Grabbed a big rock, held the brass pen in my closed extrication glove, put the sharp side of the pen's cap at the bottom right corner of the window and a heavy swing brought the window in. The brass "point" on the cap got rounded over pretty good, but the pen still works and I use it constantly. I use brass, copper and bronze fountain pens at work because they're antimicrobial - obviously they still need to be wiped, but they're just that little bit more self-sanitizing than plastic or aluminum/titanium/steel (sterling silver is as well, but it self sanitizes in ~14 hours, not 2-4) Personally, if someone wanted a FP/RB I would point them to the tactile turn gist. Exquisitely machined, made in america, from any metal you like. If you need a brass mini pen, the traveler co. brass pen is awesome. Karas kustom makes some great ones too. The delike alpha is a little harder to find, but can be had for about $15 and I'd argue it's the best pocket pen money can buy, but the pen needs to be sanded with 400, 800, 1500 and then 3000 grit sandpaper to remove the lacquer before it'll start to patina. Generally, the best first fountain pens for people are relatively light, relatively thin, have a clip, an extra fine nib (broads are cool but FP ink just hates cheap copy paper which we all write on, with the exception of iron galls, x-feather and pelikan 4001 black) and cap/uncap/post lightning fast. Apart from the antimicrobial properties, I just love patina, too. I reached out to Fischer since I have used an AG-7 for years as my ballpoint for carbon paper and writing on skin (their cartridges are awesome for writing vitals on a trauma patient's leg or chest or on the tape on your thigh or whatever) and asked if they'd be willing to make me one with no chrome plating on the barrel. They said no, but that they had an AG-11 prototype (the ag-7 but with a little brass space shuttle emblem on the clip) that was unplated, raw brass that was just knocking around the office and gave it to me. So now I have a one-of-a-kind raw brass Fisher AG7/11 space pen. I rotate my FP's but never leave the house in uniform without the fischer or rotring 800 retractable 0.5 pencil.
(Edited)
RayF
22212
Sep 11, 2020
Honeybadgers Interesting, but your applications/requirements tend to put you bigly out of the mainstream of users! However, it does sound like you’re having a good time, which encompasses/quantifies 99% of the reasons for using a fountain pen ;- )
Tzamaz
47
Sep 12, 2020
RayFI agree with you Ray, not that you are seeking affirmation. My experience with solid metal fountain pens is that they are just too heavy and in short order, my hand grows weary of holding them.
(Edited)
Honeybadgers
371
Sep 14, 2020
RayFAlso, brass can be relatively lightweight if it's machined thin and the dimensions are kept relatively small. The travelers company brass pen is very nicely balanced. There are more "mainstream" metal pens that are quite premium and well liked. See the parker 75 sterling silver cisele (one of the most well loved pens of all time, not featherweight) or the faber castell loom, the lamy dialog 3, Pilot metal falcon, pilot vanishing point, waterman carene, all manner of ultra premium pens can be relatively heavy - my visconti divina metropolitan is a relatively heavy bugger that's made of sterling silver and celluloid. Even ebonite pens can be relatively heavy due to needing to be machined relatively thicker. Even back in the day when the fountain pen was the only way you wrote if it wasn't in pencil, there were oodles of different sizes, styles, and materials, and nibs were even more varied than they are today. Manifold nibs for early carbon paper, accountant nibs, flexible, semiflexible, stubs, broads, obliques, needlepoints, etc. Christ, just look at Esterbrook's nib catalogue. And vintage stuff came in heavier builds too, from the sheaffer statesman with metal cap, to the metal capped eversharp skylines, the ebonite safety pens could be heavy since they had complex internals, vac fillers like the wahl doric had stainless steel internals that upped the mass. The point I was trying to make is that there is no "correct" fountain pen, and never has been. Some people like slip caps, some people like snap caps. Some like magnetic caps and some like screw caps. Some people like pens that are super thin (lamy cp-1) some like 'em thicc, a-la the monblanc 149 or pelikan m1000 (which has a brass piston rod, making it a hefty boy too). Some like polished metal sections, some greasy handed folks like me despise them. Some people hate pens that have to be posted, others hate pens that can't be. I've got more than a couple hundred of the things at this point, so I've got a pretty good grasp on the sheer variety of what the hobby has to offer people. Also, this pen is squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of mass. it's 7g lighter than the visconti divina. it's nearly 10g lighter than the kaweco brass sport, which is a popular pen. And, just like watches, how a pen carries its weight effects greatly how it feels. Backweighted stuff gets tiring fast, front-weighted and middle balance pens don't.
(Edited)
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