NPD.

Actually, that day was several weeks ago. I've been putting off writing this all that time because I've been dreading doing so. You'll see why.

We've discussed the Majohn A1 and A2 several times in the past, up to and including my own previous take on the matter.

Did you know that there's an A3 now?

Well, in what's now apparently my ongoing quest to own at least one of every retractable fountain pen on earth, here it is.

This is the white variant, so chosen because I felt I needed to achieve the maximum level of irritation that's physically possible by attempting to take detailed photographs on a white background of an object that is not only also stark white itself, but also extremely glossy and all the parts of it that aren't white are mirror finished. Genius!

Anyway, the A3 is indeed yet another entry into the small but growing pantheon of retractable fountain pens.

As proof, here it is with the point retracted.

Like the A1 and A2 before it, the A3 is ostensibly a clone of a model from Pilot's Vanishing Point or "Capless" series, depending on what they're calling it this week. Except this time, the A3 is a clone of the new (ish) Vanishing Point LS. (Yes, the one that had that big recall.) I don't think you can buy the original from Pilot anymore, but there are a few third party retailers who allege to still have it in stock.

But instead you can have this right now for about $45. Jury's out on whether or not you'd want to, though.

The A3 is neither a click nor twist mechanism. Or rather, it's... half of both?

Just like the LS it mimics, the A3 has a strange and unique dual action extend/retract system where you click the long plunger on the end to extend it...

...But twist the knurled section on the end to retract it. You can't retract the point by clicking the plunger again, no matter many times you diddle with it. Unlike the previous click-action only pens the plunger stays pushed in when the point is deployed. And you can actually deploy it by twisting the tail end as well rather than clicking the plunger if you feel like it. But there's not a lot of point in doing so.

The action is... weird. The first thing you'll notice is that you turn the tail clockwise to retract the point, which feels backwards. I know why this is -- it's because the body unscrews in the middle in the usual righty-tighty fashion and this prevents you from unscrewing the body if you go overboard retracting the point. But it still feels wrong. Here's how it works:

Hark! For I have obtained a big sheet of black construction paper.

(Why didn't you take the rest of your pictures on it, I hear you cry. Good question, is my response.)

With a bit of practice it is possible to both deploy and retract the A3 one handed, but it's just not as convenient as a regular clicker pen. You have to consciously remember to twist the end rather than try to click the plunger again, but clicking the plunger is always the tempting default action because it's right there. It just doesn't do anything.

Pilot billed the original LS on its novelty factor, and it certainly has that. It makes for an excellent fiddle toy, but it's kind of annoying to actually use as a writing utensil.

That's because there's a major problem, and getting the point in and out isn't even the start. If you've been paying attention, you've already spotted it.

The clip is in the middle of the pen.

I have absolutely no idea why this is the case, because on the original Pilot the clip is mounted much further up, a centimeter or so from the nose of the pen. And that's how it is on the Majohn A1 and A2 already. So obviously they know how to mount a clip there, so why not copy the Pilot wholesale like they've done before, i.e. the correct way? Whoever was drafting up this thing must have just slammed an entire bottle of stupid pills that morning.

This means that if you try to pocket your A3 like a normal person, roughly half of its length is left sticking out. The point of balance winds up quite close to the top of your pocket hem and thus the pen tends to want to flip over even when by all rights you should have it securely stowed. It'll also tower well over anything else you have in your pocket and make you look like a colossal goober.

Yes, the clip is removable. As a matter of fact, it might be a little too removable. It just slides over the highly polished and tapered body of the pen relying on nothing more than its own spring tension to hold it in place. It's very easy to slip it down and off the front end of the pen, and as soon as you nudge it just enough to get it to let go from its rest position it'll take care of the rest positively leaping off on its own accord.

Even if you do remove the clip there's a square alignment and anti-rotation nub permanently molded into the body of the pen which will remain there, mocking you, forever. Theoretically this a concession for keeping the pen from rolling away when it's clip is removed, and it would be if it weren't for the fact that Pilot already built a fin into the rotating tail section for that exact purpose, and Majohn dutifully copied it. So the nub is in reality completely superfluous.

The A3 has an inset equatorial band that the head of the clip fits into. Here you can see the other major problem with the clip, which is that the anti-rotation nub has square corners which will snag on your shirt something fierce. The nub also rests in a hollow on the back face of the clip, positively ensuring it will be in the way 100% of the time. It is therefore practically impossible to actually clip the damn thing to your pocket in the first place. That means all the other complaints about the clip and everything else have to get in line and wait their turn until you can actually manage to get the blasted thing situated.

It is possible to get it done if you grab the end of the clip with your fingernail and lift it away from the pen body. But that's stupid. Even if Majohn had to use this idiotic clip system they should have at least chamfered the corners on the anti-rotation nub. There is no mechanical reason they need to be square to work with the clip itself.

So no matter which way you go you can't win. Either the clip will irritate the hell out of you, or you can take it off and be stuck with the left over nub annoying you forever instead. I guess you could try to grind it off, but good luck retaining the finish in that spot.

The Pilot Vanishing Point LS is billed as a "luxury" pen and thus the A3 is as well -- up to a certain extent, anyway, with Majohn positioning it above its peers with verbiage like "upgraded version" and "quiet and smooth operation." Here it is compared to an OG Vanishing Point (top) and an A2 (bottom). If you ignore all the mechanical details it actually does look quite nice from a distance. It's also much denser than the plastic variants of the previous A1 and A2 and feels like it should be more expensive if you judge it by the Jurassic Park Binoculars Method. The body is noticeably thicker and feels less hollow than the A2 despite still being made largely of plastic. It weighs a full 41 grams or 1.45 ounces, roughly twice as much as the standard A2 which is 20.8 grams or 0.73 ounces.

It actually even weighs more than a normal clicker model genuine Vanishing Point, which is 29.9 grams or 1.05 ounces. That's pretty remarkable considering significant portions of the latter are made out of brass. I don't have a genuine Vanishing Point LS to compare to, though, so I can't tell you how it stacks up against one of those.

There is a new "Majohn" script logo on the tail section whereas the previous models were completely unmarked. Maybe that's where the luxury is hiding. It's only silkscreened on, though, not engraved, so it'll surely wear off over time.

Inside, the A3 uses the same nib and cartridge carrier as the A2 and A1, which is itself a clone of the internals from the Pilot Vanishing Point. A genuine Pilot assembly is compatible with this and vise-versa, and the assemblies are also interchangeable between all three versions of the Majohn pens. It takes Pilot cartridges, and also comes with two clean and empty cartridges plus an inkwell converter. The spread of included accessories is the same as the other Majohn retractables, so you also get a little pipette bulb for either cleaning or transferring ink to one of your cartridges, and a little rubber bung to reseal a spare cartridge which I absolutely would not trust to remain sealed if you tried carrying a full spare cartridge around with you.

How does it write, then?

Exactly the same as every other Majohn pen.

At present the A3 is only available in an "extra fine" nib width. Majohn do make a normal "fine" nib assembly available and even sell the A2 pre-equipped with it, but not the A3.

The nib is plain stainless steel and is very rigid rather than responsive. Functionally no line width variation is possible. I measured the output of mine as 0.5mm if you press hard, and 0.45 if you don't. The difference is basically unnoticeable.

The point is a little scratchy, probably just owing to being so sharp. It will drag noticeably on cheap paper, more so if you tend to press hard when writing. It feels nicer on better paper with a finer grain, but ultimately this may be putting pearls before swine.

At least mine feeds just fine without skipping, even including the perfunctory few drops of Parker Quink I put in it just to test it out, and immediately syringed back into the inkwell because I hate this pen's mechanism and stupid clip so much.

Since somehow we've never looked at one of Majohn's nibs in detail before, here it is:

The nib is marked "Moonman." Moonman and Majohn are the same entity, and the Majohn retractables were originally sold in the West under the Moonman name but now they aren't. Search me as to why; this is one of those baffling mysteries of Chinese branding that may never make sense.

The nib itself is crimped to the feed and is functionally not removable. I've read of people accomplishing it and I suppose you could get the two apart if you inflicted enough violence on one or the other, but there's not much reason to bother considering Majohn will sell you an entire new assembly for $19.

The Inevitable Conclusion

Don't buy this. Get an Majohn A2 or A1 instead.

Sorry if the title is a bit vague but I recently got my hands on Jinhao Dadao as a gift for someone. But the pen skips on all the papers and some of the inks I have tried. Though this is one of the smoothest nib I've ever written with.

The seller is offering me a replacement nib but I'm not sure if it would work and if there’s a chance problem's with the feed drying out. Can I somehow rule this out?

I have a 14 days return period from Ali but if I accept the replacement nib it'll be over.

Hi all,

I use pens for drawing.

I'm looking to get an ultra flex nib from this company:

https://www.kiwipens.com/collections/all/6

I have a jinhao x750 that I'm using as a test pen.

Will these nibs fit it?

Thank you.

Dear Lemmy fountain pen community,

I'm well over 50 and I started using a fountain pen in school, when I was still a little kid learning to write. That was back in the 70s. All those years, I've always been using a fountain pen of some sort for most of the stuff I write, and sketch.

I was wondering how many of us were still using a fountain pen to write long-form content? I mean, are you using one to write letters, keep a journal, or for any other form of content?

Even though I don't have a nice handwriting, I know quite a few people who like receiving my handwritten letters more than a neatly typed letter, and so do I. It kinda feels more personal and unique.

Beside the now too rare handwritten letter, sketching and keeping a journal another thing I like doing when I work on a long text is to draft it using a pen. Only once I'm done with that draft I will switch to the computer for the final typed version. It sure is much slower to write longhand which is exactly what I'm looking for: less speed, aka more time to (try to) think. And less distractions too ;)

I’ve a Travelers Notebook cover in A5, possibly of unofficial Chinese origin but quite fit for purpose.

It does quite well at carrying a Cousin, a similar notebook, and a wallet insert, along with a solid handful of pens, and my keys on a strap run through the pen loop.

The one thing I’ve had trouble making part of my system - right or wrong - is a method of carrying a handful of cigarettes and a lighter.

Right now that task falls to a flip top cigarette case that I replace ~annually due to wear, with a pouch for the zippo as well as one for an emergency disposable lighter.

This being a creative community by nature, thought I’d look for ideas or products fitting the bill that have worked for others.

If a product exists akin to the wallet insert, even if I had to load smokes one-deep as with metal cases, that might suffice. Haven’t seen anything that “just straps on”.

Bonus points if said wallet style insert includes someplace suitable to cram a handful of spare pills for when I’m out longer than expected, etc.

As of now, I’ve nearly managed to fit my whole life in there. Carried a backpack for years, mostly to handle the small ephemera, but I’ve recently had my shoulder worked on so that’s a bit of a challenge.

Mostly, a bottle of tylenol and the like, along with smoker’s paraphernalia, are what end up in there along with the notebook. Seems a bit of a waste if the lot could all fit together.

I finally got around to picking up a Majohn A2, and it has been a phenomenal writing experience! For an extra fine nib, it is wet and smooth, just the slightest bit of feedback from the paper. While the action of the push button has a noticeable hitch in it, it is still a very satisfying frob to play with. The size is perfect for the weight, and the clip doesn't get in the way of the way that I hold it. The only thing that sucks about it is that now I want one in black that I can fill with Platinum Carbon Black and a dark blue one to fill with Diamine Midnight. Many thanks to @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world for the review that sparked my desire!

I have a great pen from lamy that I used for a could have years and really enjoyed. I found it a delight to write with and found it more consistent than ball point pens. Then I ran out of the prefilled ink cartridges it came with. I grabbed a refillable cartridge and some waterman ink and it has been downhill from there. I have two pens, not sure what the other one is, but neither seem to be able to write at all with the refills. They leak more often, constantly seem to dry out, and I have ended up going back to sharpie sgels because I need my pens to write when I need to write.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need better refill cartridges and if so can you recommend one, or are the cartridges really so much better? Or is there maintenance I am supposed to preform on the nib that I have neglected that could be causing my issues? Thanks for any advice, I would love to get back to using these pens.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the typical "requirements" post, but I’ve been searching for a fountain pen and still can’t find the right one. I’m hoping to get some recommendations!

I’m looking for a pen similar to my Parker Urban—perhaps a step up in quality. Here’s what I love about the Urban: the metal body feels great in hand, and the design is sleek yet understated. It’s been a reliable companion for over five years now, and I managed to snag it for just $5 or $10 during a clearance sale. Despite its quirks, it's stuck with me while others have come and gone.

Now, this might sound like an ad, but it's not! My relationship with this pen is a bit of a love-hate situation. It was plagued by ink skips and hard starts for years until I learned some nib-tuning techniques and sanded down the nib. Now, it writes beautifully, but it's set a high bar that other pens haven’t met. I’ve given away several pens to friends and family because they just didn’t click with me (pun intended).

One major sticking point for me is the cap mechanism. Most pens I’ve tried have screw-on caps, which makes jotting down quick notes a bit of a hassle. What I’m really after is a pen with a click-on, snap-on, or bump-sealed cap—something with a satisfying seal that provides feedback when closed. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve tried so far:

• Majohn M800 Acrylic with Bock Nib: It should have been the holy grail in my budget, given the glowing reviews, and it does write well. But it lacks a certain something I can’t quite put my finger on. Also, it has a screw-on cap.
• Asvine V126: The screw-on cap was a drawback, and the vacuum filling mechanism kept breaking.
• Various Chinese Pens (Hongdian, etc.): These are well-regarded by the community, but they just didn’t feel right for me. Jinhao 82: The build quality was a bit too low for my taste.
• Jinhao X159: A great writer, but the screw-on cap meant I didn’t use it as much as I’d like.
• Jinhao Slip-On Cap Model: The slip-on cap was a plus, but I really want a cap that has a click, snap, or at least a bit of tactile feedback when it seals.

I’m willing to splurge up to $100 if it means getting a solid pen that fits my needs. But if there’s a well-built Chinese option for less, I’d be happy to snag it too.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your help!

Hello. I am considering getting either a Sailor Professional Gear Slim Fountain Pen Iris Nebula Special Edition or one of the new Diplomat Vipers in Blue. Has anyone had experience with Sailor and Diplomat pens? The Sailor has a 14kt gold nib and the Diplomat has a steel nib. I haven't had any experience writing with a gold nib and have only been using steel nibs. This will be my first "Luxury" buy after having used Lamy Safaris and TWSBI Diamond Minis exclusively. Any feedback/comments is appreciated.

Thank you.

There is something I have been wondering.

Various manufacturers regularly put out new notebooks with specialty covers either as a yearly special or a limited edition product.

My question is, why don't they start making covers instead/as well?

Hobonichi, Midori, Kokuyo and some others make basic covers but none make decorated paper, plastic, vinyl or fabric covers that can be moved between notebooks.

It would be nice to be able to get a fabric cover printed with something like Van Gogh's Starry Night.

I tested Diamine Imperial Purple in a reused Sailor cartridge before putting it in a demonstrator, and the result was a stained cartridge. I love the color, but I haven't had any luck getting it out of my cartridge with water, soap, a little bit of ammonia, and time.

I don't write much, so a pen could stay inked up for months on end.

Is there a way to get this color out of plastic? Is it safe to use in converters and demonstrators without staining them too?

Here's a short one today, regarding a pen I have not picked up in a very long time. I assure you this pen is not from a problematic origin, and in light of recent discussions I've queried it quite thoroughly for its political leanings and thus far received absolutely no response. I'm starting to form the conclusion that this may be, in fact, because it can't talk. I'm not entirely sure.

This is the Ohto F-Lapa, which comes in -- or came in -- a variety of interesting finishes. Burgundy, brown, blue, that sort of thing. Those colorways are for people who didn't make the proactive decision to obtain a goddamn disco-ball mirror polished pen that'd present the maximum amount of difficulty in taking detailed photos of it while yammering about it on the internet, a decade after they bought it.

Not that I'd know, or anything.

This silver variant of the F-Lapa might just be the shiniest pen in the universe. Its body is actually quite striking in person. If I had to guess, I'd it's probably chrome plated. Handle it under bright lights at your own peril.

Despite this, the F-Lapa is and always was a budget pen, but it's one of the few I can think of off the top of my head that isn't made out of plastic and is also refreshingly slim. The widest part of its grip section, which is slightly tapered, is only 9.09mm in diameter. That makes it slimmer than most of its peers I can name off the top of my head. I don't know, really only the Pilot Cavalier leaps to mind as comparable, but even that's triple the cost.

I'm pretty sure the F-Lapa's body is aluminum. It's really light. Only 14.6 grams -- just a hair over half an ounce -- and that's fully filled with a typical International Short ink cartridge installed. Thus it's perfect for the use case I had for it at the time, which was to serve as a cheap daily carry replacement for my aging and continually appreciating in value Sheaffer Targa, while contriving not to look cheap and being compact, light, and easy to carry without making my shirt sag. It also has a clutch fit cap that just pulls off, and isn't a damn screw-on. These are all plusses in my book for practical daily use. (This was obviously before I developed my current fascination with retractable fountain pens.) But if that's what you want, too, the F-Lapa has you covered right down to the ground.

If what you want is a flexy, expressive, valuable, or glassy smooth nib, though, this isn't it. The F-Lapa has a pretty typical steel nib that, frilly decorative scrollwork on it aside, provides completely ordinary performance. It comes with an apparently monomolecular gold coating which on my example wore away pretty quickly with cleaning and so forth, although this didn't impact the performance any. So even if it's ugly, it works. This is a "fine" point which runs maybe a touch wider than a typical Asian "fine" pen. I have not been able to verify if this was ever available in any other nib width, but I suspect it was not. It has no flex whatsoever but writes predictably with no trouble. It's not exceptionally smooth, which I guess is what folks these days call "high feedback" in the same way that back in the 80's cheap cameras were marketed as "focus free." I find it nicely controllable and basically zero pressure is required on it to write, which combined with the light weight makes it pleasantly non-fatiguing to use.

Before writing this I hadn't touched this pen for years and even so, I just jammed a random cartridge in it of unknown brand or origin and it picked right back up writing again as if I'd never put it down. So that's pretty cool.

The nib purports to have an iridium tip, and is also marked "Germany," and I can neither confirm nor deny the veracity of either claim. That's kind of weird for a Japanese pen, but maybe it's true and that's why it writes broader than you'd think. I couldn't tell you.

There are no surprises inside, but that said I've always been amused by the ridiculously fine pitch of the threads on its section. It's the little things in life.

By the way, this is one of those pens where you can carry a spare cartridge behind the one you've got installed, tail-to-tail, although only if having it rattle around inside won't annoy you.

The only other point of note I have about the F-Lapa is that when Ohto refers to it by it's full title, they consistently call it an "Auto Fountain Pen." Well, I for one can't for the life of me figure out what's supposed to be automatic about it.

A couple of days ago I attended my first ever Pelikan Hub. I'm pretty new to the fountain pen community (although I was given a couple as a kid) and thought I would add my experience as a newbie (albeit one that reads and researches the living daylights out of all my hobbies lol).

I don't remotely have a large or even what I guess most people would consider a middling size collection (TBF, I'm not collecting them and all my pens are in circulation and used). It was with some amount of trepidation that I took most of my pens (all of which are 'starter' pens) into a really neat little book store (a sadly dying breed in this country).

I was the last to arrive and displayed before me were large pen cases holding 20-40 pens each and immediately felt like I was going to be the odd one out with my little cheapies. However the host was welcoming as were the dozen or so other people sitting in a circle passing pens around.

It was with a sigh of relief that other people were showing their 'cheapies' too so into the fray went my TWSBI Eco (the most expensive pen I owned at $60 at the time, yes owned past tense because there's a $70 vintage Sailor coming in the post that didn't arrive in time for the Hub lol), Hongdian M2, Pilot Kakuno, 1960s vintage Platinum 'President' and the one and only Pelikan I (currently) own - a silver Twist.

I honestly thought I would be embarrassed showing around that the only Pelikan I own is a Twist. But no one else there had seen one and it generated a fair amount of chatter about it. Much to my cringing shy-person relief lol. TBF, while I don't like the triangular grip (I have a 'non-conformist' grip lol), the nib is so damn nice I use it anyway and it's one of my go-to jotter pens.

Also interesting to the group was the M2 ("better than a Kaweco" 🤫😅), the Kakuno because it was loaded up with Herbin Violette (violet scented) which I bought the Kakuno specially for (purple cap of course) and keep bagged owing to it's nuclear scent - my spouse likes to call it "Herbin Violence" lol because it smells so strong! I also passed around the chocolate version (Encre Brun Parfum Cacao).

I also had some 1990s 'vintage' (seriously, the 90s is "vintage" now?!) Pelikan Royal Blue ink for show and tell.

I lost count of all the pens that I got to try. Some that disappointed me:

• Gravtias in Rainbow Skittle with a flex nib - Awesome colour but it was freaking heavy and, for a 'flex' nib, is really REALLY hard! I was too scared to flex it.

• Narwhal/Nahvalur - I had planned to buy one of these but the pens I tried were heavier than I expected, the caps took a lot to unscrew and I didn't like the feedback (which I normally like some of, this just didn't feel that pleasant). Not massively bad or anything but just more meh for me.

• Pelikan 400 or 800 (I'm not sure which it was sorry). The weight was nice but I just expected more I guess? Hopefully it was just the ink but it skipped a LOT.

• Sailor Manyo ink smells so bad! (Shhh... don't tell Robert Oster lol)

Some unexpected enjoyable surprises:

• A vintage Kaweco that looked like a pencil. It was suprisingly heavy for such a thin pen and was weird but fun to write with, feeling like a heavy pencil in my hand but being a fountain pen.

• Pelikan Level - weird looking but interesting and a nice nib.

• Shimmer inks. Figured I would probably despise them because I really dislike glitter gel pens. Needless to say, I hadn't bought any up until now. My mind is changed. Diamine Party Time was a stand out - nice colour and sparkles!

• Benu pens. I looked at them online but I will admit that I was put off by the eye candy. I like sparkles but didn't see the need (or want) for sparkles in my pens. I am 100% wrong lol. They are so much nicer in person and so so pretty! I thought the barrels (both Benu Euphorias) would be too big and that the resin would be meh. But the weight was great, the resin looked gorgeous and the nibs.... oh the nibs. I was suprised by how nice and smooth they were. A Benu is now on my wishlist lol! (Yes, I realise one of my critisms of the Nahvalur is how much the cap takes to unscrew and the Benus also took a lot, but for me the visuals and nib made up for it.)

• A vintage Pelikan 400MN. I was planning on getting a vintage Pelikan, and this exceeded my expectations. It was so smooth with just the right amount of feedback, a nice size and good weight (for my hands I prefer thinner, lighter pens).

My hopes for going along was trying out some pens that I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford (just to see what the fuss was about), to try pens that I was considering buying (some are now off my list and some that I wasn't planning on buying are now on it!) and to maybe swap a few ink samples. Well, I got that and much more - what an awesome group of people to share a hobby with. I really enjoyed my time with folks, passing around pens, gawping at the new Pelikan pens coming out (hello Pelikan Raden!🤤), swapping inks, eating chocolate (shout out to Foundry Chocolate 😋) and, well, the (unexpected) freebies lol. I was considering buying some Edelstein Golden Lapis (yes, a shimmer ink, but I had to find out what the fuss was about eventually!) and was disappointed to see it sold out in all the places I buy ink from. Problem solved. Seriously, thank you Pelikan! I'm really glad I went and I look forward to Pelikan Hub 2025! ✒️🪽💙

Short version: Drew, their employee with the most public facing role and known to be a chill guy and left-leaning, left the company with some celebration but zero explanation. This got folks looking, and they saw that the Goulets are heavily involved with planting (think "franchising" or may more accurately "metastasizing") a new church that was growing out from a larger one that has all the usual disgusting anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, and the new church has a mission statement that includes bible literalism and explicitly places men above women in home life and church roles. Also, Reddit being Reddit, the mods handled it all very clumsily and in a way that makes it look they've traded their integrity for a couple of pens.

Hey,

We've recently been discussing the capless clones. Doodlebud just made a video comparing the real deal with the clones.

Conclusion:

Thank you, everyone, for your expertise, experience, recommendations, suggestions, and patience!!

I have decided to go with the Platinum Preppy in Blue Black with fine nib. I didn't want to jump too far into it with an expensive (to me) one without any experience. So far, granted it's the first day, I love it. A lot. I'm going to give it a few days to see how it feels as a daily driver, but if the few bits I wrote are an indication, it won't be an issue.

Again, thank you all SO MUCH for your help!

Here's a (poor quality, sorry, it's night) picture of my new favorite pen:

Original Post

I didn't see anything on the sidebar where this is not allowed. BUT, if it isn't, please accept my sincerest apologies, and feel free to remove the post (or let me know, and I'll remove it).

A little backstory:

Ever since a quill that I happened to use (without permission, might I add) at a friend's grandfather's house oh so many moons ago, my fascination with pens began. Up until then, all I've used were pencils, markers, crayons, and a couple cheap ballpoint pens.

Over the many years, I have gone from pen to pen, never really finding "that pen feel" I've craved since that single-digit age. Now, I understand that quills write very differently to ballpoints, and even differently to many nibs. However, price has always been an object for me, regrettably, limiting my choices, forcing me to stay on the 'budget' side of things.

The closest I've found to that feel was a 0.8mm Micron felt-tipped pen. However, it wasn't close enough for me to stay with it, so the search continues.

(The feel: smooth, light, almost effortless glide on the page, while still feeling the tactility of the page with each stroke. The resulting line is smooth, but crisp.)

Recently (past couple years), I've been thinking more and more about that quill, and started searching for it again, to no avail. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if his grandfather had it custom made.

I would ask the friend or grandfather, but the grandfather has long passed, and the friend has disappeared shortly after uni (he always talked about going full hermit... I guess he did).

Yesterday, as I was aimlessly scrolling Lemmy, after, what seemed like the billionth time searching for that quill, I came across this community, filled with people searching for their illusive perfect pen; my people.

The ask

As before, price is an object (again, regrettably). Are there recommendations for budget fountain pens or quills with a few must-haves?

Would-Really-Like-To-Have ~~Must-Haves~~

1. non-scratchy nib
2. 0.5-0.7mm line is preferred, but no more than 0.8mm
3. it can use ink cartridges, but it needs to also handle other inks from bottles (pumps or wells, I think it's called)
4. budget, so within the 5-10€ range (I know this might be the biggest ask here)

The original quill that started it all

The shaft looked like a thick feather, with the feathery bits removed. I don't think it was an actual feather, though, as it was much thicker than any I've ever felt. The shaft held the ink, which was added by unscrewing the nib and pouring the ink in (or, as he did it, using a pipette), then screwing the nib back on. The nib was ornate; etched gold on the outside, smooth silver on the inside, split down the middle, with a small hole halfway down the split.

A preemptive thank you to everyone, for reading and considering this post.

Edit: added the last section about the original quill

Edit: change to really like to have, since it seems I was being too wishy with them being a 'must' : )

I took this photo and the one below for my post about the Dialog, but did not wind up using it therein.

From left to right:

• Platinum Curidas
• Majohn A2 Press (Modified)
• Lamy Dialog 3
• Pilot Vanishing Point
• Oaso K016

Gentlemen.

I promise I'm not doing this as a showing-up. Given my predilection for retractable fountain pens, I've had my eye on one of these for years and it's the one I've never actually been able to own. Up until now, anyway, because I finally found the opportunity to get my hands on one without going broke. This legitimately did just show up the mail just recently.

And since we don't get to do this every day, why not share in the unboxing experience of a pen that lists for four hundred United States dollars?

It seems how seriously the manufacturer takes any given pen is directly proportional to the size of the box it shows up in. The box my Oaso K012 came in, for instance, could barely contain a deck of cards. Hell, my Ohto F-Lapa didn't even come in a box at all, just a flimsy baggie.

The Dialog, meanwhile, comes in a woven-textured matte presentation box that's so big it won't even fit in my illuminated photo booth, so to get this picture I had to take it outside. Hence the shadow. It's 7-1/8" square and if my algebra is correct, if you were so inclined you could easily fill it with about 44 Lamy Dialogs.

But alas, inside you only get one.

The box is lined with some kind of fuzzy fabric all over the inner surfaces, and the walls of the lower half of it, at least, feel like they're about five layers thick.

The Dialog is one of Lamy's flagship pens. Thus as you would expect, the Germans left very few stops unpulled when they were constructing it. The body is all aluminum, with various internal structures made of stainless steel. It's ridiculously dense, weighing 46 grams precisely with a standard Lamy ink cartridge installed. It is without a doubt the heaviest fountain pen I own and possibly the heaviest I've ever handled for any length of time. For comparison, my OG Pilot Vanishing point -- which is made of brass, mind you -- also feels incredibly dense but still only weighs 29.8 grams.

Lamy always go for a Euro-chic minimalist vibe with their nicer pens and the Dialog is certainly no exception. Its profile is a postmodern, completely untapered capsule shape with nearly spherical ends. It is thus exactly 14mm in diameter down its entire length by my measure, or 0.551", not including the clip. So that's actually slightly thicker than a Platinum Curidas and noticeably thicker than a Vanishing Point or clone thereof. If you are a fancier of slim pens, this one probably isn't for you.

It's available in four finishes: The satin silver I got, matte black, and a duo of "piano" gloss black or gloss white that frankly I'd be terrified to even store outside of the box. The latter two have got to be both fingerprint and scratch magnets. That, and they almost look like they're trying to be an Apple product.

So yeah, I got the silver one.

And this is the current Dialog 3, not the slightly newer Dialog CC which is shorter, has an aesthetically different tail, and lacks the pocket clip. What kind of heathen philistine would want a pen like that with no clip is beyond me, but the option to pander to such strange individuals does at least exist.

The Dialog is, needless to say, a retractable fountain pen. One of the very few entries into that select brotherhood, in fact, along with the Pilot Vanishing Point and its clones, the Platinum Curidas, the aforementioned Oaso K012, and the historical and quite collectible Platinum Knock and OG Pilot Capless. There may be others. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

As the youngsters are fond of saying these days, no cap.

The Dialog is unique among all of these because it's the only one that's not a click pen -- It is a twist-to-extend mechanism, instead.

Here's the part you all want to see.

The various retractable fountain pens of the world use an array of mechanisms to prevent themselves from drying out when their points are retracted. Hinged or spring loaded trap doors, or in the case of Oaso's entry a flexible rubber diaphragm. The Dialog meanwhile uses what Lamy describes as a "ball valve," a hemispherical rotary cover that pivots into place over the open end of the pen when you retract the point.

The Dialog's operation is a mechanical symphony conducted by a helical thread inside the grip section that drives three separate mechanical actions. First is the extension and retraction of the point itself, second is the operation of the ball valve cover...

...And third is the slight but noticeable retraction of the clip when the point is extended. Now, Lamy's marketing materials try pretty hard to imply that the clip sinks flush into the pen body but this is not the case. It would be rad it if it did. But the retraction is only probably about two millimeters. Note the difference in the amount of daylight showing through the gap in the pictures above.

The Dialog's twist mechanism has a tactile detent in it when you rotate it into either the fully extended or retracted positions. There is no tactile indicator on the surface of the pen body, though; it's completely smooth all the way around. Instead there is a visual indicator in the form of these two pairs of lines marked on both halves of the body. When the point is fully retracted these all line up with each other as shown.

The Dialog comes packing Lamy's fanciest premium nib, their "Z 55" which is made of 14k gold with platinum plating. I got the medium variant, the 585. The gold nib is fairly flexible although at least with the medium point the variation in stroke width with pressure and direction is fairly subtle. (Magnified shot here, although it fell out of my depth of field slightly.)

I prefer a broad-ish stroke and the 585 certainly delivers on that front. It's the second fattest you can get in Lamy's gold nibs, and the second fattest overall without going to one of their calligraphy or oblique options. Lamy's entire line of nib widths -- which they inexplicably call "grades" as if to imply that one is better than another which is obviously nonsense -- trend wider than their Asian counterparts. A Lamy fine is probably more akin to a medium from many of the Japanese makers, for instance.

So this nib combined with the Dialog's feed is a very wet writer as evidenced by the feathering on the cheap Post-It I used for my headline photo as well as this comparison:

Some of this may be down to the ink, since both of my Lamy pens are currently loaded with genuine Lamy branded ink which seems pretty thin, and they both do this. The Majohn in the middle is filled with Diamine Shimmering Seas which, although weird, seems to be slightly better behaved on bad paper.

This thing would certainly drive any writers of tiny katakana completely nuts. Which is exactly how I like it. Lamy's blue is also a very transparent ink which combined with the high output results in a pleasing display of shading variation, if you're into that kind of thing. If you like novelty metallized, shimmering, glittery, or iridescent inks that require you to flood the paper with them in order to do their thing, I think they should all work exceptionally in the Dialog. At least if you select one of the broader nib options.

Towards that end, though, all of Lamy's nibs are interchangeable (except on their 2000 pen) so you could in theory yank the stock nib off of this and replace it with anything. The nib mounting interface is obviously exactly the same as Lamy's other pens, as shown here. The Z 55 series nibs retail separately for an eye-watering $155, so if gold isn't your jam you could probably flog yours on eBay and buy a lifetime supply of steel Lamy nibs of all shapes and sizes.

You're on your own for figuring out how to get the stock nib off without damaging it, though. Lamy describes the standard procedure as to clamp the nib upside down against a table using the bottom of your pen's cap and yank it off thusly, but the Dialog hasn't got a cap and the notion of applying unknown tools to a $155 nib isn't one I find immediately appealing. Especially one that isn't made of indestructible stainless steel.

And for its part, the included 39 page double-sided full color glossy instructions manual doesn't describe how they intend for you to remove the nib from this pen, either, despite going into significant detail about everything else.

Not even the page specifically about (and titled) the nib.

So I think I'll leave mine right where it is for now, thanks.

For four hundred bucks you figure they could at least include more than one poxy cartridge. But all you get is a single lonely blue T10 cartridge, an inkwell converter, the pen itself, and one official Lamy Dialog Kurled Thingy.

Lamy apparently do straight-facedly expect you to dip this thing into an inkwell as one of its intended modes of operation, which I think is deeply silly. An entire page is devoted to this in the manual, in fact. Sane people, if using the inkwell converter, will probably want to fill it with a syringe separate from the pen so as not to get ink trapped in every nook and cranny inside that expensive retractable mechanism.

Like most (possibly all?) Lamy pens, the cartridge is not held captive by the tail end of the pen body once assembled and just screwing the halves together won't pierce a cartridge like on a Sheaffer or Parker. You have to shove it home yourself all the way to get the ink flowing. It's not even close to being restrained even with the pen assembled and the point fully retracted, with at least half an inch of empty air behind the tail of the cartridge. So it is theoretically possible for it to get knocked off the feed in transit somehow, although I have to imagine any force capable of doing that to a fresh cartridge would probably cause other problems for the pen... or you. But if you're a habitual cartridge-refiller, be mindful of the necks of your cartridges eventually getting wallered out and loose over time. The neck of the inkwell converter has a rubber gasket on it but the plastic cartridges don't.

The Dialog comes apart simply by unscrewing it beyond its tip-retracted position.

Inside Lamy is surely showing off with the core feed and nib carrier precision machined with fine crosshatched grip knurling, not to mention various threaded parts. This unscrews from the front section rather than pulling straight out, and is captive until you do so. Unlike other retractables, the Dialog doesn't appear to contain any springs.

The Knurled Thingy is actually a cleaning tool.

It can be screwed on in place of the core, and if you twist it further it'll open the ball valve mechanism at the front of the pen, the same as if you'd deployed the point normally.

This enables you not only to peer straight through the thing and out the other side, but also gets the valve out of the way so you can rinse the section out or get a Q-tip through it.

As far as feel in the hand goes, the Dialog is, of course, absolutely boss. Flawless provided only that you can handle its girth. I was surprised to find that mine did require a noticeable amount of break in before it would write reliably, however. Maybe this is normal for Lamy's gold nibs, but it's the first and only one of those I've ever owned (despite having handled oodles of their steel ones in my time) so maybe that's normal.

Out of the box it was reliably unreliable, invariantly failing to write for the first quarter inch or so any time it'd been left idle without putting down any ink for more than a few seconds. Once it got going it was bulletproof. This behavior stopped after about two days of use.

I've seen this sort of thing before and it's either cured by a few lashes on a fine Arkansas stone or a thorough cleaning, both of which I was avoiding at first to see if the Dialog would improve on its own, because at the price it retails for it's the principle of the thing, damn it.

And it eventually did. So that's nice.

Like most modern pens, the Dialog (and by extension one must assume all Lamy Z 55 nibs) seems to be designed for "smoothness" first and foremost, that being the quality that most fountain pen writers constantly rave about. So its nib is indeed extremely smooth and quite polished. It has no noticeable scratchiness at all, even on cheap paper. It produces a very low resistance writing experience, which is fine if that's your preference but if your writing style relies on friction against the paper to maintain control then the Dialog may annoy you because it has very, very little of that.

Also, despite its massive heft it actually will not reliably write with no pressure on the paper other than its own weight. Very little pressure is required to get the ink to flow, for sure, but some is always required. More pressure results in a wider stroke, and depending on your habitual baseline level of pressure against the paper you may find you wind up with little to no variation at all which is certainly the case for me. If you conscientiously try to begin all of your strokes with the absolute minimum of pressure to get the Dialog to write reliably you can achieve about a 2:1 variation in stroke width. With my medium nib and by my measure, the Dialog will produce a 0.52mm line at minimum and 1.04mm at maximum. I don't know how that ranks on the scale of "expressiveness," but I have $2 Speedball dip pen nibs that are capable of more variation and are more controllable to boot. Make of that what you will.

Everyday practicality is where retractable fountain pens aim to shine, of course. That's why I like all mine, anyway, but on the topic of the Dialog I'm of two minds about that. It is, undoubtedly, a very fine pen. Exquisitely constructed, luxurious, and without a doubt a very special object to behold. I can't say a single thing against it, there.

It's just that the twist mechanism is kind of a pain in the ass.

Don't get me wrong, mechanically it's certainly very competently built. It's just not exactly practical. It's essentially impossible to deploy the Dialog with one hand, which is something that allows its myriad plunger-clicker competitors to walk all over it. Getting out the Dialog certainly feels like an event, a sense that's no doubt also contributed to by its price. But for quick note taking, intermittent on-again, off-again use, or any spur of the moment anything, it's just much easier and more convenient to use a clicker pen instead.

There's also the issue of its completely round cross section. Sure, the sleek Bauhaus minimalism makes it look very swank. But it also makes the bugger very prone to rolling away on you. On a flat surface this is no problem, because any casual accidental bump or nudge will be stopped fairly shortly by the clip. But if you ever use an angled work surface like, oh, a drawing or drafting table, the clip doesn't protrude enough to stop the pen's own weight and inertia. The rounded edges on the clip also don't help. It doesn't take too steep of a slope at all to enable the Dialog to roll right over its own clip and onto the floor.

Said floor had better then be carpeted, because otherwise you are sure to utter a word that starts with F and ends with K, and it sure won't be "fire truck." Especially if the point is deployed at the time.

The Inevitable Conclusion

The Lamy Dialog is a very, very nice pen.

It is certain that the majority of its owners, however, will only be two types of people. Type the first will be those who buy it as a bauble or a status symbol, a prestige piece, probably to use it rarely if ever. Type the second will be dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts, who will buy and use it despite knowing all of its shortcomings because of what it is, and that's the type of people they are.

Either camp will have to be willing to part with the better part of a week's paycheck or more to afford one. For a pen that ultimately doesn't do much to functionally outshine its competition, that's a pretty high bar to clear.

But none of that prevents the Dialog from being an item that is even at a glance from a casual observer, uniquely and unquestionably special.

So far, I'm liking it. I rinsed it out before using, and there was trace amounts of blue ink already in the pen. Mysterious.

I filled it with Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and it writes very smoothly. Left it sitting overnight, and it continued writing smoothly this morning with no hiccups whatsoever. Very nice! It's supposed to be a "fine," but it really seems like more of a "medium" to me. It comes with a piston filling cartridge converter which didn't seem removable at first, but it just slides out if you pull on it a little.

I got it from AliExpress, if you're wondering. It will surely be available on eBay soon enough.

I am looking to put together a maintenance kit for my pens and was wondering: do you have any particular supplies that you prefer to use for your pens? What storage solution do you use for your maintenance kit? Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Nahvalur Original Plus in Matira Quartz with a Medium Steel nib, and inked up with Diamine Frosted Orchid. Absolutely stunning combination! Bonus definition of the word chatoyant.

Platinum Preppy fine point (0.3mm) for scale.

I found these thread-bound kraft paper covered travelers' notebooks in A6 Size with grid lined pages for a good price that had good reviews with pictures from fountain pen users on Amazon. [$9]

And this 5.3" x 8.26" (not quite A5 size but close enough) hard covered notebook with 120 gsm graph lined paper and few niceties like an attched ribbon bookmark, elastic strap, and elastic pen holder also had good reviews from fountain pen users. [$7]

I figured at those prices, even if they aren't the greatest, they'd be a step up from the thin weight randomly acquired notebooks I've been using. With ballpoint and gel pens, I never really considered the paper quality for my notetaking and journaling.

Side note:
Not sure if I'm going to eyedropper convert the Preppy. I might buy another one or two with a different ink color and then convert a few at the same time.

Thought these stamps were super cool when I saw them. I bought the cat and fountain pen, plus the hedgehog ink bottle one. They were selling for 650 yen each, so about 5 USD.

We talk about writing instruments a lot, but equally important is the paper and related bits.

So tell us, what paper do you use? Do you use any cover/case for your notebook?

[Reposting because it failed to federate again]

Picked this up for £11 from Aliexpress and I reckon it's one of the best FPs I own. Great for quick note taking.

Sure, it's a shameless clone of a pilot capless, but I'm never going to spend that kind of money.

Note also: only comes in . Writes like an if you ask me.

Considering buying a few more to gift to friends.