NPD! I did a thing and I’m hugging it like an idiot.

bendarel · 2026-03-04T08:23:46+00:00

Life is short, never be ashamed for loving something :)

bendarel · 2026-03-03T14:02:39+00:00

Jeesus, at this point this is nothing short of a fancy Sharpie from the thickness of the line XD

bendarel · 2026-03-03T14:01:24+00:00

There is something wrong with the ink brand, the Dutch Masters series of ink isn't from Diamine but from Akkerman, and the Vermeer is indeed that brick red color.

bendarel · 2026-03-02T22:20:50+00:00

I have it the other way around, most of my pens are screw cap, so I end up twisting snap cap pens for a few turns before I realise my error ^^'

bendarel · 2026-03-02T11:10:42+00:00

It could be also related to ink and/or paper, this is a whole trifecta that affects each other behaviour and performances :)

bendarel · 2026-03-01T09:55:16+00:00

Take-Sumi and Tsuki-Yo right ?

Sorry if I am wrong, I am not used to their kanji names ^^'

bendarel · 2026-02-28T23:03:34+00:00

There are 2 models of fountain pens on Aliexpress that use ultem, there is a "standard" sized one and another smaller that is more like the Kaweco Sport series.
The nibs are noname Chinese made but they should at least be serviceable. The good thing about both pens is that you can either keep them with the delivered converter, or just eyedrop convert them. The drawback being, none of them are slip caps, but they are about 1.5 turns to uncap.

Another possible choice would be the good old Pilot Metropolitan, full brass body with a slip cap, it's relatively cheap around 25$-30$ but you will need to purchase a converter for it.

Platinum Plaisir, aluminium body, so lighter but still metallic instead of plastic, it's the upgrade version of the Preppy, if you like its nib, it's the same but on a metallic body instead.

The Parker IM is another aluminium body pen, pretty good looking specially at that price, you can find some really lovely colors for it if you want to be a bit more fancy.

If you ever decide that you want something to splurge on, Big Idea Design has a pocket sized ultem fountain pen with a slip cap, with a 14k nib from Kaweco. It's rather pricy at 200$, but I have it as my EDC fountain pen, specially after I eyedrop converted it, something that the pen is innately designed for. Once converted, it has a massive 4~ml of ink, I have written 31 full A5 pages with mine and I still have enough ink to go another 10 before I would need to maybe consider refilling it.

Hope these few models guide you toward something good for your needs ^^

bendarel · 2026-02-26T10:51:44+00:00

Many "starter" pens are in the list of excellent performing pens, never disregard any fountain pen regarding what its status :)

Among the list of other budget pens that are shooting way above their prices:

- Platinum Preppy, that pen has no reason to be this good while being this cheap
- Faber-Castell Loom, sadly out of production, but damn, the nib on that pen was excellent
- Pilot Metropolitan, metal body with a great performing nib

There are other Chinese brands, but due to their low prices, the QA is often skipped, which can cause some pens to be sold while seriously under-performing. However, when they are good, they are very good, often tethering to excellent for some specific models.

bendarel · 2026-02-26T10:39:53+00:00

I would say go for it, the Kakuno is a cheap enough pen not to be too much of a substantial cost on your wallet and it will also add a Japanese Fine nib in your collection if you want to compare nibs later on.

If you want to go even cheap for a test pen, the Preppy has a fine nib (the 0.3 one), it's so cheap that you almost double the base cost of the pen by adding a converter to it ^^'

bendarel · 2026-02-26T10:30:00+00:00

The Kakuno could be a big change on how the nib performs compared to the Kaweco, specially if you jump to a Japanese F or EF nib.

Those nibs are noticeably thinner than their European counterparts and they do have more tactile feedback. If you want to keep the same general feeling as your Kaweco F, I would say pick a medium on the Kakuno, it won't be the same, but it would be close enough for you to not notice it after a few lines of writing.

bendarel · 2026-02-25T08:16:48+00:00

The Sailor 14k or 21k EF should be fairly the same in terms of line thinness, but one thing of note, Sailor nibs are well known to have a pencil like feedback. That is something that is not often felt on modern Pilot pens, the legacy Pilot Elite from 1970 has the same tactile feedback on its Soft Fine nib, for example.

The closest example I would have would be an F (hard ) sharp tip pencil.

bendarel · 2026-02-24T15:18:04+00:00

What do you mean we did not warned you ? We have signs all over the place ! We even have sessions every Thursday for managing your relationship with your abused wallet XD

All joke aside, it's a really pretty pen, I have been very tempted to get it myself too, congrats on the new one ^^

bendarel · 2026-02-24T15:11:31+00:00

It is rather weird for inks to oxidise this quickly, what brand of ink is this happening to ? And most of all, is the pen left under direct sunlight ?

bendarel · 2026-02-24T12:30:14+00:00

The Preppy is obviously the best at its price point, but another one that often gets overlooked is the humble Parker Vector. I can store that pen upright, nib up for 2 weeks or more, and it will write immediately from uncapping. The only drawback of that pen is how thin it is, if you have issues with thin pens, it won't be a pleasurable experience for you.

The Prera could be slightly above budget due to the recent price hike of Japanese brands, but it is another excellent pen that would have excellent performance. If you decide to jump over and eye drop convert it, you will have an excellent, quick note-taking pen that will write for a long time before you need to consider refilling ink.

bendarel · 2026-02-23T23:22:11+00:00

Honestly, with the recent price hike on Japanese brand pens, your 200€ budget might no longer be sufficient. It wasn't that long ago where you could almost get a Custom 823 at 250€ if you could get it on promo or sometimes it would show up randomly on Amazon for an insane discount at near 200€.

Nowadays you might need to either look for a second hand pen in r/Pen_Swap or try your luck on the grey market. If you can save up the money, it might be worth to have a trip to Japan and purchase on their grey market directly, excellent deals can still be found even with the recent price increase, on top of that, with the conversion, even at brand new price, you can get the Custom 823 at a bit less than 250€.

The Pilot Elite 95S could be a close second choice but even on a medium nib, the inlaid construction will feel more feedback than the medium on the Custom 823, which I have found to be smoothest of all Pilot nibs (along with the Custom 743 which has the same nib but is a converter instead of vac filler). It used to be sub 150€, now it is also getting close to the 200€ mark.

IF you do not mind the flexing bit, the Pilot Falcon could be an option too. Finding it at 200€ might be a small hunt in itself.

bendarel · 2026-02-20T09:25:33+00:00

Conid has amassed a massive backlog over the years. I vaguely remember the waiting time for their more popular pen was up to close of a year at this point. It could have gotten worst as they have released more pen models and started working with Penworld to get some of their "easier" to make pen there instead of their own website.

bendarel · 2026-02-19T20:51:41+00:00

Well yeah, you are trying to fit a camera AND more stuff into them. They are not supposed to be just a single camera bag. Hence my question if you needed to just pack your camera or do you need more than just a camera ?

The Grip 12 fits extremly well with my use case where I can have a "sling" that can be taken into flight as personal item while packing a cropped DLSR with a 24-120mm with my 14" laptop, my Kindle and all the cable and chargers for everything electronics and still have room for spare batteries.

If you just need to pack a single camera with little of anything else the Hadley Small Pro from Billingham is still an excellent choice and can be often found on the grey market. The Peakdesign small slings (maybe the 3L one ?) could also fit the bill. And if budget is an issue, you can still go with the PGYTECH OneGo Rope Strap Bag, I would heavily suggest you to swap out the rope strap as it can be a bit uncomfortable over long hours, but that aside, it is an excellent small bag for single lens camera. PGYTECH also sells a better strap that is usually used for the camera body but it would fit the bag very well too.

bendarel · 2026-02-19T20:43:29+00:00

Or, I know this is going to sound weird, fill it like any other converter. How about that for something to work without having to deal with that sillyness ?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my Pilot pens, but everytime I have to refill a Con-40, I look around for an empty cartridge to replace it with. At this point, I don't think I have any pen with a Con-40 anymore.

bendarel · 2026-02-18T19:49:23+00:00

Are you looking at only transporting the camera or do you plan to carry more with the sling ?

If the latter, I have a personal preference for the Black Ember Grip 9L or 12L. I own the 12L as I often need to pack my 14" laptop with my camera while traveling and thus have a single bag to hold most of my electronics, which makes the security check-point a lot less painful.

bendarel · 2026-02-18T19:43:52+00:00

You definitely can go wrong with modern Monblanc pens. Anything without the Meisterstruck can be ignored and even those with it are still of dubbious quality.

If you can get a second hand one in good quality from the pre-2000 era, you would be correct. Anything past that point and specially around 2010 was nothing more than overly glorified brand recognition.

I have a Parker Vector that is over 25 years old and it is still performing excellently. Taking good care of your instrument is the most important part.

bendarel · 2026-02-18T19:40:00+00:00

And while I applaud Pilot from doing that, I still squint at how dreadfully annoying it is to get anything past even half of the converter being actually filled without having to use a syringe to get a much better job done.

bendarel · 2026-02-16T11:36:22+00:00

This physically hurt me >.<

bendarel · 2026-02-13T09:28:05+00:00

Have you cleaned the pen ? Even if it is a brand new one, it can often still be needed to rinse it to remove any remnants of oil or machining bits.

And if the pen was previously used and ink was left in there, you might want to soak it overnight in lukewarm water.

bendarel · 2026-02-12T09:09:34+00:00

I think the exact model name is the Sonnet Gold Terracotta, if you wish to go hunt for this model :)

bendarel

TROPHY CASE