Buy Pen & Ink Fountain Pen Sketch Set- Fine Point

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List Price: $22.49
Sale Price: $12.54
Today's Bonus: 44% Off

This pen is half the price of the other "workhorse" pens that I use -the Lamy Al-Star. I bought the extra-fine point version. It was extremely scratchy and ink flow was awful. The included international cartridges were, at best, OK. I immediately ditched the cartridges and refilled with Noodler's Bulletproof Black ink in the included converter cartridge. The Noodler's flowed better but the writing experience was still very scratchy and the pen would sometimes "catch" on the paper, tearing more delicate leaves. I had a look at the nib under a powerful magnifier, and the two tines weren't perfectly aligned, so the edge was catching the paper.

I wrote for a couple of minutes on a fine fingernail buffing stick, holding the pen at a few different angles, to resurface the nib. The buffing wore down the tines to a nice round ball. Now the pen writes very nicely. The nib is stiff, as one expects from a modern pen (for a soft touch you have to get a far more expensive retro-style or actual vintage nib), but the pen has the nice "buttery" feel that is so desirable for fountain pens.

The nib itself is not well anchored to the plastic feed assembly it is possible to slide it back and forth, and this might be what misaligned the tines originally.

The grip and shape are nice, the pen is very light. The workmanship of the converter is OK but not great; I'm afraid that one day it might leak. But somehow, now that the tip is reshaped, I find myself reaching for it a lot. It could be a great pen, instead of (as delivered) an awful, scratchy wreck.

If you are looking for a gift or for a first pen, grab a Lamy Safari or an Al-Star -they have nice grips and wonderful action right out of the box. This one isn't worth the trouble. If you want to learn to condition pens and don't want to start by busting your $200 vintage Waterman, this is a good one to try -the price is certainly right.

Three stars for the nice writing experience when reconditioned and loaded with my favorite ink, and because it's cheap-n-cheerful. No more than that, because out-of-the-box the writing experience sucked.

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This pen writes very well for the price. Many inexpensive fountain pens leak or the nib seems to scratch its way across the page. This pen has a smooth feel and a nice constant flow of ink with no blotches. For the price, this is a great pen.

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I have never used a fountain pen before, but needed one for a design class at college. This pen works just great! It feels so old-school. The plunger was easy to use. Most other more expensive pens sell the plunger separately, so it was nice to have that included. I have had this pen a little over a month and just ran out of the first ink cartridge. This seemed a little quick, compared to a regular pen. On the other hand, it was so dang fun to use! I probably filled up 10 pages in my sketch book drawing with this pen. It writes well, as expected. The line is fluid and fine enough for detail in my designs. I can use it from tiny details to doing fill-in work. The leather carrying thing is a bit odd and doesn't hold very securely or tie, but I use it because it's fun. I recommend this pen to anyone like myself, who has never used a fountain pen before because it is so easy to use and acclimate to regular use. This pen made a fountain pen convert out of me!

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I requested this pen and the Lamy Safari together. I wanted a fountain pen that I could use for school so as to save on buying more pens and having 50 float around the house. I am not disappointed at all. This pen has no popular name for it's brand, simply titled "Pen & Ink" but it is iridium tipped. It is made of plastic and compared to other pens can feel a bit cheap. This however is deceptive as I have used it to take notes in class and as my jot pen around town. The convertor refill is a little cheap too, ( a little metal part around it comes unscrewed occasionally) but as I've said it has been used consistently and held up well. The pen writes smoothly and sketches fine. I can draw a straight line down the length of an A12 paper and nary have a blank spot. Good Pen. I would have given five stars had the build quality been better.

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thirty years ago I was given an artpen and I used it for many years, but when I looked for a replacement, It had gone off the market. Ever since I have been looking for a replacement. This is, so far the best pen of that type that I can afford. I liked it so much that I soon ordered the fine point and extra fine point versions so that I could have a complete set. Since I lost my artpen several decades ago, I can only compare them by fading memory, but one thing I can say is that this pen is very much easier to fill. The old artpen had a little tank for the ink that could only be filled from a special type of ink container or by using an eye dropper. This one uses cartridges, but it includes, as basic equipment, a piston converter that lets you fill the pen from any ink bottle.

As to performance, this pen does everything I want it to. I do a lot of ink-and-watercolor painting and I find this pen to be excellent for that purpose. I'm thinking of buying another extra fine point pen to carry around with me for everyday writing.