...of Stained Palm And Fingers...

[yogendra]

...of stained palm and fingers...

small story of my journey with fountain pens

 

(please search the net for the pics of pens if you haven’t already seen)

 

My first fountain pen was a Hero, a brand that is damn common in India. I was in 5th grade when I started using fountain pens. Later, somebody had gifted my dad a Wing Sung 233. Dad left it at my mercy. It took me probably all of 30 minutes from the time it was handed, to drop it down. The barrel was the most blatant design blunder of Wing Sung 233 (one of the main reasons for the halt of their production, I feel). You needn’t even drop the pen down for it to crack. Apply a little more strength as you tighten the barrel, and it would crack at the thread! But, to this day, I love this model for its gorgeous nib. I told my dad that this pen isn’t stable, it would crack just by dropping it down. Dad replied, one who drops a fountain pen down, doesn’t deserve its possession! I grew up with this commandment.

 

Wing Sung 235 is a correction for 233’s barrel design blunder. A good-for-absolutely-nothing fellow hostel dweller caused a disaster dropping down my Wing Sung 235. This time the nib was destroyed. I travelled 200 kilometers to find a replacement for the nib. I learnt from the shopkeeper about the halt of production of all Wing Sung pens. It would make a separate fascinating story how I wandered (alone, at times) street after street hawkishly looking for old pen marts in the cities of Bangalore and Mangalore hunting Wing Sung fountain pens (before I started using internet). Finally I have managed to collect 233, 235 & 842, two pieces each. Personally I dislike filler-cum-sac design of Hero and Wing Sung pens. I was delighted to see Wing Sung 842 having an option for converter!!

 

I had just started in the university when I first laid hands on Airmail pens. It’s such a pleasure to use Airmail/Wality pens! With its fat design, you wouldn’t know how thin it can write without using it yourself! My dad was so delighted using it, he ordered some 5 pieces of Airmail TL69s, to gift his friends. I totally fell in love with the design of this pen. It is very simple classical design; barrel, section and cap hold together by threads, no sticky business. The transparent barrel gives it a kingly look! To this day, I regularly use an Airmail TL69.

 

My next pen was Pilot Varsity. It’s a delight to write with this pen! The quality is world-class, no doubt. The only problem, it is designed to be disposable (use-and-throw). It was a dream come true when I found in YouTube how to cleverly overcome this problem (please search, Refilling a Pilot Varsity/V fountain pen (without mauling your pen) in YouTube for a very clever solution to refill a pilot varsity).

 

When I started working, I got myself a Pierre Cardin Elite Club. To this day, it is consistently disappointing me Enough amount of ink doesn’t flow... for each line I write, I need to give my arm some exercise to keep the Elite Club flowing. I checked the ink flow and washed the pen too. With its own cartridge it’s having troubles.

 

The gripping part of the story would be from here. For the first time I felt like going for an international luxury fountain pen. So I picked up a Lamy Vista fountain pen at Bangalore. While returning home I stumbled upon a humble stationery shop as I remembered I had to buy a notebook too. A delightful ringing feeling was still lingering around me as if celebrating the ownership of a Lamy, when I first saw a Reynolds Grippy fountain pen in the stationery. I bought it just for the heck of it. In India a Reynolds Grippy costs 45 times lesser than what a Lamy Vista costs!

 

So delighted with the Lamy pen I started using it the same day. No doubt it is such a nice pen. The treated nib easily floats on paper. Before going to bed, I thought I should do justice to the humble Reynolds Grippy. So I filled it with Camel Royal Blue ink and started writing. To my great surprise Reynolds Grippy was nothing less than Lamy in its smooth flow! Smoother than any Heroes, Wing Sungs or Airmails I had ever used! I lost the sleep and hooked on to it. Wrote 2 pages with Reynolds Grippy, placed it beside Lamy and wondered what makes the difference 45 folds? For its worth, Grippy was handed just out of its stand without any kind of box or cover; considering the shop I visited, I didn’t get the bill too

 

The next day I showed Reynolds Grippy to my boss at office. He instantly decided to own one. The sad story is, Reynolds is not keen on the quality of each and every pen it makes. Next day my boss bought a Reynolds Grippy and was lamenting that it didn’t write as smooth as mine. Mine was a one off case of luck to have ended up with a great nib. But still, for $0.5, a Reynolds Grippy is a good pen.

 

I am not sure if you can find a pic of Reynolds Grippy in the net. So I have attached the pics.

 

Regards,

Yogi

[yogendra]

Here are the pics attached.

[jakespoppy]

Interesting story of your history with fountain pens, Yogendra, and welcome to FPN!

[jniforat]

hey, there! thanks for the story about your fountain pen journey. i've been wanting to write one of these lately...maybe i should. thanks for the inspiration. and, of course,

[hari317]

Hi Yogi, are you from Bangalore? some good shops there. Nice story, thanks for sharing.

[yogendra]

Thank you jakespoppy, jniforat and hari

 

Hari, yes I am from Bangalore. William Penn is a famous pen store here. They sell only premium pens and men's accessories. There's another famous pen store at Basavanagudi, they are not so customer friendly I wanted see some old camlin pens, the person there got irritated! Many shopkeepers show this attitude. Yet they manage to do business and survive (of course, it's incredible India )

 

Some shops in Avenue road are really friendly. When I wanted to buy a Wing Sung 842, I had called the shop to check once, when I went there I couldn't spot the shop, the guy came to the circle and picked me up! Unbelievably, his shop's dimension is 6x3 feet, on a pavement. And he's sold pens costing up to INR 53k

[hari317]

Hari, yes I am from Bangalore. William Penn is a famous pen store here. They sell only premium pens and men's accessories. There's another famous pen store at Basavanagudi, they are not so customer friendly I wanted see some old camlin pens, the person there got irritated! Many shopkeepers show this attitude. Yet they manage to do business and survive (of course, it's incredible India )

 

Some shops in Avenue road are really friendly. When I wanted to buy a Wing Sung 842, I had called the shop to check once, when I went there I couldn't spot the shop, the guy came to the circle and picked me up! Unbelievably, his shop's dimension is 6x3 feet, on a pavement. And he's sold pens costing up to INR 53k

 

That must be Mr. Murthy of Meenakshi stores?, a thorough gentleman. Tell me more about this basavangudi shop, you may PM me.

 

Thanks!

Hari

[tonybelding]

That's a fascinating story. . .

 

I got a batch of Wing Sungs from isellpens.com a while back. More than half of them had some kind of problem that needed attention -- nib tines aligned, leaks sealed. I got most of them working, except for one 612 that slowly dribbles ink through the feed, I don't know why. I wonder if the sellers in the shops were intended to fix these little problems?

 

I have a couple of a the 233s you mentioned, one black and one burgundy. I'll have to remember not to drop them! (Are they made of precious resin?) I also have three 237s and a 234 that all share the same Triumph-style nib. The 234 is my favorite, because it's such a chimera. It looks like a "flighter" style Sheaffer Targa with a Triumph type nib and a filling system from a Parker 51.

 

I also have one Hero, a 329 which writes better than any of the Wing Sungs, though some of them come close.

 

I have three Wality eyedropper-filled pens with the clear body -- two regular and one oversized. They hold a lot of ink and write pretty well. It's just annoying that all of these pens seem to have XXF to XF nibs, whereas my taste runs more F to M. However, I do have a Gui Guan 20 with a great fat B nib!

 

Regarding the "gorgeous nib" on the Wing Sung 233. . . . . I hope you are able to get your hands on a Sheaffer Snorkel Sentinel someday.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Great story! The Grippy looks like a pen I would absolutely love. Thanks for the pictures.

[yogendra]

Tony and Sailor Kenshin, thank you

 

Tony, yes, the 233s are made of resin. I am thinking of ways to prevent the 233's barrel. A metallic ring can be fixed at the thread end. A strap of molten plastic can be laid around it. Do you know any other ways?

 

I don't know if I can ever own a Sheaffer Snorkel Sentinel. Hero's and Wing Sung's almost all the pens are replicas or hybrids of Sheaffer, Pelikan or Waterman. The new Hero 91 is replica of Pelikan Pelikano.

 

Regards,

Yogi

[Sailor Kenshin]

Tony and Sailor Kenshin, thank you

 

Tony, yes, the 233s are made of resin. I am thinking of ways to prevent the 233's barrel. A metallic ring can be fixed at the thread end. A strap of molten plastic can be laid around it. Do you know any other ways?

 

I don't know if I can ever own a Sheaffer Snorkel Sentinel. Hero's and Wing Sung's almost all the pens are replicas or hybrids of Sheaffer, Pelikan or Waterman. The new Hero 91 is replica of Pelikan Pelikano.

Regards,

Yogi

 

 

Another one I'd like to try! I already have the Peli--would love to see what Hero can do with that sort of pen.