Looking For A Dip Desk Pen With Fountain Pen Nib

[guitarman19853]

I'm looking for a fountain pen style desk pen with a gold nib. I don't specifically need flex. I just want a dip pen that writes like a fountain pen for testing ink or general writing at home.

 

All of the dip pens I find are either glass, calligraphy nibs, or unknown.

 

I've been reading that Sheaffer made dip pens but can't find any on ebay.

 

Oh, and vintage is preferred

[Uncle Red]

Wow, tall order.

Esterbrook made their "Dipless" series of desk pens sets. The holder would take a huge supply of ink and keep it from drying out, the pen was a dip pen with an interchangeable nib with a feed, you could write a paragraph to a page without dipping a second time depending on you nib and ink. These nibs were all steel.

I'm not aware of any other company that made dip pens like this with either gold or steel nibs. Most desk sets I know are fountain pens (or ballpoints).

There are dip pens with gold nibs tipped with iridium from the end of the 19th and beguinning of the 20th centuries but they don't have feeds (or I haven't seen one like that) so they're like any other dip pen in terms of volume of ink held and in ink flow. Most of these I've seen are very flexable but an old catalog I've seen shows they did make stiff nibs in the old days.

Some of the Indian companies make dip pens with feeds but they use steel nibs (and I'd get an Esterbrook first, especially if I wanted something other than a fine point)

[Goncharov]

Esterbrook made many desk models in both dip and fountain pens.

They also made a wide variety of interchangeable nib units that are easy to swap out.

[guitarman19853]

I think the Esterbrook is along the lines of what I was thinking. I also came across references to post office pens.

 

I basically just want a fountain pen without the filling system. Something I could dip and rinse pretty easily without having to clean a whole filling system.

[Flake]

I use an esterbrook dipless for my ink journaling for just that reason.

[lamder]

I just went with the approach of sticking a fountain pen nib into a regular dip pen holder.

Couple of things to consider if you want to try this:

 

1. Many FP nibs are not particularly suited for such a configuration because they need a feed and will not hold or deposit ink properly without one. I experiemented with a couple of nibs, and found in general that small is better than large (better able to hold on the the bead of ink), stiff is better than flex (less chance of gushing accidents), fine is better than broad (you are not looking at a lot of ink per dip to begin with). The best candidate that I ended up using is a no-name vintage stiff size 0 nib I found as a throw-in in a dip pen lot purchase. Depending on the ink and paper, I can write anything from 20-100 words with a single dip.

 

2. You need to experiment with fitting the nib to the holder, since FP nibs are shaped differently, but most regular 4-prong holders have enough give to take a variety of FP nibs.

 

Sam

[jbb]

If you don't use the filling mechanism wouldn't a Sheaffer desk fountain pen with a 14K gold nib work? Just dip it to write and don't fill it. I use a bunch of old fountain pens as dip pens. I refit mine with steel flex nibs that have to be replaced periodically because they rust.

 

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5447/6911882188_02b5a9de81_o.jpg

Edited August 10, 2012 by jbb

[Uncle Red]

JBB, how easy is it to clean the feed so you can change inks. It sounds like guitarman wants to test a bunch of inks quickly.

[Tommy]

Sengbusch made one called a Handi-Pen. A nice big 14k gold nib with a feed. Mine is a med. with a little flex. The base holds 2.5 oz of ink, but I never fill it, just use it for testing inks. Don't know how common they are. You could probably find an Esterbrook easier.

 

Tom

 

.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/9520/sengbuschdippen004.jpg

By tom753 at 2012-08-10

 

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9608/sengbuschdippen005.jpg

By tom753 at 2012-08-10

Edited August 11, 2012 by Tommy

[Tokugawa]

Yet another option are the Nakaya desk pens available from Classic Fountain Pens. Pricey, but you do get an excellent desk pen for the money spent.

 

Edit: Not a dip or vintage pen, but still a very nice desk pen to consider.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Tokugawa

[jbb]

JBB, how easy is it to clean the feed so you can change inks. It sounds like guitarman wants to test a bunch of inks quickly.

Feeds hold lots and lots and lots of ink :bonk: they are not easy/quick to clean. One could certainly put a nice gold nib (without a feed) into a dip pen holder. Nib + holder.... what could be simpler?