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Ratnamson pens are made by a now 93 year old company called KV Ratnam and Sons at Rajahmundry (Rajamahendravaram) Andhra Pradesh, India. This is one of the oldest surviving pen companies in India and was founded on the principles of Swadeshi (Country-made) which was a means to try to end the dependence on British goods of that era when India was still a part of the British empire and the struggle to gain freedom was ongoing. The company offers a few models differing in sizes. The Supreme is their flagship offering in the current times. The pen comes in a simple box. The pen is accompanied with a copy of the letter sent by Mahatma Gandhi to them appreciating their pen. This is not my first Supreme. I have been buying them off and on over the years. This particular one arrived from them a few days back. The pen has remained essentially unchanged. Earlier under Dr KV Ramanamurthy, they used to offer hand made 14Ct gold nib options but after his passing away, this art has been lost. Currently only the steel nibbed versions are offered. The change that I can see is in the steel nib itself. The nib fitted to my pen appears to be made by the Indian firm Kanpur Writers of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. It’s a fine nib. Pleasantly smooth with a good feel on paper. Other classic touches include the stamped Ratnamson branding on the clip and the swaged twin cap bands indicating a steel nibbed supreme. The section shape of the Supreme is very similar to the shape found on the Parker Jack knife safeties and non streamlined Duofolds. This is an extremely comfortable section for me and I really love using the supreme for this reason. Another unique touch to the Supreme is this machined recess surrounding the nib. If any ink escapes the nib, it will accumulate here and not spread over the section Preventing the user’s fingers from getting soiled. I haven’t seen them offer this on their other models. Lots of care has gone into the supreme. The pen opened. It’s a traditional eyedropper. The simplest fountain pen possible with the least amount of parts. The proportions of the supreme are ample, supporting a robust construction. The dimensions: Capped: ~155 mm Barrel+Section: 110 mm Nib: 21 mm Cap Dia 17.5 mm Barrel Dia: 16 mm Section Dia 13-13.5mm The cap takes a royal 5-1/2 turns to cap and uncap. Here are some previous reviews of the supreme at the following links Link 1 Link 2 The Supreme is personally a great value at the current price of 5000/- INR shipped within India. While there is no website, the pen makers can be contacted over WhatsApp on the first number printed on the pamphlet. It’s always a great pleasure to receive a new Supreme and this time I decided to review this pen again. Cheers Hari .

Submarine is a pen company based in Mumbai, India who are into making mainly promotional pens. They have been making pens since 1995 which makes them 30 years old in this business. You can check their website here. https://www.submarinepens.com Recently they have launched this giant of a pen. It’s so recent that it has not yet made it to their website. The pen is offered in three colors: olive ripple, brown ripple and solid black. The hardware has a gunmetal PVD finish and even the nibs are coated in the same shade. The pen comes with two nib units. One M and the other B. The nib unit threads are JoWo no 6 compatible. The nibs are not laser engraved but are rather custom stamped which shows that the company is seriously invested in offering more such pens in the future. The nib units appear to have been manufactured by the Indian nib OEM Kanpur Writers. The black ebonite is flawless and worth mentioning as it’s quite uncommon to find such Indian ebonite rods in this girth without inclusions/blowholes. The pen comes in a simple triangular box with a box of cartridges included and a Schmidt converter is pre installed. The box. Opened. The pen. Uncapped. The clip. The nibs. Barrel opened. The dimensions of this giant are as under: Capped: 165mm Uncapped length (without nib length): 125mm Cap Diameter max: 20mm Barrel Diameter max: 17mm Section Diameter: 13.5 to 16mm With some other Indian Giants L-R: Deccan Masterpiece, Submarine Orion, Guider Zimbo Pushcap. This is a well engineered and a well built pen. The cap features an airtight in-situ machined inner cap. The cap barrel threads are two-start. The pen caps/uncaps in 2-1/4 turns. The section shape is very convenient. On close inspection of the pen I am fairly certain this pen has been manufactured by Abhay pen agencies of Aurangabad for Submarine. This is an educated guess at this stage considering I have no official confirmation of this. I also feel that the ebonite is not of Indian origin. All in all, I am very happy with this purchase and I will be keeping my eyes open for further pen offerings from Submarine. Cheers Hari

The Airmail/ WALITY 69EB is probably the only ebonite model produced today by the Airmail pen co. Bought when they were released, two colors were available. Green ripple and Brown ripple and probably an Olive ripple too but I dont remember too well. In its stock configuration, it is fitted with a steel F nib of the Indian no 8 size (28mm over a 6.35mm feed) and is ED filled. The 69 series models have very little space inside the inner cap ( EB has around 18.5mm only) so it is sometimes difficult for the novice to install third party nibs which are typically 35mm long and thence have to be set particularly deep in the section so that the nib's exposed length does not exceed the inner cap space( if the nib's exposed length is more than the inner cap space, the nib will be badly crumpled when you close the cap fully). Also if a nib unit is to be installed to allow C/C facility, even a European no 5 nib unit has a longer nib exposed length than what the 69EB inner cap allows. One workaround to this problem is to turn down the flared collar of the nib unit housing, allowing it to be set deeper into the section. This is the approach that I have taken on one of the pens. Here is the result with the Schmidt FH341. I have set the nib unit deep enough to control the exposed nib length to 18mm. Also shown is another EB where I have installed a KW 35mm factory B STUB nib over the stock WALITY feeder in ED mode. This nib is set extremely deep( nearly half of the nib is inside the section!). Along with some other currently inked pens: L-R: Lamy 2000, 69TS, 69EB, 71J The 69EB is a nice, very low cost introduction to the ebonite pen. Its quite well made with multistart threads fast open cap and an adequate stock F nib. DIY nib upgrades need application of some techniques. However, a very straightforward nib upgrade to obtain a wider point is to buy after market Indian size 8 (28mm) nibs from Ambitious or KW who offer F and M widths in this size. Cheers, Hari

Good Morning, I recently purchased a wonderful Gama Forever fountain pen in a beautiful glossy black finish. One distinguishing factor of this and many other Indian eyedropper pens is the fact that they are made from ebonite, aka vulcanite, aka hard rubber. I am sure that in this forum many are familiar with this material. It is the first time dealing with it for me, personally, so I had this question: Is the gas that Ebonite emits when new or when heated "safe"? I mean "safe" in the sense that it does not pose any detrimental long-term effects to my health. I am aware of the ubiquity of this material in pen manufacturing of yesteryear, so I would think it is! But I just wanted a peace of mind. I look forward to your contributions. Nurmister Edit: I write this due to my recent acquaintance to Volatile Organic Compounds, a set of harmful gases emitted by numerous petroleum-based products. Luckily, I suspect that ebonite does not fall under such a category since: i. Formic acid is used only during the(raw?) rubber manufacturing process. ii. Sulfur is used for vulcanization (but the rubber itself should be desulfurized before further processing, hopefully). iii. Ebonite hates petroleum!