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Hello Fountain Pen Fellas Happy belated Holi to All from India Its been long since I have been here. And now I am back... this time it's with a new Group Buy for Pens made in India This Group Buy Consists of Kanwrite Desire and Lincoln Beena GROUP BUY ACTIVE TILL 21st April only Models: 01. Kanwrite Desire - Review 01 Moulded Resin Pen in Various Colors 3 in 1 Filling Mechanism (Converter, Cartridge, & Eyedropper)Length: 135 mmLength with Cap Posted: 155 mmLength Cap Un-Posted: 125 mmGrip Section Dia: 10 -11 mm#6 Steel Screw in Nib Unit - EF, F, M, B, BB, Stub, Semi-Flex Fine12 Color Options as Below:01 Solid Black02 Black Marble03 White Marble04 Purple Gold Marble05 Red Marble06 Royal Blue Red Marble07 Sapphire Blue Marble08 Green Brown Marble09 Brown Orange Marble10 Orange Red Marble11 Brown Cappuccino Marble12 Translucent Brown 02. Lincoln Beena (Not Made Anymore - Reform Piston Filler Inspired) - Review 02 New Old Stock, Black Color with Metal Cap#5 Steel Screw in Nib Unit - Ebonite Feed - Medium Point OnlyPiston Filling MechanismLength: 135 mmLength with Cap Posted: 152 mmLength Cap Un-Posted: 125 mmGrip Section Dia : 8 - 9 mm Pricing and Purchase Options: Option 01: Combo @ US $ 42 : Consists of 2 Nos. Kanwrite Desire with color and nib of your choice and 2 Nos. Beena Lincoln Option 02: Combo @ US $ 29 : Consists of 1 Nos. Kanwrite Desire with color and nib of your choice and 2 Nos. Beena Lincoln Option 03: Combo @ US $ 23 : Consists of 1 Nos. Kanwrite Desire with color and nib of your choice and 1 Nos. Beena LincolnOption 04: Kanwrite Desire Pen @ US $ 16: Consists of 1 Nos. Kanwrite Desire with color and nib of your choiceOption 05: One Beena Lincoln Pen @ US $ 9: Consists of one Lincoln Pen with standard Medium Nib The above prices include shipping via Registered Mail. For other express shipping methods please PM and that will be chargeable as per actuals Payment to be done via Paypal only for international customers and for domestic via bank transfer. Paypal ID is: mehandiratta@gmail.com Shipping: Shipping will be done via Registered Air Mail within 5 to 15 days after the payment depending on the required color and nib choices. Normally it takes approx 10 to 30 days to arrive at the destination depending upon the location. EMS shipping available at extra charge For shipping within India kindly PM me. In order to participate in the group buy just fill the Google Form (Link Below) and Reply to the thread with “Form Submitted” or just repost the choices in thread https://forms.gle/LAjdynnPsducmbKV8

Good evening, I recently received a Reform 4328 with a surprisingly nice flexible and bouncy nib. The problem is that the nib unit does not hold the nib quite well. When unscrewing the nib unit, sliding the feed out and re-positioning the nib where it should be, I get no improvement. Heating the nib unit doesn't yield any result either. From what I see, either the nib is too short and doesn't go far enough into the nib unit or the feed ring isn't tight enough. Would any of you more experienced collectors have advice? If at all possible I really want to avoid gluing the nib to the feed ... Wishing you a very nice end of year ;-) Florent

Hello, fellow fountain pen enthusiasts! It so happened, that I found myself in possession of old REFORM Calligraph pen with B-nib. And I asked myself, why not to try to switch its nib to something more flexible? So, obviously, I looked in the direction of Noodler’s. The problem is, I can’t find out, whether any of two (#2 and #6) Noodler’s flex nibs is suitable for REFORM pen. Thus if anybody has any experience in changing nibs in these German pens, please share your knowledge with me. Thank you.

A few years ago I bought some of these pens that were advertised as Reform Student fountain pens. I bought them from an individual, not an on-line store, not from Flea-Bay. They write well, but I have always wondered if they are really a product of the Reform company, and if they are if they have a specific model number or name or if they're just called "Reform Student" fountain pens. The nibs are stamped: Iridium Point Germany But we all know that that doesn't mean they were made in Germany. One had "Germany" on the end button,FWIW. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/Ink_Stained_Wretch/reform_student_fountain_pens_closed.jpg Here they are with their caps on. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/Ink_Stained_Wretch/reform_student_fountain_pens_open.jpg Here they are with their caps off. http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/Ink_Stained_Wretch/reform_student_fountain_pen_end.jpg Here's the end of the one with "Germany" on the end button. Can we call it a tassie on such inexpensive pens? Anyway, if anyone can help to identify these pens I'd appreciate it .

What's gotten me back into fountain pens and prompted me to join FPN has been picking up a cache of pens at Christmas that used to belong to my Italian father-in-law. Among them were a selection of superslim pens from the 70s and 80s including the most svelte pen I've ever seen. Let me share them with you and perhaps you can help me identify them all. https://flic.kr/p/QMJwY8 In decreasing order of girth, from left to right (next to that standard unit of fountain pen measurement, the Safari/ALStar) are the following (apologies for the flickr links): * a German (West German, in fact) Reform pen - this one's mine, actually, a 21st birthday present back in the mid-90s. Don't know the model, I'm afraid, but it lays down a beautiful medium line and is a standard c/c. https://flic.kr/p/Rs6uQY * An iconic Aurora Hastil (MoMa etc). Medium nib, but leaks all over the place with both cartidge and trik-trak converter. I only recently realised what a corny joke the name is: "ha stil" means "has style" in Italian. https://flic.kr/p/RQP8E6 * A Sheaffer TRZ, as far as I can tell, with the logo of the Italian magazine L'Espresso on the finial. Also lays down a lovely wet line, perhaps a little too broad for the girth of the pen. There's a capacious aerometric converter inside. https://flic.kr/p/QKf1zG * Now things get really interesting. Believe it or not, the next one is a Delta, or claims to be. I've heard that Delta completely reinvented themselves in the mid-90s, erasing their previous history, and I've never seen what the earlier pens looked like. This one must be from the early 80s - a world away from a Dolcevita, with a clip that is very obviously taken from the Hastil. The collar is badly corroded, but it still writes with buttery smoothness. Inside I found a very slim Sailor cartridge, presumably the same one from the Chalana? 13.4cm long, 11.6 uncapped. Barrel is 7mm at its widest, section 6mm. https://flic.kr/p/QMKxeg * Finally, and most remarkably for me, is the slimmest pen I've ever seen. 11.9cm long, 10.7 uncapped, barrel 6mm at its widest, section 5mm. I've no loupe, but it says Japan on the finial and the nib says Sailor F-5. It takes the same cartridges as the Delta. Unfortunately, I've not managed to get it writing properly yet - the feed is badly blocked, I think. Anyone seen one of these before? https://flic.kr/p/QKg5c9 I realise these are not at all today's fashion and not especially practical. Nonetheless, I'm very drawn to them.

I have two vintage pens by Reform. One is the Astra model (steel nib) and the other is the Rekord 18 model (14k nib). Both are filled using an external piston rod that you screw into the back of the pen (in that respect, like an early prototype of CONID's filling system). The Astra works fine, but the Rekord needs a new cork. And there's my problem: I don't know which end of the pen I should be trying to open. I can't find anything on FPN that might help (only this report from 2014 of a self-destructing model). The section on the Astra can be unscrewed, which speaks for trying the section on the Rekord. That was my first thought. But nothing budges on the Rekord even after application of gentle heat, and I really don't want to break the pen in an uninformed effort to open the wrong end. On the other hand (end) the Rekord has a kind of 'blind cap' and it looks like there are gaps at the end of the barrel for a screwdriver. That makes it tempting to try to unscrew the back - but that could so easily be a recipe for a broken pen. Do you have experience with this model? Do you have any suggestions? Here are two photos that I hope will help. Apologies for the poor quality - I have only my phone camera at present. 1. The barrel (I've pushed the internal mechanism along the barrel to make both ends more visible) 2. Focus on the back

I have a Reform Rekord 18 that needs a new cork. I understand it's from the 1940s. Unfortunately, I don't know which end of the pen I should be trying to open and I haven't found anything online that would help. I did post a more detailed request - with pictures - on the Repair Q&A forum, but haven't had any responses. So I'm asking here, too, in case it gets a different audience. Advice gratefully received!

Hello lovely people, This is my first Pif, so excuse if I botch something up. Somehow somewhere I have found myself in the possession of a Reform Calligraph fountain pen with a BB nib (double broad?). As I cannot write comfortably with anything bigger than a fine and it also pains me to have a pen that I don't use in my tiny (newbie fp) collection I would like to give this one to someone else. As you can see from the pictures below it has seen some of the world before coming in my possession and the "gold" plating is beginning to flake of at some points. I have cleaned it as best I could (flushed it for about two Goulet Q&A episodes) and it seems to be ok now. If you would like this pen please raise your hand until sunday 22. feb. As I understand, I should then make a random draw and I contact you via private message and and post the result here. Cheers!

I've taken advantage of a big piece of practice for my calligraphy class (the one I go to, that is - I don't teach it, far from it!) to do a review of the various calligraphy pens in my collection - Lamy Joy, Rotring Artpen, Sheaffer Nononsense, Reform calligraphy pen and Calligraph (yes, those are two different pens: as Facebook says, "it's complicated"), Pelikan Graphos, Pilot Parallel and Online 'nuwood' calligraphy pen (a bit of a Waterman Serenité knockoff. Or hommage. Or something). Winner, for me, was the Lamy Joy. I love its looks, particularly the contrast of black and red, the shininess of its plastic, and the little touches like the red accent on the 'tail' end, and the ink window (the same as in the Safari). I also find the triangular grip really comfortable to use, and it prevents the pen rotating slightly in my fingers and spoiling the 45 degree angle of the nib - something that sometimes happens with my dip pens. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-buK-13rPdhA/U-0AMtPbh7I/AAAAAAAABTs/cqJe5tijOQ4/s1600/lamy%2Bjoy%2Bpen.jpg Joint second is the Rotring Artpen - a very wet writer, and as easy to use as the Lamy, but aesthetically, not quite as pleasing. It just doesn't have quite that Bauhaus style. But it's a really lovely writer and very comfortable to use. However, I hate the ridges on the section, not because they're uncomfortable - they're not - but because somehow, they always manage to retain a bit of ink however much I wipe, so I can never use this pen without getting my hands dirty. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ESvcpdCxEQs/U-z-YW_BZvI/AAAAAAAABTM/S_LJ7ha0ZZ8/s1600/rotring%2Bartpen.jpg And the other joint second is the Reform Calligraph - looks like a Pelikan, and is a smart little black and gold piston filler which contains a really good load of ink. I particularly like it as unlike the Lamy and Rotring, it will fit in a regular pen case. Nice and crisp writer. I would love to find out more about this pen - for instance, when was it produced? I got mine at a car boot sale, in a rather fetching box with a second Calligraph (this one's 1.1m, can't remember offhand what the other one was); they do pop up occasionally on ebay. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6GWjlxQmgf4/U-0CNRLkT2I/AAAAAAAABUQ/CptHEcSEdUs/s1600/reform%2Bcalligraph%2Bpen.jpg The Pilot Parallel is a lovely pen, but at 2.4mm just a bit too big to use in regular calligraphy, though it's my go-to pen for swash capitals. It's a very modern style and to my mind the design does properly what the Reform calligraphy pen (below) did badly - a very simple, vividly coloured cap, long tapered body, injection moulded components. The collector, I suspect, is the single thing that affects its quality the most - the flow of ink is wonderfully even across the width of the nib. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dWQP1DnVsM4/U-0Bq0l4ZmI/AAAAAAAABT8/uPuGyNwGL7Y/s1600/pilot%2Bparallel%2Bpen.jpg The Online 'nuwood' calligraphy pen is one that I bought with three interchangeable nib sections. It's a stunning looking pen in stripy wood, with a triangular cross-section to barrel and cap, and the curved looks of a Japanese katana or, more to the point, the Waterman Serenité. However... it doesn't quite live up to its looks. The section keeps unscrewing itself when I cap or uncap the pen. The section is really short, and thin, and there's a pronounced sharp shoulder between barrel and section, which make it quite uncomfortable to use. However, the nibs are good - reasonably wet writing with nice crisp edges and good line variation. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PPGEOzsVTZc/U-0DaX_0JoI/AAAAAAAABUk/SSF2AO7BBjI/s1600/online%2Bnuwood.jpg The Pelikan Graphos is horrible. Maybe I would get good results out of it if I devoted about a week to learning how to use it properly. Then again, maybe I wouldn't. It's not really a calligraphy pen anyway, it's a technical pen that was also used for lettering. A pity, because it is aesthetically very appealing in its functional and simple way. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CbCR4NxTA4w/U-0EiGwRt3I/AAAAAAAABUs/ct83g8iUlRo/s1600/pelikan%2Bgraphos%2Bpen.jpg The Reform Calligraphy pen is also just nasty. It is very cheap in construction, and the nib is both dry and scratchy. Move along, nothing to see here. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77uxMzST-U8/U-z_5aoeg6I/AAAAAAAABTk/57V1o2ZDE54/s1600/reform%2Bcalligraphy%2Bpen.jpg It really did amaze me how great the difference was between the two Reform pens. Even looking at the nibs, it's apparent - the Calligraph has a rather lovely nib with good tipping and two breather holes, the Calligraphy pen has a bit of brass sheet with a slit in it. Finally the Sheaffer NoNonsense, transparent red with a rubber section and 'M' nib. I find it a bit annoying that they don't tell you how wide the nib is; everyone else does! I found this rather a dry writer, though perfectly adequate and quite comfortable to use. It's a nice robust pen for an EDC. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SUC8zHf8e-E/U-0Evo6zZJI/AAAAAAAABU8/RuWkgnVESrY/s1600/sheaffer%2Bnononsense.jpg I do want to try to get hold of a couple of other calligraphy pens to try out; Kaweco Sport calligraphy set, andPelikan Script (which I understand has now been discontinued by Pelikan).Apologies for the very poor calligraphy. I'm practising the French style of ecriture ronde, and apart from a couple of alphabets, can't find any extensive examples to follow. You'd think there'd be a few pages of decent writing on the internet somewhere, wouldn't you? Of course my textbooks, all being English or American, are no help here! The full version of the review, with more pictures, is at my blog, Fountain Pen Love.

Hi everyone, About a week ago I found an abandoned fountain pen in my drawer. I decided I'll try and make it work, since it always had a problem which I could never fix. The problem is that the ink seems to be leaking, but I don't know where from. I tried cleaning it, I soaked it the entire day in lukewarm water to clean its system from ink, then I filled a cartridge with water to test if it leaks. The water obviously has different characteristics than ink, so it seemed not to leak then (or I didn't notice it, since it's water). After that I put a usual ink cartridge in it to see if it still leaks. Well, it leaked. I took some photos of it so you can see how it leaks, if it's any use. I can't find the source of the leakage, it's not where the cartridge is, so it must be somewhere near the nib. Is there a possibility it cracked somewhere? When I leave it standing with its cap on, and when I open it the second day, it's mysteriously covered in ink like in the photo. It writes normally (not too thick), but a bit light because of the water experiment. Can I fix this anyhow? Thank you Here are the photos: http://s9.postimg.org/o4dkh6l6z/IMG_3118.jpg http://s9.postimg.org/ftrr9cpmz/IMG_3121.jpg http://s9.postimg.org/4nsuunq2z/IMG_3122.jpg http://s9.postimg.org/e1u70pgwb/IMG_3123.jpg http://s9.postimg.org/sstkcdadn/IMG_3124.jpg

Hi all, I always though the Reforms are a bit elastic as per se. This is just a sample of what can be achieved with a bit of patience. The pen is very wet and the nib has been re-grinded to add flexibility. There is some rail-roading but considering the size of the letters, I think is acceptable. Thanks for wathcing!

Hi all! This is my small collection of pens so far: - Marble-like semi flex pocket fountain pen (Unknown manufacture with modified FPR flexible nib) - Namiki Falcon (resin) with Spencerian cut - Reform 1745 with nib reworked to add flex (actually it opens up to 1.5mm) - Lamy Logo with 1.1 strub and EF nibs - TWSBI Vac 700 with reworked cursive italic nib from EF and reworked oblique italic from B - Youngseng 016 The pictures were taken with a D90 and 18-105 lenses and YN465 flash light. Cheers

The trauma of not having access to FPN was somewhat allayed by the arrival of some really surprising pens in the mail last week. The first to arrive was a Reform 1745. I bought this without much hope of liking it, but as soon as I inked it up and held it I knew it was something really good. I haven't left home without it since. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8137/8698132944_d5fd6a087c.jpg Next was a Jinhao 250, again I was expecting the worst, but I'm really, really happy with it. I've since inked it with Waterman Tender Purple and It's come alive in all its broad nibbed glory. The colour of this thing is staggering, and the price, unbelievable. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8396/8697010733_78a7212fd1.jpg Last was the Jinhao X450 with 'calligraphy' nib. What a wonderful thing, no Idea what to do with it, but still wonderful. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8140/8697010575_2ffb25e511.jpg I'm now officially addicted to Chinese pens, heaven help me. omk