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So I have wanted a vacuum filler for quite some time. I bought some Chinese one from AliExpress last year to try them out- the filling mechanism is fabulous but they don't post, which is a deal-breaker for me in any pen that isn't retractable. PenBBS says their Vac fillers don't post. The TWSBI pens have pretty large step-downs, which is something I avoid. I'm trying to find a vac that sits well in hand, posts, doesn't suffer from the step-down issue and is not multiple hundreds of dollars. Vintage or new is fine- these days vintage pens often seem to be better values. The Pilot Custom seems to fit the bill, but I was hoping to pay less. Plus, a family member is going to Japan in October, so any Japanese pens of significant price should wait 'til then...

I’m seeking vac fillers which have 1.5mm stub or italic nibs (do they exist?) and/or 1.5mm stub or italic nibs which fit TWSBI GO and/or SWIPE vac fillers. Do these exist? (They need not be from TWSBI — I enjoy Frankenpenning.) Also, what chance is there of anyone being able to persuades TWSBI to resume making their 1.5 mm stub nib? Oh — by the way — what does TWSBI stand for, anyway? I assume that it abbreviates something, and that it may be abbreviating something in Chinese. I don’t know much Chinese, but I do know that a word which sounds like “bee” Is the Chinese word for a pen or pencil, So I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the company name is short for something Chinese.

Hello again to all my FPN friends, Today the long awaited Penbbs 456 vac-filler arrived in the mail, so I thought I'd give everyone still waiting for theirs on the slow boat from China to see what they have to look forward to. Below are just a few impressions after filling it up and taking it for a test drive. - The pen just exudes quality! The translucent blue material looks thick and sturdy. The pen just feels very solid and sturdily constructed. - The 456 is just a tad longer than the 309, but notably heavier due to the additional metal parts (see comparison photos below). - It posts securely, the most securely of any Penbbs pen I own. - The clip is one of the best I've seen on a Chinese pen. It's just the right amount of springiness and slides very smoothly only whatever it is clipped too. Unlike previous Penbbs models, the end of the clip isn't just folded over metal, but appears to be a separate piece welded on. - The vacuum mechanism worked perfectly on the first try and filled up a little more than half the ink chamber with one pump. I'm so happy to have been able to try this filling system without having to pay $70+ for a TWSBI. I've owned TWSBIs before and I'd say the 456 actually feels more solid. - Although the section threads are metal going against the cap's threaded acrylic, uncapping and capping the pen is very smooth and secure. The metal threads on the section are smooth and I have no problem actually resting my fingers on the threads when writing (something I have to do given the issue below). - The only negative point for me is the balance. The pen is back heavy even when not posted. This probably won't be an issue for people with larger hands. However, with my small hands I must hold the pen on the section threads in order to obtain a comfortable balance for writing. Otherwise the angle of the pen decreases from how I normally write. - As for the nib, it's a super smooth two-tone #6 Penbbs nib. It writes a little on the dry side, but the filling method ensures that there's plenty of ink in the feed to keep it going. The nib has the classic Penbbs slight bend to it which can actually make a little bit of line variation, what I would call "semi-architect." Downstrokes are about 0.5mm while sidestrokes can vary from 0.3 to 0.8 depending on the writing angle. Ink fly increases with pressure, but there's nothing in the way of flex. All in all, I think Penbbs has created their best product yet and can't wait to see what they come up with next! Comparisons (from left to right: Pelikan M215, Lingmo Lorelei, Platinum 3776 Century, Penbbs 308, Penbbs 309, Penbbs 456) Writing (slight line variation between vertical and horizontal strokes)

Hi all, I took a punt on a vacuum fill Sheaffer Feather-Touch with a military clip cap (the type where the clip bends over the cap's top), and it's sold as unrestored. I'm in the UK, and wondered if anyone had a recommendation for a UK-based repair person?

I was frustrated on a pen I bought: a Stipula Etruria Gallicana in Oronero color with a stiflexnib. This pen was gorgeous at first sight, but some drawbacks refrained me from using it daily: -It could only hold a small amount of ink: it is a CC filler. -The feed was a disaster as it was not suitable for a flex nib like the stiflex nib. -The pen was made of acrylic and i love the warm feeling of ebonite. After months of drawing plans and attempting on making parts for the pen I finally succeeded! This pen is made from ebonite rods from Nikko ebonite in ripple orange. The filling system is a Vac-Fill, a copy of the Wahl-Eversharp Doric second generation filling system. The cap doesn't post. The clip is sculpted from solid 316L stainless steel. Cap jewel and end barrel jewel are made of a gem grade rhodolite garnet embedded in 316L stainless steel. The cap ring is made of a solid rod of 316L stainless steel, engraved by hand with carbide tipped burr, with an artificially rusted finish. The nib is an original 14k Stiflex nig from Globus (Stipula) and is quite a wet noodle. The feed is in hard rubber from a destroyed Omas 360. Here are the pictures, it is now my daily writer!

The Custom 823 pens have always been highly captivating demonstrators from Pilot Corporation (Japan), sporting the second largest nib (Pilot#15, Namiki#20 nibsize), with a vacuum plunger filling mechanism. The model number 823 refers to the price and year, of launch, although in a slightly intricate manner. Since this pen was released in the year of 2000, 82 years after the company’s inception (i.e. 1918), it carries the first two digits of the model number as ‘82’ and the last digit which is ‘3’ refers to it launch price of JPY 30,000 (3 X 10,000). Also replicated the content with additional pictures in my blog, as the images are/will be reduced to a small thumbnail after a short-while by the image hosting service. Happy reading ! Below is a link to the same: The Pilot Custom 823 Amber Demonstrator Review The Custom 823 (for the Asian market) comes packaged in a standard pilot gift box (Z-CR-GN) which might not draw much attention, quite unlike the pen. The US merchandise comes with a silver sateen lined gift box with a complementary (hey! not really folks) bottle of Pilot/Namiki Ink-70 (Blue). The pen of course is a hot star. A golden label with a model number and nib specs is tagged to the clip. The box carries a user manual for a Type P fountain pen, which does mention keeping the knob slightly unscrewed (at a 2 mm distance) relative to the metal ring, while writing. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4033_zpsn5yia4uf.jpg DESIGN - THE AMBER DEMONSTRATOR (6/6) The Custom 823 comes in three standard designs of translucency transparency - Amber, Smoke and Clear resin, all with gold plated trims. The resin material seems substantial and feels heavy. A silver trimmed version may be a nice thing for many fountain pen nerds including myself. I went for an Amber one with a medium nib and find it quite challenging to resist getting another Smoke version, with recently slashed prices in Rakuten/Ebay. The Amber demonstrator given its lightness, is capable of bedazzling you even with a tiny bit of moonlight. A golden dazzle along the three bands and the clip, subtly delivers the rest. The finials at the cap along with the piston knob conclude the design with a brownish opacity. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4038_zps59uqxwrt.jpg The cap feels substantial and unscrews with one and a half turn, revealing the elegant yet simply designed pen. The grip section is moulded from the same brown resin as the cap-final and the piston-knob, and another golden ring segregates the grip from rest of the body. The amber demonstrator translucency does reveal the steel rod with a plunger seal mechanism. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4058_zpsdj6urt8a.jpg The cap does mention a few things etched across the broader of the concentric golden bands, including the model name CUSTOM 823 and PILOT MADE IN JAPAN with six stars of separations. A thinner band above renders some more aesthetics to the overall design. The clip is tension fit and it encompasses a vertically embossed PILOT within its golden sheen. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/Cap_zpsp81nns3m.jpg FILLING SYSTEM (6/6) The brown piston knob unscrews from the golden ring till an end stop, post which the plunger unit can be pulled out. The rod is made of stainless steel and is resistant to most of the commonly used inks. For IG (Iron Gall) and Pigment Inks, care must be taken to clean the pen several times, to prevent clogging or deposit accumulation inside the ink passages. The pen fills to more than two-thirds its capacity, once the nib is dipped in ink and the plunger is pushed back in. This can give a quick gush of ink inside with a comfortable volume of 1.4 - 1.5 mL, which again could last for several days. Although getting some more ink into your pen is quite possible. Cleaning the pen is a similar ritual accompanied with some shake and I suggest you do it on a regular basis, for the ink stains if left may look ugly with time, and might require a light ammonia solution to go-off. And as mentioned in the manual, while writing with the pen, you would need to keep the piston-knob slightly unscrewed (at a 2 mm distance) relative to the golden ring. This will displace a conical valve seal below the piston seal to allow passage of ink to the feed. Given the high ink capacity of these pens with plunger type filling mechanism, this has been done to prevent ink-leakage. And this is a nice thing to have, if you intend to carry the 823 in a flight. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4130_zpsjqcefo3d.jpg For a rather crazy and complete fill, you do have a workaround. With the nib pointed up, you can pull out the plunger of a partially filled 823 and then by slowly pushing the plunger inside, you would get the air-gap between the inverted ink-levels and the visible end of barrel-section minimized. Once the inverted ink-level reaches the visible end of the barrel, you can submerge the nib in the ink bottle and push the plunger in. Voila! Done. This process may result in some ink escaping to the threads of the piston knob, but again you can repeat the same process with water/cleaning solution and shake a little to wash it off. NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (6/6) The nib is friction-fit and comes in a standard 14k monotone design across three stock widths - F, M, B (and some specially ordered custom widths of FA and WA). The nib has a standard pilot design. The tail end of the nib specifies the month and year of manufacture. An elongated hexagonal imprint separates the design from the outer shoulders and tines with an arabesque decor running inside its circumference, encompassing the circular breather hole in between. The branding and nib specifications of PILOT, 14k-585 (58.5% Au Alloy) along with the nib size and width, which are imprinted below the breather hole. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4151_zpscb3t9giu.jpg A standard bluish grey plastic feed with thin fins and a decently sized feeder hole delivers the amazing ink suction. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4152_zpswsiiokoa.jpg PHYSICS OF IT (6/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING With a transparent translucent resin body in form of a traditional cigar shape, it does give a comfortable feel of length. The cap itself weighs 10 grams which makes it top heavy if posted. The overall weight of the 823s have thus a significant (one-third) contribution from the cap. There is then a comfortable grip section with around 1.1 cm diameter. Uncapped Length ~ 13. 2 cm Posted Length ~ 16.4 cm Nib Leverage ~ 2.4 cm Overall Weight ~ 29 g A capped and uncapped comparison with few of the standard large pens like Visconti Homo Sapiens Maxi, Pelikan m805 and MB 146 is posted below for your reference. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4154_zpsxjd20amq.jpg http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4155_zpsieq78ytb.jpg ECONOMIC VALUE(6/6) It retails at around USD 288, and as usual it’s available at lower street prices towards a band of USD 200. I had got the pen at a cost of USD 220 at that time, which I thought was a good bargain. This year Rakuten sellers made it look lamentable by selling 823s at less than USD 190, inclusive of shipping! OVERALL (6/6) This 14k nib has a wet flow, albeit a hint of softness like the custom 74. The nib is springy and lays a somewhat wider line with pressure. There is no significant variation among the horizontal and vertical strokes. These wet lines take almost 15 secs to dry a Sailor Jentle Sky High on MD paper. http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag127/soniknitr/C823/DSC_4180_zpsxbepmpcf.jpg Thank you for going through the review. Sonik

As the title says. I realised that my nib was running a little dry and, as with a lot of vacuum fillers, I went to unscrew the piston knob at the top to break the seal so more ink could flow through. However, upon trying I literally could not move this piston knob no matter how hard I try. Granted, I don't go to the gym every single day, but damn. This is ridiculous. I've never had this problem before. Any help? Edit - I used it yesterday with absolutely no problems and I have had the pen for ~2 weeks. I unscrewed the piston knob yesterday and I didn't screw it on with a stupid amount of force. Edit 2 - Even with silicon grease this thing won't budge.

I bought a little silver ringtop on eBay: a Tiffany pen with a William Hicks nib. It's not especially different from other pens of this type, just subtly xbetter, more carefully made. Except for one thing: it leaked. When I uncapped the pen, the section would be covered with ink. I wore it to the L. A. Pen Show anyway, because it's such a splendid writer. Mr. Minuskin had replaced the bulb on the reservoir (it's that old) so I asked him what he thought the problem might be. He observed that there were no holes in the cap. This means that a sufficiently strong vacuum is set up to pull ink out of the section. For some reason, possibly because the pen's so early that they didn't know the breather holes were necessary; possibly because they couldn't talk the client into having them. In any case, the solution to the problem would be a jeweler who won't laugh at me when I ask him to do something weird. Luckily, there's a guy in Sherman Oaks who's been rebuilding jewelry for my sister for years. Also luckily, I had two other silver pens to use as examples (one of which I left with him because the bottom end was cracked). The operation took moments, and it worked like a charm. So instead of feeling like I'd vandalized the pen (which you could argue) I've made it more useful. Lesson: they're made to be used, and it's more useful now. Update: it still leaks a bit, but I think that has to do with gripping the pen too closely to the section. It's dry when I uncap it. Still a fantastic writer.

Over time, I observed that the 580 could not find much use, primarily because my writing preferences have graduated towards softer and larger nibs along with time. So here comes the saviour from TWSBI - The Vac 700, with a bigger nib of #6 size, and a vacuum plunger mechanism. Personally, I prefer the concept of an ink shut off valve. If you are looking for a review of the 580, here it is. If you like the blog view along with pictures, just click below: TWSBI VAC 700 with a VAC 20 Review TWSBI TWSBI (pronounced Twiz-Bee) refers to San Wen Tong, i.e TWS spelled backwards and it means ‘Hall of Three Cultures’ and if you wish to know more, the information is available on their website. BI at the end. refers to writing instruments. Ta Shin Precision has manufactured a range of things starting from toy lego parts to high-end writing instruments, for several luxury brands (both American & Japanese) for well over 40 years. So that’s plastic, metal & precision, precisely what’s required to make and sell a good looking writing instrument, under a brand name. Which luxury brands? They don’t reveal those due to privacy agreements. I have reasonable doubt from various reviews that one of them is Levenger. Also, the shaft mechanism inside Pilot Custom 823 seems similar to the one in the Vac 700. TWSBI sources its nibs from JoWo (earlier it was Bock & Schimdt), Germany (same as for Faber-Castell Stock Steel nibs). PRESENTATION Clean, clear and minimal packaging! A transparent pen lying inside a clear plastic case, encased within a brown cardboard box with adequate cushions of foam. There is an instruction sheet on filling & disassembly of the pen, highlighting the pen parts. Below the white pen-holding shelf, you will find the 7mm TWSBI wrench, couple of O-rings for the filler collar and a vial of silicone grease in two push slots. Neat! DESIGN - TAPERED TRANSPARENCY (4/6) The VAC 700 used to come in four transparent colours - Sapphire, Amber, Smoke & Clear. Now TWSBI has retained the production of the clear model only. I was looking for a clear model, since I already have a few other coloured demos. The build of VAC700 is sturdy and it seems that a substantial amount of acrylic has been used. Honestly, it never felt cheap nor does it feel luxurious. I think this pen endorses practical utility rather than art, with which you will probably associate a Visconti. More of an industrial look, for which I like this pen. Plastic & Acrylics economise both cost and weight of fittings. Most of it is visible engineering & the use of a steel plunger rod along with rubber piston and valve seals can be seen from the outside. The barrel and cap are made of thick polycarbonate, with a protective heat treated layer to increase resistance to scratches & abrasions, thus preserving the crystal transparence. The blind cap and the section exhibit translucence with smoky hue and I strongly fill that its takes out some beauty element out of the equation. But then, I wanted the clear one to enjoy the ink colour itself. The cap feels substantial and unscrews with one and a half turn, revealing a nicely sized steel nib. There is a metallic collar for the nib unit, supplying necessary chrome accents for the aesthetics part of it. The smoky translucent blind cap has a rather broad ring making the mark for usage and disassembly. The barrel is smooth and rounded with a decagonally cut blind cap, which fails to prevent the open pen from rolling away. The pen rolls on the broad steel ring below the blind cap. The acrylic orchestrates light well and dazzles the ink inside the barrel. The cap has a widish chrome band carrying a laser engraved TWSBI on one side of it and VAC 700 TAIWAN on the other. The finial carries a vibrant red & silver TWSBI logo of three pillars within a dome of transparent acrylic. The clip has a frosted aluminium feel and finish and is spring-loaded within a visible system with a chrome tassie. The cap has a geometrical decagonal cut, though the clip prevents any rolling away. The frosted look & feel of aluminium and somewhat stands out unevenly compared to the overall dazzling steel chrome trims. The cap is moderately heavy (@13g). You can also see a transparent inner cap, which prevents the nib from drying out. FILLING SYSTEM (4/6) As a plunger filler, it does have a good ink capacity around 1.8~2.3 mL (a full fill which is easy to do from an inverted Vac 20 bottle or repeated air removal filling). The smoky translucent blind cap unscrews with three complete turns. The rod is made of stainless steel and is resistant to most of the commonly used inks. For IG (Iron Gall) and Pigment Inks, care must be taken to clean the pen several times, to prevent clogging or deposit accumulation inside the ink passages. With the usual ink bottle, the pen fills to around two-thirds of its capacity, once the nib is completely dipped in ink and the plunger is pushed back in. This can give a good amount of ink inside with a comfortable volume of 1.5 - 1.8 mL. Sometimes, I have to repeat it several times to create a good vacuum, an issue I never had with the Custom 823 or the Homo Sapiens. The Custom 823 takes only a second vacuum to fill well. But YMMV. Cleaning the pen could be a similar ritual accompanied with some shake and I suggest you do it on a regular basis, for the ink stains if left may look ugly with time, and might require a light ammonia solution to go-off. Else you could just disassemble the shaft mechanism from the barrel and clean the transparent barrel with some a light dishwashing liquid water solution. And as mentioned in the manual, while writing with the pen, you would need to keep the piston-knob slightly unscrewed & pulled to the first stop (at a 4 mm distance) relative to the chrome ring. This will displace the conical valve rubber seal below the piston seal, to allow passage of ink to the feed. Given the high ink capacity of these pens with plunger filling mechanism, it has been introduced to prevent ink-leakage. And this is a nice thing to have, if you intend to carry the pen by air. The feeder hole looks like a channel to enable efficient ink suction. A problem I have landed up with this piece is that while filling it from a VAC 20 bottle, there are some ink drops coming out of the rear end of the filler collar. I emailed TWSBI Customer Service and Philip asked me to replace the filler O-ring with the spare one, which is actually thinner. However, this did not solve the issue completely and Philip was kind enough to have his factory send an immediate replacement of shaft mechanism. We both think that the inner O-ring of the shaft mechanism is the culprit. FILLING WITH THE VAC 20 INKWELL (INDEPENDENT RATING - 5/6) The VAC 20 inkwell comes within a small cardboard box. Unlike the well packaged Diamond 50 bottle, the packaging is pretty plain. It’s made of plastic and weighs around 20 grams without ink. Ink Capacity is 20 mL, of course (Thus VAC 20, but wait, what about VAC 700! ). The below bottle is around two-thirds filled. The bottle used to come in five simple variants - black, orange, red, green & blue top-caps and occupies a fraction of space taken by the Diamond 50 inkwell. The new one however is called VAC 20A and it has an additional insert for the VAC Mini. You have to remove the top cap for filling the VAC 700. The base cap has the threads of the VAC 700 pen inside, so as to fit the pen precisely. And with an inverted configuration you can pull/push the plunger to suck the ink to full capacity of the pen. And there is no need of cleaning the VAC700 after filling ink, as only the feed area is exposed. Cool ! The outer cap has a good sealing tube and I never found any ink leakage from the bottle itself even after keeping it inverted in my backpack for 2 days. Personally, I find it comfortable as a travelling inkwell since the dimensions are minimal and the base bottle offers the height of ink to completely immerse nibs of most pens with standard nib sizes. The only quibble I have is: when you fill ink in any other pen, the base cap (black) has to be unscrewed and it exposes the broader opening of the bottle. The secure bottle acting as a pen stand is now gone. The inner taper of the base cap block sections of most of the similar sized pens (except VAC 700 & a few slimmer ones). Besides it’s priced pretty decent (in US), and you do travel with 20 mL of your favourite ink. DISASSEMBLY (6/6) In cases where the piston has become stiff or there is any leakage of ink from the rear, it would require you to disassemble and self-service the pen. You can find two spare O-rings with the wrench and silicone grease. You can have a look at a 700 disassembly video. I like this one. Make sure you thoroughly flush the pen with water before disassembling it. Rotate the blind cap counter-clockwise, till it rotates freely. Pull out the blind cap till it comes to an end stop. The same thing you do while longer writing sessions. Fit the wrench below the blind cap on the area of the filler collar which has two parallel cuts on the otherwise circular section. Rotate counter-clockwise till the collar comes out of the inner threads. There is an O-ring on the collar (at the end of those threads ideally) that goes inside the barrel, to prevent leakage of ink. (the same ring for which spares are provided) Then you can pull off the shaft mechanism along with the blind cap from the barrel. The nib unit can be easily removed by first unscrewing the grip section from the barrel Since, nib is friction fit, you may remove the nib and feed from the unit, in case there is some heavy cleaning required (in case of a bad flow, sometimes the feed is coated with grease which restricts ink-flow). Make sure you carefully apply adequate amount of silicone grease with a earbud/toothpick to the sides of the conical frustum like rubber piston seal/lip before reassembly. Don't use any grease on the conical valve seal, else the grease may block the section slit, thereby the flow of ink. NIB - ALL THAT MATTERS (6/6) This is a silver accented stainless steel nib from Jowo of size#6. It carries off the TWSBI traditional dagger-like design well. Across four stock widths - EF, F, M, B and two special widths of Stub 1.1 & Stub 1.5, this looks pretty industrial and minimalistic. The nib/feed unit can also be taken out of the sleeve after unscrewing the section. The tail end specifies carries the nib width, while the name TWSBI along with the logo rest above the tail. There is some simple scroll within the symmetry of its tines, reflecting the rather industrial look of the pen. A black plastic feed with a adequate feed channel for ink suction provides the inflow of ink. The thin fins ensure an acceptable buffer capacity, although I have always found better feeds in Pilot & of course the Pelikans. The feeds are said to be a bit brittle. So suggest you take care if you are replacing the nib. These are sourced from JoWo. Earlier, TWSBI used to source its nibs from Schmidt and then Bock, which is incidentally the nib-supplier for Faber-Castell smoothy nibs too. The nib being a medium is a juicy wet delight to write with. And it lays a line which runs a tad thicker than Japanese Medium/European Fine nibs. More of this in the last section with writing sample. PHYSICS OF IT (6/6) – RELATIVELY SPEAKING The pen even without ink, does have a good balance in terms of both weight and length. The pen is not meant to be posted for the likes of me. The grip is quite comfortable for me, with a girth of 1 cm for me. The weight of the pen is mainly due to the steel/aluminium metal parts along with the steel rod used in the shaft mechanism. Uncapped Length ~ 13.2 cmCapped Length ~ 14.4 cmNib Leverage ~ 2.4 cm #6Overall Weight ~ 32 g (Cap Weight ~ 13 g)Max Ink Capacity ~ 2.3 mL Capped and uncapped comparisons with a Pelikan m805 and a Pilot Custom 823, run below for your reference. An uncapped vac 700 along with others. ECONOMIC VALUE (5/6) The VAC700 retails at around Rs 9,500 ($ 141 @ 67 INR/USD) here and I got it from Manoj (of Manoj Pen Mart) at around Rs 4500, in exchange for another sparsely used TWSBI. The pen retails at USD 65, in the US and cheaper in other countries. A major problem with ordering it from TWSBI’s website is the heavy FedEx shipping charges, and also un-calculated duties to be paid for. Thankfully, Pradeep (FPN@Prads) arranged an exchange of the 580 with Mr. Manoj, I had to pay a fraction of the Indian MRP for the Vac 700. I bought it from Mr. Manoj (of Manoj Pen Mart, Fort, Mumbai). OVERALL (5.2/6) This nib is wet and smooth with most of the inks. Since, I am used to a few large pens, I did not find a problem with either the heft or the balance of Vac 700. Many people don't find the heft/weight comfortable. There is no noticeable line variation but the #6 nib does render some spring, which can cushion your writing. The medium nib lays a line which runs a tad thicker than Japanese Medium/European Fine nibs. The pen feels balanced for my hands both with or without pressure and given the tapered profile of the section, it has a good grip. I have used single fills of Waterman Florida Blue & Sailor Yama Budo inks in rotation, and the pen nicely in the case of Sailor ink. Being a wet writer out of the box, the Medium nib puts up a nice juicy line, which takes around 22-25 seconds to dry a Sailor Yama Dori ink on MD Paper. The spring and length of this steel nib reminds me of the fact that a good steel nib can always be of joy. However, if you ask me to compare the Custom 823#15 nib with this steel nib, I would say it’s great but the 823-14k nib wins in terms of cushion, softness and additional spring by a fair margin. REFERENCES TWSBI 580 Diamond Review FPN TWSBI History Disassembly - Removing ink shut off valve (Warranty might be voided) Thank you for going through the review. You can find some more pen and paraphernalia reviews here.

Hi there. I have a vintage Pilot vacuum filler pen and I was wondering if anyone could identify it. It has a vacuum filling reservoir but there isn't a seal on the o-ring so it won't fill. I am trying to take it apart in order to see what needs to be fixed but don't want to break it. I think it just needs another o-ring but am not sure. I am able to get the nib section off, just not the plunger rod. There is an indentation on the top that goes from one side to another. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, Everyone! Some 35 years ago, my great grandfather gave me a fountain pen out of his "junk drawer". I took it home, found some ink somewhere and actually wrote/drew with it. Then, at some point (because my dad told me I should) attempted to clean it with nail polish remover. It softened the celluloid and made it "sticky". It ended up lost or in the garbage. Anyway, My GG was born in 1900, and the pen was a black and green striated celluloid with a gold nib (that much I can remember). Doing a bit of digging around the eBay, i've seen that Sheaffer pens come in that same sort of color, and I have recently gotten the bug to buy one. Right now I have almost all modern fountain pens (Edison, Bexley and Conklin) and a few older "mistakes" that need fixiing/ink sacs (Epenco lever filler, Webster button fill and 4 Arnold lever fillers that all work great, so I guess I can't call them mistakes!). Basically, my experience tends toward modern cartridge & cartridge converter pens. I would like to purchase a Sheaffer pen, because that green and black striped pattern reminds me of the one I destroyed/lost/threw out/whatever. I see lots and lots and lots of Shaeffer pens out there, but I have NO idea of what to look for. Is an older Vac Fill that needs repair better than an older Lever fill that needs repair? How much should I budget? Should I buy a working pen that's been restored? Sooooo many questions. Not the least of which is.....How much should I budget for a working pen? $100.00? More? Less? Any and all advice would be appreciated. Even if you could point me towards a reputable dealer or two. I'd much rather buy from a person/store than eBay, to be honest. --Eric