Search the Community

First ideas: I got mine in neon blue, a vibrant colour, like every other one exept black. It is small and thin and cheap, great as an entry level pen. Very annoying band and clip, whuch show fingerprints, colour can come off with polishing and is very thin. Writing performance, It can post but you need to shove the cap really hard on or it will wobble. The nib I used was medium, which I belive is slightly broader than a cross and slightly finer than a LAMY. It is a little scratchy and a little dry for me, I tried an method that worked well on a Cross Dubai but didnt seem to work here, it was by sbrebrown, and is called how to wetten a nib in seconds, or something on the lines of that. You can get a tiny amount of flex but don't spring the nib ( I have first hand experience). It uses cartridges only, standard international, not Sheaffer. Summary A great pen for starters, but not very pliable.

Hello everybody, When I was much younger I had a small collection of Parker FPs and at that age it was basically a case of pearls before swine. I like some of them but in the pursuit of smoothness(back then I felt they weren't) I abandoned them. Now to improve my handwriting and in general get back to FPs, I shopped about and picked up a Schneider FP. Living in India I have relatively few choices and most of the FPs recommended here cost 1.5 times more than they normally do. What I'm looking for is a smooth(I really can't stomach scratchiness), inexpensive FP to get started. I expect to be writing quite a bit - mostly reference notes. The options before me are the: The PlatinumPreppy(the only website with it gives the model code of the Fine 0.3, but displays a 0.5); Parker Vectors(these seem to be popular here, they're stocked in nearly every colour, can't comment on the nibs); the Sheaffer VFM; Pilot Petit1 Pierre Cardin Masterpiece; the Rotring Isograph(I dont think this counts as a FP); lastly the Schneider ID M(this being the most expensive).From reading several reviews and posts I can't help favouring the Preppy. Primarily since it is Japanese(I'm quite a Japanophile), but also because I generally seems to enjoy a good reputation. Especially if I do end up getting the 0.5 the scratchiness will be averted.However this does seem a little hasty. So I look forward to you suggestions. P.S. Unfortunately I couldn't find many inexpensive Pilots or Pelikans here so I haven't included them on the list.