Best writer under $18 (9GBP)

[Hawk]

I would not hesitate to use any commerically available fountain pen ink in any of my FP

 

Peter

Sorry Peter, and don't mean to drag this topic on as it is suppose to be about low cost pen.

 

Try and see it from my point of view. For myself, and me alone, as I cannot speak for others, I have stated my position earlier. I meant inks from a major pen manufacture only, and not just anyone or anything that happens to be available or popular.

 

People that engineer and design their pens surely know what is best for them. I may be total naive but that is my point of view, and if someone knows pen repair and has plenty of experience with pens advises against using a given product what am I suppose to think.

 

I will always take the 'better' (Safer) path, as I simply do not want to deal with any unnecessary problems created by guess and gosh choices, in other words, I don't want to bring problems to my door, if at all possible.

 

Hawk

[Melnicki]

the Core has this... uh, possibly useful feature, but not for someone like me who fills their pens constantly checking the ink level. If you run out of ink in the cartridge or converter, you can unscrew the barell about a half a turn to a detent. This pulls the cartridge/converter out of the feed, thus doing something like creating increased airflow or whatever to help you get the last bit of ink out of the nib. I don't follow how it works. I don't see what use I would ever have for it, but its there. I think my pen has a small defect that requires me to push the converter back in when i open it to check the ink level. I think thats why it leaks ink. I'm not sure.

GML: There is a little orange (in my Core's) piece of plastic that is causing this cartridge-removing phenomenon ("write-on") that is supposed to be a good thing, but only caused me leaks. The piece of plastic is easily removable, and then you have a pen just like any other. Except it's hideous yet writes very reliably.

[Green Maned Lion]

Hawk, a fountain pen uses capilary action. It is not complicated, it is not particularly delicate, and it does not contain moving parts (genarally). The reason to use other inks? Noodlers must have about 100 different colours on the market by now. There is fun to writing with many many different colours. Different inks dry at different speeds, flow differently, have different characteristics.

 

A fountain pen is, basically, a controlled fluid leak kept in the pen via the magic of hydrogen bonds. Dip your finger in a glass of water, and watch how the water stays on your finger when you take it out. Then hover it over your counter so that the water just touches it, and move your finger. You are now doing basically what a fountain pen does.

 

Shellac is something that drys out in air and becomes insoluble. It clogs fountain pens.

 

If an ink is water soluble, and all fountain pen inks are, then it is easy to unclog. Just draw in water to the converter and squirt it out. Some inks perform better than others, but NO fountain pen ink, save for probably a few exceptions that people will mention once I post this, will clog a fountain pen.

[Hawk]

Hawk, a fountain pen uses capilary action. It is not complicated, it is not particularly delicate, and it does not contain moving parts (genarally). The reason to use other inks? Noodlers must have about 100 different colours on the market by now. There is fun to writing with many many different colours. Different inks dry at different speeds, flow differently, have different characteristics.

 

A fountain pen is, basically, a controlled fluid leak kept in the pen via the magic of hydrogen bonds. Dip your finger in a glass of water, and watch how the water stays on your finger when you take it out. Then hover it over your counter so that the water just touches it, and move your finger. You are now doing basically what a fountain pen does.

 

Shellac is something that drys out in air and becomes insoluble. It clogs fountain pens.

 

If an ink is water soluble, and all fountain pen inks are, then it is easy to unclog. Just draw in water to the converter and squirt it out. Some inks perform better than others, but NO fountain pen ink, save for probably a few exceptions that people will mention once I post this, will clog a fountain pen.

Thanks much, however I do understand perfectly well how a fountain pen works, but nothing about the chemistry of inks.

 

My advice still stands, do not use any ink in a Safari pen that is not recommended by its manufacture, Lamy in this case. Its that simple. Why should it be otherwise? Hawk

[jsonewald]

My advice still stands, do not use any ink in a Safari pen that is not recommended by its manufacture, Lamy in this case. Its that simple. Why should it be otherwise? Hawk

Why should it be otherwise?

 

1. The pen manufacturers are experts in manufacturing pens. They are not experts in manufacturing ink. They have no obligation to test or recommend any inks other than their own.

 

2. Pen manufacturers are in the business of selling products with their name on them. They will, as good business practice dictates, only recommend inks with their name.

 

3. None of the manufacturer's statements I've seen say "Do not use brand X ink" or anything similar. There is a critical difference between recommending one brand, and explicitly stating any other brand should NOT be used. If a manufacturer says do not use "Brand X", then we should pay attention.

 

4. A statement that a warranty may be voided by using a non-recommended ink means only that the warranty may be voided. It does not mean that any or all non-recommended inks are harmful to the pen.

 

5. (See # 1) Ink manufactuers are in the business of making ink, not pens. Any statements they make similar to "safe for all fountain pens", should be treated skeptically as well. Not all pens like all inks. It is impossible for ink makers to test their inks in every type of pen, under all conditions.

 

6. Some pen branded inks are made by other companies, e.g. Cross ink is actually made by Pelikan. Cross does not "recommend" Pelikan ink, as far as I know. This contradicts the notion that the only safe ink is made by the pen maker.

[Hawk]

My advice still stands, do not use any ink in a Safari pen that is not recommended by its manufacture, Lamy in this case. Its that simple. Why should it be otherwise? Hawk

Why should it be otherwise?

 

1. The pen manufacturers are experts in manufacturing pens. They are not experts in manufacturing ink. They have no obligation to test or recommend any inks other than their own.

 

2. Pen manufacturers are in the business of selling products with their name on them. They will, as good business practice dictates, only recommend inks with their name.

 

3. None of the manufacturer's statements I've seen say "Do not use brand X ink" or anything similar. There is a critical difference between recommending one brand, and explicitly stating any other brand should NOT be used. If a manufacturer says do not use "Brand X", then we should pay attention.

 

4. A statement that a warranty may be voided by using a non-recommended ink means only that the warranty may be voided. It does not mean that any or all non-recommended inks are harmful to the pen.

 

5. (See # 1) Ink manufactuers are in the business of making ink, not pens. Any statements they make similar to "safe for all fountain pens", should be treated skeptically as well. Not all pens like all inks. It is impossible for ink makers to test their inks in every type of pen, under all conditions.

 

6. Some pen branded inks are made by other companies, e.g. Cross ink is actually made by Pelikan. Cross does not "recommend" Pelikan ink, as far as I know. This contradicts the notion that the only safe ink is made by the pen maker.

 

Cross pens are made by Pelikan, and Cross has its own cartridge, and I am sure pen manufacture do know everything about inks. They would like to see the best performance from their pens, and least amount of trouble with their pens, does this make any sense to you. Hawk

Edited December 7, 2006 by Hawk

[sonia_simone]

Different people feel differently. I think we must agree to disagree on this one.

[CasmiUK]

My Pelikan pen says that it's made in Germany.

 

My Cross pens are made down the road from my brother's house in Rhode Island.

[lisa]

The reason why pen manufactuers recommend their own ink is because they want to sell their inks and they know for SURE this is safe ink. Most other fountain pen inks will be just as good, better or at least perfectly safe for their pens. BUt why would they want to recommend all inks that will work? That's a lot of extra research and work and it hurts their sales. Makes bad bussiness sence.

 

This is the easiest way to make SURE any ignorant customer uses safe ink and make the most money in the process.

 

When customers starts to think for themselves and do some research, they will find out that many inks will be just fine for their pen. All you need is some knowledge and common sence.

 

But there will always be stupid people who'll use totally unsuited inks that are not made for fountain pens and will hurt their pens and then want warrenty. With the recommendation of their own ink the manufactuer has created a situation in which they can deny service in such an instance.

Edited December 7, 2006 by lisa

[Hawk]

Just made a phone call to Lamy about inks for their pens. Here is what I was told: only Lamy cartridges can be used in Lamy pens. They make and sell their own bottle inks design especially for their pens. They make their own converters for their pens (Very good ones I might add). For best performance use only Lamy inks, other manufacture's inks may not have the same flow or drying characteristics of Lamy inks. One may, if necessary use another brand of ink, if it is from a major pen manufacture such as Waterman, Pelikan, Sheaffer, Parker....however it will behave differently from Lamy's inks. There you have it from the horse's mouth. Hawk

[lisa]

Just made a phone call to Lamy about inks for their pens. Here is what I was told: only Lamy cartridges can be used in Lamy pens. They make and sell their own bottle inks design especially for their pens. They make their own converters for their pens (Very good ones I might add). For best performance use only Lamy inks, other manufacture's inks may not have the same flow or drying characteristics of Lamy inks. One may, if necessary use another brand of ink, if it is from a major pen manufacture such as Waterman, Pelikan, Sheaffer, Parker....however it will behave differently from Lamy's inks. There you have it from the horse's mouth. Hawk

So other inks are fine. May be worse, will be different, be it better, worse or just different. And other mayor pen manufactuer inks are basicly all safe.

 

Although I disagree with you to only use inks from the manufactuer of the pen, I do agree with you that it is better to be safe than sorry in using inks.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

For those who want cheap and good but don't care much about impressing anyone else: Pelikano Jr. and whatever BIC is callling the old Stypen Ergo-Plume now. Both are school pens and both work beautifully.

[TallDarkStranger]

Back to the topic of the post. My favorite cheap pen, by far, is Parker Frontier, available typically for around $10. Incredibly smooth with excellent ink flow. Buy the stainless steel with a fine nib.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I've been following this sub-thread, which I am mightily resisting characterizing here, and I'm agreeing with those who suggest that one should not approach the subject of inks narrowly.

 

.... People that engineer and design their pens surely know what is best for them. ....

 

Even that statement is challengeable historically.

 

However, I doubt that you've ever communicated with fountain pen designers or fountain pen engineers. When you write your letters to the manufacturers you're dealing with customer service people and sales people. The sales people know to tell everyone to buy their products. They tell them that even when their ink products are manufactured by someone else and even when "their" ink is exactly the same as another company's ink because they're both made in the same batch by the same ink manufacturer and the only difference is the label that's slapped on the bottle at the end of the production run.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

:bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk: :bonk:

Just made a phone call to Lamy about inks for their pens. Here is what I was told: only Lamy cartridges can be used in Lamy pens.

Uh huh. And that's because Lamy makes their cartridges in a proprietary shape so that regular international cartridges won't fit in Lamy fountain pens!

 

It has nothing to do with the quality of the ink it has to do with Lamy finding a way to keep the suckers buying their cartridges no matter what the pricing disadvantage may be!

 

They make and sell their own bottle inks design especially for their pens. They make their own converters for their pens (Very good ones I might add).

See above about proprietary shapes and suckers.

 

For best performance use only Lamy inks,

And be sure to only use Zippo lighter fluid in your Zippo lighter. This is just advertising, and as with most advertising it has no relation to reality.

 

It reminds me of the old Jean Shepherd joke, "All the facts in this commercial are true." :roflmho:

 

other manufacture's inks may not have the same flow or drying characteristics of Lamy inks. One may, if necessary use another brand of ink, if it is from a major pen manufacture such as Waterman, Pelikan, Sheaffer, Parker....however it will behave differently from Lamy's inks. There you have it from the horse's mouth. Hawk

I'm not sure the end is being correctly identified. <_<

[alvynmcq]

For those who want cheap and good but don't care much about impressing anyone else: Pelikano Jr. and whatever BIC is callling the old Stypen Ergo-Plume now. Both are school pens and both work beautifully.

Bic are now calling the stypen ergo-plume the XPen, I have picked one up last weekend and have been using it exclusively this week with Quink Blue/Black (including solvx) and it is working brilliantly. I would recomend it as a very good cheap pen, I got mine for £3.47 in Tesco.