Your Best Cheap Pen?

[FLZapped]

I have some vintage Parker 45s and Esterbrooks that cost less than $20-25 and are hard to beat.

 

The 45's even have gold nibs, it's hard to find a gold nib pen that performs as well for anywhere near that price. Even a nice lowly stainless steel Estie nib can write as well as you could want.

 

Next would come a Waterman Phileas and the Safari. If you get the Safari new at the going rate but get them to put a 1.1 CI in it it's an especially nice deal.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

+1 on the Parker 45s!

 

the other Bruce....

[Cob]

I would have to say my Osmia 226.

 

I bought the pen fitted with an English Parker Duofold Senior nib which I hated, though it was in perfect condition. I removed the nib and replaced it with a large English Jewel nib I had bought with no particular purpose in mind. The pen is a great success. I paid £22 for the pen, sold the nib for £36 and fitted the Jewel nib which cost me £17, so this lovely pen has cost me (not counting postage) £3!

 

Cob

 

[kharrisma]

Hero 369, and a $10 Wahl-Oxford... a really nice writer.

[TheOtherBart]

Just last week I picked up a Petit1 ($6), a Preppy Platinum ($6), and a Waterman Phileas ($26) all based on comments I've seen here and all off of Amazon. I've converted the Petit1 to an eyedropped with my Diamine Kelly Green ink, the other two I installed the supplied ink cartridges. So far I'm loving the Petit1, really liking the Preppy, and feeling kind of meh about the Phileas (although to be honest part of that is just aesthetic, it's kind of a weird sparkly green color).

[Arkanabar]

+1 on the earlier mention of of Sheaffer's 1mm Viewpoint calligraphy pen. I got mine at AC Moore for under $10. It is absolutely butter smooth, which is hardly surprising as it's an untipped and unfolded stainless nib. I hate the gigantic cutouts in the barrel for structural, functional, and aesthetic reasons. They make the pen weaker, uglier, and impossible to convert to eyedropper. However, it has survived any number of falls onto carpeted and wooden floors.

[Shuttlebug]

I picked up a Parker 21 on Saturday for $10. Washed it, inked it, and it writes perfectly.

[Clive Andrew]

I love my Jinhao 159, nice and chunky.

[Zanshin]

I love my Jinhao 159, nice and chunky.

 

Same here. After a little work on the MicroMesh mine have a exceptionally nice smooth nibs that make writing a pleasure.

[Clive Andrew]

Same here. After a little work on the MicroMesh mine have a exceptionally nice smooth nibs that make writing a pleasure.

Yes mine worked straight out of the plastic bag, for me it is the best pen to learn to write left handed.

[The Blue Knight]

Parker Frontier the best cheap pen I have ever bought

[Pensaregood]

Charles Ingersoll dollar pen often fairly cheap on eBay (20$) and nice full flex 14k nib

[Oldtimer]

Rosetta Explorer ($15) - - Sheaffer calligraphy pen Broad ($8) - Penmanship -

[pearlfection]

Lamy ratio (17€)

Parker 45 (20€)

 

 

But my best pen is a Pelikan M215 for 60€.

[ScienceChick]

I liked my Nemosine Singularity 0.6 so much that I bought a 0.8 yesterday.

[Maurizio]

My Noodler's Ahab (once I got it going after much tweaking)

 

Cross Bailey (free gift), available on sale for $20.

 

waiting for a Jinhao x750 (assuming it writes as reviewed by many on the FPN)

 

Kaweco Sport

[sandy101]

Platinum Preppy - bought for £3 three years ago and still writing. yes, the plastic is cracking and the clip is hanging by a thread, but as a writing experience it isn't a bad writer.

 

Jinhao X450 - not quite as nice as the preppy as it is a bit clunky, but as a durable all-metal cartridge-convertor, it isn't terrible, but it is a very thirsty pen.

[fullfederhalter]

Count me as another fan of the Nemosine Singularity!

 

 

Dale

[Arkanabar]

I'd say my best cheap pen is the PIF I got from The.Real.Scuba.Steve (originally offered in this post). It is absurdly ugly, but he has ground it to buttery smoothness, and adjusted it to be nicely wet and free-flowing, without soaking through the (bleep) paper I regularly use. I also have a similarly smooth Sheaffer Viewpoint 1mm (fine) calligraphy pen, which is almost equally smooth. I have mentioned before how I hate the giant cutouts in the barrel (pics in this post).

My wife gave me a pack of 10 Hero 616s. I've only inked three of them thus far, and two have been really nice, and the third is entirely adequate.

I used to have a charcoal Safari and a red Safari. The charcoal has a nasty rough rhino-hide finish that I absolutely despised. The red one did not survive a series of falls of ~3.5-4' to a concrete floor. However, I also objected to the section, which is narrower than it has to be, in order to accomodate the facets.

I have a Plaisir. The nib has some feel, somewhere between feedback and minimal tooth. It is a bit dry, and won't soak the paper, but it is extraordinarily reliable.

I have a 3.8mm Pilot Parallel, and I find it not only remarkably reliable, but invaluable. We have a 4.5 oz bottle of HoD at work, and I refill the Pilot cart from this thing constantly, and use it to label charts.

My wife got herself a Jinhao 250, and I'll agree that it's very nice, smooth with a bit of feedback -- less than the Plaisir. The converter crapped out during its first fill, but I'm generally happy to refill carts with a syringe.

I intend to get myself a Nemosine Singularity with the 0.8mm stub (or two, or three). They ship from XFountainpens for $14.99; add an extra Knox K35 nib, and shipping is free to the US.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Arkanabar

[Cryptos]

I'm going for the PIF I got from Kidde - a Reform 1745. It hasn't been out of rotation since it arrived. Wonderful springy nib on her, and a piston filler to boot!

[bmillicent]

Gotta agree with those who like Chinese models - a new favorite just delivered today. It is a Jinhao White Porcelain Plum Blossom. It is solid - if you want light and narrow, this isn't it. But the medium nib is smooth and the whole thing is so freakin' pretty with the chrome, black, and pink flowers on white background. Pretty but not excessively femme/frou frou. At 2.76 USD, I am charmed. My Lanbitou 8019 Emerald Bamboo is just as smooth, but a tad lighter and fatter. It set me back 3.45 USD.

 

The absolute bargain basement price was for my Lanbitou 517 in TCU purple - 99c FTW ! Total expe:se for the three = 7.20 USD. I cannot complain