Your Best Cheap Pen?

[SujiCorp12345]

It'd have to be my Lamy Safari.

[inkstainedruth]

Mine?

1) Parker 45. $10 in an antiques mall. Smooth and wet. My first "vintage" and when I hit the sweet spot on the nib it's magic.

2) Parker Vector (the blue one). My original "good pen". A little workhorse with a wet F nib. Never fails me, and great with iron gall inks. I like all my Vectors, but they never quite match the joy I get with writing with the blue one. I will never never never get rid of that pen.

3) Noodler's Flex Piston Creapers (all of them). Simple, easy to take apart for thorough cleaning, and I'm a sucker for piston fillers. And a bit of flex

4) Noodler's Konrads (all but the one that's a dry writer and will not post for love or money...). Mine worked out of the box. All of them. Again, a bit of flex, and again, easy to maintain and clean, and again, piston fill. Admittedly my favorite of them is the ebonite one, but that doesn't count for this category of "cheap" pens, IMO. Although I would get another one in a heartbeat if they were available in better colors.

After I get the two "sumgai" 51s fixed, and get the right caps for them (which is probably why I got them for so cheap -- the dealers didn't know what they had) they may get added to the list. $25 + tax for the pair. [SCORE!]

Also, possibly to add (once I get them up and running) the Esterbrooks -- never paid more than around $30 for one, and they are attractive, fairly sturdy, and have a great selection of interchangeable nibs. And the last two Morrison ringtops I picked up, once *they* are resacced -- the sterling silver overlay ringtop was relatively inexpensive for being sterling (although I'm still hankering for a silver filigree overlay to pair up with the gold-filled filigree one), and the most recent one was under $8 US even with shipping because I lucked out on the end of an auction.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Uncial]

Mine would be:

Noodler's Ahab - I love this pen

Lamy Safari - I love how it writes, but I find it by far the ugliest pen I own

Jinhao 159 - It's stupidly heavy, but it has a butter smooth nib which came as quite a shock

[katerchen]

• Kaigelu 316 -- if you've always obsessed over having a Duofold Centennial, but can't afford a Duofold Centennial ... this is the pen to buy. I just got a second one recently. Very nice writer.
• Parker Frontier -- they are discontinued, but you can still pick them up for under $20 almost anywhere. Very smooth writer. My only gripe is that it didn't come with a converter (extra $7 right there, give or take)
• Kaigelu 356 -- another Sonnet clone, but IMO much better quality than the Baoer 388.
• Pilot Metropolitan -- needs no introduction. I wish it had a better converter, but at ~$13 street price for such an excellent pen it's hard to argue.

 

-k

[CSG]

In my somewhat limited experience, it's hard to beat the Pilot Varsity at a little over $2 each with a 500 meter line (medium nib).

[arrScott]

I love my Jinhao 750s in Medium. Great performers out of the box for me, every one. A smidge under $10 shipped via ebay. A little wet, sure, but they deliver a lovely line that doesn't skip for me, starts right up, and shows off any ink's shading properties. I like the brass heft. I have three: black, gold, and creamy off-white. In my experience, the glossy finishes hold up much better than the matte black. Each looks like a much more expensive pen than it is. A guy at work who uses a Pilot Vanishing Point as his main office pen (and, to the best of my knowledge, his only FP) has never had much of a reaction to any of my more expensive FPs, but every time he sees me with a new Jinhao 750, he wants to know all about it.

[Cordovian]

I have a Baoer 3035 I got on ebay for $1.75 that writes really nice but I don't know that I'd call it my "Best Cheap Pen" since a Sheaffer 100 I picked up for $29 out performs it in every way. I guess it all boils down to what defines cheap.

[gweimer1]

It's all relative. As soon as I get the right tools (no, I'm not counting that expense as part of the pen), I may be able to report that my best cheap pen is the $17 Parker 51 Vacumatic I have. So far, it looks like I just need to replace the sac.

[plumeau]

Sheaffer Nononsense for everydays

[Fabienne]

Noodler's Ahab with a modded nib to make it flexier. Very nice indeed. Micromesh the end of it for a very smooth ride.

[Oldtimer]

i just came from Hobby Lobb in Orlando and bought these two pens just because! The Manuscript (PINK) cost just $3.99 and the Sheaffer for calligraphy (RED) $8.99.

 

The pink pen holds another cartridge in the body ( you can see it on the photo) and i guess can be used as an eyedropper. It cannot write smoother or better. It is good looking, the nib bends down but does not create line variations, it is just soft under pressure. The cap is threaded, which you don't see often in cheap pens, and the body is semi transparent so if you convert to eyedropper you will see how much ink is left. Very light and easy to write with.

 

The 1mm Calligraphy Sheaffer is a delight to write with.I think i will write with them the whole week until i use up all the ink.

 

I think they are good for any young student that wants to experiment the joy of fountain pens.

 

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i82/anangeli/PENS/CHEAPY%20MANUSCRIPT%20-%20SHEAFFER/SheafferandMAnuscript_zps73d6a365.jpg

i am enamored of the $3.99 Manuscript.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i82/anangeli/PENS/CHEAPY%20MANUSCRIPT%20-%20SHEAFFER/MAnuscript5_zps983e375c.jpg

http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i82/anangeli/PENS/CHEAPY%20MANUSCRIPT%20-%20SHEAFFER/Sheaffer_Red_zpsdcdc9c88.jpg

http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

Edited October 30, 2014 by Oldtimer

[cbaytan]

Pilot 78G, others are junk.

[Oldtimer]

That one too! -- I mean, it's flashy junk if you want to describe them like that. I have two 78Gs! I was hoping everyone would describe their junk without trying to throw despicable comments about what you don't use, just because you know better? Beg your pardon, you crack me up! So far this was going along well. My last comment, of course.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Oldtimer

[Kquill]

Well, if you're talking cheap in the traditional sense, I'd say it would be my pilot metropolitan or Lamy Safari, but if you're talking about collector's value kind of cheap it'd be my Lamy 2000 or Sailor Sapporo.

[pgmrdan]

I'm glad I found this thread. I'm looking for a new pen at a reasonable price and I'm getting some good ideas here.

 

I'm not wiling to spend hundreds of dollars to get a good everyday user that I might misplace or destroy by droppng.

 

It looks like some of you folks have several pens in your collections where nearly all cost less than $50 each or some other reasonable amount. Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

Edited October 30, 2014 by pgmrdan

[wctang]

Pilot Varsity. If you buy a multi-pack, $1-2 each on ebay. Work great out of the box, but they're real fun when you grind them. I have two stubs and an XXF that I carry around a lot. Wouldn't worry one bit if I lost one. Not hard at all to refill either, despite their being considered a "disposable" pen.

[panna]

This is a great thread for newbies like me who are students and can't afford pens over a certain price-point. Thanks, DFerguson.

 

Because I didn't know better I've spent a lot of money buying cheap FPs over the years. My best inexpensive FP is the one of two I own: the Camlin 47, piston-filler with a hooded nib. (Indian Rupees 70)

 

I'm not a fan of hooded nibs but this one is really smooth. It skips when I dot my 'i's, cross my 't's and has not started right away sometimes. But when it's written, it's given me a great time. I just want to keep on writing.

[Oldtimer]

That one too! -- I mean, it's flashy junk if you want to describe them like that. I have two 78Gs! I was hoping everyone would describe their junk without trying to throw despicable comments about what you don't use, just because you know better? Beg your pardon, you crack me up! So far this was going along well. My last comment, of course.

Oh, and it's Hobby Lobby in Oviedo, not Orlando (but very close). Lots of art stuff and crafts. Fabriano notebooks,Winsor materials, dip nibs, nib holders, sketchbooks,paints,Copics, Pigma Micron, etc.. . My kind of Paradise.

 

I need to still visit a dickblick store which is maybe one hour from me for another stint in Paradise land.

 

Corrected.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Oldtimer

[freewheelingvagabond]

Camlin 'sleek' fountain pen.

[inkeverywhere]

Bought a Noodlers Ahab and didn't really like the flex nib, I managed somehow to damage the flex nib and replaced it with a non flex nib. What a transformation (in my humble opinion), I have just finished diary entries and just love writing with this "cheapie".

 

Greg