Your Best Cheap Pen?

[austinwft]

I have Safaris, TWSBIs, Pilot Metropolitans and other pens mentioned in this thread, but today I'm going with the Sheaffer Cadet from the late 50's early 60's as "my best" cheap pen. Some of which, including the burgundy one I currently have inked, I have no more than $15 invested including the cost of a new sac and o-ring. All of the various nibs I have for these pens have been great writers and the pneumatic filling system might just be my favorite filling system.

[BadsCase]

Pilot Kakunos! The extra fine are definitely extra fine. Very affordable. They came up with a clear case where you can see everything that is inside. So neat!

[GeneralSynopsis]

No such thing as best, but let me see, on my desk at present (mainly for experimental purposes)...

 

A J991 transparent black with a replacement 0.7mm edged nib - sharpened as out of the bag had minimal line variation (with Waterman black ink)

 

Yiren 79g clone EF (with homebrew brown ink)

 

Nameless(?) piston fill 78g clone EF (with Pilot BB ink)

 

Preppy 0.2mm (with ?? ink)

 

J992 opaque black with replacement 1.1mm edged nib ground to match my fine Vector calligraphy nib (with Waterman black ink).

 

I also have a draw full of ~15 other more expensive but still inexpensive inked pens including a Parson's Essential with a Manuscript drawing nib, and a Loom EF. All nice reliable writers.

[jchch1950]

8 hours ago, corniche said:

 

 

If you want to go a little upmarket, go with a Prefounte. 

 

- Sean 

Prefounte are very good pens .👍.

[Tasmith]

11 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Prefounte are very good pens .👍.

+1

[Carrau]

A GeHa school pen from the fifties that I paid very little for on German eBay.  It would be perfect if it had a little more size to it (for my hand), but what a writer!

[ENewton]

I have an old Pilot desk pen with an extra-fine steel nib.  It bears some resemblance to the DPN-70, which I bought for a colleague two years ago for about $8.50, but it is longer and does not have gold tipping on its tail.

 

In any case, it has a surprisingly good nib, extra fine but not the slightest bit scratchy.  

 

My pen happens to be dark pink, not a color that I favor, but I received it as a gift and am grateful for a pen that lends itself to applications such as making notes in paperback books and writing checks on the terrible paper to which my bank has recently switched.   

[NumberSix]

I have had great experience with the Preppy. On one fine nib, I eye-droppered Baystate Blue. That little sucker tamed the ink like nothing I have used before or since. 

 

I have owned two Jinhao 159s - both from amazon - that were terrific writers out of the box. 

 

Every Sheaffer School/Cartridge Pen I have owned (6, maybe) has been great. 

 

All of these pens wrote well above their price. 

[br549]

Among my vintage cheap ones, it would be a black Waltham lever filler I got years ago as part of mixed pen lot. I don't know what the model number is or if it even has one, but it's all black with a red jewel on the cap. It's surprisingly smooth for a 3rd tier pen.

[carlos.q]

On 8/22/2013 at 8:49 PM, carlos.q said:

My best inexpensive pens are:

Waterman Kultur

Esterbrook J

Lamy Safari charcoal

TWSBI Mini

 

My cheap pens are awful and are not used: Zebra 301 and Bic disposable.

 7 years later I would have to say:

Esterbrook J

Lamy Safari

Parker 45

 

The Kultur dries out and the TWSBI fell apart.

[Tasmith]

7 hours ago, carlos.q said:

 7 years later I would have to say:

Esterbrook J

Lamy Safari

Parker 45

 

The Kultur dries out and the TWSBI fell apart.

I stopped using my Kulturs as I got tired of how quickly they dried out. 

[Helen350]

My best inexpensive pens:

 

1.  Jinhao X750

2.  Picasso 933 Avignon (smooth as butter)

3.  Jinhao 100 Centennial

4.  Platinum Plaisir
5.  Pilot Kakuno

6.  Kaigelu 368

7.  Lanbitou 3059 (with M. nibs)

8.  Jinhao 450A

 

[Arkanabar]

Cheap pens I have loved ...

 

in a prior post, I mentioned the Sheaffer Viewpoint 1mm calligraphy pen.  Super smooth, fairly reliable, more durable than anything with half the material cut out of half the barrel has any right to be.  The rubber sleeve really needs to come off of the section, IMO.  I once had one of their chrome cap c/c school pens, and I wish I still did.

 

Jinhao 992 in orange demonstrator.  The way it wrote was just lovely, and I didn't concern myself at all about the cracks around the barrel plug.  It was a PIF, and I gave it (and a bottle of ink) to a coworker.

 

I still love my Pilot Parallels (3.8 and 1.5mm).  Both are still on their original cartridge -- so easy to refill.

 

I still think the Platinum Plaisir is one of the best introductory pens around, far superior to the Pilot Metro, Pilot Kakuno, and Lamy Safari.  It's rare for me to buy two of a given pen.  The Plaisir was the first I ever owned two of simultaneously.

 

I'm on the last of the ten Hero 616s that my wife bought for me, mentioned in my 2014 post.    I got rid of the black ones tout suite; they were too easy to mistake for my Dad's Parker "51" and vice versa.  A 616 is an excellent pen for jotting -- I clip it to the outside of my breast pocket, pull it out of the cap to jot, and push it back in.  I've never had it fall out of the cap.  I may get myself a Jinhao 51A or two to replace it.

 

I made the very grave error of soaking the Rex snakeskin that Scuba Steve gave me in isopropyl alcohol.  It was an excellent pen, even if its very sharp edge made it difficult to use on occasion.  

 

I forget how I lost the hideous Reform (every piece of plastic a different super bright color!) that got re-ground to a very nice stub and then PIFfed to me, but it was a wonderful pen.  I once had another Reform, labeled "A&W Sizzle Stix" for the US market, and it too was a truly excellent pen.

 

Many of my pens from FPR have been very good -- a Jaipur V1 (I got two, but only one was good, and one of my dogs got it), a couple of Himalayas (out of three), my Darjeeling, and (when not burping) my Himalaya V2.

 

Once I'd spent enough time bearing down on it to get the ink flowing, my Baoer 388 was good.  I've also had at least two fairly good Jinhao X750s.

 

I just about adored the 0.8mm stub I got on my Nemosine Singularity.  Alas that the cap lip on that pen kept breaking down, and the nib never fit any of my other pens worth a darn.

 

I've had surprisingly good luck with Noodler's eyedroppers, a "nikita" that came with a bottle of Borealis Black, and a Charlie that came with Heart of Darkness.

[AmandaW]

My favourite cheapy is a Jinhao 992 that began as an opaque grey, but now has a translucent blue cap which I think looks pretty. The nib is good and the pen can be left inked for months without drying out. (So many more expensive pens in my collection can't boast both those features).

 

[Stompie]

On 12/18/2020 at 7:44 AM, jchch1950 said:

Prefounte are very good pens .👍.

 

Okay, so I had to try one! Arrived today from Cult Pens - £8.99 charged.

Seems nice and smooth.

[Mangrove Jack]

Cross Solo. Although not the cheapest pen I own, it is a bulletproof reliable, smooth, ergonomic fountain pen. Very well made, not expensive looking, made by Pilot / Namiki in Japan for Cross. 

Costs around $30.

[OCArt]

42 minutes ago, Mangrove Jack said:

Cross Solo. Although not the cheapest pen I own, it is a bulletproof reliable, smooth, ergonomic fountain pen. Very well made, not expensive looking, made by Pilot / Namiki in Japan for Cross. 

Costs around $30.

They don't seem to be around much anymore. Only a few vendors selling what looks like NOS at a much higher price.  Know anything about the Cross Bailey pen?

[Beechwood]

Cheap means less than $10/£10 to me, and that would be a new pen price.

 

That includes all of the Jinhao 159/450/750  - all good, all reliable and will last forever.

 

Pelikan Twist, pic below. bullet proof

 

 

 

[Mangrove Jack]

15 minutes ago, OCArt said:

They don't seem to be around much anymore. Only a few vendors selling what looks like NOS at a much higher price.  Know anything about the Cross Bailey pen?

No, never used a Cross Bailey. The only Cross FP I own is the Solo. It was so good I never looked at another 😊

[ParramattaPaul]

36 minutes ago, Beechwood said:

Cheap means less than $10/£10 to me, and that would be a new pen price.

 

That includes all of the Jinhao 159/450/750  - all good, all reliable and will last forever.

 

Pelikan Twist, pic below. bullet proof

 

 

 

I have a Twist. I bought it at the same time that I bought a Diplomat Magnum.  Unlike some other members, I like the Magnum (broad nib) for what it is, a low cost, utilitarian pen, and for that reason I have yet to use the Twist.  I'll have to give the Twist a try this week.