Your Best Cheap Pen?

[mizgeorge]

I suppose the one of my best cheap pens has to be the free 'oliver exam' that comes with many Ranga pens. Having never really looked at them before, I inked one up with Sailor Shikori Irori (brilliant colour match) the other day, and was incredibly impressed. So much so that it's stayed on my desk and in use this week. 

[RJS]

The Pilot Prera is another lovely cheap (<£20) pen, which I find very comfortable to write with even though my hands are quite large. It's miles better than the far less ergonomic  Metropolitan/MR. Unfortunately it's not as common away from Asia, and the prices can be much higher. Its only downside is that inks tend to dry out in it relatively fast.

[RJS]

Look at this! £80 for what I paid £18 for, and they claim it's a discount, down from £132 🤯

[inkstainedruth]

26 minutes ago, RJS said:

Look at this! £80 for what I paid £18 for, and they claim it's a discount, down from £132 🤯

Even at the £80 price (which according to the currency exchange rate website I looked at, is over $108 US) I paid less apiece for almost ALL of my Parker 51s....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[RJS]

Ruth- I think you got better value for money!

[Karmachanic]

1 hour ago, mizgeorge said:

I suppose the one of my best cheap pens has to be the free 'oliver exam' that comes with many Ranga pens.

 

 

Thanks! I have had one unused in a desk hold-all cup for ages; the vegetal smell has dissipated. I'll ink it on the morrow.

[mizgeorge]

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

 

 

Thanks! I have had one unused in a desk hold-all cup for ages; the vegetal smell has dissipated. I'll ink it on the morrow.

This was a pretty odourless one - but I'm not hugely bothered by the resin thing. The basic piston fill works more than adequately and the ebonite feed is nice and wet. I think the nib is actually a M rather than F, but it was hard to tell within the first line of writing.

 

I like cheap and cheerful pens like this for ink testing, and I'd very happily use a bunch of these with different nibs for just that. I only inked it up because I wanted to check out the ink and it looked like it might be a perfect match. And I think it was!

 

[NumberSix]

17 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

This was a pretty odourless one - but I'm not hugely bothered by the resin thing. The basic piston fill works more than adequately and the ebonite feed is nice and wet. I think the nib is actually a M rather than F, but it was hard to tell within the first line of writing.

 

I like cheap and cheerful pens like this for ink testing, and I'd very happily use a bunch of these with different nibs for just that. I only inked it up because I wanted to check out the ink and it looked like it might be a perfect match. And I think it was!

 

Gee, it looks an awful lot like a Nib Creaper. 🤣

[InkNsap]

I really want to try a Pilot Kakuno, I love the cute nibs and people shower them with praises. I also ordered a Jinhao X450 and I’m so impressed with how it writes and the weight of it that I want to get a bunch for my family and friends. 
 

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11 hours ago, aimi said:

I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere in the last 23+ pages, but the Pilot Kakuno is so reliable, comes in cute colours, and has that adorable nib imprint!

 

15 hours ago, Mech-for-i said:

 

LOL, I had a pen case of prepared Jinhao 51a Open Nib version fitted with various no.5 nibs from custom grind architect to XXF to BB , they were my cheap pen to had currently. The no.5 nib, just pull off / push on cap and the typical standard C/C made it more starter friendly. I also like the fact that Jinhao offer different barrel materials , the long wooden barrel journal edition in particular are very nice

 

 

[InkNsap]

I also recently received a Wing Sung clone of a Lamy Al Star, 3£! Writes great and looks amazing in this brown colour. I have it inked up with absolute brown for my 5 year journal.  The cap is a bit sharp but that’s the only downside. 

[InkNsap]

I love my Preras for my hobonichi  weeks. I don’t find them that cheap here though, around 35-40£ 

The fine nib is my favourite! So wet and sharp. 

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10 hours ago, RJS said:

The Pilot Prera is another lovely cheap (<£20) pen, which I find very comfortable to write with even though my hands are quite large. It's miles better than the far less ergonomic  Metropolitan/MR. Unfortunately it's not as common away from Asia, and the prices can be much higher. Its only downside is that inks tend to dry out in it relatively fast.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

On 1/6/2021 at 3:08 PM, RJS said:

Ruth- I think you got better value for money!

I certainly like to think so.

Mind you, I've been lucky and gotten a lot of mine in the wild -- including a couple that had the wrong caps on them and were priced accordingly: the Burgundy Aero was labelled by the seller as a Frontier -- well, the *cap* certainly was from a Frontier, anyway -- and at another booth in the same antiques mall I found the first Cedar Blue 51 Vac which had some 3rd tier brand cap on it.  In the case of the Cedar Blue, I remembered what FPN member Uncle Red (who I'd known for years before I knew about fountain pens) had said -- that even 3rd tier pens could have good nibs on them.  So when I pulled the cap off and said to myself "Oh -- that's a hooded nib!  Hmmmm...." I looked a LOT more closely at the pen.  And the guy who had opened that case didn't know from pens; so he quoted me a price based on the other two pens (a Wearever and an Epenco) were priced at -- the Cedar Blue not having a tag.  And in the case of both that pen and the Burgundy Aero, getting the "correct" caps cost more than the pens themselves had!  The best deal, of course, on a 51 was the Forest Green Aero at an estate sale.  But even the Plum Demi I did well (compared to some of the prices I'd seen on eBay) -- and I just got lucky and apparently bluffed well enough to fool other bidders -- I don't think I was ever outbid, and I didn't even hit my intermediate maximum (although I did up it a couple of times over the course of the week because I got nervous ).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Geslina]

I like a very fine nib, and I think the humble Pilot Kakuno is the best EF of the cheaper pens I own.  Very, very fine lines, but even and consistent.  A little feedback, but nothing too bothersome.  I put a Kaweco Sport clip on mine, which upgrades the look of the pen.  I’ve also tried some of the really inexpensive disposable pens, like the Platinum Preppy, but they don’t write as well as the Kakuno.  It’s a great pen.  Nice to know you don’t have to spend a fortune to get quality.  And if I break it or lose it, no big loss!

[InkNsap]

I was actually looking to get a Kakuno EF, I am glad you have recommended it so much. 

I like EF in my hobonichi weeks. 

 

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19 minutes ago, Geslina said:

I like a very fine nib, and I think the humble Pilot Kakuno is the best EF of the cheaper pens I own.  Very, very fine lines, but even and consistent.  A little feedback, but nothing too bothersome.  I put a Kaweco Sport clip on mine, which upgrades the look of the pen.  I’ve also tried some of the really inexpensive disposable pens, like the Platinum Preppy, but they don’t write as well as the Kakuno.  It’s a great pen.  Nice to know you don’t have to spend a fortune to get quality.  And if I break it or lose it, no big loss!

 

 

[TitoThePencilPimp]

I would say the cheapest I can go and enjoy my purchase, is a Kaweco sport (liliput preferred). I do like the Lamy Safari (I own 2 and refill each of them once a week), but I would not purposely purchase more.

 

Now, my favorite cheap purchase were the Esterbrook J's I purchased, after having been gifted one and liking it. The nibs on these are smooth like butter and put down different lines.

 

I did own 2 Twisbi (early), and it was junk. I had one of them crack with normal use and the other would leak (I am assuming it had a small crack, but I was too lazy to use a loupe to find it). I sent them back toTwisbi and gave the replacement to my nephew.

[MuddyWaters]

On 1/7/2021 at 12:14 AM, InkNsap said:

I also recently received a Wing Sung clone of a Lamy Al Star, 3£! Writes great and looks amazing in this brown colour. I have it inked up with absolute brown for my 5 year journal.  The cap is a bit sharp but that’s the only downside. 

 

Yeah these are excellent excellent pens. They just fall apart within a month or two of heavy use. But their nibs are exquisite. 

[pajaro]

Wing Sung 601.  Doesn't dry out while unused.  Most of my expensive pens dry out while unused.

[Geslina]

4 hours ago, InkNsap said:

I was actually looking to get a Kakuno EF, I am glad you have recommended it so much. 

I like EF in my hobonichi weeks. 

 

 

Oh, definitely get one!  I use the Hobonichi Weeks too, and the A6 Techo.  The Kakuno EF nib is perfect for those tiny graph boxes. I have two EF Kakunos, one clear and one with the lavender cap.  I like the black ink Pilot cartridge that comes with the pen, color inks don’t show up as well, or are too dry and scratchy because of the nib being very, very EF....except for really wet inks.  This week I put Noodler’s Rome Burning (very wet) in my EF Kakuno,  and it’s working great.

[Geslina]

5 hours ago, InkNsap said:

I was actually looking to get a Kakuno EF, I am glad you have recommended it so much. 

I like EF in my hobonichi weeks. 

 

 

Here is a photo, writing on Weeks paper with the Kakuno EF.  I tend to write big, but you can comfortably write in those little graph spaces with this pen!

[AmandaW]

I love my EF Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, especially for drawing. I've had it inked with Platinum Carbon for years, just topping up as it gets low and have never had it dry out or hard start. Just lucky? I don't think so, it lives in my go-everywhere sketch kit, in and out of the car, to my studio (which gets very hot) and sometimes forgotten for weeks at a time when I'm playing with something else.

 

I like it's dependability, the delicate - almost spidery - line and the balance of the long tail.

 

It's not just a favourite cheap pen, it's a favourite pen in every way.