Your Best Cheap Pen?

[Pengrump]

Two of my favorite cheap pens are (links to jetpens.com):

 

Pilot Parallel 1.5mm (I write either of the corners of the fat, flat nib; it's fun!)

 

 

For a very smooth nib and a very fine line -

Sailor Recycled Material Desk Fountain Pen - Extra Fine Nib

 

+1 for the Sailor Recycled Material Desk Fountain Pen. I was amazed at how well it wrote!

[Esterfella]

From cheapest to most expensive:

Pilot Varsity

 

Platinum Plaisir

Kaweco Sport

Lamy Safari

TWSBI Diamond 540

All have performed well for me.

 

 

[kkshadow]

Sheaffer Fineline. Was a big surprise after I bought it. Currently in it's 2nd consecutive week of rotation, a real rarity. But such a pleasure to write with.

[dgturner]

In no particular order:

Esterbrook J series (personal favorite is My Transitional with a 2442 Falcon stub )

Platinum Preppy

Lamy Safari/Vista/Al-Star

 

Noodler's Piston fill

Pelikano (my daughter's favorite)

TWSBI Diamond 530

Hero 329/330/616 (regular and jumbo)

 

and a Parker 51 Special Desk pen I picked up for $30 in an antique store.

[Joe in Seattle]

Favorites are 2 Levenger True Writers discounted at EBay Outlet

[esterbex]

Estie J's (any nib, always start up instantly)

Jinhao X250 with Pendleton Point CI grind (sweet!)

Waterman Kultur with same grind (also sweet!)

Parker 45 with same grind....there's a pattern here....

[TheDutchman]

Noodler's Ahab with a Knox nib. I finally understand how smooth fountain pens can be!

[een brouwer]

I thought the Pilot Varsity wrote well for a $3.00 fountain pen. However, though this may be heresy, the best pen I've used under $5 is a Uni-ball Jetstream.

[plumeau]

Two no-nonsense (Rose & green transparent) Sheaffer better than pelikan M600 but I have the fear they wi be stolen. So I use Pilot Varsity Pens which writes well for a 3.25 euros.

 

Have a nice day.

[fabrimedeiros]

Reform Starwalker Demo. Only US$ 5 at a local chinese store about 3 years ago. The nib is pretty smooth.

[Angela]

They've both been mentioned but my favorite cheap pens are the Pilot Petit1 and the Pilot Plumix (which I understand is available at Target for less than I paid at jetpens.) I also have a couple of Platinum Preppys, but they are scratchy; the Pilot Petit1 is much smoother for the same price (around 3 USD).

[haziz]

Pelikan Pelikano (older style) and Pelikan Future. The Pelikano Jr. has the same great nib, but I prefer my pens to have a clip.

[mjrbb7]

Two come to mind, Noodler's Nib Creeper Flex and Lamy Safari with a 1.1 Italic nib. I actually use the Lamy as a pocket pen while at work! The Nib Creeper I just like because of how smooth the nib writes when I don't try to flex it.

 

-Mike

[Chrontius]

My $1 Daiso pen is exceptional, for the price.

 

Going on up from there:

Pilot Varsity (stock ink, and mine, though they seem to clog after 3 or 4 refills, and the plastic suffers)

Manuscript College Cartridge Pen - I liked it so much I ran it into the ground! I've replaced parts that were plenty quality, but suffered far more "loving" than their engineers could reasonably expect. In fact, I just broke the last original part of my first one, the section - so I'm going to pull the nib and perhaps do something novel with it. See if my uncle still has his lathe, and turn a section to fit the Countycomm embassy pen? That nib is as smooth as greased teflon.

Parker 45 (I paid $10 on eBay, and it has a faintly flexy 14 karat nib!)

[nickapos]

My best cheap pen in terms of quality, durability and comfort of writing is my Pilot 78G (also the first non-vintage pen I ever bought)

I think that I got it for about 3.000 Greek Drachmas(something like 10euro or 13USD) back in 1992-1993.

[sheehmi]

Sub-$100 class:

 

Twsbis

Kaweco AC Sport and Luxe

Lamy Al-Star/Safari/Vista

Pilot Varsity disposable

Edited February 21, 2012 by sheehmi

[XiaoMG]

I gave a very good Platinum Preppy to a friend...it writes smoother than many of my own pens, though I'm not a big fan of the rest of the pen.

 

I suppose if I have to choose my own best cheapie, it's the 78G for a bit under ten USD. Easily my favorite project pen right now, and while I think I slightly favor my much more expensive Decimos and Custom 74s overall, I don't know if that'll always be the case.

[Eduardo]

Centropen Mars+ (Czech Republic)

 

Cost less than € 1.00 and a GREAT pen...

[PenTool]

Best cheap: Lamy Vista EF. Super smooth, it seems to write well using any ink poured into it, I think it would even write with tomato sauce! A great all-round pen, I only wish it were available with a finer nib.

 

Best cheaper: Noodler's Ahab Flex. The flex gives a lot of character, really great for sketching/drawing. Feels great in the hand.

 

Best cheapest: Pilot 78g fine. Smooth as silk, particularly with Noodler's Antietam. Bought for $7.45, I now have 3 with 3 more on the way.

[blackbug67]

Don't know the name or model number but Zebra makes a $4.94 fountain pen that doesn't look like much but writes quite nicely.

Cheers,

Larry