Conid Fountainbel's Bulk Filler Ltd Demonstrator

[pavoni]

Please continue to feedback your experiences good or bad; your tips on filling, carrying, storing etc, your preferences on nibs, inks, and pencases and, given the huge ink capacity, whether your pen will simply remain filled for occasional use or act as the main part of your rotation system. Such feedback makes for an even better Owner experience and is of course important information for potential owners, current owners, for those whose pens are in transit, and for Francis and the team at CONID.

 

Now, I better order some more ink!

 

Pavoni.

[LYTH]

Just for information :

 

section has the same shape than the 146 from early 50's. It's very ergonomic and useful.

http://i.imgur.com/coUZW.jpg

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee402/LYTH1/DSC01494.jpg

[fountainbel]

Thanks all for your valued feedback !

As rightfully stated by Pavoni, your feedack will help CONID and myself optimising the bulkfiller to perfection.

Tip : when the pen is exposed to serious heat and/or air pressure variations, one should open the filling knob completely with nib -up, so the air pressure can equalize to the new circumstances whitout any risks for ink being ejected.

Thanks!

Francis

Edited July 26, 2012 by fountainbel

[mongrelnomad]

I too received my pen - no.18 - today. The filling system is novel and holds a huge amount of ink. The pen is well-balanced and I love the posting mechanism - it is so solid and confidence-inspiring.

 

The step-down in teh barrel is not noticable at all in use, and it all feels incredibly well turned and produced. Any fears that it would be bottom-heavy were unfounded: it is a very well balance pen and I am confident it will be very comfortable for long writing periods.

 

I only find one detail jarring: the white of the locking mechanism seems out of place in comparison to all the titanium and rubber.

 

My nib (a Titanium F) is also not the greatest, but I believe this is Bock's fault, not Conid's. I may ask Francis for another nib - it would be a shame if this were not one of my most used pens, considering its practicality and the very well considered design.

 

Anyway, I'm off on a four day trip abroad and this will be the only pen I will take. It will force me to understand it further, and I am very much lookng forward to it! I will of course note my impressions afterwards.

 

Thanks Francis, and thanks Conid!

[fountainbel]

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your honest feedback, much appreciated !

We specially opted for the black/white mating parts for the piston anchoring mechanism on the demonstrators.

So users can clearly see how the the radial anchoring engages and disengages, getting quickly familarized with the new filling system.

As for the titanium nib, sorry to hear this.

CONID will gladly send you a replacement nib when your'e not happy.

Just let CONID know what you feel to be the problem.

Would you stick to the titanium version?

Regards,Francis

 

 

I too received my pen - no.18 - today. The filling system is novel and holds a huge amount of ink. The pen is well-balanced and I love the posting mechanism - it is so solid and confidence-inspiring.

 

The step-down in teh barrel is not noticable at all in use, and it all feels incredibly well turned and produced. Any fears that it would be bottom-heavy were unfounded: it is a very well balance pen and I am confident it will be very comfortable for long writing periods.

 

I only find one detail jarring: the white of the locking mechanism seems out of place in comparison to all the titanium and rubber.

 

My nib (a Titanium F) is also not the greatest, but I believe this is Bock's fault, not Conid's. I may ask Francis for another nib - it would be a shame if this were not one of my most used pens, considering its practicality and the very well considered design.

 

Anyway, I'm off on a four day trip abroad and this will be the only pen I will take. It will force me to understand it further, and I am very much lookng forward to it! I will of course note my impressions afterwards.

 

Thanks Francis, and thanks Conid!

Edited July 26, 2012 by fountainbel

[mongrelnomad]

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your honest feedback, much appreciated !

We specially opted for the black/white mating parts for the piston anchoring mechanism on the demonstrators.

So users can clearly see how the the radial anchoring engages and disengages, getting quickly familarized with the new filling system.

As for the titanium nib, sorry to hear this.

CONID will gladly send you a replacement nib when your'e not happy.

Just let CONID know what you feel to be the problem.

Would you stick to the titanium version?

Regards,Francis

 

Thanks for the reply! The funny thing is, I thought such distinctions were necessary before I tried the mechanism. In use, it is simplicity itself: completely logical and impossible to get wrong (even if you try twisting once or twice the wrong way). In hindsight I feel that it would have better suited the pen to have the mating parts in titanium, although the reasoning behind the black and white is sound...

 

Regarding the nib: it skips (predominantly on the down-stroke) and really isn't to my taste. I won't draw judgement yet, after all I've only scribbled with it a few times across the page. I'll wait till I return from my trip to come to any conclusions.

 

Perhaps if I changed it I'd go for either a T-M-stub as shown above, or upgrade to an M-stub or italic in gold...

Edited July 26, 2012 by mongrelnomad

[georges zaslavsky]

an outstanding pen thanks for the review

[LYTH]

Hi Georges !

 

How do you do ?

[fountainbel]

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your honest feedback, much appreciated !

We specially opted for the black/white mating parts for the piston anchoring mechanism on the demonstrators.

So users can clearly see how the the radial anchoring engages and disengages, getting quickly familarized with the new filling system.

As for the titanium nib, sorry to hear this.

CONID will gladly send you a replacement nib when your'e not happy.

Just let CONID know what you feel to be the problem.

Would you stick to the titanium version?

Regards,Francis

 

Thanks for the reply! The funny thing is, I thought such distinctions were necessary before I tried the mechanism. In use, it is simplicity itself: completely logical and impossible to get wrong (even if you try twisting once or twice the wrong way). In hindsight I feel that it would have better suited the pen to have the mating parts in titanium, although the reasoning behind the black and white is sound...

 

Regarding the nib: it skips (predominantly on the down-stroke) and really isn't to my taste. I won't draw judgement yet, after all I've only scribbled with it a few times across the page. I'll wait till I return from my trip to come to any conclusions.

 

Perhaps if I changed it I'd go for either a T-M-stub as shown above, or upgrade to an M-stub or italic in gold...

 

 

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your feedback!

Your T_M nib is underway in the meantime!

As for making the piston and its static anchor in titanium : this would make the barrelend rather heavy and disturb the perfect balance we aimed for.

Francis

[georges zaslavsky]

Hi Georges !

 

How do you do ?

fine thanks

[Montblanc owner and lover]

thx for your answer fountainbel so i know it's a good pen...

[mongrelnomad]

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your honest feedback, much appreciated !

We specially opted for the black/white mating parts for the piston anchoring mechanism on the demonstrators.

So users can clearly see how the the radial anchoring engages and disengages, getting quickly familarized with the new filling system.

As for the titanium nib, sorry to hear this.

CONID will gladly send you a replacement nib when your'e not happy.

Just let CONID know what you feel to be the problem.

Would you stick to the titanium version?

Regards,Francis

 

Thanks for the reply! The funny thing is, I thought such distinctions were necessary before I tried the mechanism. In use, it is simplicity itself: completely logical and impossible to get wrong (even if you try twisting once or twice the wrong way). In hindsight I feel that it would have better suited the pen to have the mating parts in titanium, although the reasoning behind the black and white is sound...

 

Regarding the nib: it skips (predominantly on the down-stroke) and really isn't to my taste. I won't draw judgement yet, after all I've only scribbled with it a few times across the page. I'll wait till I return from my trip to come to any conclusions.

 

Perhaps if I changed it I'd go for either a T-M-stub as shown above, or upgrade to an M-stub or italic in gold...

 

 

Hi mongrelnomad,

Thanks for your feedback!

Your T_M nib is underway in the meantime!

As for making the piston and its static anchor in titanium : this would make the barrelend rather heavy and disturb the perfect balance we aimed for.

Francis

 

As to the mechanism: yes, that makes sense...

 

As to the nib: wow!

[fountainbel]

Hi all,

 

As I’ve wrote in my earlier posts, the flexibility of the titanium nibs is rather poor when comparing with a vintage flex nib.

 

In total we received 2 complaints on skipping problems with the titanium nibs.

 

In our opinion this problem looked inherent to the nib material/ nib design and has nothing to do with the pen design.

 

So CONID contacted Bock on the issue and just got an answer.

 

Bock confirmed our feelings by responding the flexibility of the Titanium nib is rather limited.

 

Hence the nib will get permanently bend when going over the nib’s flexibility limits.

 

Once the nib slit stands too far open at the point, proper ink “bridging” between the tines will be restricted, triggering possible skipping problems.

 

Please take this in account when you have a titanium nib on your pen.

 

Once the tines are bend one can carefully close them again:

 

Hold the pen feed-up, pen centerline at an angle around 30° to the paper and gently push the tines on the paper, restoring tines point contact

 

Good news is that BOCK is aware of this potential problem and is working on a solution.

 

Bock will offer 3 types of titanium nibs in the (near?) future :

 

1- A “stiff” version, flexibility comparable to a 18Knib.

 

2- A “limited flex” version, being the actual titanium nib design

 

3- A “Flex” version of which the base material is made more dense by several extra cold rolling steps.

 

We will surely keep you informed on further news from BOCK.

 

Francis

 

 

 

[raging.dragon]

It's nice to see that Bock are working toward making a modern flex nib that rivals vintage flex (or at least semi-flex) nibs. Thanks for sharing that information!

[H. Herdick]

Just one hour ago my bulkfiller arrived. (15/60)

 

I ordered a golden 18K (750) nib - esthetical very beautiful. Till now, I didn't fill the fountainpen, I'm just astonishing about how beautiful this pen is.

 

Thanks Francis and Conid for this awsome design.

 

I'll make some fotos and post it in this thread.

[pavoni]

Congratulations on the arrival of your new bulkfiller. I bet it looks fab with the gold nib. With your number 15/60, I think we could probably locate the vast majority of the other numbers now!

 

It seemed like I took ages before filling mine - enjoy it However, it gets even better after filling

 

Pavoni.

[Physalis]

After a bit of an adventure, I received my pen today. I had asked Werner to update my shipping info to a different address than what I gave him initially, but the pen was sent to the original address. To make matters worse, for whatever reason, the package came to a sorting facility in my current city, and then the tracking information stopped. For the past week I thought it was just stuck in the sorting facility, so I was in contact with several employees but they couldn't find it. As it turned out the pen had gone to my mothers house (my permanent address...) but she didn't tell me anything had come for me, lol. I've been anticipating this pen for a really long time, so once I figured out where the package was I drove out immediately. 2hr there, 2hr back. Totally worth it .

 

When I first saw the Bulk Filler design on FPN, it struck me as being an incredibly handsome pen. It looked literally perfect to me. Now that it is in hand I could not be more impressed. It's beautiful, perfectly balanced, the posting mechanism is excellent, filling mechanism is new and awesome. The clip looks great, and securely grasps onto my thin shirt pocket material. Plus the logo on the cap peeking out of my shirt is so cool! All of the metal parts of this pen are titanium.... I'm in love. There are lots of little details that I'm noticing which make this pen look and feel extremely well thought out AND polished, which I appreciate. Truly an impressive feat Fountainbel and Conid!

 

The box made me feel special too, outer sleeve had my name on it, and inside there was an engraved plate also with my name on it. I definitely feel like I am a part of the first production run celebration, and lucky to have this pen.

 

The nib (titanium F) is super smooth, no skipping, wet, and reasonable flexibility. It looks cool, too. The feel of titanium is new to me; not as soft as the soft or flexible nibs I am used to, but not a nail either. It may be the perfect balance between the two for longer writing periods.

 

In any case, I'm very happy with this pen. I've had many pens pass through my hands over the years, and I've ended up with three favorites: Conid-Fountainbel Bulk-Filler TF, Sailor PG Realo F (out of 10 or so sailor F nibs, this one was randomly amazing), and a Nakaya Neo-Standard Hairline finish with Pilot #10 PO nib and custom feed.

 

Thanks for designing a masterpiece, and for making it available to us Fountainbel and Conid.

 

FPR 48/60

[Sblakers]

Argh. I am very jealous. I was about to pull the trigger on one of these bu t was saving my pen funds for a Soennecken 111 extra now I regret my decision

[trhall]

The nib (titanium F) is super smooth, no skipping, wet, and reasonable flexibility. It looks cool, too. The feel of titanium is new to me; not as soft as the soft or flexible nibs I am used to, but not a nail either. It may be the perfect balance between the two for longer writing periods.

 

@Physalis - How does the width of the line the titanium F nib put down compare to, say, a Pilot F nib or a Pilot EF? Wondering if I would need to have the nib ground down to appeal to my much finer (Japanese EF) nib tastes?

[raging.dragon]

The nib (titanium F) is super smooth, no skipping, wet, and reasonable flexibility. It looks cool, too. The feel of titanium is new to me; not as soft as the soft or flexible nibs I am used to, but not a nail either. It may be the perfect balance between the two for longer writing periods.

 

@Physalis - How does the width of the line the titanium F nib put down compare to, say, a Pilot F nib or a Pilot EF? Wondering if I would need to have the nib ground down to appeal to my much finer (Japanese EF) nib tastes?

 

In general an F nib from Bock is probably closer to a Japanese M. Getting something close to a Japanese EF will definetly require a custom ground nib.