Gate City New Dunn Or Belmont

[French]

Hi,

 

I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a new pen, and this time it will likely be one of Richard Binder's Gate City Pens. I'm undecided between the New Dunn (big pen, huge ink capacity, cool filler) and the Belmont, cool filler, good looks. I know the standard answer on FPN is 'get both'...while advice I usually embrace, I don't have room in my collection for 2 new pens, it would mean I need to sell off one from my collection, and I have no idea which that would be.

 

For those who own either of these pens, can you please let me know your thoughts? I'm 100% confident the nib & flow will be perfect (it is coming Binderized after all), and the pen will be well built (it is built by Bexley afterall). Please share likes and dislikes on either pen.

 

regards,

French

[Uncle Red]

I just got the New Dunn. The capacity is great, the cap posts if you like that, it fit's in my shirt pocket easily, it's very comfortable in the hand and a good writer. It's a pain to flush. I had to unscrew the nib to really flush the pen, then it was easy.

Go to Columbus and watch him tune your nib. I bought mine at the DC show and watched him grind the nib.

[NobleDel]

I can't provide info on the Belmont (I have only seen them at pen shows), but I own a New Dunn and I love it. I like classic designs in everything, including pens. I think the design of the New Dunn is classic. Either pen, Belmont or New Dunn will write perfectly. Richard Binder will see to that. If you never had a Binder tuned nib, you'll be amazed at how nice they write. Mine has a medium nib and is as smooth as glass. Yeah, filling and cleaning the New Dunn is more time consuming than other pens. I think of it as part of the charm of the pen. If you have seen the British version of Top Gear a few years back, they had a show that featured an Aston Martin DB5, made famous by the James Bond films of the 60's.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_DB5

 

In the show they said the DB5 could be beat in the quarter mile by a present day Honda Accord. Yeah, the Honda is faster, but which would you rather own? I guess it boils down to what kind of experience you want to have with your pen.

 

I got into fountain pens a bit too late to buy a New Dunn Tattler, but would sure like to score one. I've put ads in the FPN classifieds but so far got no responses.

Edited August 22, 2013 by NobleDel

[nakiana]

My Belmont is one of my favorite pens. I got it with a fine nib. The nib is nice and smooth, ink flow is generous but not floody, filling is as simple as it gets and the pen holds a lot of ink. The build quality is excellent and the pen is very comfortable for me to hold - my hands are on the borderline between medium and large in gloves - and I can write with it for a long time without my hand getting tired.

[markh]

I have the Dunn, and really like it.

 

It has a good capacity, but I don't think a huge capacity. IMO this isn't really that critical anymore, since I'm sure I'm like many people - most of the words that I communicate (like this post) are on a keyboard. In any case, plenty of ink.

 

Fills nicely, but it takes many strokes, not like the original.

 

I really like the classic look, but of course this is a matter of personal taste. I will just comment that black is a color too.....

 

I like the size and balance. While it can be posted, I don't - its plenty long and well balanced without posting.

 

I consider myself pretty expert a tuning nibs, and do something on just about every pen I buy. This pen arrived perfect - wrote nicely from the beginning, and I did no tuning at all.

 

Overall, glad I have one. I'm really sorry I didn't act fast enough to get one of the replica Postal pens that he was selling - if they ever come back I certainly will.

 

.

 

 

 

[hari317]

what is the ink capacity in ml of the new Dunn?

[pelicanachic]

I'm interested in Gatecity fountain pen, too. but my interest mainly goes to Postal Reservoir, which was discontinued.

I'm really sorry that I hadn't purchased it while it was available.

[tonybelding]

As luck would have it, I just received my blue Belmont Pen yesterday. It's a pen I've wanted for a long time, but it always seemed like something else came first. After the failure of my TWSBI, the time for the Belmont had finally come. I've got to say, my first impressions are very, very good. It's beautiful! The picture on the website fails to capture the translucency and chatoyance of the blue swirled plastic. The filling system is great. I measured its capacity at 1.7 ml., and it fills and flushes super fast and easy. It makes me seriously wonder why this filling mechanism ever fell out of favor. Why were piston-fillers even invented?

 

I looked at the Dunn, but... To me, it's sort of homely. It's also a kind of pump filler which is slow to fill and way, way slower to flush out. The biggest thing that worries me about the Dunn pen, though, is its ink capacity. Its reservoir is so big that it could start running into "burping" problems, just as bulb-fillers and eyedropper-filled pens often do.

 

For comparison... My New Postal Jr bulb-filler holds about 2.2 ml. of ink, and I haven't noticed any burping problems with it. My Edison Glenmont bulb-filler holds about 2.5 ml., and it has burped out ink just a couple of times. So I figure that's right about the maximum. The Dunn is advertised as having a 3.4 ml. capacity! It's something I'd worry about.

[de_pen_dent]

If you prefer writing posted, or want a pen that's really easy to flush -- Belmont.

 

If you prefer to write unposted, prefer longer pens (although not heavier) and/or want more ink capacity -- New Dunn.

 

But you really know the correct answer, dont you? It's: bite the bullet and get both.

[Uncle Red]

My New Dunn didn't burp at the end of it's first (partial) fill, then it sucked up a lot of DeAtramentis Silver Grey. I'll report back if I have burping issues.

[de_pen_dent]

My New Dunns have never burped.