Asa Athlete Fountain Pen Review

[mhguda]

Good news, thanks for telling us, and happy writing with your Athlete - glad it worked out!

[mehandiratta]

I have usually found that if and when one finds a good pen, then one should go after nibs and inks. Its important to keep the "ammunitions" handy.

Anup sir...

 

where do u buy nibs from...??

[a_m]

Anup sir...

 

where do u buy nibs from...??

 

Usually i hack cheaper indian / chinese pens or pens that i dont use for any reason, else for any special requirement, if its available, i buy from ASA

 

Though in any pen, standard terminology for nibs are used like #5, #6 etc its not necessary that they are interchangeable. For example, on the JoWo #6 feed you cannot insert nib of any other brand. The Japanese #5 like in most Pilots cannot be inserted over other feeds. If you see the Pilot nib & feed, they are like specifically crafted for each other. etc etc. (Its the same story just as Chinese "international" converter is not exchangeable with Schmidt "international" converter)

[dan in montreal]

Based on Anup's review, I ordered the pen from Asa and I just picked it up from the post office. All in all, it took about 2 weeks to get to Canada. Nicely packed, good communication with the folks at Asa. The pen I received is the green and black version and it is a stunner. Beautiful thing. I was prepared to swap nibs, as the tines were indeed too far apart. However, I decided to try to adjust the unit before changing the nib.

The first thing I did was remove the nib and feed, and reduced the space between the tip of the nib and the tip of the feed - the gap was too wide, which would probably result in excessive flow once the ink reached the slit and then quick drying of the nib, making for hard starts. I stuck the nib and feed back into the section. The space between the tines was still there. I then heat set the feed with the nib in place by letting it sit in very hot water for about 45 seconds (if you do this, make sure the water doesn't reach the beginning of the section, as I suspect it might harm the shiny finish). It did the trick. The space between the tines was greatly reduced, as the feed conformed to the shape of the nib. I aligned the tines, smoothed the nib on a mylar sheet and it now writes rather well. I might have to fine tune it further, but it's decent as it is now.

So if anyone out there wants this pen and does not have a spare nib handy, you can easily adjust it. As these ebonite pens are not mass produced and are all a little different, I have come to expect to have to work on them (which I find both fun and rewarding).

 

Thank you Anup for the review!

Edited February 1, 2015 by dan in montreal

[a_m]

Based on Anup's review, I ordered the pen from Asa and I just picked it up from the post office. All in all, it took about 2 weeks to get to Canada. Nicely packed, good communication with the folks at Asa. The pen I received is the green and black version and it is a stunner. Beautiful thing. I was prepared to swap nibs, as the tines were indeed too far apart. However, I decided to try to adjust the unit before changing the nib.

The first thing I did was remove the nib and feed, and reduced the space between the tip of the nib and the tip of the feed - the gap was too wide, which would probably result in excessive flow once the ink reached the slit and then quick drying of the nib, making for hard starts. I stuck the nib and feed back into the section. The space between the tines was still there. I then heat set the feed with the nib in place by letting it sit in very hot water for about 45 seconds (if you do this, make sure the water doesn't reach the beginning of the section, as I suspect it might harm the shiny finish). It did the trick. The space between the tines was greatly reduced, as the feed conformed to the shape of the nib. I aligned the tines, smoothed the nib on a mylar sheet and it now writes rather well. I might have to fine tune it further, but it's decent as it is now.

So if anyone out there wants this pen and does not have a spare nib handy, you can easily adjust it. As these ebonite pens are not mass produced and are all a little different, I have come to expect to have to work on them (which I find both fun and rewarding).

 

Thank you Anup for the review!

 

Thanks Dan. Yes the pen is stunner and both my Athletes are in continuous use since their arrival. They are like marathon runners. The only addition to them that I have done is the Genius FP.

 

From functional point of view of an ED, I would say Athlete is terrific & surpasses all my other Ebonite FPs.

[Arkanabar]

I admit to interest in this pen because it's supposed to resist burping. I've recently had flow issues with an Ahab that I'd installed a Knox 1.9mm nib into. It sits in my pen roll for the drive to work, which usually goes into my coat pocket, or sometimes my pants pocket, and it still has the syringe filler in it. It's usually somewhat dry and a bit of a hard starter. But during the recent cold snap, it laid down absolute puddles of ink just as I got into work. (The transparent Indian ED included with my bottle of Borealis Black just squirted out drop after drop of ink in the same circumstances, only it wasn't as cold.)

 

John, have you had your Athlete burp ink when it's warming up? Or are the long feed and section up to the task of handling the expansion due to transition from absurdly cold Canadian outdoors to climate controlled indoors?

Edited February 14, 2015 by Arkanabar

[a_m]

I live at a place where temperature at times goes down to a level where some inks show vapour condensation inside barrel !!!

 

 

So cold outside that its misty inside barrel

Edited February 15, 2015 by anup

[mhguda]

I bought two Athletes when they first came out, and inked them at the same time, one with Diamine Bilberry and the other with Akkerman Shocking Blue. Both work fine, except that over time, I noticed the one with the Shocking Blue ink started having hard starts - in the end I had to dip the pen every time it lay for even a few hours, always capped. I thought it was the ink, at first, but it kept bothering me, and I finally decided to test something...

I noticed that the cap hole on the one with the Bilberry did not allow air to pass - it is not bored all the way through! while the other pen has a fully bored cap hole. My understanding is that cap holes prevent creating an underpressure when quikly removing a cap, but since the Athlete cap is screwed on and off, that did not seem relevant to me. I had never had a problem with the Bilberry-filled pen, so decided to paint over the other hole with clear nail polish, from the inside. Since then - no more hard starts! Now I can really enjoy the Athlete... both of them.

[duki92]

Kinda different looking pen. Both green and brow looks interesting.

[J_MM]

I admit to interest in this pen because it's supposed to resist burping. I've recently had flow issues with an Ahab that I'd installed a Knox 1.9mm nib into. It sits in my pen roll for the drive to work, which usually goes into my coat pocket, or sometimes my pants pocket, and it still has the syringe filler in it. It's usually somewhat dry and a bit of a hard starter. But during the recent cold snap, it laid down absolute puddles of ink just as I got into work. (The transparent Indian ED included with my bottle of Borealis Black just squirted out drop after drop of ink in the same circumstances, only it wasn't as cold.)

 

John, have you had your Athlete burp ink when it's warming up? Or are the long feed and section up to the task of handling the expansion due to transition from absurdly cold Canadian outdoors to climate controlled indoors?

 

No burbs during warm up. However, this was in the late fall and I have not given it a rigorous test in the recent bitter cold we've had (-23C now). My other ebonite pens, after a brief warm up in the hand (following Hari's suggestion), generally work just fine.

[evyxmsj]

Thanks for the review---definitely interested. How has this performed with a little time re. burping?

[a_m]

The day this pen started burping, I stopped using EDs. I have understood that any ED will burp & its a mess. I no longer use EDs

 

Buy these pens if you want "handmade". I have come to understand that apart from being "handmade" there is no writing value in these EDs.

 

If you want a professional writing instrument that performs buy a Pilot or Lamy.