Ranga Hand Made Ebonite Pens

April 21, 2015

I picked up a few hand made ebonite pens from a company called Ranga in India. They generally sell between $20 and $30 on eBay (search for Ranga fountain pen) with free shipping and are available in various colors. They are eye dropper pens with ebonite feeds, fine nibs and hold about 2 cc of ink. The nibs are better than average quality and are marked "Fellowship". The pen ships with a simple box, extra nib, feed and plastic eye dropper pipette.

How do I like them? After a bit of nib tuning, they are great writers and very low maintenance. The quality and attention to detail are much better than many Indian pens that I have. I use them as daily writers and am very happy with them.

Looking for a hand made ebonite pen? You can't find anything better for the price.

Full review with pictures here:

http://thefrugalfountainpen.blogspot.com/2015/04/ranga-hand-made-ebonite-pens.html

April 21, 2015

Hi Tony,

Good review. I purchased a model 3 over a month ago for about $25. Initially I had trouble getting the ink to flow properly. Eventually the physics of eyedroppers kicked in and the flow was good and steady. The other issue I had was the supplied F nib was terrible. I got nowhere with smoothing. I was surprised that in an Indian ebonite pen I was able to pull out the nib and feed very easily with my fingers. The hammer and block was handy but not needed for this one. After some more experimentation I put a FPR F nib in and all has been well. I've been enjoying this pen daily for the last few weeks now.

I have the olive brown ripple and it looks great with the gold clip. Great pen, with a good finish and attention to detail.

This pen with the JoWo screw in nib unit would be great but the price is about 3 times the basic version.

John

April 21, 2015

I bought one of these pens (a 'Ranga Duofold') from an Australian-based webstore - JustWrite Pens, who sadly no longer stock them. Cost me a bit more than US$30, but it's a magnificent pen! I didn't like the nib that came with it, so swapped in a JoWo #6 nib, and now love writing with it.

April 23, 2015

The nibs on the larger models are from Wality, I believe. They aren't the greatest nibs and the tipping is generally sparse and uneven. Easy enough to change out to a standard #6 nib, however. I did just that with my Ranga acrylic:

http://thefrugalfountainpen.blogspot.com/2014/03/ranga-custom-capless-acrylic-pen.html