The ‘Jaipur’ – A Brand New Design From Fountain Pen Revolution

[2xhorn]

I picked up one of these and it arrived today. I'm a sucker for piston-fillers, mostly for ink capacity. For background, I have been writing mostly with a Jinhao 159 and before that a vanishing point with a B nib. Both of those are "thirsty" pens, I think you will agree.

 

The Jaipur is a nice pen from initial appearance, fit and function standpoint. It's soooo light, which is nice and especially noticeable coming from the Jinhao.

 

My one complaint after less than a day is that the M nib seems to produce what I would call an F line. It's smooth, I don't think it's a flow issue. I have reseated the nib twice, mostly because the nib and feed were slightly misaligned on delivery and in the course of rinsing it out. If I shake a little, a drop will fall out on the paper, again indicating that it's feeding pretty well.

 

Maybe I'm just goofy coming from the fatM of the Jinhao and the B of the VP. Before that, the regular writer was a Sonnet in M and this is considerably finer than that. Maybe I should give it time? Maybe it's just a fine M.

[Jamerelbe]

  On 10/26/2015 at 9:54 PM, 2xhorn said:

I picked up one of these and it arrived today. I'm a sucker for piston-fillers, mostly for ink capacity. For background, I have been writing mostly with a Jinhao 159 and before that a vanishing point with a B nib. Both of those are "thirsty" pens, I think you will agree.

 

The Jaipur is a nice pen from initial appearance, fit and function standpoint. It's soooo light, which is nice and especially noticeable coming from the Jinhao.

 

My one complaint after less than a day is that the M nib seems to produce what I would call an F line. It's smooth, I don't think it's a flow issue. I have reseated the nib twice, mostly because the nib and feed were slightly misaligned on delivery and in the course of rinsing it out. If I shake a little, a drop will fall out on the paper, again indicating that it's feeding pretty well.

 

Maybe I'm just goofy coming from the fatM of the Jinhao and the B of the VP. Before that, the regular writer was a Sonnet in M and this is considerably finer than that. Maybe I should give it time? Maybe it's just a fine M.

 

The problem is definitely not with your pen, or with your particular nib, or with you: I just received another Jaipur in the mail today - a solid red one (I'll post a pic later) and have inked it up with Pelikan Edelstein Garnet, and can confirm the same observation: the M nibs in the Jaipur (and other FPN pens) are definitely a fine-ish Medium, they're not *all* that much wider than the F nibs. Even the B nib from FPR I'd characterise as a "medium-ish Broad" - noticeably wider than the M, and very generous in its ink flow, but not as broad as some other brands.

 

It would be nice if everyone in the fountain pen world conformed to the same conventions when it came to designating their nib widths - but I'm not sure it's ever going to happen!

[Sagarb]

Fantastic review and a a very nice looking demonstrator...congrats.

[2xhorn]

  On 10/27/2015 at 5:05 AM, Jamerelbe said:

 

The problem is definitely not with your pen, or with your particular nib, or with you: I just received another Jaipur in the mail today - a solid red one (I'll post a pic later) and have inked it up with Pelikan Edelstein Garnet, and can confirm the same observation: the M nibs in the Jaipur (and other FPN pens) are definitely a fine-ish Medium, they're not *all* that much wider than the F nibs. Even the B nib from FPR I'd characterise as a "medium-ish Broad" - noticeably wider than the M, and very generous in its ink flow, but not as broad as some other brands.

 

It would be nice if everyone in the fountain pen world conformed to the same conventions when it came to designating their nib widths - but I'm not sure it's ever going to happen!

Thanks! I will say that a big part of the problem was the paper. I have a cheap spiral that I keep on my desk for general purpose work notes. After inking it up (Waterman Florida/Serenity blue), I went to work on a couple of pages of that spiral. I had forgotten that the spiral has weird paper (coated or something) that alternately is very scratchy, very feathery and just weird with fountain pens. The Jinhao with its firehose nib isn't fazed by it, much, so I had forgotten how wonky the paper is in that spiral.

 

Last night, I resumed an unfinished letter on decent paper and the Jaipur was a more conventional medium. Just a tad finer than the Jinhao line I started the letter with. Certainly nothing wrong with the pen.

 

Given its very reasonable weight and size (I have big hands and do prefer chunkier pens), and nice looks, I think the Jaipur is going to be a very satisfactory daily pen for some time to come.

[JonesandHoran]

Nice review! I wonder: how hard is it to change the piston seal?

[Jamerelbe]

  On 10/27/2015 at 9:46 PM, JonesandHoran said:

Nice review! I wonder: how hard is it to change the piston seal?

 

If you're asking, "How hard would it be to find a replacement seal at my local hardware store?", I'd say that could be a challenge. If you're asking, "How hard to change the seal if I've got something to replace it with?", I'd say that's a much more straightforward question: FPR are pretty good at providing replacement parts. Let them know your piston seal has gone (on any of their branded pens) and they'll happily make it right for you - probably by sending you the seal-and-rod combination.

[Jamerelbe]

In light of the concerns some readers were expressing about the demonstrator pens (namely, that they're 'translucent' rather than perfectly 'transparent', I decided to grab a 'solid colour' Jaipur for comparison. This beauty is the Jaipur in solid red, with a M nib - I asked for the nib to be a #5.5 in 'monochrome' stainless steel, rather than the two-tone nibs that tend to come standard.

 

The solid material appears to be vegetal resin (as for the demonstrator pens), and has that 'smell' about it (I don't find it unpleasant, especially compared to the vomitous aroma some Noodler's pens have out of the box!).

 

The design is essentially the same as the demonstrator models - you'll notice that the body has a prominent ink window below the threads on the grip section; other than that the resin is completely opaque:

 

 

[Edited to add: I think it's worth pointing out, the finish on these pens is 'low gloss' rather than 'high gloss' - the vegetal resin is only moderately reflective.]

 

 

Let me know if you'd like any more info on these pens - or how you're finding yours, if you've purchased one!

Edited October 27, 2015 by Jamerelbe

[Forsooth]

Thanks for the good information on this pen. I do have a question:

 

The FPR website lists the length capped at 13.5 cm and the length posted as 15.8 cm. What is the length of the barrel (uncapped and unposted) from the nib tip to the end of the barrel (in centimeters if you can)?.

 

Thanks!

[Jamerelbe]

  On 10/27/2015 at 10:37 PM, Forsooth said:

Thanks for the good information on this pen. I do have a question:

 

The FPR website lists the length capped at 13.5 cm and the length posted as 15.8 cm. What is the length of the barrel (uncapped and unposted) from the nib tip to the end of the barrel (in centimeters if you can)?.

 

Thanks!

 

Thankfully my rulers are all metric, so I'm able to oblige: the unposted, uncapped length of the pen is ~12.5cm.

[Forsooth]

  On 10/28/2015 at 12:02 AM, Jamerelbe said:

 

Thankfully my rulers are all metric, so I'm able to oblige: the unposted, uncapped length of the pen is ~12.5cm.

Many thanks -- very helpful!

[2xhorn]

I am continuing to enjoy mine. It's a blue-capped demonstrator. I have a pretty sensitive nose and I have to actively sniff the pen to get the smell, and it's not unpleasant, to me. The only drawback I can find is, as noted above, it does tend to leak in the cap a bit, which gets on the section and in turn on my fingers.

 

Is there any cure for this? Or do I just need to make a habit of wiping the section before use?

[mhguda]

Maybe turn the nib & feed a little? It seems like a small leak, if the nib does not sit very snugly that may cause ink to slowly migrate around the nib and feed and into the cap.

[2xhorn]

  On 10/28/2015 at 3:49 PM, mhguda said:

Maybe turn the nib & feed a little? It seems like a small leak, if the nib does not sit very snugly that may cause ink to slowly migrate around the nib and feed and into the cap.

Thanks. I just now "got a grip" on the nib and decided to give it another push and voila it went in another couple of mm, with kind of a thunk. If looseness in the section was the cause, maybe I have solved it, with your help.

 

Another kind of dumb question, but does nib-feed misalignment (ie a .5 mm near the point) really affect anything, usually? It's lined up now (and maybe getting it completely seated was an issue), but I have never had any experience with that misalignment (except once when the nib and feed just didn't fit each other and the nib wobbled around the feed).

[Jamerelbe]

  On 10/29/2015 at 2:01 PM, 2xhorn said:

Thanks. I just now "got a grip" on the nib and decided to give it another push and voila it went in another couple of mm, with kind of a thunk. If looseness in the section was the cause, maybe I have solved it, with your help.

 

Another kind of dumb question, but does nib-feed misalignment (ie a .5 mm near the point) really affect anything, usually? It's lined up now (and maybe getting it completely seated was an issue), but I have never had any experience with that misalignment (except once when the nib and feed just didn't fit each other and the nib wobbled around the feed).

 

If the nib and feed are misaligned, it can have two negative side-effects. First, it can lead to the tines being slightly misaligned, resulting in a scratchy writing experience. Second, it can cause skipping and disruption of ink flow. In a wet writer like the Jaipur you might not notice the reduced ink-flow, though - so you may not notice a problem.

[2xhorn]

Thanks for the response. The dripping into the cap may become an issue with this pen. It's doing it pretty regularly, without much prompting. It has been sitting on my desk horizontal for most of a couple of days. I pick it up to write with and put it down. It isn't tip down except to write with and I haven't carried it around. It's just rolling around on my desk (and I don't mean it's really rolling around, it's doing whatever pens do lying horizontal on a desk). I have had to twist up paper and blot out the cap at least daily as there are a couple of decent sized drops in the cap.

 

I did run low on ink and took the opportunity to rinse it out again and reseated the nib. I note that the angular (rotational) position of the nib around the feed is pretty sensitive to misaligning the tip of the feed and the nib. It seems pretty easy to misalign them while inserting. Maybe that's normal, I don't routinely remove nibs, but don't recall having as much trouble maintaining alignment on reinsertion.

 

Finally, after rinsing and refilling, it was writing a little dry, as usual. I gently shook the pen vertically (maybe inadvisable, but I do this occasionally to "restart" pens). Just about every time I have done this, a couple of drops of ink fly out. Maybe it's just my particular pen, but there may be a bit of a leak issue going on.

Edited October 30, 2015 by 2xhorn

[Jamerelbe]

@2xhorn,my Jaipurs (I have 3now!) are wet writers (though the pen with a M nib is less so), but none of them behave like this. The ebonite feeds that come with a flex nib are designed to be even wetter than the standard feeds - so maybe that's *part* of your problem? - but it may also be a fault. At this stage I'd be dropping FPR a line, if I were you, and asking their advice and/or for a replacement.

[Shubhranshu Das]

Hi

Further to my earlier upload... I did finally purchase the Jaipur, Blue standard option either the 1 mm stub nib. I gave it a quick flush with water and inked it with Diamine Majestic Blue... Appropriate I thought..

 

It wrote well, smooth and wet... No issues at all.... The piston filler mechanism was a bit tight but I will need to open it and use some silicon grease....

 

Happy with the pen but I guess I'm a bit more used to the crisper results from the stubs and italic nibs I have on my TWSBI, Edision, Conklins and Italix pens.... With the minimal line variation it did seem like a broad nib... But I guess it's a case of getting used to it...

 

Overall no complaints and I'm sure I will buy more from FPR.... The nib and feed purchase options are very welcome....

 

Thank you for your very useful and detailed review

[ThyPenMaker]

I've not experienced this problem yet, but as a truck driver I encountered some trailers where something had gone off bad in them. Think rotten beer on the wood floor and you next load is nice paper. After steam cleaning and drying, we would spread 5 lbs of ground coffee on the floor and seal it up. Amazingly, it's the only thing that works.

I think I'd repack it in the pen box with coffee grounds for a few days.

I hope someone solves this mystery.

[2xhorn]

  On 10/30/2015 at 10:32 PM, Jamerelbe said:

@2xhorn,my Jaipurs (I have 3now!) are wet writers (though the pen with a M nib is less so), but none of them behave like this. The ebonite feeds that come with a flex nib are designed to be even wetter than the standard feeds - so maybe that's *part* of your problem? - but it may also be a fault. At this stage I'd be dropping FPR a line, if I were you, and asking their advice and/or for a replacement.

Thanks again for your feedback. I'm not vastly experienced with pens, but the Vanishing Point broad and Jinhao are both pretty wet writers and I haven't had this type of leaking issue. That is, I can do the vertical shake without drops spitting out. However, I recognize that that is probably not a particularly fair test of FP behavior. It hasn't leaked while writing, which would be unacceptable.

 

After a Friday and Saturday morning rolling around on my desk, there is only one, relatively small drop in the cap. That is pretty acceptable, although Friday and Saturday are less "vigorous" writing and using days than the rest of the week.

 

In the course of seating and re-seating the nib and with your pointer on misaligned nib/feed, I noticed slight scratching and a click as I rotated the pen while writing, indicating that indeed the tines may be misaligned. So I emptied, and re-seated very very carefully trying to preserve alignment (the relatively narrow and curved nib makes it pretty hard to tell how well aligned the feed is relative to the nib). Then, it was much smoother, and I couldn't make it click rotating the nib relative to the paper. But I noted that there was some daylight between the feed and the nib, and lo, it stopped writing/feeding. Therefore, without reseating, I tried heat-setting the feed, thinking it might also help close any gaps between the feed and section that were permitting the leaking (if indeed that is what it is). I do note that there is a bit of flash on the end of the section, but it doesn't appear to affect anything on the inner diameter, that I can see. Perhaps that has helped. Time will tell.

 

I almost ordered this with a flex nib, as I have wanted to try one, but decided that I may not know how to write with one, so I didn't. I may order one and/or a broad and see how those do before lodging any sort of complaint.

[2xhorn]

Reporting back, after another few days, something seems to have caused the Jaipur to stop leaking in the cap, gratuitously, anyway. My thought would be the "heat-setting" of the feed. That is, dipping it in some hot water for 30 seconds and pressing the nib and feed together. My sense is that it may have made the feed conform a little more to the interior of the section, preventing leaks. Or I am completely full of (bleep). YMMV.