What Is Your Favorite Cheap Pen? (<$30)

[Sasha Royale]

My favorite is the Parker 45. I used one through college and have carried one for the last 40 years. Three years ago, one could find it for under $30. However, today's hunt might be tedious. Lately, I have had a lot of experience with the Jinhao x450 pens, that I can get for a dollar or three. It has a lot of possibilities.

[Water Ouzel]

- Kaweco Ice Sport, F or EF nibbed, converted to eyedroppers.

- Pilot Metropolitan, F

- Pilot 78g, B (which is a stub) or M

[FountainPages]

Any number of Picasso pens and my trusty Nemosine Singularity.

[inkandseeds]

-a bunch of Esterbrooks, never have paid more than $20 for one.

-Cross Solo, bought it long ago for less than $30.

-Noodler's Ahab including the one that i dropped nib first on to the tile flioor. Nib now looks like a hawk beak, but it writes well as a fine point.

-Preppies

[haruka337]

Pilot Prera.

[Tancred]

So just thought I'd ask other users, since I find myself using very cheap pens more and more. What is your favorite low budget fountain pen? My collection consists almost completely of Jinhao's Baoers, and free noodlers pens. I find myself using them more than my pilot metro, ahab(though it leaks and replacement is on the way) and others.

 

So, please post what your favorite or favorites are in the low end of the price spectrum, what nib, and why they're your favorite cheap pens or even favorite pens. If you can post pictures that's even better.

 

Sub $30 is not cheap, it's EXTREMELY cheap when it comes to fountain pens! Cheap pens are those costing less than $200.

 

I would say a Lamy Safari, but I'm not even sure it fits into that price category. If not, I would say a Platinum Preppy or maybe a Pilot Metropolitan v2.

 

The obvious one, though, is the Jinhao 159.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Tancred

[Sailor Kenshin]

So just thought I'd ask other users, since I find myself using very cheap pens more and more. What is your favorite low budget fountain pen? My collection consists almost completely of Jinhao's Baoers, and free noodlers pens. I find myself using them more than my pilot metro, ahab(though it leaks and replacement is on the way) and others.

 

So, please post what your favorite or favorites are in the low end of the price spectrum, what nib, and why they're your favorite cheap pens or even favorite pens. If you can post pictures that's even better.

 

Below $30?

 

That's a long list.

 

I was just introduced to the Dollar Demonstrator, a lightweight piston-fill pen, and you can get them for under $5/each.

 

Platinum Preppy at around $4.

 

Vintage large Hero 616 at around $3-5

 

Vintage Sheaffer School Pens, anywhere from $5-20

 

Nemosine Singularity at $15

 

Pilot Metropolitan at $15

 

Sailor Clear Candy, about $15

 

Platinum Plaisir (metal version of Preppy) $11-25, depending on color and dealer

 

Lamy Nexx, some are just about under $30

[ppdiaporama]

Earlier this week I bought a Sheaffer Viewpoint Calligraphy pen for my daughter ... I got the mini kit with 3 nibs and some ink catridges for like 12$. I must say, I quite enjoy the 1mm nib. It's wet and smooth. Better than my Lamy 1.1. Too bad the pen's cap and barrel are so cheap.

[Bookman]

New: The Pilot Metropolitan F, followed closely by the Pilot Metropolitan M. About $15.

 

Used: Sheaffer's Skripsert F. An incredible writer, smooth nib, lightweight and perfectly balanced. Well-built from cheap materials. $15-20 on ebay.

 

Edited January 16, 2016 by Bookman

[junlon]

Pilot Metropolitan M nib and TWSBI Eco F nib.

[kestrel]

Esterbrook J with a 2668 nib. I bought it for significantly less than $20.00 US plus the cost of a new sac.

 

Sheaffer's No Nonsense with various steel nibs.

 

Several vintage Remingtons, third tier pens that write surprisingly well after a little TLC.

[Erik Dalton]

I'm embarrassed to say that despite some really nice Montblanc, Pelikan, Parker 51's, and Sailor pens to name a few, I have moved away from using them. Oh, I still rebuild them and keep them posits he'd up, but I rarely take them out.

It started as a safety measure. Slip a hero 616 or wing sung 233 instead of a P-51 in my pocket and no worries about losing, dropping or getting stolen. Then came the JinHao X450 and the final nail in the coffin, the 159. Once I learned to replace the JinHao nibs with JoWo nibs, and got better converters, the fate of the high quality, high priced pens was pretty well sealed. They rarely leave the case now.

So the ones I use most now are the Jin Hao X450, and 159.

For a lightweight carry I use a hero 616 or the wing sung 233. I've have never had a problem.

 

Have any of you had different experiences?

[Erik Dalton]

I still rebuild them and keep them posits he'd up,

I'm going to have to watch this spellcheck. That was supposed to say "keep them polished up"

This thing makes up its own words...

[Arkanabar]

Sub $30 pens I've used happily: Jinhao 250, Hero 616, Sheaffer Viewpoint 1mm (in spite of the rubberized section), Rotring Surf, Pilot Crystal, Pilot Parallel...

and my favorite, the Platinum Plaisir, an aluminum-bodied pen which is VERY reliable and resistant to drying out, and which I firmly believe should be mentioned in the same breath as the Lamy Safari and Pilot Metropolitan as an excellent first choice or starter pen.

And then there are the ones I just don't pick up: Lamy Safari (I don't like the narrow, faceted section), Jinhao 599 (nearly identical section), the eyedropper that Noodler's used to send with 4.5oz bottles of Borealis Black (burps when warmed up from cool temperatures in your hand), Noodler's Ahab (big enough to make my thumb ache), Noodler's Original Flex/Nib Creaper (rather narrow for my taste), and Noodler's Konrad (a pen I dearly love but for its one unforgiveable flaw, that it dries out a mere three to four hours after being set aside, even when capped).

The Baoer 388 started out really dry and stingy, but after a quarter-converter or so of pressing hard enough to score the paper, it started behaving itself. The Pilot 78G is pretty narrow, but it is otherwise a very good pen.

[sakayume]

My favourite is the Pilot Kakuno. It's cute, has a winking nib, and I really like the faceted grip section for comfortable writing. I have one with an F nib and it writes very smoothly.

[tartuffo]

I like the Pilot Petit 1 -------> 3 bucks !

 

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2016 by tartuffo

[tartuffo]

ooops

Edited January 16, 2016 by tartuffo

[erpe]

The Metropolitan wold be good candidate but it has the appearance of it's price-range (that's not a bad thing btw), low price, good quality, reliability and grand looks would fit the Kaigelu 316 aka the poor man's Duofold.

There are lots of good pens below 30 bucks but not that many grand pens.

[Postscript]

Not exactly a less than $30 pen but thanks for the addition.

The Dex is though. :-)

[shawndp]

My list of under $30 pens :-

 

1) The Safari - it works... brilliantly... the ability to swap nibs on the fly is dynamite because my preference varies between EF and 1.1 depending on my mood.

 

2) the Varisty - to me, this is the epitome of reliability. This is the ultimate backup pen - never runs out of ink and is just a good solid writer.

 

3) Reform 1745 - classic looks, decent price and I find myself writing neater with that for some reason.

 

4) Hero 616 / 329 / and the rest - hooded nib, squeeze to fill, once my world revolved around them. Thinking back to school, in all the thousands of pages written, I can not remember being let down by one malfunctioning.

 

5) Jinhao Safari - yes, there's an official name, but they look so similar and as long as you like M, they areshockingly good for $3