Kung Te Cheng...or Equivalents

[truthpil]

 

A note on the Dollar 717: I bought a box of these and sold what I didn't need so from the collective user experience of the box, you should know that the pen sometimes burps excessively when ink is low, and the feed isn't snug enough (I don't think we have a term for this) to keep ink in. Even when reasonably full and with normal use, you will notice ink on the cap—no jogging pre-required. The Qalam version has a noticeable gap between the tines, so much so that it either railroads or does not write at all with drier inks. I have had to introduce it with a pair of "long nose" pliers to fix the issue.

 

I don't find either to be noticeably wet and I can use both on the cheap paper as neatly as I can manage with other pens. The 717i is comparable in width to a Safari Medium or a Parker 45 Medium. The 717q is comparable in width to my Pilot CM/Plumix M nibs.

 

 

My three Dollar 717s with oblique nibs arrived yesterday. All of them have a huge gap between the tines just like antrichresis said. However, this seems to provide the perfect wetness required to keep KTC flowing! My KTC sample is almost gone, but I was able to get a few drops into the 717 and flow is superb and the nib writes slippery butter smooth with this ink. There is full deep indigo saturation which makes me happy. There is also no staining whatsoever inside the pen, the ink seems to just slip right off the sides instead of clinging the way it does in most converters. Now, the last test to see if this is truly the best KTC pen is to let it sit for a few hours and see if it writes trouble-free afterward. I'll let you all know in a few hours....

 

UPDATE: Six hours later I tried the pen and it took one stroke to get the ink flowing again. Not perfect, but better than most pens I've tried KTC in. The important thing is that once I started writing, the pen never skipped. Unfortunately I've used up my sample of KTC so I can't do anymore tests. Good excuse to finally take the plunge and get a whole bottle, no?

Edited February 7, 2018 by TruthPil

[amberleadavis]

Absolutely. And Truthpil we would love to see the pictures of the ink and the pens.

[elippman]

Yes, indeed!

[ENewton]

 

 

My three Dollar 717s with oblique nibs arrived yesterday. All of them have a huge gap between the tines just like antrichresis said. However, this seems to provide the perfect wetness required to keep KTC flowing! My KTC sample is almost gone, but I was able to get a few drops into the 717 and flow is superb and the nib writes slippery butter smooth with this ink. There is full deep indigo saturation which makes me happy. There is also no staining whatsoever inside the pen, the ink seems to just slip right off the sides instead of clinging the way it does in most converters. Now, the last test to see if this is truly the best KTC pen is to let it sit for a few hours and see if it writes trouble-free afterward. I'll let you all know in a few hours....

 

UPDATE: Six hours later I tried the pen and it took one stroke to get the ink flowing again. Not perfect, but better than most pens I've tried KTC in. The important thing is that once I started writing, the pen never skipped. Unfortunately I've used up my sample of KTC so I can't do anymore tests. Good excuse to finally take the plunge and get a whole bottle, no?

 

This was my experience also with KTC in the Dollar pen--great flow and color--except that I when I finally flushed the pen, there was some staining.

[truthpil]

This was my experience also with KTC in the Dollar pen--great flow and color--except that I when I finally flushed the pen, there was some staining.

 

With the oblique stub version of the 717 you get some insane wetness that will result in a little feathering on some papers, but I liked seeing that mass of KTC shining back at me on the page. I think I need one of the fine-nibbed versions of this pen to make it more useable for regular writing.

 

Has anyone been able to put a different nib in the 717? The nibs are pretty small and a #5 won't fit.

[jmccarty3]

Two days ago, I got my second Pilot Prera with a medium nib. I removed about 10 ml from a fresh bottle of Kung te Cheng with a syringe (to create some room in the bottle) and added four drops of Cuddles Flo Plus to the bottle. Then I filled the Prera, which has one of the smoothest nibs I've ever experienced. The color is just fine, and so far I've not seen any hard starts or clogging. Will continue to report.

[elippman]

Thought I'd also chime in that I bought a Himalaya when the Valentine's Day sale was going with an EF nib. After several days of use with KTC, it is operating very well, even without the Cuddle's Flo. It does occasionally have hard starts, but so far flow has not been much of an issue with it.

[truthpil]

Two days ago, I got my second Pilot Prera with a medium nib. I removed about 10 ml from a fresh bottle of Kung te Cheng with a syringe (to create some room in the bottle) and added four drops of Cuddles Flo Plus to the bottle. Then I filled the Prera, which has one of the smoothest nibs I've ever experienced. The color is just fine, and so far I've not seen any hard starts or clogging. Will continue to report.

 

That sounds like a nice combination. I tested KTC in my Prera for a week and flow was decent, but it would dry on the nib if left overnight and then hard start at first use. I wonder if the Cuddles Flo will solve that problem. The medium nibs on Pilot Prera and 78G are really nice!

 

 

Thought I'd also chime in that I bought a Himalaya when the Valentine's Day sale was going with an EF nib. After several days of use with KTC, it is operating very well, even without the Cuddle's Flo. It does occasionally have hard starts, but so far flow has not been much of an issue with it.

 

That was a tempting sale, but I'm holding out for a Saffron one. How wide does the EF nib write with KTC? Is the line width broad enough to show off that deep indigo saturation?

[elippman]

I got an EF nib and an F nib. I haven't tried the F one yet, but the EF is very smooth but not super-fine. On all but the best paper, the ink tends to broaden out a bit. It looks best on Rhodia (of the ones I've tried), but tends to spread a bit too much on copier paper and resort to the dull purple look. That's what I was hoping to avoid with an EF nib, but apparently it wasn't E enough to avoid it, at least not on the cheap stuff. It looks decent in my Red-n-Black notebook, but not great. So far, the best I've gotten it to look is in my Rhodia reverse book.

[truthpil]

I got an EF nib and an F nib. I haven't tried the F one yet, but the EF is very smooth but not super-fine. On all but the best paper, the ink tends to broaden out a bit. It looks best on Rhodia (of the ones I've tried), but tends to spread a bit too much on copier paper and resort to the dull purple look. That's what I was hoping to avoid with an EF nib, but apparently it wasn't E enough to avoid it, at least not on the cheap stuff. It looks decent in my Red-n-Black notebook, but not great. So far, the best I've gotten it to look is in my Rhodia reverse book.

 

That makes sense. It's been my experience that KTC always looks chalky on copy paper of other cheap absorbent stuff. The paper needs to be coated or have enough density to keep a decent amount of the ink on the surface. For me KTC displayed its most stunning full indigo glory when I scribbled it with a wet stub on a glossy coated advertisement I had on the desk. Once dry it was immovable paint. Perhaps glossy photo paper and is the way to go.

[elippman]

Perhaps. The good thing about the Himalaya is that it's definitely wet enough to put out the requisite ink. The issue is more on the paper end, I think. Still, in some cases it looks good.

 

I too have some dollar 717s coming from Pakistan, so I'll be interested to see how the qalam stubs perform whenever they get here. That will require some pretty resistant paper though in order to fight the bleed.

[amberleadavis]

Truthpil, we used it on the heavy cardstock postcards that are often used for photos. The color is amazing and not chalky there (though it takes forever by Las Vegas standards to dry).

[truthpil]

Truthpil, we used it on the heavy cardstock postcards that are often used for photos. The color is amazing and not chalky there (though it takes forever by Las Vegas standards to dry).

 

Yes, exactly! Glossy cardstock shows this ink off better than anything else. I think I need to find a journal with all pages in glossy cardstock just for this ink.

 

I just filled my Dollar 717q with the last drops of my KTC sample. Writing sample is coming soon....

[truthpil]

Here's writing with the Dollar 717. The only catch with this pen is that there is a huge gap between the tines. That means the nib really nib and feed really need to get saturated with ink when filling, otherwise it will dry out. I had to fill with a syringe because I was using the last drops from my sample, so the nib and feed never got fully saturated. That meant that when I picked up the pen a few hours later, I couldn't get the pen to write at all until I cranked the piston a little to push some ink to the tip. I just left it one the desk all day and again the pen won't write at all. I didn't have that much trouble when I had filled the pen directly from the sample vial and submerged the end of the pen in the ink. Once there's ink in the nib...it's a lot of wet and wild fun to write with.

 

[ENewton]

Here's writing with the Dollar 717. The only catch with this pen is that there is a huge gap between the tines. That means the nib really nib and feed really need to get saturated with ink when filling, otherwise it will dry out. I had to fill with a syringe because I was using the last drops from my sample, so the nib and feed never got fully saturated. That meant that when I picked up the pen a few hours later, I couldn't get the pen to write at all until I cranked the piston a little to push some ink to the tip. I just left it one the desk all day and again the pen won't write at all. I didn't have that much trouble when I had filled the pen directly from the sample vial and submerged the end of the pen in the ink. Once there's ink in the nib...it's a lot of wet and wild fun to write with.

 

 

I had the same experience of flow and saturation but filled the pen through the nib and, perhaps for that reason, did not have hard starts.

[elippman]

That does look nice! I have some on order. Also, as of today, I have a Boston Safety Pen coming! We'll see how that works.

 

As an update, I just picked up my Sheaffer School pen from the 1990s that has been full of KTC for a while and sitting on my desk. It wrote immediately, no hard start, very wet. It's probably not been opened in a week or more. Something about that feed!

 

The new Himalaya is also writing quite reliably, although it's hard with that EF nib to get a super-saturated line.

[truthpil]

That does look nice! I have some on order. Also, as of today, I have a Boston Safety Pen coming! We'll see how that works.

 

As an update, I just picked up my Sheaffer School pen from the 1990s that has been full of KTC for a while and sitting on my desk. It wrote immediately, no hard start, very wet. It's probably not been opened in a week or more. Something about that feed!

 

The new Himalaya is also writing quite reliably, although it's hard with that EF nib to get a super-saturated line.

 

Lucky! I've been watching those Boston Safety Pens on Ebay for weeks and they always jump out of my price range, some going for over $100!

I'm really looking forward to reading about your experiences with that pen and KTC.

 

What does that Sheaffer School pen look like? If it's from the 90s, it sounds like it would be different from the 50s and 60s versions most folks think of when they think of a Sheaffer school pen.

[elippman]

I am anxiously awaiting the safety pen and will post when I have tried it out with the ink. As to the Sheaffer pen that I have, there is a picture of it on page 2 of this threat. It's quite cheap, but writes very well. I wish I had it in a fine nib, as it writes a big M line.

[inkstainedruth]

I am anxiously awaiting the safety pen and will post when I have tried it out with the ink. As to the Sheaffer pen that I have, there is a picture of it on page 2 of this threat. It's quite cheap, but writes very well. I wish I had it in a fine nib, as it writes a big M line.

 

Can't wait for the pix! My Boston Safety came in the mail yesterday afternoon, but all I've done so far is watch a couple of Nathan's videos (love the one where he went tromping out in the woods in the snow without paper! ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[wallylynn]

 

 

Lucky! I've been watching those Boston Safety Pens on Ebay for weeks and they always jump out of my price range, some going for over $100!

 

My safety pen also arrived today. It's in stock in a few places at the regular MSRP of $55. I won't be putting KTC in just yet since I used KTC last time.

 

I don't write much. My KTC would always concentrate in the pen (water evaporating through the resin). Between that, and a heavy wet yet thinnish lines from writing in print instead of cursive, KTC would write almost black.