Modern Pens With Ebonite Feeds

[sansenri]

I'm still very interested in this topic...

Has anyone tried one of the Jowo or Bock #6 ebonite feeds?

I just sent Flexible Nibs a message to check their related offer.

[Karmachanic]

@DipIt mentioned Santini. Ebonite feeds are on their flex nibs.

Eureka pens are fitted with Ebonite feeds.

I now have a Flexible Nibs Ebonite feed on my Pilot 912 FA and can confirm that it works as advertised

 

 

[sansenri]

5 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

@DipIt mentioned Santini. Ebonite feeds are on their flex nibs.

Eureka pens are fitted with Ebonite feeds.

I now have a Flexible Nibs Ebonite feed on my Pilot 912 FA and can confirm that it works as advertised

 

 

Interesting to know, I'm in the process of buying a couple of Jowo feeds+collars in ebonite, and eagerly waiting for their Bock 250 feeds.
 

[Karmachanic]

8 hours ago, sansenri said:

 eagerly waiting for their Bock 250 feeds.
 

 

Ditto!

[como]

I bought a Jowo#6 feed in Bock 250 housing from Flexible Nib Factory (Black ebonite, 3-slit ink slot). It worked well, and works even better after I heat-set the Jowo#6 gold nib. 

[sansenri]

8 hours ago, como said:

I bought a Jowo#6 feed in Bock 250 housing from Flexible Nib Factory (Black ebonite, 3-slit ink slot). It worked well, and works even better after I heat-set the Jowo#6 gold nib. 

3 slit? which pen did you fit this on? is it the flexible 14k Jowo nib?

[Orval]

The Scribo Feel has an ebonite feed.

[como]

On 12/16/2020 at 11:05 PM, sansenri said:

3 slit? which pen did you fit this on? is it the flexible 14k Jowo nib?

It was a Jowo#6 18k broad, stubbed and tuned to be rather wet, so I picked this feed to accommodate for the ink flow. Probably the normal ebonite feed would have worked as well. It was to fit on the Conid Monarch Minimalistica (but I have since sold the pen). Now this nib is fitted on a Desiderata pen with just the normal plastic feed that came with the Jowo nib.

[sansenri]

On 12/17/2020 at 11:14 PM, como said:

It was a Jowo#6 18k broad, stubbed and tuned to be rather wet, so I picked this feed to accommodate for the ink flow. Probably the normal ebonite feed would have worked as well. It was to fit on the Conid Monarch Minimalistica (but I have since sold the pen). Now this nib is fitted on a Desiderata pen with just the normal plastic feed that came with the Jowo nib.

I see, in fact I've noticed these are often selling for use with Conid.

Why did you sell the Minimalistica if I may ask?

[como]

8 hours ago, sansenri said:

I see, in fact I've noticed these are often selling for use with Conid.

Why did you sell the Minimalistica if I may ask?

@sansenri: By now I have sold the three Conid pens I had (the last one was an order that I waited for a long while and finally cancelled). I grew tired of them not meeting one deadline after another and not much visibility either. With vintage pens, at least I can take action getting a spare part or be creative and find a solution. This, I can only wait and hope that maybe they will get back to me some day. That's not much fun. 

[sansenri]

must be disappointing... I've been eying a Conid since long, but I'm not making any purchases unless they properly solve their availability issues... which might be never.

[sansenri]

btw, the Tibaldi Bononia that has just been launched has a steel nib, but an ebonite feed!

[bunnspecial]

One I've been meaning to ask about:

 

I have a Pilot CH92 with a feed that certainly looks like ebonite. The fins are wide and sparse, it has a rough look, and it seems to "soak up" the ink color I'm using on the underside of it.

 

My single most used pen, a c. 1990 MB 146, is ebonite. I need to make heads or tails of when my 149 was made, but the person I bought it from sent it to MB at some indeterminate time in the "past few years" and it has a plastic feed that I suspect was fitted at that time. I haven't been 100% happy with how it writes vs. my 146, but I don't know that that's entirely down to the feed. OTOH, my 145 was made sometime around 2013 or 2014, and the flow is fine on it(it's just too small ). Most of my other MBs are from the 60s, and of course are ebonite, and I love how all of them flow/write but then the nibs are also quite different from the big pens.

 

Looking in my pen case, I have probably a 50/50 mix of ebonite and plastic, although most of my ebonite would be considered "vintage" aside from the Noodler's pens(except maybe my Conklin Mark Twain? Someone upthread mentioned some off-the-shelf #6 units being ebonite).

[como]

5 hours ago, sansenri said:

must be disappointing... I've been eying a Conid since long, but I'm not making any purchases unless they properly solve their availability issues... which might be never.

Disappointing, yes a little bit, but it’s amusing to see that on rare occasion I was able to sell a pen much faster than I could buy it😀. Your idea is good.

1 hour ago, sansenri said:

btw, the Tibaldi Bononia that has just been launched has a steel nib, but an ebonite feed!

That is always appreciated. For me, the ebonite feed is not just better for the ink flow, it looks better too.

[Arkanabar]

Not much mention of Kevin at fprevolutionusa.com who sells ebonite feeds in 4.7mm, 5.1mm, and 6.3mm, with both regular and high-flow channels.  Of course, they also sell pens with all of these feeds, too.  Their Tanoshii, Triveni, Indore, and Darjeeling pens use plastic feeds to fit standard international converters.  They call detachable internal syringe and piston fillers that screw onto the sections of various Himalayas converters as well.  I suppose they "convert" the pens from eyedroppers to self-fillers.

 

I don't have a huge preference one way or the other regarding ebonite feeds.  I have several pens with plastic feeds that I like quite a bit.  But ebonite pens have a decidedly different tactile quality compared to acrylic/ resin/ plastic/ cellulose nitrate/ "vegetal resin."  Some people call the difference "warmth" but to me it is closer to traction.  I really prefer the feel of ebonite to acrylic in my Himalayas.  My vegetal resin (cellulose nitrate?  It did have odor) Jaipurs are also a little nicer in the hand than common plastics and acrylic, IMO, but not so much as my ebonite Himalayas.

[magna carta]

On 4/4/2018 at 5:59 PM, Maurizio said:

A discussion here about metal feeds and the general superiority of ebonite feeds got me wondering how many modern currently produced pens have ebonite feeds?

There are the Noodlers pens which, as much as I love and buy lots of Noodlers ink, are problematic writers at best and require tinkering to get writing well. There is an Aurora pen the name of which I dont know but someone here will, and I believe the Namiki Emperor. Are there any more?

Can we compile a list of modern pens which come with an ebonite feed, or companies which offer an ebonite feed as an option?

I have devloped the Ebonite feed and housing for the modern pen manufacturer. it is compatble for #6 nib like bock and jowo. i have make the feed in 4 difrent colors.  

[shostakovich]

There are so many variables - nib - feed - paper - ink - filler type, that in my opinion it is impossible to say what type of feed is best. I only have modern pens with plastic feeds so I have no comparison. But taking into account all the other variables I don't think there is a definitive answer.

[Karmachanic]

Not a matter of best. Different. Ebonite feeds tend to put more ink on the page, which is why, as per above post, I put an ebonite feed in my Pilot 912 FA. This is why Bock #8s come with an ebonite feed.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ebonite feeds are sawn, so are rougher than 'normal' plastic feeds, holding the ink better. Cost a hell of a lot more too.....

....I don't know about if laser is used to cut 'modern' Ebonite feeds or not.

 

Lamy acid treats it's plastic feeds to make them rougher more like Ebonite. (which explains what appears to me on the couple of Lamy pens I have, the lack of combs/rills normally used for buffereing.)

If other major pen makers do also acid treat their feeds (or Bock and Schmidt or JoWo), hasn't been reviled to us on the com...or I've not read otherwise. 

 

 

 

[bunnspecial]

2 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

Lamy acid treats it's plastic feeds to make them rougher more like Ebonite. (which explains what appears to me on the couple of Lamy pens I have, the lack of combs/rills normally used for buffereing.)

If other major pen makers do also acid treat their feeds (or Bock and Schmidt or JoWo), hasn't been reviled to us on the com...or I've not read otherwise. 

 

Lamy feeds have a rough appearance that to my eye looks very much like ebonite.

 

Most other modern pens I have-thinking of Pelikan and Montblanc off the top of my head, but also several others of different brands-have a "slick" look to the plastic even in the feed channels.

 

I'm still wondering about my Pilot CH92. As I said, it sure looks like ebonite including the rough appearance and the "color soaking" as well as having fairly wide fins(as opposed to the million and a half tiny ones normally on plastic feeds) but I can't find that information anywhere.