Triangular Grips?

[MollyH]

What are the good triangular pens on the market at the moment?

 

I have a friend asking for recommendations but I realized that I don't know many off of the top of my head other than the Lamy Safari and the TWSBI Eco-T, but she is looking for something more vintage.

 

What would you recommend for a student-level budget?

And what are good triangular gripped pens broadly speaking?

 

Thank you!

[carlos.q]

Take a look at Parker 75.

[City74]

The Al Star is the first to my mind and the most comfortable I have tried, more so then the Safari

[MuddyWaters]

Vintage option would be Parker 75 indeed

 

In new pens, there are the pilot kakuno, Faber Castell GRIP, lamys that I can think of

[Intensity]

Not vintage but excellent in use and very budget-friendly: Kaweco Perkeo with a great, springy #5 Bock nib. It even comes in full-black now, though I’m partial to the pastel pink/gray and cream/teal combinations.

[eharriett]

I love questions like this! Have a unique preference and you think nothing exists and suddenly you get some new options!

[SwipedFromTruman]

The plumix has a triangular grip. Runs about 8 bucks. Can use cartridge, converter, or eye dropper.

[Honeybadgers]

It's interesting that I can't think of one that costs more than about 30 bucks.

 

IIRC some omas pens had them though but it was mostly because the whole pen was a triangle.

 

I know they're generally considered to be beginner grips for training the hand, but lots of people love them and stick with their safari or al-star forever, so I don't know why there aren't more.

[SoulSamurai]

The only pen I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Pelikan Twist.

[Namo]

Lamy Nexx and Nexx M

[txomsy]

Jinhao 450, cheap, classic cigar shaped, metallic cap and barrel, easy to disassemble for maintenance/tweaking, and very cheap. It is a modern pen, though, but has a classic look.

[Arkanabar]

I keep my eye out for triangular-grip pens, so I can avoid them.

The Pilot Kakuno has six sides, not three.

Many Lamy pens are triangular -- the Safari, Vista, Al-Star, and Joy all share the same section. Then there are the ABC, Nexx, and Nexx M (as said above). A bunch of Online's pens (online-pen.de) have rubberized, triangular grips (both of which I regard as flaws in design). I think that in addition to the Twist, the Pelikano Jr. may have section facets.

Sheaffer used to make a very slender pocket pen called the Prelude, which had Safari-style facets. OMAS used to make a piston-filler they called the 360, but not for very long. I'm sure any found will be quite pricey. As Honeybadgers said, the entire pen had a triangular cross-section.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Wing Sung 3009, an inexpensive piston filler, has a clear triangular section (and Safari-esque clip).

[OMASsimo]

As some already mentioned, OMAS made a whole series of triangular pens named "360" (not to be mixed up with the older "361"). These pens came in all kinds of colours and materials and sizes. The smaller ones are cartridge/converter, the large ones are piston fillers. Like all OMAS they are of outstanding quality but not made anymore. Since the company was liquidated, prices for used ones or NOS pens went up a lot and they were expensive before that. But the 360s definitely are fantastic and unusual pens, especially the celluloid models.

[inkstainedruth]

For a low end pen, have a look at the Jinhao 599. It's a knockoff of a Safari/al-Star. Someone gave me one and it taught me that I could in fact get used to a triangular section after all. Is it as good as my Safari? No. But it's also roughly a sixth the price.....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[7is]

Some older Pelikano or Geha pens from the 70s and 80s had such grips, and they're usually inexpensive.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'd stay away from Geha cartridge pens, in no cartridges have been made for them since 1972, when Geha stopped making pens.

Geha was the first cartridge pen maker in Germany so ended up with a propriety cartridge, then they made the other end fit Pelikan. But nothing fits it now....

 

Have no idea if a converter if so, which could fit them.

[OMASsimo]

That's right, Geha cartridges are a no go unless you want to keep that pen in a display case only.

[ardene]

As said above, for actual vintage pens with triangular sections the more affordable option is a Parker 75. They are very good. A cheap pen with a nicely vintagey look (the black one, there are other colours: https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Penmanship-Fountain-Pen-Non-Color-Extra-Fine-Nib/pd/4008/related ) and a very well made ergonomic grip is the Pilot Penmanship.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/308453-pilot-penmanship/

 

https://www.bestfountainpen.com/pilot-penmanship/

 

https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2016/4/19/bung-box-pilot-penmanship-ef-fountain-pen-review

 

It only comes with extra fine nibs though.

 

Also bear in mind that many German-style (i.e. Lamy-style) triangular sections designed to be useful to people learning to grip a pen as well as experienced (and usually older) users are on the thicker side in terms of diametre. I am saying that because whilst I usually follow the flattened surfaces on the section of the 75, I totally ignore them on my Kaweco Perkeo where my fingers rest happily partly on-partly off the flattened surface except for my index which always rests entirely off. (I do this without any trouble because the section transitions are smooth and I write using the elbow, not the wrist or the roots of fingers themselves, as my pivot point; I hold all pens like darts actually, but it works and it is comfortable for me). I say all this because if your friend has smaller fingers she might be forced to ignore the triangular shape of the section and conclude that she is somehow failing to hold the pen "properly". Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as proper grip so long as you don't get finger cramps or the like; if not, then you're holding the pen properly, and this is the reason why the transitions between the flattened, triangularly placed grip guides and the curvy section intervals between them on German-style school pens are imperceptible to the touch: so that students will ignore the triangularly placed guides if need be, like I do with my Perkeo.

[DonM]

Pelikan school pens often have triangular grips. I have some Pelikan Go! pens from the 1980s that are pretty cool. Black and teal, and piston fillers, too. Probably go for around $5, if you can find one.