I got this pen today

[Doug C]

19 hours ago, SLinkster said:

Here's my Lilliput fireblue, finally inked it yesterday with r&k helianthus.

Both your pen and Misfits are more colorful than mine.

[SLinkster]

31 minutes ago, Doug C said:

Both your pen and Misfits are more colorful than mine.

 

I feel like mine is something of a let-down visually, but I like it well enough. The various photos online that caught my attention are more vibrant, I think. I do have another (order a a gift for a friend who just up and ordered her own) that I'm carefully not looking at. I've inked one, that's the pen I'm keeping.

[Misfit]

And here I thought @SLinkster’s pen cap was neater than mine. Ha! The body on mine has enough color variation. 
 

@Doug C it might be a bit before I get a clip. I will try to remember to post a photo.  I noticed in the reviews on amazon that most pens in the photos had clips. 

[pan101]

Not pen but ink. New inks to me, hadn't even heard of them until a couple of days ago. Seems appropriate to wash out some Mabie Todd pens to give them a go.

[pan101]

2 hours ago, pan101 said:

Not pen but ink. New inks to me, hadn't even heard of them until a couple of days ago. Seems appropriate to wash out some Mabie Todd pens to give them a go.

Inked a Swan with Sand Martin Brown and a Jackdaw with Mallard Green. Poor artificial lighting I'm afraid, I'll revisit in daylight. Paper is Tomoe River. First impressions, I'm not sure, slightly muted colours. I was expecting some sheen but there's no sheen and only a little shading. 

 

[Misfit]

I really like the top pen in your image @pan101

[pan101]

8 hours ago, Misfit said:

I really like the top pen in your image @pan101

Thank you Misfit, it's a vintage Mabie Todd Swan, pretty celluloid with an ebonite section and feed, No.2 14k flexible medium nib. What do you think of the inks? I'm a little disappointed with them now I've seen them in daylight. Nice enough colours but dull, no sheen and little shading. The retro style packaging is nice and 30ml glass ink bottles . 

[Misfit]

@pan101 I think you described them correctly as slightly muted. Your handwriting makes the ink look very nice. 

[Surlyprof]

On 4/15/2024 at 4:15 PM, AmandaW said:

My Lamy CP1 and matching mechanical pencil have arrived. That's one skinny pen.  Not inked yet.

Although it isn’t currently inked, I love my CP1.  Such a minimalistic, well resolved design.  I use mine mostly for sketching.  It feels like a pencil with all the benefits of a fountain pen. 

[Surlyprof]

DHL showed up late last night with my first Sailor pen.  I’ve looking for 2 years and finally ordered Bungubox’s new Norwegian Wood with a medium fine nib.  I had been seeking a Sailor with a metal section.  I like the balance of pens like their Black Luster and Soul of Chess.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw that the hardware had the same black ionic plating as the Black Luster (which isn’t available with an MF).  I now see it in Bungubox’s webpage but I thought it looked more rhodium/silver in their photos.  I also love the moose on the nib, the higher capacity piston fill and the glitter green body (because it is more subtle than it looked in photos).  The MF nib is finer than I remember from those I tried but I love both the smoothness and feedback that everyone writes about.  So different than my Pilot Custom.  As an added bonus, Bungubox threw in a bottle of their Eternal Music ink.  It’s very nice and very water resistant.

 

 

 

 

[RedPie]

17 hours ago, Surlyprof said:

DHL showed up late last night with my first Sailor pen.  I’ve looking for 2 years and finally ordered Bungubox’s new Norwegian Wood with a medium fine nib.  I had been seeking a Sailor with a metal section.  I like the balance of pens like their Black Luster and Soul of Chess.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw that the hardware had the same black ionic plating as the Black Luster (which isn’t available with an MF).  I now see it in Bungubox’s webpage but I thought it looked more rhodium/silver in their photos.  I also love the moose on the nib, the higher capacity piston fill and the glitter green body (because it is more subtle than it looked in photos).  The MF nib is finer than I remember from those I tried but I love both the smoothness and feedback that everyone writes about.  So different than my Pilot Custom.  As an added bonus, Bungubox threw in a bottle of their Eternal Music ink.  It’s very nice and very water resistant.

 

 

 

 

What a great looking pen! Congratulations. Now I want one like this as well. 😊

[dms525]

Recently, a number of my favorite pen vendors started selling a new make of pen from Spain. It looked attractive enough that I bought one, and I am happy with it, with one exception. The brand is "Ulpia." I got the model "117" which is a C/C filler. Access to the converter is by unscrewing the knurled brass ring at the end of the barrel. There is no real section, but the pen is very comfortable to hold and write with. Note the threads are also at the very end of the barrel, so are not touched when writing. The pens are offered in several colors of German ebonite. The 117 model comes with a steel nib. Some vendors offer the option of a gold nib at additional cost.

 

 The "flaw" is that, if you ink the pen using a converter and dipping the nib in an ink bottle, there is no way to avoid getting inky fingers when screwing the nib/converter back into the barrel. The solution, I suppose, is to load ink in the converter directly, install it, then dip the nib in the ink bottle.

 

This is a medium-small size pen. It is 130 mm long, 123 mm uncapped. It weighs 32g. It is about the size of a Pelikan M6xx which means it fits securely in most of my shirt breast pockets. It is a bit girthier than most pens of this size, which makes it more comfortable to use for me.

 

The nibs offered by all the vendors I found did not include a Stub, so I ordered my pen with a B nib and had it custom ground to cursive italic.

 

How about some photos?

 

 

 

 

 

And, for comparison, with a Kaweco AL-Sport, a M600 and a M800.

 

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[Cjtamu]

That is a beautiful pen @Surlyprof. Tempting.

[yubaprof]

5 hours ago, dms525 said:

Recently, a number of my favorite pen vendors started selling a new make of pen from Spain. It looked attractive enough that I bought one, and I am happy with it, with one exception. The brand is "Ulpia." I got the model "117" which is a C/C filler. Access to the converter is by unscrewing the knurled brass ring at the end of the barrel. There is no real section, but the pen is very comfortable to hold and write with. Note the threads are also at the very end of the barrel, so are not touched when writing. The pens are offered in several colors of German ebonite. The 117 model comes with a steel nib. Some vendors offer the option of a gold nib at additional cost.

 

 The "flaw" is that, if you ink the pen using a converter and dipping the nib in an ink bottle, there is no way to avoid getting inky fingers when screwing the nib/converter back into the barrel. The solution, I suppose, is to load ink in the converter directly, install it, then dip the nib in the ink bottle.

 

This is a medium-small size pen. It is 130 mm long, 123 mm uncapped. It weighs 32g. It is about the size of a Pelikan M6xx which means it fits securely in most of my shirt breast pockets. It is a bit girthier than most pens of this size, which makes it more comfortable to use for me.

 

The nibs offered by all the vendors I found did not include a Stub, so I ordered my pen with a B nib and had it custom ground to cursive italic.

 

How about some photos?

 

 

 

 

 

And, for comparison, with a Kaweco AL-Sport, a M600 and a M800.

 

 

Happy writing!

 

David

Jeesh, you reeled me right in with this one, David. I checked out Ulpia on fpnibs.com. Beautiful assortment of pens made in my family's homeland. A couple of questions for you, if you don't mind.

1. I have a choice of L/F Oblique Cursive Italic 15 degrees v. 30 degrees. How do I go about evaluating which to choose? I very much like obliques and have been fooling around with an italic, but I have no idea about the angle.

2. Feeder Flow Hack: "No" v. "High" v. "Very High." I don't have a clue as to what they are talking about.

I hope I am not imposing on you with these questions...

David R.

[dms525]

10 hours ago, yubaprof said:

Jeesh, you reeled me right in with this one, David. I checked out Ulpia on fpnibs.com. Beautiful assortment of pens made in my family's homeland. A couple of questions for you, if you don't mind.

1. I have a choice of L/F Oblique Cursive Italic 15 degrees v. 30 degrees. How do I go about evaluating which to choose? I very much like obliques and have been fooling around with an italic, but I have no idea about the angle.

2. Feeder Flow Hack: "No" v. "High" v. "Very High." I don't have a clue as to what they are talking about.

I hope I am not imposing on you with these questions...

David R.

 

I love answering questions when they involve spending other people's money. 🤣

 

I write with italic nibs because italic (chancery cursive) is my everyday handwriting. My experience with oblique nibs is limited. Note that their purpose is to compensate for the writer's tendency to rotate the pen around its long axis. If you don't have this tendency, you don't need an oblique nib. Pablo's cursive italic grinds are pretty crisp. If you are not going to use the nib for broad point calligraphy (italic, gothic, uncial, etc.), a stub grind might be better for you.

 

I have found that the nibs I have bought from fpnibs - a dozen or more - have good flow with the standard feed. Some prefer a wetter or drier ink, but a few trials tell me how to optimize each nib's performance. The feeder hacks are to increase ink flow, I believe. If you prefer a super juicy nib, you may want that. If you are not sure, I think you could query Pablo. My guess is you don't need to get this.

 

When I checked fpnibs yesterday, they were sold out of most Ulpia 117 colors. I don't know if they intend to order more. I hope so, because I think this is a good product.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[Doug C]

30 minutes ago, dms525 said:

 

I love answering questions when they involve spending other people's money. 🤣

 

I write with italic nibs because italic (chancery cursive) is my everyday handwriting. My experience with oblique nibs is limited. Note that their purpose is to compensate for the writer's tendency to rotate the pen around its long axis. If you don't have this tendency, you don't need an oblique nib. Pablo's cursive italic grinds are pretty crisp. If you are not going to use the nib for broad point calligraphy (italic, gothic, uncial, etc.), a stub grind might be better for you.

 

I have found that the nibs I have bought from fpnibs - a dozen or more - have good flow with the standard feed. Some prefer a wetter or drier ink, but a few trials tell me how to optimize each nib's performance. The feeder hacks are to increase ink flow, I believe. If you prefer a super juicy nib, you may want that. If you are not sure, I think you could query Pablo. My guess is you don't need to get this.

 

When I checked fpnibs yesterday, they were sold out of most Ulpia 117 colors. I don't know if they intend to order more. I hope so, because I think this is a good product.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

DMS.... you are killing me.

[A Smug Dill]

Australia Post does not deliver in my neighbourhood on weekends, so I was quite surprised to receive not just one, but three, separate packages (for three orders) on Saturday morning.

 

[MarcoA63]

At a local auction house I won an Onoto self filler pen with over under feed. Needs repairing as the plunger filler has seized and I do not want to force it. It smells beautifully too

 

 

 

[Mercian]

On 4/26/2024 at 12:26 AM, dms525 said:

And, for comparison, with a Kaweco AL-Sport, a M600 and a M800.

 

 

Happy writing!

What ‘flavour’ of M600 is that please?

It almost appears to be an M805 Ocean Swirl, except smaller.
I haven’t ever seen any M60x pen in that finish.

[Todor]

Ulpia is —independently from this thread— one of the most thrilling topics in the German pen community. I adore their designs as they are a vibrant mix of old-fashioned (stylus-shaped section with that knurled ring) and modern (rounded ends etc.) at the same time. It’s difficult to find English equivalents for the expression Formsprache, maybe „statement by form“ may give you some idea, why this pens are exiting in many ways: short & girthy like a Montblanc 1912, some Bauhaus simplicity and kinda Art Deco clip — and cool colours like coral, medusa, bronze…

 

On 4/26/2024 at 1:26 AM, dms525 said:

The pens are offered in several colors of German ebonite.

David, your pen is definitely ebonite. Is this the desert pattern?

However, they offer as well another material from Germany called Juma resin, a mineral based resin, which seems to be very durable and clear at the same time. It delivers a deep structured material. Like it very much!
 

Steel nibs come from Jowo, they are well proven. 
 

On 4/26/2024 at 1:26 AM, dms525 said:

The "flaw" is that, if you ink the pen using a converter and dipping the nib in an ink bottle, there is no way to avoid getting inky fingers when screwing the nib/converter back into the barrel. The solution, I suppose, is to load ink in the converter directly, install it, then dip the nib in the ink bottle.

May I suggest you an alternative solution: As the suction effect comes through the feeder it is maybe sufficient to dip only the nib/feeder but not the knurled ring (this maybe takes a good amount of ink and keeps it —unintentionally— for your fingers instead of dropping it back into the bottle. 

There is also a second Ulpia line bringing an unique filling system called Párix, maybe the evolution of eyedroppers and safeties. A combination of a cartridge nib section and a small tube of ca. 2,5 ml as ink container, what is pretty generous. 
https://ulpia.es/sistema-parix/
 

Enjoy your new Spanish design! 
I am about to order a pen from Ulpia, too

 

Kind regards,

Todor