I got this pen today

[Doug C]

58 minutes ago, Todor said:

ULPIA remains being a thrilling  brand and I had to wait some weeks to get my own model manufactured: 117 B.C. Medusa Negra Palladium. 
 

Since ebonite is not my cup of tea —besides feeds— I was very keen to get one of these Juma resin pens made of deeply layered „mineral resin“ that reminds me of the craftsmanship of SCRIBO and the Feel Oceano I own, with its dark-blue breaking waves foaming over a faceted barrel offering you a deep insight. Techniques you also know from OMAS. 
 

Okay, I admit I have a weakness for Italian and Spanish spirit and these Mediterranean themes, so you can hardly consider Medusa Negra a coincidence after Feel Oceano 😊

 However, I am fascinated by this grey structures inside the resin and they fit perfectly with the palladium trim and the big nib, it’s a clean old-fashioned design pairing a plain modern barrel cut. Yumm! And yes, there is that huge nib on a mid to narrow section, it calls for the fans of Pelikan M1000. In terms of flow this pen follows the M1000 way on wetness, it‘s a real Feuerwehrschlauch for inks, what I definitely like. The feed is made of ebonite —you remember the exception point— and funnily I had to soak it twice but after that: nib is smooth and the ink is wet. To put this in the words of Neal deGrasse Tyson: "You've got to have good flow to feed a broad"
 

Proportions are perfect! The body is short and girthy, but not too thick and section comes exactly at the right point for effortless writing. What I like: When you see the pen capped, it’s a modern clean body with a nice tiny clip in nib shape — when you take the pen uncapped it is an old-fashioned instrument from the 1920‘s with classic nib engraving. The perfect mix. 
Following my own policy a pen calls for a clear contrast in ink colour, so this grey-anthracite was inked with Montblanc 100y Origin Coral (here it comes the marine stuff again ,-)

 

In advance, please pardon me, the photos I took cannot cover my enthusiasm for this pen but I hope they can give you a first impression.
Take a look!

 

— Todor

 

 

I have the 117 in Desert ebonite and never considered the resin versions but I have to admit that is one gorgeous pen!

One of the most comfortable pen bodies I have experienced. 

[Todor]

32 minutes ago, Doug C said:

One of the most comfortable pen bodies I have experienced. 

 

Oh yes, definitely! I was surprised and it carries the big nib in a perfect way…

They put a good portion on craftsmanship in this design. It just works. 
 

The Juma resin seems to be of good hardness and quite scratch resistant. 

[Misfit]

On 5/25/2024 at 3:49 PM, cat74 said:

Not as scary as it sounds but I tape off anything you want to keep, like manufacture stamps etc., and metal pieces. then start off with 600 grit sandpaper making sure to not flat spot the area then move up through grits - 800, 1500, 2400, 3600 etc. etc. finishing with 12,000 grit (maybe even a liquid rubbing compound) to get back to a mirror finish

I have a little micro mesh progression that I use.

These particular personalization's do not seem as deep as others I've seen

Oh! - I keep the section installed so that nothing gets rounded off where joints are so that nothing looks odd.

Thank you for sharing this. Much appreciated. 

[pan101]

New pen and new ink. Mabie Todd Swan in green/grey snake skin and Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi ink. Luckily the flex nib puts down a bit more ink otherwise it's so pale you'd hardly see it.

[Misfit]

The TWSBI Diamond Mini Clear with 1.1mm stub nib arrived today. It has J Herbin Lierre Sauvage ink in it. 
 

[penwarrior32]

On 5/31/2024 at 8:55 PM, pan101 said:

New pen and new ink. Mabie Todd Swan in green/grey snake skin and Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi ink. Luckily the flex nib puts down a bit more ink otherwise it's so pale you'd hardly see it.

Nice looking pen

[Cjtamu]

15 hours ago, Misfit said:

The TWSBI Diamond Mini Clear with 1.1mm stub nib arrived today. It has J Herbin Lierre Sauvage ink in it. 
 

Wonderful pen. Kim loves hers. 

[Scrawler]

I have just received an almost unused 1993 Montblanc 149 which I inherited.

 

 

[kazoolaw]

Good writing to you!

[USG]

On 5/28/2024 at 5:10 PM, Misfit said:

Thank you for sharing this. Much appreciated. 

 

18 hours ago, Misfit said:

The TWSBI Diamond Mini Clear with 1.1mm stub nib arrived today. It has J Herbin Lierre Sauvage ink in it. 
 

 

Hi... is that ink shading for you? 😃

[inkstainedruth]

Yesterday morning at an estate sale I picked up what I think might be a Sheaffer Fashion (possibly a Fashion I, from the paperwork in the bottom of the box.  Came with a converter already installed and two cartridges of what I think are Skrip Black in the bottom of the box (along with a pamphlet about how to fill it and with the warranty information; the pamphlet also had photos of the nibs for the Connoisseur, the "handset inlaid" nib, and the Fashion (which is why I'm guessing that's what the pen I got is).  Pen cost five bucks (sadly, while there were a few other pens like the one I got, mostly the rest of the pickings were Cross BP/pencil sets and, and a couple Parker Vectors that were either BPs or rollerballs ).

Haven't had a chance to try the pen out yet.  I got sucked into the vortex that is the "Book of Faces" dealing with a bunch of delusional idiots (I'd say more but that would violate the rule about "no politics" on FPN...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Misfit]

2 hours ago, USG said:

 

 

Hi... is that ink shading for you? 😃

I’d call it low shading with cursive writing, more shading with print.  I hope that helps. 

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Yesterday morning at an estate sale I picked up what I think might be a Sheaffer Fashion (possibly a Fashion I, from the paperwork in the bottom of the box.  Came with a converter already installed and two cartridges of what I think are Skrip Black in the bottom of the box (along with a pamphlet about how to fill it and with the warranty information; the pamphlet also had photos of the nibs for the Connoisseur, the "handset inlaid" nib, and the Fashion (which is why I'm guessing that's what the pen I got is).  Pen cost five bucks (sadly, while there were a few other pens like the one I got, mostly the rest of the pickings were Cross BP/pencil sets and, and a couple Parker Vectors that were either BPs or rollerballs ).

Haven't had a chance to try the pen out yet.  I got sucked into the vortex that is the "Book of Faces" dealing with a bunch of delusional idiots (I'd say more but that would violate the rule about "no politics" on FPN...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

  Is it really skinny?  I have a bunch of Fashion I and II fps and both are skinny, but the I doesn’t take regular Skrip cartridges, it takes really thin longer ones.  The picture below is of a Sheaffer TRZ, which is the precursor to the Fashion I and the same size around. 

[Paul-in-SF]

Yesterday, I received in the mail a pen I bought off of eBay, a Montblanc Friedrich Schiller "limited edition" (only 18,000 made!) with a Fine nib, and I like it much more than I was thought I might. It looked rather large in the photos, and I am pleased to find that it is just "normally" large, about 135 mm capped. It has a black body and a marbled brown cap. The marbling is very subtle and I like the color. It is rather over-decorated, as these pens tend to be, with a triple gold band holding the clip on, and two knurled gold bands at the piston knob, one on the knob side and one on the barrel side. These two bands are the source of my only complaint so far, which is that when I post the pen, the knurling gets caught in the cap threads and I have to be very careful not to twist the cap when I am un-posting it. The pen writes a very nice Fine line, smooth with just a touch of feedback, and the piston seems to hold a good amount of ink. 8 out of 10 overall, and definitely a keeper. 

[PJS_prog]

Ordered a couple of Pilot Penmanship (clear) pens on Saturday, and they arrived yesterday. The plan is to harvest the EF nib out of one of them for my Metropolitan, then possibly use the other for possibly another Metropolitan (in gray). Both came with a cartridge and a converter. I inked one last night with the included cartridge. It's a little scratchier than I'd anticipated, but having written with it a bit last night and much of the morning so far today, I'm either getting used to it or it's starting to smooth already. I suspect the former. Already loving the lines from the Japanese EF nib.

 

I have to say, it's a rather comfortable pen. The other one may end up staying in-tact.

 

(Can't seem to upload the image ... although, it's not like everyone hasn't seen one of these.)

[inkstainedruth]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:25 PM, Penguincollector said:

  Is it really skinny?  I have a bunch of Fashion I and II fps and both are skinny, but the I doesn’t take regular Skrip cartridges, it takes really thin longer ones.  The picture below is of a Sheaffer TRZ, which is the precursor to the Fashion I and the same size around. 

Yeah, the pen is skinny -- thinner than a Parker Vector (very close in diameter to a #2(?) wooden pencil I have that is marked "orientaltrading.

com/ZHOXIN 1221") but a bit longer than the Vector when both are capped.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Stompie]

On 5/25/2024 at 9:49 PM, cat74 said:

Not as scary as it sounds but I tape off anything you want to keep, like manufacture stamps etc., and metal pieces. then start off with 600 grit sandpaper making sure to not flat spot the area then move up through grits - 800, 1500, 2400, 3600 etc. etc. finishing with 12,000 grit (maybe even a liquid rubbing compound) to get back to a mirror finish

I have a little micro mesh progression that I use.

These particular personalization's do not seem as deep as others I've seen

Oh! - I keep the section installed so that nothing gets rounded off where joints are so that nothing looks odd.

 

Would it not be cheaper and less risky to just change your name to Betty? 🤣

[Stompie]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:55 PM, pan101 said:

New pen and new ink. Mabie Todd Swan in green/grey snake skin and Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi ink. Luckily the flex nib puts down a bit more ink otherwise it's so pale you'd hardly see it.

 

Nice!!

[deuter]

NOS clip Urushi Jumbo

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

5 hours ago, Stompie said:

 

Would it not be cheaper and less risky to just change your name to Betty? 🤣

I'll admit that I never understood the squeamishness some people have about pens with peoples' names engraved on them.  Unless it's something that's NOS, EVERY vintage pen is going to have some previous owner(s).  And (except for one pen where the initials are in really large black print on a very small white ringtop, which is kind of distracting) I don't mind the name engraving.  It give pens a history, a story behind them, and I find that actually kind of interesting.  I was able to trace the name engraved on a pen I was given at a flea market -- the guy said he "couldn't" sell it  -- to the owner of a jewelry store a bit north of where the flea market was being held, and which, more recently, was turned into an antiques shop).  But I'm usually not that lucky (although I do try).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth