guider Guider Big Pocket push cap pen.

August 18

While I love giant jumbo fountain pens, the convenience of a pocket pen is unmatched. If you add to that the convenience of a push cap, the joy is doubled. Finally a seamless pen completely made of ebonite seals it.

In order to fit easily in a shirt pocket, I need pens that are roughly 130mm capped. This is the golden size of many popular international pens as well.

Guider is the only pen maker in India who offers pure ebonite push cap pens (probably even in the world) without using any additional clutch inserts etc.

I requested Guider to make this pen for me. They agreed after a little bit of persuasion. The base selected was their “big” size with a Guider no. 8 (Indian size) nib friction fit on an ebonite feeder. Eyedropper filled. Additional requirement was that the pen should be postable and have a ball end clip. Guider delivered on all counts and here is the result.

The dimensions are as under:

Capped length 130mm
Length of section+barrel: 100mm
Nib exposed length:21mm
Cap diameter: 16mm
Barrel diameter: 14mm
Narrowest section diameter 12mm
Ink capacity 3.9ml

The pen was delivered with a traditional Indian ebonite feeder with a guider nib as specified. I prefer BB nibs so I replaced the guider nib with a JoWo BB nib kindly supplied by Subbu and paired it with a Sheaffer ebonite feeder harvested from an old school pen. The Sheaffer feed is nicely finned and buffers quite a bit of ink, very essential in the eyedropper mode to prevent burping due to pressure variation ( temperature/altitude/ ink level induced). You may read more about how the Sheaffer feed manages to do that in the US Patent US2283333

The ball end clip.

Glossy cap top.

Comparison with the stock medium push cap. It’s quite long. The stock big push cap is even bigger but I don’t have a stock example to show.

The big pocket push cap with some other well known pocket pens in my rotation.

L-R: Pilot Capless, Guider, Sheaffer 727, Parker 45.

There are no surprises in the performance. I have been using the pen for a few weeks now. The convenience is unmatched if slightly stout pocket pens with push caps are your thing. If you prefer only screw caps, they offer that too.

Some background about the Guider pen company:

The pen company is located in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was founded in 1946 by Mr G Subbarao. Mr Subbarao was a pen maker under the legendary Ratnam Brothers. Under the guidance of the Ratnam brothers this pen company was founded thus the name Guider. Today Mr G Lakshman Rao, son of the founder, runs the company. The pens are hand turned on a now vintage Grayson lathe part by part. The best way to order their pens is to contact the founder on WhatsApp. Details may be found on the internet.

Links to some previous posts on Guider:

Push caps part 1

Push caps part 2

Guider Jumbos.

August 19

Nice pocket pen there 👍 Way better option than those TWSBI or Lamy and other such pens.

As unique as this offering is, and Guider does a great job in making such pens, unfortunately the design didn't work for me. But it should work for the majority of people. As there are no threads to hold on to, and I use a light grip, I found the pen kept somewhat slipping from my hand. And I had to hold the pen tighter than what I usually do. So finally let my lone pushcap go just a few days ago.

But that's my issue, not the pen's fault. It's a great design which no one offers today here. And anyone looking for an ebonite slipcap pen should give this a try 👍

August 19

2 minutes ago, K Singh said:

Nice pocket pen there 👍 Way better option than those TWSBI or Lamy and other such pens.

As unique as this offering is, and Guider does a great job in making such pens, unfortunately the design didn't work for me. But it should work for the majority of people. As there are no threads to hold on to, and I use a light grip, I found the pen kept somewhat slipping from my hand. And I had to hold the pen tighter than what I usually do. So finally let my lone pushcap go just a few days ago.

But that's my issue, not the pen's fault. It's a great design which no one offers today here. And anyone looking for an ebonite slipcap pen should give this a try 👍

Thank you. Yes if push caps are not your thing then they offer screw caps by default.

August 19

Hey another great customisation. Lovely pocket pen. Ofcourse thanks for the background. This idea simply didn't cross my mind. My default pocket fellows have been a Ranga 4cs and woodex ( forgot the model name. But very similar to Deccan bullet senior). I did have a pocket zimbo with a screw cap. But somehow found it hard to use it. The length was not totally comfortable. But your pen looks a very nice length.

Incidentally I have another guider from the other end of the spectrum that I will receive today. It's a giant. Longer than zimbo but as girthy.

Do you use this posted or unposted?

August 19

1 hour ago, Harish N V said:

Hey another great customisation. Lovely pocket pen. Ofcourse thanks for the background. This idea simply didn't cross my mind. My default pocket fellows have been a Ranga 4cs and woodex ( forgot the model name. But very similar to Deccan bullet senior). I did have a pocket zimbo with a screw cap. But somehow found it hard to use it. The length was not totally comfortable. But your pen looks a very nice length.

Incidentally I have another guider from the other end of the spectrum that I will receive today. It's a giant. Longer than zimbo but as girthy.

Do you use this posted or unposted?

Thanks!

Do show your new Guider when you receive it.

I use this unposted for short notes.

August 19

Great post, I enjoy seeing Guiders and you have a wonderful set. I love my Guider pens, especially pushcaps. I got this Guider pen recently, its ginormous. and girthier than the Zimbo I have. Not a pushcap. Its the biggest pen I have. And it writes very nicely, little back heavy, but no complaints. For the lack of a name, i'm calling it the Baton, you can actually beat people with it

(next to an M805)

August 19

Thanks for sharing this! The pen looks beautiful, I am tempted to pester him for one as well Last time I spoke to him, he was quite unhappy about making regular eyedroppers (I was looking for a zimbo push cap then), good to see that he is open to it.

August 19

2 hours ago, metalhead said:

Great post, I enjoy seeing Guiders and you have a wonderful set. I love my Guider pens, especially pushcaps. I got this Guider pen recently, its ginormous. and girthier than the Zimbo I have. Not a pushcap. Its the biggest pen I have. And it writes very nicely, little back heavy, but no complaints. For the lack of a name, i'm calling it the Baton, you can actually beat people with it

(next to an M805)

Thanks! your Baton looks amazing. Pls do share a cap open pic if possible.

August 19

1 hour ago, arun.upb said:

Thanks for sharing this! The pen looks beautiful, I am tempted to pester him for one as well Last time I spoke to him, he was quite unhappy about making regular eyedroppers (I was looking for a zimbo push cap then), good to see that he is open to it.

Thanks!

It took much persuasion.

The ED makes sense only if you are going to outfit it with a buffered feed like the Sheaffer one.

The pen will eject ink as you uncap if you use plain feeds.

you can specify a Schmidt nib unit and to keep the barre;l short forgo the ability to install a converter (Use in ED fill mode).

August 19

3 hours ago, hari317 said:

Thanks! your Baton looks amazing. Pls do share a cap open pic if possible.

here you go sir, its a Schmidt #6 broad. also size comparison to a snow zimbo.

August 19

7 minutes ago, metalhead said:

here you go sir, its a Schmidt #6 broad. also size comparison to a snow zimbo.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

August 19

5 hours ago, hari317 said:

Thanks!

It took much persuasion.

The ED makes sense only if you are going to outfit it with a buffered feed like the Sheaffer one.

The pen will eject ink as you uncap if you use plain feeds.

you can specify a Schmidt nib unit and to keep the barre;l short forgo the ability to install a converter (Use in ED fill mode).

Thanks for the tips! Now I got to thinking, maybe I ask him if he can shorten the Zimbo barrel , it would be a good companion to the Zimbo pushcap below.

August 20

12 hours ago, arun.upb said:

Thanks for the tips! Now I got to thinking, maybe I ask him if he can shorten the Zimbo barrel , it would be a good companion to the Zimbo pushcap below.

thank you