Meisterstück Legrand. Using it every day.

 

Almost all of these have been fountain pens. Are ball point and rollerballs like the quartz movement of pen technology?

 

Really nice and rare in a 6 size, probably ca.1903 due to spoon feed. I've been collecting a long time, primarily pre 1915 Waterman's. Here's a sample of some of my favorites.

 

Not really a high end pen kind of guy. My daily "writers" are these 2 Lamy Safari pieces. Been using Lamy for at least 20 years.

 

Very, very nice. Those are quite rare.

Okay. Only Watermans.


Size 6 and 7 Watermans from the first year of production. (The imprints are too faint to show easily.). I’ve used the size 6 a few times. Way too heavy ink flow. (Inks were thicker and coarser in the late 19th century.)


Pair of 17s. They are rare in black and really rare in mottled or red hard rubber. Imprints are everything on these old pens.


A pearl 24 from around 1905-10, with a size 6 from the late 1880s and a mottled 18 from 1905-10. The 6 and the 18 appear nearly unused. Any Watermans from before 1900 are very very rare (in my experience).


.999 Silver flower filigree, sizes 15 and 16, again from around 1905-1910.


Some of my size 20 Watermans. They are huge, but I have used them as daily pens. (Obviously, I must not be well endowed, because I tended to collect big pens.) I used four of them in rotation when I was trying to write a novel, a few years back.


My size 8s, mostly 18s (slip cap, eye dropper filled). A lot of these were daily pens.

I started doing this about 35 years ago. Initially, I was hot and heavy; I got up to over 2,000 vintage pens within five years. Financial crisis forced me to sell most of the collection. I saved what was special to me and have since added here and there when I saw something really unusual.

I tried nearly every quality pen manufacturer from before the switch to celluloid, and only Watermans had these amazing nibs. 1920’s Montblancs also have wonderful nibs.


Size 6 and size 8 safety pens from the 20’s.

 

Amazing collection!!!

 

Anyone have any experience with a Wahl Decoband with Superflex nib? A lot of positive reviews saying it's a decent modern flexible pen, which is what I'm looking for.

Also, any experience with Pen Chalet? They have the best price but many bad reviews.

 

I've purchased from Pen Chalet before and everything was fine. Had an issue with a nib and the exchange was pretty painless.

 

Mechanical watches dont have many downsides, compared to quartz watches. Accuracy, of course, but measured in seconds/day deviation.

IMO, fountain pens have significantly more downsides than RBs/BPs. You've got to constantly flush and re-ink, clean the mechanism, not write too fast/too hard, etc.

Most (all?) FP users that I know also have a stable of good RBs/BPs. Of course, they're probably well versed in Pilot gel ink and know which bodies will fit refills best .

I use FPs, of course. But, here are 2 RBs that I use most often. A Montegrappa 1930 Extra and a Visconti Homo Sapiens steel age. (Pics borrowed from web)

 

Montblanc maisterstuck roller and pencil with case

 

I’m retired from the real world now so my pens sadly sit in their little drawer, rarely used.

As the engineer for a manufacturing facility I spent my professional life on the production floor, often poking about machines or, on happy days, actually making a new machine. This type of life ruled out fountain pens as they don’t take well to dirt or rough use. This left me with the choice of using shite stick pens or having really nice non fountain pens. As stick pens are only good for opening boxes and stabbing the manufacturing engineer when he designs yet another unbuildable product I opted for really nice rollerball pens and higher end mechanical pencils.

seems Visconti makes pencils if you care to order direct.

 

Anyone collect Parker 51s and 61s?

View attachment 1524674

 

I tried to... really I did...

but somebody had already snagged them all... @Spruce !

 

I occasionally look for the teal or green sets with stainless caps - but not with the same enthusiasm.

When I worked, I’d rotate the sets - in much the same way as we all do with watches.

 

So, which rollerball pens did you like?

Any other recommendations for rollerball pens?

 

Since there’s about half a dozen Visconti pens in the box I must have really fallen for those.

I also have a pair of Montegrappa pens that I realy like, especially the solid copper Mule.




I have a Caran d’ache Varius that cost a small fortune that the cap won’t stay posted on and that refills last about a week in. What a waste.

 

The scary pens. They are so ugly they are art.
Chinese pens, forgot the manufacturer.

 

I’m just going to go with a guess “JINHAO”

 

That’s it!!
Thanks