November 23, 2015 at 06:57PM

Testing
via http://ift.tt/1MxUuMT

Noodler's Ahab. Old "friends" return in the pouch

Noodler's Ahab. A very interesting fountain pen. I've missed it and brought it to work with me yesterday.

Ebonite feed, flexible steel nib all for $20. Not bad.

This is the clear demonstrator inked with Noodler's Bernanke black, an ink that is ideal for formal documents as it dries very quickly.

Sorry for the bad "calligraphy" 😎

Franklin-Christoph Bellus, Model "29"

Franklin-Christoph Bellus model 29 - Black/Maroon
Image from Franklin-Christoph.com

Less than a month ago, I saw a tweet  by FPGeeks about the F-C Bellus, and the pen immediately caught my eye. Some days later, the package containing the fountain pen arrived from the U.S.

I wanted to write a review on that particular pen because of two reasons: First, because of its finely tuned nib, and second because of its very well thought out, intelligent design. You'll see what I mean later in this post.


GENERAL
Diameter: 0.51" (13mm)
Length: Capped = 5.53" (14cm). Posted= 6.30" (16cm) Barrel to nib tip = 4.70" (12cm)
Weight: 56gr capped, not inked.
Filling System: Cartridge/Converter
Price: 74.98€ at the F-C official site www.franklin-christoph.com

MATERIALS
The pen is made almost entirely of metal. Its weight though, is what I'd call perfect. Not too light to give an impression of a cheap pen, but on the other hand, not as heavy as to forbid long writing sessions. That is valid for the uncapped pen of course, since the cap itself holds a lot of weight resulting in a 56gr pen when capped, which is quite heavy.

F-C nib/feed unit. 1.5mm Cursive Calligraphy

Nib / Feed: (This particular pen) Stainless steel #5 nib, with a tiny bit of springiness, although I wouldn't push too hard on this nib, it's steel after all.
The great thing about this nib though is how well it is tuned. It has a beautiful F-C logo on it, and it writes very smoothly out of the box. I've tested the nib on different papers and with three inks, and it wrote very well at every test. From the cheap A4 printer paper to the luxurious Clairfontaine Triumph, the pen performed flawlessly every time. On the Clairfontaine paper, sometimes it presented starting issues, never skipped though, but this was only when inked with Akkerman black, an ink that has performed well only in my Lamys for some reason. The Quink, and Sheaffer black inks had no issues whatsoever.
The other cool thing about this fountain pen is that you can choose more than one nib/feed units, because they can easily be unscrewed and replaced. In fact, at the F-C site you can find a variety of steel or gold nibs suited for this particular model.
Finally, the F-C brand offers a variety of Masuyama customized nibs, from needlepoints to stubs or italics, that can fit to their models, including the Bellus. Sweet huh? :)

F-C nib/feed unit, 1.5mm calligraphy bottom side

The feed keeps up very well, even when writing fast. The one thing I've noticed though, is that when the ink level gets low, it might get stuck on top of the converter (if that's what you're using). That's easily fixed if you add a little metallic ball in the converter that agitates the ink and does not let it rest on top.
Of course, alternatively, you could just tap it and get the ink flowing again. But that's not a problem of the pen, many converters have this issue and that's why many come already with these little balls incorporated, and you can easily find them online at a very low cost.

Barrel
The barrel is made of black shinny metal and it is designed so that the top of the barrel and the section can be unscrewed, leaving a black tube that can be reassembled in any direction. There is  no top or bottom of the barrel, so you can screw the section where the top was and you'll always have the same looking functioning pen.

F-C Bellus Section and nib
Image from my personal collection

Section and barrel-top (where the magic happens)
Both these parts of the fountain pen are similar, and that's why I'm talking about them in the same paragraph.
The design of these two parts is very intelligent. At first glance, you see the beautiful shiny pattern, with the wavy metallic design on top of it. At a closer look though, you'll see that this wavy part has a specific function, and here's where the magic happens.
The closure is magnetic. That means that when you cap the pen, or when you post it, the cap is held magnetically in place. Nothing great about it so far, that's how my Visconti Rembrandt caps as well, although not when posted.
But here's where the design traduces into function. If you try to separate the cap from the pen when closed, you'll see that you have to exert a fair amount of force because of the magnets, and if you pull too hard you might damage the nib if it suddenly uncaps. If you twist the barrel though, while holding firmly the cap, the wavy part of the section, the same that there is also on the top of the barrel, causes the cap to rotate on this wavy metal, moving a couple of  mm away from the barrel, causing the magnets to separate. When that happens, you can easily pull away the cap, exerting almost no force at all. Just great! It's these little details that make a great fountain pen design.

Clip
The clip is another beautifully designed part of the pen. It is made of two parts. A band that goes around the cap and holds the clip, and the clip which is held on the band in place by two little screws.
The first thing you'll notice is that it isn't springy at all. So how does it work? The end of the clip has a very smooth curvature that when put on a pouch or pocket, lets the fabric slide underneath without any problem. It doesn't even need to move much to accommodate a secure grip where you choose to let your pen rest.





Conclusion

I love it when Americans make stuff. That's right, we aren't seeing much coming from the U.S. lately, especially in this era of "made in China" and that includes fountain pens.
That's why I'm very pleased with this particular pen. This is a very well thought out fountain pen, with all details designed beautifully and having function in mind.
I recommend it without any fear to anyone who wants a well constructed pen with a very well tuned nib on it, ready for heavy duty right out of the box.

My compliments to the Franklin-Christoph team.

P.S. Hint: My next pen is going to be a "20th century" F-C ;) if  you know what I mean...

Your First Fountain Pen

A nice bunch :)

Since you're reading this, I assume that you are already flirting with the thought of buying a fountain pen, but you're not sure where to start. I know the feeling. In fact fountain pens are of the most various shapes, materials, nibs and filling systems, so many that one can be easily lost and end up buying something that is expensive but does not do the job he intended in the first place, or something cheap and flimsy that drives him nuts.

In this article I will focus on what your first fountain pen should be like, and I'll explain why, so that you're introduced to the fun world of the fountain pens without the "side effects", most importantly, avoiding getting a pen that its cost will not match the pleasure of using it.

For the expert fountain pen users, this article could be a fun read also, and of course your comments and thoughts are more than welcome :)

I will cover the following:

• How much should I spend?
• What characteristics should my pen have? (nib size and type, filling mechanism, materials)
• What kind of ink should I use?
• What brands and models combine all these characteristics?

How much should I spend?

Your first fountain pen, should not cost much money. Why? Until you become familiar with operating, writing with, filling, maintaining and cleaning your pen, it is best for you to have a pen that writes well, but allows you to "play with it", even damaging it without risking a heart attack.

There are fountain pens of the most various prices but I'd say that a pen that would write well would cost no less than 15.25€ (with today's prices), and no more than what you are very comfortable with. I understand that for some people 457.39€ are nothing, but for most of us destroying a pen of that cost could give us a stroke :) So let's keep the cost as low as we can.

Pen, ink, converter and spare nibs (yes you'll get some of these too) should not cost over 38.12€ Of course, you could spend much less, but I can't guarantee that this will work for you, at least not as an introduction to fountain pens.

What characteristics should my pen have?

The most important things your pen should have are the following:

• Good materials
• Smooth, reliable nib/feed
• It should work fine with most inks
• Avoid fancy filling systems. A cartridge/converter is fine.
• Versatile

The material of your fountain pen, should be durable and its size and design should feel comfortable in your hand. That is of course a subjective matter, but I would advise you to avoid pens that are very heavy, or too small or enormously big. I would suggest a pen made of plastic or aluminium, both durable and light materials that allow you to have long writing sessions without getting cramps.

I would al suggest a steel nib instead of a gold one for your first fountain pen for the simple reason that gold nibs are expensive. At this price you will not find gold nibs, and if anyone suggest that his 15.25€  pen has a gold nib, is suspicious at best. Furthermore, the steel nibs are generally more durable, and if you damage them, you can easily replace them without having to pay hundreds of dollars.

Nib size: I would start with a medium. Even though there is no standardised nib size (a medium for a brand can write like a fine of another or like a broad of the next brand), the medium is generally the size that most people are comfortable with. Of course, we'll get some spare nibs too, so that you can change them and try them, without having to buy more pens in order to test what's best for you.

The pen should have a feed, the part that adjusts the ink flow to the nib, and a nib, that works fine with most inks. Some pens are quite selective with their inks, and can clog easily with an ink, or burp ink all over your documents if the ink has a low viscosity. We'll get back to that later.

The part of the fountain pen that draws the ink inside it is called the filling mechanism. There are all kinds of filling systems, lever fillers, piston fillers, eyedroppers, vacuum fillers etc. It is best that you use something that does the job and it is easy to clean. The most popular system is the cartridge/converter. This means that you can either use cartridges, which are capsules already filled with ink that you simply put inside your pen and you're ready to go, or a converter, which is a tube, provided with a piston that sucks the ink from a bottle into your pen. The downside is that they usually contain less ink  than other filling systems, but again, at this price, you will not find the "fancier" fillers easily and if you do I doubt if they will give a satisfying experience.

Finally, your pen should be versatile. Your first fountain pen will be a pen on which you'll be testing nib sizes and inks, so you don't want a pen that you can't take apart easily or that has a fixed nib size. By that I mean that the fountain pen ideally, should allow you to change your nib with another size or type without having to buy a whole new pen instead. There are models that allow you to do that easily and they're the best for the job we need them to do.

What kind of ink should I use?

The two most important things of a fountain pen are of course its nib, and the ink you're using. That combination will give you the result you want.

There are all kinds of inks and everyone has its own characteristics. An ink has some properties. Viscosity, shading, drying time, water resistance are some of these. You don't have to become an expert, you just want an ink that works well with most pens and scores at least average on most characteristics at a logical cost. I would recommend Quink by Parker, or Waterman inks as a start. Noodler's has great inks too, but given their amazing variety it's trickier choosing one for your first ink. I would also leave the fancy, expensive inks for later, once you're confident, and addicted :-)

So, what is the pen that combines all these characteristics? 

 From top to bottom: Lamy vista , Lamy safari and Lamy AL-star

My first choice would be Lamy. Every fountain pen lover I know of has at least one of the cheaper series of this brand, and that's for a good reason. They are reliable, they're well made with nice materials and they also offer the option to easily change nibs whenever you like just by pulling the one on the pen and inserting a new one. 

The models I recommend are: Lamy Safari, Lamy Al-Star, Lamy Vista. All these pens are made by plastic (or aluminium, the Al-Star), they all have cartridge/converter filling systems and they all have steel nibs that you can buy separately. I am using these pens daily along with my more exclusive ones.

Lamy spare nibs

Parker IM

Another excellent choice for our purpose is the Parker IM. Instead of purchasing one Lamy Safari plus a nib, for the same price you can buy two Parker IMs with different nib sizes. They also have a more classic look that some prefer to the more particular design of the Lamy. I would only say that generally the Parker pens have broader nibs, so a Parker medium could be close to a Lamy broad. But getting a fine and a medium should cover most people's needs.

The same goes for the other Parker cheaper models, you can  check them out, they will offer more or less the same writing experience, so it's more of a matter of taste for their design than their nib quality. Just remember to keep the cost low :)

Pilot Metropolitan

Another pen worth mentioning is the Pilot Metropolitan. For less than 15.25€ you  get a decent fountain pen that is a nice introduction to the fountain pen world, it looks nice and it is reliable. Remember that this is an Asian pen, and they tend to have finer nibs than western pens. That means that the Pilot medium would write close to a fine nib of a western pen like Lamy or Parker.

Pilot Varsity

Finally, if  you just want to try what a fountain pen feels like, you can do so with 2.29€ Yes, there is the Pilot Varsity. These are disposable fountain pens, which means that once the pen is empty, you just throw it away. Of course there are ways to re-fill the pen, but I won't explain that here, but you can easily find the info online. 

The nibs of these very cheap fountain pens are quite nice for the money, and you can get a set of 7 for about $20, or get them separately for 2.29€ each. 

Of course, don't expect the quality of the previously mentioned fountain pens, but you can try them or even buy one along with your first Parker or Lamy etc.

I hope that this article was helpful, and of course I'm waiting for your impressions after using your first fountain pen!

All fountain pens images obtained by Google Images search.