Issue 1

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the monthly Hyderabad Fountain Pen Club meeting. We had Vikas and Shreyas who had attended TIPS and the Kolakata pen show respectively, and it was a lot of fun listening to them and seeing their acquisitions. The Robert Oster Midnight Mumbai was quite a revelation - it was strikingly beautiful and very well behaved. I liked that for such a beautiful ink it also dried fairly quickly!

In early 2020, I had picked up a Pilot VPen when I was in Egypt. I had used it for a bit and left it in my drawer. I came across it a couple of days ago when I was looking for something else, and was greatly surprised to find that it wrote without any issues when I used it. I am really impressed with the kind of seal that cap has, as well as the extreme usability of perhaps Pilot’s least expensive fountain pen!

New Stuff

I received two pens recently - the much-awaited Endless Creator and the Channapatna pen from Acriv.

The Endless Creator is my first retractable pen, so I was quite excited to get it. I found the build and finish to be quite satisfactory, and the mechanism worked without any issues. I found that the bit of nib sticking out of the front was rather small, and I had to learn to hold it at a higher angle than I am used to. This combined with learning to grip it around the clip was a bit of a learning curve. The critical issue I faced, however, was that the nib kept drying out. So whenever I filled it with ink, it would write really well. However, if I left it overnight, it would completely dry out. I’ve spoken to the manufacturers - apparently they are aware of this situation and are working on a fix. It would be a shame if I cannot use this pen - I am quite happy with the mechanism and would love to use it as a regular pen in my EDC bag.

The Channapatna pen has been in the works with Acriv for a while now, and I finally got mine. It writes and behaves like any other Acriv statement with the characteristic titanium nib. The speciality of this pen is that it has been finished using the lacquer work of the craftsmen in Channapatna, who use it to make wooden toys. Unfortunately, the finish itself doesn’t seem to be suited for a fountain pen. It was provided with a beautiful leather case with an elastic loop. The barrel now has the pattern of the elastic loop etched into its surface. I really like the colour of the Channapatna pens, and was rather looking to use this pen to show it off, but this weakness makes me wary of carrying it around.

Everyday FPness

I’ve been using the Endless Regalia Daily Planner for work. The large pages are good enough for the day’s tasks and small notes, and the Saturday and Sunday pages are good for any overflow writing I want to do. My workhorse pens - those that are always inked and on my desk - a Pelikan M600 in red stripes, a Makrolon Lamy 2000 and an older Sailor Standard. Apart from these, other pens enter and leave the rotation according to my whims and fancies. This past week I’ve been using a Visconti Mirage with the RO Midnight Mumbai ink.

FP Happenings

A reminder that if you want to participate in this year’s Pelikan Hub, you have to sign up before Monday, 15 May 2023. The Pelikan Hubs are going to be on Friday, 22 September. This year it’s a two step process to register - first sign up for a ‘Save the date’ and then a second step we will know after the 15th of this month. So, if you’re still not signed up - go ahead and do it here.

That’s all from me this week. Please share what you’ve been up to - new pens you’ve inked, new inks you’ve tried, anything fountain pen related really. I would love to feature any content from you as well. If you have a nice picture, or a couple of paragraphs about your fountain pen experiences, pen/ink/paper/notebook reviews - do share with me and I will put it in a forthcoming issue.

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