Wearever Vintage Fountain Pen

Back about a month or so ago I was trolling through a website that auctions stuff off. Wink, wink. And found a lovely green marbled fountain pen. This pen has expanded my fountain pen experience. First it needed a new ink sac, then the gold plated nib needed to be straightened cause it was seriously wonkyjawed. For those unfamilar with wonkyjawed it means messed up pretty good.

The really neat thing about this pen is how old it is. My best guesstimate is 1940s to the 1950s. If so this pen is in it’s 60 or 70s. My dad is going to be 75 this year. My grandmother was a school teacher and she probably would have used a fountain like or very similar to this one. I love the connection because I really never knew who she was outside of being MeMa. I have some stuff that belonged to her, the seashells she used in class and a piece of her jewelry and all the memories of her.

Once I got the pen back I tried the Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro ink in it. The good folks on Goulet Nation mentioned it was possible for the ink to melt the latex sac. So I cleaned it out and got a bottle of Waterman’s Harmonious Green fountain pen ink.

So far both pen and ink have gotten on well with each other. I think the ink is getting low because when I start writing I get a drop of ink. Bleed it off and the pen is good until I cap it and then pick it back up.

The Leverfill mechanism is interesting and will take some practice. It makes it a lot harder to judge how much ink is in the pen when you can’t see it or feel how full the ink sac is.

Quirks and all I am rather pleased with my first vintage fountain pen and the discovery of a new ink. I can’t say it will be my only vintage or my last vintage, but for right now it checks all my boxes.

Cheers, james

New Ink

I got two bottles of ink last week. Thank you Crazy Alan’s Emporium in Chapel Hill NC. I’m not real familar with Private Reserve ink. This color looked pretty close to Noodler’s Black Swan with English Roses, which I really like. And I am not usually a red fan. The Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ro looked very interesting. Especially since I just got a bottle of Ku-Jaku back in August.

I sampled them by dipping the nib of a clean pen in to get an idea of how they will act and look. So far I like both inks. I’ve included my sample. I was using my Hero 359A with an extra fine nib. I dipped the pen a couple of times before writing. I was amazed at how much I wrote using Syo-Ro vs Black Cherry.

I have two new pens on order and they should be here soon. One will be for the Black Cherry and the other will get Syo-Ro. One most likely the Syo-Ro will be a work pen. Or maybe I’ll continue to travel back and forth with them. A nice soft eyeglasses case make a perfect travel case for 4 fountain pens. Thank you Dollar Tree.

Cheers, james

Pen Review: Wing Sung 3009 Mint Green Fine Nib

Wing Sung 3009 fine nib fountain pen inked with Monteverde California Teal

Wow! I purchased this pen cause I had heard a lot of folks talking about how good a pen and the ink capacity of this bad boy. This is another Wish pen purchase, a single mint green fine nib piston filler fountain pen. The pen itself was priced at $2 plus another $2 for shipping. So $4 bucks for a nice hefty plastic pen that looks awesome.

The suction to pull the ink up is strong and holds quite a bit of ink. I was leery about the horror stories of reviewers that accidentally twisted the piston while posting or taking the cap off and torrential ink spill.

Fingers crossed, I played with it all last night, capping it and posting it, writing and doodling with it. It maybe the piston on my pen is a lot stiffer than others or possibly because it is new. The piston makes a click sound when it is locked in place. I didn’t have any trouble with the cap moving or twisting as I wrote with it. My biggest problem is remembering it is a screw top pen, not a pull top like my others.

The nib on this pen writes better than any of my other pens. I thought they wrote really well until this pen. This nib just glides across the page. No feedback, no pressure, just a nice smooth flow of ink. It lays down a nice line that is a lot bolder than the other fine nib I have. So I am not sure if that is normal. It’s inked with De Artementus Aubergine since I couldn’t get my Monteverde California Teal bottle open. I got it open and filled then took the picture. I had to see my fave ink in this pen. I love the way the clear feed looks with the green ink.

The pen writes well on my journal paper and the Staples Arc notebook. I took it to work today and used it on regular copy paper. One plus is it didn’t bleed through any of the papers I tried it on. It writes better on better quality paper. Although I am pretty sure this is most to all fountain pens. I did figure out if I put a piece of card stock under the page I was writing on it wrote better.

If you are willing to risk losing your heart to a fountain pen this is one to try. I just ordered a second one, with a possible third. If I can get my mom to try it out. She hasn’t cared for the grip section of the other pens I have. This one I think she will like, I hope. Fingers crossed.

Cheers on this dark chilly evening, james