Ron Wish Blog

By Mike Stevens The subject of this article is one of those pens that really, really doesn't jump out at you from across a crowded room. It's the polar opposite of pens such as the Montegrappa Dragon. At first glance, it's a plain, ordinary-looking black pen, gold trim and your basic torpedo shape. Certainly nothing to garner much attention--or so you'd think. It turns out that the Pilot Custom 823 is a pen that delivers well in excess of its rather simple looks. In many ways, it presents surprises at every turn, and by the time you're finished spending a day or two with one, you wonder how you ever managed to dismiss it as plain. First of all, the bad news. The Pilot Custom 823 is not going to be something that you can just pop into the corner shop and pick up. Not if you're here in the U.S., at an...

I was first attracted to this pen after reading the review of it in Stylophiles magzine (available here ). The reviewer said the pen was a superb writer with rather conservative looks and a unique, high-capacity filling system...so needless to say, I was interested. I posted a couple of questions about the pen here and on Pentrace and received some very positive comments about the pen and an offer from a Pentracer to sell me his broad nibbed 823 since he had a fine nibbed version as well and preferred that one. I went ahead and purchased his pen, and it arrived this afternoon. I've since given it a full workout, and here are the results. Appearance/Finnish 5/5 The pen arrived in a large, heavy cardboard box. Inside was the pen and a 70ml bottle of Pilot black ink, both sitting in a nice fabric bed. My initial impression was one of delight. The 823 is certainly a quality pen, and this is evident upon first picking it up and feeling how well the cap screws onto the barrel - smooth w...

Summary: While inhibited by poor quality control, the Lamy 2000 is a superb pen offering a Bahaus appearance, a nearly indestructible construction, a smooth, springy nib, and a reliable and capacious piston filler. The good: Smooth nib, durable material, capacious piston filler, modern appearance. The bad: Sketchy quality control, ink view window ineffective, piston sometimes stiff, some visual clutter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pens are emblems of the era. One can easily imagine an elderly man sitting high above the rolling English plains in a mansion in the 1940's, at an oak desk penning a letter with a luxurious Conway Stewart with a beautiful exposed golden nib and a luscious green body to complement it. But fast forward sixty years. The surroundings are now an office space with its minimalist rectangular architecture looking high out over the downtown area of an urban metropolis. What pen fits here? That would be the Lamy 2000. Designed in the 1960's, the 2000 is a...

By lamypenshop Unlike conventional fountain pens, the Lamy 2000 (Model 01) fountain pen is fitted with a piston operated filling system and requires no cartridges or converters. Here’s the method of filling up your Lamy 2000 fountain pen with ink: 1) Unscrew the back portion of the pen (the other end from the nib) by turning it counter clockwise. This will push the air out from the internal reservoir. 2) Place the nib into a bottle of ink. 3) Twist the back portion of the pen back on by turning it clockwise and this will fill the pen up with ink through a small hole beneath the nib. You can see the ink filling up through the translucent window of the pen. Happy Writing!!! Thiam