Western companies make fountain pens for the hobby market. These days it’s only really India and the Far East that make pens as practical, everyday writers. Though Chinese pens have come along quite a way, most of them need to improve a little further. Many Indian pens seem altogether better.
I’ve sourced Indian pens directly from the companies in the past. Sometimes this can be difficult. Really, these companies exist to supply the home market. Doubtless they are pleased to sell pens to the world market but not all are well set up to do it and the language barrier can be difficult to surmount. I can hardly blame them for not speaking my language when I don’t speak theirs!
Dealing with Fountain Pen Revolution removes those problems and makes some lovely pens available. I bought a pen from them that I particularly wanted and it was only a few pounds more for free postage so I chose this Himalaya. When the pens arrived a few weeks ago I laid it aside and I have filled it only today. It has a screw-in converter and while it was fixed in the pen it only took about a quarter fill. I unscrewed it and filled it more fully. A little awkward, then. The barrel has a long thread so that the pen can be used as an eyedropper filler. I confess that I find that a little annoying. FPR makes a virtue of the fact that the pen can be filled with a cartridge, using the converter or as an eyedropper filler. I don’t use eyedroppers and I would rather a shorter thread. Yes, I’m picky! The cap also has a quite long thread – two and three quarters turns – so the pen will not be a desk note-taker. That’s almost all the complaining. The nib is glassy smooth and I like a little feedback. That’s a preference, not a fault. I can fix that in a moment.
The blue marbled pattern is very bright and pretty. Acrylic marbling cannot match patterns in celluloid but this one comes close. The chrome goes with the blue very well. The pattern continues into the section. The section is quite thick, gently tapered and has a decisive “stop”. It’s really comfortable. The nib is a more generous fine than a Japanese fine. It’s nice and wet. No stinginess here!
For me, this is an exceptional pen in the hand. With a little tinkering it will be a very good pen for my wrap, for longer periods of writing.
Goodwriterspens's Blog 
I love my pretty little swan pen. !! I bought a set of Calligraphy pens from China. They were v cheap 14£ for 6 plus post. Excellent nibs. But hard to un post a couple as my hand not strong. But good fillers. And the nib sizes spot on. As I usually lonely use dip pens these are good for practice ! Course the Chinese do alit of calligraphy. So prob why the nibs are so much better than Schaeffer . How you having nice day xxxxto you both xxx
Sent from my iPhone
>
Happy Christmas, Penny and Geoff! Many Chinese pens are good value and much better than they were ten years ago. I’m glad you like them.
Out of curiosity: how do you add a little feedback to a too-smooth nib? I have a few in that bucket and couldn’t really figure it out. Easy to use fine mesh to make smooth, but the other way?
Merry Christmas to you.
Hello Allan. Happy Christmas!
I use Micromesh, neither the smoothest nor the coarsest, somewhere in the middle. Just a few wipes with ink in the pen, then write a few lines and see if it feels better. It has always taken very little work for me, perhaps just half a dozen rubs on the Micromesh.
Hey Deb. I have many of the pens from FPR and have found them to be every bit as good as you say.
The converters do seem a little haphazard in their quality, but for such cheap pens that work so well it’s a small (ish) price to pay.
The ‘flex’ nibs , I find something of a misnomer, in that the pressure required to get meaningful line variation is pretty much unrealistic. However these still write smoothly as non flexed nibs.
I’ve given their ‘ultraflex’ nibs a serious work out, and found them to be excellent writers. I’ve even ‘ultra-ultra flex’ ed a few nibs and they hold up remarkably, to the extent that without knowing it was from a steel nib, many folk might think they were looking at script from a …you know, gold ‘noodle’ ! 🙄🖌
The clincher for me definitely is that most of the pens will accept a Zebra ‘Comic G’ nib, (with a only a little persuasion) 😎 which turns them into a fire-breathing monster of a writer !!
Sometimes the feed needs a little …encouragement to keep up, and very often, to write a whole page, the converter will need a ‘wind down’ but again it’s a small price to pay for the script they can produce.
I certainly recommend these pens for a new adventurer into FPs
Happy Christmas Rob,
I agree with the points you make. I’ve had one with ultra-flex nib which I wrote about some time ago. I’ve also experimented with the Zebra nibs. They did what they were said to do, and quite well, but not being a flex writer I sent them back out into the world.