Would love to have a source for any of the inexpensive fountain pens: the Sailor 100 yen pen, inexpensive pilot, sailor, other *fountain* pens... I hear great things about them, but cannot find a source!

A Google search turns up many possibilities:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Sailor+fountain+pens&btnG=Search

One of them is Pendemonium, which has the inexpensive Sailor M81 and Profit Super Script pens for $30 each, and the Super Script for only $13. Pendemonium also sells the Lamy Safari, Vista and AL Star pens for only $20, all of which are very good pens.

I have ordered from Pendemonium before and found their service to be excellent. They also sell about 20 different brands of ink.

Hero 100 pens, copies of the legendary Parker 51, are very nice pens that sell for around $25 - $55, depending on where you buy them. Isellpens.com and hisnibs.com are good sources for this and other inexpensive pens. Beware that some of the cheap Chinese made pens can be junk, while others can be quite good.

Hope this helps!

too tempting...

Within 2 weeks of going fountain pen crazy, I am now the owner of

Hero 100 - great pen! Brought from isellpens. They were quick!
Hero 50
Hero 329 - just $5.00; I saw it at a local shop here and wanted to try it.
Pelikan M200 - I'm at a forum and they recommend this pen as a starter pen very highly! Got from oscarbraunpens.com. They are very cheap there.
Waterman Hemisphere - brought at a local shop..first pricey pen I got.

Thanks for the pointers... Iwas really referring to things I would like to see Jet Pens carry... but you're recommendations are good. I have used most of them at one time or another. There are soom good sellers with ebay stores... and I can highly recommend hisnibs.com as well...

Incidentally, I like Hero pens as well. The 100 is practically identical in terms of feel and writing to my Fine nibbed Parker 51s.

Pelikan M200s are great pens... a couple of them with custom nibs are my every day, always with me pens!

I have an EF Parker 51 that is amazing! I love my Hero 100 too.


Very funny, but Hero's cheaper alternatives, the 329, 330, and 616, all have finer nibs than the 100 model. All these pens write fantastic...just that the Hero 100 feels sturdier and feels more high quality.

How much are custom nibs? I think Custom nibs are worth more than the pen itself

Anyone else try customizing their own nibs? Any successes?

I've had a few cheap & disposable fountain pens that I disliked and I tried to modify them. No real successes on any attempts. Seems that needlenose pliers and nibs just don't mix.

Eek! I'm too scared to try customizing my own pens. Even though my fountain pens are cheapies, I still don't want to ruin them. What do you use to make the pen nib a finer point?

Mainly I just tried needlenose pliers to squeeze the nib. It doesn't work so don't bother trying. I've even tried wirecutters and tried cutting the rounder point on the nib. Also didn't work.

Definitely not a good idea to try on a favorite pen. But I had a bunch of broad nib disposable Pilots a few years ago.

It seems that you have to use a grinder on the nibs and probably adjust the flow of ink.

I've done it and it takes a trmemndous amount of expertise, and specialized tools to get it to work correctly. I actually cringed when i read that you used wire cutters :D IMHO, it isn't worth it to customize a disposible pen. For good pens you should send it to a nibmeister who has the tools and knowhow to do a first rate job. Two of the best are John Mottishaw and Richard Binder.

For the people who are trying to customize their nibs, google "nib grinding"
You have to grind off teeny bits of a nib, a little at a time. I've heard of other people using Platinum Preppies and Pilot Petit1's to practice nib grinding on, but I imagine one of the cheapo hero's would work just as well.
Nib grinding is usually done with finely grained sandpaper, and someone once mentioned using an arkansas stone, or a knife-sharpening stone.
But seriously. Google it.