Kaigelu 316 Fountain Pens

[Briar Lee]

About thirty years ago in the middle of a trial my Mont Blanc fountain pen leaked again and ruined another shirt and since then I’ve used rollerball pens to carry around.

I own about a half a dozen nice American and German pens and recently I’ve added several Chinese pens to my stash. One I tried yesterday was a fine point fountain pen I keep in my desk, and for document signing and note taking there is no functional difference between a $25 and a $500 fountain pen I can tell.

I’m sure the thing will leak if you carry it in your shirt pocket long enough, too.

The Kaigelu 316 is about $25 in either rollerball or fountain pen. I own three rollerball models and one fine point fountain pen model. These are gorgeous, heavy, well made pens that pay homage to the famous Parker Dufold. There’s a large selection of colors and I just ordered this “maple leaf” model with a medium nib for $25.

I also ordered 12 international standard ink cartridges from Monteverde in Document Blue for $10. The Asian cartridges for these are just over a dollar postpaid. How dey do dat?

America no longer makes a luxury pen, except obscure boutique makers. Cross, Shaffer, Waterman and Parker pens are all made in either France or China.

Here is a $543 French made Parker Big Red (Dufold)



Here is the $20 Chinese version:


I think the reason is the excellence of the Pilot G-2 gel pen. We have dozens of them around my office and at home. Sort of like a Pre 54 Marxman pipe, as a useful instrument it really cannot be exceeded, and they aren’t ugly.

But if you want a heavy, fancy, pretty pen, lookie here. With American made Monteverde ink they write as well as a Pilot G-2.

 

[Dave760]

That's a lovely pen. I've had some great luck with Chinese fountain pens, but occasionally I've gotten pens with nib issues.

For example I got a Jinhao "chainmail" pen (surface similar to the Parker Sonnet pen with the metal grid finish) that is a great performer. I ordered a second one, and the nib was so fine and so dry as to be unusable. Thankfully the fix was pretty easy, but I always assume any inexpensive pen might need some nib tuning.

 

[Tate]

Noodler has some pens. Not sure on origin but they sell some good ink as well. I have the Noodler Ahab and Flex. Very nice pens

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I'm shocked to hear about a Mont Blanc leaking, but it could be argued that was an issue of user error due to lack of maintenance.
I suppose if nothing else disposable pens are maintenance free.

Half of the appeal of Fountain Pens is being able to maintain the pen to last forever.

 

[RonB]

I have a lot of fountain pens of various makers and prices. In general, there is the diminishing returns effect just like in audio equipment, cars and many other things.

My favorites are probably the vintage Parker 51 and the new Pilot models which are from Japan but sold worldwide. I’ve also purchased a dozen or so Chinese fountain pens and I’ve been surprised what you can get for the price. It is truly amazing. Hongdian is especially good.

 

[RonB]

I have a lot of fountain pens of various makers and prices. In general, there is the diminishing returns effect just like in audio equipment, cars and many other things.

My favorites are probably the vintage Parker 51 and the new Pilot models which are from Japan but sold worldwide. I’ve also purchased a dozen or so Chinese fountain pens and I’ve been surprised what you can get for the price. It is truly amazing. Hongdian is especially good.

Also the Jinhao X159 and X850 models are great. Plain black with gold trim though.

 

[Briar Lee]

I'm shocked to hear about a Mont Blanc leaking, but it could be argued that was an issue of user error due to lack of maintenance.
I suppose if nothing else disposable pens are maintenance free.

Half of the appeal of Fountain Pens is being able to maintain the pen to last forever.

A lawyer’s pen is a weapon and a tool.

It gets used hard, and isn’t ever consciously thought about or considered until the sunny beach don’t work or dribbles ink on your shirt.

For hard service a rollerball is the only thing I’ll use.

By the way, hire a lawyer with two pens in their shirt pocket.

One comes out when the other one quits.

I still own a matched pair of Mont Blanc fountain pens. They will last forever.

But in hard service occasionally they’ll dribble ink on a nice shirt, suit or tie.

 

[El Capitán]

I don't trust myself with fancy pens. I'll use my dip pen for note taking and writing in general.

 

[Briar Lee]

I just bought a genuine Parker branded Sonnet for less than I spent on lunch.

Ten bucks delivered.

How? Chinese labor isn’t free. The factory and the machinery are not free. I suppose to avoid dead three eyed fish in the river below the factory they’ll have to have a little regulatory cost. Local taxes were charged. Somebody made a profit, and I’d be damned if I could ship pens to China for ten dollars.

And the same pens in rollerball are a couple of dollars less.

 

[jpberg]

I’m trying to figure out if Lebron James or Briar Lee makes more off the prison labor endorsements.

 

[Hillcrest]

I just bought a genuine Parker branded Sonnet for less than I spent on lunch.

No you didn't. You bought a fake and a copyright violation. There are 7 tells to identify the fake from an original. Granted they aren't bad for awhile but they are not parkers. The only Parker traditionally legitimately made in china was the 45 (part of Nixon's opening China deal). Parker now maintains factories in china for its lower end lines but again ... they're cheap and you get what you pay for. The Kaigelu was originally a special project from an australian company that wanted a cheaper homage and the australian investor oversaw quality control. That's why its is a good pen,. Finally, while the rest of the world went to disposable bics China has become the world's largest buyer and user of fountain pens. The quality only gets better with time. Be aware though that their brass pens have a higher mercury content than the US allows !

 

[Hillcrest]

I still own a matched pair of Mont Blanc fountain pens. They will last forever.

But in hard service occasionally they’ll dribble ink on a nice shirt, suit or tie.

You are using them wrong ... back off on the pressure of the piston.

 

[Briar Lee]

You are using them wrong ... back off on the pressure of the piston.

I used pistons and later cartridges.

Leaks weren’t common, weren’t a disaster, but one spot on a white shirt ruins it.

 

[Briar Lee]

No you didn't. You bought a fake and a copyright violation. There are 7 tells to identify the fake from an original. Granted they aren't bad for awhile but they are not parkers. The only Parker traditionally legitimately made in china was the 45 (part of Nixon's opening China deal). Parker now maintains factories in china for its lower end lines but again ... they're cheap and you get what you pay for. The Kaigelu was originally a special project from an australian company that wanted a cheaper homage and the australian investor oversaw quality control. That's why its is a good pen,. Finally, while the rest of the world went to disposable bics China has become the world's largest buyer and user of fountain pens. The quality only gets better with time. Be aware though that their brass pens have a higher mercury content than the US allows !

Here’s the $7.50 “Parker” rollerball.



For severe service I carry an old Cross Townsed roller, or a Pelikan Celebry roller, or my very best one, a sterling sliver Italian Dufold type.

But in the office I like lots of fancy pens around.

That $7.50 Parker is a good, heavy pen.

With a Monterverde roller refill it writes like a Pilot G-2.

 

[Hillcrest]

one spot on a white shirt ruins it.

Bleach

 

[captpat]

I used to actively collect fountain pens and now have small stable of 70-80 pens. Of those there are only ~4 that I consider daily writers. The remainder are fussy, the nib needs work, they leak, they don’t feel good in the hand, I could go on. The final straw was a fairly expensive pen that needed 4 trips back to a nibmiester for adjustment — it still doesn’t write right. (2 different highly respected nibmeisters BTW)

For daily use I use a TWSBI or a Platinum, both are moderately priced and they work right out of the box, first time, every time. The TWSBI is completely rebuildable, spare parts are readily available, OTOH they are cheap enough to just throw away if you don’t want to fool around with it. I’ve also had good luck with vintage Parker 51’s and Pelikans.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

A lawyer’s pen is a weapon and a tool.

It gets used hard, and isn’t ever consciously thought about or considered until the sunny beach don’t work or dribbles ink on your shirt.

For hard service a rollerball is the only thing I’ll use.

By the way, hire a lawyer with two pens in their shirt pocket.

One comes out when the other one quits.

I still own a matched pair of Mont Blanc fountain pens. They will last forever.

But in hard service occasionally they’ll dribble ink on a nice shirt, suit or tie.

Ok I get it now, the pen isn't "leaking" it's "burping".

This is, unfortunately, a harsh reality of physics and high capacity fountain pens.
Body heat or altitude change will expand the air in the ink chamber, "burping" is most common in eyedropper filling pens, but known to affect almost any pen travelling on an airplane.

Normally I love a 2ml piston filler but this is one scenario where smaller capacity converters may be preferable because the cartridge/converter has an air-gap between the ink and the pen body, so it insulates the ink from the heat of your hand while you're writing.

You can avoid the problem with any fountain pen by filling the pen immediately before you intend to use it, burping is impossible without air in the ink chamber.

Most modern fountain pens are fairly resistant to burping while capped because they're made to seal around the nib at the front of the grip, and the pen itself becomes a pressure canister when snugly capped.
The entire cap could be flooded with ink and it wouldn't "leak" so long as you uncap with the nib facing down.

It's usually older pen designs that don't seal the nib and therefore allow ink to flow down to the grip section, if you regularly find ink on the barrel threads then your pen is not sealing the nib correctly (either because it's not designed to, or sometimes the cap just gets dirty).

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

it still doesn’t write right. (2 different highly respected nibmeisters BTW)

Can you describe what's wrong with the pen?

I've done a fair bit of my own nib tuning so hearing about a problem a Nibmeister can't solve is very intriguing.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

You are using them wrong ... back off on the pressure of the piston.

Actually that's the opposite of how you avoid burping.

My favorite style of piston filler has a separate cap over the filling knob, which means you can regularly push all of the air out of the piston while using the pen (and I love writing with a saturated feed).
They're very rare but if you have a pen in this configuration then it's much easier to avoid burping because you don't have to go through the hassle of re-filling the pen just to alleviate worry of pressure differential (e.g. flying, or even just driving cross state).

This is technically another advantage of the cartridge/converter design over the average piston filler.

 

[Briar Lee]

About twenty five to thirty years ago in Missouri title insurance replaced the old custom of lawyers reading abstracts and giving title opinions. I read an abstract a couple of years ago just to show a young lawyer how we did it.

When we read abstracts, occasionally the original abstract was pre World War One and was hand written. After that war typewriters took the place of fountain pens.

Legal handwriting over a century ago was incredibly small yet legible, and their skill level was not even imaginable today.

But that’s what they did constantly.

Lawyers today use a pen to take notes, add corrections to draft document, and sign documents. I’ve not hand written a letter in forty years, except some personal notes and thank you cards.

Some schools no longer teach cursive.

The kids will be just fine, after us geezers die off who remember it.

For my generation of lawyers, I earned the right to wear hard shined $300 shoes, over the calf socks, a thousand dollar suit, a hundred dollar shirt, and a fifty dollar tie, and change them daily. Young lawyers spend a lot less and yet they look professional too. I wish I could wear skinny legged suit pants but I’m too old. Their soft shoes look more comfortable than my Allan Edmonds.

My briefcase is solid, heavy leather and is forty years old. There’s a few Pilot G-2 blue pens in there for actual use, if my two good rollerballs fail.

I’ve got a good watch on, a good pocketknife (if they’ll let me carry it), a Zippo lighter, and of course a good pipe, usually a Lee with lots of gold stars. Until all the courthouses were air conditioned we could smoke pipes even in the courtrooms.

I read on my best pen, it was a Grifos, hand tooled sterling silver and hard lacquer red tortoise shell. My name is engraved. It’s a good one.

My father was a farmer. It wasn’t the way he earned his keep. It was what and who he was.

I’m a lawyer.

When I pull out a pen it works, then and there.