Brush Pen Bamboo

Brush pen on textured paper.

The Ratnamson Supreme

The Ratnamson Supreme in BHR fitted with an Ambitious 40mm two-tone M nib and a Kanwrite multi-finned feeder. Handmade by Ratnam Ball Pen Works, Rjy, AP.

A beautifully finished pen which is superbly balanced despite it's large size and girth. The biggest problem I had with this eyedropper filler pen was the incredible 8 turns it took to un-cap it which made it unusable for me as a daily carry. I shaved off and sanded down part of the threads towards the end of the barrel mouth and now it opens in about two turns.

It came with a stock nib that was scratchy and unusable, which I promptly decided to replace. The replacement Ambitious nib, the largest Indian nib in the market, writes beautifully smooth, without facing any issues with capping/uncapping due to the larger sized nib.

There is a certain amount of 'brand value' associated with this and other models from this pen maker due to its 'swadeshi' heritage and a famous story involving Mahatma Gandhi. In my opinion, their fame would spread further if they backed up their pen-making craft with good service and communication.

The Guider Celluloid Conversion

Guider Pen Works, Rjy, one of the oldest surviving fountain pen makers in India, was established in 1946 by Mr. G Subbarao. The company is now run by his son Mr. G Laxmana Rao. Till a short while back they still had vintage celluloid rods/tubes that the founder had imported all the way back in the late 1940s. 

During my visit in late 2017, I had broached this topic with Mr. Rao and he told me that all rod stocks had been used up and the finished and unfinished pens that he had were the last batch, comprising mainly of the yellow celluloid. Sometime before my visit I had already acquired a couple of these in the yellow celluloid material.

Sometime back I was informed that these pens made by Guider, were of that particular type of celluloid and that it degrades very fast, especially when in direct contact with ink, given its age and conditions of storage. This one being an eyedropper, would be at risk if it was used frequently.

Yusuf ji very kindly converted one of the pens to an aerometric filler early this year, and that inspired me to think how I could do the same for the other one.

This pen is a small one and a setup that is used by common Chinese pens would not fit, so I needed to construct something customized for this pen. The following pics illustrates my attempt. Please look at the pics and description attached to each of the images and follow the step-by-step process.

01. The Guider celluloid, the subject of my experiment. This material is apparently about 70-odd years old.

02. The pen uncapped.

03. Finding a suitable part of an old ball pen for a makeshift nipple that will attach to the ebonite section on the inside.

04. The parts all lined up to illustrate how they will all come together.

05. The sac (taken from a cheap discarded Chinese pen) has been fitted to the plastic tube shown earlier.

06. The inner diameter of the section needs widening to accommodate the thinner end of the nipple. Coincidentally, the outer diameter of the nipple is the same as that of the feeder. I manually drilled with a suitable drill-bit, (very slowly!) until the white end was fitting snugly into the section.

07. Measurements were carefully taken to ensure minimum margin of error.

08. This shows the sac+nipple fitted into the section on the barrel side. The nipple needs to be shortened since it is a bit too long. I wanted to make sure that the aerometric unit was as short as possible.

09. The nipple cut to size.

10. The end sanded down to make sure there are no jagged edges. I used a 1500 grit sandpaper.

11. Ensuring that it's a snug with with enough space for the feeder to be installed.

12. All (ok, most) of the parts coming together.

13. I applied a bit of silicone grease to the edge between the section and the nipple to ensure a no-leak fit. The nipple is snug enough to require a certain bit of pressure to pull out from the section.

14. The outer metal jacket needed to be cut to the size of the sac. This part came from a Pilot converter. I used a hacksaw and rough sandpaper to smooth the edges.

15. All done! Now to see if it works!

16. It draws liquid! Success!

The following images were added in August 2020 as comparison between the two yellow Guider celluloids in my possession. 

 

The Mohi Limited Edition (LE)

I had seen photos of this pen on a FP forum and contacted Mr. Pathak of the Abhay Pen Agencies for details. There were several colour options available but I really liked the dark blue/teal.

It's called the Mohi Limited Edition and is a 3-in-1* filler ebonite fountain pen with a seemingly proprietary nib unit (the plastic feed looks different from the 4 common types widely available in India). I swapped the stock #6 nib with a Conklin steel nib I had lying around.

It has a very non-standard 'roller-ball' end clip. Another distinct feature is the barrel end which has threading on the outside that enables the cap to be posted by screwing it in. It has a wonderful finish and at a very reasonable price.

Made by Abhay Pen Agencies, Aurangabad, India.

* A 3-in-1 filler is a filling system that allows usage of either of the three filling methods: standard converter or cartridge as well as eyedropper filled.

Another Guider fountain pen

This is another Guider fountain pen that I am using right now. It's a small sized (though not as small as some others made by them!) ebonite fountain pen in golden brown, eyedropper filled, fitted with a Kanwrite #4 TT nib. It originally came with a fine stock nib which I eventually replaced.

The barrel and cap lie flush with each other and the workmanship is so good that it seems like there is no break in the middle when capped. Consequently, there is a large step between the section and the barrel. The added distance between the grip and the step ensures there's minimum discomfort.

This grade of ebonite usually has impurities in black that appear as tiny specks all over. I have seen this mostly with single colour ebonites. I have a matching model in dark green which has similar specks. Opinions may differ, but I think it adds to the persona and look of these pens.

Handmade by Guider Pen Works, Rajahmundhry, India.

Lotus Shikhar

The Lotus Shikhar in orange acrylic made by Lotus Pens, Mumbai.

Wahl Eversharp Doric

A vintage Wahl Eversharp Doric with a no. 5 adjustable nib.