Reddit reviews Sheaffer Calligraphy Mini Kit, 1 Viewpoint Pen with 3 Interchangeable Nib Grades (73403)
We found 6 Reddit comments about Sheaffer Calligraphy Mini Kit, 1 Viewpoint Pen with 3 Interchangeable Nib Grades (73403). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Assembly Required: No, Ink Color: Assorted, Tip: Medium , Tip: Broad , Tip: FineSold as 1 each
I was in your position a week ago and ordered this pen from amazon. I have really enjoyed it so far and its my first pen. You get 4 ink tubes, 3 nibs, and the pen for $10.
amazon has a good selection of starter fountain pens. and are almost always a bit cheaper than what you would find in store or other websites.
some of the ones I have gotten in the past are:
Sheaffer Calligraphy Mini Kit,
X450 Kurve Vanilla Fountain Pen,
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen,
The lamy comes with a cartridge but you can purchase a converter for only 4 dollars (us price)
Also first post here!
Sounds very frustrating, I have to admit. I must admit that mine have worked ok, but having read some reviews on Amazon, they can be a bit hit or miss.
The Pilot Parallel pens look like so much fun, and they are definitely on my (extensive!) wishlist. I think they are pretty pricey ($24.00) in comparison to a simple ink cartridge converter though (couple of dollars). But then you'd also have to buy a bottle of ink to fill it.
For years I have used Shaeffer pens for Calligraphy. These are a bit cheaper than Pilot, and always have excellent reviews. The only downside is that Shaeffer have their own cartridge system, so you're stuck buying their cartridges instead of the standard ones. (Although again, you could invest in a converter to use bottled ink, but these seem expensive).
Hope this helps. I'm not in the US, so I've used Amazon for general pricing.
I really like the Pilot Varsity pens (though some here may consider that heresy). They're really consistent, write pretty well, and are great for having a fountain pen that you can toss in a bag, forget about for weeks on end, and have it still write perfectly when you pull it out again. But because they're disposable you don't really get the full fountain pen experience of care, cleaning, bottle-filling, etc.
The Sheaffer calligraphy pen was actually my first fountain pen, and I actually bought it at Hobby Lobby. It's pretty cheap, in both cost to buy, and in construction. The nibs are kind of scratchy, and they tend to skip. They don't make them with screw-on caps anymore, iirc, and the new caps slip on and sort of pressure fit with the rubber part of the section (the part you hold when writing) which makes it easy to crack the cap if you push it on too far. But all that said, I've bought worse pens for more money (not much more, but still). It's cheap, but it's not actually horrible. I liked having and using mine enough to go out and buy more and better pens.
I guess the tl;dr is: the varsity is probably better if you only want to see if you like writing with a fountain pen; the Sheaffer may be better if you want to see if you like owning one.
I like Sheaffer. They use cartidges which I think are less messy, which is nice. I do get some bleeding, so I'd be careful with that. But it's cheap at least!
http://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Calligraphy-Medium-SH-73403/dp/B000MFMV8M