I don’t know why people are so obsessed with the Pilot Custom 823 when they can get the Custom 743 that has the same nib and body, but with a con-70 converter. This makes it so much easier to clean and take apart giving you the best of both worlds with a higher than normal ink capacity. It even comes in different colours like the verdigris edition and the same box with included ink bottle.
I have a 743 with a SF nib and it writes nicely but is a bit boring. I think I’d like the heft of the 823 and I think the semi translucent body is beautiful but I’ve never handled one in person. I feel like the custom 74 with SF nib has more spring to it…
So, you're 100% right as regards practicality ... But, in my experience, at least, beyond some point -- when you have a large enough collection that you have enough practical / pragmatic pens -- romance takes over. There's something FUN about the 823 (and vac-fillers in general). But, horses for courses!
I'm not trying to troll here, but I really dislike pilot converters. If I am using my 743 I'm syringe filling a cartridge. But I still prefer the 823... It feels like the ink flows differently. I have no idea why that should be the case, but it does. I even put an ebonite feed on my 743 and I still use my 823 more regularly.
I have a 743 and an 823, and yes, they both fit the same size nibs, but the 823 just...feels different...in your hand. It's difficult to articulate beyond holding them both in each hand and just knowing that one (823) is a bit higher quality. The difference is beyond just the weight, too, I think. The resin/plastic the 823 has feels denser and less hollow in your hand. And for the cleaning aspect - just pop off the nib and feed and blast the innards with a syringe full of water. Cleans pretty quickly.
Great video, you’ve reminded me to appreciate the 100+ pens I’ve accumulated during the Covid WFH break. I’m sure hubby and I could have funded an 8-day cruise on what we’ve spent on pens and accessories 😂. Many of my favs match yours: Pilot 823 in Amber M, Smoke F; Lamy 2K M, F, EF, Pelikan 605 blue/black, just bought M1000 Renaissance brown, Visconti HS Crystal Dream M, Demo Blue Sapphire M Aurora fountain & BP black/gold set with 14k nib, gifted over 20 years ago for a company and never inked up till watching your video. I can’t believe have smoothly it writes. It’s similar in nib and body size to my Visconti’s. A couple of other favorites are: Pilot Vanishing Nib LS, Opus 88 blue demonstrator and the Leonardo Momento Magico. 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👋🏿👋🏿👋🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
Love your enthusiasm, I'm the same way. Do your Viscontis have the power filler? I have a half dozen Viscontis and have never had any problems, maybe I'm lucky. Anyway I saw a video on how to get them completely full, it's easy. After your normal refill you turn the pen nib side up with the filler rod fully out and slowly push it back up until a drop of ink starts coming out of the nib and stop there. Then insert the nib back into the bottle and push the rod back down like you do far a normal fill. It will completely fill the pen 100%. Hugh amount of ink that will last months and months.
Beautiful pens in your collection! We get them for many reasons, maybe they're pretty or we think they'll do something we like. Later we keep them for the history we share with them. Thanks for sharing some of yours!
Interesting - I have 2 Makrolon 2000's, but recently acquired the stainless steel version. I like that it's a bit heavier, and the extra fine nib was just sooooo smooth out of the box - it writes like a Japanese fine nib. Then there is my Gravitas Kyuseido Kakari that is awesome. One pen I'm about to find out about is a Pineider Twin Tank Touchdown that is on the way. And then there is the new addition of a 1990's vintage Montblanc 149. I won't mention all my vintage or Chinese Vac/piston fillers. My favorite filling system is the Japanese style eyedroppers. I don't suppose you'll do a video on this type?
I had the first 3 pens on this list (black makrolon 2000 but with a fine nib, Stresseman M805 with a broad (as well as a blue stripe M805 with a fine nib), and a smoke 823 with a Medium Nib. I’ve also had other model Pelikans including M400/600 and 1000’s and I think thats it for pens in this category. I no longer have any of them... nor any piston or vac fillers for that matter. Even my C/C pens mainly have refilled cartridges. The pens that I love most do not come with any other options anyway. My go to pens are a pair of FM Custom Urushis and a F Namiki Yukari Royale... nibs over filling systems all day when it comes to my pen choices.
Conklin Nozac 125th Anniversary pen. Gold JoWo nib is fabulous. And the single-twist piston filler actually is true and it’s amazing! So much quicker to clean and fill. Just love the pen overall. It’s $1000 retail but I bought 2 on Amazon for about $400 each! 😳🙌
Your face is not red, it shows signs of life and excitement! In my small collection of pens I have only 3 piston fillers, and all are Narwhal, and all are Peter Draws Peter Pen editions. That brings up a point, you should release your own edition of a pen. I wonder with what brand an on which theme you you would go with?
All 5 of my Pelikans: M200, M400, two M600s, M800, all pistons. Plunger vacs: late 1930s Wahl-Eversharp Demi Doric, mid 1940s Brown striated, wide gold cap band, white dot in cap end, Triumph nib Sheaffer. All are used regularly in rotation.
I checked out Dorics once, Very nice pen. I myself own a few pens from the 40s. One is the Sheaffer Triumph vacuum fill, a blue Diamond Parker push button fill and a Moore 96-B Fingertip, but it's a lever fill. Still, I love the old classics. It seems pens from that era were quite small. I do wonder at times "how many hand have these pens been through?"
So I do have a vacuum I like more than the TWSBI but a little less then the 823. Have you ever tried a Pineider Avatar UR Twin Tank Touchdown? Silly name but a great pen!
Fire & Blood is better in the hardcover because there is lovely original art, but you need to save your ducats for an M1000, so I understand the paperback choice.
Hı from Türkiye.. I am happy to inform you about the Istanbul "Pen Fest" event, held at Çırağan Palace on 9-10 November 2024, where all pen lovers and companies in the world will meet. Thank you for the video. ❤❤
I usually do a prelim flush on my H.Sapiens (maybe flush 5x) ... then drop them in the ultrasonic cleaner ... then after a few more fill/discharge cycles, they run basically clear.
A fine selection! Recently, I've come back to my Lamy 2000 which, as you say, is unique: warm Macrolon just feels lovely; Bauhaus styling, stunningly minimalist; and a fantastic nib. Dodgy ink window, but I can live with that. I've sold on both Pilots I've owned, a 74, and a 912 Falcon nib. So, should I give the 823 a whirl? Maybe so. It's my handwriting style, not Pilot, that's the problem. Just fits certain brands and not others. And I do love my two Auroras, an Optima as well as a simple black and silver 88. As for Leonardo, I have just heard too many negatives to take a punt on one of those! Thank you for piquing my curiosity!
I don’t have a lot of experience with piston fillers, and none with vacuum. The only pistons I have are the Lamy 2000 and a Twsbi Eco. I love the Lamy, although it was crap when I received it… I had to have it tuned. Now I have it inked permanently and use it everyday. I would really like to get a Pelikan someday, although I don’t know which model. I’d have to try them out. My wife and I are going to Germany next spring, so who knows…?
If you like nibs with character, the M600 and M1000 are the ones to choose. Decide between the two based on how much you want to spend and how big of a pen you like to use. While they both have some character the M1000 is much softer while the M600 just has some bounce . The M800 is a fantastic performer if you just want smooth and reliable flow but a fairly stiff nib. I believe the M400 is similar, but while I owned two of them I have not tried one (they were too small for me so I sold them without thinking them). I no longer own any Pelikan. Just not my thing... I’m a Pilot fan based on my pen box 😊
As a Cartridge/Converter Boi, I only have one piston filler, a Sailor Realo, only because I am also a Sailor Boi. I see the beauty of a piston, but I prefer the practicality of the converter.
This is tough! Vintage Pelikan M800 (M) and Pelikan Glauco Cambon M600 (F) Visconti Kaleido Unicorn Galaxy (F) Benu Euphoria with a Custom Nib Studio (Perspective) nib grind by Gena Salorino Vanishing Point (F) Esterbrook Estie with a (Journaler) nib grind by Gena Salorino
Wing sun 699 has to be the least expensive, best performing vac filler in the known universe -- it even does reverse writing brilliantly! Easy to clean, massive capacity...it's just not got that gold ,super flexible nib that would make it the goat....but I'm not above hunting down a vintage nib to create the Frankenpen...!😂. Lol.
My favourite vacuum filler at the moment is my Sheaffer Imperial ii TouchDown filler. Otherwise, my current fave is either my Asvine V169, or my Wing Sung 699 (now I've swapped the terrible original F for a stub from Bobby).
I haven’t purchased any vac fillers since it seems impossible to get a full fill out of them, even with the tips and tricks, so the ink ‘capacity’ isn’t really what I’d be carrying around. My favourite piston fills, which is my favourite filling mechanism due to the ease of use and quantity of ink, are the Montblanc 146 M (Around the World in Eighty Days) and my Pilot CH92 FM (Transparent Blue). Those are my two most frequently used pens. Their smoothness is perfection! I also bought a CH92 M (transparent demonstrator) to draw with and I have it filled exclusively with Platinum Carbon Black. If/when I buy another pen, it would HAVE to be in person, as I bought all of my previous pens (except for the Metropolitans) online. I’d only want another pen if it writes as well or better than my favourites.
I have found the best way to get a full fill on my vac fillers is to use an inkwell I can invert like the Pineider, Visconti, or the Vac 20A for TWSBIs. They work like a charm with no mess.
My Hongdian was my 3rd pen. Man… that peacock blue pen writes like a dream… it started a little dry but once it broke in thanks to INKQUIRING MINDS 7 strokes of happiness……… wow)
I don’t have any vacuum fill pens because most of them are transparent and I despise transparent pens. Someday I’ll get a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age. 1. Nahvalur Nautilus 2. Pelikan M800 3. Lamy 2000 4. Sailor Pro Gear Realo 5. Wing Sung 630
Yay!! You’re going to stop being a Game of Thrones Muggle!! The GOT books are long and so awesome … except be prepared for anger when the last book does not actually finish the story. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️😡
![Megan Thee Stallion - Mamushi (Remix) [feat. TWICE] [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5c0_u9PsrsQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I don’t know why people are so obsessed with the Pilot Custom 823 when they can get the Custom 743 that has the same nib and body, but with a con-70 converter. This makes it so much easier to clean and take apart giving you the best of both worlds with a higher than normal ink capacity. It even comes in different colours like the verdigris edition and the same box with included ink bottle.
I have a 743 with a SF nib and it writes nicely but is a bit boring. I think I’d like the heft of the 823 and I think the semi translucent body is beautiful but I’ve never handled one in person. I feel like the custom 74 with SF nib has more spring to it…
So, you're 100% right as regards practicality ... But, in my experience, at least, beyond some point -- when you have a large enough collection that you have enough practical / pragmatic pens -- romance takes over. There's something FUN about the 823 (and vac-fillers in general). But, horses for courses!
I'm not trying to troll here, but I really dislike pilot converters. If I am using my 743 I'm syringe filling a cartridge. But I still prefer the 823... It feels like the ink flows differently. I have no idea why that should be the case, but it does. I even put an ebonite feed on my 743 and I still use my 823 more regularly.
I have a 743 and an 823, and yes, they both fit the same size nibs, but the 823 just...feels different...in your hand. It's difficult to articulate beyond holding them both in each hand and just knowing that one (823) is a bit higher quality. The difference is beyond just the weight, too, I think. The resin/plastic the 823 has feels denser and less hollow in your hand. And for the cleaning aspect - just pop off the nib and feed and blast the innards with a syringe full of water. Cleans pretty quickly.
Of you own a Pilot Custom 823 and a Lamy 2000, do you really need more pens?
Great video, you’ve reminded me to appreciate the 100+ pens I’ve accumulated during the Covid WFH break. I’m sure hubby and I could have funded an 8-day cruise on what we’ve spent on pens and accessories 😂. Many of my favs match yours:
Pilot 823 in Amber M, Smoke F; Lamy 2K M, F, EF,
Pelikan 605 blue/black, just bought M1000 Renaissance brown,
Visconti HS Crystal Dream M, Demo Blue Sapphire M
Aurora fountain & BP black/gold set with 14k nib, gifted over 20 years ago for a company and never inked up till watching your video. I can’t believe have smoothly it writes. It’s similar in nib and body size to my Visconti’s.
A couple of other favorites are: Pilot Vanishing Nib LS, Opus 88 blue demonstrator and the Leonardo Momento Magico.
👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👋🏿👋🏿👋🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
Love your mic holder so much.. Great use of a fancy craft knife.
Love your enthusiasm, I'm the same way. Do your Viscontis have the power filler? I have a half dozen Viscontis and have never had any problems, maybe I'm lucky. Anyway I saw a video on how to get them completely full, it's easy. After your normal refill you turn the pen nib side up with the filler rod fully out and slowly push it back up until a drop of ink starts coming out of the nib and stop there. Then insert the nib back into the bottle and push the rod back down like you do far a normal fill. It will completely fill the pen 100%. Hugh amount of ink that will last months and months.
Beautiful pens in your collection! We get them for many reasons, maybe they're pretty or we think they'll do something we like. Later we keep them for the history we share with them. Thanks for sharing some of yours!
great collection of pens, as usual, thanks for sharing
Love this vid.
I love my Lamy 2000 w a m nib, I had it ground to a CI by Mike Masuyama.. now it’s even more fun.
Interesting - I have 2 Makrolon 2000's, but recently acquired the stainless steel version. I like that it's a bit heavier, and the extra fine nib was just sooooo smooth out of the box - it writes like a Japanese fine nib. Then there is my Gravitas Kyuseido Kakari that is awesome. One pen I'm about to find out about is a Pineider Twin Tank Touchdown that is on the way. And then there is the new addition of a 1990's vintage Montblanc 149. I won't mention all my vintage or Chinese Vac/piston fillers. My favorite filling system is the Japanese style eyedroppers. I don't suppose you'll do a video on this type?
I had the first 3 pens on this list (black makrolon 2000 but with a fine nib, Stresseman M805 with a broad (as well as a blue stripe M805 with a fine nib), and a smoke 823 with a Medium Nib. I’ve also had other model Pelikans including M400/600 and 1000’s and I think thats it for pens in this category.
I no longer have any of them... nor any piston or vac fillers for that matter. Even my C/C pens mainly have refilled cartridges. The pens that I love most do not come with any other options anyway. My go to pens are a pair of FM Custom Urushis and a F Namiki Yukari Royale... nibs over filling systems all day when it comes to my pen choices.
Conklin Nozac 125th Anniversary pen. Gold JoWo nib is fabulous. And the single-twist piston filler actually is true and it’s amazing! So much quicker to clean and fill. Just love the pen overall. It’s $1000 retail but I bought 2 on Amazon for about $400 each! 😳🙌
Your face is not red, it shows signs of life and excitement!
In my small collection of pens I have only 3 piston fillers, and all are Narwhal, and all are Peter Draws Peter Pen editions. That brings up a point, you should release your own edition of a pen. I wonder with what brand an on which theme you you would go with?
All 5 of my Pelikans: M200, M400, two M600s, M800, all pistons. Plunger vacs: late 1930s Wahl-Eversharp Demi Doric, mid 1940s Brown striated, wide gold cap band, white dot in cap end, Triumph nib Sheaffer. All are used regularly in rotation.
I checked out Dorics once, Very nice pen. I myself own a few pens from the 40s. One is the Sheaffer Triumph vacuum fill, a blue Diamond Parker push button fill and a Moore 96-B Fingertip, but it's a lever fill. Still, I love the old classics. It seems pens from that era were quite small. I do wonder at times "how many hand have these pens been through?"
So I do have a vacuum I like more than the TWSBI but a little less then the 823. Have you ever tried a Pineider Avatar UR Twin Tank Touchdown? Silly name but a great pen!
Fire & Blood is better in the hardcover because there is lovely original art, but you need to save your ducats for an M1000, so I understand the paperback choice.
Hı from Türkiye.. I am happy to inform you about the Istanbul "Pen Fest" event, held at Çırağan Palace on 9-10 November 2024, where all pen lovers and companies in the world will meet. Thank you for the video. ❤❤
I usually do a prelim flush on my H.Sapiens (maybe flush 5x) ... then drop them in the ultrasonic cleaner ... then after a few more fill/discharge cycles, they run basically clear.
A fine selection! Recently, I've come back to my Lamy 2000 which, as you say, is unique: warm Macrolon just feels lovely; Bauhaus styling, stunningly minimalist; and a fantastic nib. Dodgy ink window, but I can live with that. I've sold on both Pilots I've owned, a 74, and a 912 Falcon nib. So, should I give the 823 a whirl? Maybe so. It's my handwriting style, not Pilot, that's the problem. Just fits certain brands and not others. And I do love my two Auroras, an Optima as well as a simple black and silver 88. As for Leonardo, I have just heard too many negatives to take a punt on one of those! Thank you for piquing my curiosity!
I don’t have a lot of experience with piston fillers, and none with vacuum. The only pistons I have are the Lamy 2000 and a Twsbi Eco. I love the Lamy, although it was crap when I received it… I had to have it tuned. Now I have it inked permanently and use it everyday.
I would really like to get a Pelikan someday, although I don’t know which model. I’d have to try them out. My wife and I are going to Germany next spring, so who knows…?
If you like nibs with character, the M600 and M1000 are the ones to choose. Decide between the two based on how much you want to spend and how big of a pen you like to use. While they both have some character the M1000 is much softer while the M600 just has some bounce . The M800 is a fantastic performer if you just want smooth and reliable flow but a fairly stiff nib. I believe the M400 is similar, but while I owned two of them I have not tried one (they were too small for me so I sold them without thinking them).
I no longer own any Pelikan. Just not my thing... I’m a Pilot fan based on my pen box 😊
Thanks for the insights. 🙂
The Gravitas Ultem Vac is great. I put my Mag 600 flex nib in it and I have so much ink to really to heavy with the flex.
As a Cartridge/Converter Boi, I only have one piston filler, a Sailor Realo, only because I am also a Sailor Boi. I see the beauty of a piston, but I prefer the practicality of the converter.
This is tough!
Vintage Pelikan M800 (M) and Pelikan Glauco Cambon M600 (F)
Visconti Kaleido Unicorn Galaxy (F)
Benu Euphoria with a Custom Nib Studio (Perspective) nib grind by Gena Salorino
Vanishing Point (F)
Esterbrook Estie with a (Journaler) nib grind by Gena Salorino
Wing sun 699 has to be the least expensive, best performing vac filler in the known universe -- it even does reverse writing brilliantly! Easy to clean, massive capacity...it's just not got that gold ,super flexible nib that would make it the goat....but I'm not above hunting down a vintage nib to create the Frankenpen...!😂. Lol.
Does Makrolon get shiny overtime with use?
Yes, dirt and oils fill it’s micro grooves and it becomes shiny, however the finish can be restored with a scotchbrite pad
My favourite vacuum filler at the moment is my Sheaffer Imperial ii TouchDown filler. Otherwise, my current fave is either my Asvine V169, or my Wing Sung 699 (now I've swapped the terrible original F for a stub from Bobby).
Favourite piston fillers are:
Geha
Senator
Lamy 2000
Hong Dian N6
Kaweco Piston Sport ❤❤❤
Never heard of that brand. I just checked it out. Very nice looking pen and the price is unbeatable, Thumbs Bro.
I haven’t purchased any vac fillers since it seems impossible to get a full fill out of them, even with the tips and tricks, so the ink ‘capacity’ isn’t really what I’d be carrying around.
My favourite piston fills, which is my favourite filling mechanism due to the ease of use and quantity of ink, are the Montblanc 146 M (Around the World in Eighty Days) and my Pilot CH92 FM (Transparent Blue). Those are my two most frequently used pens. Their smoothness is perfection! I also bought a CH92 M (transparent demonstrator) to draw with and I have it filled exclusively with Platinum Carbon Black.
If/when I buy another pen, it would HAVE to be in person, as I bought all of my previous pens (except for the Metropolitans) online. I’d only want another pen if it writes as well or better than my favourites.
I have found the best way to get a full fill on my vac fillers is to use an inkwell I can invert like the Pineider, Visconti, or the Vac 20A for TWSBIs. They work like a charm with no mess.
@@GC12345 Great tip! Thanks. 😊
My share:
Hongdian N7
MontBlanc 146 (1983 version)
Lamy 2000
TWSBI D580
Pelikan 400M (vintage - M 14k nib)
My Hongdian was my 3rd pen. Man… that peacock blue pen writes like a dream… it started a little dry but once it broke in thanks to INKQUIRING MINDS 7 strokes of happiness……… wow)
Optima vs m800?
I don’t have any vacuum fill pens because most of them are transparent and I despise transparent pens. Someday I’ll get a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age.
1. Nahvalur Nautilus
2. Pelikan M800
3. Lamy 2000
4. Sailor Pro Gear Realo
5. Wing Sung 630
Aurora 88/Optima
Stipula Etruria
Stipula Florentia
Montegrappa Montegrappa
Santini Nonagon
Sweet list!
@@fountainPENdulum Ha, thanks. It wasn’t hard to think and pick this quintet for the list.
Where is your montblanc ?
I sold it. They’re a pain to clean and while they’re beautiful to look at, I just never used it that much after a while.
Oh I see … these are YOUR top 5. . I don’t see why you have a patron though….
Yay!! You’re going to stop being a Game of Thrones Muggle!! The GOT books are long and so awesome … except be prepared for anger when the last book does not actually finish the story. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️😡
I refuse to watch or read anything by GRRM.
I still have a grudge against him from the 90s.