Indian Fountain Pens

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I recently noticed that a UK pen specialist, from whom I have purchased before, also sells the Varuna range of fountain and dip pens, which are made in India.

These are ebonite pens, apparently hand-made, and come in a number of different models and colours.

My choice was the Varuna 3C, in Yellow Ripple. In its normal configuration, this is an eyedropper pen, which I guess would swallow up about a quarter of a Diamine small bottle.

In this pen, the pen specialist has replaced the standard Indian nib and assembly with a quality German nib, which also allows the use of a converter or cartridges. The replacement nib also offers a better range of sizes, and, for a small additional cost, I chose a 1.1mm stub. A nice touch is that the pen is supplied with a pipette and container of silicone grease for those who want to use it as an eyedropper.

I wonder if anyone else has experience of Indian-made pens?Varuna-3c-yellow-ripple.JPG
 
I recently noticed that a UK pen specialist, from whom I have purchased before, also sells the Varuna range of fountain and dip pens, which are made in India.

These are ebonite pens, apparently hand-made, and come in a number of different models and colours.

My choice was the Varuna 3C, in Yellow Ripple. In its normal configuration, this is an eyedropper pen, which I guess would swallow up about a quarter of a Diamine small bottle.

In this pen, the pen specialist has replaced the standard Indian nib and assembly with a quality German nib, which also allows the use of a converter or cartridges. The replacement nib also offers a better range of sizes, and, for a small additional cost, I chose a 1.1mm stub. A nice touch is that the pen is supplied with a pipette and container of silicone grease for those who want to use it as an eyedropper.

I wonder if anyone else has experience of Indian-made pens?View attachment 20055
Do you have a link please?
 
I have four Indian fountain pens. Three ASA models and one Gama.
All of them eyedroppers and all of them came, by personal choice, with an Indian nib.
Two of them are ebonite finish, the rest two are acrylic (one of them being a demonstrator).

In addition, I do have experience with other Indian manufacturers through a fellow wet shaver and friend.
He is currently waiting for a FosFor and a Ranga.

I plan to get more Indian pens, my next choice would most likely be a couple of FosFors.
Indian pens offer a fantastic and intimate writing experience, and once you carefully choose a good manufacturer (e.g. ASA Pens) then when the wait is over you discover a whole new world in writing.

Eydroppers need to be handled with care and not messed about with modifications or other tweaks. Mr. Subramaniam of ASA Pens makes every single pen by hand and -if you allow- tests the nib personally before the pen leaves his shop. Some of the pens can also be delivered in a 3-to-1 configuration with a German nib (JoWo or Schmidt) but personally I've stuck with Indian nibs which fit my style and make the experience of writing with such a pen even more personal.

yf0bb5o.jpg


HoGJLu5.jpg

Pictures above borrowed from the internet.

80Iusg4.jpg
 
I have four Indian fountain pens. Three ASA models and one Gama.
All of them eyedroppers and all of them came, by personal choice, with an Indian nib.
Two of them are ebonite finish, the rest two are acrylic (one of them being a demonstrator).

In addition, I do have experience with other Indian manufacturers through a fellow wet shaver and friend.
He is currently waiting for a FosFor and a Ranga.

I plan to get more Indian pens, my next choice would most likely be a couple of FosFors.
Indian pens offer a fantastic and intimate writing experience, and once you carefully choose a good manufacturer (e.g. ASA Pens) then when the wait is over you discover a whole new world in writing.

Eydroppers need to be handled with care and not messed about with modifications or other tweaks. Mr. Subramaniam of ASA Pens makes every single pen by hand and -if you allow- tests the nib personally before the pen leaves his shop. Some of the pens can also be delivered in a 3-to-1 configuration with a German nib (JoWo or Schmidt) but personally I've stuck with Indian nibs which fit my style and make the experience of writing with such a pen even more personal.

yf0bb5o.jpg


HoGJLu5.jpg

Pictures above borrowed from the internet.

80Iusg4.jpg

I like the look of the ASA pen offerings.


Ferrum
 
They also write very well for the money they cost, you'll be surprised when you get to try one.
I think I will, and it also happens to be my birthday this month, so why not?
The ASA website can get a bit confusing, what with working out what is in stock, or has to be pre-ordered, or will be fulfilled at a later date, but where there's a will, there's a way. I tend to prefer broader, italic or stub nibs (or flex nibs), so I'm pleased to see that a range of nibs is available.
Thanks for the heads-up, by the way.
 
I'm pleased to say that my ASA "Daily" fountain pen has today arrived from India. It's an absolute cracker.

There's one downside to the Varuna and ASA models that I now have. They both have a ridge or rim at the writing end, which is very good for how I hold the pens. However, it's just big enough to prevent me dipping the nib as deeply as I need to, when filling to converter from the Diamine 30ml ink bottles. A small inconvenience, though, considering what a nice pen this is. The answer (flippant), is to buy bigger bottles of ink!

PPXT10891608242,0400.JPG
 
I haven't been too happy about my nib choice, which seems to run very dry despite the usual techniques to wet it. However, replacement Schmidt nib units are available in the UK for around £3.50 or so, and I've bought one which does the job and is wetter.

Having screw-in nibs makes this all a lot easier.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Very nice: do you just use Parker ink via a squeeze cartridge with these?

At the moment it's Diamine ink in converters. I don't generally use cartridges in any of my pens, except for Kaweco Sports, where I find that converters always fall out. For these I take an empty standard short cartridge and fill it with a Diamine of my choice with a syringe.
 
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