Duke Asian Calligraphy Fude Nib Fountain Pen Fine to Broad Nature Mother Pearl on Cap with Pen Pouch sketching Art Drawing Signature Pen Pouch

I've wasted a lot of money on fountain pens chasing the fallacy that my drawing would improve with better tools. No tool will teach you to draw, but it's no fallacy that some tools are more practical, comfortable, and dynamic than others. This Duke fude-nibbed fountain pen fits me like a glove and I think it will suit others as well.Fountain pens can be an addictive hobby because of their many variables: weight, balance, ergonomics, capacity, flow, nib style, convenience, durability, aesthetics. Finding a pen with all of these variables in the Goldilocks zone is extremely difficult - some people spend hundreds of dollars on nibsmiths getting custom nibs and feeds exactly as they want them, or build huge collections of mass-produced pens without being satisfied.For my quick gestural ink studies I wanted a light and balanced pen that was ready to go every time I pulled it out. It needed a special nib capable of creating thin contour lines and large areas of tone, like a pencil. The feed had to lay these lines with perfect consistency no matter how fast I stroked. It needed a massive ink capacity since drawing - especially when laying tone - consumes far more ink than writing. And it needed to be durable since I'm not interested in babying a pen.From the five star review you can guess this pen satisfies all of the above - at an incredible price. The attached gesture study was done in a few minutes on cheap newsprint paper using Waterman "Serenity Blue" ink. You can see there are no skips in any of the strokes even as I blocked in tone on the bird's chest with quick and heavy lines - even on this cheap, thirsty paper.Capacity was solved by using large international standard cartridges. I can comfortably draw for over an hour on a single refill and fresh cartridges are quick to swap in. Waterman and Pelikan offer these larger cartridges but they're not very cost effective so I recommend buying a bottle of Noodler's and refilling them.To the layman $20 may seem like a lot for a pen. But to a studious ink-loving artist who will get years of mileage from this tool it's nothing. In fact when buying ink in large bottles you will easily save money over ballpoints and felt-tipped markers in the long term.Buy yourself a new toy - you deserve it.Update January 2022:I'm still using this regularly, usually with Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I've added a few more sketches.I left it idle for about two months and it was a bit scratchy at first but with a bit of water and plenty of ink it came back. Once the current load runs out I'm going to try it with Platinum Carbon Black.

I got this today and was very pleasantly surprised of the quality, fit and finish given the pen’s price. The engraving on the cap and the details are fantastic. It’s absolutely beautiful! I loaded it up with Sailor black pigment ink and it writes very well. It’s so easy to vary the width of your lines because of the fude nib. Writing looks very nice and formal. Even when writing notes it gives you sense of substance. It starts easy and flows smoothly. The included ink reservoir is easy to fill. I’m sure you could a cartridge but I like filling my pens from bottle ink. Don’t hesitate to buy, especially at this price!

Overall a great pen, but I am not sure I should have gone with the fude nib.Details:The body of this pen and the build quality are surprisingly excellent. This pen has a nice heft and neither looks nor feels like an inexpensive pen. The metal work in particular is surprisingly nice with a lot of little details that make this feel like something upscale.Filling the pen via the included converter was a typical process. This revealed the only slight thing I'll ding the pen for, which is that the converter "snaps" in rather than screws in. That's not quite as satisfying as it could be and I am not left with the utmost in confidence that it won't pop out at some point.The pen is comfortable in the hand and everything is just about perfect.I bought this pen so that I could try out a fude nib. I've been practicing kanji and I thought it would be cool for that. But after several weeks I've found that I much prefer writing kanji with my other pens, and for line variation I prefer using a brush pen. (I have not yet had a chance to try a flix fountain pen nib.)The fude nib is interesting and you can do a lot with it -- everything from very fine lines to very thick lines -- but I'm sorry to say, it's a bit of a pain. Getting the line variation requires a change in hand angle and means that you have be very careful and very deliberate. Many letters that I might write with a single fluid stroke of a brush pen require two or even three strokes with the fude nib as I need to change angle at various points.In addition to the above, the writing experience is either soaking wet (when doing thick lines), or a bit on the dry and scratchy side (when doing fine lines). There might be a tiny bit of sweet spot in the middle, but it's tough to find. And when writing "normal" stuff in that sweet spot, you need to be very careful to maintain hand angle lest you slip into the thick zone and your letters become illegible ink blots.That's a lot about the nib, but it's information I wish I'd had upfront. This is a fun toy for me at this point but not something I'll really reach for.Overall, high quality and excellent value. The nib is what it is. I definitely recommend this model of pen and I look forward to a lot of writing with it once I change out the nib.

Good

Be forewarned that it will easily write bold since it's a fine to broad size. I just had fun doodling with it to test it out. Pressing down a little to make the line size broad makes it easy to color in spaces. I have a passport size journal and writing with this pen will easily take up the small pages. Maybe I'll adjust to the pressure of the pen to where I'l consistently write with a fine tip, but ink comes out easily to make my writing bold. I will probably be buying a fine to medium size pen for journal writing instead, but I still really like this pen! I"m going to keep it. I didn't experience any difficulty putting the cartridge in and it writes smoothly without smearing. If you like the Uni-ball 207 Gel Bold Point pens, you'll like this pen. The thickest line I could make with it is just under 2 mm.

I didn’t know I was purchasing a bent nib pen. Other than that its a nice pen.