Best Flex Nib? The Magna Carta Mag 600 Fountain Pen, My Thoughts on its Flex Nib & Some Others

[@thewetpen]

Hi Everyone! As you can see, I put some more bottles of ink up on my website this morning. *THANK YOU* tons and tons for supporting my channel this way! If you get one (or got one in the past), please consider posting a quick rating on my site when you've had a chance to use it... the space for reviews is at the bottom of each "product" page. Shipping will be a little slower this time; I still have some bottling to do. Expect the packages to start shipping on Tuesday or Wednesday.

[@craft-o-matic399]

❤ This pen always makes me think of the World Trade Towers in the moonlight... It's beautiful!

[@FountainPenNews]

I just bought the 3 I didn't have so now I'll have all of them. I'll 100% review on your site and I'll also do a full swatching and review on my channel.

[@thewetpen]

@@FountainPenNews You're awesome :-) Thank you so much!

[@llchapman1234]

Yay! I went ahead and ordered the other colors that I don't have, plus two extra bottles of the Ranier Blue💕 (Love this color!)

[@thewetpen]

@@llchapman1234 Wow, thank you! Hope you enjoy the new inks 🙂

[@Sapta_Chakra]

Most beautiful videos on fountain pens are found in this channel.

[@thewetpen]

Thank you! 🙂

[@daintiestquarters3411]

Agree. The use of music makes it special. Most channels don't know how to use music.

[@mayankchhaperwal4108]

Every frame in the video is so well crafted and looks so beautiful. And yes ofcourse everyone is right about the soothing voice over. Great work as usual 👍

[@thewetpen]

Thank you! It always makes me happy when people appreciate the photography in these things 🙂

[@alexkala]

I thoroughly agree!

[@thewetpen]

Incidentally, the Parker Vacumatic pens made of stacked celluloid cost about a quarter of the price of the Magna Carta on Ebay, if you want the original thing. Not flexible nibs, though.

[@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb]

When I was an undergraduate in Wisconsin I remember getting them at antique shops for maybe $10-20, which was about the top of my budget too. I wish I had acquired more. There also was a local office place that replaced the blatter for maybe $10 too. Loving your ink by the way. Such classy glass and boxes too. I hate removing the sticker to open the box... although that's the only way to open the box. Have a great weekend!

[@thewetpen]

@@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb I've seen a couple of KZbin reviews of my inks where people open up the boxes from the bottom to avoid hurting the label 🙂 Tricky, maybe, but it works. I wish I could still find vintage pens at good prices, too... I used to see them at garage sales all the time, but I haven't in years.

[@thewetpen]

@@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb Thanks for taking the time to write all of those reviews! Much appreciated 🙂

[@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb]

@@thewetpen Yes, of course things change. This was before ebay and roadside antique shops when suddenly anything old became overpriced even if not working. I do open it up from the bottom and store them back in the box, but am not careful enough with the sticker, so it is not the same. I suppose that's another reason some FP pens also like a good EDC knife. I'm just too impatient to open a box :). Happy you packed them that way for the long swim over the ocean. I just posted reviews of the ink I bought. Please feel free to delete them after you get some people who are more descriptive of ink hues and the like. Truly lovely inks!

[@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb]

@@thewetpen The least I can do. Your inks are as wonderful as your videos, and I think they are top.

[@teresaharris-travelbybooks5564]

That is one beautiful pen, but sadly not in my budget at this time. You are right about the Leonardo elastic nibs not being truly flexible. I recently got one of those and tried to flex it. On the third figure eight, the nib railroaded and then quit producing ink; at all! Luckily, the nib wasn't damaged and with priming, it wrote once more. However, I learned a lesson about those nibs.

[@thewetpen]

I learned that one the hard way, too. When I first got interested in flex nibs, I saw the shape of those nibs (actually, it was the older style, before JoWo changed them a couple of years ago), and at that time, I didn't really have any experience with flex nibs, so I gave it more pressure than I should have, trying to get it to flex... and it sprung the tines and it stopped writing. I have a Magna Carta with a steel nib that flexes more than those JoWos... but I still like them. They look really cool 🙂 And maybe they're a bit softer than a standard nib.

[@roxiesossa3210]

I can't believe it's taken me so long to finish watching this review! It's been a challenging few months but I'm catching up slowly but surely. Fantastic video & as as always!

[@thewetpen]

Hey Roxie! It's been a while... I'm glad to see you back 🙂 Hope you're getting better and on top of things!

[@roxiesossa3210]

@@thewetpen Hey! Just finished the last Japan video before my first call of the day. 😄 Amazing! Things are getting better for sure - thanks! It's a process and never as fast as you want but, as my grandfather used to say: I'm doing better than yesterday and [hopefully] worse than tomorrow. 😉

[@denkerdunsmuir3370]

Thx for video. I'm looking about a month after your post. Hope your ink hasn't sold out yet. I'd like that Ranier blue for art drawing, calligraphy, Zentangles work I'm doing to learn skills for marketability. Count my vote to see your review(s) of the other pens with flex nibs. I'm most interested in the nibs' flexibility, durability, quality and trend toward ebonite feeds as a foundational issue. I don't want to be in the middle of an art piece, going on with creativity and have pen fail in some way because the pen and esp the nib was too timid or not robust enough for the exercise! Or, I hadn't solved the ink compatibility issue yet. LoL I'm not hard on my brushes and other tools, but I don't concentrate on my tools beyond buying and maintaining them. I'm branching into a bamboo quill set early next year where, beyond cleaning after use, they have long-term reliability. But my love of fountain pens and Japanese characters and sumi-e, etc. art draws me back to smooth flex pens. Having arthritis and carpal tunnel push me toward a light hand. So, ultra-responsiveness is mandatory in the flex nib -- and -- the compatible ink. ✒️

[@denkerdunsmuir3370]

BTW: Did you attend the Tokyo Pen Convention recently? I saw a video of two You Tube channel guys who were with Drew Brown (of The Goulet Pen fame and podcasts). It was amazing! I learned that the fountain pen market that Tokyo serves are not as involved -yet- with the nib grinding world. So, no nib meister labs or bars. And, the aesthetics of the fountain pen world were top priority at Tokyo. This was shown for example in the ticket-tier structure which was structured toward crowd-control. More sophisticated. American shoes are more chaotic which I impute to capitalism as the top priority. Rather than the more Zenful and meditative Tokyo approach. Something to learn!

[@thewetpen]

@@denkerdunsmuir3370 Ahh, my ink did sell out... I think some of the inks lasted for a good couple of weeks, this time. I'll be making another batch soon. They tell me that another shipment of bottles are on their way to me, and I haven't entirely lost hope yet. Maybe next week. Ebonite feeds can give you more ink options, but with the right ink, I have no trouble using nibs with plastic feeds, even when I'm doing a fair amount of flexing (but not calligraphy).

[@AlfistaWayne]

Excellent review of these items, informative, savvy and honest !

[@davidbyers7246]

I love my Mag600. I got when they only came in black. I also got the Mag1000 with its giant nib. Both incredible pens. Thanks for the review.

[@thewetpen]

My pleasure! I almost bought the black model, too... but just as I was about to pull the trigger, the blue one appeared...

[@ilikepens]

I got to try one of these in San Francisco, and now I want one. So soft and flexy.

[@thewetpen]

They are really nice 🙂 These days, I find myself reaching for a really broad nib more often than a flex nib, but when I do want to play with one, the Magna Carta is excellent.

[@borkwoof696]

Man, this LE looks so much better than the regular versions haha

[@thewetpen]

I agree... I was on the fence about buying one until I saw this version 🙂 Now there are a bunch of nice ones available out there.

[@denkerdunsmuir3370]

​@@thewetpenWhat's the LE?

[@michaelrowley1970]

Thanks for the advice. I was using Diamine ancient copper. I’ll try a Montblanc ink next and maybe Iroshuzuku- I understand they are pretty wet. Great video!

[@fossilimprint2954]

Thank you, I really like how you include competitors to the pen which you are reviewing. Thank you! Looking forward to more Indian pen reviews.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks! I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I ordered 3 more Indian pens this morning. *sigh*

[@fossilimprint2954]

@@thewetpen I know that feeling. ;)

[@gauravburange8103]

The Kanwrite titanium flex nib is also a good one. Much softer than the usual nibs. FPR nibs are also probably Kanwrite from the look of it.

[@thewetpen]

I have a couple of their titanium nibs, but they're not flex nibs... I still need to track one of those down 🙂

[@iampizza749]

i am in love with your videos, they are so calming and interesting,continue like this! by the way could you review the parker jotter fountain pen? it would be a pleasure...

[@alexandrapirvu7945]

Thank you for this presentation! I'm very fond of this nib, and Pilot's #10 FA nib. The price for Magna Carta is a bit prohibitive, though, maybe they'll get closer to 350 in the future

[@AndrewWertheimer]

Fantastic review, as always. Thanks for the wonderful pace and comparative intelligence. I Don’t have a Magna Carta, but love my Vacumatics.

[@thewetpen]

Thanks Andrew! It's always a pleasure to make reviews about nice pens... and those Vacumatics are beautiful little pens, too!

[@AndrewWertheimer-xp8rb]

@@thewetpen They are indeed. I do like that classic two rivet clip on the Magna Carta. Too bad it's over my budget.

[@philnaunton7181]

Great video. Of interest was the section on FPR nibs and the great quality of images of the Ranga pens. Much better looking that the views on the Ranga site. I'm going to have to look at these more seriously!

[@thewetpen]

Ranga pens are wonderful :-) I've made a few videos about them in the past, if you want to see more of them up close.

[@Rgc571]

My FPR Flex nib times seem to get out of alignment each time I write. Probably my writing angle puts more pressure on one side. Easy to realign for next writing session. Very informative video, thanks.

[@julia-here]

Beautiful video; love my Magna Carta.. I was able to grab a couple bottles of your ink this morning as well; very excited to try them out. The colors are gorgeous.

[@thewetpen]

Hey Julia! Thank you!!! I hope you enjoy the inks 🙂

[@tbayless8324]

Matthew, I have an update, I bought a Noodlers Ahab, hated the nib, it was so stiff, so I took the nib and feed out of my FPR, and heat set everything and wow it writes like a dream. I am eyedroppering the pen.

[@thewetpen]

Ahh, nice! Yes, the FPR nib would be a perfect fit for the Ahab, and I'm glad that your heat set worked. I have an Ahab and actually enjoy mine, but I don't consider it to be a flex 🙂 Enjoy!

[@tbayless8324]

@@thewetpen Oh I am....have been since September. Thanks for your experience and help.

[@paulmchugh1430]

This is a beautiful pen. It reminds me of my Visconti Wall Street, though the Wall Street is made from celluloid. What draws me to the pen is the stacked resin. I wonder if the pen would be too big for my medium sized heads.

[@thewetpen]

I agree! I'd be surprised if it's too big to be comfortable for you. It's only a little bigger than most "medium" sized pens... I still mostly think of it as a medium, and it's not metal or a heavy ebonite, etc.

[@paulmchugh1430]

@@thewetpen I wonder if can be bought without the gold nib. I happen to like the Jowo Elastic nib.

[@thewetpen]

@@paulmchugh1430 Not as far as I know :-( I also like the JoWo Elastic nib, it's just not a flex nib 🙂

[@abhinavsiddharth8214]

bro, when daytone review?? also looking for a click aristocrat review as well

[@thewetpen]

Sorry... I have a list of videos that I need to finish first. The Aristocrat probably will be at the bottom of my list, but Daytone will be coming as soon as I can get to it.

[@tbayless8324]

Matthew, thanks for the video. In your opinion, which pen, Osprey or Kanwrite has the better experience, due to the fact that I have a FPR pen with a flex nib, and I can't get it to stop leaking. I believe the housing is is warped. The nib and converter are fine. But I am tired of messing with it, and I don't want to spend alot of money to switch nibs out and these pens are reasonably priced.

[@thewetpen]

I bought an orange FPR Himalaya once, and had the same problem... it was a mess. I also couldn't get it to write. However, the two Jaipurs that I have are perfect... never had a problem with either one, and the Click with the plastic feed is also wonderfully reliable. My Osprey is a good pen, but as I may have mentioned in the video, the flex with that nib is actually not as soft as with the FPR... I definitely prefer the FPR nib. That said, the Osprey Madison will also accept a nib unit that takes Zebra G nibs, which is very cool... though I don't like them for everyday writing, they're lots of fun to play with.

[@tbayless8324]

@@thewetpen Which pens accept the FPR flex nibs? The nib is great in the Himalaya, just the housing sucks, maybe I can get something worked out with them when I see them at the pen show this month. I will look into that Jaipur. I am hearing good things about Ranga also.

[@thewetpen]

@@tbayless8324 Basically any pen that uses a #6 nib will take an FPR nib in its place (JoWo, Bock, Chinese #6s, etc). Ranga pens can all be purchased with either a JoWo or Bock nib or an UltraFlex from Kanwrite.

[@tbayless8324]

@@thewetpen Bless your heart--thank you so much, I just switched nibs with my Jinhao 9016 and it is working--YES.

[@thewetpen]

@@tbayless8324 Very nice :-) With your Jinhao, the only drawback is that the plastic feed won't provide ink as quickly as the ebonite one, so you might have to slow down if you're going to write a lot with heavy flexing. But I find that to be a very minor issue.

[@00mpa1oomp4]

You need to reclassify your videos as ASMR, so soothing!

[@thewetpen]

Thanks :-) Hopefully it didn't put you to sleep!

[@00mpa1oomp4]

@@thewetpen hahaha, thank you for rekindling my love for fountain pens and stationery

[@kruschi2357]

Do you have any issues with leaking on that Magna Carta ?

[@thewetpen]

Nope, no leaking issues. That is a common problem with poorly seated ebonite feeds, and I've had it with some FPR pens and other Indian pens with ebonite feeds, but not with this one (so far).

[@angelosnoir9060]

Try Please regalia plex nib..

[@thewetpen]

I don't know... $200+ for a steel flex nib seems really steep, especially when a much less expensive steel nib works very nicely. The Regalia Labs Crossflex nibs seem to be out of stock anyway 🙂

[@duschkonig2561]

Hi Matthew! I got an eMail telling me that Throwback Blue is back in stock but I can‘t find it in the shop. The links in the mail don‘t work either. Was the mail sent by mistake or is the shop not yet up to date with Throwback Blue?

[@thewetpen]

Oh. Yes, that was a mistake... sorry! Throwback Blue is not ready. I was impatient with my automatic email sender and just manually set it to send out all of them, forgetting that there were 3 or 4 subscribers for Throwback Blue in there. I'm still working on that blue.

[@thewetpen]

Actually, I'm going to go ahead and add about 10 bottles of Throwback Blue to the site... from the batch I made up a couple of months ago, that's all I have left. If you want one, it'll be there in about 5 minutes.

[@michaelrowley1970]

I bought one of these and applying any downforce it railroads really bad. Any suggestions how to fix the feed so that it can keep up?

[@thewetpen]

Well, some people do use a razor to make the ink channel deeper in their feed, but it's much more likely that this is an issue with the ink or inks that you're using. Before you start cutting on your feed, I'd recommend trying some wetter inks and see whether that makes a difference. I guess it's not just the flow... it's also the "body" of the ink. Some inks are very thin and don't hold together when the nib widens. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[@sayanmajumdar3516]

sir plz recomend me a waterproof ink .😍😍😍😍

[@thewetpen]

It depends on what color you want, but probably the best waterproof bright blue that's available in India is Sulekha Sampurna (see my video about it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJbTnGOKbbqLhqcsi=eH75Z7_-8G95vGgN ), and in the same video, you'll see a couple of good options from Krishna. Another good option is Pilot Blue Black... it's not 100% waterproof, but it's mostly there, and its often less expensive than these others.

[@sayanmajumdar3516]

@@thewetpen Thanks ♥️❤️

[@andreahandte6662]

Matthew, how can I contact you concerning an order I placed today for some of your inks?

[@thewetpen]

You can email me [e-mail] or if it's urgent, you can try to IM me on Instagram: @matthew_thewetpen

[@andreahandte6662]

Thank you ​@@thewetpenI sent you an email about my order.

[@andreahandte6662]

Thank you Matthew, I sent you an email about my order

[@FountainPenNews]

I'm about to do a series of "Flexploration" videos including the magna carta. It was so interesting to hear your take! I describe it as a Ferrari on ice. My favorite flex nib of the many I own is the customized nib by Les Sheely with @stylosuite

[@thewetpen]

Looking forward to it 🙂 I had pretty much stopped playing around with flex nibs until the Mag 600 came along and got me interested again, and I really enjoy it. I'll have to check out Les Sheely 🙂