Ackerman Pens Manga G Zebra Classic Pump Pen, use any ink, even India ink, slip nibs and feeds in and out

Update. I like this pen so much that I placed an order for two more directly through Ackerman's website. This second order took 3 months to arrive. This is not unreasonable for a handmade pen. I have waited several months for other handmade pens to be available. What was uncomfortable was the complete lack of communication or response to inquiries and the fact that payment had already been made. These days, are all rather wary and cynical about online commerce. Rightly so, there's a lot of sharks. Collecting payment and then not responding is a bright red flag. If you Google this pen you will find a lot of angry, frustrated reports. However, in this case, it's just that, a flag and no more. If you have the patience for this, I say it's well worth it. You get the pen in the end but there's no hand holding in the meanwhile. If you have low tolerance for this sort of thing, skip it. There are alternatives. I just received my pen. About 8 days from Amazon order date. There was an error on my part which needed to be corrected by email. Vendor responded the following weekend and resolved the problem. Dip nibs have extremely variable flow demands. The line swells from hairline to full in a short distance. A modified Jinhao or similar will still have a fixed flow rate. But with this pen, the pump allows you to regulate the ink flow to thirsty nibs like Manga G. Unlike most pens where the flow rate is automatic, this is a manual transmission - you get more control at the price of more attention and skill on your part. It remains a dip pen but the dipping is 'built in'. The ink reservoir has no piston and must be filled with an eye dropper.. That's usually enough for one drawing. I am tempted to try this w/o the reservoir. After prepping the nib, the pen worked flawlessly. It feels like a dip pen, you have to stay aware of the ink charge but instead of dipping you just squeeze the pump. And just like a dip pen, it can drop a blot if you aren't careful. It seems to accept any full size dip pen nib that has a straight back. The nib pulls out like with a dip pen. The whole pen comes apart easily. The pen is very solidly made. You could probably drive over it and suffer no more than scuffing. It's also quite small without the cap posted. The pen is much more slender than it appears in the pix. The look is austere. It's a matte delrin rod. It's designed as a tool, not a piece of jewelry. I really like it. Others may find it too austere. The cap posts with a friction fit which is very stiff at first. Be careful you don't splatter ink when popping it on or off. This is a one man, weekend business. His pens have been steadily improved and now seem to work very well. I find a lot of complaints from earlier times about non responsiveness or slow orders. Perhaps he has someone to help with the management now, in any case, the recent reports are much improved. Expect to wait for the weekend to get a reply. The upside is a handmade specialty pen for $45 is an amazing deal. Especially when it includes an important innovation. There is no other pen like this available.

Honestly, I am very pleased with this pen. It feels pretty nice in my hand and it has definitely allowed me to use my favorite calligraphy nibs on a fountain pen. I wouldn't recommend this for travel as it leaked after a short drive in my back pack. The startup can be tricky at times, but really all I do is slide the nib up and down, give it a light pump, or shake it a bit. One of these three actions will be the ticket. I'm also happy how easily you can get the the nib out. Especially for nibs that you don't want covered in ink for too long. So if you really like a calligraphy nib and wish you can use it in a fountain pen... get it. You will be doing yourself a disservice if you don't. Pros: - You can use a Zebra-G or Brause Rose nibs (and others) - Good flow and will rarely railroad once properly set up - Great utility - Easily swaps nibs Cons: - Burps when traveling - Some tricky starts (easily remedied) (Sometimes the pump doesn't do much) - Doesn't come in more colors Dear Ackerman Pens. I love this pen! If you make these in different colors, I would definitely buy more!

Did not meet my expectations, especially for the price. Before the ink dried up and rendered the pen useless it was inconsistent at best. Whatever material they use that nothing sticks to... well, it wasn't used on this pen. The small o ring or washer in the cartridge also fell out. I'm truly disappointed in this pen.

I've used a # of different pens with Zebra G nibs in them and they're all finicky. I think it's just how they are. This pen is among the best I've tested. I'm finding that the ink reservoir needs to be above a quarter of it's capacity for it to write well. Still experimenting with it. Will definitely be getting a spare of these.

Firstly you have to realize that this is a very special purpose pen that is made for a specific kind of usage. It is certainly not a normal fountain pen. It is made for people who want to use flexible art or calligraphy dip nibs in a fountain pen so that they don't have to keep dipping the nib in an ink bottle. People like me try to put these nibs in ordinary fountain pens and call it a Franken pen. I have done that on 3 or 4 pens from Noodlers and Jinhao, and it inevitably is difficult, hit-and-miss, I actually have to do quite a bit of grinding on the nib to make it fit. So this pen is made for people like me. No grinding necessary just dropped the nib in. In that sense it works pretty well and you can tell it was thoughtfully designed. The theory is sound but the devil is in the details. I have used both the Zebra G nib and the Brause Rose nib. Because these nibs are steel, I don't like to leave them to rust in the inked pen when I'm not using them, so I will take the nib in-and-out every time I use it. When not in use I store the pen with ink in it pointing upwards so it can't possibly leak out the feed. One problem is that each of those nibs fits rather loosely into the feed and section. They will actually fall out. So I solved this problem by using pliers on the rear end of each nib to flatten it out slightly thus making a tighter fit. That seems to work but it's a little unfortunate that I have to do that. Another issue is that this has a feed that is very wet, that is, it has a wide channel that can supply a lot of ink to the nib for very broad strokes. I'm sure this is by design and necessary to an extent. However it is such a wet feed that often a drop of ink will ball up near the tip and then spill out onto your page, pretty much ruining it. I'm not sure how to adjust that, you could open it up if it was not enough, but when it's too much I'm not sure what to do about it. But in a minute or two the feed slows down and the nib starves, so you either have to tap it or use the priming pump. And then you get an excess drop of ink, so keep a wary eye, a test sheet and a paper towel nearby. I've only used Noodlers bulletproof black and Speedball India ink so far. The india ink tends to gum up after a few minutes so can't recommend. A third issue is that the ink reservoir does not fit tightly into the section and will leak. Now, I don't mind fiddling with finicky pens to a certain extent, but this is a bit much.

Yep, I'm one of those darn anime artists...always wanted to try a G pen but, well, I have curious kitties that would definitely knock the ink bottle over. So I got this pen! And I really like it so far. The nib is, of course, excellent, and being able to use any ink I want is pretty cool too. I tried it for a few illustrations and got that beautiful traditional manga look, and every time the ink ran low, just gave it a little pump and we were back in business. My more simple illustration used up about half the ink in the pen, so if you have a more detailed style, you may have to refill a few times before finishing. Now, their website says that this nib works a whole lot better with their overfeed in it. I didn't have too much trouble, but I might order one at some point just to see if it is indeed better. If you're looking at this pen, it might be worth going there and trying that option instead. But this one is definitely fine for me, for now!

This is a tricky pen, and there is a LOT to know about using it that is not on the web site anywhere. A piece of paper comes with the pen but it's kind of confusing. It didn't even cover all the little details I found by cruising reviews on pen sites. If you lose it, you have no resources. The web site is a zero, by the way. All sales, no support. It does NOT "work with any ink" because a mysterious part called a "feed" comes in three sizes and you have to have the right one for the thinness or viscosity of the ink you use. Surprise! The replacement parts page on the web site is empty. There is a small part called an "overfeed" that is an important accessory and I only found out about it by looking at reviews. Apparently there's a tiny o-ring that goes with the cartridge (according to a reviewer). Since I didn't know it existed, it probably fell out without me noticing. There's a tiny hole in the cap that needs to be covered or not, depending (you cover it by rotating the pocket clip piece). Disassembling it is a little mysterious because there is no diagram of the parts and no instructions on whether parts screw apart or pull apart. Leakage, including heavy, completely-dump-out-the-cartridge leakage, is apparently a thing, according to reviewers and commenters. What a mess it made for me. It's too late for me to return it (I didn't really start to use it until after the return period). Maybe I will save the nib to use on another pen. The pen itself is dead to me.

Great concept: Turn any dip nib into a fountain pen. Problems: Extra ink drips off the nib every couple words. Ruins whatever you're trying to create. When stored with ink, whichever end it stands stored, and whichever end you uncapped, cartridge end or nib end, ALL of the ink has completely emptied and runs all over the table, the paper, the hands. What a mess!!! The "so-called" cartridge doesn't fit snug. Ink runs out. Nib end isn't tight. Ink runs out. I've wasted so much ink and papers I've worked on. I hope they figure out how to make this idea work. It's a great concept. It don't work. I've been trying to tweak it every day for a week. Even fashioned an overfeed like on a tutorial I watched. Still leaks everywhere. Wasted a lot of bucks buying extra nibs and overfeeds and pens, because, it's just a great concept, I was sure I could get it to work. I'm pretty handy and mechanical, and can figure things out. Not this mess. The parts don't fit securely.

Buena pluma para usar tus puntas G y es compatible con algunas del mismo estilo y las Brause planas, quitándoles el depósito

Good Pen, delivery details were great and it arrived very quickly.