Nemosine Singularity Fountain Pen, Broad German Nib, Demonstrator (NEM-SIN-01-B)

The paper provided by my office is much thinner now than the paper provided when I first started working there. Writing on and signing papers with my fountain pens have been less than satisfactory, because the ink bleeds through and feathers on those papers. Although I used to prefer medium point fountain pens, I have limited my use of fountain pens to only those pens that have fine point nibs. The problem is the paper, not the fountain pens, but I thought that I would try a fountain pen with an extra fine nib if I could find one that was not too expensive.After reviewing various lists of "best" affordable pens and the comments on Amazon.com, I focused on the Lamy Safari and the Nemosine Singularity fountain pens with extra fine nibs. The ink converter for the Lamy Safari was an extra cost item, whereas the Nemosine Singularity came with an ink converter (in addition to six little ink cartridges), so, strictly based on the relative costs, I decided on the Nemosine Singularity. At the time I was looking at the models offered on Amazon with Free Super Saver Shipping, the Nemosine Singularity with an extra fine nib that was available was the Demonstrator model, so I ordered that model (I refuse to pay a shipping fee that is more than the price of the item; I ordered a Zhenjue pen as well, so my order totaled more than $25).As pointed out by at least one reviewer, the Nemosine Singularity has a screw-on cap with the threads for the cap on the part of the pen that holds the nib, not on the body part (barrel) that covers the ink cartridge or converter. I was reminded of that comment when I first received the pen and unscrewed the cap and had the cap with the nib and installed ink converter in my left hand and the barrel part alone in my right hand. I was able to unscrew without difficulty the cap from the nib and converter by grasping that part with my right hand, because nothing was screwed on tightly. Although I subsequently tried to tighten the barrel part more tightly than the cap, I have had the wrong part unscrew again, so I would agree with a comment that the placement of the threads for the screw-on cap could perhaps be improved. All the other screw cap fountain pens that I have had, and some that I continue to have, had the threads on the barrel part and I never experienced this problem before. However, when the wrong part has unscrewed, I have not had any ink disaster so far.I have never owned a "demonstrator" model before. One positive comment was that the clear plastic barrel allowed easy visual monitoring of the amount of ink left in the ink converter, so that unexpectedly running out of ink in the middle of writing something would be unlikely. But I never was bothered by ink splatters in the cap before, because I could not see them. Now that the cap is clear plastic, I have been bothered by the ink splatter spots in the cap and have felt compelled to clean the inside of the cap twice already.Because my primary reason for trying a fountain pen with an extra fine nib was to avoid the bleeding and feathering on the thin paper provided at work, I compared the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator pen with my Parker 88, Parker Vector, and Sheaffer fountain pens with fine nibs. The Nemosine Singularity extra fine nib produced a finer line than the Parker 88 and Parker Vector fine point nibs, but not as fine as the Sheaffer fine point nib, except when the Singularity is used upside down or with the nib reversed, then the lines produced by the fine point Sheaffer and the extra fine point Nemosine Singularity are pretty close. Writing on the thin paper provided by the office resulted in some bleeding, so writing on both sides of the sheet was not practicable, but there was no noticeable feathering.I attended a meeting at the office that lasted over an hour, during which I took notes with the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator fountain pen and a uni-ball Signo 207 Micro gel pen. The uni-ball Signo 207 Micro gel pen produced a finer line and practically no bleeding through the paper. However, when I wrote with that gel pen, my hand felt more fatigued than when I wrote with the fountain pen. Furthermore, I find the blue-black fountain pen ink (Parker Super Quink) to be easier to read than the light blue ink of the Signo 207. Consequently, for anticipated volume rapid writing such as taking a lot of notes during a meeting, I will continue to take one of my fountain pens, and the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator or my Sheaffer fine point fountain pen will likely be the fountain pen I take with me to the meeting. I will also continue to write on only one side of the sheet of thin paper.By the way, during the meeting that lasted over an hour, when I switched from the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator to the uni-ball Signo 207 gel pen and back, I never capped the fountain pen. Yet, whenever I switched back to the fountain pen, it wrote immediately every time - I did not experience any dry start problems.UPDATE July 11, 2013: I went to another meeting at work this morning. Before going, I checked my Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator by looking at the ink level in the ink converter reservoir through the see-through barrel and scribbling a little to be sure that the ink was flowing. However, after I wrote about six lines of notes during the meeting, the pen did not have any ink flow -- I could not get it to restart. Fortunately, I had also brought a uni-ball Signo 207 Micro gel pen with me, so I took notes with the Signo 207 Micro for the rest of the meeting. When I got back to the office, I emptied the ink converter into an ink bottle -- ink did come out, but the amount seemed to be less than I would expect from the visual level in the ink converter. I don't know what happened. I refilled the ink converter and the pen does have ink flow now. I may have to refill the ink converter before going to a meeting, even if the ink converter looks full, but that would diminish the supposed value of having a Demonstrator pen.

I purchased two at the same time. When i received them they both barely wrote. Scratchy, and very ink starved. They didn't skip, but they were unpleasant to use. I cleaned the nibs, and gave them a couple of days use hoping they would get better, but they didn't. Ran very high quality ink (Iroshizuku Kon-Peki). I was very frustrated since it wasn't worth my time to return them at this point. Almost just tossed them out in frustration...but i decided to try to adjust them first since I wanted to learn how to do so, and these would make good learning pens if nothing else.Pulled the nib and feed (just grasp firmly at the base near the barrel and pull out). Everything looked fine - I am a newbie to messing with internals. So then i slightly pushed the nib up on the feed, and re-inserted. The best way I can describe this is if you look at the nib, there is a MADE IN GERMANY stamped at the bottom of the nib. When I got the pen that stamping was a few millimeters above the base of the barrel. Once i moved the nib back slightly on the feed and re-inserted, that MADE IN GERMANY stamp sits just about flush to the barrel.Then i did some figure 8s on rough cardboard for a couple minutes to smooth out the nib. You want to use cardboard for it's slight rough surface, but obviously SUPER-fine grit polishing papers work well...but cardboard is safe and common.The above transformed the pens. Smooth, beautiful flow. The ink flowed far more than before - it almost felt like the EF had changed to a M...but i have written on paper back to back with a .3mm Preppy and the lines are the same, so clearly the pen was receiving very little ink before adjustment - the nib was ink starved.I had bought these to convert to eyedropper. Did so with a o-ring and silicone grease, and now I have two absolutely wonderful inexpensive eyedropper pens that look 10x better than my eyedropper Platinum Preppies. One filled with Iroshizuku Kon-Peki, the other with Diamine Ancient Copper. May get another now to use with Noodler's Baystate Blue. Just a great way to play with cool inks (eyedroppers) and these are perfect for conversion.What I love is these are inexpensive, look classy, and let you play with inks when converted to eyedropper without risking barrel staining of a nice piston-fill. At $15 they are about $6-10 more than the popular Platinum Preppies, and that premium is well worth it to me to get away from the disposable-looking Preppies and having to remove the labels on the Preppy barrels to better see the ink.So the bad news is you need to adjust these as the nibs come starved. Good news is once you take the 5 minutes to adjust you get a wonderful pen.Update 12/14 - bought a 0.6mm stub as well, and it is fantastic. This one needed zero adjustment. I have fallen in love with stub nibs - any FP fan should try one - it transforms your handwriting. That said, the common sizes out there are 1.1mm and 1.5mm. This 0.6mm and 0.8mm are rare since it is essentially an extra-fine stub. If you write small and still want to enjoy a stub, get the 0.6mm and give it a try.

Ok

meh. Ink line started to get spotty after only one week. Not that sleek as it seems in the pictures. There are many more better choices for the same money.

Cap cracks with normal use. Just the act of tightening the cap on the pen cracks the cap. Nib dries after just a few weeks, even when the cap is properly tightened. Would not buy this pen again.

very good product!

very nice clean clear smooth operations