My wife got me this Hongdian 1851 for Christmas last year, along with the astronaut pen holder. Since I keep it out on my desk, it is the pen that I reach for most often. It has the finest line of all of my pens and I keep it inked up with iroshizuku murasaki-shikibu, which is an incredibly close match to the body of the pen. It has a lot of feedback without being scratchy, and is great to write with.

The calculator is a Casio fx-260 Solar II, which Kristi also got me for Christmas some years ago. It’s the calculator that I grab most often since it is the easiest to get to. It’s my little Apocalypse Calculator since it has no battery and is solar powered only.

    • JakeSparkleChickenOPEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      Thank you! He’s an awful lot of fun, and well worth the desk real estate devoted him!

  • Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    I’ve been looking at that pen thanks to your post and I have two questions.

    • Do you know an european distributor? I can only find it on amazon as a US import
    • I have found this pen on aliexpress as well but the nib looks different to the one on amazon. The amazon pen has a silver nib with a strip of gold around the edge. The aliexpress pens have a mostly gold nib with a strip of silver along the middle. Do you know whether there is a difference between them?
    • JakeSparkleChickenOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I’m not sure about a European distributor, but I can tell you that mine, from Amazon, has a nib that looks like the one that you’ve found on Aliexpress. I don’t know if there’s a difference between them. The Forest Rainbow that I have has an anodized nib that probably started off all silver, but both of them are extremely fine, and wrote beautifully right out of the box.

    • JakeSparkleChickenOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Thank you! Neither of them are the prettiest or most enjoyable to use, but they are my workhorses and I use them constantly.

    • JakeSparkleChickenOPEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      I have two 1851s and they are the narrowest sections of any pen I own. 7.9 mm at the thinnest, but it has a pronounced bump at the end of it to keep your fingers from slipping into the nib and feed. They are comfortable enough for me to write with, even if I do prefer a wider section. For a pen that costs less than $20 USD, they write great, feel substantial, and come with a pretty good converter. Just be aware that the powder coating wears off pretty quickly with use. The other one that I have is the Forest Rainbow, which is anodized and shows no sign of wear.