Retro 51s - All Models - Your Thoughts?

[Bisquitlips]

There has been a lot of chatter on the board recently on Retro 51s and I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on them. Thought they deserved their own thread especially with some surprising aftermarket events of late.

I have a couple of Retro Tornado Postmaster Fountain Pens and they are good writers. A bit heavy posted, but I love the fact that Retro 51 makes a decent FP and they are reasonably priced.

Retro puts thoughtful design into their pens. The Postmasters actually have genuine postage stamps enameled on the barrel and the finish really is beautiful.

Did I say reasonably priced? Yes. Until recently! Retro 51 pens have taken on a secondary collector's market on their discontinued models that is on fire!

When I purchased my first Postmaster FP it was from my local PS just before a trip to Europe in order to have something new to journal the trip. I think I paid $89.00 for it. Right now on Ebay you will see them top out at $650.00. I actually best offered the seller $240.00 on that $650.00 auction with the thought that he might need some Christmas money, but he counter offered at $550.00. Nope! I will wait. Now they will probably go up to $1200.00 and I will be sorry, but I will take that chance.

So I guess my initial "investment" has done fairly well!

Anyway Retro does a great job and not only do they work well, they are built well, and they are priced well... if you get them when they are first released and not retired.

Review:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...51-postmaster/

[Juantxo]

Retro 51 has a very sweet writing proprietary roller-ball refill that doesn't last very long. I own a discontinued carbon fiber one which I like very much.

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by Juantxo

Retro 51 has a very sweet writing proprietary roller-ball refill that doesn't last very long. I own a discontinued carbon fiber one which I like very much.

Nice pen!

[Juantxo]

Great minds...

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by Juantxo

Great minds...

Carbon fiber and titanium makes me weak in the knees in any form Here's a snap of my retro51 collection so far. There's the carbon pen and a titanium big shot. Really great pens. I see a flying tiger and some form of fountain pen in my future.

[Formulansx]

I might make this my avatar one day

[Formulansx]

So to get back to the task at hand, Richard, that's an awesome pen!! It looks like there was some hand application of the actual stamps. Not an easy feat! I'm a little jealous yet again! Well done and a good investment.

[Juantxo]

Titanium rocks the world. I hope this comment doesn't get banned as it shows different types of titanium used for different purposes as is the case in pens and watches.

The Moots bicycle is made of 6/4 titanium blend. More titanium results in a very light, tough but resilient ride. The other bicycle, actually built by Ericksen, is made of 3/2.5 titanium. Cheaper and easier to work with than the first but it's hard to notice the difference when riding. 6/4 is no longer used for frames by the bicycle industry.

[Formulansx]

Originally Posted by Juantxo

Titanium rocks the world. I hope this comment doesn't get banned as it shows different types of titanium used for different purposes as is the case in pens and watches.

The Moots bicycle is made of 6/4 titanium blend. More titanium results in a very light, tough but resilient ride. The other bicycle, actually built by Ericksen, is made of 3/2.5 titanium. Cheaper and easier to work with than the first but it's hard to notice the difference when riding. 6/4 is no longer used for frames by the bicycle industry.

I want to say the closer to commercially pure Ti you get, the more ductile it becomes. I did some work with commercially pure titanium a while ago and it's much easier to form and cut. 6AL4V is a grinding wheel slayer lol. I'm not exactly sure what recreational grade Ti is alloyed with.

[opaline460]

I like mine titanium rollerball, it's smooth as hell!

[Formulansx]

I've spent some quality time with my new tornado medium Schmidt nib pen and I have to say it's very nice. I did have to do some work to the cap though. The nickel plated version I ordered has some lengthwise embellishment that lined up a small amount out of alignment. I did some work with an appropriately sized drill bit and aligned the cap to an acceptable degree. It writes very nice and lines up well now. Overall a great pen. It's nice to live in a day and age were just about all fountain pens are very well made. I can't say I've had a pen regardless of price that was a bad writer!