Jim Pingle

Father, geek, serial hobbyist.

Look what showed up today! Endless Phantom capless demonstrators (EF). Initial impressions are decent, but time will tell on the sealing. It's made it a couple hours without any sign of a hard start at least.

I tested the mechanism a bunch on both and it seems fine, no sign of the silicone door thingy coming loose.

The one with green ink feels a little smoother than the one w/bronze ink, but it could be a difference in the inks, too.

Photo of two fountain pens on a piece of paper with two writing samples. The top writing sample reads "Endless Alchemy Phantom EF / Endless Alchemy Mystic Forest" in dark green ink followed by three "x" marks and three curlicues, then a dark spot of ink. The bottom writing sample reads "Endless Alchemy Phantom EF / Endless Alchemy Molten Bronze" in brown-ish ink followed by three "x" marks and three curlicues, then a dark spot of ink. Both fountain pens are the same, but facing in opposite directions under each writing sample. The body is clear plastic so the spring, button mechanism, nib unit, and converter are all visible.

A few early notes:

It's quite light (~20g) compared to a VP/A1/J10 (~30+g). Not a bad thing.

Mechanism is smooth and takes a little less force than VP to work.

Similar cap positioning to others.

Finish is smooth but not slippery.

Seems comfortable so far but still early.

Bundled converter is a slide converter but it didn't move *too* freely, so I'm not worried about making a mess with it.

Some play in the nib as you put pressure on to write. VPs do that too, just more on this one.

A couple more notes, re:Phantom pen

Still great today, seal-wise. Both had immediate full flow, no sign of slowing down. Though for some people it took a few days to dry out.

(I have had a J10 hard start the very next day, so it's already better than that.)

The play in the nib is even less of a concern the more I use it. It has good enough flow I can use less pressure when writing.

EF nib width is comparable to VP EF and A1 EF, 0.20-0.35mm ink lines depending on ink/paper & nib direction.

Size comparison between the Endless Phantom, Pilot Vanishing Point, Majohn A1, and Jinhao 10. The Phantom is slightly longer and slightly larger in diameter than the VP. It also has a little less of a taper at the grip end.

Unsurpisingly, the VP clones are nearly identical to the VP.

Photo of four capless fountain pens in a row, oriented horizontally. 1. Endless Phantom - Clear body, the longest (but not by much) 2. Pilot Vanishing Point in Gun Metal/Matte Black finish 3. Majohn A1 in blue 4. Jinhao 10 in Coffee gradient, which is shades of brown The bottom three pens are all nearly identical in shape/size as the bottom two are both clones of the Vanishing Point style.

Used both Phantom pens off and on all day again today and they both have been great still. No sign of drying out.

It might be because I've been using them, so I should probably let one sit for a bit. I'll at least let them go over the weekend and see what happens.

The kickstarter comment section is full of people with problems, but so far I haven't had any of the issues people have described. Maybe I'm lucky or maybe they worked out some problems before they got to the demonstrator versions 🤞

I used the Phantom with green ink this morning and it was still fine. Now to let them both sit all weekend and see what happens on Monday.

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