I wouldn't call myself a collector, but I have a couple of pens and a few colors of ink. I originally bought them back in grad school (and continuing on in that year I was an adjunct professor) just as something small to make grading and taking notes a little nicer. It helped a little. Writing with a fountain pen is a pleasant experience, even when what you're writing is "you forgot to use the chain rule" for the nth time.
Yeah I got into writing with a fountain pen in college, making taking class notes a pleasant experienice helped me pay more attention and retain more information
I absolutely love niche communities like this. Fountain pens, mechanical keyboards, even wetshaving - it's fun getting glimpses into how deep these rabbit holes go.
They can be a source of good knowledge but they also kind of weird me out. Fetishizing the tools used to accomplish things, rather than doing the thing.. Anything related to writing gets it especially: pens, typewriters, mechanical keyboards. Then there's the "manliness" thing: wet shaving, fedoras, suits, etc. Photography too, whole forums of people debating the technical aspects of a 50mm f1.5 prime lens instead of taking photos. Audiophiles. Gun people who spend a lot of money on accessories but can barely hit the paper. Guitar guys who spend $5000 on an amp but just crank out the same 3 Van Halen songs.
The reckless consumption here is what gets me. I know people with seven+ mechanical keyboards. So they can have the mini one. The split one. The quiet one. The loud one. The travel one. The 'normie' one. The broken one. The office-vengeance-because-each-keypress-sounds-like-a-gunshot one. They're not collector's items and they're certainly not all used, nor are they on display anywhere (because literally everyone, even enthusiasts, rolls their eyes at that). They're just obtained purely for the sake of obtainment. Far be it from me to tell anyone not to have a mechanical keyboard or that their own hobbies are not worth indulgences when my own are (of course), but I think a little mindfulness about consumption is a more-than-reasonable request here.
Everyone is different, but I’ve ended up with a lot of keyboards along my journey to find the perfect keyboard for me. I don’t think of myself as a collector even though I’ve probably got $3-4k in keyboard stuff now. There are a lot of variables in play and it’s difficult to know what you will like until you have something under your fingers (layout, slope or tenting capabilities, switches, keycap profile, keycap material, general aesthetics, etc). People do take it to ridiculous extremes, but I don’t think it’s a bad impulse to want to optimize the visual/tactile/ergonomic/auditory experience of the peripherals I spend a majority of my waking life interacting with.
The way a large part of the hobby operates on limited edition group buys also creates massive FOMO. I’ve definitely been moved to buy things now that I would otherwise not have because everything is now-or-never. That dynamic makes it different from other pure collecting hobbies with more of a secondary market for used or vintage items (pens, typewriters, coins, trading cards, etc).
> I don’t think it’s a bad impulse to want to optimize the visual/tactile/ergonomic/auditory experience of peripherals
Are you optimizing? Do you have a measurable fitness function and know what will slide you up or down that surface? How do you know you're not just conjuring faults with old setups to juice novelty?
> limited edition group buys also creates massive FOMO
I've been here. I recently spent some time looking at new vehicles, trying to decide which one was "best", agonizing over minor ergonomic details, how clean each company's color would be in 10 years, etc. After a little too much of this I came to the conclusion that that was exactly what manufacturers wanted me to do so I would be susceptible to any and all advertising. Ultimately I looked at the two vehicles I spent the most time thinking about, said "Which of these is most comfortable immediately after getting in", and pulled the trigger. I'm infinitely happier for having finalized something and freeing up bandwidth for other things I truly enjoy than for having spent six more months agonizing over where a switch was located.
A lot of my exploration has been centered on ergonomic concerns and exploring different positions and layout sizes. I do think my overall progress has been in the direction of “better for my body”. But I would struggle to quantify it in an non-subjective way.
I started with a stock Filco 75% TKL layout with cherry mx browns (as vanilla as it gets in mechanical keyboards). Then a couple years later I bought a nicer TKL board and my first fancy keycaps just for aesthetic reasons, and while doing that I became exposed to the wide range of layouts that exist. I had some wrist pain so decided to try some exotic angled layouts (atreus62, alice, etc). Eventually decided I needed a fully split layout to get my shoulder position and overall posture where I wanted it, and there are a lot of these variants at various levels of compactness and functionality. And of course once you’re into nonstandard layouts it’s always a battle to find caps that will cover it, so often nice caps that I bought in the past can’t transfer over to a new layout because I don’t have the right mods and spacebars.
I like the aesthetic element also. But it’s not been my primary driver. The keycaps I have are very nice and more than enough to satisfy me.
I'm all for mechanical keyboards, I use a Cherry MX Blue based board. I also enjoyed the IBM buckling spring models at the time, but reading your comment just sounds like the "journey" that everybody else within the "hobby" goes through. I've seen pretty much the same story dozens of times before. Not to invalidate what you think about it, I'm admittedly intrigued, just put off that it's a treadmill rather than a "this is objectively the pinnacle of typing in 2022, buy this if you can live with x compromise", and instead it's a lot like audiophile corksniffing.
I think sometimes these 'hobbyists' border on patterns of addiction and escapism. I know that when I am anxious or depressed in my life I put my focus on one of these rabbitholes to escape - while I am researching the next thing to buy I can ignore everything else in my life. And it doesn't take any considerable effort or practice to buy stuff unlike learning new skills (therefore it's more depression-friendly). So I keep doing it. Pens, keyboards, knives, whatever. And then I move onto the next rabbithole. It's better than booze and drugs, but is an unproductive use of money that does not bring lasting happiness.
Luckily now I am better at recognizing and stopping this pattern, asking myself what the hell I am buying this stuff to accomplish and focusing back on that - writing, programming, the actual act of photography, etc. And recognizing if there are unhealthy mental patterns underlying the behavior that need to be tackled head-on.
That's why I love them. I benefit from their obsession because they definitely know how to find the good shit.
I'm not a mechanical keyboard fanatic, but I browsed their forums and found an excellent, affordable, keyboard I would have never found otherwise. I just use it and get on with my life, not going down that rabbit hole, but I'm grateful for the ones who did and found this beautiful board that I really do enjoy using.
Same with wetshaving - they're a little obsessed, but I benefit from that because now I have an irritation-free shaving routine that I would have never found without them!
I followed r/MechanicalKeyboard for a while, but I get the same weird sense. There are cool posts of people building their own boards, caps, etc. But there are tons of posts from people who have probably spent 5 or 6 figures on their collections. It's a strange and very specific addiction.
Likewise, I see a lot of people more interested in the tools in any industry are not infrequently lacking in basic skills using it, but can tell you a bunch of useless facts. I see similar with university graduates who are all theory and no applicable skill.
I have been at one point or a number of members of ALL of those. I have 2 inked fountain pens on my desk, and I'm typing this on a mechanical keyboard. I left the wet shaving world 8 years ago when I grew a beard, though. ;)
For a long time I was also a member of the air-cooled sports-car world, and for most of my driving life I've been a member of the three-pedal club.
True life, writing with a fountain is WAY nicer than a crappy gel or ballpoint, and typing on a mechanical keyboard feels really lovely if you're used to the awful low-travel keyboards most companies issue, or that are built into most laptops.
You'll get plenty of suggestions for places to start, let me suggest the Pilot Vanishing Point as something to aspire to.
It's a real pleasure to look at, carry, and use, but it's too nice to be the pen that lets you discover that fountain pens aren't for you. It's ok if they aren't, they really aren't for everybody. As a daily driver I highly recommend it.
Someone already mentioned the Lamy Safari which I think is a great starter pen but the Pilot Metropolitan, Kaweco sport, and TWSBI Eco are all great. I think the last one is kind of ugly but I have one and it writes well.
I have a small collection of fountain pens and have bought and sold many others. I have found that much of this is personal taste and how you use it. Some pens feel comfortable in the hand. Different pens sizes (length and diameter), shapes, and weights will feel good to different people. Some prefer to post the cap on the end of the pen while writing. Others prefer not doing that. Doing it affects balances differently for different pens.
There are also a wide variety of nibs to choose from. They can vary in material, widths, firmness, and how they flow across different papers. If you mostly like a nib, but it's still not quite right for you, you can have a nibmeister tune it more to your liking.
Some who write a great deal are not comfortable with the smaller quantity of ink in a cartridge converter or the shorter refill cartridges. I have used pens with these and still have some, but prefer a piston filler for the usually larger quantity of ink it can hold. It is even better (for me) when I can also look at it and see how much ink remains. But, if you have those and then rarely use it, ink can dry in the feed. In that case, something with an ink cut-off, like the Pilot Custom 823 Amber, may let the majority of ink remain even if not used. That pen is one of my favorites.
You can try any pen as a starter. But, if you don't like it, remember the preferences. That pen may not suit you, but another may be a perfect fit. Welcome to the hunt for the perfect pen.
Others have already mentioned good pens to start with, but I want to mention that the paper is equally important. Clairefontain makes great notebooks for fountain pens that won’t break the bank.
The reason for this has to do with paper composition and weight and how free flowing (liquid) ink interacts with the paper fibers. [1]
For your first experiment with them? I would go with a pilot varsity. It is a disposable fountain pen. They cost a couple of bucks each, so it is cheap enough to make it an impulse buy or a regular buy if like me you lose your pens regularly.
Another option at the impulse buy level is pilot Petit1, it is a short pen you can throw in a pocket. It is refillable, not disposable.
I also strongly recommend using an iron gall ink (Platinum makes a few; another very good one is http://www.registrarsink.co.uk). Those inks are very easy to work with, even on the crappiest paper, and are quite resistant to UV, water, and other hasards.
I'm not a collector but got myself a couple during the pandemic. Pilot Metropolitan has good reviews and I like it a lot. It's a starter pen from a well-known company and is under $50 on Amazon. I use cartridges pre-filled with ink but also have a refillable container when I run out.
I also have one of the Chinese clones of infamous Parker 45, with refillable container. It works pretty well too but I like Pilot better.
I find that writing in cursive helps me clear my thoughts, think things through, calm down, almost like meditation. It's pretty cool.
There's also a subreddit for fans, with an obvious name.
If you're a very occasional fountain pen user (like me), I have found the Platinum Desk fountain pen is very good at not drying out when left unused for longer periods.
It does put down a very fine line though, and it won't play nicely with crazy particle-heavy inks.
CHEAP: Lamy Safari. They come in plastic or in slightly more expensive aluminum (the Al version may have a different name, but it's the same size & shape and uses the same nib insert). These are gonna be $20-30 US, depending on your vendor. They are undoubtedly not as smooth to write with as my nicer pens, but they punch WAY above their weight, and deserve a spot in your rota -- especially clipped into a notebook you carry with you instead of something nicer.
ALSO INEXPENSIVE: Kaweco Sport. These are super compact when closed, so they fit into a pocket better than a conventional pen, and (like the Lamy) write better than their low-end price would suggest ($27 at Jet Pens; they also make them in brass for $90).
STEPPING UP A LITTLE: At $50-60, you can get one of the current "hot" affordable pens from TWSBI.com. They're pretty great; I have a 580 that I keep inked. You'll feel the difference between these and the lower-end pens. Be aware these are also a larger pen diameter-wise, and are thus sometimes less popular with small-handed people. TWSBI is also traditionally bottle-fill only -- no cartridges -- which puts some folks off. Don't be one of those; buy some bottled ink! You can get more variety that way. Plus, TWSBI pens in particular have enormous ink reservoirs -- I can write 2x or 3x as long with mine than I can with any of my other pens.
OK NOW YOU GET TO SERIOUS PENS: I had a good dot-com boom, and bought some spendy pens, but what replaced them ALL as my daily driver was the classic Namiki / Pilot Vanishing Point. They still make this pen, but a recently introduced variant of it has stolen my heart: the Decimo. It's the same style and mechanism, but just a little bit smaller in diameter. It makes it more comfortable to use, even for me with larger hands. Both kinds of Vanishing Point are ~$140-150, and well worth it. As a bonus, the carts for this pen are widely available in multiple colors, and the ink feels good to write with and behaves nicely on most sorts of paper (this can be an issue with some pen/ink combos).
That's the reason I used ONLY the Vanishing Point for the years I traveled all the time. Cartridge use seemed to work better on planes than bottles for me.
ANOTHER FINE OPTION: My sister gave me an Aurora Ipsilon a few years ago, and it's just a JOY to write with. I use the converter and bottled ink with it. It's been inked & ready to go since the Christmas Day I unwrapped it. About $120 at Amazon.
I think Pilot Kakunos (Medium nib) are the best starters. They're dirt cheap, and they write better than Lamy Safaris. Also, the grip is big and chunky making it easier to grip, while being made of resin and light. I started with it, and every other one I've tried has been worse than it.
For the best performance at a given price point, one of the major Japanese brands (Pentel/Pilot/Sailor). The Lamy Safari also performs very well, but is less durable, less comfortable to grip (for some), and may write somewhat wetter than you will be comfortable with as a new fountain pen user.
I loved fountain pens when I was a kid at school but don't use them much as an adult, although I still have a small collection.
A couple of years ago I got into making pens from scratch using a model maker's lathe. I mainly work in aluminium, brass, delrin or silver steel but do occasionally work in wood on a bead lathe.
It's fun mainly because a pen is mechanically complex enough to be interesting but also simple enough that you can easily design and make them yourself.
I'd encourage anyone even vaguely interested to give it a go.
I think the pinacle is probably Nakaya[1]. I've spent a bit of time looking at their designs just trying to work out the operations needed to produce them by hand. CNC or 3D printing could of course make something fairly similar pretty easily but that's not how they do it! ;)
Instead they have a group of retired old boys working only when the want to. Very simply and very, very carefully. True works of art.
Having said all that, if I was to write on paper I'd probably just use a Parker Jotter[2]. They're cheap, readily availible and I think they got the design just about right way back in 1954.
It actually reminds me of how Casio got the design of the digital watch just right with the F-91W
Can you elaborate more on making pens with a lathe? I'm a total newb but have some ideas on what I want (steel pen with a knurled grip, for example). What am I looking at if I get into this?
Metalwork is a big subject and there’s some great videos on YouTube. “This Old Tony” is the king.
Really the easiest way to start is probably with a pen kitI think.
They’re usually very simple and fun (but maybe a bit boring.)
With kit pens you’re only making the cladding of the pen. That’s usually wood, acrylic or ebonite and shaped by hand on a wood or beed lathe with chisels.
For steel you’d need a beefier metal lathe. To knurl the grip you need knurling wheels. They’re pretty cheap but it all mounts up.
I like to work with rod bar stock. I’ll work up a design in a notebook and cut/bore the various parts.
Holding up the work is really important. There’s various ways to do it but I’d suggest either an ER collet set or a 4 jaw chuck.
With aluminium instead of steel I can just about shape the metal with a high speed steel chisel. Steels too hard.
I don’t use CNC which limits accuracy and repeatability. What I end up with is “good enough” and I’m ok with that.
I’d suggest getting a second hand lathe, which will come with some accessories, and turning some metal into scrap. It’s great fun, especially if you’re a software engineer.
Slightly OT but I have terrible handwriting, and I have been considering purchasing a pen plotter [0] which, as I understand it, can hold a fountain pen. Are there any pen plotters that people would recommend at a non-professional grade level?
I'd designed a typeface when a colleague asked what it would look like written with a cursive nib pen. I had no answer, went out and bought one, then spent the next few months going down the "there are thousands of ink brands and colours" rabbit hole, ended up buying 500+ samples and trying them all (see https://imgur.com/gallery/3JWW4), and then made https://inkdb.org...
Inks are fun, but the state of fountain pens themselves, for me at least, is way too "extremely expensive pens" instead of "investing in making excellent low cost flex nibs". Plenty of polymers and plastic that have infinitely better flex than the traditional gold or modern titanium (like Bock's) do, but no one's making any. And unless you want a pen that'll smell for a year, like Noodler's, or something that feels functional but that's about it, like a standard Lamy or TRB, there's just not a lot of low cost fun to be had.
And to make it just a little more annoying, if you do decide to go for the higher end fun (e.g. Pelikan flex pens and their ilk) you're stuck with "pick a nib. That's your pen now" rather than the "Pick a pen. And then put on whatever nib you want, they're trivially interchangeable. Buy a set, any #6 will fit, go wild" that lower cost but much more sensible pens go with.
Ever try making franken-pens? I made one with the cheapest... Jinhao I think and a friend's unmarked, broken pen; a brass nib iirc. Works better than the expensive pelikans I've tried, and was interchangeable, weirdly enough. No leaks. What you say about polymer pens could still be really expensive if they leaned into the prestige of carbon fiber or something. Weird.
Of course. I've cut 1950's gold nibs down to #6 dimensions and used them with modern demonstrator pens with added o-rings so that no cartridges are necessary, but that's a terrible thing to tell folks they'll want to do if they're considering getting a fountain pen =)
The "extremely expensive pens" focus is particularly frustrating because I have gotten the impression that the modern fountain pen market is more about producing limited-edition goods for collection and conspicuous consumption rather than excellent pens: the actual nib, feed, and entire function as a pen seems to be less important than the appearance of the barrel. Most high-end fountain pens seem to have the same style of usually-too-bold, extremely stiff nib, and the same style of feed and reservoir. Any specialist nib makers with flex nibs seem to just be making the same traditional nibs that have always been available.
I primarily use vintage fountain pens not because I would be averse to using modern ones, but because they have better options available. Pens from over a hundred years ago somehow have far better flex nibs than modern pens, despite, as you point out, the many technological advances in flexible materials. And I'm not aware of any modern manufacturers making filling mechanisms like, say, a snorkel filler. Even my 1970s Kaweco Sport has a hooded, semi-flex nib; modern Kawecos have the same generic stiff nib on a standard feed that every other modern pen has (they are apparently actually just a purchased brand name of a cosmetics company now). Surely we could do far better? Yet it seems like no manufacturer is really trying to innovate on the actual pen part of fountain pens at all.
That segment of the market -- the high end -- absolutely exists, but there's never been a better time (at least in my lifetime) for mid-level to entry-level pens.
I first got into pens 30 years ago, and I definitely HAVE a couple expensive (> $250US) pens, but my daily drivers are an Aurora (about $100), a Pilot Decimo ($140), and a TWSBI ($60).
I also keep some Lamy Safaris around, which are even cheaper and work GREAT in situations when you might not want to carry a more expensive pen.
That's not "somehow": that's because the nibs are still actual 14k gold. No one (well, no one affordable) makes those these days. And thanks to that nonsense, there is a second hand nib-only market if you know what your pen will fit, or you're willing to get creative with fine control power tools and don't mind potentially destroying a $100 nib as part of the adventure.
Few years ago I went into fountain pens after years of stationery obsession. It is wonderful hobby.
I do have a ton of fountain pens, insane amount of inks etc. I love it, I find it easy to drop money on this as it makes me happy and it is a good distraction compared to computers.
Until very recently, my girlfriend was a professional custom pen maker and made me this beautiful pen https://imgur.com/a/qGtefmY for my birthday. I know, it is a ball-point pen, but she made very similar fountain pens as well and I have fountain pen made by her. Those are real watch gears and watch face.
They are not that terribly expensive to make. If anyone wants one, let me know.
In grade school, the German elementary school (long story) I went to insisted that all us 2nd and 3rd graders use fountain pens. Oh, the tragedies that ensued! The stained fingers, the spills on clothing, the blotches on homework. And nothing could be erased!
You'd think that would have traumatized me, but once all grown up, I never liked ball point pens. Mechanical pencils are nice, sometimes very nice, but today I have gravitated back to fountain pens. The writing is smooth and effortless and looks fantastic, in spite of my poor handwriting. I am no connoisseur of fine pens, nibs, or inks, but today I write my journal and sign my checks with a fountain pen.
I fell in love with fountain pens in college and have been collecting them and going to pen conventions for almost a decade. It's a really wonderful community, especially the /r/fountainpens subreddit, and I find niche communities like it to be one of the reasons I still enjoy using the web today.
I was a big fountain pen user in the 1990s, but largely got away from it due to changing conditions.
Paper: Back then, I could walk into Staples or the campus bookstore and buy inexpensive paper pads that worked well with fountain pen ink. Then, the major American companies like Tops, National, and Ampad moved their production to Mexico and quality went over a cliff. These days, I special order a variety of Japanese stationery. Some people like Clairefontaine paper from France, but not me.
Ink: It used to be considered a basic office supply item and bottles of ink cost around $5. Then companies realized they could sell it as a luxury item, so they changed the labels and upped the price.
Gel pens: Today we have remarkable quality and variety in ball pens. In the 1990s, ballpoint and gel pens were stiff and tended to glob. The better modern gel pens (from Japan) feel nearly as nice as a fountain pen and glob very little. Color choice has also expanded. There used to be just black, blue, red, green, and sometimes purple. Now you can find a gel pen in practically any hue you can imagine. So, while the FP writing experience is still the nicest, it's not the vast improvement it used to be.
A couple other things to note about fountain pen culture...About antique/vintage pens, people outside the hobby make a big deal about using one, but it's actually the more practical option for a high quality pen. Back when fountain pens were everyday tools for the masses, quality control was much higher. Today, most new expensive pens are bought as jewelry and don't see much use, so manufacturers don't waste money on precision fabrication. For a pen in the $100+ range, you will generally get better quality for your money by buying vintage.
The other thing is about etiquette...Never ever ask to borrow someone's fountain pen. Not only are the tips easily damaged by the inexperienced, but FPs are considered a very personal item.
61 comments
[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 123 ms ] threadMy personal favourite are the Personal Knowledge Management rabbits.
The way a large part of the hobby operates on limited edition group buys also creates massive FOMO. I’ve definitely been moved to buy things now that I would otherwise not have because everything is now-or-never. That dynamic makes it different from other pure collecting hobbies with more of a secondary market for used or vintage items (pens, typewriters, coins, trading cards, etc).
Are you optimizing? Do you have a measurable fitness function and know what will slide you up or down that surface? How do you know you're not just conjuring faults with old setups to juice novelty?
> limited edition group buys also creates massive FOMO
I've been here. I recently spent some time looking at new vehicles, trying to decide which one was "best", agonizing over minor ergonomic details, how clean each company's color would be in 10 years, etc. After a little too much of this I came to the conclusion that that was exactly what manufacturers wanted me to do so I would be susceptible to any and all advertising. Ultimately I looked at the two vehicles I spent the most time thinking about, said "Which of these is most comfortable immediately after getting in", and pulled the trigger. I'm infinitely happier for having finalized something and freeing up bandwidth for other things I truly enjoy than for having spent six more months agonizing over where a switch was located.
I started with a stock Filco 75% TKL layout with cherry mx browns (as vanilla as it gets in mechanical keyboards). Then a couple years later I bought a nicer TKL board and my first fancy keycaps just for aesthetic reasons, and while doing that I became exposed to the wide range of layouts that exist. I had some wrist pain so decided to try some exotic angled layouts (atreus62, alice, etc). Eventually decided I needed a fully split layout to get my shoulder position and overall posture where I wanted it, and there are a lot of these variants at various levels of compactness and functionality. And of course once you’re into nonstandard layouts it’s always a battle to find caps that will cover it, so often nice caps that I bought in the past can’t transfer over to a new layout because I don’t have the right mods and spacebars.
I like the aesthetic element also. But it’s not been my primary driver. The keycaps I have are very nice and more than enough to satisfy me.
Luckily now I am better at recognizing and stopping this pattern, asking myself what the hell I am buying this stuff to accomplish and focusing back on that - writing, programming, the actual act of photography, etc. And recognizing if there are unhealthy mental patterns underlying the behavior that need to be tackled head-on.
I'm not a mechanical keyboard fanatic, but I browsed their forums and found an excellent, affordable, keyboard I would have never found otherwise. I just use it and get on with my life, not going down that rabbit hole, but I'm grateful for the ones who did and found this beautiful board that I really do enjoy using.
Same with wetshaving - they're a little obsessed, but I benefit from that because now I have an irritation-free shaving routine that I would have never found without them!
What you are describing is fascination with the engineering aspect of things. That's something I would expect the HN crowd to easily relate to.
For a long time I was also a member of the air-cooled sports-car world, and for most of my driving life I've been a member of the three-pedal club.
True life, writing with a fountain is WAY nicer than a crappy gel or ballpoint, and typing on a mechanical keyboard feels really lovely if you're used to the awful low-travel keyboards most companies issue, or that are built into most laptops.
https://www.lamy.com/en/lamy-safari/
It's a real pleasure to look at, carry, and use, but it's too nice to be the pen that lets you discover that fountain pens aren't for you. It's ok if they aren't, they really aren't for everybody. As a daily driver I highly recommend it.
There are also a wide variety of nibs to choose from. They can vary in material, widths, firmness, and how they flow across different papers. If you mostly like a nib, but it's still not quite right for you, you can have a nibmeister tune it more to your liking.
Some who write a great deal are not comfortable with the smaller quantity of ink in a cartridge converter or the shorter refill cartridges. I have used pens with these and still have some, but prefer a piston filler for the usually larger quantity of ink it can hold. It is even better (for me) when I can also look at it and see how much ink remains. But, if you have those and then rarely use it, ink can dry in the feed. In that case, something with an ink cut-off, like the Pilot Custom 823 Amber, may let the majority of ink remain even if not used. That pen is one of my favorites.
You can try any pen as a starter. But, if you don't like it, remember the preferences. That pen may not suit you, but another may be a perfect fit. Welcome to the hunt for the perfect pen.
The reason for this has to do with paper composition and weight and how free flowing (liquid) ink interacts with the paper fibers. [1]
[1] https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Best-Fountain-Pen-Paper/pt/...
Another option at the impulse buy level is pilot Petit1, it is a short pen you can throw in a pocket. It is refillable, not disposable.
I also strongly recommend using an iron gall ink (Platinum makes a few; another very good one is http://www.registrarsink.co.uk). Those inks are very easy to work with, even on the crappiest paper, and are quite resistant to UV, water, and other hasards.
It does put down a very fine line though, and it won't play nicely with crazy particle-heavy inks.
CHEAP: Lamy Safari. They come in plastic or in slightly more expensive aluminum (the Al version may have a different name, but it's the same size & shape and uses the same nib insert). These are gonna be $20-30 US, depending on your vendor. They are undoubtedly not as smooth to write with as my nicer pens, but they punch WAY above their weight, and deserve a spot in your rota -- especially clipped into a notebook you carry with you instead of something nicer.
ALSO INEXPENSIVE: Kaweco Sport. These are super compact when closed, so they fit into a pocket better than a conventional pen, and (like the Lamy) write better than their low-end price would suggest ($27 at Jet Pens; they also make them in brass for $90).
STEPPING UP A LITTLE: At $50-60, you can get one of the current "hot" affordable pens from TWSBI.com. They're pretty great; I have a 580 that I keep inked. You'll feel the difference between these and the lower-end pens. Be aware these are also a larger pen diameter-wise, and are thus sometimes less popular with small-handed people. TWSBI is also traditionally bottle-fill only -- no cartridges -- which puts some folks off. Don't be one of those; buy some bottled ink! You can get more variety that way. Plus, TWSBI pens in particular have enormous ink reservoirs -- I can write 2x or 3x as long with mine than I can with any of my other pens.
OK NOW YOU GET TO SERIOUS PENS: I had a good dot-com boom, and bought some spendy pens, but what replaced them ALL as my daily driver was the classic Namiki / Pilot Vanishing Point. They still make this pen, but a recently introduced variant of it has stolen my heart: the Decimo. It's the same style and mechanism, but just a little bit smaller in diameter. It makes it more comfortable to use, even for me with larger hands. Both kinds of Vanishing Point are ~$140-150, and well worth it. As a bonus, the carts for this pen are widely available in multiple colors, and the ink feels good to write with and behaves nicely on most sorts of paper (this can be an issue with some pen/ink combos).
That's the reason I used ONLY the Vanishing Point for the years I traveled all the time. Cartridge use seemed to work better on planes than bottles for me.
ANOTHER FINE OPTION: My sister gave me an Aurora Ipsilon a few years ago, and it's just a JOY to write with. I use the converter and bottled ink with it. It's been inked & ready to go since the Christmas Day I unwrapped it. About $120 at Amazon.
Enjoy!
https://smile.amazon.com/PILOT-Kakuno-Fountain-Pen-10822/dp/...
A couple of years ago I got into making pens from scratch using a model maker's lathe. I mainly work in aluminium, brass, delrin or silver steel but do occasionally work in wood on a bead lathe.
It's fun mainly because a pen is mechanically complex enough to be interesting but also simple enough that you can easily design and make them yourself.
I'd encourage anyone even vaguely interested to give it a go.
I think the pinacle is probably Nakaya[1]. I've spent a bit of time looking at their designs just trying to work out the operations needed to produce them by hand. CNC or 3D printing could of course make something fairly similar pretty easily but that's not how they do it! ;)
Instead they have a group of retired old boys working only when the want to. Very simply and very, very carefully. True works of art.
Having said all that, if I was to write on paper I'd probably just use a Parker Jotter[2]. They're cheap, readily availible and I think they got the design just about right way back in 1954.
It actually reminds me of how Casio got the design of the digital watch just right with the F-91W
1. https://nakaya.org/en/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jotter
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W
Metalwork is a big subject and there’s some great videos on YouTube. “This Old Tony” is the king.
Really the easiest way to start is probably with a pen kitI think.
They’re usually very simple and fun (but maybe a bit boring.)
With kit pens you’re only making the cladding of the pen. That’s usually wood, acrylic or ebonite and shaped by hand on a wood or beed lathe with chisels.
For steel you’d need a beefier metal lathe. To knurl the grip you need knurling wheels. They’re pretty cheap but it all mounts up.
I like to work with rod bar stock. I’ll work up a design in a notebook and cut/bore the various parts.
Holding up the work is really important. There’s various ways to do it but I’d suggest either an ER collet set or a 4 jaw chuck.
With aluminium instead of steel I can just about shape the metal with a high speed steel chisel. Steels too hard.
I don’t use CNC which limits accuracy and repeatability. What I end up with is “good enough” and I’m ok with that.
I’d suggest getting a second hand lathe, which will come with some accessories, and turning some metal into scrap. It’s great fun, especially if you’re a software engineer.
[0] https://all3dp.com/2/pen-plotters-best-xy-plotters/
Inks are fun, but the state of fountain pens themselves, for me at least, is way too "extremely expensive pens" instead of "investing in making excellent low cost flex nibs". Plenty of polymers and plastic that have infinitely better flex than the traditional gold or modern titanium (like Bock's) do, but no one's making any. And unless you want a pen that'll smell for a year, like Noodler's, or something that feels functional but that's about it, like a standard Lamy or TRB, there's just not a lot of low cost fun to be had.
And to make it just a little more annoying, if you do decide to go for the higher end fun (e.g. Pelikan flex pens and their ilk) you're stuck with "pick a nib. That's your pen now" rather than the "Pick a pen. And then put on whatever nib you want, they're trivially interchangeable. Buy a set, any #6 will fit, go wild" that lower cost but much more sensible pens go with.
I primarily use vintage fountain pens not because I would be averse to using modern ones, but because they have better options available. Pens from over a hundred years ago somehow have far better flex nibs than modern pens, despite, as you point out, the many technological advances in flexible materials. And I'm not aware of any modern manufacturers making filling mechanisms like, say, a snorkel filler. Even my 1970s Kaweco Sport has a hooded, semi-flex nib; modern Kawecos have the same generic stiff nib on a standard feed that every other modern pen has (they are apparently actually just a purchased brand name of a cosmetics company now). Surely we could do far better? Yet it seems like no manufacturer is really trying to innovate on the actual pen part of fountain pens at all.
I first got into pens 30 years ago, and I definitely HAVE a couple expensive (> $250US) pens, but my daily drivers are an Aurora (about $100), a Pilot Decimo ($140), and a TWSBI ($60).
I also keep some Lamy Safaris around, which are even cheaper and work GREAT in situations when you might not want to carry a more expensive pen.
I do have a ton of fountain pens, insane amount of inks etc. I love it, I find it easy to drop money on this as it makes me happy and it is a good distraction compared to computers.
You'd think that would have traumatized me, but once all grown up, I never liked ball point pens. Mechanical pencils are nice, sometimes very nice, but today I have gravitated back to fountain pens. The writing is smooth and effortless and looks fantastic, in spite of my poor handwriting. I am no connoisseur of fine pens, nibs, or inks, but today I write my journal and sign my checks with a fountain pen.
Paper: Back then, I could walk into Staples or the campus bookstore and buy inexpensive paper pads that worked well with fountain pen ink. Then, the major American companies like Tops, National, and Ampad moved their production to Mexico and quality went over a cliff. These days, I special order a variety of Japanese stationery. Some people like Clairefontaine paper from France, but not me.
Ink: It used to be considered a basic office supply item and bottles of ink cost around $5. Then companies realized they could sell it as a luxury item, so they changed the labels and upped the price.
Gel pens: Today we have remarkable quality and variety in ball pens. In the 1990s, ballpoint and gel pens were stiff and tended to glob. The better modern gel pens (from Japan) feel nearly as nice as a fountain pen and glob very little. Color choice has also expanded. There used to be just black, blue, red, green, and sometimes purple. Now you can find a gel pen in practically any hue you can imagine. So, while the FP writing experience is still the nicest, it's not the vast improvement it used to be.
A couple other things to note about fountain pen culture...About antique/vintage pens, people outside the hobby make a big deal about using one, but it's actually the more practical option for a high quality pen. Back when fountain pens were everyday tools for the masses, quality control was much higher. Today, most new expensive pens are bought as jewelry and don't see much use, so manufacturers don't waste money on precision fabrication. For a pen in the $100+ range, you will generally get better quality for your money by buying vintage.
The other thing is about etiquette...Never ever ask to borrow someone's fountain pen. Not only are the tips easily damaged by the inexperienced, but FPs are considered a very personal item.