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Comment by sep_field | Hacker News Reader

For anyone interested in fountain pens but unwilling to plop down a huge amount of money, these Japanese "Preppy" pens by Platinum are pretty fun to play with. It's my first fountain pen so I can't say whether its as smooth writing as more expensive ones but for $6 I think its a great way to get started. They come in lots of colors, this is the one I got:

https://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Fountain-Cartridges-SPN-100A...

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Yup. They are awesome. Bought a bunch of them when I visited Japan. If you are buying from a store, do check out the nib size on the nib itself rather than the cap, as the caps are interchangeable and the body does not have nib size markings.

They are a pleasure to write with and if you write with the 01 nib size with the nib facing the opposite way than normal, you get an extra extra fine line (at the cost of huge friction) that leads to amazing fine drawings.

Looks like they've fixed that -- my pen has a "03" marked on the top of the cap and the nib itself also has 03 engraved on it.

For a tad more money you can get a TWSBI Eco, that would be my recommendation. A very nice pen, not fancy at all but very practical.

Agreed, the Preppy is excellent! Some good reference information is here (for people who prefer it to a store link): https://unsharpen.com/pen/platinum-preppy-fountain-pen/

Pilot Varsity disposable FP are great too. Have converted many friends to FP by gifting them Varsities.

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