Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens | Hacker News Reader

Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

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168 pointsbeermonster152 comments

I always feel that fountain pens should come with bigger caveats than they're typically presented with. I absolutely love them (more than you'd even guess), but if someone is just going to "pick up" a fountain pen and just start writing they might be in for a bit of shift. Writing with a fountain pen isn't really the same as writing with a ball point, and there will be some adjustment that goes along with it. If you're just starting out, I'd say to stick with it for a while.

Here's a couple of pointers when it comes to fountain pens...

+ Paper matters... a lot! A lot of feathering and bleeding issues are because of the paper

+ Ink is a whole avenue of exploration in and of itself. Inks have different properties and come in just about any color imaginable.

+ You have far more of a choice of _how_ your pen writes with a fountain pen. This first one is line width, commonly referred to as nib size or point size. If you think about it a little bit before you purchase your first one, you'll be well served.

+ You can use significantly less pressure when writing with a fountain pen. Relax your grip as much as you can.

+ Many in the fountain pen hobby use their pens for more than just utility (notes, forms, etc.) Having an avenue to write for pleasure can help you connect with fountain pens.

+ Your penmanship doesn't need to be good in order to use a fountain pen, and while it may improve with use, it also may be exactly the same. You don't have to do calligraphy or have that be your end goal.

I see a lot of tech people in the fountain pen hobby, and there are cross over hobbies with mechanical keyboards, headphones, watches, and EDC gear.

Also the cons.

- Traveling and shaking a vessel filled with ink doesn't end well.

- Getting ink on your hands when refilling the pen becomes annoying, quickly.

- Your notebook choices now become limited to ones that don't bleed. I already have notebooks that I've been using for years and don't want to change.

- Not all pens are suited for every language. If you get a pen with a wider nib (like a parker or american ones in general), it's very easy to blur on Chinese/Korean/Japanese etc. This is fixable with a smaller japanese nib but not really an issue with ballpoint pens.

Whenever I'm in Japan I usually stop by a store like kingdom note and I've picked up some pilor & sailor pens. I'm happy to use them at my desk, but I just stick to ballpoint pens like the Calme 0.7 when out and about.

I don't disagree that those are potential cons, but it also highlights how much versatility you can have with a fountain pen. For instance, there are ones that travel very well with shutoff valves to prevent ink leakage. There are options for filling that can all but eliminate getting ink on your hands. Nibs can be tuned and ink choices can align with what paper you write on, so you don't absolutely have to change the notebooks you use.

You highlighting the language issue is interesting because it makes the assumption that one can get the line width they'd like from a ballpoint pen, which personally, I didn't. Ultimately you need to choose what works best for you, and the language you write in is certainly a consideration. I'd much rather have the option, than be stuck with "one size fits all" of most ballpoints. So saying that's a con is a misnomer for me.

All that being said, a fountain pen is not a tool for every use case. I was a lot happier when I realized that a ballpoint or rollerball is far better suited for tossing in a bag or having at the ready when traveling.

Wow! I've never heard of a pen with a shutoff valve. Could you please share some recommendations?

The filling mechanism of the pen is what tends to dictate whether there is a shutoff valve, and there two mechanisms that have this feature; vacuum fillers, and Japanese eyedroppers.

Vacuum fillers are generally higher end pens, but the best, cheapest option is a PenBBS 456, which is a Chinese pen. The Pilot 823 is very well loved pen in the community, and a good "next level" pen if you're looking for one. Viscontis are high end luxury pens that feature a vacuum filling mechanism, although their marketing calls it a power filler.

Japanese eyedroppers aren't really a "filling mechanism", per say, but can be thought of in that manner, even though you have to fill them with a syringe or pipette. Unfortunately far fewer pens make use of this, and tend to be very high end pens. The one exception are pens from Opus88, which pretty much all feature this mechanism, and are very reasonably priced. Then there's a big gap until you get to the high end urushi pens like the Pilot Emperor.

There's other one offs, like the bulkfilling mechanism from Conid and used on the PenBBS 355. The Diplomat Nexus uses an integrated shutoff valve that's engaged when capping the pen.

> Paper matters... a lot! A lot of feathering and bleeding issues are because of the paper

And paper doesn't have to be expensive either. You can find good paper even at walmart if you are willing to look up some reviews or try some various brands.

Paper that mentions that it's fountain pen friendly is usually helpful. My go to "cheap" paper is Black & Red Notebooks. I tend to use Rhodia a lot, but that may be pricier for some. In general, a lot of the Japanese papers are great for fountain pens, and Jet Pens has a ton of options at different price ranges.

One con: Pens dry out! If you're not regularly writing with them, the vast majority of pens (minus the Platinum ones) will dry out.

Yes, my 20 year old ballpoint pen has dried out. But the vast majority of my ballpoints, gels, etc pens can all be picked up and written with without any regularity. My fountain pens have to be used daily, otherwise they cannot be used.

If you have to use a fountain pen daily, there might be something wrong with the sealing mechanism on the cap. I've had fountain pens that sat unused for a week but still wrote fine.

But if the fountain pen stops writing, it can be cleaned and refilled with ink, and they're as good as new.

The gel pens that I haven't used in several years and have dried out - they're mostly fit for the trash can.

I've had the same problem with other pens, and have found that the TWSBI Eco always seals perfectly -- I once uncapped my Eco after several months, and it instantly wrote, flawlessly!

I ignored fountain pens for a long time because I'm not a calligrapher or artist and I mostly want writing to be easy and convenient.

On a whim, I finally ordered a LAMY Safari and was really surprised at how much better the writing experience was. I noticed my penmanship improved and I was able to write more easily on parts of the page that I normally struggle with, such as near the binding in some notebooks.

I attribute most of this to how easily the ink flows compared to other types of pens, although I'm sure the pen shape is also a factor.

Anyway, if you write a lot and just want to write more easily and a little better, I'd recommend giving a fountain pen a try, and I think the LAMY Safari is a great place to start (it is relatively cheap and the cartridges are convenient).

I also love JetPens and order most of my pens and stationary from them.

Among the obituaries of a former Conservative Minister a few years ago, there was one delightful snippet. A line in The Daily Telegraph described how, when she received the letter from Mrs Thatcher appointing her to the Lords, Lady Blatch initially believed it to be a hoax, because the letter was signed in Biro and she had been ‘brought up to believe that nobody who matters uses a Biro’.

https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/style/unparalleled-joy-...

TIL that "Biro" is British English for "ballpoint pen".

It’s the same in Italian. It comes from László Bíró.

The thing I really noticed is that I could write for much longer with far less wrist fatigue. They are just incredible and underappreciated pens. If you write a lot, then they are really worth it. I also suggest not buying cartridges but refillers. Bulletproof inks are just superior to anything else I've used in even fancy pens, where the ink won't bleed or go away until basically the paper does too. It's also nice to have some unique colors, not to mention saves on a lot of plastic (and ink can be useful for other things).

Lamy pens are great. Safari is a really nice choice, it's hard to beat price/value -wise

I owned a safari and lamy 2000, but my favorite was the parker 51. Wish someone would do a modern remake.

What were you using before? Curious if they are better than Uniball and Pilot.

I'd tried quite a few but had largely settled on the Uniball Jetstream as the one I always had on me.

For those asking "why handwriting in 2024?", the paper has no notifications or web browser to distract you. It's just your own thoughts on the page. Being more effortful than typing, information becomes more disfluent, which helps you reason about and retain it. I find it a great tool for planning, consideration, and reflection.

I find Jetstream ink to be the nicest for everyday writing. Like gel ink, it's very low-drag (so your hand doesn't fatigue), but unlike gel ink, it doesn't smear on your hand, and is waterproof. These days I use a SXE3-507, with multiple colors for annotating previous writing (or marking up a book).

I use Kokuyo Soft Ring notebooks with dotted rule pages. It looks like regular lined paper, but the lines have subtle dots that you can use like graph paper, so it's easy to make diagrams and tables.

When I fill up a notebook, I scan it. This way I only need to carry one notebook around, but all my old notebooks are accessible digitally.

If you get the chance, visit a Mai Do (in SF, San Jose, and Costa Mesa). There's no substitute for trying out everything Japan has to offer.

> For those asking "why handwriting in 2024?", the paper has no notifications or web browser to distract you. It's just your own thoughts on the page.

Unfortunately, many (MANY) people have terrible (unpracticed) handwriting and view the activity as a means to an end rather than something worth doing for fun.

Everyone comments on how good my handwriting is. In response, I usually say that I "stole" someone's handwriting back in the 5th grade. The truth is that I really liked their handwriting and copied theirs over and over until I matched (and eventually exceeded) theirs years later. Same with cursive (which I can still write).

Conversely, most folks do handwriting drills in kindergarten/1st grade (US) and stop there.

I think everyone can learn how to write well, but it requires a ton of practice. Given that everything is done digitally these days, many would rather just type it out.

There have been various attempts to modernize pen and a notebook. I'm rather happy with my Remarkable2 (no affiliation), because it lacks the features of an iPad/tablet, because, as you say, it has less distractions so you can focus more on writing and creating. My favorite part is that, while pencil input is foremost, it also has a keyboard, because I can type that much faster than I can write.

I followed these guides for a while but was never happy with the recommendations. No matter which pen I chose it seemed like they would bleed, or dry up, or get "splotchy" if I didn't write at the correct speed. I think the primary thing is that I don't really like any pen that has a "ball tip", i.e. a ballpoint, rollerball or gel pen.

Finally I decided to try something new and discovered that my favorite pen for writing was actually a marker. I know this may sound like I'm shilling but I'm not, these Prismacolor fine tip markers, https://www.prismacolor.com/markers/premier-illustration-mar..., are my favorite things to write with. They're the closest in feel to a mechanical pencil, they never dry out, never bleed, etc.

For all the analysis posts like this one that I've read I'm just at a loss as to why fine-tipped markers don't feature more prominently.

In this vein, I can personally vouch for the Sakura Pigma Micron they recommend as an excellent felt-tip pen.

Markers are powerful, and defacto the most practical art pens since they give immediate gratification, reasonably controlled lines and dark permanent inks with low risk of leakage, fraying or drying out.

But the ballpoints are slightly better at being everyday pocket pens because they resist rough handling and improper storage. This becomes less true as you move up the price ladder into hybrid, gel and rollerball pens, but it's definitely the case if you're getting a Bic Stic or other classic oil-based ballpoint.

What I've noticed is that overall, if you care about the type and amount of drag on the pen, you end up moving away from gels and rollers. The oil-based pens have a kind of creaminess to them when you get them in large point sizes(e.g. Bic Xtra-Bold 1.6mm) that can be satisfying. But if you want things to be really crisp and controlled you need either the additional friction of felt tips or a sharp, fine nib.

If you haven't tried one, get a Speedball Hunt 102 nib and some dip ink. The nib needs the factory coating scrubbed off, and you'll need some tissue to clean up, but once you get past that part, the path is open to experience a pen that will absolutely carve up your paper.

Yes, I definitely second this recommendation. I used to do IT for a couple architects and got turned on to these kinds of pens, which they use professionally for blueprint markup. They are just perfect for me, too.

I’m not a pen guy. I mainly use pencils. The kuratoga is the best mechanism and the twist-erase is the best eraser.

I hacked together some prototypes of the two together using a pipe cutter and a 3d printer.

https://ruby.social/@Schneems/111115448981873661

I used to be a pencil guy. Then I got older, and found that low contrast between the pencil lead and the paper made it harder for me to read. Been using black ink every since, both the Uni Jetstream 0.38 and the Hi-Tec C Coleto 0.3.

The softness/hardness of the pencil determines the contrast. Have you tried the 3B or 4B? I'd imagine the contrast approaches the contrast of ink. https://pencils.com/pages/hb-graphite-grading-scale

Eraseability for me is important for studying. I find it more readable and less confusing then a bunch of stuff crossed out.

This is amazing. I recently got a Kuru Toga and wish it had a Twist-Erase eraser.

Thanks. I’ve not posted my files yet but when I do it will be on https://www.printables.com/@schneems

My files are a jig to cut the kurutoga and an adapter that needs to be glued that allows the twist-erase to spin. It’s somewhat less elegant than I would like but is durable and has lasted me one semester worth of a masters degree so it works.

I use a multipen, a pen with multiple ink cartridges that can switch on the fly. Just like the one you had as a kid! I use four colors plus black for my day-to-day engineering journal. I use the colors for semantic highlighting. By default, I write in black. People, teams, and customers are in blue. I also annotate some things with blue arrows and words. Dates and very important notes are in red. Projects and tickets are in green. Meetings are in purple (with blue attendees).

I also do some clever things like separating days with black lines and a little box for the date, but the first day of the week is red so I can easily see week boundaries. As a whole, it makes scanning for what I'm looking for very easy. Since I usually know at least what meeting a decision was made in. Or if I'm looking for my notes about a teammate, that's another color. I've been doing this for four years and have really refined my process.

My pen of choice is a Coleto 5-color multipen. They are a pretty cheap plastic and I'm not in love with it. It's just the best I've used with five colors. For ink cartridges I use Pilot Hi-Tec-C, 0.4 mm. I highly recommend it, but start with a day book to see if it's useful to you first.

I remember getting a Bic 4-color pen as a kid - it was very exciting.

Multipens are very underrated, especially when they're all using the same new technologies as the better gel and ballpoint pens.

After discovering Muji Gel pens a decade ago I just buy them tens at a time (pens or refill sticks). They feel absolutely perfect and are very easy to obtain in Europe. It's a great feeling to find a product that works so well you can free your mind from the burden of search forever

Seconded. I buy 2 varieties of Muji pens -- 0.38 and 0.5 Gel Ballpoint -- and stash them everywhere.

A while back I heard the phrase "If you ask 'where is the good XYZ' it means you have a 'bad' XYZ". I was inspired to throw out all of my cheapo pens and always have a good one nearby.

Same with power cables, scissors, tape, and other small household accessories. They're too cheap to have to worry about 1. where they are and 2. where the "good" one is.

I cannot endorse Muji enough. They are also easy to obtain in the US. I save my empty pens so I can refill them. I just got a full color set to use as well.

The ink flow levels are always balanced, never too much or too little. It's hard to explain but it also has a good "feel" when writing that I do not find in many other pens.

One thing about gel pens, and other 'fancy' ink, is that it tends to be quite runny and can take a while to dry on 'waxy' papers (many index cards, shipping labels).

Not sure which listed category of ink/pen would work best on those (besides a plain old, cheap Bic® pen, which works fine.)

I find that Pentel Energel ink dries quite a bit faster than other gel ink (Pilot and Uniball). But for glossy surfaces, consider Uni-ball Jetstream ink.

I've bought many of the ones they recommend as southpaw friendly. Those in particular seem to dry very quickly.

Depends your goal. Write finely and precisely? Don't hurt your hand?

I believe Uni-ball Jetstream ink pushes this Pareto frontier. It provides the low-fatigue, low-drag experience of water-based gel ink, but dries instantly and is waterproof like oil-based ballpoint ink.

I think that your writing has to evolve into the best answer, which is very fine tips so that the ink is limited enough to dry quickly. Initially, you're probably still pressing down on the page, so the fine tips feel scratchy, but eventually you can use 0.3mm with no problem.

Started using fountain pens a few years back. Started with thr Lamy Safari, a really great pen for the price. Then I got the TWSBI Eco and it's the only one I use now. Great ink capacity and the writing is Nice and smooth. For the price. It's really hard to beat.

I second the TWSBI though I had a crack that I’m not sure I made and the replacement wasn’t flowing but the third has been amazing! Dromgoolies pen shop here in Houston replaced no questions asked both times

I recently went down the pen rabbit hole after starting a daily journal. I eventually settled on 0.38mm uni refills (UMR-83 gel and SXR-38 ballpoint) on energel infree bodies (metal clip plus you get to see the click mechanism at work).

Bought a Fisher Millennium Space Pen in 2000 which came with a lifetime guarantee for the Pen AND the Ink. Here it is 2024 and it still writes just fine. Have not had to get a refill yet (though not sure if they would honor it still).

So I'd argue that might be the "Best Pen" for at least some of us :-)

They're really fantastic for people who don't write often (stick one in your bag and it'll definitely still work when you need it), but I don't love the writing experience. They take more force than many other pens, and put down a pretty thick line of ink. Which I suppose is to say that I agree with their recommendation of the Space Pen as an EDC pen.

That’s my take. I wanted to love it, but found it writes extremely reliably mediocrely. It’s always there and working when I need it, which is great for EDC! I just wouldn’t want to use it for more than a grocery list.

The last time I got a space pen it stopped working almost immediately. Felt like a gimmick. I've never enjoyed ball point pens though.

I really wanted to get into fountain pens a while ago. I bought several different ones over the years and ultimately had roughly the same experience. In the end I didn't find them great for me, being a lefty in a right-to-left writing world. The main benefits of the fountain pen feel is when you're able to just lightly drag the pen across the paper, its nearly effortless to put down a good line. However, being a lefty, I'm often pushing the pen forward instead of dragging it across.

I just kind of feel like writing as a lefty in a right-to-left world is just pain.

Any other lefties have similar experiences?

The article linked here has a section with the best pens for lefties.

You should be grateful that you have not been born a century earlier. When my father, who was also left-handed, was in elementary school (almost 90 years ago), it was still a practice to persuade the left-handed to write using their right hand by beatings.

The article linked does have pen recommendations for lefties, but it doesn't have recommendations for the best fountain pens for lefties.

Writing was definitely designed by right handed people!

There is some hope though, I've not found a nice fountain pen experience but there's some gel pens which are pretty hard to make smudge.

I use these:

Uni-Ball Jetstream Sport SXN-150S Ballpoint Gel Pens. Premium 1.0mm Rollerball Tip. https://amzn.eu/d/6mVJHLS

As a lefty who used a Lamy 2000 fine nib for years, it really comes down to adjusting pressure... and of course a quick drying ink.

Once you get it down it's no different than using a fine rollerball.

If you think it's painful, why not write with your right hand instead? Just because you are a lefty that doesn't mean you have to artificially limit yourself into doing things a painful way.

Hey man, I feel like your comment came from a good place and this might be something that you don't know, but asking lefties to switch hands is a pretty emotionally sensitive topic. In modern society (as recently as 2007) left-handers had strong negative perceptions and left handed children were often forced to write right handed [1]. Forcing people to change has also had effects on their brain structure and chemistry [2].

Personally, my grandmother was forced to switch from left handed to right handed! In those days (early 1900s) the forced switch often came under threat of violence. Yes, they beat children to make them write "right". So this is a sensitive topic for a lot of people!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_peopl... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6758284/

I doubt they mean literal pain. Writing with your non-dominant hand is an exercise in frustration and futility unless you're really dedicated to it. I find the inability to make my hand do what I'm thinking very stressful.

Because writing with my right hand is even more painful. Trust me, if writing with my right hand was a pleasant experience, I'd do it in a heartbeat. This isn't just some "I identify as a lefty; therefore, I do things left-handed" kind of thing. In fact, most other activities I do, I do right-handed.

Swing a bat/club? Right-handed. Throw a ball? Right-handed. Use a computer mouse? Right-handed. Shoot a rifle? Right-handed. Write a note? Left-handed. Paint a picture? Left-handed.

Same. One huge advantage you and I have is that we can write notes while we use the mouse to navigate the computer. Came in handy a lot in college.

In the mid-90s at work, I was known as that guy who used a left-handed mouse at all times (I am right-handed.)

I would swap L/R button functions on the Sun4 3-button optical mouse and set it to the left of the keyboard. This is a comfortable and natural position, especially considering the placement of the numpad.

Very soon, the word was out in the office, and NOBODY attempted to borrow my workstation!

Have you tried writing with your non-dominant hand? I'm a righty and I find left-handed writing effectively impossible.

Yes, I have and for cursive, which is relevant when not picking up a pen, it is not that hard since you don't have to worry about precision of where exactly you place down the pen.

Jetpens is fantastic. I've found the best combo for me: a metal Parker Jotter pen with an Ohto refil, but it's nice seeing some new options from time to time.

[1] https://www.jetpens.com/Parker-Jotter-Ballpoint-Pen-Waterloo...

[2] https://www.jetpens.com/OHTO-Flash-Dry-Gel-Pen-Refill-Black/...

I remember evaluating the Kaweco Al-sport when I was looking for a durable metal pen for EDC after my Metropolitan bit the dust. I think I didn't choose the Kaweco because the pocket clip for it had some issues with slipping off/not being tight enough based on some reviews. Instead a I went with a copper INK V2 from Karas that has the clip fastened to the pen by machine screws, which I was happy about since in theory I can replace the clip if it ever goes bust. I've had good luck with the company in terms of repair so far. The inner o-ring for the cap of my pen got worn down so that it no longer provided enough friction to reliable prevent the cap from unscrewing when the pen was clipped to my shirt, and the company sent me several new o-rings for free. Eventually, they made o-ring kits a regularly available product. I bought this pen with the intent that it be the last one I buy, and so far it looks like that will be the case.

Pen I'm using: https://karaskustoms.com/product/ink-v2-fountain-pen/

Little brother to above pen, currently being blown out for 1/2 the Kaweco's price: https://karaskustoms.com/product/fountain-k-v2/

Uni Jetstream pens have been my daily for years now. Nice smooth ink that dries relatively quickly. My lefty partner loves them, so it's easy to keep our house stocked with them.

What a great site! I realize that it is a store, but content like this is valuable:

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Pilot-FriXion-Erasable-Pens-A-C...

I recently found these erasable pens and they are incredible tech. The friction of rubbing the rubber eraser on the ink heats up the ink and causes the ink to turn invisible. It leaves no ink residue on the eraser.

these are a big deal in Japan - I found out about it through work and now I have my kids use them for homework instead of pencils or typical crappy american style erasable pens

but of course it confuses the teachers at the school and they insist my kids use pencils at school...

Yes - although these are easily available in the states, I found out about them while on vacation in Japan. I asked chatGPT what items were most sought after by visitors to Japan and pens were on that list.

Of note, any heat will erase these, even including leaving them in your car. For anything that you need to make sure that what you wrote is still there when it is next read, I wouldn't trust these. Also, IIRC, extreme cold can bring the ink back, so I also wouldn't trust these to hide sensitive information.

tl;dr only use erasable pens for the least important writing, never ever use them for signatures.

Good point, but I'll note that I actually use these for court stipulations (i.e. very important writing). My use case is for documents where the document will be photocopied after signed by all parties and the photocopy becomes the filed document so this alleviates the concern.

>Also, IIRC, extreme cold can bring the ink back, so I also wouldn't trust these to hide sensitive information.

Oh fun - I put an erased paper in the freezer and will report back!

Fair enough. I'll add the bit that they're fine if you don't need the ink to be anything more than short term. Excited to hear how the experiment goes!

Yep - the freezer brought the ink back! Very impressive and interesting.

For a few years now my favorite pen has been the Sharpie Felt Tip Pen. Not like their typical "aromatic" markers or even the fine-point version, these are slimmer black-barrel black ink pens that can be found in 2 or 4 packs in the grocery store and other common places. They also come in a range of other colors. The caps come off and go back on more easily than the fine-point markers, and the ink doesn't bleed through thin paper. I usually write on brown 4x6 index cards, folded in half and clipped to my 3x4 cedar shingle pocket clipboard.

This page doesn't mention Sharpie at all, and they don't list these pens under their brand search feature. Here's an Amazon link if anybody is interested:

https://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Point-Black-1742661/dp/B...

I'm surprised there's a market for budget foutain pens. We mostly don't write by hand anymore and if we do, it's to jolt down notes.

One chooses to use a fountain pen for the thrill of it, or for love of tradition. In those cases, money is no object. A budget fountain pen is like a budget race car.

Obviously I'm wrong, but I'm not sure why.

I use a cheap-ish fountain pen regularly, and I think in some ways the fact that nobody "needs" a fountain pen (or any pen) much anymore is actually a contributing factor to this, for a few reasons.

1. Status symbols are frequently every-day objects elevated in some way. Montblanc pens were good status symbols to have on your desk when everyone used pens all the time, now they're anachronistic. So the upper end of the market shrinks as the item becomes less necessary.

2. Pens becoming less necessary for daily life makes them more of a hobby, and while people pretty much by definition are spending disposable income on a hobby they probably still have a budget in mind. Also, a lot of hobbies get kind of fuzzy between the hobby itself and collecting-as-a-hobby (is the hobby writing or is the hobby collecting pens?). A lot of people would rather own a small collection of affordable "pretty good" fountain pens with some differences between them instead of one really excellent pen.

3. The usual march of progress means a very good fountain pen can be manufactured for a lot less money than it could a few decades ago. That means businesses can serve that hobbyist market, and satisfy the craving for variety.

Same process that happens with lots of goods. Watches of any description used to be a luxury good, then cheap quartz movements were invented: the luxury market for Rolexes never went away, but a lot more people bought Timexes, and nobody really needs a watch anymore because we have cell phones, but there's still a hobbyist market. Nobody needs a turntable to play LPs anymore, but vinyl is a big hobby for probably a lot of the same nostalgia/"physical is good" reasons pens are a hobby, and you can get a very good sounding turntable today for a lot less money than you could 40 years ago.

The nature of the pen makes writing not hurt your hand. More precisely, it reawakens a painless way to write that was put off-limits by ballpoint pens. That is, write in mostly cursive, direct the tip across the paper and never press down.

Gel pens also support this, if you have a heavy pen body.

Luxury fountain pens rarely provide a better writing experience than a budget one. Montblancs had a reputation (don't know about the present) for fragile pens that wrote like every other fountain pen. You're paying for the white blob in the cap. Many luxury pens use very similar nibs as the cheaper pens, just adorned with gold and engraving that doesn't add to the writing experience.

If you want tradition, you can buy vintage pens - they work great. The Parker 51 is usually claimed to be the epitome of fountain pens. They aren't luxury in any way - they don't even look like fountain pens, but they just write and write. Vintage Esterbrook pens have replaceable nib options that put any modern pen to shame.

> Obviously I'm wrong, but I'm not sure why.

I bought a budget fountain pen as an experiment - can I reduce waste and potentially save money? It has been a complete success, with the side effect that writing has become much more enjoyable. I ended up getting my kids the Pilot Kakuno - they have also found writing to be more enjoyable and their penmanship has improved dramatically as a result.

Expensive pens don't have any allure to me. I'm sure they're nice, and many of them write better than a budget pen, but... I wouldn't turn one down as a gift, but I'm not interested at all in buying one.

Budget fountain pens fill a niche of “spend a little more for something nice, but not so much I’ll worry about losing or wrecking it.”

Fountain pens that work well without fuss, like Lamy Safari, or Pilot Metropolitan, really are nicer to use than ballpoint or gel pens, and the slight extra effort to using ink in cartridges or from a bottle adds familiarity and comfort to it. It’s not a pen, it’s your pen, and the longer you have it, the more attached you are to it. The more attached you are to it, the better the act of using it feels. It makes your world feel less disposable.

I use fountain pens and take notes at work with fountain pens. But not budget ones -- not luxury ones either, but in the range of €100-150. Part of the pleasure is the nib, sure, but also the body and the metal cap and the weight. I doubt I would derive the same enjoyment from a Lamy Safari but I must admit I never tried it.

You wouldn't, the Safari is too light and plasticky feeling. But the Pilot Metropolitan has a metal body that gives it a comparable heft to more expensive pens, and writes beautifully.

You might look at TWSBI fountain pens. They're still cheaper than your normal range, but very good quality, and offer some of the more fun mechanisms, like the pump pistons that fill the body itself with ink--in a clear body, it looks cool.

Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens are ridiculously good for their price, and if you leave one out on your desk and someone comes along and damages the nib trying to write with it, you just throw the whole thing away. On top of that I haven't had one leak and they very rarely dry out or get clogged.

Why is it hard to imagine someone who enjoys writing but can't spend hundreds on a luxury pen?

The performance parts of a pen are the nib, ink, and hand feel. All of which are cheap to make to a high standard unlike a race car with hundreds of parts made with extreme precision.

The flashy bits of an expensive fountain pen are just there to attract people. Rare wood, expensive metal accents, exclusive brand names don't do anything to add to the writing experience as a whole. Sure they make you feel good cause your in an exclusive club, and that is something, but that doesn't effect the way it writes.

I switched to a fountain pen because I heard that they required less effort to write with, and the amount of writing I was doing for my studies was starting to cause RSI issues in my hand. In that context, as a student, finding a budget-friendly pen was a concern.

When I was in school in the UK, we were only allowed to write with fountain pens. My guess is that learning to handwrite properly is easier with them; I certainly write much more legibly with one today (now I'm 40).

There is value in jotting down notes legibly :)

Anecdotally, my 10 year old nephew asked for one for Christmas this year. When we asked why he wanted one, he replied “to write stuff.”

Not sure but I wonder if there is some hipster youth trend where writing is making a comeback?

Lamy Safari with noodler's or get the hell out of my office.

My friend, you owe it to yourself to try Platinum Carbon Black ink. More permanent and waterproof than Noodlers, and a black so dark and dense you'll think you can see the end of the void in it.

Ignore the haters who claim pigmented ink wrecks your pens--both my wife and I have drawn miles of lines with it, and even leaving it sitting on the desk unused for weeks, we never have a problem with it.

Also, in fountain pen terms, Safaris are so reasonably priced that you can dedicate one to a specific ink. I mention using Baystate Blue. I might not put that in the same pen where I'd later use, say, yellow ink, but I don't have to.

The Safari changed my relationship with handwriting. My natural grip makes my hand cramp up after a couple paragraphs. The Safari’s triangular grip forces me to hold it the “right” way, and voila, no more writing pain. I can’t believe what a vast change that made.

Edit: Also, Noodler’s Baystate Blue. If your pinky isn’t stained afterward, have you even written?

I'm personally a Noodler's X-feather fan, but that's mostly because I usually found myself writing on bad paper back in my school days when I got it, and you just get so much of it too

I still write a few checks every month and use a dedicated medium-nib TWISBI Classic with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness Bulletproof ink to write them.

Over here with my Pilot Vanishing Point that I use between sips of 30-year scotch.

Oh wait, this is a $20 bottle of whiskey.

Have to agree with the Vanishing Point being the best luxury fountain pen for writing... I have like 8 of them.

I liked mine a lot, but I got it in extra fine which was a real mistake. It's like scratching which makes inky marks, not writing. I should have gone with a fine or even medium nib.

I now use a Pilot Custom 823 which is always going to be less sturdy than the Vanishing Point and my guess is it's always living on borrowed time. I'll replace it with a fine/medium VP when I eventually break it somehow.

Ah, yea I had a similar experience with Extra Fine. Now I buy them through Nibs.com which does some custom grinding, also they take into account my Leftyness, which makes for an extremely smooth and wet write.

The Moonman A2 is my current favorite pen. Though it's a knock-off, the out-of-box nib smoothness was better than that of the Vanishing Point that I ended up returning.

The fact that it's only $15 on AliExpress makes it a steal. No pun intended.

Yea, the out of box smoothness of the VP leaves a lot to be desired, I've been getting them from Nibs.com which smooths it nicely for me.

I agree for the opposite reason. I have one of them that I've used for daily journaling and note taking for ten years with no maintenance other than rinsing the guts twice a year.

That's awesome and really impressive. The pen is a real workhorse. I will say the Vanishing Point LS or something, the more expensive variant, is not as reliable, as my twist mechanism on that gradually got stuck.

The TWSBI is a great fountain pen. I am disappointed to not find Muji 0.5mm capped rollerballs on there.

I ordered them on a whim but will likely never use another pen for note taking again. The feel of writing is much better than any Pilot or Pentel I've used.

Today I prefer the Pilot G-2 0.7mm. The construction is plastic but decent quality for a disposable pen. The clicker and screw joint have excellent fidget properties. The ergonomics are good except for the injection nub on the rubber grip, and the ink is the best I've found in a cheap disposable today.

In the 1980's I preferred Uniball pens. Back then they had unreasonably high construction quality for a disposable pen with precision fitting parts and a stainless steel clip. The roller and ink were also very high end for a disposable of the time. Unfortunately it doesn't look like they build them like that anymore.

Unfortunately I find Pilot G2 to have loose tolerances between the refill tip and pen body. It's like 1.5-2 thousandths of an inch, compared to 0.5-1 thousandth for Uniball and Pentel bodies. It makes your writing a bit sloppier and more effortful.

I believe the Uni-ball One is a better pen body in every way. Tight tolerances. Well-built, hinged steel clip that provides superior fidgeting. Nicer clicker haptics too. I don't love the ink that comes in them, but they take Jetstream SXR-7 and SXR-5 refills. You can get both of these from JetPens.

I used to use Pilot G2s and was a huge advocate for them until I tried the Uniball Jetstream RT. I just think it writes more smoothly.

But I've never actually had to put a refill in -- I bought a 3 pack of those about 8 years ago and they're still all going strong. I just don't write enough.

The G2 05 used to be my pen of choice but within the last few years I've noticed the ink tubes dry out and become unusable long before they actually run out of ink.

I'm also a decade long user of this pen right here.

You guys left out my personal favorite:

https://uniballco.com/products/power-tank-ballpoint-pens

It's a space pen, in plastic disposable format, for a few bucks. Non pressurized pens just never seem all that reliable. They're always dry when I need one... and usually it's rather disruptive. I'm not writing with a pen daily, so I don't notice it's dried until I suddenly need to label something, and now my projects is on hold sifting through drawers for pens.

The power tank just works, every time.

My wife and I love fountain pens! It's an awesome hobby and collection to start

Honest question: what makes it a hobby and not just a collection?

I think of pens as tools for a hobby but not as a hobby itself, collecting pens I can consider a collection hobby though.

I get confused because I've seen this stated a few times and it does not make sense to me, there's no "power drill hobby" but one can have a hobby of collecting power drills.

It's a hobby if you go to "shows" and talk to other hobbiests about it. A pile of stamps in a shoebox in someone's attic is a collection.

A well presented book of stamps that is taken to shows, shown, discussed, etc. That person is a hobbiest.

Not the OP, but learning and practicing calligraphy is a hobby and is often associated with pen collecting. A pen hobby might also include maintainace, repair, and restoration of an often large collection of pens.

I suppose if you spend time researching, reading about, talking about (online fora etc.) the thing you collect then it starts to look more like a hobby.

Pilot Juice's have gotten me through my later highschool years and my entire undergrad. Highly recommend those. The uniball signo's listed in the article are also quite nice!

https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Juice-Gel-Pen-0.38-mm-Black/pd...

Recently got a LAMY Safari and it's been really great (coming from 0.5mm Uniball Signo DX). Got an ultra-fine nib and black ink for it and it's my daily driver pen now. Also tried the aluminum LAMY AL-Star and was surprised I liked the Safari better. The AL-Star is slightly heavier with a less-ideal weight distribution for me and is also slightly thicker.

Honestly these are the best pens that I have ever used: "uni-ball Roller Rollerball Pens Fine Point Micro Tip, 0.5mm" in either black or blue.

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/149765/uni-ball-Rolle...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IE8P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

Never see them on any of these top lists though =(

They were even better when they were first released, in the eighties if I remember correctly. I think they miss the top lists because they've been superseded by fancier Uni-ball pens.

I prefer the thin body of these versus the fancier uni-ball pens, personally. Also love to fidget with the metal arm on the cap.

Those used to be my favorites, but the quality seemed to have gone downhill and they started to come with less ink in them. I moved on to the Uni-Ball Deluxe, but then it seemed like the same thing happened. So I got a budget fountain pen - nobody can retroactively shaft me on ink quantity or build quality.

They dig in too much for my tastes.

Sakura figma series glide well, and are what I settled upon. But I needed to go down a few steps of tip size to 0.2mm to achieve the same line width as my previous favourite of pilot v5 hi-techpoint.

s/figma/pigma/ ... of course.

My biggest peeve is pens that dry up or stop working. So I propose a category, "best pen for finding in your glove compartment."

Is there a particular type that's better than the others?

Probably the pressurized ballpoints like the Space Pen:

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Best-Pressurized-Ink-Pens/p...

They don't write as nicely as fountain or gel pens, but when you need to write on receipt paper or a waxed carton, they will work.

You can put the Fisher Space Pen refills in any pen that takes a Parker ballpoint refill.

I have a Fischer CAP-O-MATIC space pen which I've have longer than all of the cars I've owned. I think I bought some time around 1996. It hasn't been used frequent enough to need a refill but it's never failed to write. The only problem is a small bit of ink will crust up on the tip which you can wipe off or just accept a dot where you first placed the pen down on paper.

Nice article, and love a good pen. But I often struggle to find notebooks with consistently nice paper for fountain pens and fine nibs. Anyone got any recommendations?

Already tried this sampler set? https://www.gouletpens.com/products/notebook-sampler-package...

I think everything I tried from that set so far worked well with fountain pens, though I did like some more than others. My favorite so far was probably the Mnemosyne notebook. The Rhodia webnotebook (not in the sample pack) is fantastic too.

For physics, math, general writing, I'm using Roaring Springs buff colored engineering pads (#15 paper type). Fairly fountain-pen friendly, though not as good as the papers in the above sampler set. I haven't found fountain pen paper with an engineering grid yet though, so it's the best compromise so far. The green 200 page pads are actually pretty good for fountain pens last I tried them, however the sheets were too thin for my taste and tended to eventually curl up where my forearm rested on them. Worth mentioning that the last time I bought these pads was back in 2020 when I got a 24 pack box that's still going strong, so it's possible paper quality has changed since then.

For reference, the pen I'm using is a Karas INK V2 with a EF Bock nib. Ink is Noodler's Black.

I just use Bic Cristal pens. Cheap, reliable, available anywhere, classic design. I just keep a cup of them nearby so I can always find one.

The real question is, what's the best pencil?

The Uni Kuru Toga is probably the best mechanical pencil (in my opinion), but that's driven in part because it's wonderfully engineered and I'm a dork for that.

The best game changer for me was going with a mechanical pencil with a wider lead, because the lead doesn't break as often.

Bic makes a 0.9mm mech that I can usually find locally. Slide on a foam gripper for a better holding experience.

The silver Rotring 800 of course

I’m a bigger fan of the Rotring 600 myself. Fewer moving parts.

I just got one. Digging it so far. My struggle has been to find a softer lead that isn't so brittle (I know this is like trying to find water that isn't wet). 4B is too soft. 2B is too hard. I wonder if a 3B exists...

A shame that my favorite pen isn't on the list.

I love writing with Uniball Roller 0.5 mm micro tip rollerball pens

Extremely consistent pen with crisp lines

Huge fan of the Uni-ball Signo UM-151 Gel Pen (I get the 28mm). I've been buying them from jetpens for years.

My daily driver is Herb 330 with nib widened by knife.

Nothing will ever replace my Pilot Precise V7 (blue).

Pfft. Still my best https://unsharpen.com/pen/lamy-unic-ballpoint/ from 1985, that is! (The 290, stainless steel)

as a lefty I’ve found what qualifies a good pen is how quickly the ink dries to prevent smudging

you could always buy your pens from penisland.net too

I get that pens are great and all, but why is there a store link on HN?

The link is to an extensive review on the site.

Jetpens is a known dealer of stationary crack - I love them. They also put out some great videos and articles about their products, on par with some of Ars' old Mac OS reviews.

jetpens is both a store and a well-known source of pen related info

Honestly a great way to have a self sustaining niche website.

Looking over the smaller communities I've been a part of over my internet adventures, nearly 25 years, that have disappeared due to costs or other commitments, I wish they all had stores to self sustain and grow their communities.

Now I wonder what the equivalent the online equivalent to cooperatives would be for the internet, and if there are any examples attempting this.

Because people upvoted it.

The link is to their blog, technically. The article aims to be informative.

At first glance, it seems like another AI-generated page full of Amazon referral links. But looking closer, that's their shop site: mimicking Amazon's web interface pleasantly welcomes the user. That's a well thought UI/UX!

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