Mountain of Ink
mountainofink.com
mountainofink.com
I have a Lamy Safari that I got in 2012 and works just as well today.
It's what I still recommend to anyone who asks what to get.
Just get the pen, with its cartridge, add more cartridges -- you can stay here and already you're way better than with most standard ball pens that you'd be using otherwise.
Then, get the small converter, plop it in, get your first bottle of ink -- and again you can stay here and enjoy your pen-and-ink experience for a long long time.
Now if you want to try a few different inks, do that next. Maybe get a second pen, see whether 'fine' or 'medium' sized nibs is more your thing.
Go further than that if you want, but you don't have to.
Either way, that first step is enough to improve your life a lot
Many people like to write also like to write with fountain pens a lot, hence we go exploring. Collecting pens, inks and paper.
I carry three pens. Three colors, three widths, three manufacturers (it's not a rule, but my current rotation is like that). What I currently have is a result of my own curiosity, and I would do the same if I have started over.
There are few things in modern life which are lifetime buys and you can use every day of your life, a good pen is one of them, enjoy it instead of feeding into the endless search for something better. 99% of what I have written for the past ~decade has been with one pen, it is an old friend at this point. I picked my ink by it being a reputable brand and sold in bottles big enough that it would last years, and when it was time to order another bottle I had to pull it out to check what it was so I could order another because I had forgotten what it was. I am sure there are better pens and better inks but I have no real issues with what I have and anything else will be lacking in something more important than the supposed benefits offered by those better pens and inks.
The secret sauce of Lamy and Faber Castell is, their lower and higher end pens use the same feeds and nibs, so the lower end pens are very dependable, too.
You can leave a simple Lamy Safari (one of my favorites) to your grandchildren, and they'll be happy with it, too.
The only thing is, a good gold nib is a very comfortable thing to use, if it's your cup of tea, but modern steel nibs are very enjoyable to use, too.
On the ink side, if you want to have a single ink to depend on, give Montblanc Royal Blue a go. My dad used to use only that ink, and when I used it for the first time, I told my dad how wonderful to write with that, and he answered "yeah, it is" with a grin.
Also, Pilot's and Graf von Faber Castell's gold nibs are great and soft. On the other hand Sailor's 21K gold nibs are relatively nails and feels off it that's not your taste.
My point is, I'd rather carry a Kaweco or a Lamy with a replaceable steel nib as an EDC, because steel nibs' flow is a bit more conservative and they are cheaper if life happens. So they are more suited to EDC and daily use on the go.
However, a good gold nib is a very posh and enjoyable thing, but I prefer to use them at my desk due to their relative softness and high maintenance.
BTW, Lamy's steel nibs polish great in a month or two of daily usage. Pilot and Faber Castell are close followers, but Lamy becomes something sublime as you use it more.
That is plainly incorrect.
In Faber Castell, sans Grip 2011, all pens use the same nib and feed, incl Loom, Ambition, E-Motion, Neo Slim and others. Graf von Faber Castell uses same feeds with Faber Castell pens. Steel GvFC nibs on differ in stamping and maybe have tighter quality control, but interchangeable with standard FC pens. GvFC gold nibs are interchangeable again with pens using the same feeds, except some limited pens with bigger nibs.
Parker also uses the same nibs and very similar feeds inside the family. Waterman and Parker are under the same umbrella and only has cosmetic differences in their nibs and feeds, along almost all the pens.
Faber Castell Grip 2011 uses exactly the same feed and nib with Kaweco Perkeo. Kaweco's other pens, sans Original 250 all use the same nibs and feeds. Only feed housing is different between plastic and metal models, metal models having screw-on feed housings while plastic models have slip on versions.
Some other manufacturers like Franklin Christoph and Esterbrook use Schmidt #6 system with screw on nib units with custom stamping, so their nibs are interchangeable with any Schmidt #6 unit. One of my such pens have a custom grind called dentist (a reverse architect, basically) ground from a bog standard Schmidt #6.
Lamy 2000, Scheaffer Inlaid/Imperial, Parker Duofold, Montblanc are outliers in the pen world with their bespoke nibs and feeds. Nibs and feeds are very optimized over the years, and big manufacturers prefer to build their different pens on the same proven platforms, because these parts are hard, slow and expensive to optimize further when you hit the sweet spot. Also, precision machinery is expensive. So when you optimize, you exploit that platform.
For one thing, limiting yourself to pre-filled cartridges locks you out of 95%+ of the fancy ink out there, which is sold bottled for use with internal reservoirs.
Yeah, Waterman is not that "fancy", but being able to carry 8 long cartridges of Serenity/Florida blue with a dependable pen is hard to beat if you are on the go.
They're not (except maybe Diamine occasionally) making shimmer inks, or glitter inks, or color shift inks, or ...
I'm talking mostly about small boutique makers.
For me, a good permanent or IG ink is fancy enough, because I can use them in my lab notebooks and be sure to open and re-read it five years later. For you, a fancy ink brings you joy and has different tricks IIUC, and is equally valid.
The best hobbies are usually both irrational and completely unnecessary.
I also take photos and dance. Does this fulfill your criteria for good hobbies? :)
Clearly you've never tried being left-handed.
(I joke, but I also wish fountain pens wouldn't fundamentally be incompatible with my way of writing. And I was taught to write with a fountain pen using cursive in school, so it's not like I didn't try.)
My second pen was filled by piston and I bought some cheap Diamine samplers, and it was both simple to use and cheap.
I found converters to be often hard to use which results in messes.
A piston pen is exactly same as a converter one. For example Pelikan M605, Twsbi Eco, Lamy 2000, etc.
Vacuum pens are nice, but need more care during filling and need deeper bottles since the process is somewhat more violent.
More deft hands probably don't have this problem. I would come out with inky hands no matter the filling system when I first started using fountain pens. Look ma', no (stained) hands!
E.g.:
And that’s the moment you fell into the trap.
Very useful!
Noodlers makes some unique pens and inks. I have a Noodlers Ahab, for example, that has a very flexible nib. Different than any of the more conventional pens I used before.
But one thing that bothers me about fountain pens is that they are messy. Some of it can be avoided. You don't need a piston filler to dip into your special ink bottle to refill your pen if you don't mind using regular cartridges. But one thing that seems unavoidable is that the "section" (the part where you hold the pen) gets messy when you put the cap on it. I wonder why every fountain pen seems to have this design. One would think that a smaller cap that only covers the nib would suffice.
I wonder if there are fountain pens like this. I feel another rabbit hole calling.
Carrying pens nib up, in a pocket or bag helps. Also some pens are more resistant to this. From my experience Lamy, Faber Castell and Kaweco makes most spit-resistant and accessible pens. I can recommend Lamy Safari, Kaweco Perkeo or Faber Castell Grip 2011 (basically a Perkeo in a different shell), if you want to explore further.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help.
I think another reason for messy fingers is the way I hold the pen. It's easy to come into contact with the nib or the exposed part of the feed when you're not careful.
I might just be a bit clumsy. :)
> I might just be a bit clumsy. :)
We all are, don't feel bad about it.
Lamy Safari, Kaweco Perkeo and Faber Castell Grip 2011 have triangular grips which forces you to hold the pen correctly. Many people find these uncomfortable, but I love them. Because it allows me blindly open them (i.e.: Oh I need to take note of this, where's my pen?) while looking to the screen or elsewhere.
We all start from somewhere. Using fountain pens is not an instinctual thing. Also, even after trying these and decide that fountain pens aren't for you, that's perfectly OK, too.
From my experience, when you get used to fountain pens, they're not messier than a ballpoint pen.
Hope these tips help,
Have a nice day! ;)
FYI, there are fountain pens with a retractable nib that don't have a cap, including for example the:
- Pilot Vanishing Point/Capless/Decimo (there's a cheaper Japanese "Special Alloy" version as well)
- LAMY dialog
- Platinum Curidas
I don't know if they fix your inky fingers issue but if taking the cap on and off is a hassle then these might be worth looking into.
EDIT: formatting
I've never ever had a section get messy. Ever.
I actually think you have it backwards. Hobbyists drive the economics of almost all gear used for creative pursuits. For every artist making meaningful objects and sharing them with the world, there are a 100 dabblers who fantasize about being that, buy a bunch of stuff, but never really use it.
This is a strange but ultimately harmonious economic arrangement. Hobbyists increase scale, which helps gear producers lower costs, which benefit actual artists.
In IT circles, computers and tablets are the most coveted tools for note taking due to processing flexibility it provides, but while less visible, writing is there, evolving.
From personal experience, writing with pen and paper unlocks a different mode in brain. Personally, I can concentrate better, think deeper and clearer, hence I work with pen and paper a lot, incl. software/architecture/algorithm design, free-form thinking while working on other things. I keep "lab notebooks" for software I develop. I also keep a hand-written diary, which again feels and affects very differently when compared to writing to a text document on screen.
There's another sub-culture who writes for the sake of writing (people generally transcribe books by hand). I don't judge them, but that's not my taste.
Some writing inks are very cheap (Pelikan 4001 / Lamy Standard / Parker / Waterman comes to my mind), but some pigments and dyes are very expensive and inks are produced in limited quantities. Companies like Noodler's produce very interesting chemistries and try to keep their costs low to provide the most ink for the buck, but they also make some exotic inks. It's not uncommon to ask a producer why an ink is not produced anymore, and getting "they don't make the dyes anymore, we got their all stock they produced for the last couple of years" as an answer.
So, tl;dr: Writing has evolved, but it's not going anywhere soon. Some of us are writing a ton, with purpose and intent. And no, some inks are not cheap, but "standard issue" inks are optimized for cost and performance, and they are very good inks, indeed.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.
I can write 20x faster with a keyboard and I won't have cramps after a few minutes. And I don't think painful hands are a prerequisite for deep thought.
Writing's speed and correction limits makes me think and filter before I actually write. This allows me to form clearer thoughts in less time. I arrive to a better place, faster.
Also, neither writing nor typing cramps my hands, and I do both of them for hours if I need to. That's interesting.
I'm slowly collecting research focusing on differences on typing and writing, but the landscape is barren. I'll publish a list when I have sufficient resources at hand.
Of course, all things Stationery, I occasionally continue to watch JetPens. Unfortunately, for my liking, they seem to be more and more Kawaii.
He's a nice guy.
If you talk with him, and if you can relay this, I'd be glad.
The last pen I received from them was broken. They would not take it back, asked me to deal with the manufacturer directly. Horrible customer service. After so many expensive pens (Pelikan, Pilot and Visconti), I won't be buying from them again.
I ended up fixing the pen myself. It works well now, but after that experience, I am done with Goulet.
As I said nearby [1], when I had Decimo trouble, he not only got hold of Pilot to find out they don't sell an OEM o-ring, but after that spent the day back and forth with me via email, making and giving accurate measurements of an intact part, all kinds of things. The end result is still the first pen I reach for all day, every day. I don't know what was really so different between your case and mine, but I doubt it had that much to do with Brian.
In addition to deteriorating service and slow shipping concerns compared to alternatives, there’s a view that purchasing from the company directly funds anti-LGBTQ owners and organizations. The owners cofounded a branch of a church whose pastor made wildly anti-LGBTQ remarks. The response to the controversy was not well handled by the Goulets (essentially radio silence then an highly misleading statement). The controversy came around the same time a well beloved podcast employee Drew was fired.
There was also the prior controversy with Noodler’s Inks and the Gaulet’s rehabilitating him after anti-Semitic imagery was placed for a second time on his bottles.
Because so much of the original megathread was deleted (whole lot of subreddit moderation drama occurred because of this incident) I’m linking a later summary for those curious.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1heveiu/the_2...
Beliefs in public are another matter in the United States, where I have spent my life a citizen. It is for like cause my privilege to take this rather childish campaign of character assassination exactly as seriously as it deserves.
Oh sure, the SBC has been industriously covering a Catholic-grade child sex abuse scandal since some time early last year. But the SBC also by design, being effectively a 501(c) something-or-other front and to my view encompassed by RICO, isn't really capable of responding; the appropriately equipped organizations would be the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Absent their involvement, and even in light of their present and ongoing compromise, am I meant to imagine Reddit is better in this regard? Good grief, that place has been as bad as the worst you hear of Discord now, and nothing out of Reddit's ownership or the regulatory environment suggests meaningful intent to do better.
But what do I know? I'm just a dumb old redneck homo who came out of Mississippi, 'trade' being one term I have heard along the way. Of course it's the just role of the fancy folk with leisure for literacy, like you, to instruct my brute if decent kind of our proper role in things. You know, like your intellectual forebears, the antebellum Southern planters who so cozened my own poor ancestors and maintained them in their useful ignorance. I like to hope we're a little more clever this generation. Or more continent in where we place our trust, at least.
I like to use as fine a pen as possible if I'm just trying to work something out (diagrams, small notes, etc), and I've found that a Unipin Fine Line (currently a 0.03) does work well, though I've been having some issues with ink flow recently (though the pen is probably nearing the end of its life at this point anyway). I have liked the feel of Uniball Eye pens in the past, though they have a similar smudging problem if used for prose. Other than that, the cheapest Bic ballpoints have been the most successful for me, since the ink dries super fast and they feel good enough to write with.
In school I was given a specific left handed fountain pen to write with, but I always had to write at wonky angles to try and keep it legible, and it never really worked very well anyway. Pushing the pen instead of pulling it generally gives bad results. I have experimented with trying to do mirror writing, like Leonardo da Vinci, but obviously nobody else can read it like that
I use Iroshizuku Kon Peki, Oxford Optik paper, Pilot Prera and Kakuno in M width.
I’ve even written my take on why they’re such great devices for machine art: https://lostpixels.io/writings/fountain-pens-plotters
Black: Sailor Jentle Black
Blue Black: Sailor Sei-boku
https://www.penchalet.com/blog/platinum-chou-kuro-vs-carbon-...
https://www.amazon.ca/PLATINUM-Ink-Bottle-Carbon-Black/dp/B0...
I really dislike the feeling that you need to be a bit careful with a tool. I want the peace of mind of being able to drop pens nib-first into the ground. They're also not great for writing on many types of paper and require some care and maintenance.
My experience getting into double-edge razors/nice shaving soaps was much better. They're not just small luxuries, but actually better-performant and more practical than the popular alternatives in almost every way.
(On the pen front, today I'm very satisfied with my "Kaweco LILIPUT Ball Pen Stainless Steel" - it's super compact, has a nice weight to it and just feels well-constructed and solid. I hope to use it for many years to come. (If you want to get one, beware the Aluminium version, which looks identical but is noticeably lighter))
It’s called safety razor, if I understood you correctly.
Also, it’s quite hard to write with it, I’ll stick to fountain pens.
Most of us who use fountain pen feel this way too.
I literally just an hour ago tried picking up a gel pen for writing and 3 minutes later it went back into storage. It's Uniball One so it's not a bad gel pen either.