My fountain pen history

[silveredeye]

(I hope it is okay to post here. The last post in the comm was a long time ago, but I like fountain pens and would love to talk about them)

I got into fountain pens sometime last year. I occasionally lurk on professional writers' twitters and a lot of them were discovering fountain pens around that time, so I figured I'd see what it was all about.

Turns out I really like writing with fountain pens. As a rule they're much easier on my hands, especially when I have to write for a long time (my ballpoint pens had a sad tendency to get dry and I had to press down on them a little, which got really annoying on last day of NaNoWriMo and other such times). And some of the inks are pretty. I used to think I was very much a black pen only type of person, but turns out I enjoy colourful inks.

I'm slightly more to the pragmatic side of the hobby, I think. I have more pens and inks than I strictly need for writing and I am not above buying even more pretty inks, but when it comes to the fabulously beautiful limited editions (that are also fabulously expensive, even if occasionally within my means) I'm usually content to lust after them from afar.

I have five fountain pens of varying nib width and fanciness, which will probably be enough for me for a good while. My handwriting is very tiny by most people's standards, so I'm heavily biased towards smaller nibs.

In the order I brought my pens:

1. Pilot Metropolitan (Fine nib): basically a perfect starter pen. Looks very elegant, writes well, haven't had any issues with it. My only gripe is that it only fits tiny-ish converters, so it has to be refilled in the middle of long writing sessions.
2. TWSBI Eco (Extra Fine nib): the other very good starter pen. Same price range as the Metropolitan, not quite as elegant, but has massive ink capacity. Ecos are a bit more fragile, though (I haven't had this problem (yet), but my friend's Eco got a crack in it, presumably from being dropped unluckily).
3. TWSBI Diamond 580 (1.1mm nib): slightly more expensive, more stylish and heavier than the Eco. Otherwise behaves the same. 1.1mm is much too wide for my usual everyday handwriting, so I write titles and signs with it. It displays all the properties of the ink the best, though.
4. Pelikan M205 (Medium nib): on the expensive side for my taste, smallest of my pens (in size and weight, not in ink capacity). Writes very smoothly, basically glides over the paper.
5. Pilot Metal Falcon (soft Extra Fine nib): probably the most expensive pen I'll own (although it might not look like it, it has the same understated elegance as the Metropolitan). Also the thinnest nib I own. Probably borderline scratchy for some people, but I like it a lot. I can write as tiny as I want with it.

(Pilot is a Japanese company, which means that their nibs are approximately one size smaller than Pelikan/TWSBI sizes. So Pilot Fine nib writes about as thin as TWSBI Extra Fine, and Pilot Soft Extra Fine is thinner than TWSBI Extra Fine.)

Inks I own and have tried, ordered alphabetically by manufacturer, colour in parentheses:

• De Atramentis: Document Black (black)
• Diamine: Silver Fox (light grey)
• L'Artisan Pastelier (Callifolio): Gris Payne (blue-grey)
• Pelikan (all Edelstein): Jade (light green), Olivine (mid-green), Tanzanite (dark blue)
• Pilot (all Iroshizuku): Fuyu-syogun (blue-grey)
• Robert Oster: Gold Antiqua (...golden)
• Sailor: Tokiwa-matsu (mid-green)

(All the grays are because I fell hopelessly in love with Fuyu-syogun early on and tried to find a cheaper alternative. Eventually I gave up and just bought some Fuyu-syogun.)

Inks I've only tried in a sample, but liked:

• Pelikan: Edelstein Topaz (bright blue)
• Robert Oster: Claret (purple)

I'd be glad to talk about the pens and inks I own.

(crossposted with some modifications from my own journal)