Does anyone use Fountain Pens?

Well I will keep yall posted on my online pen store

That fountain pen sucks so bad, lol. It was my first pen too, and it writes more like a marker than anything

Pick up a large bottle of Noodler’s ink, the 4.5 oz ones. Certain inks come with a free fountain pen. It will either be a platinum preppy or the Noodler’s nib creeper depending on the ink. Imo, the nib creeper is the best budget pen you can get, but my girlfriend loves the preppy so much, she went and bought more of them on their own. Plus the preppy is $4 on its own, and writes decently, especially considering the price.

If you want to spend a bit more on a SUPER solid everyday writer, the Lamy Safari just can’t be beaten. I liked it so much, I went and bought the aluminum version, the Al-Star. I personally prefer the fine point, but the medium nib writes nice and wet, and it feels like writing with butter on hot glass.

cool I will look into it. :slight_smile:

Yep, I like them. 
The only complaint I’ve seen on the Safari is the forced grip style but they are nice pens and the student pen in Germany.  I like the TWSBI pens too, the 580 (older 540) are great writers and hold a lot of ink as does the VAC 700, Mini, etc.  The Kaweco Classic Sport ($25) pocket pen is a really smooth writer too, especially the bold 24k plated nib.  The bold has some nice shading even without flex.
If you want to have some fun pick up some Esterbrook pens off ebay and restore them.  Easy to do, usually just need a new sac and some plastic polish to get them looking and working like new.  The Parker Vacumatic’s are also nice restored and plentiful.
The Ahab’s, Conrad’s, etc. are nice Noodler’s pens too.  You’ll learn a bit about them to tune them to your preference which was Nathan’s whole point, but worth it imho.  Some of the inks on the other hand can be a burden due to the properties, but many are just fine and you can get Bulletproof!

If you want to learn different styles of cursive and lettering this is a good resource…
http://www.iampeth.com/lessons

Michael Sull has a nice book on cursive too…
http://www.spencerian.com/
Review here:  http://fpgeeks.com/2011/10/american-cursive-handwriting-by-michael-sull-349-pages-now-available/

For me, the grip section on the safari style pens helps me keep the pen from rotating, and my fingers rest right on the flat parts with a normal grip anyway. But I also enjoy round sections, I just am not a huge fan of thinner pens. I tolerate the nib creepers because they are free and write well.

Yeah, the Noodler’s pens you have to actually but are great for learning nib tuning. It’s a huge pain if you just want the pen to work, but if you want the perfect flex to flow ratio, it’s amazing, I love my Ahabs.

I’ve been thinking about restoring some pens, but I’m lazy lol. Like I said, the hobby aspect of fountain pens is more on the ink side for me, I love having different inks

Yeah people seem to love or hate the safari grip. I’m ok with it but that’s really the only complaint on them I’ve ever read. I like a larger pen myself having larger hands.

I’ve got several Ahab’s and even done some ‘angel wing’ modifications on some nibs. It gives a much easier flex for the nib but you really need to open up vents and carve out the center on the feed to keep it flowing well. Pretty simple with a file or dremel tool. Just take your time since Noodler’s doesn’t sale nibs alone. Here’s a link if you’re interested… Noodler´s Ahab - Ease My Flex Mod - Fountain Pen Reviews - The Fountain Pen Network

The restoration takes a little time but it’s worth it when you bring something 70 to 100 years old back to a fine looking and working condition and it writes great.

I’m the same way with ink. Always looking for that spectacular well performing color! Have you tried Majestic Blue by Diamine? It has a nice red sheen in the blue in the right light. Nice ink properties too.

I’m impressed so many have mentioned the Noodlers pens (Ahab, Konrad & nib creeper). I have a couple Ahabs and Konrads, but find the nib creeper too thin for my taste. It’s nice when you find people interested in two of your hobbies.

You all probably know about fountainpennetwork.com, it is a very friendly online community dedicated to fountain pens. My screen name over there is also “French”

Hey guys I’m shopping for a fountain pen for my dads birthday? Do you have and suggestions? Trying to keep it under $30 cause I’m also buying him a bottle of ink too.
From what I have heard from my dad when I was talking to him it sounds like he wants something with a piston converter and a nib that makes a signature look nice on printer paper.

actually, I have bought nibs and feeds by themselves, I’ve messed up my share of them just tinkering. I may do that mod to the broken Ahab I keep at home (my first Ahab that was a 1st gen and it was already old when I bought it, so the body was weakened and it cracked at the threads, which wouldn’t have been a problem is the converter didn’t break also ::slight_smile: but that’s just a 1:1000000 story)

I actually haven’t, but that sounds amazing! I actually have a thing for Diamine inks, my all time favorite ink is their Ox Blood! I write in that color almost every day, and I also enjoy the Conway Stewart colors they make, though the only bottle I could find was St. Blazey (favorite color is red if you can’t tell)
I am a fan of Montblanc inks also, I use Johnathon Swift in my Al-Star, Leonardo is quickly becoming my 2nd favorite ink color though, it’s a gorgeous red-brown, and I have a bottle of their standard black that performs really well on standard notebook paper. Have you tried the J Herbin 1670 inks? The rouge hematite and blue (don’t remember the name) are beautiful on paper, and my girlfriend actually bought a bottle of the blue, but they have this almost glitter-like stuff in them, to add the metallic sheen, that likes to clog my feeds if I don’t constantly use them.

You had to get me started on ink lol

Noodler’s Ahab, best pen made for $25.

okay thanks! now since I’m shopping i remember my dad saying something about having a parker pen as his first fountain pen? what are your opinions on them? they look really solid but i cant tell if they have converters or not to be a piston pen

As far as I remember, you should be able to tell if it’s a piston filler or a cartridge converter operated filling system on them. It should actually tell you on the webstore you are looking into. Like here, http://www.gouletpens.com/pkr1892552/p/PKR1892552 , at goulet pens, this one tells you that its a cartridge converter pen, and that the converter needs to be purchased separately

Thanks! I’m thinking I’m going to spend a little more on a fountain pen now just so my dad can feel nostalgic about his first fountain pen.

Awesome 8)

I like their Red Dragon a lot which is close to Ox Blood. The reds look good on the Rhodia ivory paper which is an off white cream/tan color. Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang is a black light reactive red. It will clog up feeds a bit too if it sits for a while like JH Hematite with the gold sheen. I like the shading with Noodler’s Apache Sunset in the Ahab’s! Yep, ink is a book in itself!

Whats the difference between flex nibs, normal, and italics?

Flex nibs will actually flex the tines open with pressure as you write giving you line variation. They’ll go from an extra-fine or fine to bold or double bold line typically. With some inks this gives you a really nice shading to the lines/letters.

Normal nibs are just x-fine, Fine, Medium, Bold, dbl-bold in sizes but don’t flex usually, although some softer nibs do flex a tiny bit and aren’t considered flex nibs. Check out the Goulet Pens nib comparisons tool and you’ll see the difference on the nibs you choose. http://www.gouletpens.com/nib-nook

Italic nibs are wide and have a slanted angle ground on the end of the nib. A stub nib is a wide nib without the slant. This lets you write thick or thin lines depending on how you’re holding the nib. These nibs also show off the shading in some inks.

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I really want to try the Qin Shi Huang, the YouTube video they put out on it really is interesting to watch. I have been meaning to try Rhodia paper, but I’ve been using craft store mixed media paper when I really want to care about feathering and shading more than just daily writing.

I love writing in Apache Sunset, that has to be one of the best shading inks out there, even if you don’t like yellowish ink. I’m also very fond of the shading I can pull out of the darker inks I own also, dark colors with shading is just awesome, and I can actually get some subtle shading out of Montblanc’s black ink since it’s not as heavy of a black as anti feather from Noodler’s, and that is one of my favorites for a more reserved kind of thing. You really need to try MB’s Leonardo if you haven’t, I did some flex writing today out of boredom, and the shading was actually pretty striking to look at

And you answered the nib question thoroughly, no use repeating :stuck_out_tongue:

I looked for the MB Leonardo and it’s all gone I guess!  Other than a couple ebay way overpriced bottles.  Some said it was very similar to Antietam from Noodler’s which I have and like at least.  Saw the MB Einstein limited edition was still around and have just gotten into some grey’s so that might be fun to try since it’s supposed to have silver speckle and sheen similar to the Herbin’s new Stormy Grey with gold speckle and sheen like their Hematite Red.  Never even thought I would want or like grey ink!

Abby, don’t know if your set on a Parker but this old school Conklin looked nice!  Converter and nice box to boot.
http://www.gouletpens.com/ck71340/p/CK71340

The Conklin Pen Company revives its 1920’s classic model, the Duragraph. The Duragraph was originally released in 1923, and is a classic example of the streamlined flat-top design that was so popular during that era. The Duragraph is produced from a unique hand-made resin, and each pen features the famous Conklin logo engraved over a brushed metal crown on each cap. A silver-plated clip and cap trim band accent each pen.
The fountain pens feature a polished stainless steel nib in the 1.1 size, and a two-tone finish for the fine and medium nibs. The Duragraph fountain pens use a cartridge/converter filling system, and the international style converter is included. The pens are presented in a gorgeous satin-lined gift box.

http://www.andersonpens.com/v/vspfiles/photos/CK71341-2.jpg

All I remember is using a friend’s once. Don’t remember what it looked like.
Remembered using it to write in a few languages though. English, Spanish, Filipino, Korean.

gah! Your making it harder cause my dads birthday is February 14!
but anywyas… thanks for the suggestion im still looking at parker though cause that was the brand that was my dad’s first thing so i think giving him a little nostalgia can’t be that bad.