Who uses Fountain Pens?

^^That’s a good look. Hope you dig how it writes!

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I love fountain pens, not sure why but its been something I have always liked since forever. I inherited some watermans, parkers, and schaffers from my grandfather that are in need of restoration. I also have a rotring 600, pilot prera, a pentel excalibur which I never heard of before, lamy safari, and a twsbi diamond. I really like the TWSBI, if I had to recommend only one pen then that’s the one.

Inks, so far I have tried many kinds, but I have liked Mont Blanc’s blue, they make decent inks. I also have noodlers and tried private reserve. What I like about the inks though are sometimes the bottles that come with it. My favorite bottles are the Mont Blanc shoe shaped bottle, very practical and almost impossible to spill, and the Pilot Namiki bottle for its style.

Try opening the center grooves on a Jinhao feed and dropping a Zebra G disposable flex nib in there! Cheap flex fun, with a bit of frustration possible. :wink: Helps to prime the nib when you first start writing.

I saw the three 159’s spring color bundle on Amazon for $12.99 prime and had to try it out!

This one was with Noodler’s Proctor’s Ledge ink which is a bit dry.

Line the vertical groove on the nib up with a feed gap.

^^^

Wow! That looks great.

I have some Waterman and Scheaffer semi-flex nibs, but nothing like that. Will look into.

I dabble in brass-nibbed dipped pens and the occasional quill. I actually carried a wooden box of inks and quills with me in college; they’re what I used to take notes in class. One of these days I’m going to try cutting my own quill pens.

So…I just joined this forum because of my fast growing new addiction to throwing.
Low and behold, there’s a post on this forum about fountain pens…where the rest of my discretionary income goes, lol.:smile:

I’ve been using my x450 just about every day since I received my ink for it. I really enjoy it.

I was going to show some writing examples until beherenow’s post! :o

Any leftys using (or attempted to use) a fountain pen? I really wanted to pick one up from Tactile Turn a while back but even rollerball refills are finicky with leftys and I feel like I’d be fighting a fountain pen if I tried to use it

sorry not a leftie, I hear that its doable to write with any and all fountain pens while left handed. The key is to use fast drying ink and paper that absorbs ink.

A lot of the problems for lefties arise from the “pushing” motion instead of pulling that you get from right handed use. That’s always my concern. Y’all are lucky to just be able to buy whatever pens you want!

I’m ambidextrous with fountain pens, so I can give you a comparison. I use a FP at work with my left for taking notes and any quick writing I need to do. (I learned to write with my left and have done so for all but the last 3 years.) I write letters (correspondence) with my right hand. It’s a way for me to slow down and get away from the day to day demands.

So anyway, yes, writing with your left with a fountain pen is more pushing than the pulling that righties do. However, it doesn’t feel significantly different as long as the nib of the pen isn’t snaggy (which it shouldn’t be unless something is wrong). A highly polished nib, especially a broader one with light pressure can glide across the page like it’s on ice.

If you are an under writer (hand below line of writing) go for whatever you like. If you are an over writer or like me, you drag your hand straight across the written line, then a finer nib and/or quicker drying ink and somewhat absorbent paper (as was mentioned above) make things easier.

Even so, I use a Japanese medium nib (which is like a fine compared to other companies) and regular ink at work with my left and don’t have issues. I write in a Rhodia steno-sized pad, so the paper isn’t particularly absorbent, but since I am taking short notes, I don’t cross my writing very often, so it works.

If you haven’t tried a fountain pen, then to get a feel for it you can get a Pilot Varsity or a Platinum Preppy (both cheap, disposable, and fairly good writers at that price point). If you want to dive in there are several cheap but decent writers available once you know which ones do well. However, my recommendation for quality, moderate affordability, great reliable performance, and can hold lots of ink, is the TWSBI Eco. Get a Fine nib to start out with unless your writing is super small, then an Extra Fine. Google fast drying fountain pen ink if you want help in that direction.

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I second the TWSBI Eco recommendation. I have a medium and a 1.5 stub and they are very smooth and a pleasure to write with.
I’ve been writing with my Pilot Metropolitan lately…I like that one as well.
My favorite so far, though, is my Pilot VP. I dig that thing a lot more than I thought I would.

So I just got my 3 pack of the Varsities and I’ve gotta say I’m pleasantly surprised. I expected it to feel like a train wreck with the left hand but it actually seems to be nicer than many of the roller ball refills I’ve used. Just wanted to say thanks for reminding me of another way to spend money that I had forgotten about :wink:

You guys have me headed down another dangerous path lol. I just got my TWSBI Diamond 580AL in rose along with the Diamond ink bottle. Love it. The EF nib is great. I’m left handed and my writing is small so the EF seems like MattB was dead on with the recommendation. Using noodlers Bernanke blue

Just discovered this thread. Nice to see other throwers also love fps.
I’ve been using fps for 6-7 years now and could never go back to ballpoints. Like many others the Lamy 2K is an everyday workhorse and travel companion but todays line up also has Aurora 88 large B, Pilot Custom 823 B nib, Pelikan m600 F and a Ranga 8B in M.

I really love this thread, I’ve been reading it now and again!

I’ve never turned a pen before, but I’m thinking about making couple of fountain pens from exotic woods as Christmas gifts for the family this year.

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I kinda use fountain pens but like I don’t do calligraphy so I guess that doesn’t make me a legit fountain pen enthusiast.

Actually they don’t really have anything to do with each other unless you are using a nib (tip of the pen) specifically designed for calligraphy. Most people just use them like regular pens. I avoided them for a long time because I’m left handed. There are tons of pens that just don’t work for left handed writers and I thought fountain pens would fall into that category. Turns out they work better than most, just gotta be careful about occasionally sliding your hand through wet ink if you’re a lefty lol but that’s more of a lefty problem, not a fountain pen problem

I’ma lefty too.

I went through a fountain pen phase earlier this year. I was mostly into flex pens and stub nibs for stylized writing.

Conklin DuraFlex used here to write in Elian Script:

duraflex_01_1K

Pilot Parallel used to write in Sarati (Late Form):

sarati_script

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