Fountain pens

kamagong

kamagong

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Jan 13, 2001
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I've decided to buy a fountain pen. I don't have much experience with fountain pens, so I decided to come here and ask you guys some questions before I pick one up. Because this will be my first fountain pen I obviously do not want to spend that much money. I've tentatively decided on the Pilot Knight. Does anyone have experience with this pen (i.e., how is the quality?) I've found this pen on pendemonium, and this site mentioned that the Pilot Knight comes with both a cartridge and a converter. I assume that a converter is an alternative ink delivery system to the cartridge. Am I right? If so, how does the converter work?

I also want to ask if you guys have any preferred sites that you recommend doing business with. Thanks for all the help.
 
A converter is a cartridge that has a piston inside so you can suck up ink from a bottle. A lot of pen aficionados prefer their ink from a bottle. It's part of the whole fountain pen experience.

I've made a few (really expensive) titanium pens and have done a couple of the pen shows. I met Bert from Bertram's Inkwell, and he looked to be a very knowledgable and nice guy to deal with. A couple others that come to mind are Penopoly, Total Office Supplies, PenCity, and World Lux.
 
If you do get one, it may be a good idea not to carry one on board an airplane. The decrease in air pressure in the cabin as the airplane climbs to its cruising altitude can cause the pen to leak.
 
If you do get one, it may be a good idea not to carry one on board an airplane. The decrease in air pressure in the cabin as the airplane climbs to its cruising altitude can cause the pen to leak.
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comet said:
Also not good for Lefty's:mad:
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Neither of these are 100% factual. There are many pens that work fine in airplanes as long as you follow certain guidelines. As for lefties, it depends upon the ink you choose, your writing style and the paper you use. On the fountain pen forum I belong to, I'd guess half of the members are lefties. I'd suggest you check out http://www.fountainpennetwork.com
 
I've had very good results with the folks at Nibs.com. They have some super nice pens, and they give unusually personalized service -- when I ordered my latest fountain pen, Pat called me to ask whether I like more or less ink flow, how much pressure I use when writing, the percentage of time I use print vs. cursive, etc., etc.. I was a little surprised at how many questions there were, but the end result is that my Souveran is perfectly suited to my writing style. :)

The site itself is a great source of fpen info, including an entire page dedicated to left-handed users. I strongly recommend you check them out. :thumbup:
 
I have a collection of fountain pens. I have examples of most of the famous brands. I recommend Pelikan pens. They are bottle filled which means they carry much, much more ink than those that use converters. They are well made and reliable. You can find one in virtually any price category. For converter pens I like the DuPont but they are pretty pricey.
 
If you can find them, get the disposible fountain pen from Pilot. The Varsity(I think that is the name). I bought some from Wal-Mart or Staples, used them up, decided I liked writing with a fountain pen better, and I am in the process of upgrading to nicer pens. :)
Good Luck.



Blades
 
I've been writing with fountain pens for a long time.

One thing that I think could be helpful to you to know is that generally speaking, the "break point" in quality is when you're getting a gold nib. There's really too much to say in a brief post about fountain pens, but if you're not yet ready for a gold nib pen you'll be buying a pen with a stainless steel nib.

Rotring, as mentioned, is a good writing pen. Has a stainless steel nib. High quality item at a great price. (Although the particular model mentioned, the Initial, is a bit too heavy for my taste. Might be good for yours, though.) You could look at other Rotrings too, they don't make too many models. Stainless nib Parkers and Watermans write decently too. (Rotring, Parker, and Waterman are all owned by the same parent company, BTW.) Lamy makes the Safari, an odd looking but good writing stainles steel nib fountain pen.

I'm not familiar with the Pilot you mentioned in your post.

Try a stainless steel nib fountain pen, see if you like it - remember, generally the ink is not going to be waterproof, it won't write through carbons, the ink does take a few seconds to dry as you're writing.

Then, if you decide it's for you, you can begin to explore the gold nib pens which begin at about a hundred bucks and go up from there, like fine knives, into the multi-thousands of dollars.
 
Just like you wouldn't solely depend on a fountain pen forum to gather knife information, you really owe it to yourself to go to a fountain pen forum for the best info. Many of the preceding comments are not facts but opinions. Some say a Sebbie is the best pocket knife other will say a sak. Similarly, many experts will firmly state that a properly fashioned steel nib is every bit as good as a gold nib except for two reasons: "Wow" factor and corrosion. The latter is preventable by using ph neutral inks (eg, Private Reserve & Noodlers). There are camps that love brand X and camps that hate brand X. About the only thing they all agree on is that the Parker '51' aerometric pens from 1949-1960ish were potentially the best pens ever designed and produced. This doesn't mean that they all like using them; simply that they perform flawlessly with astounding durability. By the way, there are plenty of nibs that can work with old fashion carbon paper but not the modern carbonless copy paper as it can clog the nib.
 
I really have to agree with just about everything Grouch said in his post.

Also, there's nothing like going to a good pen shop and working with a knowledgable salesperson who will let you handle pens, "dry write" with them, etc.

And - BTW - my favorite pen to write with is by no means my most (or least) expensive, it's a vintage Parker 75 with an extra fine nib that I've had since the late 90s. Found it as new old stock in a pen shop.

Enjoy shopping!
 
Yeah, I forgot to mention that the Rotring Initial is a bit heavy, might be too heavy for some. Thanks for pointing that out, rifon2. Funny also that you mention the Lamy Safari, as that is the other fountain pen that I use. The Lamy with the aluminum body is very nice for the price, but the plastic bodied ones work just as well. The only beef that I have with Lamy is that they use proprietary ink cartridges, not a problem though if you are going to use a convertor.

One comment about Grouch's post: while it is true that more information can be had at a pen forum, sometimes all that info can be overwhelming. It may be better to start at a place like this, where a few individuals who have gone through the learning curve can post their thoughts, just to get started. On top of that, if you go to a specialty forum, many of the posts will be about expensive/exotic/rare pens, as no one wants to talk about mundane issues, issues that may interest kamagong, but are common knowledge among the afficianados. I'm not dumping on Grouch, just offering my $0.02 as I went though the information overload scenario recently when learning about watches (I still don't know squat) and AR-15s. For something as inexpensive as a pen, it may be better to get a few opinions, buy a couple of the things, then learn from use.
 
At the Fountain pen network forum, most of the members are users and not high-end collectors. There are more threads regarding great low end pens (some less than $20) than rare & expensive safe-queens.
 
Thanks guys. Klesk is right; I asked you guys because I know that there are a few FP users here and I'm familiar with this place. I figured that this was as good a place as any to start.

I assume that fountain pen forums are like this place--a place for enthusiastic hobbyists to gather. At this point I'm merely curious and I just want to try out an inexpensive one first. I don't want to go to a fountain pen forum for advice because I don't want to deal with pen equivalent of asking for a recommendation for an $50 knife only to be told to get a Sebenza. Again thanks for the help.
 
Fountain pen fan here too. Pelikan makes some great FP. Montblanc is way overpriced in my opinion. No flames please.

My fav as a very partical daily tool is the Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pens. They are press button retractable so they are very convenient and you don't have to fiddle with a cap, have great flow, and write well. They are 14 k gold nibs.
 
I like the varsity disposable fountain pens (I believe they're made by pilot). they write very well and are very smooth. They produce a slightly thicker line than I would like but for a couple of dollars I'm not too perturbed by this.

I've also tried the Parker Vector, which many people like, but every one I tried did not write that well and I'd actually recommend the disposable ones over this one.

I've also used a fountain pen made by Cross. This was a more expensive fountain pen (around 60 dollars) compared to the others but it induced a great and pleasurable writing experience. Another selling point for me is that Cross refills are widely available at places like Staples, Office Max, etc.

I highly recommend any fountain pen by Cross and the Varsity disposable fountain pens. In response to the other posters, I've read nothing but good things about Pelikan fountain pens.
 
As I said, at Fountain Pen Network, there are many discussions of very inexpensive but great working pens. In fact, I've yet to read a reply that ignores the asked question. As you have nothing to lose, I'd recommend checking it out.
 
I picked up a Pilot Knight today from Office Depot. It was a few dollars more than I would've had to pay for on the net, but I needed instant gratification! The funny thing is that Office Depot does not carry cartridges for Pilot pens and they had only one or two inks in stock. Unfortunately I didn't like either of them, so I called around and found a place 25 miles away that carries the ink I wanted.

The ink I chose is Waterman's Florida Blue. It's a great shade of blue, but I had a difficult time filling the converter. As I said, this is my first experience with a fountain pen. With some help from the Namiki site I figured it out and was soon scribling some lines on the nearest piece of paper.

At this time I don't know what I think about FPs. It's neat and sets me apart because I'm the only one I know who uses a FP, with the exception of you guys here on the web. I'm not sure if it writes any smoother though, and that is supposed to be the biggest advantage to using a fountain pen. I do like the variety of inks available and because I just bought two bottles I'm going to be using my PK for a while. I hope this doesn't become another hobby, my knife budget doesn't need any competition.
 
Grouch said:
Neither of these are 100% factual. http://www.fountainpennetwork.com[/URL]
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Been there done that and ruined a few good shirts. When pressure in the pen > is greater than the cabin pressure then the ink can come out so it depends on how close to normal the cabin pressure is. I have also had the unpleasant experience of having to climb to 17'000ft in a Baron to avoid weather and my pen really did leak.

Parker used to do a series of nibs for lefties for the two different manners of writing left handed.
 
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