Fountain pens

Who makes the best writing tools? I love to write. Already have a couple Mont Blanc ballpoints and a small collection of Cross ballpoints and pencil pens too, they're nice accessories, but I want to learn the art of fountain pen writing, need some pointers if you have experience with this.

100 $ budget.

 

Love fountain pens... kind of hard to get really good ones that are not super $$$

Omas, Caran'd Ache, Parker, or good used Fountain pens on ebay.

 

Pelikan, Omas are my 2 favorites. Also really like the Namiki Vanishing Point.

Truthfully, though, I've kind of given up on fountain pens. For the amount of handwriting I actually do (very little), a gel pen like the Pilot G2 does the trick. I bought a nice machined pen that fits the Pilot G2 refill from a place called Karas Kustoms. They also make a fountain pen, though I'm not sure how good it is.

 

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http://www.airlineintl.com/files/50/products_main5090.jpg

 

Just re-read the OP, and I guess I missed the budget part.


Here is a Lamy Studio on Amazon for $70.

Amazon.com : LAMY Studio Fountain Pen, Imperial Blue, Ex-Fine Nib (L67IBEF) : Office Products

If you are willing to go a little over your budget, I just did a quick search on Amazon, and the Lamy 2000 is listed for $129.

Amazon.com : Lamy 2000 Matte Black Fountain Pen, Extra Fine Nib, (L01EF) : Office Products

And here is a Pelikan M200 for $98

Amazon.com : Pelikan M200 Fountain Pen Black Fine (993915) : Office Products

You can't go wrong with either of those pens.

The Namiki Vanishing point is a great pen, and quite unique as it's actually a retractable fountain pen. Looks like $128 at Amazon.

Amazon.com : Pilot Vanishing Point Collection Retractable Fountain Pen, Matte Black Barrel, Blue Ink, Medium Nib (60581) : Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point Fountain Pen : Office Products

Finally, Karas Kustoms has a custom machined Fountain pen for $85. It's out of stock right now, unfortunately. I haven't used it, so can't say too much about it, but I have their Retrakt pen, which is nicely made.

Ink Fountain Pen - Pens

Hope this helps.

 

Hah! I looked through my drawers today and actually found a nice Cross fountain pen, had no idea I had a fountain pen at all! Will buy ink for it and try it out.

Thanks for your recommendations.

Thank you for your recommendations, this is why I am asking here, there are hundreds of brands out there and it's hard to know what is good or not. You're also right regarding price, I just figured I should start with something relatively cheap and work my way up when I get a feel for what I like and dislike.

Thank you for great reply! The reviews for "fine nib" Lamy 2000 (what a name..) shows that it's an excellent choice, but for the "medium nib" (my preference, that I forgot to mention) it doesn't have as satisfied reviewers...

But I will read more about all that you mentioned This Lamy has nice reviews too:
Amazon.com : LAMY Studio Fountain Pen, Black, Medium Nib (L67M) : Office Products

 

Good for you on trying to bring back the fountain pen! These days, I am exclusively writing with fountain pens, and I find that I need to force myself to actually write something on paper these days. I love the chance to write thank you notes and letters to people! My penmanship has classically been poor, but writing with a fountain makes it decent and fun anyway.
I use a Mont Blanc for my signature on any documents - it has a little bit wider of a nib so the ink flows faster - I sign my name very rapidly.
For general writing, I use a Ferrari fountain pen my wife bought for me off Amazon. It's this one, and it fits in your budget:
Amazon.com - Ferrari Daytona Fountain Pen -

Whenever I use it, people usually comment because it does make a statement. Also, I'm the guy who wrote the Amazon review. I've been able to source refill cartridges at my local Office Depot store.

I LOVE FOUNTAIN PENS! I'm going to Vegas in December, and might stop at a Mont Blanc boutique to buy another. But, at the same time, I'm going to have too many soon - currently I have 2. That seems to be working. I need to exercise the Ferrari pen each day, otherwise it skips. A lot. Have fun, and happy writing!

PS: Heading to the accountant now to sign some checks, so my MB Fountain Pen will join me.

 

Thank you Raj. I'm usually very anti "Ferrari stuff" (most of it is crap, but I guess if you do own a Ferrari then it's not an issue). That pen looks great.

Funny thing is that I have received a lot of compliments on my writing. I don't even try to make it look cool, it just is - I'm a natural Haha! I don't even write cursive, but write clean enough that everyone's able to read my writing without problems. Maybe that's why they compliment me. No really, a few weeks ago I filled a huge DHL form for a shipment and the lady actually asked who wrote it. "I did...?" "Oh, that's nice writing!". That was a weird ego boost
Interesting enough, I have one fugly signature Go figure...

I am like you also, I don't have much to write (everything is done on PC these days), but I love to find excuses to write. And with that, along with my deep fascination of classic penmanship, I thought I should pick up a hobby that I could improve on whenever I have some time to kill at home/office. I looked in to calligraphy earlier, but that's more like constructions of words instead of actually writing for example a letter. So here I am, looking for fountain pens.
I also get very excited when someone sends a handwritten card or a letter! Gives the extra personalization touch that I appreciate greatly.

As you said, nice pens do actually make statements. For a decade or so I have always carried a Cross Century ballpoint with me, in matte black with chrome inserts, and whenever I need to use people definitely notice it and compliment it. We need to bring classy back!

Are the Mont Blancs actually good as fountain pens too? The ones I have I have gotten from my father because he's bought new ones. Maybe I should treat myself a Mont Blanc fountain pen of my liking (design wise) next time I'm in UAE, they have MB stores there.

Glad to see fount pen fans here.

 

That's a good question. I just have a standard Star Walker fountain pen, black lacquer with smoke-chrome rings and clip. It's actually quite light (I would say a bit too light). But that can easily be solved by moving up in price a bit, which is what I'm considering. I've been pleased with my MB Fountain Pen, it was a bit pricey but so is all of their stuff. I've used MB pens for YEARS AND YEARS, but they were always roller balls, so this time I decided to step up my game. Truth be told, I like the Ferrari pen more... It probably comes down to the width of the nib. The nib on the Ferrari pen is medium. My MB nib is wide, so better for signatures, but not ideal for my style of general penmanship.

 

Anyone have an opinion on Cross' fountain pens too?

Thanks for the info. MB is relatively very expensive, just like Porsche Design, but they have amazing quality products that practically last forever.

I stumbled across this on Amazon, "Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Legrand Platinum Plated, Fountain Pen, Medium Nib". I recall seeing it in Dubai too, the diamond touch is what made me remember it. I am fully aware that the diamond inside is pretty worthless and a gimmick, but I'm checking it out again next time.

Meanwhile, I'm going to "fire up" the Cross fountain pen that I found in my drawer earlier and see how it feels.
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There are several good pen brands out there. It just depends on what you are looking for. Here are a few I really like based on country

German brands: Pelikan, Lamy

Japanese: Pilot

US: Sheaffer

Italian: Omas, Aurora, Delta

There is even a Ferarri pen by Sheaffer. They come in red or black and now carbon fiber. I have one and love it. I like the look of the carbon fiber and wish I had now. It wasn't available when I got mine. I may have to go back and get me one.
Sheaffer Ferrari Collection Ballpoint Pens

 

I just sold about half my collection of MB writers sets along with a vintage Parker and still a dozen or so fountain pens of various makes and designs. Add to that the ball points and roller balls, I still a couple dozen left.
Set aside the fountain pens for minute. As to the others, if you really want one to write with, first try as many different fillers as you can to find the one you like best. Then find a pen it will work with to hold it. Think of it as making sure you like the engine, then pick the body. No matter how pretty the car is, if the engine isn't right, you won't drive it. I like rollers and gels the best as they are more like fountain pens, a broader line. Try Lamy, Parkers, visconti and if you aren't flying try Tombow with M or B refills.

on the fountain pen side, the one I use every day is the Pilot with the disappearing nib or Lamy. for steel nibbed pens, they are about as good as it gets.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and recommendations I think the best thing would be to find a dealer with great variety and test different models and buy the one that feels best to me!

 

Now that the writing aficionados are all here...can anyone give some advice on how to learn handwriting (again)? Since I'm out of school, I haven't written any longer texts by hand anymore, only formulas, and my writing has really gone down the drain. When I have to write more than a few words, the height of the letters words and the spacing becomes irregular, and writing feels awfully cramped.
All I could find on the internet were excercises for teaching small kids how to write, but not how to brush up on it... the best I could find was stuf like "improve your writing by... writing", but I'd love to have some sort of curriculum with exercises. Just like Mrs. Bühl taught me in elementary school.

 

My penmanship is horrible! If I write cursive, it is almost illegible. If I do have to write something out, I tend to print and even then, it can be hard to decipher. My guess, is go back to the rudimentary elements of writing and write out each letter, or just take your time and write slowly.

I do enjoy writing with fountain pens and have a small collection, but I'm kind of retired and have no need to write things except via e-mail. If I do write things, I use a cheap Pilot rollerball or gel pen. It is much handier for me as I don't really have an office anymore.

 

I don't mess with the style of writing even now that I'm writing almost exclusively with fountain pens. My penmanship has historically been poor, but you know what? That's me. I'm ok with that. I print in all capital letters like they teach engineers to do (as I am one) in technical / schematic writing. I don't recall any cursive, and I'd probably go too fast.

 

I write exclusively in Fountain pens. I have a bunch of Lamy Safaris with different nib sizes, a Vanishing Pilot (my primary), a Pelikan Ductus, and a couple of Pelikan M800's with Richard Binder nibs.

I re-learned cursive 5 or 6 years ago overseas. I wrote my wife a letter every day while deployed and wanted to make them "heirloom" quality. So, Clairfontaine or G. Lalo paper, nice ink (I prefer J. Herbin and Noodler's), and fine writing instruments. Over time, going slowly, I developed nice penmanship.

I write handwritten thank you notes to all the customers of my business, and people appreciate the personal touch.

I purchase everything from http://www.gouletpens.com/. Brian Goulet is a great guy.

 

looking at my desk-there lie a Lamy ftn pen, Lamy rollerball (Senna) model, Pilot vanishing rotring 600 pencil. Unfortunately, none of have helped my penmanship. I keep thinking the right instrument will make all difference.

 

I visited any books & accessories store I came by for the last couple of weeks. Surprisingly enough, most of them didn't even sell fountain pens... Today I visited a store and they had a Lamy Safari, which I bought. It was cheap, and the writing style has to be adjusted to the ink flow pace, but let's see how often I will use it - I'm in for a more expensive model if I use it often enough.

Thanks for all the inputs so far, very educative.

 

Glad you found something to start with.
I've been going through the cleaning process as ALL of my fountain pens decided to start skipping at the same time, relegating me to a Mont Blanc Starwalker Roller Ball. It too was low on ink (because I don't often use it, so it sits and gets neglected I guess) so I had to put a rollerball refill in. It'll do for now - actually, anybody would be lucky to use such an instrument! I feel a little bit sad because it's not a fountain. But oh well, I digress.

What method do you guys use for CLEANING your fountains? I'm talking about cartridge type fountains, not inkwell dippers. The Mont Blanc method is simply placing the nib under running water until, I presume, the water runs clear, with the nib facing down towards the drain, and "washing" both the top and bottom sides of the nib. I've done this, and now the ink is flowing again, but it has clearly been "watered down" in that the ink intensity is a bit light. I'm guessing that'll self-correct as the water dries and the ink remains???

In the past, I've completely disassembled the pen and run the tip piece (nib and cartridge receiver) under water until the water runs clear. It works faultlessly, but there are a few drawbacks:
1.) It takes FOREVER to dry. So, I'll do this on a Friday and leave the pens at the office, and return to them on Monday to find them mostly dry inside.
2.) If you've just put in a new refill, that refill will likely (as has been my experience) dry out and be unusable while your pen nib assembly is drying.

So, the method where the pen stays in one piece, and you just rinse the nib, is preferred (at least by me) in that it doesn't suffer these two drawbacks. Hopefully, the ink intensity will return soon. My Mont Blanc fountain is fighting to present the right color right now - it has streaks of darker and lighter ink so it might resolve itself sooner than my other Ferrari fountain pen.

Thoughts? Tips? Tricks? Related to cleaning, of course!
Thanks!

 

To dry them faster, I wrap the nibs in toilet paper and gently set them tip down somewhere. The water drains out and is absorbed by the paper. I'll swap the paper once, and they are typically dry in a few hours (unlike the day or so for air drying).

Nib rinsing, for the reason you state, can get into the feed of the nib and you won't really get pure ink again until that water is totally gone. You can do a quick rinse followed by toilet paper or a paper towel to soak up water for 15 minutes or so and that works better.

Honestly, I only clean my pens if I haven't used them in a long time (rare) or if I am switching colors.

 

Cool, thanks. I am already seeing a return to normal ink intensity (or at least very close), just a few hours after writing my post and rinsing my nibs. The Mont Blanc nib is having a harder time divesting itself of the water in the system than my Ferrari fountain pen...

 

It's been a few weeks now since the purchase, and I am absolutely LOVING to write with it. Just recently have I understood how to hold it so that the point of where the ink flows always have contact with the paper, and also started to enjoy making doodles and such just to practice on making elegant lines

I will definitely buy something exclusive soon. It's like my hand and creative soul are cooperating and having a great time.

 

Yeah, there's something special about writing with a fountain pen, if you have the taste to appreciate it. I'll give one of my pens to someone else to write with (who isn't into fine writing) and it will be met with frustration and exacerbation. But, if you know how to write with these pens and you enjoy the writing experience, then more power to you!

I love writing with fountain pens, and wish I had more opportunities to write. I don't dread having to fill out forms anymore.

 

Forms are no fun, but I really wish that I had more opportunities to write actual stuff with a point rather than jibberish

Maybe start to write a diary? I just turned 30, never written a diary before. A reason to keep the writing improving. Dunno if I actually have the time, but half a page before bedtime seems like a great idea to decompress.