As I mentioned in the thread that lead to this addition by Uwe, I've just ordered my first fountain pen.  I got the Pilot Metropolitan. Colrehogan told me about the Goulet website and I checked out some stuff there.  I also got a sample pack of ink.  I was considering a Lamy, but I went with this as my first one.  I do have a couple of Pilot Varsity disposables. They are cute.  I'll let you all know what I think when I get it.  I'm hoping it will magically transform my handwriting into beautiful script.  Do you think that's a possibility?!?

My favorites are: Montblanc 149 (B, O3B, OM nibs), Pelikan M800 Tortoise (O3B nib), Pilot Custom 823 B nib, Pilot Vanishing Point (B,M nibs), and a Montblanc P221 (F nib, I think).  My favorite inks are Noodler's Dark Matter, Diamine's Deep Dark series, Deep Dark Blue, Purple, Green, Red, Brown and Orange, Pilot Blue, Black and Blue-Black.  There are others, but I'd fill the entire post if I continued on. 

Last edited by colrehogan (15-5-2015 12:43:00)

I'm just going through the small sample of inks I received.  So far I've only tried urm... Something called  Scabulosa; it's sort of a grayish purple.  Then, Diamine Antique Copper, I liked that one a lot.  I'm on noodler's Liberty's Elysium right now, and I don't really care for it.  The lines seem fatter than with the antique copper I had tried out previously. The color is pretty though.  I'd guess the qualities of an ink can vary based on what pen and nib you are using? Are there big differences in the brands of ink? I mean, like if you find you like a couple of Diamine over Noodler's, will you generally find that you prefer Diamine? Or does it all just depend on the individual ink? I looked at fountain pen network some last night, but got overwhelmed.

I will admit, I stumbled across a partially used visa gift card that I'd forgotten about last night and went ahead and ordered a Lamy Safari.  I would have gotten more, but there wasn't too much $ left on the gift card. 

Last edited by Spazmelda (15-5-2015 06:31:46)

Wish I had a Pelikan 800, but for some reason Santa never seems to deliver one.

I've never counted, but I'm guessing that I own a few dozen pens from vintage to contemporary, and from expensive to budget. However, my daily drivers, the ones that I'm currently using all of the time, include two Kaweco and  two TWSBI models. 

The Kaweco pens are a no-brainer. The Sport is inexpensive, writes very nicely, and because you can use it as an eyedropper, it holds a LOT of ink. Plus, since it's very compact, it's easy to carry around. Even smaller is the Kaweco Liliput, which is about the size of a cigarette and my choice for travel and for using with a reporter's journal (which is definitely not a Moleskine, but a Leuchttürm1917 - better quality paper AND less expensive).

The TWSBI pens were a pleasant surprise. The Micarta is to put it simply, unique. And the piston filler Diamond 540, a good quality writer that holds plenty of ink (although not as much as the Kaweco). As you can see, large ink reservoirs are important to me; when you do a lot of writing, especially in the field, it's very annoying to suddenly find yourself out of ink. 

Kaweco Sport


Kaweco Liliput (with Sport)

[img]http://www.vorg.com/pens/Leuchttürm1917_Wachtendorf_Collection.JPG[/img]

TWSBI Micarta


TWSBI Diamond 540


Poor penmanship 


You can't tell from the terrible photo, but the Montblanc ink (Oyster Grey) is quite remarkable because on normal paper you would swear that it was written with a pencil. 

Okay, a story about the Pelikan I bought for my wife. She wasn't used to FPs, and was a heavy-handed writer, being an office administrative assistant and spending a career writing with cheaply made ballpoint pens. So the first time she goes to use the Pelikan, she presses too hard and splits the nip too wide. After that, the pen wouldn't write good at all, so I put it in a drawer and chalked it up to experience.

Some time later, I started doing some online research and found that I could order replacement nibs direct from Pelikan, for about a third of what a new pen would cost.

After replacing the nib, and a lesson in FP usage, she's been a happy FP user ever since. Though I do the ink refill for her, since ladies shouldn't be seen with FP ink on their delicate fingers (or so she says).

~Joe