Mountain of Ink

I think people over-complicate fountain pens a lot.

I have a Lamy Safari that I got in 2012 and works just as well today.

It's what I still recommend to anyone who asks what to get.

Just get the pen, with its cartridge, add more cartridges -- you can stay here and already you're way better than with most standard ball pens that you'd be using otherwise.

Then, get the small converter, plop it in, get your first bottle of ink -- and again you can stay here and enjoy your pen-and-ink experience for a long long time.

Now if you want to try a few different inks, do that next. Maybe get a second pen, see whether 'fine' or 'medium' sized nibs is more your thing.

Go further than that if you want, but you don't have to.

Either way, that first step is enough to improve your life a lot

I have a shelf full of bottles of ink I wouldn't have bought if the site had existed (and/or I had known about it sooner, since that spans years). They've prevented many similar wasted purchases, and guided several delighted purchases.

Very useful!

When it comes to fountain pens and inks, I went down a rabbit hole more than once in the past.

Noodlers makes some unique pens and inks. I have a Noodlers Ahab, for example, that has a very flexible nib. Different than any of the more conventional pens I used before.

But one thing that bothers me about fountain pens is that they are messy. Some of it can be avoided. You don't need a piston filler to dip into your special ink bottle to refill your pen if you don't mind using regular cartridges. But one thing that seems unavoidable is that the "section" (the part where you hold the pen) gets messy when you put the cap on it. I wonder why every fountain pen seems to have this design. One would think that a smaller cap that only covers the nib would suffice.

I wonder if there are fountain pens like this. I feel another rabbit hole calling.

Handwriting seems to be becoming more and more of a niche phenomenon, actually paying attention to what one writes with even more so, and actually using fountain pens yet more so. Still, there seems to be an absurd number of ink makers around, producing an absurd number of inks. I suppose dyes and water are relatively cheap, and can be mixed in buckets...

While the colours and such do look very nice, the "writing samples" images show exactly why I hate using fountain pens. I'm left-handed, so if I try to write prose then my hand will just smudge the writing. I've always found that cheap ballpoints are the least likely to smudge, even if they still leave residue on my hand, and as the pen gets more "premium", the worse the smudging problem gets.

I like to use as fine a pen as possible if I'm just trying to work something out (diagrams, small notes, etc), and I've found that a Unipin Fine Line (currently a 0.03) does work well, though I've been having some issues with ink flow recently (though the pen is probably nearing the end of its life at this point anyway). I have liked the feel of Uniball Eye pens in the past, though they have a similar smudging problem if used for prose. Other than that, the cheapest Bic ballpoints have been the most successful for me, since the ink dries super fast and they feel good enough to write with.

In school I was given a specific left handed fountain pen to write with, but I always had to write at wonky angles to try and keep it legible, and it never really worked very well anyway. Pushing the pen instead of pulling it generally gives bad results. I have experimented with trying to do mirror writing, like Leonardo da Vinci, but obviously nobody else can read it like that

In the states, Goulet Pens is a wonderful niche retailer of inks and fountain pens. https://www.gouletpens.com/

For Fountain Pens, I stumbled on a YouTube Channel, Hemingway Jones that has some great videos about them. https://www.youtube.com/@HemingwayJones

Of course, all things Stationery, I occasionally continue to watch JetPens. Unfortunately, for my liking, they seem to be more and more Kawaii.

https://www.youtube.com/@JetPens

I am a fountain pen convert myself, and use them almost exclusively these days for my algorithmic plotter art. This website is a fantastic resource that I’ve referred to countless times.

I’ve even written my take on why they’re such great devices for machine art: https://lostpixels.io/writings/fountain-pens-plotters

If anyone wants get into the rabbit hole of fountain pens and related items a little deeper, they should check Galen Leather: https://www.galenleather.com

Amazing — this is what I'm here for!

I came across the website a few months ago and bought my first fountain pen and two of the top recommend inks from the site.

Black: Sailor Jentle Black

Blue Black: Sailor Sei-boku

I had some fountain pens over the years, but I was never able to truly enjoy them or recommend them to anyone. I didn't find them practical as daily writing tools and or too fun as a hobby.

I really dislike the feeling that you need to be a bit careful with a tool. I want the peace of mind of being able to drop pens nib-first into the ground. They're also not great for writing on many types of paper and require some care and maintenance.

My experience getting into double-edge razors/nice shaving soaps was much better. They're not just small luxuries, but actually better-performant and more practical than the popular alternatives in almost every way.

(On the pen front, today I'm very satisfied with my "Kaweco LILIPUT Ball Pen Stainless Steel" - it's super compact, has a nice weight to it and just feels well-constructed and solid. I hope to use it for many years to come. (If you want to get one, beware the Aluminium version, which looks identical but is noticeably lighter))

One could frame each image and display them all in an art gallery.

The ads are so obtrusive and overtly excessive in page coverage. Also one of your ad providers are redirecting to “Microsoft support”

For anyone wanting to know and learn more, there's also the r/fountainpens subreddit with 350k subs (because of course there exists a subreddit for every such niche).

Mountain of ads.