alt Hacker NewsI 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
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You are putting rationale and practical thinking up against a classic irrational hobby.
The best hobbies are usually both irrational and completely unnecessary.
I sort of agree but I would say either get a cartridge pen or a refillable pen and leave it at that. Pick an ink and use it until it is gone. Don't get a second pen unless you actually have a need for a second pen.
There are few things in modern life which are lifetime buys and you can use every day of your life, a good pen is one of them, enjoy it instead of feeding into the endless search for something better. 99% of what I have written for the past ~decade has been with one pen, it is an old friend at this point. I picked my ink by it being a reputable brand and sold in bottles big enough that it would last years, and when it was time to order another bottle I had to pull it out to check what it was so I could order another because I had forgotten what it was. I am sure there are better pens and better inks but I have no real issues with what I have and anything else will be lacking in something more important than the supposed benefits offered by those better pens and inks.
the Zebra disposable fountain pens are EXCELLENT for how cheap they are, it's honestly a shame they're not refillable
I carry a few pens with me - different color ink for different days of the week - so I can see how much I wrote in a single day. Started doing it after I read about Neil Gaiman's writing habits.
>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.
And that’s the moment you fell into the trap.
I always kinda hated the cartridges and the ink that came in them from day 1.
My second pen was filled by piston and I bought some cheap Diamine samplers, and it was both simple to use and cheap.
I found converters to be often hard to use which results in messes.
I think this kinda misses the point of what lost modern pen enthusiasts are looking for.
For one thing, limiting yourself to pre-filled cartridges locks you out of 95%+ of the fancy ink out there, which is sold bottled for use with internal reservoirs.
> Either way, that first step is enough to improve your life a lot
Clearly you've never tried being left-handed.
(I joke, but I also wish fountain pens wouldn't fundamentally be incompatible with my way of writing. And I was taught to write with a fountain pen using cursive in school, so it's not like I didn't try.)
As a person who's at the other end of the spectrum, I don't think it's complicating the matter unnecessarily causing us to fall into the rabbit hole.
Many people like to write also like to write with fountain pens a lot, hence we go exploring. Collecting pens, inks and paper.
I carry three pens. Three colors, three widths, three manufacturers (it's not a rule, but my current rotation is like that). What I currently have is a result of my own curiosity, and I would do the same if I have started over.