I have a few pens but all take cartridges. A couple are very expensive and some more ordinary. You can get turquoise ink in cartridges but it is not opalescent like Liz's ink. I probably would make a mess with a pot of ink.
I love writing with a fountain pen. It encourages you to be mindful of your writing. I save the broader nib for something like a special card or note and use a medium nib otherwise. It takes a little getting used to, but is worth the effort.
The looks you get from other people when you pull out and write with a fountain pen are interesting. It invariably brings a lot of questions.
How do you clean them properly?
Do you like filling the ink better than using cartridges?
I love writing with a fountain pen and have about a dozen of them, although none of them are particularly posh. My favourite is a Sheaffer which has a very broad nib that is wonderfully smooth, although it does mean that letters end up taking up huge amounts of paper!
I also have a rule that I don't write with plain old blue or black ink. My Shaeffer is currently filled with sepia toned ink, and my best Waterman has ink that's a teal green. The Montblanc that He got for my birthday last year has an italic nib, and that one is usually filled with deep violet ink.
That ink with gold particles is truly beautiful, ink to lust after. I daren't start looking at yet more expensive things to collect though, as my perfume habit has a serious risk of bankrupting me already, and that's before I've started on my perilously expensive habit of crochet, knitting and embroidering with the most expensive pure silk threads.
Wow! Thank you! You've inspired me to go to my local stationery /art supply store when I have a chance.
That Emerald of Chivor is so pretty! I haven't really used fountain pens before. I lose pens constantly, and I also have the handwriting of a serial killer, so I've never really wanted to call attention to my scrawl. Those ink shades though...
We actually use quills at Hogwarts! I played around with fountain pens when I was a teenager, trying to do calligraphy, but the results were laughable. It takes a special hand to use a fountain pen cleanly and artistically, unless you were born in the Nineteenth Century and used them every day out of necessity. More power to you if you get beautiful results. I can't seem to do it.
I used to sell Fountain Pens - Mont Blanc are my favourite along with a British Pen - Yard of Led - made entirely from silver - i have a Mont Blanc pen worth £1200 and another Mont Blance FP worth £350 - i also have a Cartier pen - I think a nice fountain pen makes a person write better not so much because of the pen but psychologically because they are using a nice pen
Really interesting thread, even if I have nothing to add. I promise you, if I tried to use a fountain pen, there woiuld be ink everywhere: the paper, the table, the floor, me, the cats. But it is nice to see so many enamored by the process of hand-writing done carefully and beautifully.
My Mom always told me my handwriting looks like spiders. I'm not even sure what that means. But it sounds about right.
I love old fountain pens and ink jars--had an old schooldesk in my bedroom as a child, it had an actual inkwell.
That said, the pen that is with me almost all my waking hours is a Fisher Space Pen with a stylus on one end and a ballpoint on the other.
Engraved with my name, it is crazy useful to have a pen that will write no matter what position the pen itself is in--if you've ever tried to use a regular pen, of any kind, to write a note on a piece of paper while the paper is against a wall (so the pen is perpendicular to the wall, you know how much that sucks. Since Fisher pens are pressurised, I can scribble notes or sign off on whatever without having to find a level surface, which is very, very useful.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
I collect and use fountain pens daily. I have about 20. They range from cheap steel nibbed Esterbrooks to a lacquered Namiki. My all time favorite is my Grandfather's Sheaffer lever fill that he got for his High School graduation. It is a little delicate though. He used it all his life. My daily favorite is either an Omas or a ivory colored Waterman. I like a pen with a bit of weight and reasonable girth (appropriate for a site such as this). I prefer medium to broad nibs as I like the expressive line you can generate. I don't have neither a Mont Blanc nor a Parker. Odd isn't it?
I prefer Japanese inks (Pilot Iroshizuku or similar). Admittedly, I have never used the opalescent inks.
If you are ever in Tokyo, you want to go to Itoya! Pen porn! Seattle pen is also very cool.
The only thing I would add to Liz's excellent commentary is that an ultra sonic cleaner is good for annual (or beyond) deep cleans. I typically only have one pen full of ink at a time. Sometimes I switch; sometimes I refill. I could use a single pen for 6 months depending upon my mood.
I have a couple of expensive fountain pens at home (Waterman), and I have some sets of calligraphy pens, but never at the office. At work, I have to wear suits, and I wear tailored, monogrammed white dress shirts. I am not taking a chance on ruing those with ink. I do have several very nice steel ballpoint pens. Cartier, Cross, Baron and other brands make very nice engravable ballpoint pens that are perfect for the office.
I have up using ball points in favor of a fountain pen because my handwriting was deteriorating terribly. I use a Parker pen I inherited from my grandmother and use Waterman Serenity Blue ink
Whoops, I meant to say I have given up using ball points
Great post- I love fountain pens. I have collected and sold them for many years. Range of pens from Montblanc, vintage Waterman and Parker, Dunhill, Cartier, Omas, Aurora, Visconti and Montegrappa. I love the feel of an old vintage bladder pen but the convenience of a newer Montblanc is very pleasing too- currently write with a medium nib Montblanc Diplomat.
