Fountain Pens
Part I:
For the typed version, click here: https://printhouse.codemonkey.cafe/appendices/fountain-pens-part-i-typed
Part II: My collection
When I started this article, I only had a modest collection of cheap pens — not that you need more than that — with the exception of one. However, during my travels back to my homeland, I stole two pens from my parents and bought two others.
My collection before my travels
The old pen I found was a very entry-level waterman pen, which cost less than 5 euros when I bought it for school. I do not use it much (read: at all) because it is a bit shit and I immediately went on to find another pen I would be satisfied with.
Both of my parents have “endgame” fountain pens, but due to the configuration of their office back at home, I remembered my mother's one the best. It was still a pretty blurry memory, but the one thing I remembered vividly was that it had an inlaid nib. Recently I was able to examine her pen and found that it was the gorgeous Waterman Edson Sapphire, pictured below:
So I was dead set on getting an inlaid nib, and after some research landed on the Sheaffer Targa 1007 with a medium nib, mine being pictured below:
I was and am extremely happy with my purchase even if the pen is a bit wet, forcing me to completely change the notebooks and notepads I was using. It is one of the smoothest pens I have in my collection and it made me permanently switch to fountain pens. On top of it all it is gorgeous, it has a “70's cocaine-fuelled stock broker pen” vibe to it that I love.
I then remembered an old roller pen I was gifted for uni and simply changed the end to convert it from a roller to a fountain pen. There I had my second pen: the Faber Castell E-motion with a medium nib. I really like this nib, the design and colour are impeccable, and it is very smooth. The barrel is nice and thick and the pen feels heavy in the hand without being cumbersome; it is very comfortable. The texture is also great. See for yourselves:
With those two I was set for a few more months, but I needed a pen with a bit bolder ink colour. So I got the Pilot Metropolitan with a medium nib — which had the benefit of being both very cheap and well-regarded by the fountain pen community — and filled it with red ink. It's nothing to write home about, but it's a solid pen in all the areas that matter. It is pictured here:
Alas! They were all three medium nibs which isn't ideal for my writing; it is excessively small and for that, fine or extra-fine nibs are recommended. Instead of buying new nibs for the three pens I had, I just bought cheap and well-regarded pens, namely the Lamy Safari in extra-fine and the Lamy Al-Star in fine. I was not extremely satisfied with those, I found Lamy's extra-fine nib to be too fine and stiff, and the fine to be too wet. The material of both pens feels very cheap, especially the Al-Star, and I am very much not a fan of the design. At least due to the price and my general displease with those pens, I would not be saddened if I were to lose them and they became my travel pens. They are both pictured below:
Travel Additions
As some of you might know, I went on a three-week honeymoon in July, and I had to add to my collection while visiting Paris and Amsterdam. In Paris, after looking at a couple of pens in a specialised section of a mall, I settled on the Parker IM Monochrome Blue with a fine nib — being at a very reasonable price — which I decided to fill with a quicky colour. The pen is gorgeous, and very comfortable if a bit thin. The nib is very smooth all around: very forgiving of inconsistent angles. It is also very short — look at that choadie! This makes it great for drawing; being closer to the page gives you better control over your lines.
In Amsterdam, I went to a dedicated pen shop and saw a 50% off shelf; I tried all of them and bought my favourite which was the Pelikan M150 with an extra-fine nib. I am very satisfied with this pen, the thickness of the nib is exactly what I am looking for; small enough so that my writing is not messy, but thick enough to take the edge off of some lines. This is the pen I bring with me to work and write most of my notes with, when reading a book for the bookclub or a future article, or when doing some ukrainian exercises from my textbook. I also love that Pelikan pens have a cartridge converter built-in, no need to buy one, and the ink fills the whole barrel. The only complaint I would have about it is that it is ever so slightly too small. It would be my favourite pen if I had not acquired the last pen I will showcase. This was also my first pen with a “specialer” nib: it is plated gold.
Coming back to France I simply asked my parents if they had any fountain pens they had bought over the years that they did not use anymore, apart from their endgame personal ones of course. This is how I acquired the Pilot Vanishing Point Blue Carbonesque: my very first full gold nib. This one is an 18k gold nib plated in rhodium i.e. it is a “white gold” nib. The pen has a funny little quirk; the nib is retractable! The pen looks great and the retraction mechanism is very satisfying to click. The nib is a pilot medium which is not as broad as an average European medium (pilot is a japanese company). It is also not too wet which is appreciable. Not sure if here gold brings anything tangible to the table. The ergonomics are not great however, and I don't see myself writing with this pen for extended periods of time. My main gripes are that the grip is too rounded, the material too smooth, and the clip gets in the way. I do love the gimmick of the retractable nib, but I'll have to spend more time with the pen to form a definitive opinion on it.
After reviewing my travel additions I jokingly asked my father if I could add his endgame pen to them, which to my surprise he acquiesced. He hadn't used it in a long, long while, so if the pen was to be of use to me, it would have been better in my care he said. Behold, the Pelikan Souverän M1000:
After purple, green is probably my favourite colour, so I am very fond of the barrel design, and the gold accents only add to my fondness. The nib is incredible, it is 18K gold with some parts rhodium plated, which gives the two tones that you can see in the picture. I had to include a picture just of the nib, this particular one is not from my pen. Both the pen and the nib are comically large, dwarfing my E-motion which is already considered chunky, but it somehow manages to be decently comfortable to write with. And to come back to the nib, this is the smoothest writing experience that any pen in my collection can deliver, by far. It is a fine nib, but honestly, it is way closer to an average European medium. It is a vintage pen and was not really cared for properly; it has some scuffs and scratches but it's part of the charm.
I think that is enough pens for a lifetime, and I am now sated; the will to own more has left my body. I might have one or two pens too much to have a balanced collection, but overall I can give almost all of my pens enough time. I am under no delusion; my collection has to downsize a bit, now that I have figured out what I like, to a solid 4-5 pens tops. But for now, I'm just enjoying the variety.
Thank you for reading my logorrhea, Eddie
As a bonus, here is a pic of the draft of this article, and a pic of the “article station” I built myself:
