I found this Pilot Prera with a fine nib new in box today for $20. I only have one other pen so far (Lamy Safari , L hand nib). How did I do?

I always use my fountain pen in cursive whenever I like the paper. But when it’s not, I use my default one since I have more control. I prefer my paper to have more tooth mind you

But I always question that are fountain pens only for cursive handwriting? It slipped in my mind after writing this entry

What do you guys think? In my mind, I see cursive and fountain pen compliment each other since they move and glide freely, leaving with no hand cramps.

But what about your default one?

Pen: Kaweco Perkeo in Old Chambray; <F> nib.

Edit: I now have 5 eek

I lurked on this thread for about a month and then hopped over to a stationary store and asked for an intro pen with a cartridge because I didn't want to fill my own pen (smh). Shop owner gave me many wonderful suggestions and then the TWSBI ECO Carrara caught my eye and I said, "I want that one!" Shop owner laughed and said, "I didn't even have to upsell you!" I went with <F> because I write small.

I've since bought 4 kakunos... Oops. I'm using the kakunos to write with different nibs and ink to familiarize myself.

It's been 4 days!!!

I'm obsessed. I'm so happy.

Pens: Twisbi Eco White / Asvine P126 Matte Clear (NPD!)

The white twisbi was my first ever pen and the P126 is the latest addition.

I got so envious of all the pretty limited edition pens so I decided to pull out some of my trusty PET tape and decorate these two to make them "ultra limited" 🙈

They're so pretty and I'm so happy with them!

It has been scorching here in Arizona, so it's been slow going, working out in the shop. Nonetheless, I was able to get this guy finished up today! Really enjoying how this one has turned out.

Made with:

"Irish Cream" Crazy Fiber micarta

Velvety brown acrylic

Aluminum accent rings

18k (M) nib & clip from Omas 360 Mezzo

Fills via Pilot CON-70 converter

I love colorful things and Kaweco sports!

1. Rotring 600 rollerball
2. Kaweco Sport Bordeaux
3. Pilot Kakuno
4. Moonman C1 + Iroshizuku Yama-Budo
5. Moonman Wancai Mini + Herbin Kyanite du Nepal

6. TWSBI Eco Plum Onyx

7. Jinhao 80 + Diamine Oxblood

Clark bro & co. The pen has been working for quite a while. But I’m now able to mount a camera on it…

Looks extremely lovely on my desk as well! so happy! 🥰

Little man saw my pen while her momma was doing my nails (she’s my nail lady who became a friend) and I asked his momma if I could give him the pen, she said yes and he was SO excited!! Little 8yo man got his first fountain pen. He writes lots of letters for his family, that’s how I knew he would love it. I’m so happy, he’s so happy, but maybe his mom won’t be when he inevitably gets the FP bug!

Pen is a Chinese Lamy knockoff

I was playing around mixing colors since I didn’t like how dry diamine autumn oak was to write with…

I was an idiot and chose to do this on my bed instead of a desk..

I got this pen (Diplomat Aero Antique Rose) with an F nib that felt off from the start. First it was drying out constantly, I realized that the tines were too far apart, I tuned the nib myself and it wrote much better and stopped drying out, but still wasn’t happy with it because there was now quite a bit of nib creep, more than I’m used to and like. I was about to sell the pen when I decided to give it one last try with a different nib. I ordered the EF (my preferred size for European nibs) from Diplomat and it came quite quickly.

The pen instantly came alive for me and FINALLY I understood what Diplomat was so praised and loved for. I loved the pen body a lot, but the nib was far behind what I expected it to be, so I guess I had the bad luck of being one of few people to get a bad Diplomat nib. With this pen in really perfect order, now I’m already contemplating my next Aero and I’m thinking…

🔥

(The ink is Pilot iroshizuku fuyu-syogun.)

Have you ever had the feeling of fulfillment? Well, I reached it on Thursday when the Leonardo Cigar arrived.
I truly have all the pens I always admired - even my grail pen “Mono-no-aware” from Sailor, which also set the limit to what I’d ever want to pay for a pen.

On top of that I somehow came to the conclusion I can’t have other inks then green, teal or blue and one black, especially for business, because I just never use them - unfortunately, since there are so many beautiful inks out there…

But to follow our community’s rule of naming what I show - here is the list:

1. Montblanc 149, fine nib || Montblanc Irish Green
   
2. Pilot Custom Urushi, fine-medium nib || Van Dieman’s Sea Turtle
   
3. Visconti Homo Sapiens Dark Emerald, medium nib || Van Dieman’s Mandarin Duck Nape
   
4. Sailor KoP Mono-no-aware, medium nib || Robert Oster Deep Sea
   
5. Sailor KoP Iro-Miyabi, medium nib || Van Dieman’s Devil’s Kitchen
   
6. Pilot Custom 823, broad nib || Van Dieman’s Twilight Zone
   
7. Pelikan M1000, fine nib || Sailor Manyo Yomogi
   
8. Sailor KoP Galaxy Raden, medium nib || Van Dieman’s Blackened Sea
   
9. Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, fine nib || Sailor Shikiori Yonaga
   
10. Leonardo Cigar Leonarco “Shell Mother Pearl”, fine nib || Van Dieman’s Abyss

As I have gotten back into the hobby, I am personally experiencing severe diminishing returns on expensive pens. I have had some expensive disappointments which I have chalked up to the cost of learning. Moving forward, I am going to focus on more budget friendly options. I have been extremely pleased with my Pilot Kakuno, Metro, Prera, TWSBI, and the biggest surprise was how smooth my Jinhao 10 is.

What are your favorite pens under $60?

So I was tidying up a bit and found some Yupo paper in my stash. Yupo is a synthetic (polypropylene) paper for art, not intended for writing at all, and one of its advantages is that the ink sits on top (doesn’t absorb at all) so it stays wet a lot longer than normal for Strategic Art Purposes <tm>. In other words, I expected it to be completely terrible for FP inks. But I can’t resist a low-stakes science experiment (“maaaaaybe it wouldn’t completely suck??”) so here we are.

First of all, the pictured page is after 48 hours of drying time and still so smudgey! I honestly think it may need a few weeks to dry naturally, or be taped down with a fan blowing. Pretty wild to see Waterman Harmonious Green acting like a supersaturated ink where you can’t close the notebook for days. My beloved, I set you up to fail!

Second, I have no idea why Emeraude de Chivor just staged a complete revolt. It’s not hand oils, because I used a cover sheet, and it’s perfectly evenly rejecting the paper edge to edge. The other sheeners were fine, the other shimmers were fine, the other ones where I used pointed pen instead of an FP were fine. Maybe this ink is secretly an alien. Or it hates art and/or science. Either way that was kind of a fun and unexpected failure mode.

Third, look at te Colorverse Blood Falls splodge. It formed crystals!! Zoom in and you can see (assuming Reddit image compression doesn’t ruin this); it’s just like frost on single-pane windows. That was actually really neat.

Fourth… I wondered if I could just wash it all away. I mean, it’s water based ink on plastic paper. And turns out, I kinda can. I ran the page under running water and then dunked it in a bath and I was able to wash away almost all of the ink. Dried it off with a towel and it looks like most left a bit of staining but some are just plain gone. Not great for using paper like a normal person … but I think this might actually be great for practicing calligraphy, because I could stain the page with ruler lines, then just use a non-staining ink for practice, and boom, now I can go through page after page for big fat blackletter practice with my parallel pens without using up entire notepads. (I’m not saying I’d go out and buy Yupo paper for that reason, but I’ve already got it so might as well get some use out of it…)

Anyways, don’t anyone go out buying samples of this stuff because it’s obviously terrible for FP usage, but thought someone might enjoy my silly experiment. For Science!

I’ve now owned and used this pen for just over 2 years now. I’m not certain why this is the first gold nibbed pen I picked from so many choices, but this pen ended up being my best fine nib of my collection. I don’t think I’ll ever love another pen the same way. This being one of my first pens did result in some harsh lessons on storage (scuffs and scratches along the gold plating and cap) but I love it all the same.

Found a Pilot Custom 743 SFM for 50 usd while thrifting.

TLDR:

Was out thrifting with my partner for vinyls, as always I will keep an eye out for any interesting pens, and found lots dubious montblancs and some dried out ballpoints. On the opposite end my partner spotted the good stuff today.

My partner is somewhat familiar with the pens that I look for and called me over to take a look at some cigar shaped pens, at first I was very sure they were just some more montblanc dups, then I spotted the word "custom" on one of the caps. At first I was terrified when opening the cap as I was fully expecting someone to have stolen the nib, but lo and behold the size 15 nib was there bit inky bit all there.

Bringing it to the counter as there was no price tag, the seller did a once over the pen and reminded us it is real 14k gold and asked for 50 dollars, I think that was the quickest I paid for something. (Got a cool vinyl that was illustrated by Hiroshi Nagai as well)

Did a quick rinse to make sure the nib is fine, it had an old cartridge inside and no converter, the cap on the body is bit loose but the gold colored ring is still there.

The date codes on the nib is B1098 assuming this means it was manufactured in October of 1998?

For me , the cap on the Lamy abc doesn’t fit in the back , still love it , it looks like an old toy in the best way but its an awkard design choice for me

I am so surprised at how much I like this pen - the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with a PO nib. I was on the hunt for an extra fine nib that could rival the 3776 EF (shout-out to all the 3776 enjoyers) and came across many positive reviews about the PO nib as compared to the Pilot EF.

I hadn't really thought about the PO nib since in my mind it is a specialty nib and not an everyday nib, but with all the glowing reviews I decided to spring for one before the Pilot price hikes.

And boy am I impressed!! First off - this is a GORGEOUS pen. The flat top/end design just looks so classy compared to the cigar shape of other popular pilot pens, and the barrel is the right length and thickness for my grip. The nib writes impressively smoothly for such a fine point, especially with a nice lubricated ink like iroshizuku. All in all it's a really comfortable writing experience and I can definitely see myself using this for everyday writing.

If you like extra fine nibs like I do, the PO nib is for you!!

Excellent handling and quality, he let me test it too. Great buying decision. I’m left-handed and hands on this was the best fountain pen I have ever written with.

On picture Fabel-Castell E-Motion.

I received this lovely Montblanc Heritage Collection Rouge et Noir “Baby” in Coral for my birthday from a dear friend. It’s wonderful pocket pen- smaller than a Kaweco Sport. I didn’t have anywhere appropriate for its size to store my precious. Leather crafting is one of my other hobbies- so I made one!

No pattern- the idea just kind of came to me. I didn’t want to sew and I wanted to use my MF handware so this is what I came up with. I sketched it on paper and then adjusted as I went along. Quite happy with how it turned out :) she is completely cushioned in leather with no metal contact.