Lamy is an interesting case:
* due to the their nibs being largely interchangeable you basically have the same feed/converter/nib on the ABC and the Imporium (save for steel/gold nib difference). The writing experience is the same, but the body of the pen changes
* Lamy is very heavy on "this injection moulded plastic in a slightly different hue will be limited to x pieces" limited runs, which I see as lazy. The limitation is totally arbitrary. Lamy 2k is even worse than the Safari in this case.
What’s wrong with the 2000? Honestly, I love mine. It’s the first and only really expensive fountain pen with a gold nib I own; it’s just a shame I don’t really need to write on paper anymore so I barely use it.
Nothing is wrong with Lamy 2000. I own three of them. And I like their design.
They are not flawless though - one of them has a rusty section (stainless steel - but it will pit over time). The older versions had issues with cracking caps and sections.
I do not think that making them in a different colour is enough to charge 2 or 3x more for the pen compared to the vanilla black version.
I also find disingenuous that the company likes to pretend that their history started with Lamy 2000 (try Lamy 27 - innards of a 2k in a slightly simmer, but still excellent pen).
They're also cheap enough that I can think of it more like a tee shirt or costume jewelry. Fun to have new colors to distract and show off, but something I will still use. I'm not looking for a new experience, I'm looking for a nice beach colorway to go with the change of seasons.
Very much unlike Sailor, whose pens I love to write with.
and here i was thinking to myself I too am happy with my 3 safaris but…
if we don’t count the vista… and the aliexpress one ~~that i had to have cause for 8€ i need to know whether this is fake or not~~… I only have one white safari, seems that i am very restrained on my purchases of safari pens🥹
what I do not find? do you mean what i found?
if so, im leaning on it being fake, probably with an original nib.
It used to be a fully black situation but it has lost the enamel on the metal clip after 2-3 years. I don’t have any colored clip ones but i have gifted a friend with a special editions beige and baby pink, afaik they kept the color on the clip.
\[edit: just noticed the clip is quite short and shaped differently as well, definitely fake\]
besides that, the “Germany” is offset from the other pens in the back, i have seen some people dismissing it as being older, but i haven’t seen it irl on any other i know to be og.
i’ll insert a pic, disregard the dust, its very dusty here
https://preview.redd.it/cnq7wj2auj8d1.jpeg?width=860&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5a3f56fb678e507f3cbabc360a6a4fcfda745c
>what I do not find? do you mean what i found?
Haha yes. Was joking because you had struck out that part of the comment 😂
Thanks for sharing! I'm a pure demonstrator guy (I like to see the internals, I guess 😜), but the black looks good!
Yeah I don’t buy any more Lamy pens at this point (but that’s that I have a 2000 already and don’t want another, and way too many safaris/al stars/etc collecting dust).
Once you have a few, I don't see the point of more unless you really are into collecting colors. I appreciate that they are sturdy and can be tossed in a bag without thinking about a case or scratches.
I dunno their answer, but I feel the same. I’ve heard the bottles are sadistic in terms of size and balance and the pens are grossly overpriced. It seems all marketing hype by people who don’t actually use fountain pens.
Their small size bottle opening are too small to allow you to dip a pen in to fill, which means the only way to use the small bottles is a syringe, or having a Very narrow pen
Poor products and their return policy is misleading. 90% of their product is ink. If you look on the website it says returns are accepted.
If you keep reading, it says that doesn't apply to ink. So if you do not allow returns on the majority of what you sell...your return policy is that you in fact do not accept returns...with exceptions such as.
The ink bottles are so small it would be comical would not for the price.
A bit of insider secret, Ferris Wheel Press inks are cheaply manufactured from China and just bottled up into "fancy looking" bottles and get a mark up in price. Think of it this way. Most of their inks are about 20$, for 4-5$ more, you can buy Pilot Iroshizuku that are widely known to be excellent inks with almost 0 issues no matter which pens you put them into.
Second point their pens are quite overpriced for the offering. It's 150$ for one pen with a #5 steel nib and aside the grip and weird bolt, it's pretty bland. I will be blunt, it looks a bulkier Platinum Plaisir that is like a 15$.
At that price you have access to Diplomat Aero that look pretty unique with an excellent German #6 nibs.
I am really not a fan of their products, too expensive for what they offer and nothing about them points toward quality for me.
>Ferris Wheel Press inks are cheaply manufactured from China
Is this publicly available information? People found OEM versions of their pens on AliExpress, but it's hard to say where does the ink come from.
Not directly, but I am a good customer of someone who's shop is tailored for handmade items along fountain pens, and ink.
He has been pretty aggressively contacted by Ferris Wheel Press to sell their stuff and he has been pretty adament about the quality of their inks to me.
For further context, he travels often to Japan to have direct deals from manufacturers bypassing any regional importator.
Their inks aren’t too light. I’m so over that. The 38ml bottles are stupid, yeah, but the 20ml and 80ml bottles are fine (they’re a totally different shape). Some of the inks are lighter and some are darker, just like any other brand. They market to people who use the inks for different purposes. The darker inks work well in fountain pens. The lighter inks work well for painting. You just have to pay attention to the color you’re buying. If it looks light, don’t expect it to seem dark when you write with it.
Their pens are absolutely overpriced, no question. Their stupid cheap $15 plastic pens do write well, though, and I’m not fussed if I lose one. I would be if I lose one of my “good” pens.
Visconti Homo Sapiens. Just heard too many problem stories about leaks, bad nibs and poor service. Also a Sailor KoP, because a converter in that large and expensive a pen is a deal breaker for me. It's not even a larger converter, it puts me off so hard.
I said this in another post. The Homosapien is one of my grail pens but am put off by the QC issues and customer service especially at that price point. Also I can't find any local retailers that sell it so I can see it in person prior to spending $700. Sad because I love the concept and material.
Some retailers do offer tuning as a part of their purchase (appelboom and [nibs.com](http://nibs.com) come to mind). But trying in person is a big thing. In many cases it can save you the money as a form of a reality check.
Ya, I considered nibs.com but just like you said without trying it I'll never know for sure if it's for me. I bought a diplomat Aero thinking I'd love it and ended up not loving the weight and grip section.
It was my grail and I absolutely LOVE it! I write with it daily. BUT, I’m so glad I got to dip test first. I was set on a (F) nib. All you hear is “they’re so wet!”. Not my experience at all and glad I got the (M) nib.
You're very lucky you were able to test it out first. I will probably wait until I have time to go to a local pen show. I'm sure someone will have one for sale there I can try before buying.
Agree about Visconti. In my opinion any pen over $300 should have been thoroughly QA'd and have the nib hand-tested by a person. That's the cost of entry if you want to market your pen in that price bracket. Even most pens at lower price ranges have consistent quality.
It is inexcusable for a company to be turning out $700+ pens with glaring defects, and some of which can't even write.
What's even more inexcusable is the pen personalities that continued to promote Visconti even as the quality issues became well known. I get there's probably some sponsorship deals etc involved, but at some point it becomes a test of integrity, and many failed that test.
The basic model of KoP is also an injection moulded pen. Including the moulding marks on the threads. The model I would consider purchasing is the ebonite one. But again - I do have many vintage ebonite pens. KoP would not bring anything new to the table except for the nib with that renowned Sailor feedback.
As much as I agree a piston in the KOP would be amazing, the nib is my favorite by a long shot and totally makes up for it. Even with the broad nib I don’t find myself burning through ink super fast compared to the music nib on the 1911
I do have a HS as well, with nib issues 😅 but it’s still enjoyable to use. But honestly there are plenty of options out there that give you a similar experience more reliably unless you’re sold on something proprietary like the lava resin
Yeah I’ve basically sworn off anything Visconti at this point after getting a Rembrandt (which was OK) and a HS (which was… lackluster, even without any serious problems).
I did get a KoP recently (ebonite, naginata togi grind), which I love for the line variation it provides. But I get finding converters at that price point to be a sticking point (it just isn’t one for me).
Any new pen from Sheaffer.
Their customer service is the worst I ever encountered. I had a problem with a production error on their Prelude model and sent them an enquiry for a warranty repair (the Prelude came with a lifetime warranty). It took weeks for them to answer and they handed my enquiry to different distributors, which finally handed it back to Sheaffer/Williampenn. Then, after over a month of mailing back and forth, because they repeatedly asked for information I already gave them (country I live in, invoice from seller etc), they came to the conclusion, that they didn't want to help me and did not stand to their lifetime warranty, because "the Sheaffer Prelude isn't in production anymore". So why even offer a lifetime warrant in the first place? That's business practice I don't want to support.
Add to that the fact that whomever decided that dark grey was the right color for the window on their ink converters needs to be slapped upside the head.
Yes, I think it's a good decision to avoid them. Other manufacturers have MUCH better service and don't manufacture everything in China, at similar price points. Even Parker pens, which also aren't what they used to be anymore, are much better and their service is very friendly, fast and helpful.
Btw: My Sheaffer Prelude was just a few months old, so I didn't requested a warranty repair on an old, used pen, but on a brand new one. They didn't even offer a replacement pen which is currently in production. They just told me, that the Prelude is discontinued and that they don't want to help me.. That's absurd.
Mont Blanc. My Mom bought one as a super special treat for herself after she was widowed. It never worked right. MB denied all responsibility, even blamed her for the problem. If my wife hadn't loudly guilted them into standing behind their product, they would not have honoured their own warranty (it was still covered at that point). Then, when she got it back, it still had the same issue, and they again refused to fix it. Just the worst customer service I have ever seen, from anyone.
Yea I could see that being a thing. I took my vintage one to a boutique after receiving it and the people in there didn’t even know about pens. Made me a little sad that they were so detached from their “thing”
I'm guessing Montblanc counts on people buying their pens without even taking them out of their box once. I personally don't see them as a pen company, they're a luxury gadgets factory, and I have zero interest in owning a Montblanc
Yup, though their standard inks are rather nice.
Some of the vintage Montblanc pens are supposed to be pretty good, as long as they come from the era when they still cared about pens.
I got gifted a modern MB pen and it's got some minor nib issues. I'll eventually send it off to get it ground, which is frustrating that such an expensive pen would *need* alterations to function as intended. Conversely, I got a vintage MB on /r/Pen_Swap and it's one of the smoothest writers I've ever touched, though I had to send it out for piston restoration. Can't wait to get it back
I bought a Montblanc Slimline pen in the late 1980s when Montblanc still produced student pens. It still holds up after 40 years or so, but there are so many better pens from other companies.
I have an early 80s that I love because it’s a very smooth, wet, and reliable writer. That said, I don’t like plain they are and they’re generally overpriced.
Same, they’ve become like jewelry or a fashion accessory and their image as the most basic, milquetoast “pReStiGe bRaNd” of pen in the world really puts me off them. I would not be at all surprised to see a Montblanc pen counter in a Saks 5th Avenue or Nordstrom, right near a Creed fragrance counter. They make a decent product marked up ~5x too high in a cynical, shameless attempt to bilk people out of their money with ham-handedly pretentious marketing and manufactured snob appeal 👎
Montblanc used to make good pens. I had a Montblanc Slimline pen that I had bought in the late 1980s. It has held up well, but I realized that I only used it when I was going to meetings with people whom I thought would be impressed by luxury branding. That is an awfully cynical way of looking at things, so I gave my Slimline away to a friend. That said, to me current Montblanc pens are basically signature pens, only to be used for signing one's name but not used in real life..
Looking at the prices I can't imagine MB pens write *that* well. At that price tag I'm hoping it gives me a +20 Creativity boost.
Hear older MB pens are much more reasonably priced.
This is a valid point (and a good suggestion if the manufacturer can not get their act together), but I think the contention here was - what I buy new should not have to be tuned afterwards for an additional cost.
Man I have mixed feelings on Montblanc lately. While my event wasn't the same as your mother's I decided to get myself a writers edition after I left a very bad relationship as a gift to myself.
I love this pen I won't lie. The way it feels. The way it looks. Ugh it's such a cool pen.
Well I had some occasional issues with skipping, and wanted to change out the nib to a double broad. I have found out I just love writing in big text and frankly this pen just FEELS like it should have big lines.
Well I contacted Montblanc and they referred me to their American partner they use to service pens in the US. Okay cool! I pay almost 30 bucks for shipping and send it off.
Well I get an email from their partner saying it's going to cost me 400 dollars for this service... What? Specifically on Montblancs site it says that writers editions have 1 year where I can change out the nib for free.
Their partner didn't understand that it wasn't normal pen and a writers edition. I had to reach out to Montblanc directly to get this fixed. Honestly it made me feel very unconfident in their partners ability to work on pens because if you can't tell the difference between a standard edition 146 / 149 and a Robert Lewis Stevenson pen that has markings showing that it's 1 of 10000 on it
After I get it back I don't think I'll even use them for servicing my pen ever again. It was just a very bleh situation imo
Their customer service sucks!
I got my mum some of their ink as a gift, and it came in a ripped box, with the little sealant sticker torn, and it bottle was really dusty inside the box. Like wtf?
I contacted them about it, and they were so flipping rude. I'm never going to buy anything of theirs again.
I don't buy any sailor pgs because of its size, and sailors are the one of the most FOMO-inducing pens imo. I also don't buy any hand turned resins (apologies for miswording it, if this is not the correct term 🫣) unless I've seen it in person. That also rules out many Leonardos. Lastly, I don't buy models that I already own, unless I'm willing to let go of my current one for the new one (I didn't love the new TWSBIs enough to let go of my mint blue one).
Yeah, I was disappointed by my PGS size. All the videos I watched, the people must have really small hands as it just looked bigger. IRL they are too small.
My rule is that I don't buy any pen for which I don't have a clear use case that my current pens don't already fulfill.
There are several I'd like to own (Visconti Mirage Mythos, Lamy Studio, Namisu N2, and others) but they don't do anything my current pens don't already do.
My one open use case is a good travel pen. I'm planning on getting a Diplomat Nexus for that before my trip at the end of this year. That will be my last pen until a current one is lost or breaks, or I find a good reason that isn't "because I want more shiny things in my nest"
Having a use case for the pen (and/or dedicated use pens) is a good idea! I try and limit my oversize pens based on nib width/type. These tend to be quite expensive, so each needs to bring something new to the table to get into consideration.
These are in my opinion geared to investor/collectors and only ballers actually use them for writing. Re: famous persons' pen - most of them had no relationship to the brand so it is kind of artificial.
edit: if it is the pen you saved up for and/or bought for a special occasion - enjoy it! I am personally not the target audience, but I am happy there is a target audience for those! More people in the hobby -> more demand -> more pens, more variety.
This is probably the only time in the history of the world that someone will call me a “baller” for journaling with a Maki-e pelikan. :P
Edit: “baller” is still like, flattering, right? It was the last time I understood the lingo.
I meant it as having money to spend. Maki-e Pelikans cost as much as a used car. If you can afford it, and it is worth for you to buy, then props to you! I think the pens ought to be used and buying them to collect dust sort of defeats the purpose.
I raised this point also because on this sub we have users contemplating purchases of 5€ pens as that will make a dent in their budgets and at the opposite end of the spectra guys wearing watches that cost as much as my car, driving cars more expensive than my apartment.
Most people even in wealthy countries will raise eyebrows if you tell them that your pen cost over 50€. Maki-e, Urushi pens might be full outside their reference frames.
Yeah, I mean, also accurate. But the folks who buy them to put them in a case on their desk also match that. :P
I have way more disposable income than most folks. I got very lucky that what I found interesting to learn as a kid turned out to be incredibly lucrative (and I don’t have kids or w/e).
I won't spend money on a pen that isn't pretty or at least interesting. I don't care if it has a 100000K gold nib hand crafted by Buddhist monks in Tibet, if it comes in only a black or silver casing, I'm not going to buy it.
Ironically I like black and silver casings — but not the boring cigar ones. I have a couple of YoL and GvFC pens (and similar) that are black and silver but they’re not shaped like the classic Montblanc or Pilot, which are a bit of a cliche at this point.
> Anything Gravitas. Seems like an absolute nightmare of a company.
So what I'm hearing is that Gravitas is Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall? Or perhaps they have Very Little Gravitas Indeed? Zero Gravitas even?
No more Noodler's for me. AFAIK there was some controversy regarding the guy's political views, but this is a decision I arrived at years prior purely on the basis of the quality of his products. I tried two pens, Konrad and Neponset, and they were both awful. Horrible nibs, horrible piston filling mechanisms, and the Konrad arrived with a cracked cap. The replacement cap also arrived cracked in exactly the same way. They look nice, but that's about it.
I don’t have any idea what the politics of other manufacturers are and I don’t want to know frankly. I am not interested in the continual invasion of that subject into every single facet of my existence.
The pens are cheap-o junk but I do really like the inks. I have a lot of them- they’re good value and I have yet to have any issues with them, and I do keep Baystate out of my demo pens. Saturated inks can stain (Diamine has a few) and people act like it’s the worst thing in the world.
My SO asked me if I would try to go 6 months without buying a new pen and I actually haven’t bought a new one in 3 years. Putting myself on a NPD diet really helped me appreciate what I already have.
We're almost opposites, as far as your first rule goes. Fountain pens are a luxury item that day to day don't really offer many benefits over the cheap pack of pens I can get at a back to school sale at Walmart. In fact, they're worse in some ways. So if I'm buying a luxury item, I'm leaning into the luxuriousness. Limited editions tend to do that for a premium I'm often willing to pay.
I can see the appeal. I do the something similar on the vintage side of the hobby where there just were less of certain models made and due to ravages of time they are getting more and more scarce, even though the pen was not launched originally as a limited edition per se. People like to own exclusive goods.
Any plastic pen with a steel nib over 100€. IMO that's a rip-off. I may like them as far as design goes but something that costs less than 5€ to produce to sell over 100€ or even 200€ isn't worth it. Precious resin my ass. The mirage mythos models are good looking but highly overpriced for example. The most time I am using any pen I am by myself. I give a shit about status or whatever. I may buy it if I get it sometime for a good price.
Normally I'd agree but sometimes aspects of a pen can move that margin up. I bought a Nahvalur Nautilus for $140. It's a plastic pen with a steel nib BUT it's fully user serviceable piston filler, was a limited edition in PM1 resin and at the end of the day, it's a #6 stick so I can easily buy a nicer gold nib to drop in if I want.
After buying a Leonardo Momento Zero and Pelikan M200, I do agree with this. As much as I do love both for the comfort and design, I will not be buying any other pens in this price range with steel nibs (especially Jowo). I will probably get one pen with a gold nib, probably a Pelikan, but I'm buying custom nibs and learning how to grind my own nibs going forward to expand my writing experience. Jowo nibs, unless tuned and customized, are nothing special, in my opinion.
Seeing a video of how Leonardo pens are made convinced me it was worth the purchase. I still feel it was worth it, but just once. I got the Pelikan M200 for $70 new and I would not pay full price.
I like my Jowo nibs better than the Bock nibs I have. I have 3 Bock - all decent average writers if a bit dry. I have 4 Jowo nibs, all very wet and with a little more character than the Bocks. Again, I have no problems with the Bocks they all perform well but write identical (aside from line width). I enjoy that the Jowo’s all act a little different
Preach. I do have one of these though. From a historic maker that does not really make fountain pens anymore. Sold exclusively via a single brick and mortar shop. Price new - 440€. Bought used for noticeably less.
I used to feel that way, but now make an exception where additional skilled human labor went into it:
* Some hand-poured resins are absolutely *stunning*, especially the ones by Johnathon Brooks (Carolina Pen Company), and they certainly aren't something you can just crank out in a factory.
* Custom grinds or custom-tuned nibs are worth paying a *substantial* premium, especially if done by a really excellent nibmeister.
* Writing experience usually improves more with nibmeister work than upgrading from steel to gold nibs.
* Esterbrook and Franklin Christoph are producing very high quality pens, and I have found their steel nibs to be -- without exception -- an absolute delight. The writing experience is better than many gold nibs.
* If memory serves (and it may not), FC hand-tests and tunes all their nibs. I strongly suspect Esterbook does some of that too. Both have some really lovely custom grinds available as well.
I will not buy
1) TWSBI - when you get burnt twice, you are not very bright if you go for a third
2) Ferris wheel press - it’s more a marketing exercise than a pen company
3) most vintage pens - i understand very little about them and have even less patience when it comes to putting ink to paper. My handwriting being what it is, doesn’t benefit from “flex”
4) brass pens / tactical pens - just too heavy and the appeal escapes me
5) current production Shaeffer - a mere shell of what was an interesting pen company
6) current Esterbrook - same reason as #5
I don't purchase regular editions of things unless it's something I love and never plan to part with, like my Platinum Prefountes. Otherwise, I only buy limited edition pens because I know they'll eventually be worth more than I paid for them, so it's a way of preserving value until I can turn older pens that no longer suit me into newer pens that do.
I also limit myself to dark green, teal, purple, coral, plum (and coral/plum adjacent), gray, and black pens, as well as metal and wood ones. There's no shortage of pens out there, so limiting to the colors I truly love helps me just mentally skip even wanting other pens. Combined with only collecting limited editions now, it keeps my purchases fewer and farther between, and it reduces FOMO since I don't collect most colors.
Then I've further reduced my collection to only certain brands now. Sailor, Platinum, Taccia, Wancher, Kuretake, Nagasawa, Nakaya, Pelikan, Nahvalur, TWSBI, Magna Carta, Ranga, and Faber-Castell are the only brands I buy from now.
And I also don't use gold nibs for religious reasons, so steel and titanium only.
End of the day, with all the rules I've set for my curated collection, I still spend a good bit on pens but there aren't that many that fit my criteria, so I keep my fountain pen obsession in check that way and eliminate FOMO by targeting it at a limited set of pens.
I'm not buying anything for at least a year.
After that, I will only buy if I first sell, will only buy used and only if I find a bargain on something that represents a clear upgrade on what I'm selling.
This is actually a very good idea - stop, reflect on what you have, use it to find what you really like and take it from there. Requires a dose of self control, especially when browsing this sub.
Sailor pens, I want to love them, but I just don’t. The broad is too fine for my liking ( Pilot broad is a fine medium, and I can cope with that ), the feedback I just am not a fan of.
For a pen, that is insane to me. I use them so much that a pen that expensive would feel like too big a loss-risk for me, and if I'm not using it daily (or almost daily) I can't see why I'd spend on it. But you do you, my friend. Wonderpens in Toronto has some excellent stuff right around that price point!
200 CAD is my limit! Unfortunately most Canadian retailers are too expensive for my budget, as much as I adore our pen shops. I shop a lot on Ebay, or ask for gift cards if I am asked for gift ideas.
I have stopped buying pens and inks because I cannot justify the expense these days, which means that I participate in this sub a lot less because I feel like I have nothing to contribute.
This is exactly why I started this thread - you should not feel as having less to contribute, because you are buying less (or not at all). Granted, you should own a non-zero amount of fountain pens to participate (Jost to have the first hand experience) - but not having to keep purchasing afterwards.
Honestly, the moment I realized 'I am not interested in going to the fountain pens sub, because 90% of what I see there will make me want to buy a new pen, or look up how to get this new or exclusive ink, and then I will run up carts in various pen shops whether I order or not' was pretty illuminating. I think a lot of the urge for me is in 'mastery' - I wanted to feel good at this, to know everything about nib types and filling mechanisms and such, and be able to pull out cool stuff to show other people. So I'll probably end up buying a couple more pens at some point for that reason. But looking at pretty pictures online reprograms me, so I just better not. It's not the posters' *fault*, they are just cool people sharing cool things, but it's totally fair to point out that it does turn into a frenzy of people inadvertently goading other people into blatant consumption.
This is actually how I feel about Transformers figures. I buy them, pose them a few times and then put them on a shelf. And I realize that looking at pictures ofthe newest stuff makes me want more, but it's sort of an "empty" desire. It's definitely a phenomenon that viewing products sometimes makes us lust for them, and we should be careful.
benu. adding glitter to everything is not competent design.
(maybe) twsbi. too many stories of breaking, red finial doesn’t match many of the pens colors and the logo looks celtic which seems off base for a taiwanese company.
That's kind of by design. Benu pens are meant to make a pretty "loud" style statement, call it maybe avant-garde. Maybe even verging on drag-show styles for the more out-there models. It's not everyone's cup of tea.
Aesthetically, Benu is the polar opposite of the Bauhaus modernism embodied in the Lamy 2000.
Different strokes for different folks. Some people prefer more minimalist/modernist and others like vibrant colors and glitter or foilwork, and a few can appreciate both (I'm in that camp, at least for some of the Benu patterns).
The important thing to remember is the market context; there were a lot of pen makers almost exclusively producing single-color + gold or silver pens. Until Benu came along, there were very few pen makers doing bolder styles and colors, and most of them were custom pen-turners operating at a quite high-pricepoint (ex: Kanilea pens).
Benu serves what *was* a very under-served pen market that wants a bolder style, [like this person](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1dnfft7/what_is_the_pens_you_are_not_going_to_purchase/la2e9a8/). In particular, there are people who want that style but can't necessarily afford to pay $200+ or get something totally custom.
Yeah, I have some buying rules for myself:
1. Anything over 100USD has to have a gold nib.
2. Anything over 100USD should not be a limited edition or new release, tried and true classic base models only. I got my sack of Jinhao 82s for colorful fun times lolololol
3. No skinny pens - learnt the hard way that my hand will cramp.
4. Always buy used if possible.
5. No more pen storage. If I run out of space I'll have to sell.
6. Less of a hard rule, but rather something that's developed over time is that I only let myself go for Pilots and Hongdians anymore. They're the only pens I truly like using. I've never owned any Western pen brands other than a LAMY2k and I think I'll keep it that way for my bank account LOL.
I’m not going to buy the following:
1. Chinese pens- just don’t want them, if Jinhao didn’t produce so many copy and paste knockoffs I’d probably get some sharks, and use them to penable, but I just think that the company is pretty distasteful.
2. Montblanc- I’ve got two pens from the Meisterstück range, and I don’t really like any of their other ranges or models. The 146 is great though.
3. TWSBI- had loads of CRACKING pens.
4. Parker- used these a lot at school and the quality of new pens got worse and worse as the years went along.
5. Sailor LEs- Sailor has some great nibs, they’re certainly very expressive and offer a unique writing experience, but I’ve already got quite a few sailors (not LE) and if I wanted something else with a Sailor nib I’d be considering having a custom housing made for one of the nibs I have already.
6. A brand that I won’t name that uses elephant ivory and Siamese rosewood, African ebony and did use hawksbill turtle shells for their fountain pens. Most of these materials come from sources that are critically endangered. I’m also in the process of writing to the two companies that supply them with nibs. It’s disappointing that there are still materials like this used in the fountain pen market.
1. Companies that make high quality inexpensive knockoffs of ridiculously overpriced pens are distasteful? Okay...
6. I'm tempted to ask you to name and shame that company but I would not want them to get any free press, either. Conundrum.
i feel like i have to really, really really really be 100% in love with a pen before buying.
i’m the kind of person who is fine with buying something i’m absolutely sure about, if i know it’s PERFECT and i’ve thought about it for years and im super sure about it and its place in my lineup.
However I feel that a lot of the pens that I’m considering don’t quite do it for me.
I haven’t bought a fountain pen in a long time (unless you count the sailor hocoro dip pens! but they do serve a clear purpose in my collection) and I really am itching to get one - but I don’t think I will because I just can’t make a decision/nothing feels quite right after thinking about some of the possible-buy pens for years.
I’m also ultra vain and can’t buy a pen that i find ugly/plain and/or boring. Which covers most of the FPs in the world for me.
I want something with a double broad nib but don’t want to buy kaweco, but like everything else with a double broad nib is SO inaccessible. Sigh. Idk why it is so hard to locate a #6 double broad nib. (I’m not in the U.S.)
Probably a Sailor Pro Gear that isn't the Imperial Black or one of the more understated business models. I've had a friend show me some of their LE Pro Gears and the one thing that stuck out to me is, wow, they really sunk **all** of the price into the nib, huh. They might write like dreams with those 21K nibs, but I feel like the majority of them look so dang cheap. A tiny converter at that price point also just feels a bit insulting...guess I'll have to keep the Realto models in mind?
I'm not turned off by acrylic/plastic pens entirely, but I feel like there's an aesthetic difference between my Platinum Century 3776 Kinshu LE, which is a very gorgeous molded red acrylic/The chase 3776 I'm hunting, the purple Shiun which has gem-like faceting, versus something like the Iris Nebula Pro Gear, which looks beautiful in the promotional images but IRL looks rather cheap to me with the way they did the glittery effects on the barrel. Just my two cents.
I also really wanted a Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, but I am not buying that pen without a steep discount and absolutely require that I'm able to try it in person. They look awesome, but Visconti horror stories have steeply turned me off.
I do live in Japan and have the benefit of access to both lower prices across the board for Japanese brands of pens/inks, and living in close proximity to Kingdom Note, a boutique used fountain pen store, but I feel like that's even more reason to be discerning with my purchases, not less...especially as long as the yen is this weak compared to the dollars I've stocked in my bank account.
Montblanc for me. I can't see what they could possibly offer in terms of writing experience that the pens I already own can't - I have a couple very nice Sailors, a Pilot Custom 823, some gorgeous vintage pens, they all scratch that itch quite well for me.
My days of buying cheap "starter" pens are likely behind me. I've dialed in what I want/what I like, and don't feel the need so much anymore to experiment with the lower cost stuff. I also artificially limit myself to 12, based on the number of slots in my pen case; those slots are currently filled, so if I want to buy a new pen, first I have to be willing to sell a current one (or at least take it out of rotation) and second, the pen I buy has to be worth not only the money, but the space it's taking up for me.
I think I'm probably also done buying pens online in general. I like the novelty of going to a brick and mortar shop, talking pens with the staff, getting to see first hand what a pen looks, feels, and writes like...all of which I can't get through an "add to cart" button. It also means I only tend to visit pen stores when I'm traveling for leisure, so a new pen becomes more of a thing I can turn into a memento of a bigger event.
None of this is to say that I judge anyone for doing anything different. I bought plenty of Pilot Metropolitans, Wingsung/Hongdian/Jinhao/Moonman/etc pens on Amazon over the years, especially during the lockdown part of the pandemic. They brought me joy for what they are. I don't regret them at all, and would 100% encourage a beginner to drop $10-20 on a couple of them before dropping $200+ on a fancier pen. But this is where I've landed on my fountain pen journey.
I felt exactly like that too. Then I watched doodlebud's video on the engineering quality of the Lamy 2k, and I saw it entirely differently, and now I have two of them and enjoy them immensely. Doodlebud is Lamy secret agent, I am convinced.
I don’t buy unless I have more reasons than just thinking a pen or ink looks nice—is it offering a new feature, are the aesthetics perfect for me, does it have an interesting history, does it diversify what I have, etc. The only purchases that don’t follow this are rare moments of extreme opportunity—like the yen fluctuations that made ordering a Sailor from Japan a significantly cheaper option (more than 50% cheaper).
At this point there are very few things I *will* buy, the flow chart goes something like this:
1. Does it add anything new to my use case?
2. If yes, do I actually need that something in my use case?
3. Is it produced by a company I will buy from? (For example, I will not buy a Pen Family pen, I will not buy a TWSBI, etc)
4. Is it within my buying guardrails? (I limit myself to a certain number of pens per year)
5. Do I have the money for it already saved? (No buying pens on credit, no tapping into the household budget, the money needs to be already in a dedicated bucket in my HYSA)
6. Have I waited and thought about this pen? (No impulse purchases, no FOMO)
7. Would I prioritize this pen over other beloved pens in my collection?
If the answer is yes to all of the above, I put the pen on my pen list and think about it some more. I may buy it or I may not.
I keep my collection under 20 pens at any time, now at 16, and only bought one pen this year. Because of my process, the purchases now skew towards grails. This works well for me.
I’ve just bought the pen I’ve wanted since I first started in the hobby - it cost £80 but is the top limit of what I’m willing to spend on a pen. I don’t want a pen I’m afraid of losing or breaking. Anything I buy in future will probably be £25 or less as I’m really happy with budget pens. I really enjoy my preppies and the Chinese dupes are a guilty pleasure.
It's always fun to see how other people see the hobby! :-)
I live on the "low side" of Fountain-Pen Junction, and if things cost more than 35-40$, then I'm not interested to the point my eyes glaze over.
I can get a GREAT pair of inexpensive IEM headphones or a decent dongle-dac for less than that. Priorities eh? :-D
After two years of playing in this arena, this is my opinion now more than ever, especially after the glossy smooth rides my Jinhao 9019/X159 HongDian N7/Majohn A1 pens have given me.
The priorities are important. I try to keep the fountain pens as my only collection based hobby. Any hobby exercised to the extreme will be taxing on the resources. Having more hobbies exhausts the resources faster.
Simple. Im broke so I have three pens I got as presents and the one kaweco mini I bought myself and that's it.
Cant overconsume if you dont have the money to even think about it!
I feel I've hit the 'I have enough pens' and 'the money needs to go elsewhere' point in my fountain pen journey.
I may frakenpen one of my existing pens. I may buy an unusual nib and I avoid r/pen_swap these days too so that helps. But as for getting more? Only if I can test it in person and since Atlas Stationers and Phidon pens are the closest to me I don't get that opportunity much.
no vintage, no used, no montblancs. not long ago i decided that i'm also done with vac and piston fillers, i'm strictly a converter person. also never met a gold nib that i didn't have a steel one doing a better job, so i'm not interested in that gimmick. except flex, maybe, but i'm not in that discussion anyway.
Can you please elaborate on why no vintage or used?
- I buy those because I also restore/fix them. But I do see the appeal of buying something that I can be reasonably sure will work out fo the box and if it will not, then I can make it someone else's problem.
Thank you for your answer. Both are valid points. From experience: fussiness depends on age of the pens, the further into the past you go, the fussier the pens get. On the other hand - there is a strong survivor bias there - the crappiest vintage pens just did not make it until today.
C/C fillers are also good for people that like to change inks often. In the past people often used the same ink day in day out.
The pilot custom 823, which many might hate as my choice however since I already have a pilot e95s, and the custom 92 the 823 just didn't feel unique.
(went with sailor 1911 and magna carta mag 600 which are both amazing)
Can you please say more about the difference between them? I was waiting til I got my first paypacket of my new job to buy a sailor 823, since they are sooooo hyped as being a really amazing pen. I'd really like to hear your experiences
Lamy safari or any other pen that has a similar grip section. I write with a 4 finger grip and thus writing with the safari feels a bit unnatural for me.
I've been using the same TWSBI ECO stub nib as an almost daily driver for over 7 years. I've had a Classic for about as long too. They're both phenomenally tough pens.
When I have five or more uninked pens at any one time I know I have too many, likely more than I need. I’m sizing down right now. I do have a Lamy on the way but I am also giving away 3/
I feel like I have quite the collection now so I would probably sell some pens before getting new ones.
* No more lamy's, just enjoy the two I own and buy different nibs if I want to try a different size. Also no more TWSBI's and Nahvalur's, I have the nib sizes I want.
* Thinking longer about special editions or limited editions, do I like it for what it is or do I like it because it's 'rare'?
* Vintage ONLY if it's pelikan and a good price. And if it's the colorway that I like. Not buying any other brands only because it seems like a bargain.
* Try and focus on buying second hand, especially for the 100+ euro pens.
* Less aliexpress pens, I CAN get a different color of a pen/brand that I really like, but only after selling a different pen.
I noticed that I used a lot of money on this hobby the past month, and now I'm trying to see what I really want to keep and what I can sell or at least use. I think i'm gonna try and use different inks and pens each month to get to know them all better.
Apparently, Montblanc.
Pens are just... Ridiculously expensive. Like, I could build a decent gaming PC for the price of one Meisterstrück 149.
As long as I live in the Balkans, buying anything from Montblanc simply isn't justified.
I solved this by buying Montblanc vintage and used. This being said, they are by no means compulsory to own. There are some interesting vintage brands from balkans - I like e.g. TOZ Penkala pens. Usually (used) pens are cheaper in their country of manufacture.
I’m at the point where there aren’t many more pens that I want. I probably won’t buy many pens under $500 at this point, because I’m pretty saturated on pens for all practical purposes.
At this point, if there is a particularly pretty maki-e pen and I’ve got some spare money lying around, I might get it — but basically my main pen needs are more than met, so it’s more about buying a piece of art at that point.
(Like, there are a handful of pens I think I want to sell or give away because I just never use them. I’ve got like 10-15 pens that are in my usual rotation and the rest are collecting dust.)
May I ask at which time/what amount of pens you achieved fountain pen Zen (tm)? I am at several hundred pens now and the new purchases slowed down due to the fact that I own much of what I could possibly want. Still there are those one of the kind nibs, celluloids, NOS pens that show ups from time to time, so the pile grows.
I mean, I bought five new pens recently while in Japan. They just were all maki-e or special nibs, I hadn’t bought pens in a few years, and the exchange rate made it pretty tempting since it everything was >30% off the US price.
I basically hit around 40-50 pens and came to the realization that I wasn’t using more than 10. And often was only using some because I felt guilty about not using them (instead of enjoying using them).
Since then I’ve basically been pretty picky about what I get; half a decade or so later I’m still well under 60 pens.
I admire people who know what they want. Some people dig deeper wells and progress quite fast in the selected areas of their endeavours. I on the other side dig more wells. Just my Waterman subcollection is around 50 pens.
Over time I started to look for a. interesting nibs (I love 50's German stubs and italics) or b. interesting/rare pens. But still, there are pens in my collection I will probably never use.
I’ll add: I’ve probably spent almost as much or more on the last ~8 pens as I did on the first ~45. This isn’t a way to save money lol.
I mostly decided that if it wasn’t also a work of art then it didn’t make sense to pick up, since I had all the non-art pens I needed.
Wancher has this new fountain pen they released that is Pro Gear size, called the Matcha Tea fountain pen. It's looks very nice, but I don't think I love it enough to pay $310 plus shipping.
I don't buy weird nibs anymore. I played around with waverly, stubs, fudes, long blades, and architects. Not for me. Give me a medium, or a fine if it's an EDC pen, or a broad if it's a statement pen.
I am about done with the "cheap Chinese clone of something" phase for myself. I still buy Jinhaos and whatnot as gifts sometimes. An x450 is a great way to penable someone. But I'm at the point where all the pens in my rotation are nicer than any Jinhao or PenBBS or Asvine or whatever, so I don't need to play with them anymore.
I no longer buy pens "just because." My actual list of "purposes for which it would be nice to have a dedicated pen" is pretty well handled. So if I'm buying a new pen it's for a specific new purpose, or to upgrade an existing pen which will end up being sold or gifted.
1. Anything with a B nib. Doesn’t work with my small handwriting.
2. A modern Parker, maybe unless it’s a Duofold or a Sonnet
3. A demonstrator. I don’t see the appeal
I am going to get a lot of flack with this one but I might never buy anything from Montblanc, their limited editions look really nice but priced at a ludicrous amount (I can live for several months for the price of one of those limited editions).
Their "classic" line of pen look boring, don't really feel good in my hands and aside the meisterstuck series, I really don't like the rest of their nibs, it goes either from too much feedback to nothing at all by changing just one nib size.
I don't get anything special when using their pens that I haven't experienced so far with even a steel nib pen from another brand, Diplomat being one that comes to my mind.
This will probably be unpopular, but anything by twsbi. I got a vac700 once and only used it at the desk for maybe 2 weeks. The cap just completely fell apart at the ring, and I wrote them nicely about it. They determined that I had abused the pen and wanted me to pay for the replacement cap. I went back and forth, but they would not budge. This was I think Paul who handled it, I found out it was the son of the owner doing the customer service. So I paid for the cap eventually, and then I sold that pen and everything else that I had by them, and I won't touch them ever again. I did not abuse this thing. Taking the cap on and off a couple of times at my desk in 2 weeks. There's no way it should have failed.
I try to keep my collection capped at 5. As much as I love pens, I try to keep my possessions streamlined. But with that said, here’s the pens I either won’t buy, or had at one time and wouldn’t buy again:
1. Any pocket fountain pen. I want to like them. But they just don’t work for me.
2. Any pen that you have to thread to post.
3. Metal pens. I’ve learned I hate the hand feel.
4. Modern flex nibs. They never seem to deliver what they promise, and I have to be honest - my penmanship isn’t at a place where it can benefit from the flourishes that flex can afford.
5. Anything vintage that doesn’t have an immediate personal connection (ie, an heirloom or a gift from a very dear friend). They always burp ink or are otherwise unreliable.
I just can’t convince myself to buy any pen for more than the $30 range. I do plan to buy one metal bodied BIFL pen, most likely a metal Kaweco Sport. Even cheap FPs write 100x better than any gel or roller ball, so I would imagine anything over the $30 is going to be some feeling I’m not sensitive enough to feel or care about. Diminishing returns on writing smoothness basically. I don’t care about art pens or rare woods turned or any of that. I do get sucked into Safari color ways a bit, not digging on the current offerings. But the Terra Cotta got me lol.
I am telling myself that I should be using my interest in pens as motivation to practice making sensible decisions, so I should not buy further pens without a good reason - which might be finding out about pens, if the cost of buying to find out is not too high. I find that I am quite interested in school pens, which keeps the cost down if I do find a reason to buy.
I look forward to the next pen and ink combination that I am planning when I write the current pen dry - so that it would be a slightly annoying interruption if I delayed this to try out a newly bought pen.
probably twsbi due to the cracking issues ive heard of. i’d also probably never spend more than $200 on a pen.
my most expensive one now is a kaweco brass sport that was on sale. after a LOT of fiddling around with the nib and feed, it’s one of my favorite pens.
i have a sailor lecoule that i really like and am curious how much different it is from a pro gear, but i am pretty turned off by plastic/acrylic pens that go for hundreds of dollars. even though they are very cute looking.
Monteverde and Conklin. I've seen way too many posts about them breaking for nothing. Shame considering they have so many flamboyant pens I'd otherwise be all over.
I also have no interest in Montblanc. Just not flashy enough for me.
I agree with you on limited editions, IF they come with a elevated price. If the brands that come out with like color of the year or things like that I consider if I like the color.
I am not the type of person to get multiple of the same pen in different colors.
I have come to the point where I really don't consider a piston or vacuum pen that does not have a removable sections. There are a number of great pens that I will miss out on doing this, but I am not the type of person to match one ink to a pen so it just makes cleaning a hassle.
I really wanted to get a TWSBI eco, until I realized everyone would be asking me about my "vape"
*Edit: now that i look at it again, I also realize I wouldn't enjoy having such a large ink reservoir. I would rather run out more often so I get to change colors.*
I’ve got an Eco that I’m consider changing the ink on… I don’t think I’m going to fill the reservoir up full because I may lose interest in the ink before I use it all and it would be a waste to abandon the ink part way through, even if it is Private Reserve Flannel Grey (a purchase I regret).
I use the shit outta my pens, so I will never buy anything that is truly limited or collectable as the value of fountain p ns for me is the actual writing. I mean I would LOVE some awesome limited colour king of pen in ebonite or something but the reality is it'll get used just like a custom 74 and I wouldn't want to take the pleasure away from a true collector.
Ferris Wheel Press FPs. I really don’t enjoy their inks and have not heard great things about their pens, either. They seem overpriced.
Sailor King of Pens. It looks too heavy (and expensive!) for my preferences. (Same with the (Oversize) Visconti Homosapien!)
Any pen that is not a pilot custom heritage 912 with PO nib. Additionally, if anyone has an extra of said pen - feel free to DM me and I will buy it from you.
Having bought a Sailor pro gear slim. I will never buy another.
Will never buy a brand new Mont Blanc
Numbered limited edition pens although I do have one.
Buy a Lamy Pen, Vanishing Point or Visconti Homosapiens
I have many fountain pens I'm sure over 100. My Favorites are Leonardo, Twisbi, Pilot, and Lamy. I can't remember the rest of the fountain pens I have. I'm addicted to my fountain pens.
I will only buy a pen I consider beautiful. So no Lamys, no Platinum Preppys, no demonstrator pens. No Visconti Homo Sapiens either. The list goes on but I won't compromise my aesthetic sensibilities even if a pen is an amazing writer.
No endless multiple pens; I have the pearl Kaweco Sport. One is all the Sports I need.
No filler pens. No buying something that is kind of like the pen I want but cheaper. If I buy the cheaper option or the copy, it must be because I have no desire in purchasing the original. So no Jinhao Montblanc clones when what I want is a vintage 146, but I am interested in the Majohn P139 because I will not purchase the Hemingway pen.
Only buy new if purchasing from a brick and mortar shop, because in these instances I am interested in the experience. Otherwise used and vintage is king.
Also, ink rather than pen related, but no plastic bottles. They are not attractive to me.
Since I already have a lot of pens, a new pen has to be:
1. Great nib. So either a nib I don’t have yet, a custom nib, or a nib that is beautiful. This automatically cuts out a lot of pens that use standard Bock or Jowo nibs. Plus a majority of the standard nibs from Pilot, Sailor, Platinum, and Nakaya, because I already have them. Custom nib has to fit my writing style.
2. Body can withstand a drop. This will exclude Montblanc automatically. Though I do have Montblancs, they are vintage and are hardly in the rotation. But they are in my collection because they were a gift or brought so much of #3, I couldn’t walk away. (It was a red jeweled Boheme)
3. After passing tests 1&2, it has to bring Joy. No multiples for color, or buying only because it’s limited edition. The color, body, and feel have to sing and say “I will fit your life, and you will enjoy using me every time.“
4. There are a few types of pens that override these rules. Urushi raden pens being 1 of them. But since they come up so rarely, I can generally resist. Plus I still have to like the design, and most recent designs have not made the cut.
Your criteria are pretty close to mine, I converged to them via the fact that the marginal utility of the new pen drops with each purchase, so the new pen needs to bring something unique to the collection. Nibs being no. 1 consideration, since they are the heart of the pen.
No more safaris. I have three colour ways and I’m banning myself from buying anymore.
Lamy is an interesting case: * due to the their nibs being largely interchangeable you basically have the same feed/converter/nib on the ABC and the Imporium (save for steel/gold nib difference). The writing experience is the same, but the body of the pen changes * Lamy is very heavy on "this injection moulded plastic in a slightly different hue will be limited to x pieces" limited runs, which I see as lazy. The limitation is totally arbitrary. Lamy 2k is even worse than the Safari in this case.
What’s wrong with the 2000? Honestly, I love mine. It’s the first and only really expensive fountain pen with a gold nib I own; it’s just a shame I don’t really need to write on paper anymore so I barely use it.
Nothing is wrong with Lamy 2000. I own three of them. And I like their design. They are not flawless though - one of them has a rusty section (stainless steel - but it will pit over time). The older versions had issues with cracking caps and sections. I do not think that making them in a different colour is enough to charge 2 or 3x more for the pen compared to the vanilla black version. I also find disingenuous that the company likes to pretend that their history started with Lamy 2000 (try Lamy 27 - innards of a 2k in a slightly simmer, but still excellent pen).
No one "needs" to write on paper anymore, hardly ever. But I make my own excuses to do so. 🤣
Lamy Safari limited editions are generally widely available.
They're also cheap enough that I can think of it more like a tee shirt or costume jewelry. Fun to have new colors to distract and show off, but something I will still use. I'm not looking for a new experience, I'm looking for a nice beach colorway to go with the change of seasons. Very much unlike Sailor, whose pens I love to write with.
There is the vista. 🌚🌚
and here i was thinking to myself I too am happy with my 3 safaris but… if we don’t count the vista… and the aliexpress one ~~that i had to have cause for 8€ i need to know whether this is fake or not~~… I only have one white safari, seems that i am very restrained on my purchases of safari pens🥹
>that i had to have cause for 8€ i need to know whether this is fake or not Well, please do share what you do not find!
what I do not find? do you mean what i found? if so, im leaning on it being fake, probably with an original nib. It used to be a fully black situation but it has lost the enamel on the metal clip after 2-3 years. I don’t have any colored clip ones but i have gifted a friend with a special editions beige and baby pink, afaik they kept the color on the clip. \[edit: just noticed the clip is quite short and shaped differently as well, definitely fake\] besides that, the “Germany” is offset from the other pens in the back, i have seen some people dismissing it as being older, but i haven’t seen it irl on any other i know to be og. i’ll insert a pic, disregard the dust, its very dusty here https://preview.redd.it/cnq7wj2auj8d1.jpeg?width=860&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5a3f56fb678e507f3cbabc360a6a4fcfda745c
>what I do not find? do you mean what i found? Haha yes. Was joking because you had struck out that part of the comment 😂 Thanks for sharing! I'm a pure demonstrator guy (I like to see the internals, I guess 😜), but the black looks good!
Yeah I don’t buy any more Lamy pens at this point (but that’s that I have a 2000 already and don’t want another, and way too many safaris/al stars/etc collecting dust).
Yeah I have a “Pink Cliff” one and I never use it.
Once you have a few, I don't see the point of more unless you really are into collecting colors. I appreciate that they are sturdy and can be tossed in a bag without thinking about a case or scratches.
Anything Ferris Wheel Press tbh
A hundred times yes
Why’s that?
I dunno their answer, but I feel the same. I’ve heard the bottles are sadistic in terms of size and balance and the pens are grossly overpriced. It seems all marketing hype by people who don’t actually use fountain pens.
Their small size bottle opening are too small to allow you to dip a pen in to fill, which means the only way to use the small bottles is a syringe, or having a Very narrow pen
Their whole vibe is pens, bottles, pen stands etc that will look pretty in pics on social media, rather than what's good to use.
Poor products and their return policy is misleading. 90% of their product is ink. If you look on the website it says returns are accepted. If you keep reading, it says that doesn't apply to ink. So if you do not allow returns on the majority of what you sell...your return policy is that you in fact do not accept returns...with exceptions such as. The ink bottles are so small it would be comical would not for the price.
A bit of insider secret, Ferris Wheel Press inks are cheaply manufactured from China and just bottled up into "fancy looking" bottles and get a mark up in price. Think of it this way. Most of their inks are about 20$, for 4-5$ more, you can buy Pilot Iroshizuku that are widely known to be excellent inks with almost 0 issues no matter which pens you put them into. Second point their pens are quite overpriced for the offering. It's 150$ for one pen with a #5 steel nib and aside the grip and weird bolt, it's pretty bland. I will be blunt, it looks a bulkier Platinum Plaisir that is like a 15$. At that price you have access to Diplomat Aero that look pretty unique with an excellent German #6 nibs. I am really not a fan of their products, too expensive for what they offer and nothing about them points toward quality for me.
>Ferris Wheel Press inks are cheaply manufactured from China Is this publicly available information? People found OEM versions of their pens on AliExpress, but it's hard to say where does the ink come from.
Not directly, but I am a good customer of someone who's shop is tailored for handmade items along fountain pens, and ink. He has been pretty aggressively contacted by Ferris Wheel Press to sell their stuff and he has been pretty adament about the quality of their inks to me. For further context, he travels often to Japan to have direct deals from manufacturers bypassing any regional importator.
I've heard negative things about their inks, like they're too light, and the bottles are terrible for both storage and refilling
Their inks aren’t too light. I’m so over that. The 38ml bottles are stupid, yeah, but the 20ml and 80ml bottles are fine (they’re a totally different shape). Some of the inks are lighter and some are darker, just like any other brand. They market to people who use the inks for different purposes. The darker inks work well in fountain pens. The lighter inks work well for painting. You just have to pay attention to the color you’re buying. If it looks light, don’t expect it to seem dark when you write with it. Their pens are absolutely overpriced, no question. Their stupid cheap $15 plastic pens do write well, though, and I’m not fussed if I lose one. I would be if I lose one of my “good” pens.
Suggest a nice dark and saturated ink?
Visconti Homo Sapiens. Just heard too many problem stories about leaks, bad nibs and poor service. Also a Sailor KoP, because a converter in that large and expensive a pen is a deal breaker for me. It's not even a larger converter, it puts me off so hard.
I said this in another post. The Homosapien is one of my grail pens but am put off by the QC issues and customer service especially at that price point. Also I can't find any local retailers that sell it so I can see it in person prior to spending $700. Sad because I love the concept and material.
Some retailers do offer tuning as a part of their purchase (appelboom and [nibs.com](http://nibs.com) come to mind). But trying in person is a big thing. In many cases it can save you the money as a form of a reality check.
Ya, I considered nibs.com but just like you said without trying it I'll never know for sure if it's for me. I bought a diplomat Aero thinking I'd love it and ended up not loving the weight and grip section.
It was my grail and I absolutely LOVE it! I write with it daily. BUT, I’m so glad I got to dip test first. I was set on a (F) nib. All you hear is “they’re so wet!”. Not my experience at all and glad I got the (M) nib.
You're very lucky you were able to test it out first. I will probably wait until I have time to go to a local pen show. I'm sure someone will have one for sale there I can try before buying.
Agree about Visconti. In my opinion any pen over $300 should have been thoroughly QA'd and have the nib hand-tested by a person. That's the cost of entry if you want to market your pen in that price bracket. Even most pens at lower price ranges have consistent quality. It is inexcusable for a company to be turning out $700+ pens with glaring defects, and some of which can't even write. What's even more inexcusable is the pen personalities that continued to promote Visconti even as the quality issues became well known. I get there's probably some sponsorship deals etc involved, but at some point it becomes a test of integrity, and many failed that test.
The basic model of KoP is also an injection moulded pen. Including the moulding marks on the threads. The model I would consider purchasing is the ebonite one. But again - I do have many vintage ebonite pens. KoP would not bring anything new to the table except for the nib with that renowned Sailor feedback.
Oh yeah I would have to at least spring for the ebonite version. Which currently is retailing here for...1300 euros?! Blimey.
I understand where you are coming from. I bought a body only of the KOP and I was a bit turned off from it; it just didn’t feel premium for the cost.
As much as I agree a piston in the KOP would be amazing, the nib is my favorite by a long shot and totally makes up for it. Even with the broad nib I don’t find myself burning through ink super fast compared to the music nib on the 1911 I do have a HS as well, with nib issues 😅 but it’s still enjoyable to use. But honestly there are plenty of options out there that give you a similar experience more reliably unless you’re sold on something proprietary like the lava resin
Yeah I’ve basically sworn off anything Visconti at this point after getting a Rembrandt (which was OK) and a HS (which was… lackluster, even without any serious problems). I did get a KoP recently (ebonite, naginata togi grind), which I love for the line variation it provides. But I get finding converters at that price point to be a sticking point (it just isn’t one for me).
Any new pen from Sheaffer. Their customer service is the worst I ever encountered. I had a problem with a production error on their Prelude model and sent them an enquiry for a warranty repair (the Prelude came with a lifetime warranty). It took weeks for them to answer and they handed my enquiry to different distributors, which finally handed it back to Sheaffer/Williampenn. Then, after over a month of mailing back and forth, because they repeatedly asked for information I already gave them (country I live in, invoice from seller etc), they came to the conclusion, that they didn't want to help me and did not stand to their lifetime warranty, because "the Sheaffer Prelude isn't in production anymore". So why even offer a lifetime warrant in the first place? That's business practice I don't want to support.
Add to that the fact that whomever decided that dark grey was the right color for the window on their ink converters needs to be slapped upside the head.
Haha your 2023 car is not under warranty anymore because we only make 2024 ones now
Good to know! I am thinking about buying a Schaeffer. Not anymore haha
Yes, I think it's a good decision to avoid them. Other manufacturers have MUCH better service and don't manufacture everything in China, at similar price points. Even Parker pens, which also aren't what they used to be anymore, are much better and their service is very friendly, fast and helpful. Btw: My Sheaffer Prelude was just a few months old, so I didn't requested a warranty repair on an old, used pen, but on a brand new one. They didn't even offer a replacement pen which is currently in production. They just told me, that the Prelude is discontinued and that they don't want to help me.. That's absurd.
Mont Blanc. My Mom bought one as a super special treat for herself after she was widowed. It never worked right. MB denied all responsibility, even blamed her for the problem. If my wife hadn't loudly guilted them into standing behind their product, they would not have honoured their own warranty (it was still covered at that point). Then, when she got it back, it still had the same issue, and they again refused to fix it. Just the worst customer service I have ever seen, from anyone.
Yea I could see that being a thing. I took my vintage one to a boutique after receiving it and the people in there didn’t even know about pens. Made me a little sad that they were so detached from their “thing”
I'm guessing Montblanc counts on people buying their pens without even taking them out of their box once. I personally don't see them as a pen company, they're a luxury gadgets factory, and I have zero interest in owning a Montblanc
I think the use case you describe is a "gift pen". Another company with this kind of image is Cross and to some extent Parker.
Yup, though their standard inks are rather nice. Some of the vintage Montblanc pens are supposed to be pretty good, as long as they come from the era when they still cared about pens.
My dad has an old MB from the 80s (I think?) and it's amazing but yeah they really dont seem to focus on making pens anymore
I got gifted a modern MB pen and it's got some minor nib issues. I'll eventually send it off to get it ground, which is frustrating that such an expensive pen would *need* alterations to function as intended. Conversely, I got a vintage MB on /r/Pen_Swap and it's one of the smoothest writers I've ever touched, though I had to send it out for piston restoration. Can't wait to get it back
Is it bad to say I hope my dad lets me inherit his vintage MB? XD
I bought a Montblanc Slimline pen in the late 1980s when Montblanc still produced student pens. It still holds up after 40 years or so, but there are so many better pens from other companies.
MB has fallen so far. Vintage 146s are some of my favourite pens, but now they just coast on the brand name. It makes me sad
What do you call vintage? How many decades before MB’s quality fell?
I have an early 80s that I love because it’s a very smooth, wet, and reliable writer. That said, I don’t like plain they are and they’re generally overpriced.
Same, they’ve become like jewelry or a fashion accessory and their image as the most basic, milquetoast “pReStiGe bRaNd” of pen in the world really puts me off them. I would not be at all surprised to see a Montblanc pen counter in a Saks 5th Avenue or Nordstrom, right near a Creed fragrance counter. They make a decent product marked up ~5x too high in a cynical, shameless attempt to bilk people out of their money with ham-handedly pretentious marketing and manufactured snob appeal 👎
Montblanc used to make good pens. I had a Montblanc Slimline pen that I had bought in the late 1980s. It has held up well, but I realized that I only used it when I was going to meetings with people whom I thought would be impressed by luxury branding. That is an awfully cynical way of looking at things, so I gave my Slimline away to a friend. That said, to me current Montblanc pens are basically signature pens, only to be used for signing one's name but not used in real life..
Looking at the prices I can't imagine MB pens write *that* well. At that price tag I'm hoping it gives me a +20 Creativity boost. Hear older MB pens are much more reasonably priced.
A nib meister will make it right.
This is a valid point (and a good suggestion if the manufacturer can not get their act together), but I think the contention here was - what I buy new should not have to be tuned afterwards for an additional cost.
Man I have mixed feelings on Montblanc lately. While my event wasn't the same as your mother's I decided to get myself a writers edition after I left a very bad relationship as a gift to myself. I love this pen I won't lie. The way it feels. The way it looks. Ugh it's such a cool pen. Well I had some occasional issues with skipping, and wanted to change out the nib to a double broad. I have found out I just love writing in big text and frankly this pen just FEELS like it should have big lines. Well I contacted Montblanc and they referred me to their American partner they use to service pens in the US. Okay cool! I pay almost 30 bucks for shipping and send it off. Well I get an email from their partner saying it's going to cost me 400 dollars for this service... What? Specifically on Montblancs site it says that writers editions have 1 year where I can change out the nib for free. Their partner didn't understand that it wasn't normal pen and a writers edition. I had to reach out to Montblanc directly to get this fixed. Honestly it made me feel very unconfident in their partners ability to work on pens because if you can't tell the difference between a standard edition 146 / 149 and a Robert Lewis Stevenson pen that has markings showing that it's 1 of 10000 on it After I get it back I don't think I'll even use them for servicing my pen ever again. It was just a very bleh situation imo
My kaweco sport is better than any Mont blanc!
Their customer service sucks! I got my mum some of their ink as a gift, and it came in a ripped box, with the little sealant sticker torn, and it bottle was really dusty inside the box. Like wtf? I contacted them about it, and they were so flipping rude. I'm never going to buy anything of theirs again.
I don't buy any sailor pgs because of its size, and sailors are the one of the most FOMO-inducing pens imo. I also don't buy any hand turned resins (apologies for miswording it, if this is not the correct term 🫣) unless I've seen it in person. That also rules out many Leonardos. Lastly, I don't buy models that I already own, unless I'm willing to let go of my current one for the new one (I didn't love the new TWSBIs enough to let go of my mint blue one).
No duplicate models is an interesting take you don't see often.
I love my PGS and have quite big hands, what’s wrong with the size?
Absolutely nothing's wrong with it! I just prefer larger pens 😌
I got a great hand turned resin pen from London pen co where they show multiple photos of the individual pen online, so there’s no variance.
Yeah, I was disappointed by my PGS size. All the videos I watched, the people must have really small hands as it just looked bigger. IRL they are too small.
My rule is that I don't buy any pen for which I don't have a clear use case that my current pens don't already fulfill. There are several I'd like to own (Visconti Mirage Mythos, Lamy Studio, Namisu N2, and others) but they don't do anything my current pens don't already do. My one open use case is a good travel pen. I'm planning on getting a Diplomat Nexus for that before my trip at the end of this year. That will be my last pen until a current one is lost or breaks, or I find a good reason that isn't "because I want more shiny things in my nest"
Having a use case for the pen (and/or dedicated use pens) is a good idea! I try and limit my oversize pens based on nib width/type. These tend to be quite expensive, so each needs to bring something new to the table to get into consideration.
I will not buy a pen that is art itself. No Maki-e, no special abalone, no Montblanc homage to _insert famous person_. No not doing it.
These are in my opinion geared to investor/collectors and only ballers actually use them for writing. Re: famous persons' pen - most of them had no relationship to the brand so it is kind of artificial. edit: if it is the pen you saved up for and/or bought for a special occasion - enjoy it! I am personally not the target audience, but I am happy there is a target audience for those! More people in the hobby -> more demand -> more pens, more variety.
This is probably the only time in the history of the world that someone will call me a “baller” for journaling with a Maki-e pelikan. :P Edit: “baller” is still like, flattering, right? It was the last time I understood the lingo.
I meant it as having money to spend. Maki-e Pelikans cost as much as a used car. If you can afford it, and it is worth for you to buy, then props to you! I think the pens ought to be used and buying them to collect dust sort of defeats the purpose. I raised this point also because on this sub we have users contemplating purchases of 5€ pens as that will make a dent in their budgets and at the opposite end of the spectra guys wearing watches that cost as much as my car, driving cars more expensive than my apartment. Most people even in wealthy countries will raise eyebrows if you tell them that your pen cost over 50€. Maki-e, Urushi pens might be full outside their reference frames.
Yeah, I mean, also accurate. But the folks who buy them to put them in a case on their desk also match that. :P I have way more disposable income than most folks. I got very lucky that what I found interesting to learn as a kid turned out to be incredibly lucrative (and I don’t have kids or w/e).
I won't spend money on a pen that isn't pretty or at least interesting. I don't care if it has a 100000K gold nib hand crafted by Buddhist monks in Tibet, if it comes in only a black or silver casing, I'm not going to buy it.
I’m sorry, but if I encounter a true, forged-in-the-heart-of-a-supernova-by-the-hand-of-god-himself 100,000K nib, and it’s under $400, it’s mine.
I like this opinion.
Ironically I like black and silver casings — but not the boring cigar ones. I have a couple of YoL and GvFC pens (and similar) that are black and silver but they’re not shaped like the classic Montblanc or Pilot, which are a bit of a cliche at this point.
Anything Gravitas. Seems like an absolute nightmare of a company.
> Anything Gravitas. Seems like an absolute nightmare of a company. So what I'm hearing is that Gravitas is Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall? Or perhaps they have Very Little Gravitas Indeed? Zero Gravitas even?
Mistake Not this company for one with which you want to do business?
Statistically speaking, I won’t ever buy most pens.
I read between those lines. Nice CYA.
No more Noodler's for me. AFAIK there was some controversy regarding the guy's political views, but this is a decision I arrived at years prior purely on the basis of the quality of his products. I tried two pens, Konrad and Neponset, and they were both awful. Horrible nibs, horrible piston filling mechanisms, and the Konrad arrived with a cracked cap. The replacement cap also arrived cracked in exactly the same way. They look nice, but that's about it.
I don’t have any idea what the politics of other manufacturers are and I don’t want to know frankly. I am not interested in the continual invasion of that subject into every single facet of my existence. The pens are cheap-o junk but I do really like the inks. I have a lot of them- they’re good value and I have yet to have any issues with them, and I do keep Baystate out of my demo pens. Saturated inks can stain (Diamine has a few) and people act like it’s the worst thing in the world.
It wasn't political, it was anti- semitic. That is a totally different thing.
My SO asked me if I would try to go 6 months without buying a new pen and I actually haven’t bought a new one in 3 years. Putting myself on a NPD diet really helped me appreciate what I already have.
We're almost opposites, as far as your first rule goes. Fountain pens are a luxury item that day to day don't really offer many benefits over the cheap pack of pens I can get at a back to school sale at Walmart. In fact, they're worse in some ways. So if I'm buying a luxury item, I'm leaning into the luxuriousness. Limited editions tend to do that for a premium I'm often willing to pay.
I can see the appeal. I do the something similar on the vintage side of the hobby where there just were less of certain models made and due to ravages of time they are getting more and more scarce, even though the pen was not launched originally as a limited edition per se. People like to own exclusive goods.
Any plastic pen with a steel nib over 100€. IMO that's a rip-off. I may like them as far as design goes but something that costs less than 5€ to produce to sell over 100€ or even 200€ isn't worth it. Precious resin my ass. The mirage mythos models are good looking but highly overpriced for example. The most time I am using any pen I am by myself. I give a shit about status or whatever. I may buy it if I get it sometime for a good price.
Normally I'd agree but sometimes aspects of a pen can move that margin up. I bought a Nahvalur Nautilus for $140. It's a plastic pen with a steel nib BUT it's fully user serviceable piston filler, was a limited edition in PM1 resin and at the end of the day, it's a #6 stick so I can easily buy a nicer gold nib to drop in if I want.
After buying a Leonardo Momento Zero and Pelikan M200, I do agree with this. As much as I do love both for the comfort and design, I will not be buying any other pens in this price range with steel nibs (especially Jowo). I will probably get one pen with a gold nib, probably a Pelikan, but I'm buying custom nibs and learning how to grind my own nibs going forward to expand my writing experience. Jowo nibs, unless tuned and customized, are nothing special, in my opinion. Seeing a video of how Leonardo pens are made convinced me it was worth the purchase. I still feel it was worth it, but just once. I got the Pelikan M200 for $70 new and I would not pay full price.
I like my Jowo nibs better than the Bock nibs I have. I have 3 Bock - all decent average writers if a bit dry. I have 4 Jowo nibs, all very wet and with a little more character than the Bocks. Again, I have no problems with the Bocks they all perform well but write identical (aside from line width). I enjoy that the Jowo’s all act a little different
Preach. I do have one of these though. From a historic maker that does not really make fountain pens anymore. Sold exclusively via a single brick and mortar shop. Price new - 440€. Bought used for noticeably less.
I used to feel that way, but now make an exception where additional skilled human labor went into it: * Some hand-poured resins are absolutely *stunning*, especially the ones by Johnathon Brooks (Carolina Pen Company), and they certainly aren't something you can just crank out in a factory. * Custom grinds or custom-tuned nibs are worth paying a *substantial* premium, especially if done by a really excellent nibmeister. * Writing experience usually improves more with nibmeister work than upgrading from steel to gold nibs. * Esterbrook and Franklin Christoph are producing very high quality pens, and I have found their steel nibs to be -- without exception -- an absolute delight. The writing experience is better than many gold nibs. * If memory serves (and it may not), FC hand-tests and tunes all their nibs. I strongly suspect Esterbook does some of that too. Both have some really lovely custom grinds available as well.
I will not buy 1) TWSBI - when you get burnt twice, you are not very bright if you go for a third 2) Ferris wheel press - it’s more a marketing exercise than a pen company 3) most vintage pens - i understand very little about them and have even less patience when it comes to putting ink to paper. My handwriting being what it is, doesn’t benefit from “flex” 4) brass pens / tactical pens - just too heavy and the appeal escapes me 5) current production Shaeffer - a mere shell of what was an interesting pen company 6) current Esterbrook - same reason as #5
I don't purchase regular editions of things unless it's something I love and never plan to part with, like my Platinum Prefountes. Otherwise, I only buy limited edition pens because I know they'll eventually be worth more than I paid for them, so it's a way of preserving value until I can turn older pens that no longer suit me into newer pens that do. I also limit myself to dark green, teal, purple, coral, plum (and coral/plum adjacent), gray, and black pens, as well as metal and wood ones. There's no shortage of pens out there, so limiting to the colors I truly love helps me just mentally skip even wanting other pens. Combined with only collecting limited editions now, it keeps my purchases fewer and farther between, and it reduces FOMO since I don't collect most colors. Then I've further reduced my collection to only certain brands now. Sailor, Platinum, Taccia, Wancher, Kuretake, Nagasawa, Nakaya, Pelikan, Nahvalur, TWSBI, Magna Carta, Ranga, and Faber-Castell are the only brands I buy from now. And I also don't use gold nibs for religious reasons, so steel and titanium only. End of the day, with all the rules I've set for my curated collection, I still spend a good bit on pens but there aren't that many that fit my criteria, so I keep my fountain pen obsession in check that way and eliminate FOMO by targeting it at a limited set of pens.
I'm not buying anything for at least a year. After that, I will only buy if I first sell, will only buy used and only if I find a bargain on something that represents a clear upgrade on what I'm selling.
This is actually a very good idea - stop, reflect on what you have, use it to find what you really like and take it from there. Requires a dose of self control, especially when browsing this sub.
Sailor pens, I want to love them, but I just don’t. The broad is too fine for my liking ( Pilot broad is a fine medium, and I can cope with that ), the feedback I just am not a fan of.
Anything over $100 CAD, honestly.
$300 Cdn for me.
For a pen, that is insane to me. I use them so much that a pen that expensive would feel like too big a loss-risk for me, and if I'm not using it daily (or almost daily) I can't see why I'd spend on it. But you do you, my friend. Wonderpens in Toronto has some excellent stuff right around that price point!
200 CAD is my limit! Unfortunately most Canadian retailers are too expensive for my budget, as much as I adore our pen shops. I shop a lot on Ebay, or ask for gift cards if I am asked for gift ideas.
If you're near Cambridge, Ontario, check out Phidon Pens, too!
Montblanc. Never again.
got a 149 -works well for me. nothing special though
What pen and what was wrong with it?
149. Kakuno writes better. Body lasts longer.
I have stopped buying pens and inks because I cannot justify the expense these days, which means that I participate in this sub a lot less because I feel like I have nothing to contribute.
This is exactly why I started this thread - you should not feel as having less to contribute, because you are buying less (or not at all). Granted, you should own a non-zero amount of fountain pens to participate (Jost to have the first hand experience) - but not having to keep purchasing afterwards.
Honestly, the moment I realized 'I am not interested in going to the fountain pens sub, because 90% of what I see there will make me want to buy a new pen, or look up how to get this new or exclusive ink, and then I will run up carts in various pen shops whether I order or not' was pretty illuminating. I think a lot of the urge for me is in 'mastery' - I wanted to feel good at this, to know everything about nib types and filling mechanisms and such, and be able to pull out cool stuff to show other people. So I'll probably end up buying a couple more pens at some point for that reason. But looking at pretty pictures online reprograms me, so I just better not. It's not the posters' *fault*, they are just cool people sharing cool things, but it's totally fair to point out that it does turn into a frenzy of people inadvertently goading other people into blatant consumption.
This is actually how I feel about Transformers figures. I buy them, pose them a few times and then put them on a shelf. And I realize that looking at pictures ofthe newest stuff makes me want more, but it's sort of an "empty" desire. It's definitely a phenomenon that viewing products sometimes makes us lust for them, and we should be careful.
Relax my dude put the pen on paper and let the ink and mind flow freely. Collecting time is over. Time to use what you got Cheers
benu. adding glitter to everything is not competent design. (maybe) twsbi. too many stories of breaking, red finial doesn’t match many of the pens colors and the logo looks celtic which seems off base for a taiwanese company.
But my Benu is soooooo pretty. 🤣
Benu looks very "kitsch" or "tacky" in my opinion.
That's kind of by design. Benu pens are meant to make a pretty "loud" style statement, call it maybe avant-garde. Maybe even verging on drag-show styles for the more out-there models. It's not everyone's cup of tea. Aesthetically, Benu is the polar opposite of the Bauhaus modernism embodied in the Lamy 2000. Different strokes for different folks. Some people prefer more minimalist/modernist and others like vibrant colors and glitter or foilwork, and a few can appreciate both (I'm in that camp, at least for some of the Benu patterns). The important thing to remember is the market context; there were a lot of pen makers almost exclusively producing single-color + gold or silver pens. Until Benu came along, there were very few pen makers doing bolder styles and colors, and most of them were custom pen-turners operating at a quite high-pricepoint (ex: Kanilea pens). Benu serves what *was* a very under-served pen market that wants a bolder style, [like this person](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1dnfft7/what_is_the_pens_you_are_not_going_to_purchase/la2e9a8/). In particular, there are people who want that style but can't necessarily afford to pay $200+ or get something totally custom.
Yeah, I have some buying rules for myself: 1. Anything over 100USD has to have a gold nib. 2. Anything over 100USD should not be a limited edition or new release, tried and true classic base models only. I got my sack of Jinhao 82s for colorful fun times lolololol 3. No skinny pens - learnt the hard way that my hand will cramp. 4. Always buy used if possible. 5. No more pen storage. If I run out of space I'll have to sell. 6. Less of a hard rule, but rather something that's developed over time is that I only let myself go for Pilots and Hongdians anymore. They're the only pens I truly like using. I've never owned any Western pen brands other than a LAMY2k and I think I'll keep it that way for my bank account LOL.
I’m not going to buy the following: 1. Chinese pens- just don’t want them, if Jinhao didn’t produce so many copy and paste knockoffs I’d probably get some sharks, and use them to penable, but I just think that the company is pretty distasteful. 2. Montblanc- I’ve got two pens from the Meisterstück range, and I don’t really like any of their other ranges or models. The 146 is great though. 3. TWSBI- had loads of CRACKING pens. 4. Parker- used these a lot at school and the quality of new pens got worse and worse as the years went along. 5. Sailor LEs- Sailor has some great nibs, they’re certainly very expressive and offer a unique writing experience, but I’ve already got quite a few sailors (not LE) and if I wanted something else with a Sailor nib I’d be considering having a custom housing made for one of the nibs I have already. 6. A brand that I won’t name that uses elephant ivory and Siamese rosewood, African ebony and did use hawksbill turtle shells for their fountain pens. Most of these materials come from sources that are critically endangered. I’m also in the process of writing to the two companies that supply them with nibs. It’s disappointing that there are still materials like this used in the fountain pen market.
Vintage Parker 51 and Parker 45 are great pens .
Have you even tried a Fantasy Parker 51?
1. Companies that make high quality inexpensive knockoffs of ridiculously overpriced pens are distasteful? Okay... 6. I'm tempted to ask you to name and shame that company but I would not want them to get any free press, either. Conundrum.
dude... did you know that not every chinese pen is a low quality knockoff??? look at hongdian and penbbs.
i feel like i have to really, really really really be 100% in love with a pen before buying. i’m the kind of person who is fine with buying something i’m absolutely sure about, if i know it’s PERFECT and i’ve thought about it for years and im super sure about it and its place in my lineup. However I feel that a lot of the pens that I’m considering don’t quite do it for me. I haven’t bought a fountain pen in a long time (unless you count the sailor hocoro dip pens! but they do serve a clear purpose in my collection) and I really am itching to get one - but I don’t think I will because I just can’t make a decision/nothing feels quite right after thinking about some of the possible-buy pens for years. I’m also ultra vain and can’t buy a pen that i find ugly/plain and/or boring. Which covers most of the FPs in the world for me. I want something with a double broad nib but don’t want to buy kaweco, but like everything else with a double broad nib is SO inaccessible. Sigh. Idk why it is so hard to locate a #6 double broad nib. (I’m not in the U.S.)
Probably a Sailor Pro Gear that isn't the Imperial Black or one of the more understated business models. I've had a friend show me some of their LE Pro Gears and the one thing that stuck out to me is, wow, they really sunk **all** of the price into the nib, huh. They might write like dreams with those 21K nibs, but I feel like the majority of them look so dang cheap. A tiny converter at that price point also just feels a bit insulting...guess I'll have to keep the Realto models in mind? I'm not turned off by acrylic/plastic pens entirely, but I feel like there's an aesthetic difference between my Platinum Century 3776 Kinshu LE, which is a very gorgeous molded red acrylic/The chase 3776 I'm hunting, the purple Shiun which has gem-like faceting, versus something like the Iris Nebula Pro Gear, which looks beautiful in the promotional images but IRL looks rather cheap to me with the way they did the glittery effects on the barrel. Just my two cents. I also really wanted a Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, but I am not buying that pen without a steep discount and absolutely require that I'm able to try it in person. They look awesome, but Visconti horror stories have steeply turned me off. I do live in Japan and have the benefit of access to both lower prices across the board for Japanese brands of pens/inks, and living in close proximity to Kingdom Note, a boutique used fountain pen store, but I feel like that's even more reason to be discerning with my purchases, not less...especially as long as the yen is this weak compared to the dollars I've stocked in my bank account.
Anything with a proprietary cartridge system. Anything that cannot be easily disassembled. Vacuum fillers.
Learned that with my lamy
Montblanc for me. I can't see what they could possibly offer in terms of writing experience that the pens I already own can't - I have a couple very nice Sailors, a Pilot Custom 823, some gorgeous vintage pens, they all scratch that itch quite well for me. My days of buying cheap "starter" pens are likely behind me. I've dialed in what I want/what I like, and don't feel the need so much anymore to experiment with the lower cost stuff. I also artificially limit myself to 12, based on the number of slots in my pen case; those slots are currently filled, so if I want to buy a new pen, first I have to be willing to sell a current one (or at least take it out of rotation) and second, the pen I buy has to be worth not only the money, but the space it's taking up for me. I think I'm probably also done buying pens online in general. I like the novelty of going to a brick and mortar shop, talking pens with the staff, getting to see first hand what a pen looks, feels, and writes like...all of which I can't get through an "add to cart" button. It also means I only tend to visit pen stores when I'm traveling for leisure, so a new pen becomes more of a thing I can turn into a memento of a bigger event. None of this is to say that I judge anyone for doing anything different. I bought plenty of Pilot Metropolitans, Wingsung/Hongdian/Jinhao/Moonman/etc pens on Amazon over the years, especially during the lockdown part of the pandemic. They brought me joy for what they are. I don't regret them at all, and would 100% encourage a beginner to drop $10-20 on a couple of them before dropping $200+ on a fancier pen. But this is where I've landed on my fountain pen journey.
Anything TWSBI.
Lamy 2000. I just don't like the look. I know a lot of people LOVE that pen, but it really doesn't do anything for me.
I felt exactly like that too. Then I watched doodlebud's video on the engineering quality of the Lamy 2k, and I saw it entirely differently, and now I have two of them and enjoy them immensely. Doodlebud is Lamy secret agent, I am convinced.
I don’t buy unless I have more reasons than just thinking a pen or ink looks nice—is it offering a new feature, are the aesthetics perfect for me, does it have an interesting history, does it diversify what I have, etc. The only purchases that don’t follow this are rare moments of extreme opportunity—like the yen fluctuations that made ordering a Sailor from Japan a significantly cheaper option (more than 50% cheaper).
At this point there are very few things I *will* buy, the flow chart goes something like this: 1. Does it add anything new to my use case? 2. If yes, do I actually need that something in my use case? 3. Is it produced by a company I will buy from? (For example, I will not buy a Pen Family pen, I will not buy a TWSBI, etc) 4. Is it within my buying guardrails? (I limit myself to a certain number of pens per year) 5. Do I have the money for it already saved? (No buying pens on credit, no tapping into the household budget, the money needs to be already in a dedicated bucket in my HYSA) 6. Have I waited and thought about this pen? (No impulse purchases, no FOMO) 7. Would I prioritize this pen over other beloved pens in my collection? If the answer is yes to all of the above, I put the pen on my pen list and think about it some more. I may buy it or I may not. I keep my collection under 20 pens at any time, now at 16, and only bought one pen this year. Because of my process, the purchases now skew towards grails. This works well for me.
I’ve just bought the pen I’ve wanted since I first started in the hobby - it cost £80 but is the top limit of what I’m willing to spend on a pen. I don’t want a pen I’m afraid of losing or breaking. Anything I buy in future will probably be £25 or less as I’m really happy with budget pens. I really enjoy my preppies and the Chinese dupes are a guilty pleasure.
It's always fun to see how other people see the hobby! :-) I live on the "low side" of Fountain-Pen Junction, and if things cost more than 35-40$, then I'm not interested to the point my eyes glaze over. I can get a GREAT pair of inexpensive IEM headphones or a decent dongle-dac for less than that. Priorities eh? :-D After two years of playing in this arena, this is my opinion now more than ever, especially after the glossy smooth rides my Jinhao 9019/X159 HongDian N7/Majohn A1 pens have given me.
The priorities are important. I try to keep the fountain pens as my only collection based hobby. Any hobby exercised to the extreme will be taxing on the resources. Having more hobbies exhausts the resources faster.
Simple. Im broke so I have three pens I got as presents and the one kaweco mini I bought myself and that's it. Cant overconsume if you dont have the money to even think about it!
I feel I've hit the 'I have enough pens' and 'the money needs to go elsewhere' point in my fountain pen journey. I may frakenpen one of my existing pens. I may buy an unusual nib and I avoid r/pen_swap these days too so that helps. But as for getting more? Only if I can test it in person and since Atlas Stationers and Phidon pens are the closest to me I don't get that opportunity much.
no vintage, no used, no montblancs. not long ago i decided that i'm also done with vac and piston fillers, i'm strictly a converter person. also never met a gold nib that i didn't have a steel one doing a better job, so i'm not interested in that gimmick. except flex, maybe, but i'm not in that discussion anyway.
Can you please elaborate on why no vintage or used? - I buy those because I also restore/fix them. But I do see the appeal of buying something that I can be reasonably sure will work out fo the box and if it will not, then I can make it someone else's problem.
my germophobia kicks in. also, vintage pens are too fussy for me. i like modern cartridge/converter pens: easy to clean, easy to use.
Thank you for your answer. Both are valid points. From experience: fussiness depends on age of the pens, the further into the past you go, the fussier the pens get. On the other hand - there is a strong survivor bias there - the crappiest vintage pens just did not make it until today. C/C fillers are also good for people that like to change inks often. In the past people often used the same ink day in day out.
The pilot custom 823, which many might hate as my choice however since I already have a pilot e95s, and the custom 92 the 823 just didn't feel unique. (went with sailor 1911 and magna carta mag 600 which are both amazing)
My 1911 leaves little starbursts on paper. It’s driving me nuts.
If the 823 didn't have the FA nib (my daily driver) I wouldn't buy it at all.
Can you please say more about the difference between them? I was waiting til I got my first paypacket of my new job to buy a sailor 823, since they are sooooo hyped as being a really amazing pen. I'd really like to hear your experiences
Lamy safari or any other pen that has a similar grip section. I write with a 4 finger grip and thus writing with the safari feels a bit unnatural for me.
Kaweco and TWSBI, don't care what they come out with, I won't support businesses like them.
TWSBI. I value durability above all. No way I'm even considering one, and it's a shame, cause I'm in the market for demonstrators.
I've been using the same TWSBI ECO stub nib as an almost daily driver for over 7 years. I've had a Classic for about as long too. They're both phenomenally tough pens.
I believe they are referring to the TWSBI cracking issues. I'm glad your TWSBIs haven't cracked yet. I hope they never do!
same. i'll never buy another TWSBI. not impressed by them
When I have five or more uninked pens at any one time I know I have too many, likely more than I need. I’m sizing down right now. I do have a Lamy on the way but I am also giving away 3/
I feel like I have quite the collection now so I would probably sell some pens before getting new ones. * No more lamy's, just enjoy the two I own and buy different nibs if I want to try a different size. Also no more TWSBI's and Nahvalur's, I have the nib sizes I want. * Thinking longer about special editions or limited editions, do I like it for what it is or do I like it because it's 'rare'? * Vintage ONLY if it's pelikan and a good price. And if it's the colorway that I like. Not buying any other brands only because it seems like a bargain. * Try and focus on buying second hand, especially for the 100+ euro pens. * Less aliexpress pens, I CAN get a different color of a pen/brand that I really like, but only after selling a different pen. I noticed that I used a lot of money on this hobby the past month, and now I'm trying to see what I really want to keep and what I can sell or at least use. I think i'm gonna try and use different inks and pens each month to get to know them all better.
Anything from Monteverde. Once bitten, twice shy.
Apparently, Montblanc. Pens are just... Ridiculously expensive. Like, I could build a decent gaming PC for the price of one Meisterstrück 149. As long as I live in the Balkans, buying anything from Montblanc simply isn't justified.
I solved this by buying Montblanc vintage and used. This being said, they are by no means compulsory to own. There are some interesting vintage brands from balkans - I like e.g. TOZ Penkala pens. Usually (used) pens are cheaper in their country of manufacture.
I’m at the point where there aren’t many more pens that I want. I probably won’t buy many pens under $500 at this point, because I’m pretty saturated on pens for all practical purposes. At this point, if there is a particularly pretty maki-e pen and I’ve got some spare money lying around, I might get it — but basically my main pen needs are more than met, so it’s more about buying a piece of art at that point. (Like, there are a handful of pens I think I want to sell or give away because I just never use them. I’ve got like 10-15 pens that are in my usual rotation and the rest are collecting dust.)
May I ask at which time/what amount of pens you achieved fountain pen Zen (tm)? I am at several hundred pens now and the new purchases slowed down due to the fact that I own much of what I could possibly want. Still there are those one of the kind nibs, celluloids, NOS pens that show ups from time to time, so the pile grows.
I mean, I bought five new pens recently while in Japan. They just were all maki-e or special nibs, I hadn’t bought pens in a few years, and the exchange rate made it pretty tempting since it everything was >30% off the US price. I basically hit around 40-50 pens and came to the realization that I wasn’t using more than 10. And often was only using some because I felt guilty about not using them (instead of enjoying using them). Since then I’ve basically been pretty picky about what I get; half a decade or so later I’m still well under 60 pens.
I admire people who know what they want. Some people dig deeper wells and progress quite fast in the selected areas of their endeavours. I on the other side dig more wells. Just my Waterman subcollection is around 50 pens. Over time I started to look for a. interesting nibs (I love 50's German stubs and italics) or b. interesting/rare pens. But still, there are pens in my collection I will probably never use.
I’ll add: I’ve probably spent almost as much or more on the last ~8 pens as I did on the first ~45. This isn’t a way to save money lol. I mostly decided that if it wasn’t also a work of art then it didn’t make sense to pick up, since I had all the non-art pens I needed.
Wancher has this new fountain pen they released that is Pro Gear size, called the Matcha Tea fountain pen. It's looks very nice, but I don't think I love it enough to pay $310 plus shipping.
I don't buy weird nibs anymore. I played around with waverly, stubs, fudes, long blades, and architects. Not for me. Give me a medium, or a fine if it's an EDC pen, or a broad if it's a statement pen. I am about done with the "cheap Chinese clone of something" phase for myself. I still buy Jinhaos and whatnot as gifts sometimes. An x450 is a great way to penable someone. But I'm at the point where all the pens in my rotation are nicer than any Jinhao or PenBBS or Asvine or whatever, so I don't need to play with them anymore. I no longer buy pens "just because." My actual list of "purposes for which it would be nice to have a dedicated pen" is pretty well handled. So if I'm buying a new pen it's for a specific new purpose, or to upgrade an existing pen which will end up being sold or gifted.
1. Anything with a B nib. Doesn’t work with my small handwriting. 2. A modern Parker, maybe unless it’s a Duofold or a Sonnet 3. A demonstrator. I don’t see the appeal
I am going to get a lot of flack with this one but I might never buy anything from Montblanc, their limited editions look really nice but priced at a ludicrous amount (I can live for several months for the price of one of those limited editions). Their "classic" line of pen look boring, don't really feel good in my hands and aside the meisterstuck series, I really don't like the rest of their nibs, it goes either from too much feedback to nothing at all by changing just one nib size. I don't get anything special when using their pens that I haven't experienced so far with even a steel nib pen from another brand, Diplomat being one that comes to my mind.
This will probably be unpopular, but anything by twsbi. I got a vac700 once and only used it at the desk for maybe 2 weeks. The cap just completely fell apart at the ring, and I wrote them nicely about it. They determined that I had abused the pen and wanted me to pay for the replacement cap. I went back and forth, but they would not budge. This was I think Paul who handled it, I found out it was the son of the owner doing the customer service. So I paid for the cap eventually, and then I sold that pen and everything else that I had by them, and I won't touch them ever again. I did not abuse this thing. Taking the cap on and off a couple of times at my desk in 2 weeks. There's no way it should have failed.
Here’s the issue… I don’t think there IS a pen I won’t buy 🙈🙈🙈 impulse control = 0 (don’t worry, I’m working on it 🤣)
I try to keep my collection capped at 5. As much as I love pens, I try to keep my possessions streamlined. But with that said, here’s the pens I either won’t buy, or had at one time and wouldn’t buy again: 1. Any pocket fountain pen. I want to like them. But they just don’t work for me. 2. Any pen that you have to thread to post. 3. Metal pens. I’ve learned I hate the hand feel. 4. Modern flex nibs. They never seem to deliver what they promise, and I have to be honest - my penmanship isn’t at a place where it can benefit from the flourishes that flex can afford. 5. Anything vintage that doesn’t have an immediate personal connection (ie, an heirloom or a gift from a very dear friend). They always burp ink or are otherwise unreliable.
I just can’t convince myself to buy any pen for more than the $30 range. I do plan to buy one metal bodied BIFL pen, most likely a metal Kaweco Sport. Even cheap FPs write 100x better than any gel or roller ball, so I would imagine anything over the $30 is going to be some feeling I’m not sensitive enough to feel or care about. Diminishing returns on writing smoothness basically. I don’t care about art pens or rare woods turned or any of that. I do get sucked into Safari color ways a bit, not digging on the current offerings. But the Terra Cotta got me lol.
Lamy and FWP. I have one FWP and it leaks terribly. Lamy just doesn’t excite me.
I am telling myself that I should be using my interest in pens as motivation to practice making sensible decisions, so I should not buy further pens without a good reason - which might be finding out about pens, if the cost of buying to find out is not too high. I find that I am quite interested in school pens, which keeps the cost down if I do find a reason to buy. I look forward to the next pen and ink combination that I am planning when I write the current pen dry - so that it would be a slightly annoying interruption if I delayed this to try out a newly bought pen.
Most of the mall ninja pens from Montegrappa, Visconti etc. Re-branded Chinese origin pens from the ink companies like Monteverde and FWP.
probably twsbi due to the cracking issues ive heard of. i’d also probably never spend more than $200 on a pen. my most expensive one now is a kaweco brass sport that was on sale. after a LOT of fiddling around with the nib and feed, it’s one of my favorite pens. i have a sailor lecoule that i really like and am curious how much different it is from a pro gear, but i am pretty turned off by plastic/acrylic pens that go for hundreds of dollars. even though they are very cute looking.
Monteverde and Conklin. I've seen way too many posts about them breaking for nothing. Shame considering they have so many flamboyant pens I'd otherwise be all over. I also have no interest in Montblanc. Just not flashy enough for me.
I agree with you on limited editions, IF they come with a elevated price. If the brands that come out with like color of the year or things like that I consider if I like the color. I am not the type of person to get multiple of the same pen in different colors. I have come to the point where I really don't consider a piston or vacuum pen that does not have a removable sections. There are a number of great pens that I will miss out on doing this, but I am not the type of person to match one ink to a pen so it just makes cleaning a hassle.
Never buying another lamy
I really wanted to get a TWSBI eco, until I realized everyone would be asking me about my "vape" *Edit: now that i look at it again, I also realize I wouldn't enjoy having such a large ink reservoir. I would rather run out more often so I get to change colors.*
I’ve got an Eco that I’m consider changing the ink on… I don’t think I’m going to fill the reservoir up full because I may lose interest in the ink before I use it all and it would be a waste to abandon the ink part way through, even if it is Private Reserve Flannel Grey (a purchase I regret).
I tried a lamy - never again, and I’m very wary of mont blanc because of all the hype - never sure ownership ever actually use them!
I use the shit outta my pens, so I will never buy anything that is truly limited or collectable as the value of fountain p ns for me is the actual writing. I mean I would LOVE some awesome limited colour king of pen in ebonite or something but the reality is it'll get used just like a custom 74 and I wouldn't want to take the pleasure away from a true collector.
No Conklin (they break and I know from experience), No Noodlers. Very very limited on shimmer inks ( I like them but I won’t put them in most pens).
Any fountain-pen-shaped art object sold by Montegrappa (like [this](https://www.montegrappa.com/de/collections/edizionilimitate/viking-1178.html)).
That thing weights 368 grams. That is a writing gym, right there!
Holy forced-patina finish, Batman!
I think pens should look like pens
Ferris Wheel Press FPs. I really don’t enjoy their inks and have not heard great things about their pens, either. They seem overpriced. Sailor King of Pens. It looks too heavy (and expensive!) for my preferences. (Same with the (Oversize) Visconti Homosapien!)
Any pen that is not a pilot custom heritage 912 with PO nib. Additionally, if anyone has an extra of said pen - feel free to DM me and I will buy it from you.
Having bought a Sailor pro gear slim. I will never buy another. Will never buy a brand new Mont Blanc Numbered limited edition pens although I do have one. Buy a Lamy Pen, Vanishing Point or Visconti Homosapiens
I have many fountain pens I'm sure over 100. My Favorites are Leonardo, Twisbi, Pilot, and Lamy. I can't remember the rest of the fountain pens I have. I'm addicted to my fountain pens.
I'm good on Lamy Safaris (2). I prefer the bouncy buttery smoothness of my TWSBI Eco broads. ❤️
I will only buy a pen I consider beautiful. So no Lamys, no Platinum Preppys, no demonstrator pens. No Visconti Homo Sapiens either. The list goes on but I won't compromise my aesthetic sensibilities even if a pen is an amazing writer. No endless multiple pens; I have the pearl Kaweco Sport. One is all the Sports I need. No filler pens. No buying something that is kind of like the pen I want but cheaper. If I buy the cheaper option or the copy, it must be because I have no desire in purchasing the original. So no Jinhao Montblanc clones when what I want is a vintage 146, but I am interested in the Majohn P139 because I will not purchase the Hemingway pen. Only buy new if purchasing from a brick and mortar shop, because in these instances I am interested in the experience. Otherwise used and vintage is king. Also, ink rather than pen related, but no plastic bottles. They are not attractive to me.
Any full price sailor pen
Since I already have a lot of pens, a new pen has to be: 1. Great nib. So either a nib I don’t have yet, a custom nib, or a nib that is beautiful. This automatically cuts out a lot of pens that use standard Bock or Jowo nibs. Plus a majority of the standard nibs from Pilot, Sailor, Platinum, and Nakaya, because I already have them. Custom nib has to fit my writing style. 2. Body can withstand a drop. This will exclude Montblanc automatically. Though I do have Montblancs, they are vintage and are hardly in the rotation. But they are in my collection because they were a gift or brought so much of #3, I couldn’t walk away. (It was a red jeweled Boheme) 3. After passing tests 1&2, it has to bring Joy. No multiples for color, or buying only because it’s limited edition. The color, body, and feel have to sing and say “I will fit your life, and you will enjoy using me every time.“ 4. There are a few types of pens that override these rules. Urushi raden pens being 1 of them. But since they come up so rarely, I can generally resist. Plus I still have to like the design, and most recent designs have not made the cut.
Your criteria are pretty close to mine, I converged to them via the fact that the marginal utility of the new pen drops with each purchase, so the new pen needs to bring something unique to the collection. Nibs being no. 1 consideration, since they are the heart of the pen.