I have a modest collection of fountain pens and a bureau full of inks - all sorts of colours and brands. In a world where we're banning plastic straws but more than 200 million disposable biros are sold in the UK alone each year it seems mad to me that reusable pens aren't talked about more. They're not expensive either, you can get a decent fountain pen for under £20 and a small bottle of ink that will last for around 80 refills will set you back £5 - in any colour you want!
A couple of pens I have to talk a little more in detail about:
Pilot Decimo - a slightly more slender version of the Pilot Capless Vanishing Point. It has a button at the end of the pen that when clicked extends/retracts the nib, much like a clicky ballpoint. I like it so much I own two (one extra fine, one medium and also bough a fine nib unit to swap in when wanted) and bought one for my girlfriend. We both get a lot of interest from colleagues and customers. Like most Pilot pens it writes
very well and is by far the most convenient fountain pen I own. No uncapping, just click, write, click again.
Pilot Custom 823 - a vacuum filling pen that holds an absurd amount of ink. The main ink chamber is sealed off when the pen is not in use so I can leave this unused for a year, pick it up and it will start writing again in seconds! When you want to use it you simply uncap the pen and unscrew the piston at the back slightly to open the ink chamber up. The nib on this is the best thing I've written with, completely embarrassing my more expensive Montblanc 146. Again, such a good pen I had to get a second - so now I have a fine and a medium (one in the amber and another in smoke black)
I haven't bought anything in a while, but for Japanese pens it was always much cheaper to buy from Japan directly and import them. I used
www.pensachi.com a lot, sometimes costing half as much as the same pen would in UK if it managed to slip through customs without any fees. Even with the fees it was a huge saving.
I like to try a little bit of everything so seem to have accumulated every 'type' of pen (hooded nib, vintage, vacuum filler, piston filler, faceted, ink windows, italic nib, etc.) from as many different countries of origin as possible. Lamy 2000, Leonardo Momento Zero, Sailor Pro Gear, TWSBI... I could go on all day!
Most of my pens are Japanese fine or European extra fine (for those who don't know, Japanese nib sizes tend to write finer than their European counterpart). This is because if I'm writing it's mostly not going to be on nice fountain pen friendly paper but instead on cheap copy paper. A fine nib with the right ink ensures no bleed through or feathering - probably two of the biggest reasons people will choose a biro over a fountain pen.
I much prefer re-filling empty cartridges when there's no built-in filling system. They hold a lot more than cartridge converters and are quicker/easier to fill when using a syringe. Also a lot easier to flush cartridge pens out to use a different colour with than piston and vacuum fillers are - I tend to keep those pens to a single ink
Speaking of ink, Pilot Iroshizuku is definitely one of the best - but will cost you a lot! For quality, value and choice of colours my favourite brand is Diamine. Made in Liverpool UK you can get an 80ml bottle for what most brands charge for 30-50ml. They have an insane choice of colours too, I have about 3 different variants of teal from them - and at under £6 a bottle why not?
If anyone doesn't currently have a fountain pen and would like to try one on the cheap, I've quite enjoyed this replica of the classic Parker 51 - the Wing Sung 601 (
ebay). Fine enough to work on cheap paper, quick and convenient to uncap and write with, not the end of the world if lost/stolen/damaged and incredibly easy to fill from a bottle of ink with a great capacity. Just take the cap off, unscrew the bottom of the pen to reveal the filling button, stick the nib into a bottle, give the button a few presses, wipe off the nib and you're done! Easy to take apart and clean if you wanted to change ink colour in the future
For writing on sheet music I use a Kaweco Special Short Pencil with 2B 0.9mm lead - clear and bold but still erasable with the built-in rubber. It's made of metal so it's heavy enough to sit on the music stand without falling off when moving sheets around
