Fountain Pens

Sorry if the title is a bit vague but I recently got my hands on Jinhao Dadao as a gift for someone. But the pen skips on all the papers and some of the inks I have tried. Though this is one of the smoothest nib I've ever written with.

The seller is offering me a replacement nib but I'm not sure if it would work and if there’s a chance problem's with the feed drying out. Can I somehow rule this out?

I have a 14 days return period from Ali but if I accept the replacement nib it'll be over.

Dear Lemmy fountain pen community,

I'm well over 50 and I started using a fountain pen in school, when I was still a little kid learning to write. That was back in the 70s. All those years, I've always been using a fountain pen of some sort for most of the stuff I write, and sketch.

I was wondering how many of us were still using a fountain pen to write long-form content? I mean, are you using one to write letters, keep a journal, or for any other form of content?

Even though I don't have a nice handwriting, I know quite a few people who like receiving my handwritten letters more than a neatly typed letter, and so do I. It kinda feels more personal and unique.

Beside the now too rare handwritten letter, sketching and keeping a journal another thing I like doing when I work on a long text is to draft it using a pen. Only once I'm done with that draft I will switch to the computer for the final typed version. It sure is much slower to write longhand which is exactly what I'm looking for: less speed, aka more time to (try to) think. And less distractions too ;)

Hi all,

I use pens for drawing.

I'm looking to get an ultra flex nib from this company:

https://www.kiwipens.com/collections/all/6

I have a jinhao x750 that I'm using as a test pen.

Will these nibs fit it?

Thank you.

I’ve a Travelers Notebook cover in A5, possibly of unofficial Chinese origin but quite fit for purpose.

It does quite well at carrying a Cousin, a similar notebook, and a wallet insert, along with a solid handful of pens, and my keys on a strap run through the pen loop.

The one thing I’ve had trouble making part of my system - right or wrong - is a method of carrying a handful of cigarettes and a lighter.

Right now that task falls to a flip top cigarette case that I replace ~annually due to wear, with a pouch for the zippo as well as one for an emergency disposable lighter.

This being a creative community by nature, thought I’d look for ideas or products fitting the bill that have worked for others.

If a product exists akin to the wallet insert, even if I had to load smokes one-deep as with metal cases, that might suffice. Haven’t seen anything that “just straps on”.

Bonus points if said wallet style insert includes someplace suitable to cram a handful of spare pills for when I’m out longer than expected, etc.

As of now, I’ve nearly managed to fit my whole life in there. Carried a backpack for years, mostly to handle the small ephemera, but I’ve recently had my shoulder worked on so that’s a bit of a challenge.

Mostly, a bottle of tylenol and the like, along with smoker’s paraphernalia, are what end up in there along with the notebook. Seems a bit of a waste if the lot could all fit together.

I finally got around to picking up a Majohn A2, and it has been a phenomenal writing experience! For an extra fine nib, it is wet and smooth, just the slightest bit of feedback from the paper. While the action of the push button has a noticeable hitch in it, it is still a very satisfying frob to play with. The size is perfect for the weight, and the clip doesn't get in the way of the way that I hold it. The only thing that sucks about it is that now I want one in black that I can fill with Platinum Carbon Black and a dark blue one to fill with Diamine Midnight. Many thanks to @[email protected] for the review that sparked my desire!

I have a great pen from lamy that I used for a could have years and really enjoyed. I found it a delight to write with and found it more consistent than ball point pens. Then I ran out of the prefilled ink cartridges it came with. I grabbed a refillable cartridge and some waterman ink and it has been downhill from there. I have two pens, not sure what the other one is, but neither seem to be able to write at all with the refills. They leak more often, constantly seem to dry out, and I have ended up going back to sharpie sgels because I need my pens to write when I need to write.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need better refill cartridges and if so can you recommend one, or are the cartridges really so much better? Or is there maintenance I am supposed to preform on the nib that I have neglected that could be causing my issues? Thanks for any advice, I would love to get back to using these pens.

A couple of days ago I attended my first ever Pelikan Hub. I'm pretty new to the fountain pen community (although I was given a couple as a kid) and thought I would add my experience as a newbie (albeit one that reads and researches the living daylights out of all my hobbies lol).

I don't remotely have a large or even what I guess most people would consider a middling size collection (TBF, I'm not collecting them and all my pens are in circulation and used). It was with some amount of trepidation that I took most of my pens (all of which are 'starter' pens) into a really neat little book store (a sadly dying breed in this country).

I was the last to arrive and displayed before me were large pen cases holding 20-40 pens each and immediately felt like I was going to be the odd one out with my little cheapies. However the host was welcoming as were the dozen or so other people sitting in a circle passing pens around.

It was with a sigh of relief that other people were showing their 'cheapies' too so into the fray went my TWSBI Eco (the most expensive pen I owned at $60 at the time, yes owned past tense because there's a $70 vintage Sailor coming in the post that didn't arrive in time for the Hub lol), Hongdian M2, Pilot Kakuno, 1960s vintage Platinum 'President' and the one and only Pelikan I (currently) own - a silver Twist.

I honestly thought I would be embarrassed showing around that the only Pelikan I own is a Twist. But no one else there had seen one and it generated a fair amount of chatter about it. Much to my cringing shy-person relief lol. TBF, while I don't like the triangular grip (I have a 'non-conformist' grip lol), the nib is so damn nice I use it anyway and it's one of my go-to jotter pens.

Also interesting to the group was the M2 ("better than a Kaweco" 🤫😅), the Kakuno because it was loaded up with Herbin Violette (violet scented) which I bought the Kakuno specially for (purple cap of course) and keep bagged owing to it's nuclear scent - my spouse likes to call it "Herbin Violence" lol because it smells so strong! I also passed around the chocolate version (Encre Brun Parfum Cacao).

I also had some 1990s 'vintage' (seriously, the 90s is "vintage" now?!) Pelikan Royal Blue ink for show and tell.

I lost count of all the pens that I got to try. Some that disappointed me:

• Gravtias in Rainbow Skittle with a flex nib - Awesome colour but it was freaking heavy and, for a 'flex' nib, is really REALLY hard! I was too scared to flex it.

• Narwhal/Nahvalur - I had planned to buy one of these but the pens I tried were heavier than I expected, the caps took a lot to unscrew and I didn't like the feedback (which I normally like some of, this just didn't feel that pleasant). Not massively bad or anything but just more meh for me.

• Pelikan 400 or 800 (I'm not sure which it was sorry). The weight was nice but I just expected more I guess? Hopefully it was just the ink but it skipped a LOT.

• Sailor Manyo ink smells so bad! (Shhh... don't tell Robert Oster lol)

Some unexpected enjoyable surprises:

• A vintage Kaweco that looked like a pencil. It was suprisingly heavy for such a thin pen and was weird but fun to write with, feeling like a heavy pencil in my hand but being a fountain pen.

• Pelikan Level - weird looking but interesting and a nice nib.

• Shimmer inks. Figured I would probably despise them because I really dislike glitter gel pens. Needless to say, I hadn't bought any up until now. My mind is changed. Diamine Party Time was a stand out - nice colour and sparkles!

• Benu pens. I looked at them online but I will admit that I was put off by the eye candy. I like sparkles but didn't see the need (or want) for sparkles in my pens. I am 100% wrong lol. They are so much nicer in person and so so pretty! I thought the barrels (both Benu Euphorias) would be too big and that the resin would be meh. But the weight was great, the resin looked gorgeous and the nibs.... oh the nibs. I was suprised by how nice and smooth they were. A Benu is now on my wishlist lol! (Yes, I realise one of my critisms of the Nahvalur is how much the cap takes to unscrew and the Benus also took a lot, but for me the visuals and nib made up for it.)

• A vintage Pelikan 400MN. I was planning on getting a vintage Pelikan, and this exceeded my expectations. It was so smooth with just the right amount of feedback, a nice size and good weight (for my hands I prefer thinner, lighter pens).

My hopes for going along was trying out some pens that I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford (just to see what the fuss was about), to try pens that I was considering buying (some are now off my list and some that I wasn't planning on buying are now on it!) and to maybe swap a few ink samples. Well, I got that and much more - what an awesome group of people to share a hobby with. I really enjoyed my time with folks, passing around pens, gawping at the new Pelikan pens coming out (hello Pelikan Raden!🤤), swapping inks, eating chocolate (shout out to Foundry Chocolate 😋) and, well, the (unexpected) freebies lol. I was considering buying some Edelstein Golden Lapis (yes, a shimmer ink, but I had to find out what the fuss was about eventually!) and was disappointed to see it sold out in all the places I buy ink from. Problem solved. Seriously, thank you Pelikan! I'm really glad I went and I look forward to Pelikan Hub 2025! ✒️🪽💙

Short version: Drew, their employee with the most public facing role and known to be a chill guy and left-leaning, left the company with some celebration but zero explanation. This got folks looking, and they saw that the Goulets are heavily involved with planting (think "franchising" or may more accurately "metastasizing") a new church that was growing out from a larger one that has all the usual disgusting anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, and the new church has a mission statement that includes bible literalism and explicitly places men above women in home life and church roles. Also, Reddit being Reddit, the mods handled it all very clumsily and in a way that makes it look they've traded their integrity for a couple of pens.

Hey,

We've recently been discussing the capless clones. Doodlebud just made a video comparing the real deal with the clones.

Conclusion:

Thank you, everyone, for your expertise, experience, recommendations, suggestions, and patience!!

I have decided to go with the Platinum Preppy in Blue Black with fine nib. I didn't want to jump too far into it with an expensive (to me) one without any experience. So far, granted it's the first day, I love it. A lot. I'm going to give it a few days to see how it feels as a daily driver, but if the few bits I wrote are an indication, it won't be an issue.

Again, thank you all SO MUCH for your help!

Here's a (poor quality, sorry, it's night) picture of my new favorite pen:

Original Post

I didn't see anything on the sidebar where this is not allowed. BUT, if it isn't, please accept my sincerest apologies, and feel free to remove the post (or let me know, and I'll remove it).

A little backstory:

Ever since a quill that I happened to use (without permission, might I add) at a friend's grandfather's house oh so many moons ago, my fascination with pens began. Up until then, all I've used were pencils, markers, crayons, and a couple cheap ballpoint pens.

Over the many years, I have gone from pen to pen, never really finding "that pen feel" I've craved since that single-digit age. Now, I understand that quills write very differently to ballpoints, and even differently to many nibs. However, price has always been an object for me, regrettably, limiting my choices, forcing me to stay on the 'budget' side of things.

The closest I've found to that feel was a 0.8mm Micron felt-tipped pen. However, it wasn't close enough for me to stay with it, so the search continues.

(The feel: smooth, light, almost effortless glide on the page, while still feeling the tactility of the page with each stroke. The resulting line is smooth, but crisp.)

Recently (past couple years), I've been thinking more and more about that quill, and started searching for it again, to no avail. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if his grandfather had it custom made.

I would ask the friend or grandfather, but the grandfather has long passed, and the friend has disappeared shortly after uni (he always talked about going full hermit... I guess he did).

Yesterday, as I was aimlessly scrolling Lemmy, after, what seemed like the billionth time searching for that quill, I came across this community, filled with people searching for their illusive perfect pen; my people.

The ask

As before, price is an object (again, regrettably). Are there recommendations for budget fountain pens or quills with a few must-haves?

Would-Really-Like-To-Have ~~Must-Haves~~

1. non-scratchy nib
2. 0.5-0.7mm line is preferred, but no more than 0.8mm
3. it can use ink cartridges, but it needs to also handle other inks from bottles (pumps or wells, I think it's called)
4. budget, so within the 5-10€ range (I know this might be the biggest ask here)

The original quill that started it all

The shaft looked like a thick feather, with the feathery bits removed. I don't think it was an actual feather, though, as it was much thicker than any I've ever felt. The shaft held the ink, which was added by unscrewing the nib and pouring the ink in (or, as he did it, using a pipette), then screwing the nib back on. The nib was ornate; etched gold on the outside, smooth silver on the inside, split down the middle, with a small hole halfway down the split.

A preemptive thank you to everyone, for reading and considering this post.

Edit: added the last section about the original quill

Edit: change to really like to have, since it seems I was being too wishy with them being a 'must' : )

I took this photo and the one below for my post about the Dialog, but did not wind up using it therein.

From left to right:

• Platinum Curidas
• Majohn A2 Press (Modified)
• Lamy Dialog 3
• Pilot Vanishing Point
• Oaso K016

So far, I'm liking it. I rinsed it out before using, and there was trace amounts of blue ink already in the pen. Mysterious.

I filled it with Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and it writes very smoothly. Left it sitting overnight, and it continued writing smoothly this morning with no hiccups whatsoever. Very nice! It's supposed to be a "fine," but it really seems like more of a "medium" to me. It comes with a piston filling cartridge converter which didn't seem removable at first, but it just slides out if you pull on it a little.

I got it from AliExpress, if you're wondering. It will surely be available on eBay soon enough.

I am looking to put together a maintenance kit for my pens and was wondering: do you have any particular supplies that you prefer to use for your pens? What storage solution do you use for your maintenance kit? Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

Nahvalur Original Plus in Matira Quartz with a Medium Steel nib, and inked up with Diamine Frosted Orchid. Absolutely stunning combination! Bonus definition of the word chatoyant.

Platinum Preppy fine point (0.3mm) for scale.

I found these thread-bound kraft paper covered travelers' notebooks in A6 Size with grid lined pages for a good price that had good reviews with pictures from fountain pen users on Amazon. [$9]

And this 5.3" x 8.26" (not quite A5 size but close enough) hard covered notebook with 120 gsm graph lined paper and few niceties like an attched ribbon bookmark, elastic strap, and elastic pen holder also had good reviews from fountain pen users. [$7]

I figured at those prices, even if they aren't the greatest, they'd be a step up from the thin weight randomly acquired notebooks I've been using. With ballpoint and gel pens, I never really considered the paper quality for my notetaking and journaling.

Side note:
Not sure if I'm going to eyedropper convert the Preppy. I might buy another one or two with a different ink color and then convert a few at the same time.

Thought these stamps were super cool when I saw them. I bought the cat and fountain pen, plus the hedgehog ink bottle one. They were selling for 650 yen each, so about 5 USD.

We talk about writing instruments a lot, but equally important is the paper and related bits.

So tell us, what paper do you use? Do you use any cover/case for your notebook?

[Reposting because it failed to federate again]

Picked this up for £11 from Aliexpress and I reckon it's one of the best FPs I own. Great for quick note taking.

Sure, it's a shameless clone of a pilot capless, but I'm never going to spend that kind of money.

Note also: only comes in . Writes like an if you ask me.

Considering buying a few more to gift to friends.

[Reposting, as it didn't federate properly last time]

This is a parker IM I've had in my collection a while. I don't usually go for Parker branded pens. I usually find them a bit boring/vanilla. But when I saw this one come up pristine on Ebay, I thought I'd give it a go.

It looks nice, but sadly it doesn't seal well. There's a hole under the clip that lets air in. Why? I guess I could try to cover it.

Bonus device in the background.

@[email protected] and I are the new moderators of [email protected]

We were able to work with the lemmy.world admin team to replace the the prior moderator who has gone inactive and unresponsive to our attempts to contact them.

If you have any suggestions for the community please let us know.

We prefer handwritten notes.

My new Asvine V200 Titanium with a medium nib arrived yesterday. The vacuum filler is much smoother than any of my V126s, and on par with my TWSBI Vac 700R. I also picked up a 30 ml bottle of Diamine Earl Grey, but the number of fills I'll be able to get with this pen is limited by the section being too wide to fit in the mouth of the bottle. I need to get different ink? Oh no!

Calculator is a TI-nspire CX CAS, and was my first calculator with a built-in CAS.

I've really been liking this pen. It's a medium nib and I could not be happier with it's performance.

My wife got me this Hongdian 1851 for Christmas last year, along with the astronaut pen holder. Since I keep it out on my desk, it is the pen that I reach for most often. It has the finest line of all of my pens and I keep it inked up with iroshizuku murasaki-shikibu, which is an incredibly close match to the body of the pen. It has a lot of feedback without being scratchy, and is great to write with.

The calculator is a Casio fx-260 Solar II, which Kristi also got me for Christmas some years ago. It's the calculator that I grab most often since it is the easiest to get to. It's my little Apocalypse Calculator since it has no battery and is solar powered only.