Fountain Pens

[Iain Robb]

I've used a variety of fountain pens -- Waterman, Diplomat, Parker, Schaeffer, LePine, and more. And the only pens I have ever found to be a complete delight to use are Pelikans.

I currently use a Pelikan 200 series with a 14K gold Richard Binder custom ground oblique italic bold nib. It writes the way I want a fountain pen to write, fills beautifully, works reliably.

If I have thought that if I were to buy another fountain pen, it would likely be a Pelikan with a fine gold nib, which would be more suited to everyday use in terms of the amount of ink used. But I suspect I would still gravitate to my bold italic nib for the "character" it brings to my handwriting.

[Old Hippie]

Well, there's my Dad's old Military Clip Shaeffer that I had restored...but it's not my regular user.

My favourite pen, bar none, is the Pilot Vanishing Point. It has a nice gold nib (I prefer extra fine nibs) and it is easy to refill. It also is more durable than most other fountain pens I've used, and I can access it with one hand instead of grunting and muttering and uncapping with my teeth and then trying to post.

The other advantage is that, as a writer who interviews people, I can click it to note something, then click it to "cap" it until the next bit comes along. After a little while, my source undergoes a Pavlovian conditioning that causes them to say things I will find profitable to write down. They receive a certain validation from regular and frequent clicks. (My students, on the other hand, appreciate the friendly purple ink I use to point out their errors...)

I have some pens I bought in China while I was teaching there -- not bad for a steel nib but quality is spotty at best, pardon the pun. You can get them for five bucks at most pen shows. I have a couple of my Dad's pens, which I use occasionally. My wife loves her Parkers, but I tend to reach first for the Pilot.

There's some interesting pens on the Noodler's Ink site. Not expensive but good quality. Then we can start talking inks...