My new found love for fountain pens!

[aditya]

Hello gentlemen,

I have been a B&B member for some time now, but only the shaving side of this community has gotten all my attention, until now! I saw the B&B's Essential Pen by Franklin-Christoph and I immediately fell in love. I remembered my school days, the care with which I used all my fountain pens, regularly checking the ink and fiddling with the nib if the flow wasn't smooth... The wonderful craftsmanship and the beauty of the Essential Pen may have started a new addiction (like we even need another!). I have loved fountain pens but never really been passionate about them before. I really want this pen! Have been reading a lot of good things about Scott and this pen.

Due to my lack of knowledge in this field, what I wanted to know was; I want a pen for daily use, something I can carry in my pocket everyday and whip it out when I need to write. Which nib will be ideal for such use? There are lots of options for this pen here: Extra-Fine, Fine, Medium, and Broad. Additionally, custom ground nibs are available in needlepoint, medium italic, broad italic, medium stub, and broad stub. I don't write much, just a few notes and a little scribbles here and there. What type of nib suits the daily user? Is there one nib which is more multipurpose than the other nibs? I want to get only one nib for now. Also could you tell me which ink do you guys prefer? As in is there a particular brand which everyone thinks out-performs the rest of the competition or just maybe suits Scott's pens more? I have Quink at home.

Any help and input will be valuable to me. I am going nuts about fountain pens! Want to acquire a nice piece very soon.

Thank you everyone!
Aditya.

 

[redbike]

If you haven't been writing recently with fountain pens, I'd suggest a medium. It's a good all purpose nib and will probably perform well on most types of paper. Inks are like razor blades; opinions are all over the place, and performance varies with type of pen, nib and paper. Quink is a good ink to start with, though it it's decades old, it should be checked for condition. Good luck.

 

[cstephens]

Aditya,
glad to see you in the nib! I agree with the recommendation of medium as an all purpose nib. If, however, you want to have some fun with line variation in your short notes and scribbles, I am fond of stub nibs. Regarding inks, I use many. My favorite all purpose ink is Pelikan 4001 in blue.

(p.s. I may need to work out a deal with you to get some more Godrej. I love it!)

 

[syngent]

Personally i prefer fines for everyday use, I end up writing on cheap paper at work and mediums bleed out to a broad sized line or more and can make a mess, plus the drying time is longer on a thicker time, since i need work stuff to dry asap the fines work better for me

and at Work i use quink almost exclusively Adity, its a great ink for everyday, but if you do want something else I have some Diamine inks that work out great for me too

welcome to the NIB glad to have you on board

 

[hariharan]

Hi Aditya,
R u from India ?
If so, i recommend to buy a Camlin SD fountain pen for Rs.600 equivalent to 12$. ITs a special edition pen and is fantastic. I'm not sure whether they offer different nibs. I think its a medium one and works fine.
Again, if ur in india, u can try the locally available inks like Bril, Camlin, Chelpark etc Quink is a good starter, but i have found it little dry. For beginners, wet writers are usually good to prevent them from applying excess pressure. In that case, i have heard the waterman inks (blue black is my fav, though its hard to find) are fantastically wet.

 

[nemo]

Personally i prefer fines for everyday use, I end up writing on cheap paper at work and mediums bleed out to a broad sized line or more and can make a mess, plus the drying time is longer on a thicker time, since i need work stuff to dry asap the fines work better for me

Same here, I carry a small pocket-sized notebook and fine (even extra fine) nibs work well for that. Broad nibs and stubs I break out for authoritative notes and signatures. It really boils down to the size of your normal handwriting.

Lots of nice inks from India!

 

[aditya]

WOW! I really didn't know India produces such good ink. I am surely going to try a few very soon. I will get the Camlin SD pen recommended by hariharan.
As for the nib, I am leaning towards a fine as I definitely want the drying time to be very quick. May even give a stub a try, sounds like fun!
Thank you guys for your guidance, it is making life much easier and much much more fun

This is going to be my first fountain pen and I have a budget of about $80, would you guys recommend I pick up something else?

 

[Mr5x5]

WOW! I really didn't know India produces such good ink. I am surely going to try a few very soon. I will get the Camlin SD pen recommended by hariharan.
As for the nib, I am leaning towards a fine as I definitely want the drying time to be very quick. May even give a stub a try, sounds like fun!
Thank you guys for your guidance, it is making life much easier and much much more fun

This is going to be my first fountain pen and I have a budget of about $80, would you guys recommend I pick up something else?

Welcome! These guys will always recommend you pick up something else.

 

[syngent]

Well the start is always pen... ink... paper if you can find clairfontain paper its very very nice to write on

 

[hariharan]

Hi Aditya,

80$ ? thats quite a lot of money in indian market for fountain pens. Pen is a highly personal choice and except the technical details i guess no one can recommend you "the right" pen for you; its only you will finally unearth. Being a fresher to fountain pens like you, some of my tips
1) In India you can amass a huge collection of varieties of pens in the budget of 1 to 3$ maximum. In my humble opinion, they are too good for the price and are comparable to many western pens of high price. For eg, Wality, Camlin trinity, Handmade ebonite pens like Deccan, Ranga pens, Ratnam pens, Gama pens etc. Most of these cost less than Rs.100. These are great starters. In addition to good writing, it will give you lot of freedom in your penmanship; you can tweak the feed and section, pullover the nib and reassemble- you can literally abuse those poor ebonite pens and still get away without damaging. Even if you damge the cost is not high.
2) I might do the above and save my 80$ till i get comfortable with my first pen and in the mean time read patiently the reviews and slowly choose a pen.
3) If you are lazy to do the above and wanna target the western brands directly, again you have variety of choice. Lamy safari - is supposed to be the most preferred one for starters and ruggedness; it costs around 20$ equivalent in indian stores. you can also see waterman Philaes in ebay for around 25$ or parker 45 (say 25 to 40$).
4) If you want one good pen for 80$, then there are lots of choices .. But i will personally wait to accumulate and jump for Pelikan .. If you are lucky in ebay, you may get a better price.
5) If you are a member of the other dedicated group "fountian pen network", u can ask a fellow member hari317; He knows every single details of pens in india and can guide you to particular stores even in your city.

By the way, i have only a humble Camlin SD and Parker 45 at the moment. So my opinions has to be treated only with the amateurish weightage of a newbie

 

[aditya]

That is some really useful information mate! I will be slow and work my way up. But I might just grab a nice pen if the opportunity presents.

I am going to the nearest and biggest stationary store in my city in the afternoon and will look into all the brands you mentioned. Will get a couple of affordable and really good pens to start off. Maybe a nice ink bottle as well.
Oh yes! I am picking up a Pilot 78 as well on eBay. Lot of people recommending it. Looks to be a nice starting pen as well. Shipping to India may take a couple of weeks so till then I will give the Camlin pens a try. I haven't used a fountain pen for years now, I will get good practice currently as I am starting a new business venture and doing a lot of writing.
Hari317 seems to be my go to guy as well, local help is always highly appreciated. Thank you for the contact info.

Will keep you guys updated on what I find in the store today.
Thank you guys again!

 

[aditya]

Hey I got 2 Camlins; the SD and an inexpensive one. Filled both and are ready to go. I am using the Parker ink. Looking for something which will be blacker or darker than Quick. Any suggestions?

Btw hariharan the SD price has gone up, it's Rs.1000/- now, about $20. Still it looks good and I am sure it will perform excellent as well. The other Camlin is less than $2, seems to a good performer as well, I am a novice so it's difficult for me to tell.

 

[hariharan]

Congrats on ur first pens.. am sure u will love it..

u should probably review it, especially the camlin SD, for the sake of western audience. Btw which city are you from? The camlin SD is not very common and the price may be due to that. Can you cross check with the camlin distributors ?

Greyness of black ink is quite common in almost all the black inks. I use bril, which i feel is darker than parker quink.. However, even that doesnt escape the greyness. You may try waterman black (but its Rs.400 against the bril ink of Rs.20 )

I once mixed bril blue and bril black; 80% blue with 20% black. While its not black, i loved the blue black as it was bolder and at the same time less contrasting than the royal blue of bril.
i have heard a lot about noodler's black, but its not available in india..

If you have time, try combinations of red, green, blue nd black.. lol u my get a colour of ur choice..

However just as a matter of hygeine, try to avoid mixing two different brands of ink, as i assume their chemical composition nd viscocity is different.. This technically shouldnt affect the performance of the pen, but i dont want to take the risk, definitely not on my expensive pen.

 

[aditya]

I am going to give Bril a try. Didn't find it in the store yesterday. They had Camel and Chelpark. Out of these two, which one?