Fountain pens

LAMY!!! <3

Posted from TSR Mobile

I've been using my Montblanc Meisterstück for three years and I adore it, especially as someone who prefers to handwrite than to word-process. I love how my handwriting comes out and how it is personalised because a fountain pen's nib adapts to the way you hold the pen (sort of like wands in Harry Potter). I admit it is very expensive but I think it's worth every penny as I expect to use it almost every day for the rest of my life.

I don't find it any more fiddly than a biro. I refill it from an ink pot, which I believe is more economical than using cartridges. Once filled up it lasts me a few days to a week so I don't need to carry an ink pot with me. On the other hand once a biro runs out you have to run around looking for the specific refill that fits it. Or if it's a cheap one you can toss it out and get another one, which as someone who gets very sentimental about their stationery I can't bring myself to do!

The only problem I find with fountain pens is that they don't work well with every kind of paper. (Moleskine I'm looking at you.) In which case I use a pencil instead.

I've used several Cross (and other) expensive fountain pens in the past [not my own - one of my teachers was a die hard collector and let us very occasionally try some of his less expensive ones: cross falling into the price category of student use permissible ]. They're nice to write with, but a bit to scary and delicate for everyday use I would think [I've written off two Lamy nibs over the last 11 years for one thing... ].

One thing I seem to have observed though (and maybe its just the pens he bought), as price goes up the pens all get shorter, fatter and heavier, and the lids are usually a fair bit wider and heavier too. Overall it feels like instead of holding a pen of equally distributed mass it's like holding a pen of point mass underneath the lid when the lid is put on the reverse of the pen, with the mass perfectly poised over where the pen pivots in my hand drawing the weight of the pen off the nib. It's a very disconcertingly expensive feel

Hey can I ask how much you paid for it?

On the other hand once a biro runs out you have to run around looking for the specific refill that fits it. Or if it's a cheap one you can toss it out and get another one, which as someone who gets very sentimental about their stationery I can't bring myself to do!

You become emotional over a cheap biro pen?