Let the Fountain Pens Flow!

Something oft overlooked in favor of fountain pens: They are environmentally superior! If you fill from a bottle there is nothing to throw away. Disposable pens are discarded in the millions.

When a discount store such as Daiso stocks entry level steel nib fountain pens for people to try out for the first time, the higher end market is bound to grow. A fountain pen used for years, has a nib worn to your own handwriting style, pressure and expression. Never let anyone else use it or risk ruining your favorite!

This is a wonderful article about an interesting hobby. My thirteen year old son, who is a fountain pen enthusiast and collector (yes, really), thoroughly enjoyed reading it (as did his parents). Some of you might be interested in perusing his blog devoted to fountain pens, spectorpen.wordpress.com.

The Goulets are awesome. I think they managed to bring a whole lot of excitement into the fountain pen / ink / fine paper world. Not to say there aren't several great vendors, nib-tuners, ink-developers, etc. It's just the Goulets - I watched it happen - built a business from the ground up and turned into a world-class establishment. I've chatted (online) with Brian a couple of times, always the affable, helpful guy. Plus, whenever I buy a pen, ink or something, there's always the lovely thank you card written in some interesting new ink color. Thye deserve all the success. And, long live fountain pens!!

What fun to read this. I've used fountain pens since I bought my first cheap Shaeffer in a drug store in 1962 or so. I stumbled along with the occasional Cross from the stationery store, and a couple of steel nib fancy Shaeffers from Levenger, until finally discovering Goulet pens a few years ago. Finally I learned about cleaning pens and refilling using a syringe and oh what a bonanza of delicious inks! Without spending a ton of money, I have enough pens that I can fill each one with the ink of the same color, and can rotate through them all with my daily journal writing. There is just nothing like a fountain pen -- the flow of the ink on the page, the crisp, fat, bold line against the white, the ability to create a really distinctive personal hand! A shout out also to Jet Pens, another company with more of a focus on Japanese pens, paper and stationery, but excellent guides to inks, papers, pens, etc. thanks for the great article, from this Boomer, still writing strong at 69...... Glad these young pups have rediscovered the proper way to put words down, and on paper. Fountain pens keep it real!

This article brought back memories of my Sheaffer Snorkel. I wish I had been more careful and not lost it.

You have one of the best fountain pen retailers in the country right there in NYC, Fountain Pen Hospital —yet nary a mention? (Perhaps FPH has become a pariah because of its former association with the now-disgraced Bill Cosby?). Fahrney’s in Washington, D.C., ever heard of it? John Mottishaw at nibs.com in L.A., the pre-eminent fountain pen repair and nib customization guy in the U.S., as well as a retailer of very fine new, ‘pre-owned’ and vintage pens? There are many others, some in far flung locations in Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere, quite a few in Europe - like the beautiful E.E. Ercolessi shop in Milan, founded in the early 1920s and still going strong. This article is along the lines of a Trumpian ‘nobody knew that...’ - the author didn’t know, but plenty of other people have known for a long, long time. I’ve been accumulating a collection of fountain pens for about 40 years and now own dozens, all in use: Omas, Pelikan, Aurora, Visconti, Conway Stewart, vintage Waterman, Stipula, Nakaya, a vintage Montblanc or three, et alia. I’m not alone - there has been an active and dedicated band of fountain pen lovers around for a long time; and there have been many retailers - brick and mortar and online - for decades. It seems the Goulets have a press agent who knows when to whisper in which ears. Good for them. I won’t begrudge them their success. But let’s not leave the impression there is a Goulet monopoly on the fountain pen retail business. Far from it.

I have a silver Parker fountain and ballpoint pen set that my sister and I gave my father for Christmas 50 years ago. I'll never forget the look on his face when he unwrapped them. He died in 2013, and my mother gave me the pens. My wife polished them up, and in use them at work. They never leave the office - not even when I go to a meeting. I took up bullet journaling to give me an excuse to use them every day.

Love the article on fountain pens. I still have my bladder-type Parker pen from 1958, which I used to write my O-levels in Grammar School. It has a gold plated top, with my name engraved in gold on the body of the pen. I still use it and the bladder is still the original. One thing we were told is to never loan your pen to someone else. The nib takes on the slant at which you write, and if somebody else uses the pen it will spoil your personalized slant. So beware! Never used the term “fps” for fountain pens before. At Grammar School that stood for “foot, pound, second”, the Imperial System of units. Also, had to learn “cgs” and “mks” systems of units. The latter became the Metric System. And, yes, the equations and constants were different in each of the three systems. Not many equations or constants were given you on the exams. At university, we were required to hand our blotting paper in as well as the exam papers (always on foolscap), just in case there was something to mark on your doodles, and to prevent cheating.

So great to see fountain pens recognized prominently. Many people still use them and discuss them in forums or at shows, so I'm sure pen lovers from all over are excited to see an NYT article about them. As for my favorite fountain pen these days, I would have to choose a Pelikan 400 or possibly even a Diplomat Aero. Both are fantastic writers. For an ink, Robert Oster Fire & Ice is great. These are just new models, though. I currently own a vintage Carter Inx small semi-flex, (A little known Fp brand, as I have discovered) and I appreciate it even more than many of my new pens. There is something special about a good vintage pen.

Look at diplomas next time you have an opportunity. If cheap ink was used, the signatures will fade after five years. Good ink will last decades or longer. Digital "ink" has no durability whatsoever.

Wow, I enjoy browsing and occasionally buying from Goulet, but I'm surprised to see this article state that, "His affable but rigorous social-media presence and tantalizing website are credited with making the old-fashioned tool not just literary but lit." I could have sworn that there there were tens of thousands of us on fountain pen websites and forums long before 2009. Fountain pens are the only reason my handwriting is legible. I bought my first at my college bookstore in the 1970s (Osmiroid) and the latest today (a lovely Sheaffer snorkel for $10 at an antique mall). I do have some European fountain pens, but I love the modern Japanese pens. There's something for everyone in fountain pens, from the $3 Pilot Varsity to the sky is the limit!

I have a good sized collection of modern and vintage fountain pens. My favorite pen is actually a three dollar calligraphy pen from China that is reliable and smooth! Go figure.

I like Lamy Pens, but I use them to write and not to show off. My favorite Lamy Pens are the Dialog 1 and 2. They are not fountain pens. A pen that you love is a must for a writer, because if it is your method to scribble in notebooks in dark corners before you type the contents into a computer, you will spend days and days with that pen. Your fingers will bear the callouses to prove your love.

I love fountain pens. I have a fancy Mont Blanc, but I think my el cheapo Parker is more nicely weighted and writes better. That's one of the nice things about fountain pens, though. It's a highly individualized thing in a highly standardized world. When I took the bar exam, I wrote all of my essays out in long hand instead of typing. In the days leading up to the exam, I developed a cramp in my right hand because I had been holding my pen so tightly and pressing down so hard. That's not how I normally write, but studying for the bar is a very stressful experience. As a fix, I switched over to a fountain pen because I needed to grip it more lightly and the nib demanded that I not press so hard. I ended up passing with flying colors. I think my fountain pens may have saved me.

I've tried many ink pens over the years. My favorites are the Italian ink pen Omas Extra and the French ink pen S.T. Dupont -- bought while still owned by the family. I favor medium nibs and black and brown inks. Of course, most ink pen users favor specific inks. My favorite is Mont Blanc but, believe it or not, not all pen stores carry it!

I fell in love with fountain pens when I was in high school. I lived in Woodbridge (CT) but New Haven had a bona fide pen shop which sold all sorts of expensive pens as well as Osmiroids. I learned Italic calligraphy but also started taking notes with a Parker fountain pen, which took me all the way from high school to graduate school. I still have it and it still writes beautifully. I’m delighted to see that others have developed this interest and now appreciate the beauty of writing with a fountain pen. I’m convinced that the handwriting process does something different neurologically and enhances retention of material as well as providing a meditative experience not found when typing on a keyboard. I don’t want admit how many fountain pens I’ve accumulated over the years and I only hope that my kids won’t ditch them unceremoniously when I pass

Thirty years ago, I had only one fountain pen - a Waterman. I never realized that a person could have more than one. Well, eventually that pen suffered a fatal accident and I started looking around for a replacement. I now own hundreds of fountain pens. I spend as much time deciding which pen to use on a particular day (and what color ink should go in it) as I do on what clothes to put on. What I don't like is this trend of collecting limited editions. People buy LEs to display, not to use. How sad. Fountain pens are utilitarian objects, meant for writing. Like Amish quilts, they can be beautiful as well as functional. But, I also think that pen manufacturers, when coming up with new LEs, tend to go a bit insane, losing all sense of design, producing some of the ugliest pens imaginable, covered with horrible paintings or silver and gold encrustations (is that a word?). I prefer the beauty of simplicity, as with the clipless lacquer pens from Nakaya. Nakaya also makes some of the world's greatest nibs, the soul of a fountain pen. Light as a feather, they allow you to write with flourish and expressivity. Anyway, I love it that people are writing again. I got two handwritten thank-you notes this Christmas. Yay!!!

In grade school, roughly 5th or maybe 6th grade, the good nuns (oxymoron? maybe...), decided it was time to learn writing with pen and ink. They dispatched us to the local stationery store (Westcott's) where we were to purchase green shafted dip pens and spare nibs, as well as a bottle of ink (blue, only blue). The bottles fit into the hole in the upper right quadrant of the desk and away we went. Loved it! The lefties of course despised it. I have thought about that over the past 60 years or so and finally, as my wife no longer could come up with a suitable Christmas gift, suggested to her that a Waterman would be welcomed (which she thought a bit insane). I have had it just a year now and enjoyed it immensely, a delight to use, easy to write to my hearts content. One of the best gifts I have ever received, perhaps there is a need for more in the future.

The LAMY 2000 is made of a Nylon material rather than metal as stated in the article.

The bottom line up front - writing with a fountain pen may improve your penmanship. The process of writing with a fountain pen my clarify your thoughts as they go from brain, to pen and on paper and you have something different to talk about around the water fountain. During the early 1990's I decided I needed to improve my penmanship, I went to meetings and later struggled to read my own notes. I purchased two fountain pens and a couple of roller balls from Rotring and Waterman. I still have both fountain pens and one of the roller balls. Twice I replaced my Rotring rollerball and twice someone liked them a lot and decided they should have them. My benefit to writing with fountain pens have been threefold; my penmanship has improved, I seem to take more time thinking about what I am writing and fountain pens tend to get attention from the ladies. During my final years of full time work before retirement several of my coworkers also got into fountain pens and one became a collector. Try a fountain pen and maybe you too will experience similar benefits.

This was a great article until it got nasty at the end. Every hobby has that one guy that is a complete and utter disappointment that partakes of it. I spent most of this article feeling upbeat and good about my decision to collect fountain pens, until I got to the last paragraph. Now, I just wish I had skipped this article. Racism is terrible. It is wrong and it is everywhere. Did we really need to be reminded about that in a piece that advertises itself as a positive and uplifting story? The headline of this article feels so false to me right now. I feel horrible about my hobby and the people in it now, because one racist idiot features at the end. If that was the goal, I suppose you did a great job.

I loved watching Obama signing bills--the well-known lefty's anti-smear contortion--he must have developed RSI on-the-job. Us lefties and fountain pens just don't quite fit.

Where's my Montblanc?

I'm glad to see the NYTimes highlighting fountain pens, but give credit where credit is due. Nearly all the images in this article are from Goulet Pens which takes the most beautiful photographs of pens for their product pages.

The Namiki Vanishing Point is the ultimate fountain pen for air travelers. It never leaks. However, it does look a bit like a Sharpie. What really bothers me is that young students not only can’t write cursive, but they do not even know how to hold a pen or pencil. Maybe you’ve noticed this too, if you teach.

I picked up a nice mixed collection of fountain pens, adorned with Chinese symbols, in Beijing!

Nary a mention of Parker Pens, and their wonderful Duo line that date back nearly 100 years ?

I looove fountain pens, because I am an obsessive journaler and really appreciate the “controlled leak” experience. It feels as if there is no impediment at all between my brain and the words literally spilling out onto the page. This article made me so happy. I didn’t know there was a whole community out there (although only two comments? Where is everybody?) As Harold Ross said, “I am encouraged to go on.”

Whenever I visit Munich I always seem to come home with a new fountain pen, cartridges and some great pads and notebooks to write in. Germany has so many great small stationary stores.

My 8 year old French-American kid asked for an ink pen, because ALL her friends had them to practice writing. By writing. of course I mean cursive, as they don't really ever learn how to print.

Lamy is the Bic of German fountain pens. Try Messmer instead!

I adored fountain pens as a kid but lived the Palmer Method of frustration, courtesy of my left-handedness. So later in adulthood I taught myself to write with my right hand, hoping I could slay the demons of penmanship with antique Parkers. But this I learned instead: When you’re right-handed you can only see where you’ve been (on the paper). But, when you’re left handed, you can see where you’re going. Take that you dexters. Sinister lives!

As a kid (maybe I was 13?), I was fixated on magazine images of a Montblanc diplomat. (No, I'm straight btw!) The gleaming black and gold, with that sculptural nib, the star on top...just hit my eyes like some kind of visual intoxicant I couldn't get enough of. I pestered and pestered and pestered my parents, until finally, when a major gift-giving holiday arrived, they bought me a smaller, less expensive version (#144), at the discounted price offered by Pearl Paint in East Meadow, about 40% off the Fortunoff's price. That Montblanc was such a treasure to me!

Unfortunately brings on memories of having to use fountain pens in school - For those of us who are lefties, wet ink pens are a nightmare!

I started using fountain pens in the early 1970's and have rarely used anything else for note taking and letter writing. I have lost a few of my favorites over the years and still mourn them. I have a Parker from the 1930's that belonged to my mother that I had reconditioned and use for special notes. My solution to using different color inks is to have pens dedicated to the specific ink. I am so delighted that there are so many new choices. I will have to explore.

I have always used fountain pens for notarization - it's far easier to tell the original doc from a copy, especially when one uses violet or green ink. But expensive or exclusive fountain pens? Attractive and attention-grabbing, I'm sure, but I have two ancient Lamy Safaris (one in blue, one "demonstrator") and two more recent Pilot Kakunos (baby blue/white and orange/gray), each type in both medium and fine nibs. Cartridges make them super-simple to replenish, and they're perfectly functional. Perhaps I'm missing out on something, but... I don't believe I've ever spent more than $25 for a fountain pen. I don't know that I ever would.

Got into fountain pens while living in Germany in the early aughts. Lived next to an older Bavarian couple that owned their own stationary and pen shop, so they helped through a combination of 4th graded level German and sign language. The pens are a pleasure to use! A middle aged electrical engineer, now I make my own notebooks and use a stub nib Pilot Metropolitan for daily notes. Everyone else is using OneNote and there I am with my old-school tools. One thing I learned from Herr Klaus is that black ink is often bad for fountains. The common element to make the ink black is iron, which can rust and cause pens to clog. Perhaps a good cleaning — and drying — will ameliorate this issue, but that was beyond my German to learn. Viel Spaß!

Sorry folks, this pen obsession is NOT an oddity - there are still many of us who love pen & ink. 20 years ago, I bought a "cheap" plastic Waterman pen during my Junior Year Abroad in Paris. Somehow along the way, I lost it. I miss it - the nib had "settled" to be exactly right for the angle at which I hold a pen. It's easy to get obsessed about finding just the right fountain pen. For me, it has to write a thin line, and not be too scratchy on paper. I have about 10 now - from Lamy, to fancy Watermans, to cheapies.... I inherited my grandfather's Mont Blanc, but my uncle looked so longingly at it, I gave it to him. It seemed only right that it belong to his son. He sent it to Mont Blanc and had it reconditioned, and sent me a handwritten letter all the way from Thailand to thank me again! Yes pens are heirlooms to cherish from generation to generation! So, the hunt continues! By the way, NEVER EVER let anyone else write with your fountain pens. Their hands will hold it in a different way and throw off the angle.

Had to smile when I read Brian's career arc from pencrafter to successful pen vendor (and ambassador for fountain pens, inks and the joys of writing by hand). His story parallels that of Chuck Swisher, who 25 yrs. ago started out crafting pens not just from wood but acrylic, celluloid and even Corian, and became first an online and then traveling-pen-show direct seller and then opened his own brick & mortar pen store in the VA Tidewater area. I own a brace of Swishers and treasure them--some even have vintage gold nibs. Alas, both a slow area economy and the explosion of e-tailers caused him to close up shop. Glad to see a renaissance but sad to learn about so many who couldn't hang in there long enough to "catch the wave" again. So glad to see Brian pick up where Chuck left off--I've been a customer (and follower) since Goulet Pens started. Been a collector (>400, vint. & modern) since 1994--ironically, when I found the pen community online at first Prodigy, then AOL, then listservs. Never stopped using them. I love unusual nibs (italic, stub, flex, fine--mostly gold but some Esterbrook steel interchangeable units) and filling systems--miss the all-time greatest of the latter, the Sheaffer Snorkel. Visited the factory in Ft. Madison, IA just before it closed. BTW, you don't need a needle to refill cartridges or convertors--your DDS can give you an irrigation syringe, which has a plastic tip fine enough to do the job.

Oh what fun. I can resurrect my father's fountain pen, a Parker, and get it going again. Now to find ink.... I adored brown but it was difficult to find locally. I just pulled the pen out and noticed that little teeth had indented the end of the pen. Must have been one of his children. The pen has to be well over 75 years of age.

I am glad they are, apparently, coming back. So many great things are being lost, because the pendulum of popularity takes too long to swing back. I have always loved to use my fountain pens. The problem is, the reservoirs are not big enough, so they have to be refilled every hour or so, or they dry out with disuse. Solve those problems, and the mess of refilling, and there's no reason the venerable Sheaffer should not once more be sold in every drug store. And while you're at it, bring back the Pedigree pencils, too. One tip: if you have cartridges of ink, if you can get a hypodermic needle from a pharmacy, then you can refill the cartridges endlessly from an ink bottle.

My favourite: Pilot Decimo. Ink pen with retracting nib, like a ballpoint pen — also called vanishing point. Pleasure to write. However, for this christmas, got reMarkable — amazingly good!

The author Harlan Ellison, who died this year, was famous for preferring to create using a typewriter instead of a computer. He was also a big fan of fountain pens. I still remember those round holes in school desks when I was a kid. And having white shirts ruined by a leaky fountain pen...

Mont Blanc fountain pens -Meisterstuck LeGrand -are still the best in the world.

I have a 56 year old Frisbee injury (really!). Ball points require too much pressure, so writing hurts. Fountain pens are great because the ink flows as freely as my thoughts. How many? Far more than one. I have a few Conklins which are great “dailies” with nice points and great style. I also have several Rapidographs, which surely count as they use liquid ink.

I thought I was old-fashioned but it turns out I'm just trendy. Earlier than most.

Thank you for this! I am a big fountain pen user and have been pretty much since childhood. I buy most of my pens from Brian Goulet, Lamy or the Fountain Pen Hospital and it's wonderful to see them mentioned in this article. Collecting fountain pens and ink is a wonderful hobby -- it doesn't need to be expensive, you have beautiful objects and writing to look at everyday and it's a fun, welcoming community.

Thank you for this! Was getting mildly concerned about my low ink stocks, and have always worried about drying black ink before folding a letter! This is wonderful!

I've been using fountain pens for years, and I'm glad they're gaining in popularity, but a number of current-production pens (including at least some Lamy pens) have steel nibs. Steel nibs are just unpleasant--far too stiff. In my opinion the writing experience with other nibs is much superior.

Several winters ago i decided to teach myself calligraphy in hopes that my writing on birthday cakes would improve. and it did. i accumulated pens, nothing too high end and fooled around with them. but my big issue is that i'm very decidedly left handed, and i smear, and the pen chatters and sprays when i have to push it instead of pulling it. as far as bullet point notebooks...not a chance. not a list maker. and as far as sitting and letting the thoughts flow onto the paper, i realized long ago that i don't really have much to say.