The best writing, out of the box, pens I’ve picked up have all be Diplomats, it is like you are writing on glass, my favorite is the Volute, a limited edition Aero:
But any of the Aero’s should write the same. This was when I was a fan of metal pens before I embraced the swirly plastic pens. Another limited edition I picked up is I think called the Flame or something:
And since I’m looking through photos, here is my collection at the end of 2020 (the year I started):
If you like fountain pens I would suggest looking for local pen clubs, the meetups will be full of people showing off pens and usually getting rid of ink (you always end up with more ink than you can store it seems) or even pens they no longer have room for in their heart or pen case. They are usually pretty low key events.
I’m envious. I go though phases. Not doing a lot of writing at the moment. Maybe tomorrow!
Oh, I don’t use them very much, and there is certainly no relationship between how much a pen costs and how well you can write with it…
I have wanted a retractable like the Pilots. Will have to look into the Majohn models. The prices are hard to believe.
I’ve written a bit with the Jinhao, it’s… OK. It feels nicer for sure than I expected, but the writing experience is meh. I got the medium nib (a lot of comments about the F and EF were much more prone to skipping and hard starts) and I got it in silver due to comments about the goldtone/two-tone nibs having some issues as well, and I still find it to be a less than seamless writing experience. It doesn’t really skip, the ink itself is flowing ok, but the grind of the nib is… weird. Like, I don’t really know how to explain this but it 's like the nib is sticking to the paper until the ink is flowing more? When I type that out it sounds like I’m describing a feedback issue but it’s not that. THere is no feedback at all really, it’s just that my hand doesn’t move the way I want it to until like the 2nd or 3rd letter.
https://x.com/david_perell/status/1838425252772077636
I agree about notebooks. The ones I actually use, anyway. I’m not a pig and don’t throw my garbage on the floor though.
His pen choices are ok, nothing special. I do like the Uniball but prefer Pilot G-2s for general use as they’re cheap and reliable in most circumstances though not all, as they can smear, dry out if left in the car a while, and are not good in the cold.
literally zero interest in sam altman’s opinion on anything
His observations of how Elon’s employees respond to him were funny. I gotta give him that.
Check out Jetpens.com for more options on gel and other pens as well as a wide assortment of notebooks. They have some nice sample packs where you can get an array of pens of the same color to try out different brands and point sizes.
I have some intense hobbies and I don’t side-eye other people’s, especially pencils or pens, which I think are pretty amazing and also writing by hand is important to me. So, just curious but when folks start getting really spendy with pens, is it mostly the outside parts and I should be partly understanding this as really good looking and also functional jewelry? Or is the smoothness/whatever of the writing experience itself the appeal? I like writing with fountain pens but I’m no expert: would I be able to tell the difference blindfolded between writing with pens that cost $100 / $200 / $1000 / $2000 / $10K+? Or does a pen that costs 10K just have like $9K of diamonds & gold and was designed by bansky or basquiat?
Unfortunately, the intrinsic value of the pen isn’t very connected to the retail value of the pen. Some of the smoothest writing pens I have are Diplomats and from Benu, neither are more than $200. Sometimes pens are more expensive because of materials or intricacies in the design, but a $2000 pen isn’t 20 times better than a $100 pen. The pen above is expensive because it is Urushi a style of lacquering that is very time intensive and takes a lot of skill.
sweet thanks, that’s awesome. And for sure wasn’t trying to do a gotcha about the value vs cost, that’s just the deal with this stuff, I like wristwatches ffs. I know a little about urushi through watches, seiko has a bunch of great looking ones
I think I’d just be shooting for a 10x per year feeling of writing in ink, with…reverence? is that diplomat aero you posted upthread a decent one to see if I might like these? my first google attempt gave me: Diplomat Aero, Benu Euphoria, Platinum #3776 Century, and Pilot Custom 74
I doubt I’ll go full rabbit hole; with pencils, once I started using different blackwings and mitsubishi 4Bs I was good to go. If it matters my current daily driver pens are just pretty cheapo uniball jetstream RTs with a 1mm point, which I prefer to the uniball cylinder rollerball 0.8 mm ones, I think mostly because the liquid rollerball can get bleedy / smudgy / sloppy, which I guess isn’t a good sign for me + fountain pens. Anyway, I love the posts, keem em coming
If you want to get started you can try any of the Lamy pens for much less money, they will give you a feel for the mechanics of fountain pens; filling and cleaning them and writing with them. It will let you play with nib sizes and start looking at inks and paper, which are their own things. But there is nothing wrong with starting with a Diplomat Aero (I just saw a green one I didn’t know existed). There are a lot of YouTube videos on the hobby as well, that’s how I started, BEWARE!
is that fordite?
