Fountain pens

I bought my first fountain pen in 2017 after getting a new job. It wasn’t immediate love, in fact after playing around with it for a bit it sat sadly unused for the next few years. I was a big fan of gel pens and brush pens for journaling, and as a calligrapher I was disappointed with the lack of flex in the steel nib. I liked the idea of fountain pens, but didn’t have a great use for it.

More recently, I’ve given fountain pens another go - this time for sketching as well as writing. Now I can appreciate the smooth writing experience, the balance of the beautiful pen that isn’t destined for landfill when the ink runs out, and the myriad of ink options. I flushed out that first pen I bought and set it up with permanent ink I can use in watercolour paintings. Now my fountain pens are my go-to for writing and sketching.

I don’t intend to become a serious collector and my budget is on the lower end, but here’s what I have:

Pens

• Lamy Joy in matte black, Extra Fine nib. My first fountain pen!
• Lamy Safari in cream, Fine nib. This is currently my main writing pen.
• Kaweco Sport in mellow blue, Fine nib.
• Sailor Fude de Mannen 55 degree in green, my current favourite pen for sketching.

Inks

• Platinum pigment ink in blue. My main for writing.
• De Atramentis Document Ink in urban sienna. I use this for most of my drawing line work these days.
• De Atramentis Document Ink in black
• A sample of De Atramentis Document Ink in magenta

This is a potentially expensive rabbit hole to go down, so for now I intend to stick mainly to 3 pens, one each for blue, sepia and black ink. If I want to get more colours I might need a “fun colours” pen…