Hi. I've been looking at the forum over the weekend, and have decided to register so that I can use the search function (which doesn't seem to work if you're viewing as a guest). I have been looking here for research as I've decided to finally get around to buying a decent (or at least expensive: I rather like those little Inoxcrom things) fountain pen. This seems an ideal site to read around the subject, and I'm rather glad I found it.

Welcome to FPN, dogpoet!

You will find tons of useful information on this site. And lots of very experienced fountain pen users/owners/collectors.

Thanks, Strang.
It definitely looks that way: a quick browse through the the reviews forum has already accounted for a chunk of next week's pay packet, put it that way...

Welcome to FPN. There's lots of helpful information here, but I recommend that you use Google Advanced Search in order to search FPN. The FPN search feature is not very sophisticated, and can be frustrating. To use Google Advanced Search, click "Advanced Search" next to the Google search box. In the next window, you can create your search and (most importantly) restrict your search to a specific web site.

Hi and pleased to meet you. Glad you want to spend some money. Lets you get an even huger range of choices.

Mike

Welcome! You're going to have some very, very tough choices to make, and that's a big part of the fun.

Thanks, all.
I'm very taken with your avatar, Ray. One of the giants, no less.

And before I forget: thanks for the tip about Googling within a specific website. That's going to be very handy elsewhere as well.

Welcome to the forums. Lots of people here are willing to share their experience and knowledge.

Welcome aboard! You will soon find that you need a much larger pay packet, or even a second job, if you keep looking around here, heh.

Allan

You may well be onto something there, Allan.

We're like that 'round here.

Welcome aboard.

Another FPN member (I forget who ) mentioned going to the specific FPN google search and bookmarking it. I have, and it has saved me tons of time.

Welcome to FPN where you will find a world of helpful people and a truckload of knowledge!

Thanks, everybody.

Welcome to the FPN.

Hello and welcome from another FPN'er. Just when you think you've got all the pens you need you will realize that there 10,000 shades of blue out there that you just have to try!

Hi, pakmanpony.
I like black ink, myself, but I'm sure this is something I'll have to keep an eye on. (An obsessive search for the blackest ink possible is something that may arise in the fullness of time, I suppose.) Much to my shame, all the fountain pens I own aren't really fountain pens at all, they're cartridge pens. That said, I rather fancy getting one of those Lamy 2000's, and I'll have to bite the bullet and starting using liquid ink if I get one of those, won't I?

Cart-filled pens are so fountain pens! *huff huff flounce flounce*

Hello, Sailor!

I'm probably mistaken, but I'd thought that a fountain pen had to have an internal reservoir, rather than using a cartridge.

*waves back*

This may be the one instance in the history of the world where I am right.

Fountain pen - (n) a pen with a reservoir or cartridge from which ink flows continuously to the nib

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2008

hk

Thanks for straightening me on that one, guys. My mistake.

No prob. You have to forfeit all your fountain pens to me, though.

Hmmm. Where did I put that Rotring Core?

You have one of those, too?

I do, but I only mentioned that as a joke, as I was told they're not popular.

What color?

I LOVE the nib, and the way it writes, and the 'look' of my Core. I just can't stand the grip.

BTW, mine's orange and gray.

White and black (that is, mostly white with a black grip, insets in the barrel around the spare cartridge, and black rubbery bits on the cap) with red writing printed on it (apparently by a Matrix fan who plays a lot of Warhammer 40,000?), that is starting to wear off now. I like the nib myself, but don't have a problem with the grip. I'm also taken with the writing (medium verging on not quite fine? It's certainly a lot finer than either of the either of the inexpensive Parkers I own, but both seem wetter, though the Core is far from scratchy) though it has an annoying tendency to stop up, or stick, or whatever the proper the term is. I'd thought that rinsing it out thoroughly and retiring it for nine months or so had cured that, but nope, it's started again after I dragged it out of retirment to take to work after the cheaper and worst of my two Parkers (I thought it was a Jotter, but apparently it isn't: thin plastic body, the same as the roller balls and a tendency to dig into the thumb when held for a long time, which is why I finally decided the hell with it, and gave the Core another go).
For a pen that cost me a tenner (I think) from a mail order company that sells clothing, it isn't bad at all. If it wasn't for the tendency to clog (or whatever the term is) it'd be the best of the four pens I owned pre joining this forum (the fourth is an Inoxcrom who's name I don't recall: nice nib, nice fat rubber grip, but it's short enough to become irksome after writing for a while with my huge paws and the other one I had -the first fountain pen I bought after a long while using rollerballs, gel pens, felt tips, disposable "fountain pens" and anything else that had blacker ink than a biro's charcoal grey trail, and the same model, in purple plastic and rubber rather than green- seized up completely after I'd been using it a while. Hopefully this one won't if I remember to rinse it out occasionally, but nothing I did freed the other after it came out on strike so I eventually gave up on it and (cover your eyes at the back) slammed it nib first first into a brick wall a couple of times and threw it into the Lyme. Hopefully this one won't go the same way as this and the Core are joint second faves after a Parker Frontier*, with the other, vile Parker as a very firm and definite fourth. I'm not touching that one again. It's the sort of pen I can remember using at school when I was forced to use a fountain pen a long time ago, and probably was responsible for putting a lot of kids of ever touching another fountain pen again. I decided, after the Core developed its mannerisms and I could get one cheaply in a double pack with a very nice propelling pencil, that one of these would be an ideal work pen as nobody would ever pinch the bastard, but gave up in disgust after using it a while when it started to maim the pad of my thumb. That's gone into retirement permanently now, having escaped the brick wall/Lyme river routine as it isn't really worth the effort or the bile.
This was a very long post. I apologise for that.

*(not ranking the Pilot Birdie I've acquired since I started posting here until I've been using it for a while longer)

Awww. C'mon, I'll buy you a beer.

Hello and welcome to FPN. Kick off your shoes and have a stroll around the grounds. There is lots of good information as well as people willing to share information. Heck you might even pick up a pen or two at the Marketplace.


Once again welcome.

Kurt

Thanks, Kurt.