OK, so first off, I must say that this is my second post on what seems like a very interesting forum. Anyhow, after seeing how knowledgeable everyone seems to be on here I was wondering if some of you might be able to help.

As a graduation gift, it is a family tradition that the gift be a fine writing instrument, usually a FP (although my cousin was an exception and went with a rollerball ). The catch is that I have to pick it. The parameters that I must obey are that price is less than $500 and it must be available in the US. This presents an issue as there are thousands of pens that fit these criteria.

I also want a pen with immaculate craftsmanship (so preferably something European or American made), an elegant exterior, and a smooth-writing 18kt nib (I'm a lefty that can write with most FP's less very sharply angled calligraphy and italic nibs). As such, I've found 10 pens that I really like:
1) Mont Blanc 149 or 146 (I can get either for around $500).
2) Caran D'ache Ecridor (not an 18kt nib but I've heard good reviews about this pen)
3) Graf von Faber Castell Guilloche Rhodium (My fave so far)
4) Pelikan Souveran 800 series (Black GT trim)
5) Porsche Design P3110 by Graf von Faber Castell (Gold+Silver weave). Not sure how good this pen is though.
6) Sheaffer Legacy Heritage FP, Sterling Silver.
7) Waterman Exception (Night and Day Black ST)
8) Yard•o•Led Viceroy Collection (Sterling Silver Barley) (is this a good brand? Solid Sterling Silver body looks promising...)
9) Alfred Dunhill Sentryman FP (Black GT) (not sure how good this pen is).
10) Graf von Faber Castell Classic (I like every single one of the trims)

Are these 10 pens a good start? Are there better choices? Can the list be narrowed down?

There are so many beautiful FP's but I can only pick 1 .

Hello fx101,

Firstly, welcome to the FPN from someone who hasn't been here much longer than you have.

All seem like good ideas, but as a Brit, I'd have to speak out on behalf of the Yard-O-Led. Now, I know even the company's name suggests that they know nothing about fountain pens, but that is plain wrong. Silver might not be that expensive, but it is still the only one there made out of solid precious metal, and the craftmanship is excellent. I'd also say that the barley finish is the best as it stops it looking too 'bling'. I've only had the opportunity to dip one (a pocket viceroy) once, and it seemed that it would be a solid, reliable writer. All in all, it's the most individual and best value (IMO) on your list.

As for the 149, I'm sure it's a great pen, but they are now charging pretty silly money for it, and sadly many people will either think you are a show-off or want to steal it.

Finally, if you want more suggestions, do have a look to see if Nakaya are available in the USA.

Hope this helps,

David.

If you want craftsmanship I dont you can argue that there are many better than Nayaka. There pens from Nayaka that is within your price range. You should also check out the higher range Pilot/Namiki pens as well.

Also check out the Italian pen makers like Montegrappa, Omas and Visconti.

My favorites on your list are:

4) Pelikan Sovereign 800 series
8) Yard-o-Led Viceroy

I prefer the Blue striped Sovereign 800.
Unless you like a thin pen I would look at the Grand Viceroy size in the Yard-o-Led.

Your choices so far are good. I don't think you could go wrong. Although it sounds like you've already decided on a process, I would suggest three modifications. The first is not to be too stuck on 18k. It is a fine metal, obviously, but for writing purposes, it is no better than 14k. In fact, if something nasty should ever happen to the nib, 18k could be harder to repair than 14k. Second, you might look at the Aurora line of pens. They are well-designed and durable. Third, if you plan actually to use the pen, you might give careful consideration to whether you would use it frequently or occasionally, and, therefore, whether it would be better for your purposes to have a lighter or a heavier pen. People go both ways, and there is no correct answer. (I used to prefer one, and now prefer the other.)

Have you considered a Parker Duofold? Several fine designs in the International size are just under $500. I've had to restrain myself from scarfing up an Amber Check to keep my English-made Pearl and Black company--in case they'd fight over which was the alpha pen of the collection . The gold nib (I don't remember whether it is 18k or 14k) is about the smoothest and wettest I have ever signed my name with.

Welcome to FPN.

Your list for your first good pen is impressive. As an old time FP user, I lean toward the MB 146 or 149 (depending on what size you want) or the Pelikan M-800. I lean a bit toward the M-800 because it is a good writing pen with the capability of exchanging nibs. If you are curious about a particular nib, you can buy one to try in a pen you already own. That convenience is worth a lot to me. In either case, the MB's and M-800 are FP icons.

Good luck.

I went for the M800 and I will never regret it .
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Afternoon Fx -

Congratulations - both on graduation and on a meaningful family tradition. Every time you pick up your new pen to take notes, write a letter, or just jot down a to-do list, you'll fondly remember your graduation.

I don't know whether this is a high school graduation present (which might be useful for taking notes in college), or whether your classroom education is now finished. You might fill out your profile and tell us more about you.

I have three of the pens on your preliminary list of ten - the Montblanc 149, the Montblanc 146, and the Porsche P3110 with gold and steel woven banding. Each of these pens looks good, writes very very well, and would serve you for decades.

If you can purchase a MB 149 or MB 146 for under $500, that would be the best value. These pens retail for much more than that.

The MB 149 and MB 146 are each piston filled. The Porsche P3110 is cartridge / converter filled. That difference may have significance. If you are continuing your education at college or grad school, and if you expect to write voluminous notes in class, then I would suggest you consider a cartridge filled pen. I know many other board members will disagree with me on this point - and it is true that pistons hold more ink than cartridges. But I think a suddenly empty pen in the middle of class is easier and quicker to refill by popping in a new cartridge rather than trying to refill a piston pen from a bottle in the middle of a lecture. The MB 146 also comes in a cartridge version, called the MB 147 Traveler. The barrel of the MB 147 holds two cartridges - one in position feeding the ink, and a spare cartridge to switch out when the first is empty.

As many point out on this board, the general reaction to seeing a Montblanc Meisterstuk fountain pen is one of two - either "graduation present" or "poser." Montblanc's lifestyle advertising has backfired a bit among non-fountain pen folks, and using a Montblanc sometimes creates an impression that the MB owner is "full of himself," or "cares more about labels than about quality" (the latter usually from a guy wearing a pseudo-aged A&F shirt).

I am a Montblanc fan. I think they make great pens with classic designs that will look as good and write as well thirty years from now as they do today. Montblanc does have some quality control issues, based on the large volume of pens they sell. So if you buy a Montblanc, make sure you actually write with the actual pen you are buying before you leave the store - and do that for at least 30 minutes. Trying their demonstrator pens is fine for choosing a nib width. But you have to write with YOUR pen to make sure it performs perfectly before you walk out the door. You'll have to pay for the pen first, but take the time to make sure the pen is perfect. After you pay, have the salesperson ink your pen and have them write with it first as a quality control test. Then burn some ink yourself. Make sure the flow is wet and reliable - no skipping. Make sure the nib feels glassy smooth on the paper - no scratchiness. Inspect the pen for cracks or scratches. Catch problems before you leave the store so they can be addressed with an instant replacement.

The choice between a MB 146 and the flagship MB 149 is mostly based on the feel of the pen in your hand. I have medium sized hands (men's glove size 7.5) and I find the UN-posted MB 149 to be the more comfortable of the two. The wider girth of the MB 149 allows my fingers to relax in the grip and avoids crowding. I mentioned that I use my MB 149 un-posted. I think the balance is better that way. If you really want to post a pen while writing, then I find the MB 146/147 to be better balanced when used with the cap atop the barrel.

One other consideration is metal trim color - particularly with black pens like the Montblanc Meisterstuk series. Current style trends for men suggest a growing preference for white metals (silver, platinum, white gold, rhodium) over yellow gold. The MB149 is only available in black with yellow gold furniture. The MB 146 is available in either yellow gold or platinum. Sterling silver tarnishes quickly and has to be polished frequently to bring back its full luster, so it's not often preferred as trim for pens. If you wear a white metal watch, or a white metal ring, then you might want the platinum trimmed MB 146 rather than the gold trimmed MB 149.

The Porsche P3110 is about the size of the MB 146 - though as a metal pen, the Porsche P3110 is much heavier. The quality of the build is excellent. As you probably know, Faber Castell built the Porsche P3110, and they did a great job. I am not a fan of most Faber Castell pens - they are too narrow - the same girth as a wooden pencil. I do like their Pen of The Year Series - with their wider MB149 sized girth - but that series is way above your price range. You probably know that the woven metal barrel of the P3110 is replicated from the high temperature brake hoses in the Porsche Carerra 911 Turbo - so it's a very guy-centric design. The P3110 looks less formal than the Montblanc Meisterstuks, and so looks better with khakis and a polo. The Meisterstuk looks better with a dark suit. I prefer my Porsche P3110 unposted as well - the balance is much better. There is a companion woven ballpoint (for those carboned FedEx Airbills) that looks great with the fountain pen. The ballpoint has an unusual mechanism - the woven metal barrel accordions in and out when the pen is extruded and retracted. Wicked cool.

I have a P3110 with a broad 0.9 mm Cursive Italic Binder nib. It's my favorite carry for weekend errands. It writes a wet, smooth, reliable line. And as I said, it's just wicked cool.

You might also consider a Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point - particularly if you are college or grad school bound, and expect to take a lot of notes in class. The one handed click-to-extrude and click-to-retract nib eliminates the problem of your nib drying out between notations. Buy a few custom ground nib units in fine (for math and science), medium, and broad (for expressive letters) - maybe with a stub or cursive italic grind, and you're still way under your $500 limit. The VP is rugged metal construction, and would survive drops, falls, and abuse better than the resin Montblancs. But the VP is a narrower pen, and some users are bothered by the position of the clip, claiming it interferes with their grip. I use a VP with a 0.9 mm Binder Cursive Italic nib at the office every weekday - and I find it comfortable and convenient. The cartridge filled mechanism, like the Porsche P3110, is easy and quick to change out on the go.

Best advice (as always) - get thee to a pen store and spend a few hours trying them all. Failing that, I would get the MB 149 or the Porsche P3110. Between the two, I would prefer the Porsche P3110 - it's just cool. And you don't see many of them, unlike the dime-a-dozen Montblancs. If you are a math or science guy, consider a Fine nib (for all those formulae and exponents). If you're a liberal arts guy, consider a medium or a broad nib. And have the nib custom tuned and ground to a stub or a cursive italic to get that line width variation that is the hallmark of fountain pen writing. It will make you look better than you really are - not a bad thing in my view.

Hi:

I would go for:

1) Waterman Exception (Night and Day Black ST), or
2) Yard•o•Led Viceroy Collection (Sterling Silver Barley), or
3) Graf von Faber Castell Guilloche Rhodium (My fave so far)

I think my first election would be the Yard o Led,

Hope helps,

Julio

I don't think its necesessary to spend the whole $500 to get a "serious" pen & this will actually expand your choice

Personally I would have no qualms selecting a vintage from a reputable source

Congrats, and, 4)

Mike

Have you seen the Graf before? It is a thin and elegant pen, with the only downside being a cartridge filler. I personally like Graf products, so I'm a little biased .
The Yard O Led is solid silver, so if you don't like the weathered tarnish look, this pen will probably drive you mad. Also a cartridge filler.
The Waterman Exception is a little more modern looking than the other two choices. I don't know too much about Waterman products (I don't like their design), but they are a fine French company. Also another cartridge filler.
There is nothing wrong with the cartridge filler, other than having to check your ink level a little more often. I don't think this should be too much of a concern for you. The worst I've had it was having to fill up every other day, and only ran out of ink once unexpectedly.

Out of those, I would pick the MB 146 (the 149 is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-UUUUGE!). Or, barring that, a nice Parker Duofold (Vintage or modern, your choice).

Thanks everyone for the fast responses! It seems everyone has their favorite pens! I actually visited a local Montblanc store this afternoon and tried the MB149 and 146. The 149 is GIGANTIC. It's like trying to write with a giant carrot stub. The 146 is better suited for my hands but I will remark that it is a very common design.

I also had a chance to play with the Pelikan 800 series, a Yard•O•Led (but the store I went to only had the Grand Viceroy, which is a little bigger and out of my price range) and the guilloche Graf (only the black resin model). The 800 series writes very very very smoothly, and that's very rare for a lefty who tends to push. The Grand Viceroy's nib had a little more friction but it was very "agile". They were both fine tips, but the GV's tip gracefully produced small and detailed lettering which my Schaeffer's struggle with. The Graf was rather thin (kind of like one of their exorbitantly expensive pencils) but looked very well made. It too, much like the Pelikan wrote very smoothly, but unlike the others it had a little bit of flex which allowed for some very natural and intricate cursive strokes.
Of these, the YOL had the nicest build quality (solid metal with very very tight tolerances), the Pelikan had the smoothest tip, and the Graf had the most exciting promise as a writing instrument. It's just so hard to pick.


To address another concern, I do not particularly prefer 18kt nibs over 18kt nibs, it's just that 18kt nibs tend to look nicer .

I saw the Porsche ballpoint too, but they didn't have the FP. I have to say though, that pen looks really really cool. It's as if the MB 149 is Sean Connery and the Porsche FP is like Daniel Craig.


I don't really mind if it's piston or cartridge-convertible. I tend to hate cartridges so I always use a converter with my Shaeffer's, but it's always nice to pop in a new cartridge in the middle of class if you need to. I always keep a mini waterman ballpoint as backup in case my FP dies on me so it's never really an issue.

My fave inks are the Noodler's black and MB British Racing Green. Will these inks work well in all the pens I listed above?

Also, one last question. How good is customer service for the above pen companies?

Pelikan M800-- the best for the money--All though I love my MB 149-- I would not buy it today. And as always I have to mention my Pelikan Polar Lights--incredible-- but not on your list. Congratulations--I wish my family even knew what a good fountain pen was!

Evening Fx -

As a Leftie, the ink you use must be very fast drying, so that you don't smear what you just wrote as your writing hand passes over what you have just written.

A search will list prior discussions on this common problem. Here are a couple:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...st+drying\
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...st+drying\

On service, Montblanc will likely be around for 100 more years, selling and servicing pens. They have a good reputation for replacing cracked or broken parts for very little cost - though they charge an arm and a leg for a nib exchange. Faber Castell will also likely be around for many years, as the US company is owned by a financially stable European lesser royal who seems to enjoy how the Pen of the Year Series reflects some of his family backstories. The rest of Faber Castell was sold to Newell-Rubbermaid years ago. I had the nib exchanged on my P3110 - they FedEx'ed an entire nib/section unit overnight.

Let us know what you choose, and how you like your new pen.

Exactly.

In no particular order :
1) Parker Duofold series
2) Pelikan M800
3) OMAS 360
4) Stipula Etruria

Pelikan 800 without a doubt.

Yard o Led's lifetime warranty really is. I've used it twice of the course of owning their pens. One pen had 1/3 of the pen replaced at no cost beyond what I spent to ship it to Filofax.

From your list, I would say the Pelikan M800.

Yes, it works just fine with Noodler's black. I've used it, but am now using Noodler's Heart of Darkness for my black, and my Pelikans have had no issues with either at all.

I'm a graduate student (Ph.D. candidate in the dissertation writing phase), use fountain pens, don't use cartridges, and can get by I've tested out that at the rate I use ink, I only need to refill my fountain pen about once a week. Of course, I'm no longer taking classes but rather teaching or TA'ing for them so I write a bit less. But if you can figure out how often your pen will run dry, just remember to refill at the appropriate time--maybe once every three or four days, or once every week etc. It's not a big issue.

You could also consider a Pilot Décimo or Pilot Fermo. Both a retractable fountain pens. The Décimo is more slender and sleeker than a Vanishing Point (aka Capless). The Fermo is probably the best look of the three and you twist the top of the barrel to retract the nib. The other two uses a push-click mechanism. The Décimo and Fermo is not available in the U.S. (although you might be able to find it at a Japanese stationery store such as Mai Do (or is it Maido?). I know you said the pen must be available in the U.S., however, I ordered my Décimo from Ujuku Pen shop which has an internet web presence and ships to the U.S. and you can pay with U.S. credit/debit card using Paypal. Check out the other posts in the forum for information about the Décimo and Fermo. I have the Décimo simply because the push-click retraction is easily operable with one hand. The Fermo is more expensive (over $200, I believe) but aesthetically way better than Vanishing Point or Décimo.




I don't know about that. I'm a liberal arts person (grad student in cultural anthropology) and I use a fine nib simply because my handwriting is small. Plus, some liberal arts folks (myself included) like to write marginalia so some of us do prefer F nibs. Actually, I prefer Japanese F nibs or finer. Most western F nibs are too thick.

I like this idea,

I have a Montblanc 146 and a Dunhill sidecar I use at my office but would prefer to use a dependable vintage pen. I just have not found the right one or two yet as I am still learning about the vintage models.

Todd

I would strongle recommend the Yard-o-led. I have Grand victorian it is one of my daily work horses. I also have a pelikan m800 and m1000. I tend to use my m1000 more but now I got m800 with a vintage bind by Chris m800 may work into rotation way. I also have 149 and it is a great pen.

Nayaka are gorgeous and they now have a US seller. (I can't remember who now)

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to take a look at the Nakaya's pen collection since I keep hearing great things about them. I met somebody using a Yard-O-Led and he remarked that the Sterling Silver starts aging after a few months and requires careful cleaning to prevent tarnishing. It never occurred to me that they weren't rhodium plated. The Pelikan 800 is a beautiful pen and a great writer. It's definitely one of my faves so far. The Porsche FP is a good writer as well, but what really sets it apart are the looks. I remember seeing everyone going past the pen in the store saying "cool" or staring at it. The MB149 is rather ubiquitous where I live, and it makes a perfect gift for a mugger when you go downtown.

For college I need a very reliable FP, so I don't care whether it costs $5 or $500— it better not have sporadic ink-flow issues that require me reverting to ballpoint too frequently. It also better write smoothly on regular notebook paper. I've had a few FP's that refuse to write on anything but moleskine and the expensive cotton paper (a.k.a they are utterly useless). Ink smudging, even though I'm a lefty, has never been a major issue. Unless the FP writes really wet, it should be ok. Some paper is extremely porous (the kind of paper that steel nibs start scratching on) and causes issues so I'm hoping for an FP that solves this.

In terms of nib size I've decided on a fine nib. Extra-fine is simply too scratchy, and medium is too thick for the small, arabic-looking handwriting I tend to use. Italic nibs just make it annoying for a lefty since they require an exact angle and need to be pulled to have a decent ink-flow, and obliques make me overcompensate and end up writing with an epic overhand position. The reason I tend to favor 18kt nibs is that they tend to be smoother on porous surfaces. They are a gigantic improvement from steel nibs, but with the exception of some very well designed 14kt nibs (and there are some great ones out there for sure) 18kt nibs tend to be smoother. Flex isn't a major factor since I tend to glide the pen across the paper and exert little to no pressure on the nib.

A quick question. Are all fine nibs extremely rounded or is it only a few? Rounded nibs are great for a lefty that shifts the pen angle while writing.

HI FX101

On the faber castell, pelikan m800, yard o led and mb149 have rounded nibs for the other pens that is not the case.
There is a very good substitute to the 149 and the pelikan m800, the pelikan 1000 which is an oversize version of the model 800 with a far better and larger nib which is perfect for a lefty. I can also suggest the very good Omas Arte Italiana Paragon HT which also has a wonderful nib and ideal for the lefty. The Exception will be too rigid for you, if you want a nice modern Waterman then the Le Man 100 is the one to buy, but while it is no longer manufactured, you will have to look for one in second hand. The man 100's nib are far smooth than the edson and the exception nibs. The Dunhill Sentryman is just another bock nib which is far to equal the ad 2000 namiki based nib.

Why not get many pens with the $500?

Judging by what I know alone, I'd go for the Pelikan or the Mont Blanc. You really can't go wrong with those.