Jump to content

Why Buy Cheap Fountain Pens When You Have Expensive Pens?


islandink

Recommended Posts

Someone recently posted an interesting question about why one would buy an expensive fountain pen when some of the cheap pens work very well, which precipitated an array of answers and discussion. This made me wonder the reverse.

 

For those of us who have (what we consider) expensive fountain pens...why are we drawn to buy cheap fountain pens, especially after the need to have a few pens to take to work or leave in bags without being overly distressed if they are lost or suffer a few scratches is satisfied?

 

I'm not talking about buying some fantastic vintage gold overlay wet noodle for $12 but getting inexpensive Chinese pens, or perhaps the 4th Kaweco sport, or second Safari....

Edited by islandink
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 32
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • islandink

    2

  • chas0039

    2

  • pen tom

    1

  • rx170

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

There is a lot of anticipation every year about the new limited run colors for the Lamy Safari and Al-star. Fun is a big factor, and some cheap pens write every bit as well, or better, than many expensive pens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a relative newbie (but who has some expensive (to me!) pens), sometimes a cheap pen is a good opportunity to test out a nib size I'm not used to (I can buy 2 or 3 whole Safaris for less than a replacement VP nib).

 

The only other thing: testing testy inks. BSB gets the most commentary, but just having a cheap pen or two to mess with (eyedropper conversion, crazy strong ink, mixing things, testing homemade pen flush) can be nice.

 

I don't have an answer for you beyond 3-4 cheapies, though. Someone else will have to respond with better reasoning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Presumably, the people who have expensive fountain pens (and are on FPN) really enjoy fountain pens in general. Just because a cheap pen is unlikely to perform as well as some other pens I own, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the cheapie for what it is. And some cheap pens are great, regardless of their price.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get some cheap pens so I can dump my inks in... first world pen problems: too many inks, not enough pens :P

 

But in the end I end up giving them away in my hope to poison people hee hee :lol:

 

 

~Epic

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1348/557449480_2f02cc3cbb_m.jpg http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/Badges/5EH4/letter.png
 
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.
 
All those moments will be lost in time.
Like tears in rain.
Time to die.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have wondered about this very question. I have some expensive fairly new-ish pens which I love and are my current favorites. But I am drawn to the classifieds and older, cheaper well made pens. For example German piston fillers that do not have big brand names, so they are lower priced. I get close to buying one and then stop and say to myself "why get that, when you have a $$ pen to write with" But I know that one of these days I'll get the cheaper pen.

 

I guess then I will either love it or not. In which case I'll sell it to someone else in the classifieds or on eBay. So in that light, it is cheap entertainment. Maybe thats the answer, It is entertainment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because I can't afford any more expensive pens, and just because I have some nice expensive pens, it doesn't mean I don't get bored with the colour/feel & want to try something new.

 

In the case of my lovely Duofold P&B, I adore it, but one colour is, well, just one colour. After a while it's nice to have another colour. Parker have a rather limited range of colours at the moment, and the prices have gone through the roof. The answer? Several Kaigelu 316's for much less than one Duofold. Kaigelu do 3 colours, one looks like the 'Norman Rockwell' LE, and the other 2 are not like any Parker colours - but they are ones I wish Parker did. A gorgeous pearlescent black and an amber/grey. Both are amazing and sit beautifully next to my P&B.

 

That's one of the reasons why I go for cheap pens despite having a few expensive ones too.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I keep two Hero 615 pens inked in my desk at work for highlight and stress colors for my notes at work. They're both reliable, comfortable pens. I also don't worry about leaving them or losing them, unlike the day my daily Esterbrook Dollar pen fell out of my pocket in front of the mailboxes at my apartment, where all the cars pull up and everyone checks their mail. I didn't notice until I got in my front door.One minor stroke later, I found my pen just lying there, scuffed, but still intact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love cheap Chinese pens for lots of reasons.

 

1. There are only so many expensive pens I want to buy.

 

2. There are color options no one else uses.

 

3. They can write as well or better than pens costing 100X as much. After a little grinding, almost always better.

 

4. Once in a while you get a real gem for next to nothing.

 

5. It allows me to experiment with different nib grinds.

 

6. I can load up a $3 pen with Baystate Blue and have no worries about any damage. There is none, by the way.

 

For example, I would not clip off the Iridium on a MB or Duofold just to experiment with a stub nib or an oblique. On a Jinhao with a $1 nib it is no risk. I also want to try a dual nib with one size on the bottom and one on the top, like Parker and Sheaffer used to offer. Again, Jinhao makes perfect sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both cheap and expensive pens write just fine. The difference is novelty of filling system, quality of production, visual design, etc. Supposedly, if I buy just one pen, I'll have all I need. But if I buy an expensive, green, piston-filling pen, it will never let me try the flavor of a blue pen, or a purple pen, or an aerometric pen, or a lever-filling pen, or a pen with a different nib, or anything else I'd want to try. That's why we buy lots of (relatively) cheap pens, then buy expensive pens based on the taste we've found for ourselves. Also, cheapies don't make you cry when you damage them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even after getting my hands on the 'holy grail pen' recently I still bid for and bought two Jinhao 599s for $1.30 each. Why? Just because I liked the look of it. So, could it be that we just like fountain pens?

A lifelong FP user...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's good to have a few pens you don't care so much about around so you can experiment with the more risky inks. They're also great to carry around in places that you wouldn't want your thousand-dollar pen to be in.

Edited by Yehenara
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have several moderately-expensive modern pens that I use regularly and thoroughly enjoy. But...I also enjoy collecting vintage pens, particularly the inexpensive, brightly-colored celluloid pens of the '30s and '40s. So, my collection consists of a mixture of old, mostly-cheap pens and more expensive modern pens. I'm happy with the balance!

Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "practical" stratum is only three or four fountain pens thick.

Q: Why would I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?

A: Because it is fun, and I can.

 

Sorry. No rational behavior here.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because I can't afford any more expensive pens, and just because I have some nice expensive pens, it doesn't mean I don't get bored with the colour/feel & want to try something new.

 

In the case of my lovely Duofold P&B, I adore it, but one colour is, well, just one colour. After a while it's nice to have another colour. Parker have a rather limited range of colours at the moment, and the prices have gone through the roof. The answer? Several Kaigelu 316's for much less than one Duofold. Kaigelu do 3 colours, one looks like the 'Norman Rockwell' LE, and the other 2 are not like any Parker colours - but they are ones I wish Parker did. A gorgeous pearlescent black and an amber/grey. Both are amazing and sit beautifully next to my P&B.

 

That's one of the reasons why I go for cheap pens despite having a few expensive ones too.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

The Norman Rockwell homage pen from Kaigelu is the one wending its way to me as I write...which is what prompted my musings...rather like the amber too. The pearlescent black is hard to judge in online photos (is that called "charcoal"?). It would be nice to see them in person. Which, for $20, becomes quite possible even if it seems a bit excessive. So I will start with one 316

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoy all of my pens. Whether it is my Omas Paragon or my Lamy Safari, my MB or my TWSBI. I bought them all because there was something about them that interested me. The issue is that my nicer pens stay in my office. I don't want to be standing in line at the grocery store and have my Balzac Writer's Edition fall out of my pocket and break. If I take a FP around town or when traveling, it will be something less likely to induce sadness if I lose or damage it. I usually travel with a Safari.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, let's see.

My first few FPs are gone. They included an Osmiroid with a ball-tipped nib, an A&W school pen with what looked like a Lamy nib, and some sort of brass-bodied c/c, probably a Sheaffer Targa, that I deliberately scraped all the paint off of. (It wasn't lacquer, it was some sort of dull pastel finish. You Sheaffer fans are allowed to faint, turn purple with apoplexy, or curl into a fetal position.) As I said, they are gone. I lost them all moving around and being poor and occasionally homeless.

Eventually, a Levenger catalog arrived in a box of bicycle parts from Nashbar. My desire to own a fountain pen was renewed. I eventually ordered a blue marbled Phileas, but became unhappy with its miniscule ink capacity. I discovered a nearby Colorado Pen Co. shop, and bought a discontinued M200 (ie, Pelikan had restyled it, and didn't want the old style sitting around). That's a decent pen, and I paid around $60 for it, back when minimum wage was $5.15 and gold was around $400/oz. So it's comparable to current prices. Within a year or two I'd also gotten an M400 for around $120. I moved, and married, and my brother-in-law got me a PFM II, and my mother-in-law got me a TipDip Imperial. I asked my mom if she still had my Dad's "51," and if I could have it -- I now do. These are all really nice pens, and none of them are cheap.

So why have I since gotten 3 Ahabs, a Plaisir, and a ten-pack of Hero 616s? In part because I'm a form-follow-function kind of guy, and in part because I was taught from a very early age to seek value for my money. And here, I have learned that price and quality of writing often have little to do with each other. The Ahabs work plenty well enough (and they're just gorgeous; my wife gave me a Medieval Lapis and a Jade). Likewise the Heroes (another gift from my wife, when I mentioned wanting a bunch of pens to test new inks), and especially the Plaisir, which is supposed to be slower to dry out than just about any pen out there, making it an ideal markup pen. And as others have said, I don't worry about the Heroes very much while I'm at work, or if I load them with a Baystate ink, the way I do about the older pens (especially the "51").

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...