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Hello all, I decided it's time to post a formal intro thread, so here it goes. My name is Alex, as of now a Bay Area local. Have switched to fountain pens recently after discovering that it helps me keep my handwriting somewhat on the legible side, and I guess got caught up - in a way. I am an old-school mindset person, a knife collector and 2nd amendment supporter, so it's feasible to say FPs are a natural extension. My current rotation consists of a Sailor 1911 Profit ( N-F nib), a Lamy Studio (EF nib) and a Montblanc Honore de Balzac (F nib). Two others - a MB 149 and a MB Heritage 1912 are currently in the shop, former having a leak fixed and latter flow reduced. Favorite inks at this point are Iroshizuku's Kon-Peki, Fuyu-Gaki and Yama-Guri. I think that'd do it for now. Thanks for having me!

Hello everybody! I'm from Bangkok, Thailand and have a passion for modern fountain pens. So far, I've got a modest collection of 2 Parker Premiers, a Sonnet, a Sheaffer 100 and a Lamy Safari. Since I've started this hobby, writing both at school and at home has been an immense pleasure, although I'm working on my handwriting, since it is clearly subpar to most of yours here! Looking forward to getting acquainted with all of the great people here.

Hi! Just registered. Glad to know there are like-minded individuals with the same passion! I am from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I have finally taken the time to delve into this hobby. Regards, Meor Amri

Hello there! I'm a 38-year-old that loves purple fountain pens and stationery I'm blaming my father for getting me on fountain pens (we had to use fountain pens when we learned to write in 1st grade, so he gave me Parker 51 - got stolen later on, but it's another story).

I just recently got into fountain pens after buying a pilot v-pen fine nib at a stationary store during a trip to San Francisco. I have become addicted. I have a small collection consisting of several pilot varsities and a Lanbitou 865 (which I simply adore) and am looking to expand it when I, hopefully, acquire more funds. I look forward to being involved in this excellent community.

Greetings all. Looking forward to getting to know this community a lot better. If you'd like to know more about what makes me tick I can be found at Goodthingsdonewell.com and the same user name over at twitter.

Hi everyone, I have been lurking here for a while - just to learn as much as possible. My name is György, from Hungary. By the time of day I work in the second (or third) largest city in the ENE part of the country. By the 'light of night', I live in a small village, some 20 km off. Both places and times I write quite a lot. I learned to write with FPs - but I not 'collector' - they just happen to start piling up. In a pen I prefer simple design and innovative technological solutions as well as ease of maintenance; In nibs I tend to use the finer widths, for most of bulk writing I am OK with smooth nails; I usually write cursive (in an ugly longhand ~ business hand), so I have a predilection for stubs and some flex for flair. My interest is more in writing - not only with FPs, but dip pens, occasionally pencils, graphite sticks, reed pens, metalpoints, even with knives - the only exception where I failed terribly is brush writing and ballpoints. This is a great forum with an incredible hoard of accumulated rich knowledge, very nice and helpful people and sizzling with life. Something I'd like to be part of very much.

Hi everyone, I'm Jeremiah from Malaysia. 21 years old. I love fountain pens and am endeavoring to improve my penmanship. I own 2 Parker IM fountain pens ( black lacquer with chrome trim and gunmetal with chrome trim), 2 Sheaffer 300 fountain pen ( iridescent blue and black lacquer) and a blue Lamy Safari. I really like both my Parkers and am hoping to get a new one soon. I'm also interested in purchasing a Parker 51. Cheerios

I've been a relatively solitary fountain pen enthusiast for a long time, and own a few Watermans - I just acquired a Phileas on e-bay, and a slightly older enameled black/brown one from Daly's Pen Shop, whose downtown location I've shopped for years and which is, sadly, closing. I got to combine my love of pens with a grad school project a few years ago when I catalogued a collection of antique pens for a museum opened here. I'm posting a photo of a few of them. Anyway, the experience really taught me a lot about all kinds of pens, and when I won the auction for the Phileas this afternoon, I decided maybe I should start getting a little more knowledge. Look forward to connecting.

Hello Folks! I've liked pens ever since I wrote with actual quill pens when I was a Revolutionary War re-enactor as a teenager in central New York state. My father noted with some alarm that my writing seemed better with a dipped quill pen than with a modern pen! A couple of decades ago I'd gotten some (apparently) very cheap Schaeffer cartridge pens. These tended to leak somewhat, which put me off fountain pens. But apparently things have gotten better. Just a couple of months ago I stumbled across both Pen World magazine and a pack of disposable Parker fountain pens. Disposable fountain pens blew my mind, but they worked like a dream for me. Going through Pen World also blew my mind with regard to the beauty of the pens, & the prices, but I did see there were some good, day-to-day, utilitarian pens available as well. So now I normally carry with me two Pilot Prera pens - one black, one red - which I fill with Waterman inks, and are working rather nicely. And I look at Pen World and try to imagine buying a pen that was the price of my last house. :-) I'm edging into calligraphy with dip pens, but have not rushed into it yet. I'm lucky enough to live in Greater Boston, which means I can look forward to the local pen show (which, of course, happened just a couple of weeks before I got into pens!) I look forward to some interesting discussions. Scratch on!

Hello Everyone, I am a travel pen collector. In 2003, I moved from Boise Idaho, USA to Barcelona Spain for work. I did not have any fountain pens at the time and the whole adventure started because I bought a Visconti Van Gogh in the gift shop at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. With the opportunity to live and travel in Europe, I decided to purchase a pen in each city I visited. A wonderful journey enfolded as my exploration of cities including Helsinki, Florence, Geneva, Rome, Budapest, Stockholm, Brussels, Venice and subsequently Boston and Los Angeles was broadened by the search for pen shops. I was hesitant to call myself a pen collector as a pen shop owner in Barcelona curtly informed me early on that one was not a collector until you owned at least two dozen pens. Thank you all for making it ok to be an enthusiast without such constraints. Now, I know that my small collection is just perfect because I love each pen for its story as well as its writing strengths and weakneses. In the last couple of weeks, I have moved from Southern California to Northern Utah. During the move, someone broke into a storage unit and took a couple of boxes. One of the boxes had all but two of my pens. It is a great loss. If anyone has advice on how to locate a lost pen collection, please share those ideas. I did not see a forum for lost/ stolen pens. I will come here often as I try to figure out how to rebuild the collection that grew out of my travels. Warm regards

Hello Everyone This is Touzeen from India from the City of Chennai. Im a Surgical Resident and just got into Fountain Pens in the past 6months. Used to write with FPs in school but then by High School ballpoint pens seems to be more interesting for the yound mind.And for the grown up mind nothing is as personal,inspiring and rewarding as a Fountain Pen. When I joined my Surgical Residency,one of my professor was an avid FP user and this made me change onto Fountain Pens again. First one I got was a Parker Frontier Stainless Steel(incidentally found out this was the first FP of the great Dr.S.B.R.E Brown too) Other notable pens I currently own are: Platignum Vibe in Medium Lamy 2000 in Broad Cross Century II and about 5-6 indian branded FPs (which I might end up writing about here) Currently eyeing the Sailor 1911 and my Fantasy Pen is the Caran d'Ache 1010 About inks,we get Private Reserve,Caran d'Ache Color of the Earth,MB,Monteverde,Lamy,Sheaffer Skrip,Sailor Jentle readily here. My current everyday ink is P.R Black Magic Blue and Pelikan Brilliant Black. Other inks for lesser usage:Caran d'Ache Saffron,P.R Orange Crush,Skrip Purple,Pelikan Brilliant Red/Green. Thanks for reading,hope to contribute a bit to this forum.

So, just wanted to say "Hi"! My friend recently got me into fountain pens. It wasn't that difficult. I think fountains pens help me to go back to simpler time that wasn't inundated with technology (even though I'm a huge technophile). Anyways I love the flow of fountain pens. They help to get my creative juices flowing for my writing. My favourite book is "Shogun"by, James Clavell. The main character is named Blackthorne, which is where I get my screen name from. Happy penning! Cheers!

Greetings to all- I have been a member of the forum for a few months now. However, this will be my first official forum post. I usually spend most of my FPN time in the Classified section where I've had the opportunity to meet wonderful members who were more than generous in sharing with me their beautiful and timeless pens. I was introduced to my first fountain pen roughly summer of last year. Though I have experience in using dip pens for illustration, I have not tried nor even considered fountain pens as an alternative to creating artworks. My chance encounter with my first pen occurred in a quasi-melodramatic manner. As if fate had its hand in this, the usual art store that I often visited was closed for a month-long renovation process and I decided to take a trip at another art store far from where I live. I was new to that swanky store and as I fumbled my through the labyrinth-like aisles chocked full of rows and rows of paints, brushes, paper goods, and all the artsy fartsy supplies that will make even Rembrandt wet his pants in his grave, I ended up in the fancy fountain pen department that was managed by a mild manner older gentleman who happened to look like Gandalf the Wizard from Lord of the Rings film! And to add to his near-authentic looking gray hair, beard, and mystifying expression, he also sported an oversize white button-up shirt that, I swear at certain angles, glowed with faerie magic under the track lighting above! My first impressionable notion was, "Oh... my... hot potato... Gandalf is here!" He saw my big raccoon eyes staring at him, and in return he waved his modern day magic staff at me as if offering me a rare blessing into knighthood--or the last rites before you face a fire breathing dragon and become a charbroiled burger. As I walked closer, his staff was a Porsche Design fountain pen in carbon fiber trim with a rhodium nib. "Can I interest you in this pen that we now carry in stock," he said. "It is just one of the BEST writing pen around!" He followed with an upselling tactic, "Once you write with this, you'll never go back to ballpoint pens again." You know when Gandalf says that a pen is the best, you do not question the 'white wizard' of Lord of the Rings... and of Two Towers... and of The Return of the King! His word... is EPIC! I immediately grabbed the pen like a giddy kid being handed an ice cream on hot day. For a moment there, I felt the wizard's life giving aura flow through me with such vitality. It was legendary. Then I saw the price tag. "Are you nuts?!" Okay, so I didn't say that directly to him. "Oh sonova@%&*%#!" And not that one as well. Yes, the price tag quickly depleted the life giving energy from me. I felt like one of the... forsaken. I turned down Gandalf. I had to. Ofcourse, now that I think about it again, some of the pens I would like to acquire someday are worth double or even triple that price tag. But still, at that time, the whole 'shock and awe' feeling had me walking away with a Lamy Safari outfitted with an EF nib instead. I enjoyed my Lamy--yes, in white color to honor the white wizard--and as my first official cartridge converter pen, it was a wonderful instrument that allowed me to fall in love fountain pens slowly but surely. Sadly, I had to part with the pen a few months later as I found myself convinced by better 'wizards' in the Classified section of the Fountain Pen Network forum who wield pens of true power and harness mystifying concoctions of indelible inks than Gandalf! The Classified section is a place where magic meets your wallet. Thus, is my story... my tale. I hope to meet and more more FPN members soon! Thank you, all! Cheers! Ced P.S. The art store really does exist and the gentleman is still working there. He is really a kind fellow without whom I probably would not have given a thought about fountain pens.

Allow me to introduce myself, I'm a twenty-five year old housewife & Mother. I sort of fell into the world of pens. I didn't start off crazy about them. When I was nineteen I worked for a high end watch shop, that sold Montblanc pens & accessories, I was in charge of inventory & became very aquainted with the models we had in our store. When I left that job the only time I thought about a pen was when I needed to use one. Then last year my Husband's Uncle passed (RIP) & he left his pen collection behind. No one knew what to do with the pens or how to sort them out, they weren't exactly organized. I had the only knowlege of such a thing so I offered to help. It became my responsibility to research & catalog his collection for my Husband & his Sister. Eight months later, I've grown quite fond of pens & have aquired a great appreciation for them. I have a lot of fun researching & learning about fountain pens even though I have found it to be very time consuming! I especially love the vintage & antique pens as I just love history & anything vintage/antique! It's been exciting to jump into this unexpected hobby. I think it coincides well with my love for typewriters! Cheers! To writing instruments! -MM

Hello all I have always loved the fountain pen. So now, being old and semi-retired I have indulged myself. In the past few months I have purchased a pelican souveran 200, a 1000, a sailor realo, a pilot 823, a Conklin crescent filler, numerous twsbi's, and a ton of Japanese and Chinese cheap pens. One thing I have noticed is that several of these low-end pens rival the more expensive ones in performance. Now I have to make time to enjoy all my new toys. As a novice any advice on all aspects of fps from old salts will be appreciated. Happy writing, Jri

Hello one and all - My name is James Henderson - or my "nom de plume" - Henki. I was introduced to your great forum by my friend Samuel and I hope to not only learn - but who knows, even contribute some day! My main activity usually involves watches, but there are so many parallel lines that it seemed only natural that pens would tempt me as well. It also bears mentioning that my father was a HUGE pen collector. Had Fahrney's realized that he'd passed away, I'm sure they would have sent flowers ; ) I look forward to learning from you all! This is part of my modest collection - one of the larger Van Gogh's from Visconti http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab21/henkitime/ViscontiVG_zps4e66cb51.jpg

Hey All! Adrian here, From a small city/large town in Western Australia, newly bitten by the fountain pen bug. Have always liked nice pens, but considered fountain pens to be too much of a hassle, until I got bored and dissatisfied with ballpoints and got myself a Kaweco Sport, shortly followed by a Lamy Al-star in black. currently using the standard black ink in the Kaweco and the lamy is still loaded with lamy blue ink, which is nice enough. Am interested in chatting to all members, but in particular learning where Australian members source pens and inks, as I seem to be having problems in that regard. Other info: work at a service station part time (but I do take that reasonably seriously), study environmental monitoring at the local TAFE (might be roughly the equivalent of community collage in America? ), I read a lot of science fiction and a lot of other things, cant think of anything else at the moment, feel free to ask me silly questions!

Hi to you all. Just to introduce myself, I have recently become a Fountain pen repairer and refurbisher, more by accident than design I think, but I seem to becomming quite hooked. Have just purchased a Conway Stewart 388, and it does not have a pressure bar inside. I am wondering if any of you experienced members could let me know the size that I require to order, or the measurements I need to take of the barrel. Thanks and regards Diximusm

Dear All, I am pleased to be a new member of this community. I am a quite long time French fountain pen collector (I started at 11 and I am 48). In public life, I am a very disciplined books and magazines publisher in Europe through my company. In private life, I am a very undisciplined collector : I have no theme for my collection. My motto : envy and pleasure. I will be pleased to give you information from France and French topics, and make links with other French collectors. Please, dare asking me for information (as I will ask you for information !). All The Best From Paris For Now ! Taillefer

Hello everyone! My name is John Holmes, recent migrant to the United States of America from (you guessed it) the United Kingdom (Manchester). I've had a more than passing interest in fountain pens all of my life, but only recently picked up my first while I was on an excursion in Florence, Italy. I have come to become enamoured with calligraphy and fountain pens, as an already avid enthusiast of all things old fashioned (Victorian Era Clothing, Straight razor shaving, et cetera). I am hoping to peruse these forums for helpful information as well as to share my own experiences and expertise (once the aforementioned have been acquired). Thanks for reading, and I will see everyone on the forums! -- J Holmes