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I am a transplant from the eastern US coast, and southern Europe. I am also a US Air Force veteran and have a collection of fountain pens I do my best to rotate so each pen has the chance to tell its story. I use modern as well as vintage pens to write my pen pal letters. if you want to correspond, contact me at lightspiritphotography@gmail.com I grew up bilingual in Italian and American. I still retain some Italian after leaving there decades ago. My favorite coffee will always be cappuccino. I'd like to hear ... I mean read, some of your stories and share some of mine.

Hello FPN, This is Pranav from Mumbai, India. It too me long to get this message up in this forum, well better late than never! I really don't remember how i got into this amazing different world all together, i always wondered whenever i read about random FP Blogs how can people be so passionate and the statement that its a priceless possession for lifetime! - something that started from filling my dad's old Hero FP just to experience its charm, from what i have had been listened to him since i don't know when. Somehow after going thru articles i managed to ordered a Pilot Metropolitan in this new year and suddenly with few months time i am having a few handful of FPs from Ranga, Airmails, Lamys, Jinhaos - with a few different Pelikan, Pilot, Camlin Inks! The ink stains don't wanna come off now, I can say the same now - its got me bugged - Until Death Do Us Part! Thanks for Welcoming!

Hello Everyone, I started getting into fountain pens after receiving one as part of a subscription box back in December of last year. It was a Kaweco Sport. Fast forward to present day and I'm nearly 20 pens in and loving it. There's so much to learn in addition to which pens match one's multifaceted preferences. As it turns out, I'm partial to both broad and stub nibs. My most recent purchase was a Montegrappa Brenta di Notte LE and it's gorgeous yet has more tooth than I'm used to in a broad nib. I'm attending the Northwest Pen Roundup tomorrow in Portland and expect to be similarly overwhelmed in a good way as I was at SW Celebration V in Orlando. I look forward to learning more from the great resources and information available here.

Hello everybody, I'm a sixty years old Math teacher with a lifelong passion in fountain pens. Having read a couple of useful discussions on this Forum, I decided to join in. Nice to meet you all, Paolo

Hello from Savannah, GA. I am a pen maker and recently came over to the realm of fountain pens. After I made my first one, I was hooked and love the writing elegance and asthetic you only find with this type of pen. Another hobby of mine for a long time is bladesmithing so I will be looking into making my own hardware for kitless fountain pens in the near future. There is a lot to learn and this forum has been a great place to do research and get some very good information. I hope to make my own contributions as I continue to learn and develop my skills. Below are my two latest pens that I would like to share briefly. The first one is black stingray skin. The second is Campo del Cielo meteorite which I made exclusively for my mother who just wanted a pen that was "very unique". She will get that one as a surprise for Christmas. If there is interest, I can post a separate topic with more details about the construction process of either of these pens. Just let me know. http://wespeterson.com/pens/stingray_fountain.jpg http://wespeterson.com/pens/meteorite_fountain.jpg

Hi everyone, from Blacktown, on the western outskirts of Sydney. I'm originally from South Africa, and have only recently renewed my love affair with fountain pens. To date my tiny collection contains an antique Hifra that I used at school in the late 60s, a Parker Vector I acquired in the 90s after my Parker 51 was stolen, a Manuscript and a Lamy Safari clear. I have recently bought three Jinhoa pens -- an X450, X750 and a 911 (the latter is an amazing pen!). I also own a pen I cannot find any info on. It is a steel pen; the box says Made in Taiwan and it has Indigo inscribed on the lower end of the barrel, just above the section. The nib is German, it claims, and is inscribed "Iridium Tip", and is a medium. I'm very happy to be part of this community, and look forward to learning a lot from all the experts!

Hello, I've always been passionate about handwriting and calligraphy, so I naturally enjoy using fountain pens. I'm left handed - I totally disagree with the idea that fountain pens are not suited for lefties as I use them all the time. I'm an underwriter. J'espère utiliser ce site afin d'améliorer mon écriture et peut-être de faire connaissance avec d'autres gauchers !

Hello from the Netherlands, Have been reading mostly ink reviews for a while and thought it was about time to introduce my self properly. Fountain pens have been my pens of choice for my entire life, but using a variety of inks to express myself with them further is something of the last few years. I rarely leave the house without at least one fountain pen, and more often than not I carry multiple inks. Favorite brand without a doubt Iroshizuku, but favorite color Diamine Oxblood. Peter

Hi everyone — I've been lurking on the info forums for months, so I'm glad to finally join. Thanks to all for being such a cool community. I snagged my first fountain pen late last year and fell in love. I do much of my writing by hand, and fountain pens have changed my literary life for the better. I'm originally from Colorado but currently live in Providence, RI. My three favorite pens so far: Platinum 3776 (my only gold nib), TWSBI Eco, and Noodler's Ebonite Konrad. Still searching for that everyday-writer ink though... Happy writing.

Hello, I've been reading posts for a couple of years and decided to join because I sometimes want to respond to a post. I don't know how active I will be. I used fountain pens at school but, by the mid-80s, I was using disposables. In 1989 I received a nice gold Sheaffer that I still have and use, and then in the mid 90s, when I got my first email account, I bought myself a Parker 75 (I think) and then a Waterman Gentleman and an Étalon and Hemisphère as well as a Parker Sonnet. And for several years that worked for me (with the addition of a couple of very cheap Watermans). Then I became interested in cheap Chinese pens Baoer, Jinhao, Wing Sun, Hero etc and, over the past seven or eight years I've accumulated a pile which really needs culling! There are pens by Ohto, Pelikan, Pilot, Platinum, TWSBI, Diplomat, Sailor, Faber-Castell, Lamy, Conklin, Cross, Luoshi, Lanbitou and Fellowship. I like the way different pens like to be handled differently. I have eleven pens inked at the moment: Lamy 2000 (EF); Sailor Shining Red Promenade (M); Pilot 91 (SFM); Platinum #3776 Bourgogne (UEF); Platinum #3776 Chartres Blue (M); TWSBI 580AL mini (EF); Pelikan M205 (F); Pelikan M405 B; Sailor Fasciner (F). The only one that's given me any problem is the Pilot '91 but it seems to have settled down now that I only use Namiki Black in it. All of the other seem to work fine with Diamine, Caran d'Ache, Waterman, and Pelikan 4001 inks. I like writing with all of them but like the Fasciner the least -- it's a good looking pen 'pearlescent' white with pink gold trimmings and a pink-gold plated steel nib. When I've emptied it on this round I'll look to sell it on. I do most of my writing in a Stálogy 365 notebook and the Pilot 91 (with Namiki Black) is the only one to have had any bleed through and that was minor. Thanks

Hello everyone, Have been a regular lurker for the last couple of years or so . Rebooted my love for fountain pens around 4 years back and started exploring with different pens, inks and paper. All regular products that are probably readily available in the Western countries are really hard to find or expensive in India. So, I have used my (and friends & family) trips abroad to get some of the things in my small collection at the moment. I was always a fountain pen person, never liked the ball points and gel pens but for some reason stopped using FPs during college days, probably out of lethargy and the seemingly difficult upkeep associated with FPs. After a break, I went back to studying part time and that is when I returned to FPs and have not stopped since then (and I dont intend to!) I have started gifting FPs to my family so that I have less resistance to pursuing this hobby (selfish motives for gifting ) Current items that have burnt a hole in my pocket - 1. Pilot Metropolitan M 2. Lamy 2000 F 3. Platinum Century 3776 Chartres Blue M 4. Pilot Custom Heritage 91 M 5. Waterman Expert CT M 6. Pelikan M200 F 7. Pelikan M600 F I used to have a couple of Lamy Safari's but gifted it to my Niece since I did not find the design too appealing, although they are solid writers. There is a small collection of Inks as well as paper that I regularly like to use, Tomoe River being the pick of them This community has such wonderful, knowledgeable people that I was a bit intimidated to put down my first post, having done that now I hope to contribute more to the community.

Hello all! I've been lurking around for quite some time and finally decided to take the plunge. I've been using fountain pens since high school (mostly disposable ones) and through university, my crown jewel is an Aurora Talentum Finesse my parents got me for my graduation but I mostly use cheaper pens like Jinhaos, Safaris and Metros (or MR's, as the go in EU), and recently I caught the ink bug! Oh my! So much to write with beyond Aurora Blue and Aurora Black! My favourite right now is Diamine Eclipse, as one might guess from the nickname. This forum has guided me down the rabbit hole like no other places on the net and now I'm happily getting past my 100th bottle in my collection. Here's to 100 more! *noises of empty wallet*

Hey everybody, until last year I mainly watched Youtube-videos, sometimes red reviews online and bought way to many TWSBIs but now I finally signed up here! I have a question on where to post certain stuff on this forum: I recently created a website and I'd be really interested in hearing some feedback! I'm just not sure where to i'm supposed to post. (If this is important, it's basically a fountain pen search that doesn't sell anything but just links to stores. The URL is www.fpfinder.com) Thank you in advance! Cipher

Hello, Hi, Salam I have joined the network today. Its great that my registration is validated. I owned a lot of pens but currently have 11 fountain pens available with me. I must add that I gave away many pens as well as lost a few in past 12 years. My quest started with Montblanc 145 back in 2007. I wanted to buy the best and that was the best one could buy in Lahore then. I still have it and I love it. Must add that I like Broad and Medium nibs. Not a fine nib person. My Current Pens 1. Montblanc 145 2. Pilot Metropolitan 3. Lamy Studio 4. Lamy Al Star 5. Parker IM Insignia 6. Parker Frontier 7. Waterman Hemisphere 8. Sheaffer Sagaris 9. Sheaffer Fashion 240 10. Platinum Century 3776 11. Cross Bailey Medallion As all brands are not available in my country so I got my Platinum 3776 after ordering at cultpens.com. The service was excellent. Right now I ordered a twsbi diamond on gouletpen.com. Lets hope its service is also that good. Pens on my radar are Sailor 1911 and Pelikan M400. Lets see how it all shapes up. Warm regards to all

Hello everyone! I'm a Computer Science student here in Brazil. I write by hand a lot: note taking for lectures and Role Playing Games, fiction world building, journaling (still getting started on this one). Unfortunately our economy isn't going so great right now, so I wanted to learn from people here before getting truly invested! So that's what I shall do. I'll read a lot and make a good, thought-out purchase to start with, and build from there. Thanks for having me!

Hey guys. I have been watching fountain pen videos since the past few months on youtube and was pleasantly surprised to discover that i was ill-informed about fountain pens, despite the fact that i used them during my school days for about 4 years. I liked them as long as they were new and wrote well but as they got damaged or leaked due to poor maintenance and carelessness, i gravitated towards ball point pens. But back then we didn't have the internet in residences as we have today(not even in our school) as it was very expensive and only MNC companies could afford it(in 1990s in india), so being well informed wasn't a possibility unless i spent my precious time digging through libraries, considering we students were hungry to score well and secure our future with a decent engineering job(something very common among the children here, even today) by concentrating on school curriculum alone . The ink pens weren't so sturdy as the one i recently purchased- a Jin Hao X450, and were pretty scratchy. But now after experiencing the smoothness of the Jin Hao and hearing and watching videos about Platinum 3776 and Sailor 1911 Large and KOPs, i am eager to delve deeper into the FP world. I currently enjoy my study time in the evening with the Jin Hao, writing notes and practicing problem-solving methods(in writing before i implement them the next day) and formulating theories to solve real life problems. I expect to learn more about FPs from the veterans here and exchange relevant ideas with all.

HI all, this is Chelly from Chennai India, I have been using fountain pens ever since, none of the fancy/collectible stuff - for most years had been using Hero 332 and in the last year been using a Baoer and most recently started with a Duke. Sometime back a post by @hari317 on pens in chennai (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/70913-madras-pen-shops/) popped up in my google feed and have been hooked on to reading/researching about ebonite and other delectable pens from India. Looking to acquire one soon...

Hello to all the good souls of this forum. I am a fairly newbie penman (or pencolyte, penjamin, penvice, you get the sense i hope) form Prague, Czech Republic. Although technically I started using fountain pens at school in the age of 6-7 which has been during the communism before Velvet Revolution (I am 36) And yes, we were taught cursive at school;) I posess some of the classics, my EDC: TWSBI VAC700R, VAC mini, Diamond mini, Lamy 2000, and two Preppys for muggle colleagues hands @ work For my manbag, I never go out without OHTO Tasche, and Cult Pens mini by Kaweco and a few cartridges. As for home journaling and letter writing, the list goes on: Pelikan M1000, M400, MB 149 and another L2K And then some less used pens (lets call them "currently not inked"): MB Legrand Le Petite Prince, Leonardo Ufficina Italiana Momento Zero, Platinum 3776, Woerther Profile, 2x Noodlers Ahab, Moonman acrylic glass dip nib, and some Cineese stuff. And some small closet full of inks to acompany that: Diamine Asa Blue, Eau du Nile, Robert (Diamine Culet pens sheeny special) Edelstein Aquamarine, Noodlers 54 Mass., 41 Brown, Mao Xi, Black Swan in English Roses, MB Royal Blue, and some Iroshizukus and Shikioris to top that off. For pape, I use Midori MD for journaling, but now tried Elia note (Tomoe River flat bound, great one). For letter writing Midori paper, or Clairefontaine Triomphe. For my manbag a TN with midori and TR inserts. At work than a Rhodia notebook and (bleep) office paper:) Thanks for having me and in case you have some question regarding the pens, inks and paper and their combinations, feel free to contact me. Jan P.S.: Currently participating in "InCoWriMore" an activity of the mebmers of the FB group of Goulet nation, trying to write at least one letter a day (currently its more like 0,6letter a day)

Hello, everyone! I've just registered on this wonderful forum. I have some beautiful pens: Lamy Safari, Parker Sonnet, Parker Vector by Luxor, some fake Wing Sung 6359 (black-clipped and without "Wing Sung" name printed), and pair of Hero and Kaigelu pens. Also, I'm waiting for the pair of new pens made by Picasso and PenBBS. And I have some ink by Diamine and Koh-i-Noor. And Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo. I'm happy to be there)

Long-time fountain pen fascinated individual, who for some reason, is having a nasty flare up of fountain pen fever and just now discovered this extraordinary web site and community. I don’t remember anymore how I even learned about fountain pens to become interested in them sometime in my late teens. I think I might have hinted/ asked for a pen for my high school graduation and I received a non-fountain pen which I distinctly remember going down town to exchange for what I really wanted- a gorgeous, slightly-marbled brown Parker with gold trim (which I still have an cherish). Over the decades my interest in FP has spiked and receded for other interests (music, first-edition hard-cover books, mechanical watches, etc. cheap hobbies!). I’ve mostly purchased new pens but in my most recent fountain pen fever, I’m obsessed with older examples, especially early Waterman and Parker. The Wahl-Eversharp company has come into my notice and that’s yet another rabbit hole to get lost in. I look forward to adding to my small collection and learning from the amazing knowledge base on this site.

Hello Everyone, This is Krishna Balakki from the city of gardens. A fellow fountain pen admirer and frequent user. I am using fountain pens since my school days. The most used pen was/is camlin. I am back to fountain pens couple of years back.Got to know about this website a month back. Am overwhelmed to see that there is a huge fan base for the fountain pens here. I like the fountain pens which are simple , yet functional. Eye dropper ink filling system always attracts me as it holds lot of ink. Fountain pens I own now: (image attached): bottom to top 1)pilot metropolitan: Aerometric style: 1200 INR 2)jinhao X450: Converter style: 200 INR3)camlin elegante:Converter style: 160 INR4)camlin 22: Eye dropper: 42 INR5)camlin 36: Eye dropper: 60 INR6)flair majestic: got as a gift 15 years back7)reynolds: catridge style: 20 INR Inks I own 1) Brill (Blue) 2) Camlin Kukoyo (blue) 3) Parker (Black) Fountain pens planning to buy in future: (for 2019) 1) Ranga Model 3C (matt black ebonite) 2) Guider Raja 3) Ranga Emperor (olive green ebonite) 4) Deccan Advocate 5) Asa Maya happy to be here Regards, Krishna

hi guys. just joined the "FPN" after i was looking for this pen my dad had bought back in the 90s. growing up, we used fountain pens at school. i almost always had a parker vector (which i kept on loosing) or a bunch of hero (parker 51 look alike) pens while my sister had an actual parker 51. i was going through our old boxes and came across a pen set that my dad had picked up at an expo back around 1997. it was a "pen quest 2000" all steel body ballpoint, roller ball and fountain pen. i looked it up online and it brought me to the fountain pen network where someone had posted pictures of. the one i have is slightly different but it was nice to hear that someone else also had it. i wonder how much it would be worth today. i got back into fountain pens recently and have just ordered my first "fancy" pen. ive ordered a Montblanc 146. this is after i had been experimenting with some local and chinese pens. i currently wish i had kept the fountain pens from back when i was still in school as i really miss the parker vector and the beautiful marble red piston filling waterman i had back in highschool. i didnt really appreciate them back then and i remember i had dropped my waterman on the floor and bent the gold plated nib plus i never liked how it kept on bleeding through the paper i was using at the time. considering the crappy copy paper i was using back then and the fact that the waterman was an absolute gusher. i really wish i had kept it and would have appreciated it more. ive also been experimenting with mixing inks to get more shades. mixed the apache sunset from noodlers with the run of the mill pelican royal blue 4001.....it gave me a really vibrant olive green somehow. has anyone else experimented with ink mixing? or am i just wasting the expensive inks?! haha im thinking about experimenting with food coloring and see if i can come up with some unique shades (for much cheaper price) good to be on here. hopefully i can get some of you guys to respond on this.

Hi Everyone, My first fountain pen experience was when I entered the workforce 30 years ago - it wasn't a pleasant one. I remember once I had to fly on a business trip and when I arrived at the hotel, my bag was soaked with ink - including the documents I needed for a meeting the next day. I stopped using fountain pens since. Last year I decided to give it a try. I've been contemplating for months before I made my first purchase and I did a fair bit of reading online on how to use fountain pens and how to travel with them - including some of the threads in this forum - thank you guys. My first pen was the Pilot Custom 823. Some new friends I've met in my local FP community said that I started with a very high-end pen and wished me luck on my next purchase . They were right. The 823 is a great pen and it got me hooked. I wrote more and texted less. A few weeks later, I was looking at pens again. The next pen I bought was the Visconti Homo Sapiens and after that, all hell broke loose. I bought a MB145 for my wife, and started toying with some cheaper pens like the Noodler's Ahab, a Conklin Duraflex, and a few TWSBIs - Eco, 580s and 700Rs. I ended last year with a Pilot Custom 742 and a Lamy 2000. My biggest purchase to date is the Sailor KoP Ebonite and the latest addition is a Pelikan M805 Stresemann. Each pen I owned, taught me something new and it's a new writing experience. It's great to be in a community of people pursuing the same passion and thank you for welcoming me to the family.

Hi all! It's nice to meet you! I'm Zoe, a 19 year old biochemistry student, and I've been interested in fountain pens for around 4 years. I have slowly developed a small collection, and am saving up for a big trip to Paris in a couple of months. I'm hoping to buy a 'really nice' pen, in the 100-200$ range probably, while I am there as a keepsake. If anyone has any recommendations for stores and pens, I would love to hear them! I'm not picky with nib size, though I like to change inks a lot so I lean toward broader nibs. I'm definitely an ink addict, and may end up posting some ink reviews sometime. It's nice to meet you all! Zoe

Hello. I'm a 70 year old Vietnam vet. Hobbies are photography,shooting, knife collecting. I have a Sheaffer Connaisseur which I bought new in 1988(?). I also just bought a Pilot Metro.