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**Moderators - feel free to move this thread to a more suitable place in the forums if needed!** This is actually my first ever post on FPN but I've been lurking a long time in the forums largely because I have always felt that I had more to learn than contribute regarding my knowledge of fountain pens. But anyways, this thread is intended to share my journey of exploring the world of painting with fountain brushpens and fountain pen inks. While I am definitely not an expert on them, I believe I may have some nuggets of info worth sharing especially since I have come across questions and enquiries on brushpens on FPN. WHY BRUSHPENS? Brushpens are great for painting and line variation. While a fountain pen with a flex nib is still unbeatable for characteristic writing in journals, notetaking etc., brushpens - due to their extreme line variability (which results in greater lack of control) - are great for paintings/drawings. Wet brushpens with good flow can in fact really emulate the look of an actual brush and ink. WHICH BRUSHPENS? The main brands for brushpens are Pentel, Akashiya, Kuretake and Platinum. I have tried many models across these 4 brands, and after figuring out which ones are more suitable to my personal needs, I am currently using the following two brushpen types: Platinum Brushpen: You can find these on Goulet Pens. They come in two types: natural hair brush, and synthetic fibre brush. The former is softer, more difficult to control, but gives finer lines and greater variation. The latter is the opposite. Pentel Aquash Brushpen: Uses synthetic fibre for its brush. Dirt cheap and commonly available, it takes non-fountain pen ink too. Given its price it really has formidable value. My only gripe with it and the reason why it has not completely replaced my Platinum brushpens is that ink flow can sometimes go berserk on these pens (quality control might be an issue) and lay down enormous amounts of ink. And oh yes, they are cheap looking and not as pretty looking as the Platinum ones, but that is probably not a huge issue. WHICH INKS? Brushpens are thirstier than nibbed pens and even the more viscous inks should flow nicely. As such, the flow of inks that we are so preoccupied with for nibbed pen usage is thus less of a concern here. Additionally, due to the style of my paintings (more on that below) I prefer to use primarily black, grey and red inks. My current inks of choice for these 3 colors are Noodler's Black, Pliot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same (sometimes DIamine Silver-Fox) and Diamine Poppy Red respectively. EXAMPLES OF WHAT ONE CAN DO I am very into oriental ink paintings. By that I mean paintings in the style of Chinese "水墨" or Japanese Sumi-e paintings, especially the landscape ones. However, I like to "spice up" these paintings with modern-day pop culture references, for instance, the inclusion of Totoro, Pokemon etc. in these paintings. Due to size constraints I have just attached one of my paintings to this post. It features a lightsaber-brandishing Yoda on a boat set in a Chinese landscape. It was done using Platinum and Pentel brush pens with the following 6 inks: Platinum Black, J.Herbin Vert Empire, Noodler's Lexington Grey, Noodler's Golden Brown, Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki. If interested, you can view more of my paintings here in a recent article on BoredPanda: http://www.boredpanda.com/childhood-companions-in-chinese-ink-paintings/, or even follow me on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/samuelpecksw Meanwhile, feel free to share your experiences, drawings/paintings and questions on fountain brush pens here!

Trying to free up my life to be able to get to this Will many people from here be attending? Having never been to a show, will I find many modern Japanese pens around (my particular interest)? I see lots of content related to Parkers, Shaeffers etc and pen turners/makers but not a lot about my beloved Nakaya, Pilot and Platinum pens. Regards, Bear

One of my newest accquistions is the Sailor Young Somiko Fountain pen in M nib. This is my first Sailor pen. I had bought it from pensindia.com, a subsidary of the famous engeika.com which provided japanese writing instruments. The service was quick and I was happy with Mr. Raul from pensindia who handles my correspondence promptly. All I can say is I am happy with their product and I will patronise them in the future (Disclaimer: No relation to pensindia.com or engeika.com) PACKAGING The pen comes in a small cardboard pack which houses a plastic pen case. The case contains the pen itself, a Sailor converter and two sailor catridges of black ink. The packaging is nothing to talk home about. It just does its job to deliver the pen. DESIGN The pen is a very sleek and minimalistic. The pen is made of black plastic with gold trims. Near the section, it says "SAILOR". It has a black finial surrounded by a gold ring on top. The clip is very stiff, but one can use with some care. The pen is very light and the balance feels good on this pen. It has a fairly long section and comfortable to write with for long times. One caveat is that since the plastic is very glossy, it picks up oils stains if one has sweaty hands. NIB The nib is a M nib. The somiko comes with a gold plated steel nib. Suprisingly, the Sailor M nib lays a line a touch wider than my Pilot Tank NOS M pen. There is a hint of feedback with the nib and it has a small sweet spot. I have to work on the nib as the horizontal strokes encounter more resistance than the vertical strokes. I got a standard Sailor converter (comparable to a CON 50 converter) which hold s upto 1-1.2 ml of ink. Since, it is a gold plated nib, the nib has some springiness to it and you can coax some line variation out of it, but I would'nt recommend it. The pen cannot be converted to an ED as it has metal threads in the section joining the barrel. Picture (left to right : Pilot metroploitan M, Sailor young Somiko M, Pilot Celemo 14K M) CONCLUSION This is a no nonsense pen which can be used for everyday carry. Since , it holds a good capacity of ink it can be used for long writing sessions. I bought this pen for INR 3000(~USD 48) which I think is an excellent value for money considering that it comes out with a converter. I would recommend this pen to a beginner.

Hello Everyone! Finally the moment we have all been waiting for! A new Maki-e fountain Pen adds up to the collection with the launch of the New Pelikan Maki-e Koi. A gorgeous Fountain Pen that honors the story of the Koi Fish, which swam decisively counter-current and became a strong dragon. It will be available next May and we cannot wait to receive it. Click here for more pictures of the Pelikan Maki-e Fountain Pen: Pelikan Maki-e Koi Fountain Pen Thank you very much for following! If you would like to have further information, please contact us to info@iguanasell.com Have a nice day! Kind regards Pilar Iguana Sell

Hi folks, I've searched for older threads but didn't find quite what I was looking for. Sorry if I'm repeating a topic that's been done before. Does anyone have any tips on regular Japanese handwriting with a fountain pen? Not calligraphy or any fancy script, but just regular, everyday handwriting. Aside from the fact that I need a fairly fine point to achieve decent results, are there any guides out there? Any suggestions much appreciated!

Im thinking about purchasing some wancher inks as they look pretty interesting. I love mixing inks for when i paint and i want to know if they are fountain pen friendly, and/or good for mixing with other inks.

Hey there Everyone, This is my first post in a long while but I've been driven back here for the same reason that originally brought many of us together: I'm looking for a new pen to buy! As the title says I'm looking for a pen that would be good for writing Japanese characters - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. I'm currently taking a Japanese class and not knowing the writing systems well is crippling as we're already expected to use full Hiragana on assignments and are currently learning Katakana. (After less than three weeks) I'm no foreigner to language classes but this is my first non-Western language and I want to make writing practice a bit more enjoyable. I think we can all agree that joyful writing and fountain pens go hand in hand. I currently own a Lamy Safari - EF, Lamy Studio - F, a F Aurora of a model I can't currently recall but it was about $100 at the Fountain Pen Hospital and a F Parker IM. I like each of these pens but it's been quite some time since my last pen purchase and this is good enough cause for me. Seeing as this will be my go to pen for any and all Japanese writing (and I'll be doing quite a bit of it) I'm willing to invest a bit but am still restricted by a students budget. Something in the $100-$150 range is comfortable and a bit more is possible. I'm looking for something with good line variation. Japanese characters were originally made with a brush and a pen with more variation will give a similar effect. Something a bit lighter than the Studio would be nice. I find my hand tires out when going so slow and concentrating on each character while using it. I always love an elegant nib but that's pretty secondary if the pen writes like a true gem. Other than that I have no preferences. Pen colour and body material are totally open. Thanks in advanced for your insight and happy writing!

Dear Fountain Pen Network, [i've highlighted the very relevant passages for those who can't afford the time to read through all!] firstly, let me introduce myself and what I am exactly hoping to find here. I am a student from Germany, currently waiting for my study pass to study electrical engineering. Therefore I am searching for general advice on extra-fine nib fountain pens, companies who sell those and of course, availability. During my Abitur (probably high-school in US), I was using a simple Lamy Safari with a fine nib, which did not exactly fit my handwriting very well. It is still too big for my taste and I've sometimes heard complaints not about the style, but the tininess of my writing. As I was attempting to fix this issue, I stopped writing script-style and started with the usual "block"-style. Furthermore, I tried to use a different angle on the tip of the pen so that the width further decreased. Western nib sizes could not offer me the width japanese companies have in their products, if you happen to know specialty nibs for a reasonable price which fit on fountain pens from western countries, please contact me! ; ) Ok so I've decided to do some research on fountain pens and came to the conclusion that the european market simply is not suited for those products (at least in Germany), neither Sailor nor Premium sell their products and even Pilot only has a very few products available. I've found those products on the internet, those best describe what I am exactly searching for. Beside the Pilot VP, they offer the normal kind of fountain pen (classy design). Pilot Custom Heritage 912, estimated price incl. shipping cost and tax: 180€ ($245) Sailor Professional Gear Silver, estimated price incl. shipping cost and tax: 175€ ($238) Pilot Vanishing Point Fermo, estimated price incl. shipping cost and tax: 170€ ($231) Pilot Vanishing Point Decimo, estimated price incl. shipping cost and tax: 132€ ($180) Platinum 3776 #1 Black, estimated price incl. shipping cost and tax: 170€ ($231) all of those feature an extra-fine nib, which I am searching for. If you're curious about the prices: It's the cheapest I found them online. Bear in mind that those prices are calculated differently because tax is added up on top: (Price of product itself + shipping cost) * 1,19 * 1,135 1,19 = 19% VAT; 1,135 = 13,5% customs duty The customs duty is only added if the package (product + shipping cost) cost above 150€ ($202), otherwise "only" 19% is added. All of the fountain pens recommended must therefore be at a maximum price of 150€ ($202), including shipping cost to Europe. As one can see, it is very pricy for me to buy those fountain pens, so I am eager to find one that best suits my purpose which is everyday writing. Feel free to suggest pens which don't appear on this list, in terms of style I would rather like a decent pen in black, silver or dark blue with silver accents. I don't really like gold much, but if the price is right, I may take a look at those, too. Another thing I would like to adress is that I don't know if the Vanishing Point suit me since I am not using the common tripod-grip, my thumb is a lot higher, touching the point-finger between the first and second joint. I am not sure whether I can change that without putting hours in it, I've tried it and unless I am writing very slow, the handwriting does not look good (still readable though). In the next week I can probably test if the clip is a problem for me or not and I am a bit worried about the placement of the nib, too. Regarding the Pilot Custom Heritage 912: I would like to know if someone has experience with the PO-nib, especially in comparison to the EF nib. Sorry for the wall of text guys, but at this price, I have to be very precise at what I am searching for. This is my first post here and I hope that I'm in the right forum section for this kind of threads. If you've came down here, thank you for your time to read through the whole thing! Yours sincerely, R201

Sailor 1911 Profit, Fine Nib, Ivory Body I realize there are several reviews of the Sailor 1911 Profit, but I don't seem to see many pictures of the ivory body. I decided to put in my two cents and also have some reference pictures available for anyone else who wants to check out the pen before buying. The pictures I have seen prior to receiving this pen made it difficult to determine whether or not the pen was a bright white or a true ivory. I can happily say that it's a lovely off white colour and that I am very pleased with it. What follows is my picture heavy mini review. I would highly recommend the pen, and it is honestly my favourite pen overall (I had a burgundy one that I have sadly misplaced). The pen came with a standard Sailor box, that seems price appropriate, a converter, two cartridges, and an instruction manual. The pen was a birthday present from my girlfriend, and I appreciate it a lot. She's far too kind to me and indulges my hobby. The Review: Appearance and Design: 8 The classic cigar shape of the pen is fitting, though admittedly uninspired. I very much like the ivory colour and I think it's a step up from white. It looks like a nice warm pen, and the gold trim only adds to the appeal. The clip is also classic and uninspired, but far from ugly. It fits with the pen and all in all it looks very classy. In my book, it does get bonus points for being ivory coloured. If you don't care for the colour as much as I do, I would say the design is a 7, since it's unoriginal but well executed. The Pen DSCF6769 by makey95, on Flickr The Trim DSCF6774 by makey95, on Flickr Construction and Quality: 9 The pen feels very well made, and is very sturdy. The threads where the cap screws on are smooth and rounded, and they never interfere with the grip. There's not a single loose part in the pen, and it seems sturdy enough to take drops while capped. The resin body feels durable, and nothing about the pen seems cheap. The nib and feed are friction fit, and they can easily be pulled out, but they're not loose at all and are a snug fit. Nib and Feed DSCF6777 by makey95, on Flickr Weight and Dimensions: 10 The pen feels like it's made to be posted, and once posted feels perfectly balanced. Unposted, it is a tad too short for my hands, and feels rather light. Capped the pen measures around 5.25" and uncapped it is about 4.625" unposted. Posted, the pen is about 6" long. The diameter of the grip seems to be around .375". It is a medium-light pen, but I can write with it for hours at a time without my hand tiring. Nib and Performance: 10 Honestly this is my favourite modern nib/favourite non-flex nib. I've tried a few flex nibs that come close to being the joy that this one is, but even they pale in comparison. It is honestly one of the most enjoyable writing experiences that I have experienced. For such a fine nib, it is extraordinarily smooth and has almost no feedback, but still enough to let you feel the paper enough to enjoy the ride. The feed does a superb job of keeping up and it never has any hard starts or skips. The nib wrote immediately, even after being left out to take the photographs. The Nib DSCF6783 by makey95, on Flickr The Feed DSCF6775 by makey95, on Flickr Filling System and Maintenance: 7 The pen uses a cartridge converter system, and despite that has great ink flow. The converter does not hold all that much, but it's certainly enough to last several days of note taking. Having a cartridge converter system makes maintenance easy enough, but the friction fit nib and feed makes cleaning out the pen a breeze. Just take it apart, wash it, dry it, and it's quick and easy to move from a black ink to say a light yellow-orange. Normally I would give cartridge converter pens a 5, utterly average, neither good nor bad, but the ease of maintenance warrants a higher grade. Cost and Value: 10 This tends to be highly subjective, but for a pen that I consider to be the best writing experience, with a marvelous fine nib, easy maintenance, and perfect balance, I would say that the $100 that my girlfriend paid for it was reasonable. I would be personally willing to pay the full U.S. price for this pen (with tax, around 180 dollars). Conclusion: Highly recommended, if you couldn't tell. A word of warning, every once in a while I do see a Sailor 1911/Pro Gear or two out of the box (I've worked with a few over the years) with misaligned tines, but that's usually a quick fix. I have never seen a Sailor 1911 Standard that, once aligned, does not write smoothly. The majority of Sailors that I have seen write perfectly out of the box. Writing Sample/First impression review (Muji Notebook) DSCF6787 by makey95, on Flickr Final Words: Thanks for reading, feel free to mention your own thoughts on the pen, the colour, or my pictures. I tried my best to accurately pick up the colour of the body. I cannot thank my girlfriend enough for the gift, and I know it will see a lot of use. The only thing that I'm worried about is staining the ivory body. I've been looking into leather pen slips/holders for this pen, and I would appreciate any cheap but durable recommendations. I would like around 10 dollars, 15 maximum for the holder. I hope the review was informative.

Hi friends! I received a few EMS packages today, and one of them contained the newest addition to my Sailor rotation. I found it on the famous auction site, where the seller claimed it was from the 1940s, but I have no idea whether that is accurate. Can any of you identify the pen? That knowledge would make me happy. The pen bears the name Sailor in white on the barrel, but not on the nib. It has a plain aluminum or silver-plated cap and a 14K yellow gold wraparound nib reminiscent of S.T. Dupont nibs. The thing I really like about the pen stylistically is the juxtaposition of the white inlay on the section against the black barrel; it reminds me of a tuxedo or piano keys. This pen has an EF tip, and it belonged to someone named M. Ihara, whose name is engraved in cursive Roman script on the barrel. The filling system is a squeeze sac. I had to spend about an hour flushing out decades of dried-out ink from the bladder, feed and nib. I can't even believe how much clumped-up gunk came out. Now that it is flushed, the pen writes a very fine line, but I will take it with me to Tokyo next week to ask one of the nibmeisters to tweak it just a bit. Enjoy!

Hello, I came across this gold? goldplated? fountain pen and need help identifying it. It seems to have Japanese or Chinese writing on it. Could anyone tell me what brand this is and how much this fountain pen might be worth? Thank you in advance

Hello, does anybody have any experience with this Japanese store called Rakuten? I haven't gone through the website thoroughly, but they offer for example Iroshizuku for $13, which looks absurdly cheap to me… Edit: I see, it's something like ebay with sellers having their info written in Japanese. It will be more complicated than I initially thought…