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Hello everybody Today I would like to start a conversation about EDC systems and which pens you carry everyday. I'll start: I have two pen pouches, one with 3 slots and one with 4 slots. Both of them are in brown leather. In the pouch with 3 slots (which has my last name engraved in the leather) I have the pens which have the 3 'basic colours'/most frequent used colours of ink: - Red: For the red ink I use Pelikan Edelstein Ruby, in my Parker Sonnet in red lacquer. Fine nib. Lovely pen but rigid nib, in the future I'd like to upgrade this pen to a burgundy sailor pro gear. - Green: The Diamine Sherwood Green is my favourite green ink. I use it in my Pelikan m400. Great pen but sometime I would upgrade it to an m600. - Blue: for the blue ink, I prefer dark blue. Montblancs blueblack or Pelikans 4001 blueblack is my ink to go. I use the Montblanc 146 with it. Great pen and great size! In the pouch with 4 slots I am planning to go with this pens: (note: some of the pens mentioned are yet to buy, but these are the pens I consider getting) - Brown ink: for this ink (which is the Pelikan 4001 brown, but I am planning to buy any of the other brown/sepia inks) I use my Visconti Opera Elements with a 23k pd dreamtouch nib. Awesome pen with buttery smooth nib. - Black ink: I'm not sure which pen I am getting for the black ink. Any suggestions? - A mechanical pencil. I am buying a Pelikan pencil in the lovely brown/green tortoiseshell colours. It should arrive next week, can't wait! - A demonstrator (not yet which one yet) with a highlighter ink. Not yet which ink I'll choose. As you can see, I still have to search for some pens/inks, but this (often endless) search for a pen that suits me perfectly is one of the great things in the hobby! Which pens / pouches do you have? Ruben PS: sorry for the bad English, I'm not a native English speaker

I'm looking for a pen with line variation that I can use for taking notes.I want it to write fine and preferably not very wet I have a small budget ~$35. The only pens I've seen that I've seen that fit the criteria are Noodler's Ahab/Konrad, Nemosine Singularity and Pilot Plumix, which of these would be the best for note taking and are there any other pens that fit the criteria.

Hey there, I'm going to buy a Lamy 2000 most probably (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/326594-decent-capacity-first-gold-nib-fountain-pen/page-2?do=findComment&comment=3906816) and I have some extra money remaining with me. So I was wondering which pen should I get, the Pelikan M215 lozenge or the Diplomat Excellence A (steel nib). Both of them are used pens and both are in Medium nib. I am getting M215 for $61 (INR.4000) and Diplomat for $38 (INR.2500). Which one of them would have a smoother writing experience for everyday use?

Hello there, I'm sorry in advance for the silly question, but if you can't ask pen questions that may seem silly here, where can you?! On to my issue at hand... I've been using a Montblanc Meisterstuck ballpoint (not sure exactly which model) for a while now and I absolutely love it. It was a gift, but I'm not sentimentally attached. I just love the weight and smoothness of the refills (broad; blue), and the effortless glide across the paper. My issue is, though, that I work in the gov./non-profit sector and walking around with a MB ballpoint (gifted or not) draws too much attention in the wrong way (maybe when I'm a director or team-lead it won't). I try to use it only for personal writing at my desk, etc., but the great feeling of using it has me wanting to just use it all the time no matter what. Is there any way to make it less conspicuous? Maybe a change out of the white star top? Is there another similarly weighted pen, or one that takes MB refills? I know that it's probably odd to request the transition in this direction (as opposed to asking for a pen that looks more like an MB), but I'm at a loss. I like pens, and I love this one in particular, but unfortunately it's just too recognizable even to the uninitiated.

Hello, Just wondering if anyone could tell me their personal preference for what to carry their fountain pens in? I'm looking for my boyfriend who uses fountain pens every day. He takes them to use at work and I'm thinking having some kind of carrying case would be a nice gift. I've looked at different types but I thought it best to ask those who use them what is the most practical or preferred way. Thanks for any input you have

Hello! I looked through a lot of posts about ink recommendation on fountainpennetwork.com but most of the threads were posted and answered several years ago (early 2000s) so I wanted to see some new updated responses about few inks that I assume would be good with my Lamy Safari fountain pen. (I read all the ink reviews on the giant Index - Ink Review collection post and also watched tons of youtube videos, visited various fountain pen websites, etc.) Information about my pen: Lamy Safari (2015) with Fine nibList of characteristics I would like in the ink: Blue-black ink, more of a "black with a touch of blue" kind of ink. Or very dark blue color inks are good too.Does not bleed through cheap paper. (As a student I would like to use my fountain pen to take notes. I use Mead FiveStar notebooks and I read on few posts that this notebook's paper quality is not so terrible.)Doesn't have to be absolutely bulletproof or waterproof. Partially is fine. As long as the ink does not completely disappear or becomes completely illegible when coming in contact with water.Good for almost every day usage (note taking, writing journals, essays, letters, etc.)Affordable on a student budget (Preferably under or around $15)List of Inks that I think would be good: Noodler's 54th Massachusetts (Beautiful and the ideal blue-black color I am looking for. But how does this behave on a cheap paper? Does it bleed through? Is it good with Lamy Safari pens?)Noodler's Blue-Black (Another great color and overall very positive reviews. Will it behave well on a cheap paper and with my Lamy Safari pen?) Noodler's Bulletproof Black (Heard lots of good things about this ink. I am a bit concerned though because I read reviews and posts that said nib creeping were issues. However I also read great comments that said this ink is a perfect workhorse type of ink and works well on cheap papers. It's really too bad this is a black ink. I would love to write in blue-black ink. Will this be a good fit for my Lamy Safari w. Fine nib?)Noodler's X-Feather (This one is a good ink from what I've seen and read. However it does not dry as quickly. I tend to write very quickly and I'm afraid I will smudge my notes constantly. Feathering, to me at least, is not much of a big problem compared to bleeding through papers and clogging the pen)Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black (Saw this one appear frequently on other ink recommendation posts. However I also read some water resistant issues with this ink.Waterman Blue/ Waterman Black/ Waterman Blue-Black (Waterman inks were also very frequently recommended. So same questions: Does it behave well on cheap papers and with Lamy Safari pens?) Personal note: I found Noodler's Air Corp Blue Black too green and Noodler's Navy too blue for my taste. Noodler's Eel ink series are too lubricated for me. Thank you for your help!

Hey everybody! I am looking into getting my first "next level" fountain pen, and by this, I mean breaking into the 100 dollar+ price range. I want something I will be able to use everyday in school for note taking and various other tasks on both Clairefontaine paper as well as less than ideal quality paper. I like the nib width of my Metropolitan- it's thin enough to perform well on cheap paper, yet very manageable to take notes for extended periods of time with, which is why I am looking into the soft fine Falcon. I am hoping the nib will be about the same width, yet smoother than my Metropolitan with the ability to give some neat variation when I want it so I can show off a bit . My question is- is the Falcon a viable everyday carry pen? I also think the nib just looks so intriguing! I have also looked into the Vanishing Point, but fear the clip will interfere with my natural grip and make writing uncomfortable. I would try both out in a store, but living in rural Maine with Bromfield being the closest pen store at about 31/2 hours away, my trips down to the city are few and far in between. I am also very open to other suggestions of pens! Thanks very much!

My quest for the perfect everyday use blue black ink continues... When I got (back) into fountain pens, the first ink I bought was a blue black, Hero 232 blue black. At the time I didn't know much about different types of ink, but later, while trying to figure out why my pen behaved badly, I found out this was an iron gall ink. I love the colour of this ink (so far my favourite of all blue blacks I tried), but it is just too finicky for everyday use. Then I bought some Waterman Mysterious blue, but it turns out this ink has fairly little to do with blue black. Grey teal would be a better description. Next was Sailor Jentle blue black (the regular one), this looked like a winner. The colour was quite close to the Hero 232, it works just fine in most of my pens (although my Twsbi 580AL w. 1.1 stub doesn't seem to play nice with it) and while not the cheapest (here in the Netherlands), still affordable enough for everyday use. I thought I had found my EDC ink... But... Then I got caught out in the rain, and ended up with all my paper (a Midori passport size notebook, a Rhodia Webbie and an Aurora A4 notepad) slightly damp. And none of my Sailor Jentle blue black inked pens would write. I switched to another ink (J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir) and my pens wrote like normal again. As i live in the Netherlands, where rain and high humidity aren't exactly uncommon, this 'damp paper'-behaviour is pretty much unacceptable for an everyday ink. What blue black ink to try next? I'd like a nicely saturated blue black, that is a quite dark blueish grey or greyish blue. Easy flowing, not afraid of damp paper, it doesn't have to be waterproof or quick drying, but those qualities are appreciated. And of course something that is for sale in the Netherlands (so not Noodlers )and not too expensive (< $25 per 50ml). I'm looking forward to your suggestions, pictures of sample writing are much appreciated.

After regretedly dishing out money for five fountain pens (<$20 each, haha), all of them have one thing in common, and I only imagine gold nibs are the same. This has deterred me from using ftn pens in public, and I honestly prefer my Pilot G2 over most any FP because of this, much to my consternation. So for those who use fountain pens every day: When someone at work hands you a piece of something like 60gsm printer paper (this has happened to me) to, say, simply sign, and you sign it, does your fountain pen bleed on it? Because I've done this before and it looks like Waterloo occurred right on the signature line (ink bleeds crazily on the paper, it looks terrible). If you've gotten this far, thank you. FYI, my pen of choice was Pilot Metropolitan F with Aurora Black ink, and it bleeds on just about any lower-end paper I put to it.

As I come to grips with the various suggestions as to letter sizes as a function of nib width, I spent an hour this morning hacking up an Excel spreadsheet that would tell me what kind of paper ruling I'd need for any given nib width and letter size preferences, only to discover this excellent resource: http://calligraphypaper.appspot.com/ Just plug in your required values (there are some pulldowns to help with common default values, but you can vary any that you want), and presto it will produce a PDF with various guide lines as required. It's really cool. But one implication is that if you wanted to follow such guidelines using something common like a typical Moleskine notebook (6.35mm rule spacing), or a Rhodia (7.1mm) you'd either have to be using a very narrow nib or accept that you could only write on every other line (and maybe even only every third line), or both those things. So it got me wondering what you guys do -- especially the more accomplished -- for *regular handwriting*. That is, in a business notebook, say, or a personal journal, or anything similar where speed of entry and getting the content down fast but in a reasonably legible form has a higher relative priority versus pure "high calligraphic" style. Bearing in mind I'm talking about edged italic -- chancery or not -- I'd be interested to hear. If you use a ruled notebook for your everyday writing: Which rule spacing do you prefer? For example, many of the most popular Moleskines are US narrow -- i.e. 6.35mm, The Rhodia Ruled Webnotebook is US medium (or "college") with 7.1mm ruling. Other common rulings are US wide (legal) at 8.7mm, as well as French Séyès (8mm?)How many rules do you leave between the "baseline" rules (i.e. the rules on which the base of the "a" sits? For example, "zero" means you use every line as a baseline; "one" means you're writing on every other line; "two" would mean you're writing on every third line. That last approach means you have a full "inter-rule space" for ascenders, another one for the letter body; and a third for descenders.Which nib width do you use with such notebooks?Did you choose your nib to "fit" your notebook ruling, or vice versa?Do you contrive to leave any kind of space (1 or 2 nib worth) between the bottom of an descender in one line of writing and the top of the ascender on the following line of writing?Horizontal spacing now -- how many words per line do you like to achieve? Or, put it another way, what paper size do you prefer to work on -- especially width?Also, less relevant, if your paper is good enough to avoid bleed through, do you write on both sides, or do you stick to writing on only one of any two facing pages? (And then, just out of interest, on which page do you write; left or right?)thanks!

Hi All I have viewed a number off posts on this site in relation to handwriting. All beautiful, stunning writing thank you all. Most of it seems to be done with pens for calligraphy, flex and italic nibs. It also seems like this writing is done at a slow to steady pace. Recently I acquired a OMAS & Pelikan with Italic Nibs for everyday use and currently waiting for OMAS with a Stub Nib. Are there any post's of people using these nibs for everyday use, showing everyday writing samples done at a normal everyday pace? Or Would people be kind enough to post their samples here? Could you also put name of ink used? Many Thanks Regards rrs

I've always wanted an italic nib, and it seems nearly all are WAY out of my price range since I'm not a collector, just everyday user. I recently tumbled upon the plumix, a pen that will get me some weird looks, but might be interesting to use. I'm somehow getting the impression that this is meant to be used for drawing and such from other posts, but I actually want to use it, primarily so that my writing will look more "exotic". However I do not intend to lose speed and comfort of the regular round nib pens.