Advice Choosing A Fountain Pen

[GabrielJauma]

Hello

 

Well, my name is Gabriel and I am new to this community, which as far as I have seen I like very much.

 

Notice that I am spanish so if i misspell words or have grammar mistakes, well, I am sorry!

 

So, I started to use fountain pens a couple of moths ago when my father gave me what i think is a Waterman Hemisphere for my birthday, and since that day I just love them. Weeks passed and I commented to my mother that I loved writing with fountain pens and surprise, she told me she had a bunch of fountain pens she didn't use anymore and told me I could have them!

 

As you can see, there I was with a bunch of really cool fountain pens, ( i will include a picture of them), but I just felt that they were a bit too scratchy so I decided to buy a Lamy Safari, because of all the great critics I had heard from it. Well, turns out that it really is as great as they say, at least from my opinion, it was waay smoother than my other fountain pens.

 

Whit my Lamy Safari I also bought a 1.1 nib, and, for my surprise, my handwriting was incredibly better!!

 

That is something i have had a lot of trouble in my life, I have horrible a handwriting and teachers almost couldn't read what I wrote. Now I am studying Aerospace Engineering and it turns out I start to care about my handwriting when the tests are choose-a-option type ( I don't know what you call them ) so nobody was going to read what a i wrote.

 

Well, the fine nib my Lamy safari came with is great for me when it comes to writing in a test in order to choose the right option, because i can write really fasta and smooth, but, for writing things that I am actually going to study from the 1.1 nib is just fantastic BUT, a bit too scratchy, so, here goes the question.

 

Which fountain pen do you recommend me for writing, with a 1.1 nib or something like that.

 

I thought about the Art Pen by Rotring, but I have also considered an oblique nib, even tough i have never tried one!

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

So, this are some of the pens i have, form left to right, ( or up to down) I think they are : Sheaffer, whit a 14k gold nib, ( ni idea which model), Waterman (Thats all I have discovered form this one hahaha), Waterman Hemisphere, Inoxcrom ( no idea which model either).

 

Even tough they are not bad it jus fells that they should be smoother, i dont know, maybe their nib is broken or something like that, and i say this because the lamy safari writes waaay better that the sheaffer with 14k gold .

 

http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac39/Gabrieljauma/20140109_131850_zps9e25c5b3.jpg[/url]

 

These are some of my other fountain pens, the las three i made them myself!!

 

http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac39/Gabrieljauma/20140109_130245_zpsb0d7d52a.jpg[/url]

 

And finally a writing sample of how bad a i write hahaha!

 

 

http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac39/Gabrieljauma/20140109_131627_zpsd02bfd4f.jpg[/url]

 

Thanks for reading!!!

Edited January 9, 2014 by GabrielJauma

[Randal6393]

Hello, Gabriel, Welcom to FPN!.

 

You have some lovely-looking fountain pens and they should write very well -- with a bit of practice. For taking a test, would suggest using whichever pen writes the smoothest and you have the most confidence in.

 

What I do, when in doubt, is write a line with each of my pens on a piece of paper, including identifiers for each pen. At the end of each line, put a few notes on how well the pen performed. Then select the one(s) that did best. And work on getting the other pens up to speed as good fountain pens.

 

To improve the performance of a pen, several things may be done. In order of drastic action, (1) clean and refill the ink -- maybe change the ink to one that is faster/slower in flow, etc., (2) look at the tines under magnification and adjust until even across the end, (3) reshape the nib to a classic grind -- an italic chisel tip, and (4) send off to a nibmeister to have the pen tuned/reground.

 

Best of luck to you,

[GabrielJauma]

Thank you very much for your answer!!

[Ted F]

Gabriel,

 

As Randal said, cleaning your pens is very important, especially ones that have been sitting around for a long time. There are plenty of instructions in this forum regarding that. Simply flush under cold, running water and then fill the pen with water and let it sit for a day or so then empty it out and do it again, if necessary. Also as mentioned, finding someone who works on nibs can be a great help. Many times only a minor adjustment has to be made.

 

I find scratchy nibs are common. I try a particular trick: hold the pen with your hand in the writing position making sure the pen is straight to the paper. Then, with your left hand turn the pen counterclockwise to either the 10 or 11 o'clock position, then write. Most of the time for me this eliminates the scratchiness. I not sure this is an 'approved' method, but it helps me. Also, as mentioned, a nibmeister can fix this easily.

 

Also, a particular nib can help you write better. I find for my self that a left-oblique nib improves my handwriting because I have to concentrate more on the formation of my letters.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Ted F

[GabrielJauma]

Thank you very much, I will consider the left oblique nib!