College Student, Fountain Pen Addiction Taking Hold.

[Connly33]

A little bit about me:

I'm a freshman college student in the pacific northwest, taking prerequisites for electrical engineering courses. I've always been interested in how things work, as far back as i can remember ive always been taking things apart, trying to figure out how they work. I guess that leads to the reason I have so many hobbies, and why I guess you could say I enjoy going the more complicated route when it comes to most things. Some of the hobbies, or I like to say addictions that I have been pulled into are, Mechanical Keyboards (Building custom boards for myself and others, I strive to try out all of the switches available and all of the rare ones that are no longer produced), Ham radio and radio communication (I love being able to make direct point to point long distance communication with no other infrastructure, Though cost prohibits me from having nice HF gear to make long distance contacts, so i stick to local VHF UHF stuff), Office supplies ( The precursor to my fountain pen addiction), And obviously Fountain Pens just to name a few. Being a 20 year old full time college student that just does things on the side to pay my way I can only get so far into any of these hobbies that have the potential to be prohibitively expensive. But I don't let that stop me.

Enough about personal stuff, more about what really matters, fountain pens:

I really don't remember what caused the fountain pen bug to bite me, it may have been interest from looking at some of Massdrop's offerings, or even a random Reddit post that made its way into my google news feed. Regardless of what it was, I started to look into it with a bit of curiosity, and was almost instantly hooked after watching many videos on you tube from Goulet Pens, The pen habit and a few other individuals. I know everyone has there own reason for getting into this or already being in this "Hobby" though for me, as I mentioned I usually do prefer to take the more complicated route if it leads to a more enjoyable outcome, So the fact that there are so many different experiences that are possible through fountain pens, with various inks, colors, nob types and sizes really appealed to me. Along with non-dispoability aspect, being someone that strives to be an engineer, and someone that just really appreciates efficiency, I hate the disposablity that modern consumerism has caused with so many products, dont get me wrong, i love buying something new, but i hate throwing out something that is perfectly good still, or being pushed into using disposable products when there are longer lasting non disposable alternatives. I could rant about that for quite awhile but i already feel like i'm making my introduction post too long.

My First Pen:

My first fountain pen purchase was a medium nib Pilot Metropolitan and a bottle of J. HERBIN POUSSIERE DE LUNE, It was cheap and i really like neutral purples colors. Right off the bat there were things that i disliked about my choice. The ink, though having a nice color, was not saturated enough for me, i really enjoy heavily saturated inks. And for the metropolitan, it showed me that i prefer fin nibs, though they do not wrote as fluidly, i like nice, sharp lines, though i'm sure if i improved my not very good handwriting i would be able to more comfortably use medium and bold nibs. I also really disliked the squeeze type converter, though I did not enjoy my first combination of pen and ink, it was enough for me to know that I really wanted more.

My " Next Level Pen":

As soon as i had a little extra money burning a hole in my pocket I went in search of my next pen, really being set on a clear demonstrator I looked at what affordable options i had and went with what for me was an obvious choice, the TWSBI ECO with a fine nib. I really enjoyed the fine nib, and the large ink capacity, along with it being a clear demonstrator. At least with the J. Herbin ink i had an issue with the pen periodically " burping" all over the page i was writing after two or three pages, after talking to customer service at TWSBI they put a slightly drier feed unit in my pen and sent it back to me, after that I have had no issues with the pen. Though i immediately wanted another ink, I couldn't have a demonstrator and only one color of ink. I ended up buying a bottle of Sailor Storia Night, which is a nano pigmented blue ink, i really enjoy the way this ink looks on paper and the way it behaves, despite that it is slightly harder to clean out of my ECO.

Impulse Ink and Pen Purchase:

A couple months ago i got that urge to buy another pen, and maybe some more ink. I had been fairly interested in the Pilot Vanishing Point. After spending some time figuring out how i was going to justify and afford to purchase a Vanishing Point I found that there is a Stainless Still nibbed version available for the Japanese market that is, at the time of purchasing about $40 USD cheaper than the cheapest gold nibbed version I could find. Even after the cost of having it shipped to me. Not having tried a gold nibbed pen, gold vs steel really is not a big factor for me when purchasing a pen unless the gold version is only marginally more expansive. So i ended up purchasing the Vanishing point in the find steel nib option, and it is so much finer than the fine nib in my ECO, i was aware that Japanese fine nibs are more of an extra fine compared to European fines, but I was pleasantly surprised at how big the difference really is. So far I am really happy wit the vanishing point and it is my daily driver for taking notes in class. At the same time I also purchased a number of Iroshizuku ink samples, and have mixed feeling about them, I love the way that they behave, but i'm not a huge fan of some of the color's. Though I was incredibly happy at the result of mixing about 50/50 Murasaki-Shikibu to Fuyu-Syogun, it ended up being a slightly more vibrant, saturated color than my J. Herbin ink.

As for paper what i am using right now is higher end HP 34lb non-coated copy paper that i print either lines on, or dot grid templates onto for various class notes. And Black n Red notebooks for my Journal.

[ehemem]

 

If you are in the greater Seattle area, you might be interested to know that there is the Seattle Pen Club that meets once a month. It is a good place to try out pens and inks you might be interested in...

[OCArt]

Welcome to our little corner of the universe from a pen user in San Diego. I'm glad you are here!

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell.

[Connly33]

Thank you for the welcome everyone.

 

I don't get up to the Seattle area too often, though i'm not so far away that i wouldn't consider coming up sometime, I would love to be able to try out some pen's or inks since we really don't have any pen stores around here. I was looking at the clubs website when i was looking around to see if there were any pen shows in the area.

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

[AD43]

Welcome, this addiction is untreatable and highly contagious, I suggest you lock yourself in the attic! Actually No, it's hard to get pen deliveries up there!

[Chrissy]

Hello and welcome to FPN. ​

[stuck-in-time]

Welcome!

 

It's always nice to have a fellow college student. I too, have a lot of hobbies and am finding it difficult with the very limited funds available. My other hobbies include Walkmans and scale models, so yeah... potentially expensive stuff to. But I manage to get by and keep myself happy

 

Apart from that, actually, the greater problem for me here is availability. My country's not really the best place for writing supplies fans. There isn't much of a selection available and it's terribly expensive to import stuff, but I guess that's a good thing that's keeping my wallet safe

Edited April 4, 2017 by stuck-in-time

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town (South Africa).

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

[Wahl]

[DaveT]

Hello and welcome from Indiana!

[Lexus77]

Welcome to our warm nook of the internet, where you can share this beautiful hobby with good and friendly people. Or as we say in low Saxon: Mooi a'j dr bint! (Good you're here.)

[FOUR X FOUR]

Welcome to the forum, Connly.

[Sasha Royale]

Welcome !

 

I love the genius in a fountain pen. From a large reservoir, tiny amounts of ink are allowed to flow onto paper. Rather than a puddle, a precise line of consistent width is formed. Without moving parts, the ink flow is turned "on" and "off" , in self-regulation. Have you figured out how Louis Waterman did it ? I also marvel at the innovation of John Moses Browning, and the Clovis Indians.

 

Write with joy.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Sasha Royale

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[Arkamas]

Greetings and welcome!

 

[Erik Dalton]

Welcome to our group. You're one of us now, so feel free to jump into any of our conversations. There is no such thing as a dumb question. We are all learning from each other here.

[Connly33]

Thank you for the welcomes!

Welcome!

 

It's always nice to have a fellow college student. I too, have a lot of hobbies and am finding it difficult with the very limited funds available. My other hobbies include Walkmans and scale models, so yeah... potentially expensive stuff to. But I manage to get by and keep myself happy

 

Apart from that, actually, the greater problem for me here is availability. My country's not really the best place for writing supplies fans. There isn't much of a selection available and it's terribly expensive to import stuff, but I guess that's a good thing that's keeping my wallet safe

That is true, what dangerous for the wallet is when the cost of what your interested in is just at the price limit of being considerable.