Another note on Fountain Pens
Jun. 6th, 2018 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mangosteenMeta: I haven't been posting here much, but I've been journaling a ton; just mostly in paper form.
Observation: Ballpoint pens represent a technological advance and an engineering tradeoff. They're cheap, they handle air pressure changes a lot better than fountain pens (important if you fly a lot), you don't need to worry about the quality of the paper nearly as much, etc. Most of these are positive-sum tradeoffs.
On top of that, there are a couple of tradeoffs which are essentially neutral... most people don't really care about being able to swap out umpty-bazillion colors of inks... they want to write something on something.
In fact, I can think of only one use case where a ballpoint is a negative tradeoff against a fountain pen: Sitting down and writing a lot.
Turns out I do rather a lot of that, though.
Current fountain pen of choice: TWSBI ECO, Extra-Fine point. Relatively inexpensive (~$28), a massive reservoir (~2ml of ink... about 2-3 weeks of regular writing for me), and is an utter joy to write with.
Observation: Ballpoint pens represent a technological advance and an engineering tradeoff. They're cheap, they handle air pressure changes a lot better than fountain pens (important if you fly a lot), you don't need to worry about the quality of the paper nearly as much, etc. Most of these are positive-sum tradeoffs.
On top of that, there are a couple of tradeoffs which are essentially neutral... most people don't really care about being able to swap out umpty-bazillion colors of inks... they want to write something on something.
In fact, I can think of only one use case where a ballpoint is a negative tradeoff against a fountain pen: Sitting down and writing a lot.
Turns out I do rather a lot of that, though.
Current fountain pen of choice: TWSBI ECO, Extra-Fine point. Relatively inexpensive (~$28), a massive reservoir (~2ml of ink... about 2-3 weeks of regular writing for me), and is an utter joy to write with.
Re: my opinions, let me tell you them
Date: 2018-06-06 08:37 pm (UTC)yea, noodlers inks are super tempermental. even if you find one that's a color you love, and works with your preferred pen & paper, a 2nd bottle from a different batch may fail spectacularly.
i'm a big pilot fan, but the vanishing point is way too big in the grip section for me. they are very cool though.
Re: my opinions, let me tell you them
Date: 2018-06-06 08:52 pm (UTC)Also, a hearty endorsement for Goulet Pens. Their customer service is excellent, their prices are good, and they have a writing sample comparison tool on the site, for eyeballing different nib widths.
Re: my opinions, let me tell you them
Date: 2018-06-06 09:03 pm (UTC)lucky for my budget, the decimo grip comes in at 9.9mm. the ti arto is right at my upper edge at 9.5mm, and the jotter's 9.0mm is ideal for my small hands.
Re: my opinions, let me tell you them
Date: 2018-06-09 01:28 am (UTC)