Fountain Pens, Gel Pens, and the Rest.

Gel Pens

I am always on the search for “the right pen”. I think I may have found it. My workaday, go-to pen for most tasks is the Zebra Sarasa Clip Gel pen. The 0.3mm black ink works well with my tiny handwriting. The ink makes good sharp, dark lines, and dries quickly. The binder clip is sturdy, and allows me to clip the pen to a pocket, to a notebook, in the middle of a notebook, to a strap on my backpack, etc. etc.

For note-taking at work, I like my Zebra Sarasa 2+S Multi pen. It has Zebra’s nice Sarasa gel ink in black and red, both in 0.5mm, plus a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. It’s a nice combination for notes, one or two levels of emphasis, and sketching. It would be nicer if it had a brass body instead of plastic, but I also like that it wasn’t expensive. This pen also features the nice binder clip like other Sarasa pens. It also has a clever little trigger under the clip, so that the pen retracts any extended refill when you clip it on to something. That’s a thoughtful feature.

Oh, and Fountain Pens

I have always enjoyed different types of pens, papers, and sketching. Fountain pens are a whole new universe to explore, with different manufacturers, nib sizes, inks, paper requirements. I am enjoying the exploration, but I have found that mostly, fountain pens aren’t my favorite for everyday writing.

For one thing, they are usually fussy about the paper you use. As you write, the ink will bleed through the paper, or feather. Also, the ink typically is slow to dry.

Unpopular Opinion: The Platinum Preppy is so good, there is NO REASON to spend more than $5 on a fountain pen. They are cheap plastic pens, but the nibs are nice, they come in a nice Extra Fine nib, and the standard Platinum Black ink that comes in their cartridges works about as well as any other ink I've tried. All that, and if I drop it, or lose it, or someone walks off with it, or I break it, I won’t lose a minute’s sleep over it. I’ll just get another one.

Having said that, I do own some other fountain pens. I have the usual “entry level” fountain pens:

• TWSBI ECO
  My first fountain pen after the Preppy. I got a bottle of J. Herbin Perle Noire to go with it. I enjoy that this pen is designed for tinkerers. The piston filling mechanism is fun, too. Not as fine a nib as I wanted, but I enjoy writing with it. The screw-on cap keeps the nib wet, so I've never had a hard start with this pen. I don't think I've ever actually cleaned it.
• Pilot Metropolitan
  This is the pen that I think looks the best. However, it is the only pen that has burped ink on me, and sometimes it skips. That might be because I need to clean it more often. I used to use my Perle Noire ink in it with the included converter, but I usually use Pilot Black cartridges. The Pilot ink seems to work pretty well on “regular” paper.
• Kaweco Sport
  Actually, mine is a Skyline Sport, since I prefer silver trim to gold. This was a much smaller pen than I was expecting. However, with the cap posted, it works well. The nib is actually a bit finer than my Extra Fine Preppy, and I like the Kaweco “Pearl Black” ink cartridges. Like the ECO, the screw-on cap keeps the nib wet, so it's just ready to go all the time.

I got each of these with the finest nib size I could get, and only the Sport has a really fine nib.

I suppose I should try the “other entry level” fountain pen: the Lamy Safari.

However, I can’t think of a reason to get a fountain pen in the next price bracket (> $50). These pens are pretty nice. I do enjoy writing with them, but sometimes I just need to write something down, and a fountain pen is a little too fiddly for a quick note. I got these because I wanted to try them out, and I’m glad I did.