If you currently use a ballpoint pen, switching to a rollerball will be a huge jump in quality to your writing experience. However, if you already use rollerballs, and you're looking at this and thinking you'd like to try it out, but you haven't ever tried a fountain pen, I would heavily advise giving one a shot. If you know you need a rollerball, then a stick with a rollerball. But don't dismiss a fountain pen out-of-hand -- the cheaper brands will be the same price as the pens listed here, and will be a big jump in quality for a nontrivial number of readers.
In particular, I've used a Fine nib Twisbi Eco (~$30) for multiple years now as my main pen, and I consider it to be one of the better purchases I've ever made. It's cheap enough that I can throw it into a bag or my pocket alongside my keys without worrying too much about it getting scratched or stolen, but it still looks reasonably nice, writes beautifully, holds a ton of ink, and is just a joy to use. There are cheaper pens out there, but I really like having a piston-fill pen, and I think it's just a really good quality, versatile, fun line -- there are even a lot of different color options.
I can describe mechanically why a fountain pen feels good, but I can't really convey how it feels. The best thing I can say is that it takes something that's very mundane (writing) and it makes it feel a tiny bit more pleasurable and 'extravagant' (for lack of a better word). I write a lot, I fill notebooks with handwritten notes. With a fountain pen, it just feels good to write. My handwriting has improved a lot, particularly my cursive -- I suspect in part because I pay more attention to what I'm writing. It's easy to take care of, but it feels good to occasionally wash it out and switch to a new ink color. It feels nice to use permanent things.
I've seen a few people talking about avoiding fountain pen ink even in the rollerballs because they dissolve in water. On that note I will swear by Noodler's Black Waterproof ink. I've completely submerged and soaked pages that I wrote on with that ink, and not only does it not dissolve, it does not even smudge. It's really crazy. One of the really nice things about fountain pens is that there's such a wide variety of colors and styles and glitters, and it just adds to this feeling of making your handwriting feel more expressive and personal. It makes total sense to me that rollerball users would want to be able to use the same ink.
Nice to see another fountain pen enthusiast here. I love my Twisbi Eco too, in fact I love all demonstrator pens especially with the Iroshizuku ink. It's not unlike swirling wine.
But for beginners I would only recommend the Pilot Metropolitan, coming at ~$19 with fancy metal body and high quality Pilot nib. That pen is insane bang for your buck and will last years.
As someone who owns two Pilot Metros F and TWSBI Ecos M and F, I would say it really depends on several variables like how big your handwriting is, what kind of paper you write on etc.
The Pilot Metro is often recommended as a beginner pen, but I’m not sure if it ought to be. The F is a little scratchy even on Rhodia Premium paper.
In retrospect, I would have saved the $15 and paid $30 for a TWSBI Eco F. That said, there is a mental barrier to paying $30 for a pen, especially for beginners who are just testing out the waters. On the other hand, the Pilot Metro doesn’t really adequately represent the true pleasures of writing with a fountain pen—-it gives one glimpses but falls short of a full experience.
P.s. pen enthusiasts should check out the upcoming Chicago Pen Show. Yes, there’s a trade show for pens.
Well that is because the Japanese nibs are finer than the European counterparts, largely because of dense kanji characters. The rule of thumb is always go one size up for Japanese pen. I have a Metro M, it is smooth as butter.
I'm also eyeing the Twsbi Go line. If it write comparable to the Eco I'll purchase a bunch of them as gift (friends seem less intimidated by the unassuming pens)
+1 for the Pilot fountain pens for newbies to the fountain pen world. Great way to learn how to write properly with one without ruining expensive nibs.
Honestly, my writing fatigue has gone way down since I switched back to fountain pens years ago. The fact I don't have to press hard, and can control stroke width etc. with very light pressure changes has meant I can write longer (and neater) nowadays.
I still use my Pilot pens for everyday note taking etc. and for carrying around, as I don't mind if I lose one. I reserve my good pens for writing in my journals or ideas book when at home.
My one gripe with the Metro and it's cousin the Kakuno is that ink seems to evaporate in them much faster than other pens. I know it's my fault for having too many inked but still.
I got the TWSBI Go first before the Eco, because of the push the plunger to fill with ink, I would put it high for beginners also at a $19 price point and holds a lot of ink.
My Twisbi has never dried out, so I'm not sure. I clean it maybe every 3-4 months with cold tap water, usually whenever I want to switch colors. My rough understanding is that Noodler's ink becomes permanent because of a reaction with the cellulose in the paper -- it shouldn't have the same reaction to metals or plastics. I'm not super-up-to-date with the mechanics, so don't quote me on that. But regardless, I've never had any difficulty getting residue out of the pen.
Certainly if you spill it on your clothes, there is probably nothing reasonable you can do to ever get rid of that stain. Presumably that's the desired effect from a waterproof ink anyway though -- you don't want it to be removable.
As someone that still fills a notebook roughly every three months, these pens are actually pretty nifty. Most regular ballpoints aren't ergonomic at all (I don't know how to describe it, but they take way too much force to write with and that leads to hand cramps in a long writing session). Rollerballs are way easier on the hand, and I tipped over to buying refillable ones because someone introduced me to J. Herbin ink and now I hate writing with anything else.
I'm still very much a pen noob though - I just like vivid ink and not having a cramp after half an hour of steady writing.
Interesting. I use Muji gel ink ballpoint pens, typically 0.7mm tips, and they are they first pen I've found that hasn't given me cramps (found 0.5mm to be too scratchy feeling). So I haven't really looked much beyond them.
The comments in this thread lead me to the wikipedia article for rollerball pens, which mentions the ink being the main reason the pens require less pressure to write and therefore produce less stress on the hand.
Either way, I love Muji pens and Muji pads. Finding them has led me to actually start writing, which has led me to keeping a dev journal.
+1 for Muji pads, pens, and everything else. I like to think I'm generally a healthy adult male. I enjoy football, eating steak, driving fast. But inside a Muji store, I'm like a hysterical teenage girl at a Backstreet Boys concert. I just want to take home the entire store. Best explanation I can give is admiration of the basic-ness and pure utility of their products, intrinsically making them beautiful.
My experience with gel ink pens is that they're incredibly smooth to write with but that you go through refills a lot more often than with ballpoint or rollerballs.
I've settled on a Retro 51 Tornado. Nice price when I've bought them and they take a lot of different refills.
My nibs are always getting clogged and feel dull like it starts to lack the precision it once had where the nib once felt like it was exquisitely carving into the paper. Any tips on good nib hygiene or how to restore nibs?
I only have used Lamy fine and extra fine nibs, any recommendations for other companies?
Coarser nibs are harder to clog. Changing ink to a more liquid one can also help, and sometimes a given ink just does not go well with a given nib. I don't use the same nibs as you do but you can search forums for ink recommendations for your specific nibs.
If you want another fountain pen, I recommend the Platinum Century #3776. It has a locking mechanism that prevents ink from drying so it prevents clogging when the pen is not used for a few weeks. For me it works like a charm.
PS: Keep in mind that Japanese nibs like the Platinum are finer than European nibs. So for example a Platinum M should feel roughly like a Lamy F.
Make sure you flush and clean the pens every now and then (I do mine every 3 or 4 refills). The climate where I am means ink normally dries in the nib or ink channels if I leave them too long without using them, so a routine flush with tap water tends to keep the gunk out of the system and ensure smooth ink flow and good 'feel' between nib and paper.
Maybe it's the paper? I have a Lamy with a fine nib and it's amazing. I mostly use decent printer paper, but coarse paper like a typical composition book is not so great.
I switch mediums often which might be the reason. Typically I use my leuchtturm1917 notebooks which have decent weight paper that absorbs the ink nicely.
I think when I switch materials on occasion when I'm in a meeting and only have scrap paper, think some waxy coated film papers e.g. 3M post-it notes material, this is clogging my nib somehow. What do you think? I never made this connection before, might help me avoid some future grief if I can stick to proper fountain pen paper.
I'd bet its the scraps of paper and the post its. The nicer paper for fountain pens actually has some kind of finished surface, which prevents ink from bleeding much at all. For paper where ink bleeds a lot, the surface of the paper is becoming completely saturated to the point where your nib is scraping soft chunks of ink soaked paper up as you write. That's probably what does it. If some of the paper is waxy, that could also cause clogging.
Different inks might have better results on a wider variety of paper, but that's something you have to try until you get something that works. I generally always either keep a high quality notebook around or I just use felt tip pens and keep my fountain pen at home if good paper isn't available.
Black and Red makes a decent quality notebook that's a good amount cheaper than Rhodia, Leuchtturm, etc.
Also stay away from moleskin they are trendy garbage. Ink bleeds like crazy because the paper they fill them with is of incredibly poor quality.
I absolutely cannot stand medium nibs, it's horrible for smaller or narrow handwritings. Also, with a decent quality paper F nibs are just as comfortable to write with.
Try a Kaweco or Lamy medium nib with a Kaweco or Lamy blue ink. It doesn't write bold. Same can be said with Lamy nib + Lamy black ink.
Medium can mean a lot of things. My Parker Vector's medium nib with Parker's own ink is equal to broad on many other manufacturers. Kaweco's medium is almost equal to Lamy's fine.
All nibs become quite comfortable after they are shaped by your hand and writing :)
I have used Lamy M nibs for several years during school and they're too broad for my taste. Now, after several years of trying pencils I'm using a Faber-Castell studio with an f nib and it's very smooth, even with standard pelikan ink.
One of the features of a properly tuned fountain pen is that require zero friction or pressure to write. The reason for this is that they transfer ink to paper via capillary action so mere contact should be enough to put a line on the page.
I can't say erasure is a typical ability in fountain pen inks. In fact if you look into Noodler's Inks (two of the rollerballs mentioned come from Noodler's Inks) you'll notice that the creator of those inks leans the other way, toward forgery-proof, water-proof, tamper-evident, archival-quality, fade-resistant inks. Use those, and you'd be able to prove that you wrote it, and no one would be able to alter it.
That said, Noodler's provides "waterase" inks for use on material like whiteboards. Wipe the text away with a wet cloth.
I've recently taken to using a TWSBI Eco (fine) at work for note taking. I write maybe two to three pages a day. What amazed me about it is that the nib felt like using a pencil! It is tuned to run smoothly across the page, but provide a very subtle feedback to give it that feel.
> I can't say erasure is a typical ability in fountain pen inks
By volume, it is probably the majority of ink sold.
Several countries require children to use fountain pens at school, or still have widespreaf use even if it's no longer officially required. Germany, the UK, I think India.
The blue ink that everyone uses most of the time is erasable with a chemical eraser pen [1], which everyone in my class (in the UK) owned.
Other colours were not erasable, so my gothic rebellion (requiring me to write in black or red) meant I had to be correct first time.
Yep I remember the same forced fountain pen work too (also UK) and the inevitable ink-leaks in pencil cases, hands, books etc, and the fairly-awful erasers that went along with it.
The thing with the erasers was once you erased, the chemical was still on the paper so you could not re-write ont he erased parts. This meant you had to use the other-end of the eraser pen where there was a special blue ink pen. Often this would then "bleed" heavily (perhaps I didn't wait for the paper to dry?) and never looked the same as the fountain pen ink, so it was hugely obvious where you made a mistake as your normal wiring all looked normal, then you'd get this huge blurry fuzzy blue mess where you "erased" a mistake :-)
Maybe it's because someone (grandma?) bought me a mid-price (probably £15 or so) pen at the start of secondary school, but I don't remember that pen leaking. It seems more likely with a £3 thing from WH Smith.
I had the pen-from-grandma until I was about 30 years old, when it disappeared from my desk at work. "Made in W. Germany."
> Several countries require children to use fountain pens at school
Now I'm curious. Why is that? How are fountain pens different from regular pens when it comes to school? I've never even seen a fountain pen, let alone written with one (Canada).
The grip on the pen can (should) be much lighter, and the movement on the paper is smoother, so it's easier to write in a cursive script, and more comfortable to write a lot.
It's amusing to see discussions on fountain pens online. They're held in high regard by a section of HN, with discussions around ink type, importing Japanese nibs, using special paper and so on.
Mine cost €13 from a shop in Germany. It's a typical pen a high school student might own.
(You can buy them for as little as €4, although those are more likely to leak if dropped etc. Typical for a primary school student though.)
Why don't you try a mechanical pencil? A small diameter like .5mm is silky smooth, easily refillable, erasable, and you can get a nice ergonomic drafting pencil like a Pentel GraphGear, which feels really good in the hand.
The only mechanical pencil lead I've found that matches the smoothness of a good rollerball or fountain pen is Pilot Neox in 4B. Although it's my favorite pencil lead, it has the significant disadvantage of smudging easily.
They've got the pros of both mechanical and standard pencils without the flaws of both. I use one for writing and sketching and i've had the same pencil for 12 years now and still use it to this day. The refills can be a bit tricky to find though in stores. Art supply stores sometimes have them and i've seen them at places like staples.
When I was in high school, I bought a .9mm mechanical pencil, and it was glorious for standardized tests. Filling in circles was just a quick spiral inward, and the forms with rectangles were even easier — just a swipe across. I still have the thing, even though I haven't taken a multiple choice test in over a decade.
I work in a job where I have to sign things with a fountain pen for etiquette reasons. I wonder if this will give the same effect as a fountain pen but be more practical.
What matters is that it appears to have been a fountain pen when the recipient receives it. That's probably a combination of ink viscosity, pressure on the paper, things like that.
FWIW, it’s going away with the newer generation, but anyone in France over the age of 40-50 from an upper middle/higher class education would likely follow similar etiquette. Not sure if it’s still the case, but French students were required to use fountain pens from 1st grade till at least high school when i was growing up (as a leftie, being schooled by old school teachers who made you redo any assignment that had smeared ink was painful).
Our son was still required to write with a fountain pen and was graded on penmanship. He was in the French education system to CM2 until we moved to the US 3 years ago.
Yes! If there's one thing I always wanted out of good pens that don't leak or cause a mess, it's a way to make them leak and cause a lot of mess. Finally!
You're not very familiar with modern fountain pens, are you?
Most don't leak, and if you are really finicky about mess (like I used to be before children) you can fill them with a syringe... not a stray drop anywhere.
The utility (and cost-effectiveness in many cases) of bottled inks, and avoiding the landfill waste of using cartridges is worth the extra effort in cleaning and maintaining a fine instrument.
Nice, I was looking for something like this. I currently use a Lamy Al-Star with an ink converter (to use ink from a bottle instead of single-use cartridges). Really great for writing but sometimes I miss the speed and fluidity of a rollerball. Lamy also offer rollerball pens but only with single-use cartridges that are ridiculously overpriced (I think around 3 € for a single cartridge which might last a few weeks to months) compared to normal ink, which costs around 3-5 € for 30 ml and will last several years. My writing fills roughly one 100 page notebook per year, in addition I write down a lot of things on scrap paper as well.
Try a broader nib - with a larger surface it’s less scratchy. Also your nib probably needs a smoothing and tune up too! There’s many resources online to learn how to do that. In short very fine abrasives.
Flip the pen so you're writing with the nib backwards. Then gently press to re-align the tines. Then do a bunch of figure eights with the pen in the correct writing position on a brown paper lunch bag (around 5 minutes). Press down harder than how you'd normally write and see if that doesn't help.
I don't have the link any more but I believe there's a way to smoothen the nib by writing on fine graded 'smoothing paper', not sure what it's called in English, with a little bit of water. Also, I don't think soap is advisable, use filtrated water as tap water can contain minerals that might damage the nib. That's just some stuff that I remember, might not be 100% true. Maybe someone can provide a link.
A leuchtturm1917 notebook with pretty absorbent paper that soaks up the ink nicely. I switch paper though in meeting, so sometimes I will be using waxy coated paper e.g. 3M post-it notes, which I think is the main culprit clogging my pens. What do you think?
I went all the way to a fountain pen that I put a refillable cartridge into, currently a Cross silver beauty with Blue-Black ink from Japan - Gorgeous color.
Originally I studied and trained as an Architect - A lettering sheet a week to practice my hand lettering skills.
Rather than go into Architecture, I went into IT, eventually being a phone jockey providing tech support for half a decade. While trying to keep up (somewhat) with the conversation, my note taking speed meant my lettering quality went out the window.
So I bought my first fountain pen to force myself to slow down and spend more time lettering better. If I forget, my ink stained hands serve as a reminder. :)
I have only changed pens when I lose the previous (like once to the TSA along with a pocket knife, another time while using a shopping cart as a skateboard back to the market). Hopefully someone found that one and put it to use...
Although I do not like fat pens, the cartridge style cannot get too thin, which also means they are more pleasant to hold in the hand. That turned out to be important to me if significant time is spent using it.
I much prefer a ballpoint to rollerball or fountain, I grew up using a fountain pen and still have a couple of nice ones but they are just don't do it for me, rollerballs sacrifice the practicality of a ballpoint and the style of a fountain, why not just pick one or the other.
I went a little overboard with fountain pen ink a few years back and stopped using fountain pens until recently. I'm left handed, but my wrist placement (underhanded) doesn't cause any problems with ink smear. I found that using them for notes and summaries "slows me down" and I process information better. YMMV.
I use the Herbin ballpoint for quick notes and I really like it. For longer sessions, I'll whip up a Pilot Vanishing Point as I find that the added flex causes less fatigue. I also ordered Yookers felt tip pens that takes FP ink (https://yookers-shop.com/). I love the Sharpie pens, so if they feel the same, I might just hoard them and slowly empty my ink collection.
I'm an ambidextrous and writing by hand tends to be a tedious experience for me. Where many in this thread are enthusiasts or writing professionals, I rather want to convey a more utilitarian mindset. My goals are to have people understand what I write and not be in pain. For whatever reason, ballpoint pens and I can't mix with legibility. I believe it's the pressure and dragging that kills it for me. Pencil is also not great when writing with my left (because it smudges, using a #2.5 pencil helps a bit, but then I'm using more pressure to get the lines dark).
I found I could write much more legibly using a fountain pen, so I've been using them since 1st or 2nd grade. There's a ton of drawbacks to using fountain pens for everything daily. First, while rare, I'd still get leaks and ink on my hands. For instance, if I dropped the pen. Second, there's a bit of a maintenance burden on fountain pens, the nibs need to be cleaned from time to time. Finally, pretty much all of these inks will wash out if the paper gets wet, so it's super bad for legal documents. I like the Pilot Metropolitan fountain pens as they strike the right balance of affordability and quality. The Fine nib for me (correlates to EF from American/European companies) seems to be the sweet spot, Medium feels imprecise for me. Noodler ink seems great, I was previously using Schaeffer ink and it was just ok.
The latest pens I've come enjoy using are Pilot's Frixxion line. I grabbed on a whim awhile back and feel like every student of mathematics should know of these pens. They are a gel pen with fine point options but they can be 'erased' by rubbing a plastic nub on the back against paper. This heats up the paper and causes the ink to disappear. The effect can be reversed by throwing the paper in the freezer if erasure was unintended (or if a notebook was left in an extremely hot cat). I wish I had known about these pens when I was in school. Gel-type pens seem a bit more practical than fountain for daily carry or occasional use, not as good as a fountain but the ink seems to flow better than ballpoint and the tips don't get messed up like a felt pen.
EDIT: More on topic though, I have tried rollerball pens and did not like them. They seemed even less precise than ballpoints for me and skipped more. Terrible writing experience all around, would not do again.
Many Noodler's inks are waterproof and have served me well even for legal docs.
I've even found a bunch of other inks that aren't advertised as waterproof/resistant that ended up to be waterproof depending on the paper. For example J. Herbin Perle Noire on meh paper.
I do fine with them as an everyday carry, my gripe is mainly when I get a new pen, paper or ink knowing that a paper might not like a certain pen or ink.
First one is certified document proof, the others work the same, just that the used pigments are not as hardened against chemicals to allow strict iso certification.
They are both fast at drying and once dry, won't give a inch to water. Not even coloring the water and marking the rest of the paper, where it flowed.
I'd love to hear more about your experiences. I too am not a writing-inclined person (and prefer to do most of my notetaking digitally for that reason), and would love anything that makes the process more frictionless. Most of my writing tends to be of a mathematical nature, other than the more mundane tasks of signing legal documents.
This is difficult to approach. It's not so much that I don't like handwriting so much that it's something I have a great difficulty performing.
My background in handwriting starts in kindergarten when my teacher had me pick my right hand after I couldn't decide which hand I preferred to grip with (they had these little triangular rubber grip guides for the hands). A year or two later I would switch to my left when my right would cramp, as this hand learned whatever the right did just as easily.
There are many submissions on HN about neurodiversity, the way people think differently. I suspect that for the majority of the population, once they learn to write it's similar to walking: A largely automatic activity that doesn't require a huge amount of concentration to do. That's not been the case for me, maybe it's less brain lateralization, I don't know. I've begun to think more about it in recent years after a friend was diagnosed with ADHD a few years back. He is also someone with mixed-handedness and poor legibility. For him, being put on stimulant medication caused a dramatic improvement in his writing legibility. More recently, After I was no longer able to retain a secretary for note-taking in meetings I inquired about and received the same diagnosis. Stimulant medication has the same effect on me, for the first time in my life I can write legibly (if still slowly). I have no idea if this sort of medical approach would have helped my writing speeds if received while younger.
What I'm trying to convey is that I don't dislike writing, I just wasn't gifted with the physical ability to do it effectively. In the same sense, I might have also liked art courses if I could actually draw basic shapes without a ruler and compass.
In a discussion of pens, I feel that fountain pens can greatly help a person that might otherwise have difficulty penning in steady lines. It did for me at least. Keyboards have been even better. I can type so far above what I can write that writing is only left for my private notes, letters, and necessary legal documents like checks and tax stuff. I feel technology intervention in school would have been more helpful than providing better/alternative writing utensils and/or medicine but I was going through school before the schools were ready to provide it.
Thanks for that perspective. I too have fought with ADHD tendencies my whole life and have also had similar issues with art and penmanship, and switched to digital notes as early as possible for these reasons, but find myself needing more actual pen and paper as I do more architecture work. Thanks for opening my eyes to something I thought was always closed to me.
There are fast-drying fountain pen inks designed especially for left-handed overwriters. Have a look at Noodler's Bernanke series, for example: https://noodlersink.com/product-tag/fast-drying/
Funny story, the inks are named that as a commentary on Quantitative Easing. So much cash had to be printed so quickly, you see, that Bernanke really needed the ink to dry really fast...
I guess I don’t quite get it. The inks are the least good thing about fountain pens - the ink drys slow and often doesn’t well on cheap paper.
I personally love fountain pens. The style, the tech, the aesthetic, everything. So this to me seems like a step back - and the writing end breaks every 20-30 fills!
How well a fountain pen writes on cheap paper depends very much on the ink. Several years ago, when I first became interested in fountain pens, I exchanged ink samples with other enthusiasts, and tried many different inks. I had the best results with Noodler's Black, which avoided feathering or bleed-through even on cheap paper. I got through a 3oz jar of it, and I'm currently using a 3oz jar of Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin, which I don't like as much. Next jar will be the normal Noodler's Black again.
Nib size also makes a difference; this was with an extra fine nib on a Lamy Safari.
I'm currently working my way through a bottle of Noodler's Dark Matter. Really well behaved ink, though I'll likely trade-up to Noodler's X-Feather (anti-feather black) or plain black.
I have samples of Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and Lexington Gray that I'm looking forward to trying.
The advantage of fountain ink is that it flows with minimum pressure, you barely need to touch the paper. This is noticable if you write for hours, but few do these days.
Good paper doesn’t even have to be too expensive either. Maybe more than a college ruled notebook. But I don’t take copious notes so something aesthetically nice to use is a big plus for me.
OT but on topic of choosing writing instruments. My personal go to are the pilot G2 rollerball gel ink pens - preferably 1 mm tip. They feel very smooth. Look more authoritative somehow too. Can be bought by he dozen.
If anyone knows of a 1mm rollerball that can handle acrylic (pigment-based) ink please post it here. While Molotow has several nice pen nibs they are plastic and wear out sooner than I would like.
I use a western broad for most of my writing. I would also recommend Lamy Safari as a good beginners pen because of its ease of use and wide variety of nib choices.
>If you check out Unsharpen’s Ink Types Guide, you’ll see that while rollerball ink is great, fountain pen ink is quite special.
Oh, ok, so I'll follow that link, and...
>It is, of course, the ink used in fountain pens, but it takes thousands of forms. The ink can be in a bottle or cartridge, it can be iron gall or water-based, it can be handmade or produced by the vat, it can be lubricated, fluorescent, quick-drying, or any number of other qualities. [...] Fountain pen inks are a looser, more watery consistency compared to all other pen inks. This means they are free-flowing and prone to splashing, forming droplets, and doing other things that have been known to ruin countless shirts.
Ok... So if I an to recap... The only real reason to use a ball pen with fountain ink is so I can refill it with whatever ink I like? OK, HN, I have some particular interests as well, but this is about the article of least importance I've ever seen on here.
It's as if all my other problems in life have been solved and I can be a pen/ink hipster? Maybe for someone, but I guess I'm just not there yet!
I thought the exact opposite. This is one of those cases where my professional interests (being a tech employee, product designer) and personal interests come together. I was super excited and happy to see this post. I havent been more excited about a post on HN for quite a while. For more detail I will paste my recent comment on a semi related HN topic (using text files and an organization method, which I dont, but I do use an old school notebook).
I do something similar but with paper and pen. I purchase customized laboratory notebooks that have my name and a serial number embossed on the front and otherwise blank pages. I write down every meeting I attend (or call into), the date and time of their start and stop, all the attendees names, as well as regular to do lists, action items, etc. After years of doing this I have a nicely curated collection of notebooks that look great on the shelf and give me a sense of pride and history on my work. I took the inspiration from George Washington's diarys which are in the library of congress. I also use a fancy fountain pen with beautiful blue ink which my wife purchased for me that adds an extra bit of personality to the whole experience. https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/gwdiary.html
There are many people who would react to some tech folks' passion for mechanical keyboards in much the same way you have here. I wonder if you'd think those people are being absurdly dismissive of experiences outside their own for no real reason.
I'm not into pens, so maybe sometime who is can shed light on the specifics. In general, I see this as any other hobby that can be taken to obsessive levels. I see it as similar to, for example, building your own PC and making sure all parts are color matched and all cables are routed in an esthetically pleasing ways, or growing Bonsai.
You can draw a close parallel to mechanical keyboards. If you spend all day behind a keyboard, it makes sense to invest in a good experience. If you spend all day writing, it makes sense to have a nice pen.
If you value handwriting, it makes sense to invest in a good pen and high-quality paper. I have a decent fountain pen and notebooks and it not only makes handwriting more fun, I also noticed that I remember more of what I write down than when using a PC.
I've always liked to write things. I got into FPs a couple years ago because it's less pressure and the color selection.
Re: obsession/cost, it is what you make it.
I know folks who won't buy a pen over $5, others who think nothing of dropping $200-$1000.
I know pen folks that have a single bottle of ink and a single pen or two. Others that have dozens of pens and shelves of inks. Ink is relatively cheap. I have a bottle that cost me $20, came with a free pen, is waterproof ink and will last me about 130-200 refills. Another one was $5 for like 60-100.
How long a refill will last depends on a lot of variables(ink qualities, paper absorbency, flow, nib size) but it is possible to do this hobby for the same amount or cheaper than buying single use pens. For example,
The cheapest good pen you can buy without waiting for a month for it to come from China is a Platinum Preppy for $4. You can buy a pack of 10 cartridge refills for 6.75. That brings the price per use down to $0.97, comparable to what it would cost for a low to mid-grade ballpoint. If you instead decide to go for the real amortized savings and buy a bottle and either refill the cartridge via syringe/get a converter, you could reasonably get down to $0.50 per refill.
Even cheaper are the pen brands from abroad that have some models that cost a dollar for the pen and the converter(converter alone can be up to $8 if bought separately with some pens). You could even beat Bic prices. Priced out to as low as 7 cents per refill if you get cartridges in bulk and don't care what the ink is(1USD for pen + ~7USD for 100 cartridges).
It doesn't have to be this bespoke money pit hobby. One thing I have noticed is that zero people borrow pens from me now so I don't have to replace the pens that used to grow legs and walk off.
There are many reasons why I enjoy the hobby of fountain pens in particular and pens in general. They range from aesthetic, to mnemonic, to a feeling of connection to history. For me, there are even philosophical reasons to enjoy facets of the hobby. I'll try to break them down and elaborate.
The parts of a fountain pen can be beautiful in their simplicity and in their appearance. Some of the finer pens have an exquisite beauty that comes from rare lacquers, like the Urushi process[1]; rare and dangerous tree sap turned into careful patterns. These materials change over time with use, becoming ever more personal as you use and care for them. Beautifully crafted nibs that hold patterns and designs expressing logos, orbits, flowers, coats of arms, all in a tiny space are wonderful to me. The pens themselves can be little works of art.
Underlying all of that, even in the less expensive pens, you have very basic principles of physics and fluid dynamics coming together to support one of the most basic human freedoms: self-expression in words and pictures. In some senses, this form of self-expression, when well-used, can be an elevating facet of one's daily life. I find the possibilities here beautiful, and feel a connection to that potential when using pens.
There is craftsmanship to appreciate in a well-made fountain pen. Like a well-made tool, or a well-made ship, sword, table... you name it... Using something so well-suited to the task of writing is a pleasure all on its own. Even the ritual involved in caring for a fine implement is a pleasure. Disassembling the pen into its component parts and cleaning it out holds the promise of refilling and more writing; the exploration that will come with new inks and new thoughts. This also gives me satisfaction.
Then there is the tinkering aspect. Many pens can be adjusted to the suit the wants and needs of their wielder. Swapping out nibs to gain different effects during formation of the letters, tuning nibs to your preferences, playing with different filling mechanisms... All of these also bring enjoyment.
Aesthetics, craftsmanship, and tinkering aside, there is the act of writing with these fine devices. I derive satisfaction from having filled a notebook page with text, even if it is just meeting notes. When it is actual expression, organized thought or expressed feeling, so much the better. Every stroke upon the page, every word chosen, every scribble in confusion was something I did. It was a small part of me, existing in this stream of reality, made evident on paper. No one else could have produced exactly what I did on the page, for better or worse. I'm not saying it has any intrinsic value to anyone but me, but I find it a very satisfying activity.
There have been a number of studies linking the activity of handwriting, painting, and drawing to good effects on executive function, and, in the case of journaling, to emotional well-being. I won't claim this is why I do it, but I can give anecdotal evidence that I've noticed improvements in memory and my ability to manage anxiety. I realize this is the "citation needed" portion of the comment. I'll have to search for those later [2].
Even if these weren't factors, I choose to write; for pleasure, for work (notes on paper are far quieter than rude tapping on a keyboard during meetings), and sometimes to occupy my hands. That said, I want a means that is an improvement over disposable plastic pens that get tossed in landfills. If I seek pens that are not disposable, it leads me to fountain pens and fountain pen ink. A 4.5 oz. bottle of Noodler's Ink, and the free fountain pen that comes with it, are more worthwhile than dozens of disposable pens.
Even with the more expensive pens, you will get use from them for decades, perhaps even more than one lifetime. I will admit, however, that practicality is the least of my reasons for digging in to the pen hobby.
Personally, I also get a sense of connection to history. This is so even when using the modern refinements brought to these instruments. When I use pen and ink, I join a long tradition of people who left their mark upon the page. From scribes copying manuscripts and writing digests in the catalogs at Alexandria, to the letters penned and exchanged between famous scientists, authors, composers, and politicians; I get to feel a sense of joining them. Not in significance, or in the impact of my words, but I can imagine some tenuous connection to those people. They, like me, took pen in hand and wrote. In some minute sense, I am like them.
For the pen's connection to freedom of expression, I will also forever love the hobby.
I haven't even mentioned inks in all of this, as that would extend this post far longer than I have time for.
What has any of this to do with hacking? Writing is an act of creation, just like woodworking (the original hacking), or coding. Just as we discuss mechanical keyboards, programmer's editors, and programming languages for software construction, pen, their construction, alteration, care, and the inks used with them, are similar.
These are some of the reasons I like pens. Your mileage may vary. And yes, I wrote this out with a fountain pen first.
In particular, I've used a Fine nib Twisbi Eco (~$30) for multiple years now as my main pen, and I consider it to be one of the better purchases I've ever made. It's cheap enough that I can throw it into a bag or my pocket alongside my keys without worrying too much about it getting scratched or stolen, but it still looks reasonably nice, writes beautifully, holds a ton of ink, and is just a joy to use. There are cheaper pens out there, but I really like having a piston-fill pen, and I think it's just a really good quality, versatile, fun line -- there are even a lot of different color options.
I can describe mechanically why a fountain pen feels good, but I can't really convey how it feels. The best thing I can say is that it takes something that's very mundane (writing) and it makes it feel a tiny bit more pleasurable and 'extravagant' (for lack of a better word). I write a lot, I fill notebooks with handwritten notes. With a fountain pen, it just feels good to write. My handwriting has improved a lot, particularly my cursive -- I suspect in part because I pay more attention to what I'm writing. It's easy to take care of, but it feels good to occasionally wash it out and switch to a new ink color. It feels nice to use permanent things.
I've seen a few people talking about avoiding fountain pen ink even in the rollerballs because they dissolve in water. On that note I will swear by Noodler's Black Waterproof ink. I've completely submerged and soaked pages that I wrote on with that ink, and not only does it not dissolve, it does not even smudge. It's really crazy. One of the really nice things about fountain pens is that there's such a wide variety of colors and styles and glitters, and it just adds to this feeling of making your handwriting feel more expressive and personal. It makes total sense to me that rollerball users would want to be able to use the same ink.