Fountain Pens

My most expensive pens went years ago, an old "faceted" VP, a Platinum 3776, Rotring 600, and a Pelikan M200 upgraded with a gold BB stub. Of the four, the Pelikan is the only one I regret selling.

Currently inked are a Hero 330 (ground down to a soft BB italic), an XF Cross Solo (steel nib made my namiki/Pilot), and a M Pelikan Jazz cartridge pen. The most expensive pens I have left are a mid-range Sheaffer Triumph lever-fill (I re-sacced it myself, so I kept it), a Parker 51 "special" (i.e. steel, but they promised it was nice!), and I guess my Aurora Style is considered slightly more high end than it used to be (or maybe I've just repressed how much I paid for it umpteen years ago).

My collection has grown, but I still like to use my inexpensive pens. My Pilot Metropolitan (fine) is among my favorites, although I find it dries out fairly quickly.

All my early pens are snap caps. I've come to understand screw caps seal better. I guess I better get writing so that ink doesn't dry up!

I have probably 15 or 16 pens and purchased them all within the space of a couple of years during the early pandemic. Many of them have swapable nibs too and I purchased the complete range of nib sizes for them. Honestly the end result of all of these options turning up in a short amount of time is that I can't tell you a favorite. That doesn't mean I love them all the same. That would be great! What it means is that I never gave myself the chance to get to know a pen/nib long enough to know I loved it.

All my pens are boxed away right now but when I open the box again I'm going to be very regimented in just removing one or two pens at at time and using them exclusively for a few months. It will be like New Pen Day's all over again for a couple of years and I hope to enjoy them and get to know them this time rather than using them for a week and then chasing the next pretty thing.

I have a lot of other pens, but I almost always prefer to use my Pelikan M400. It's the perfect size for me and it is as smooth as butter. It is my daily driver.

Yes! I have three Lamy2000s I never use (I know, blasphemy), but I use my TWSBI 700Vac Mini daily. I have other, far more expensive pens, but the ones I use most are my TWSBI and a Pilot Custom 823.

I love that this community has so many differing opinions; just reading about it let’s me learn without having to try every pen and ink myself.

Who knows? I might even try those Lamy 2000s again.

I tend to rotate between a 2 or 3 of mine. I have a Twsbi AL Mini that I use a lot as my everyday carry, and when I'm at home I tend to use my Twsbi diamond 580 or my Teranishi Guitar. In those pens the nibs that come with them are pretty nice (esp for the price) and I keep my favorite inks in them so I always those inks available.

Yup. I love my TWSBI Ecos, though my Lamy 2000 is also a workhorse. I have a few Pilot Capless pens but I haven't had much luck with the nibs - pretty disappointing given the cost. I also appreciate that I don't worry about the cheaper pens and feel more comfortable using them as tools.