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Hello everyone on the Fountain pen network! I hail from the beautiful island of Cyprus, the place that inspired the Caroube de Chypre ink by J. Herbin. A land where the fountain pens are definitely not common. I have been using fountain pens for close to 15 years but only recently got into collecting pens and just discovered the amazing world of inks! Like mentioned above, fountain pens are not common here (except for some parker pens and 1-2 parker inks) and people are still surprised if the see you writing with a fountain pen. This make me a bit of an oddity I guess, but it's something I'm used to as I am also left-handed. I recently also discovered that mr. Lambrou is a Cypriot, which made me feel much better about how oblivious of fountain pens my country is. I love the whole process of inking, writing, capping and uncapping, cleaning and maintaining fountain pens, and it's what drove me to pursue it further. I am generally a collector of various items, especially things connected to history. Always open to having a chat with people around the globe! Anyway, looking forward to connecting with you all and learning more about this amazing hobby/lifestyle.

What brand to you see as underestimated in the marketplace and with collectors? For me, it's Wearever, I have several and they are great pens. I have three Zenith pens with gold nibs, all are great writers and less than $25. I have a Burgandy colored pen with Parker Brown ink and it writes smooth with just a hint of feedback on some paper. The pen is always ready to write, which is more than I can say for some of my better brand pens. One of my newest pens is a Pennant. This pen has a unique nib advertised to always be ready to write. It's a medium, but closer to a fine medium. What's cool about the nib is that when you flip it over and reverse write, it does a good job and makes a nice extra fine line. More toothy, but not unusable by any stretch. Everyone is gaga about Esterbrook, which was in the same market as Wearever, but their pens are more in demand. Few have gold nib and none of those can be bought for a $20. I'm sure there are some Wearevers that aren't vintage, just rubbish, but that goes for all brands.

I am interested in hearing from those who regularly use multiple pens. Some specific questions: How frequently do you move from one pen to another? What are the maintenance issues associated with the use of multiple pens? How do you motivate yourself to use pens that are not among your favorites?I have, until recently, used only one pen. I now have a small number of pens, and I am concerned about how to properly take care of pens that I no longer use on a daily basis. I also find myself favoring some pens over others--espceially new pens that I have acquired. I am sure it is common that the novelty of having a new pen leads one to favor it. There may be other issues to deal with when one begins to use an assortment of pens. I welcome comments on this topic, and I hope we may all benefit from sharing your approach to these issues.

Forgive me if this has been covered before and steer me to the threads if so. I now have a few vintage Parker 51s, both Aerometrics and Vac Fillers ... Are there any modern inks that can be recommended as favorable to use in these vintage stars? Are there any that should be avoided? I like to err on the side of caution for instance, and use only MB inks (which I find superior to a great many for lots of reasons) in my Meisterstuck for instance. I would not expect to have problems using most Noodler's inks in my Ahabs and Konrads, for instance. But what about vintage Parkers? I have recently used some Sheaffer Black Scrip in a Parker 51 Special with good results and no issues. Ideas? Thanks ....

So my dad has this awesome collection of Aurora Pens and wants to sell them. They are all in mint condition, never touched, never used. He basically had them locked away in a closet for a long time, never even put them on display. Below I have attached a picture of one of them, which is very similar to the others. Neither him nor I know anything about these pens so I was hopping someone could help me out with an estimate of how much they're worth. I'm planning on posting them in the classifieds section. So any information would be great. Thanks