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Hi, I'll be going to college in a few weeks and I want to keep using my fountain pens; but I don't want to bring the easy to break fragile glass bottles that most inks come in into the chaos of college life. Is there a more durable way to store my ink?

Hello! I am looking for a new or gently used fountain pen for college. My daily writer for the past six years has been a Pilot Vanishing Point. While I love the look and feel of the pen it can be too heavy for extended writing sessions and the ink capacity leaves much to be desired. I prefer a fine line and have been spoiled by the Vanishing Point. My price range is around $100. Thanks for the help!

Hello Fountain Pen Network! As I mentioned in the title I am a journalist who is moving on to college in the fall. As a journalist, it is very important for me to be able to handwrite quickly, accurately and legibly. But unfortunately up to this point I have struggled with this endeavor because my handwriting is so terrible. I can usually read it, but for others it is typically borderline illegible. Below I have attached a sample of my writing so you can see just how bad it actually is. What's worse is that my handwriting is bad in both print and cursive. I'm pretty sure I'm applying to much pressure with my grip and on the paper but I'm not sure what else I really do wrong. What do you guys recommend I do to improve my hieroglyphics/chicken scratch into something that is legible and pretty? I have also been looking into some different pens and notebooks to buy for classes in the fall. In high school, I used whatever pen I could find to write in my beloved Moleskine or the four plastic covered Mead Five Star Wide Ruled notebooks in my bag. For college, I would like to step it up a bit so I have been looking at some different pens, namely the Uni-Ball Signos and the Pilot Metropolitan, and also some different notebooks like the Rhodia Wirebound A4 and the line Maruman Mnuemosyne in A4 and B5. What do you guys think of these choices, especially considering I am a poor college student? For the pen should I be using a fine, medium or bold tip? Will a fountain pen make my handwriting better? Any pens and/or notebooks you guys would recommend for my stated goals?

Hey all you college kids like me who use the fountain to take notes/general writing. Decided to see how many of us are on the forum. I apologize if theres already a topic like this one, I couldn't find one! Anyway. Lets give each other a picture of where, how, and when we use our pens. I am an American Student but would be totally open to hearing about students studying in other countries and their experience. Heres some loose guidelines to start the discussion. 1. Age(if desired), The school you go to, Etc... 2.When did you start using pens? 3. How do you use them? 4. The pens in your collection... 5. Whats the general response of others(peers)? 6. Why use a fountain pen? Cheers

So i've been wondering this for a bit regarding a good ink for university everyday use. I like a wet ink, mainly because of the extra smoothness they seem to offer any given pen. However, the requirements for my daily university ink would have to be fairly fast drying and well behaved so i would imagine they wouldn't mix. Though if you do know of a fast drying ink that seems smooth in the pen be sure to let me know! So the requirements for my ink, preferably, is: -also, i know some of these properties may not mix, but it's worth a shot. Fast Drying Works good on cheap paper Permanent Smooth Feel Blue/ Black/ Mediocre colored ink Reliable?/Not prone to hard starting - an ink that's not prone to dry out fast if the cap is left off a few seconds. -I know this can rely on the pen performance also/ assume the pen is in tip top shape! So, any inks come to mind?

Hi, I've been using fountain pens for a year now and i have a parker sonnet and a parker 45 that i use mainly at home. I also have a pilot prera and a kaweco sports classic both with fine nib that i use in college to take notes. Now i want to purchase a new pen, not only to extend my "collection" but also to have in rotation with the two i use in college. Here are my options so far: 1) buy another prera - i can get them arround 32€ directly from japan. i really like the fine nib and i have small hands so the size of the pen is perfect. 2) buy a kaweco al-sport (60€) - an aluminum version of the sports classic, i like the design of the pen, and they are really small, but the ink capacity is limited (i reffil the standard small cartriges with a seringe). 3) twsbi 580 (60€) - i've never tried one but it seems to have a large ink capacity, but maybe a little too big and flashy to use in college? 4) lamy 2000 - this one is much more expensive than the others but i like the way the nib is "disguised". it seems that when you're using it people didn't notice it is a fountain pen, which is a plus for me. Please let me know your oppinion. i'm looking for a durable and a pen to use in a daily basis that goes unnoticed by most people. Thank you

Greetings FPN members! I'm relatively new to the fountain pen community but having just gotten started, I thought it would be great to join a place like here to learn more. I'm from the wonderful state of NH and currently a sophomore attending college in central Ohio. I just got introduced to fountain pens when a friend got me a Lamy Safari M nib and I've been hooked to learning to use fountain pens day to day. I don't have much of a collection of pens yet since I can't really afford much (yay college student life) and am still using cartridges for now but I hope I can expand to a converter and other pens sometime soon. I look forward to learning from you all!

Would A5 or semi-B5 paper be better for note taking? I checked out the Kokuyo Systemic refillable notebook cover and they seem really great. But they only come in 2 sizes. I feel like it would be good to get the A5 size because there are more notebooks in that size available, whereas the semi-B5 notebooks are a bit more difficult to find. But, I feel like I would go through A5 notebooks really fast. I want the Systemic because I would be able to fit 3 notebooks in it and I wouldn't have to really worry about anything getting torn up too bad, but if there is a similar product, please share!

Has anybody tried either the Clairefontaine or Rhodia 3 hole punch notebooks? I want to get some good loose leaf paper - not the stuff that you can practically see through whatever you are looking at. I have some from last year and it bleeds through like it's nobody's business. Or would I be better off getting a notepad and using a three hole punch?

Hi, me again! Now, next year, I'll be taking five modules of History and a German module at University. My question is... what inks do these modules make you think of? Public History (How History is perceived by the public) - my first thought was brown. Probably an indication of how dull it sounds! Piracy and Privateering - might use my Waterman's Green for this. Thinking About the Past - purple, possibly? TBA TBA German - Red?