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I'm curious to know what the process has been like for people to find their favorite inks. How long did it take? How many similar shades did you try before you found The One (i.e. your favorite blue or black or red, or whatever "shade" you were looking for)? Are there certain tests that you do with an ink to see if it will make it to your favorites? How many different inks do you have that you consider your favorites? Anything else you want to share about finding your favorite inks is welcome!

If you are (God Forbid) about to choose one fountain pen brand that you enjoy the most and would stick to for the the rest of your life to use, which brand would it be, which pen/s exactly and why so? share your experience with the brand and how many pens do you own from them!

For those FPN members at least somewhat familiar with vintage Esterbrook fountain pens, what is your favorite among the many vintage Esterbrook nibs? One might ask in reply, "Favorite for which purpose?" Let's not get bogged down in technicalities. If you want to discuss your favorite for a particular purpose, feel free to do so. At this point, I use my vintage Esterbrooks for general writing and my signature. My favorite is the # 9788 -- flexible medium. I enjoy the modest springiness of the nib as I write, and to me it has an overall luxurious feel when writing. What say you?

Hey Y'all! What are your favourite fountain pens?! I love my Parker Sonnet with the Black Parker Quink Ink! -Charles

I'm just curious about what your favourite Edison pen is or what it would be if you had one. From all those materials and pens. I would have a Huron in Slate Lemon/Lime(Sadly, I am still a high school student, so I am saving up for university). I think that Slate Lemon/Lime is one of my favourite materials I've ever seen. Although, I have never seen a PEN made from it, just the samples. Also, if you have pictures of what it is even better and feel free to share.

Hello again to all my FPN friends, One of the interesting things for me about this hobby is how easily and suddenly my preferences for a particular design or color can change. I never use yellow for anything other than highlighting and previously would have thought something like a yellow pen to be tasteless or just plain weird. Then I saw these: WingSung 601 LE (Photo courtesy of Frankunderwater) Penbbs 308 Mango Yellow After seeing these beauties, something in my head snapped and I knew I must have an audacious and bold yellow pen! Sadly, the WS is a limited edition with an inconvenient filling system and the Penbbs 308 won't work for me for other reasons. Now the hunt is on. What's your favorite yellow pen?

Hey guys. I just recently got into fountain pens and *instantly* fell in love. I can't get enough of it. That said, I'd like to (hopefully) start a massive thread getting to know what some of everyone's favorite inks are. I have been sampling inks like crazy in the last two weeks and I would love to add to the collection; as well as help others decide what inks they might want to try out themselves, so... To start us off, out of the ones I've sampled so far (only have sampled about 10 out of the 40 I ordered so just listing the favorites of the ones I know), my favorites are: Pilot Iroshizuku: "Kon-Peki" and "Momiji" Noodler's: "Apache Sunset" Diamine: "Flamingo Pink" Fire away!

Hello again to all my FPN friends, We all have those combinations of pen and ink that bring us pure bliss and lift us out of the mundane world to new heights of inky euphoria. What I would love to read about is your favorite combinations, exactly why they are your favorite, and your description of the experience. It's important to explain your reasoning because everyone likes a different kind of writing experience (e.g., buttery smooth vs. slight feedback, etc.). Knowing your preferences would help other readers in discerning whether or not your favorite combinations would also be suitable for them as well. Personally, I'm looking forward to reading your responses because I selfishly want to have as many Zen pen experiences as possible. Before some smart aleck posts something like, "I only use inks that write perfectly in all my pens" or "all my pens write perfectly with all my inks," anyone who has been in this hobby long enough knows that different combinations of ink, pen, and paper create different writing experiences (or, in some cases, disasters). I'm curious to know which combinations give you the most enjoyable writing experiences. In order to narrow down the variables, let's focus on your favorite pen and ink combinations for writing on standard copy paper (70gsm or similar). Since that type of paper is available in pretty much every part of the world and is what most of us are stuck using whenever out of the house, it will allow for the most people to try the combination. Although it's fine to include the visual effects that make the writing experience lovely (color of the ink, sheen, etc.), what I'd really like to read about is the feeling when you write. After having many amazing colors that make my pens feel like writing with sandpaper or molasses, I'd like to focus on ink/pen combinations that just feel downright amazing when you right. Let me start us off with two amazing experiences I had this week: Combo 1 - Materials: Penbbs 308 with JoWo #6 1.1 Oblique Cursive Italic (ground my fpnibs.com) + Sailor Jentle Miruai Experience: I prefer ultra buttery smooth feel for quick daily writing and this combination is downright amazing. The pen is light and well balanced with some nice girth to the section, making it extremely comfortable for even my somewhat small hands. The nib isn't as forgiving as a stub, so I have to pay attention to keeping consistent pen angle and avoiding over rotation. However, when I do keep everything in alignment, this nib and ink combination feels like writing on a silken cloud. You know there is something underneath but it doesn't feel like paper....just pure smooth goodness. Combo 2 - Materials: Delike New Moon 2 F nib + Noodler's Ink Prime of the Commons (4:1 dilution with water) Experience: This combination surprised me. PotC has been too wet or too dry in many of my pens, but for some reason just flows perfectly in this pen. It's just dry enough to allow some slight shading and bring out the green component in the ink with no feathering or bleedthrough (the dilution fixes that). This writing experience is a little different from Combo 1. You feel a little bit more of the paper underneath, but it's still buttery smooth and has some added bounce (not softness or flex) when writing that is delightful. This is one of those combinations where I can write on the paper without actually having to make full nib-paper contact. Can't wait to read some of your blissful experiences!

I have a thing about clear/transparent pens. They don't necessary have to be a demonstrator, but any clear parts attract me. My favorites so far are Omas 630, Franklin Christoph P66 with Italian Ice and Stipula Etruria Blue. What is your favorite clear/transparent pen(s)?

This has probably been posted in one form or another before, but why not find out once again. What is your ultimate favorite combination of Pen/Ink/Paper, the best that you could possibly think of, your idea of a perfect writing experience? For me at least, it's my Noodler's Konrad (with my adjusted nib) HP 32 lb Paper, and Iroshizuku kon-peki. How about you?

I was writing with my Conklin Mark Twain today and just really enjoying everything about the pen from its buttery smooth nib to its well balanced weight. After writing some lines I set the pen down, picked up my Esterbrook J, and walked out the door to head to an interview for a new job (I got the job, by the way). I did this because as much as I enjoy my Conklin, it just does not write well on cheap paper. My Esterbrook J (with an Osmiroid Medium Italic nib), on the other hand, is an excellent choice for use with cheap paper. It is what I am most likely to bring with me when I know that I will be dealing with junk paper. I have it perpetually loaded with Lamy blue-black ink, and ready to go anytime that I need to write on my daughter's school stuff, random employment papers, or official forms. It is the pen that I pick up when I do not know about the quality of paper that I am about to write on. I think that most of us have a go-to pen and ink combination for use with cheap paper. I am curious to hear what other folks use for the random bits of junk paper that they may encountered on a daily basis, so tell us about the pen and ink combos that you use for those questionable quality pages that you happen across. Is your go-to pen and ink for use on cheap paper different than your every day pen and ink? How much does the anticipation of dealing with cheap paper affect your choice in what you carry out the door?

If you have any inks that you would recommend for an expensive or a vintage fountain pen, what would it be? If you have a list of them, I would love to see that. Feel free to also say what inks you would specifically stay away from when using expensive pens. Currently I only have 2 inks, one is a black Parker Quink which I like a little bit. Not a huge fan, but if I need a black, it gets the job done. The other one is Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, which I love so very much. It's the nicest blue I have ever seen by far. However, I did notice that it stained the feed of my Metropolitan blue as well. So I decided that I would never let that happen if I were to get a more expensive or a vintage pen. More so a vintage pen because I respect vintage items and would rather not do something that will make it changed forever (I have 2 vintage saxophones that I use, I freak out even if I barely tap them against a music stand, chair, or another person's instrument). Does anyone else have this problem with Liberty's Elysium? For some reason I thought only Baystate colors had that problem. If you need to know what colors I'm particularly interested in, well, personally I prefer either a gold-brown, green, regular brown, blue-green, grey, and blue. However, I already have a blue and would like to get either a green, blue-green, brown/gold-brown, or grey. I am well aware that there is such thing as grey-greens and gold-greens as well as other combination colors, those apply to the things I wouldn't mind trying out.

Considering the ever expanding colors and editions of the Lamy Safari/ Al-Star lineup, I was wondering what colors are the most sought after here on FPN. Do you own that particular favorite or are you looking for it? In my personal case, it's got to be the Coffee Al-Star and the NK-edition Charcoal with red clip. What's yours?

More Questions! Part I is here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/297456-survey-favorite-this-favorite-that/?p=3461273 If you answered "Other" then please leave your answer in a reply! Thanks!

I like data. Give me data. Part II is here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/297457-survey-favorite-this-favorite-that-part-ii/

Hi everyone, I am planning to buy some Iroshizuku ink for my fountain pen. Whats your favorite Iroshizuku color? Thanks

Hello Everyone, Hi, whats your favorite fountain pen accessory that you have are using or have used? Thanks

Hi everyone, What is your favorite kind of paper you use for your Fountain Pens?

we all have our favorite pen-and-ink matches, and perhaps some matches work better than others, but over time, i suspect we tend to settle on certain inks for certain pens. this afternoon, just for fun, i set up and took this shot of the pens in my current rotation, and the inks that go into each of them. these choices and matches aren't graven in stone (well, maybe 70% of them are), but like many of you, my basic principle is to get an ink that's pretty close to the color of the pen, so i don't have to wonder what's in it. here's my current line-up: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5499/12183016753_d538e4bc41_c.jpg pelikan blue-black in the agatha christiediamine oxblood in the vacumatic OSr & k sepia in the oscar wildemontblanc carlo collodi in the CS marlboroughr & k alt-goldgrun in the onoto magnapelikan brilliant brown in the faber-castell pernambucoaurora black in the MB 100th anniversary here's another look: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/12183416796_29df685d1f_c.jpg let's see your combos!

During the course of writing French, I realised that I hate the cursive letter z. Not the capital, but the lowercase. It's the bane of my writing. In an otherwise okay-looking sea of letters, my z sits there awkwardly like a slightly overweight and tall child who always catches ball with his face (we all know that kid in the class. I was him). As those who have taken French or speak it may very well know, the letter z appears everywhere in French. Not so much in English. I am seriously considering using tutoyer for the rest of my life at the risk of being rude to everybody. (Okay, clearly this is unrealistic. But still, I hate z's that much.) Do you have such a letter, that you just can't get right, no matter how much you seem to practise? I've managed to overcome my fear of Ts, but z's seem to defeat me at every turn.