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Good morning, afternoon or evening! I'm new to both the forum and to fountain pens, I only started my collection last year in February. I'm a criminology nerd, and you'll typically find me rambling about crime novels I've read or documentaries I've binged. Sticking with the theme of pens, I'm always writing or jotting down ideas for stories/characters, along with rambling into my journal. I've been writing since I were an egg, but couldn't always enjoy it as I had a terrible habit of death gripping my pens and pushing down on paper like I was trying to stab through it. As such, I've had a very on and off relationship with my hobby, until I was recommended a fountain pen to stop me from pushing down, bought a LAMY Safari in an eBay auction, and into the downward spiral of addiction I spun. I've been plowing through ink bottles since! Over this past year, in terms of pens, I'd say I've really developed a love for my Jinhao X450. I don't feel I need to be delicate with it like I do with my LAMY Studio, so it's the work horse of my small collection. As for inks, because I write a lot I'm pretty boring for my ink preferences: blues and blacks, though occasionally I'll buy a cheeky red. Diamine Red Dragon is a personal favourite, my every day ink is Diamine Eclipse. Thanks for reading. I've been wanting to try out some oranges or brown inks. Any suggestions?

Hello, New guy on the streets of fountain pen network and found the site very helpful for all kinds of things, literally all kinds of things related to fountain pens and so decided to make some contributions from my side starting with this one small step. I will try to address the issues I faced as starter with my posts in future and try to make others start the hobby with good cheaper pens which who know might convert someone to this art I am from India and hope everyone is doing well in big wide world and have a nice day. Thanks again everyone.

Hello All! My name is Isaac and I am just joining this page. I have been collecting and using fountain pens for about a year and a half. I look forward to interacting with everyone on all things fountain pen related. Cheers!

Hi everybody, and happy holidays to you! I just signed up today and I'm delighted to have found this nook on teh interwebz. Fountain pens and I go way back. One of my first, if not my very first, purchases when I went off to college in 1981 was a Parker that served me for most of college. I don't remember why I really wanted to get it, except that I did know I disliked using ballpoint pens (too much drag on the page), I was curious about fountain pens, and the Parker looked pretty and distinctive. I don't remember the model, but I do remember it had a brushed metal body (steel, probably) and was designed so that the cap posted seamlessly when in use. And it wrote brilliantly. I used it throughout college until one day I managed to bend the nib when I dropped it. I had no idea it was repairable, and Parker never replied when I wrote them about it, so I switched over to my backup pen, a Sheaffer, which I used for years until it just stopped writing for reasons unknown. Since then, I've owned a lot of pens and passed them along through thrift stores, giveaways, yard sales, and the kinds of negligence you're prone to when you're trying to pack up your belongings for a move and you lose track of where your spare pens are. These days, my "collection"--really more like an agglomeration--of pens is pretty simple: I have a fistful of Lamys (the obligatory Safaris, plus a Studio and an Aion with fine nibs that are my daily drivers), a few Pilot Metropolitans, and a Sheaffer that I found last night while looking through one of the drawers in our house where pens wind up. The Sheaffer could clearly use some TLC and cleaning, and thanks to the web and places like this I'm actually going to fix it instead of just giving up on it. I do have a TWBSI 580 on order from Goulet that's coming on Friday, and thanks to finding out about Cult Pens there'll probably be a Waterman and maybe a Sailor in my future too. Last thing worth mentioning here: I teach at the University of Washington and direct a study abroad program each year in the Netherlands. Last year, I discovered that the sweet little hotel I'd booked myself and the students into in Delft was four doors down from Fontoplumo. I have a feeling that this summer I'm going to break my $75 spending limit on pen purchases....

Hi everyone, I am a long-time FP user but have only recently returned to the FP rabbit hole (due to work I went with pencils and ballpoints for a long time). I stumbled into the Chicago Pen Show last year and it brought me back to my love of fountain pens and writing with them. I used 2 student Shaeffer pens in high school, and when I graduated my mother bought me a Shaeffer Targa which I still have. In college I added a Shaeffer NoNonsense and those were the pens that got me me through every day of high school and college. That was many years ago and today I am loving the variety that is now available (to me). And the inks! I remember when my only choices were Shaeffer black and blue because we lived in a rural area and writing supplies were a little hard to find. I am now in a love-hate relationship with Organic Studios Nitrogen! I have been lurking around FPN for some time, but decided to jump in. I enjoy reading about all the different opinions and experiences, plus there really is a lot of knowledge to be found.

Hi all, I'm new here. I've just been hanging for a bit. I'm from Israel, though I was born and bred in Cincinnati, Ohio. We, that is my family and I, moved here in 2003. I'm a grandma to four, one on the way, mom to five, and wife. I've two fountain pens and one on order, a few inks, including two handmade, one from cabbages, which doesn't work too well at all (very pale) and one from coffee which works like a dream. I use my pens mostly for journaling, sketching, etc. Anyone else from Israel? And if so can you recommend places that sell bottled ink in Jerusalem for fountain pens as well as gum arabic. I found dip pen ink at Artistic Hands (I think that was the name). Thanks and nice to meet everyone.

Hello fellow pen lovers. I was recently bitten by the fountain pen bug. I'm learning so much. Mostly how to remove ink off my hands. Enjoy your day.

Hello and greetings from Oklahoma. I've lurked the forum for quite some time, but after attending the Arkansas Pen show and Fern Padilla's vintage pen repair class I felt like it was time to delve a little deeper. That weekend I purchased my first vintage pen, a Sheaffer Balance Lifetime OS which now lives proudly on my analog work desk.

Hello there FPN! My name is Dylan and I hail from the frozen wastes above the wall (wait... no wall... yet). Though spring may be coming to Edmonton, AB soon... I hope. I've been into fountain pens for a good decade or so, but haven't really engaged a lot with the online community for some reason. It's time to change that! I look forward to connecting and engaging in the various shenanigans that may occur. Current EDC Pens: TWSBI 580ALR 1.1 w/ Noodler's Golden Brown TWSBI 580AL EF w/ Diamine Marine (and hunting for a pen for some R&K Alt-Goldgrün to live in)

Hi All, I'm originally from Minnesota but now live in Florida. I got into fountain pens a few years ago but recently joined this illustrious site. I look forward to learning from and contributing to this vibrant community! Here are the first pens that got me started in the hobby: Lamy SafariPilot MetropolitanPilot KakunoTWSBI EcoTWSBI Diamond 580Moonman M2Moonman WancaiKaweco Brass SportLamy StudioPilot FalconParker SonnetPilot Vanishing PointLamy 2000

Hello everyone, Im new to fountain pens, I recently started collecting them. Im currently located in sunny San Diego, California. Just learned there arent any Pen Shops around my area. I currently daily use a Pilot metropolitan Med. nib. My small collection: Lamy Al-Star graphite Fine nib Monteverde Deluxe Invincia Carbonfiber fine nib Pilot Metal Falcon blue SF nib Montblanc Meisterstück In the mail: TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR Inks: Noodlers #41 Brown Montblanc Lavender Purple Pilot Iroshizuku Looking forward to talking to and learning from everyone. -Ken

Hello fellow Fountain pen fanatics! After a German friend of mine introduced me to fountain pens at school I used them on and off for a few years, mainly a Parker Vector. About three years ago I made the switch to fountain pens full time, and I heaven't looked back. I currently have a decent selection of pens; including a Pelikan M200, TWSBI 580, 14k Platinum and 21k Sailor Pocket pens, a recently acquired Sheaffer Targa Slimline Set and a number of lower price pens. I have used FPN as a resource for a while for pen and ink reviews, so I decided it was about time to actively participate and add to this great community of ours. Donovan

Hello everyone, There are three things that define a man; The pen in his pocket. The watch on his wrist. The shoes on his feet. I have a penchant for Converse and flip flops, but I love nice watches and pens, so two out of three isnt bad! Huge fan of Waterman...I own an Exception, Perspective, Leetelon and cf but also own modern Lamys and aspire to a Graf Von Faber-Castell Also love Japanese pens.....works of art.

I have recently retired and I am always looking around at all sorts of 'stuff'. It occurred to me that it is years since I sat down and hand wrote anything. I am old enough to have been taught to write using a dip pen, and our school insisted on us using fountain pens. As a consequence, I have dug out some of my old pens (a Parker duofold which is in need of a new rubber reservoir and a nib), a Parker 45, a Cerruti and a couple of others). I have just acquired a Jinhao X750 new. My plan is to revisit some of my primary school lessons in Copperplate and cursive to see if I can develop a nice neat handwriting. Does anyone here have any links to handwriting lessons? I am also quite enamoured with the Chinese pens that I have seen online. Are they really worth owning or are they just mass produced tat?

Hi to all I buy, restore,collect and sell Conway Stewart pens. My english is little poor bud i give my best. I am half italian and half greek bud on both language my knowledge is worst as my bad english..anyway Hope to find here alot of Conway's collectors and share some information...especially about pen restoring. regards Georgios

Hello there! My name is AJ. I live down in Savage, MN. I've been using and acquiring fountain pens for the past year. My love of reading led to journaling, which led to fountain pens. So far I just have some of the typical beginner pens. Hopefully I'll be able to post a couple photos in this post. I've got my eye on a couple other less expensive pens right now. I just came across the Visconti Van Gogh Starry Night (or any other one in that series for that matter) and really like the way it looks. But that is out of my price range right now. =) I've come across the Fountain Pen Network before, but wandered over here today to see if there were any FP clubs in the MLPS area. I saw a couple attempts on the forum back from 2008-09. I'm not necessarily interested in getting that going again, but if something came up in the area, I'd try to participate. Other info about me: Married (trying to convert her to FPs), have an 11 month old daughter, have a Norwegian Elkhound named Remus, I love reading Theology & Fiction mostly. I am a ChelseaFC supporter. I love freshly roasted coffee as well. Got a couple more inks on the way thanks to a couple of online giveaways. =D Glad to be on the forum!

Greetings all, After lurking around the site and pen community for some time, I finally thought I should take the plunge and join in. I've been fascinated by fountain pens for a number of years now and like many, my first fountain pen purchase was a Lamy Al-Star. Unfortunately for my wallet, that was enough to get me hooked and I soon made further pen and ink purchases to start my own little collection. I look forward to meeting everyone.

Hello all, Wow. I'm am so amazed that there are up to a few new members a day! FPN discussion threads have been coming up in searches I do on the web for various questions I have, and in pen images I look up for IDs. They have been so useful and fun, I decided to register! So here's my hello and intro! I have a bit of a pen obsession. When I was in grade school and later high school in the 90s, I did enjoy writing implements, and liked to imagine I had a feel for their quality, and developed preferences. I liked to get my hands on a nice heavy pen, perhaps a pharmaceutical promotion pen or some such. I liked the pilot rollerballs, Bic crystals, and I enjoyed doing my calculus graphs and chem labs with the Pentel Quicker Clicker pencil. I loved the occasional Parker Jotter or Classic that I might come across, too. I remember buying myself a steel Parker Insignia with gold trim, and feeling pretty fancy about it. By early college, I started to get interested in fountain pens. I recall I started with a few Parker Vectors and a couple of Cross models, the ones you might find in the office supply store. For some odd reason, that interest lay dormant for another 15 years. A few years ago, I took out a couple of those Vectors and started using them in my teaching work (music and piano). Then, for some reason, I got more and more into it, and started to teach myself lettering and calligraphy with a cheap set of steel points for nice fancy cursive, and some broad calligraphy points for Gothic blackletter, which I got vaguely proficient with. (Story's almost wrapping up, I promise.) That new hobby led to an interest in pens in general, and I have ended up particularly smitten by vintage Parkers. I have maybe around 8 or 10 Duofolds, (including red permanite and black permanite juniors, a few seniors in cracked ice and jade [dream of a Mandarin!], some later streamlines, striped, etc.) maybe 10 51s, 10 21s, some Challengers, 61s, and Parkettes and so on, and some other brands -- a nice old Sheaffer flat top, Waterman 92 I think, other Shaeffers, etc. I also have recently caught the Jotter bug, which is a dangerous ailment, as one $10-$20 expenditure after another can tick on without you really noticing! I particularly enjoy dabbling in restoration, mostly doing sac replacements, fill system fixes, the most basic nib tuning, and lots of cleaning and polishing (which I'm sure some of you would scold me for). I'm happy when I see a pen on ebay that is especially beat up, missing a part I have, or badly photographed (which encourages me to feel like I'm about to get a deal). Actually, I know for certain that I have purchased pens from some of you over ebay! I also have...... way more ink than I would like to admit. Looking forward to discussing, learning, and being amused with all things penny!

Hello. This is all rather addictive, isn't it? So, like most people of my age and background (mid thirties, UK) I guess I hadn't written with a fountain pen since I finished secondary school at 16. Going to sixth form and university and discovering that not only did people not care about how you wrote, but that writing itself was optional, was somewhat revelatory. And then 20 years later, you're reduced to scrawling with ballpoints and find yourself ashamed at your handwriting. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I'm getting married next month and we're having a humanist ceremony. As part of the ceremony, we write each other a letter expressing why we love each other, why we got together and how we make each other feel. These letters are sealed into a box with a nice bottle of wine and opened on our 5th anniversary, or sooner if we think we want to throw the towel in. A black bic ballpoint and some A4 lined paper torn from an office notepad was never going to cut it. I did some research, went to a great shop and walked away with a lamy safari and some G. Lalo vergé de France paper and envelopes. And I haven't stopped writing since! But it's not enough. It just feels so good. And I can feel an addiction starting. In fact, I've already ordered a second pen. That's me and that's my story, so hi. And without knowing any of you, or interacting with any of you, I feel you're all partly to blame for feeding my burgeoning addiction. Thanks!

Hello from Macclesfield, England. I came upon FPN on my search for information on which fountain pen to buy and have finally joined the community. Tasked with writing wedding thank you cards, I found I could no longer write legibly after years of excessive computer use. I decided to do something about it and embarked on a quest to improve my penmanship. It started with a Lamy Al-Star where I experimented with nibs, then it has gone a little out of hand with my Twsbi 580AL silver, the 580AL Lava and now 580AL Green. So that's a little about me. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Hi there, My name is Sharron, and I'm a lefty (not sure how many lefty fountain pen users there are out there). I'm from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Not sure what goes on here but I love fountain pens! So I'm looking forward to looking around here and learning lots. I have a few pens but, my latest is the Lamy 2000 which I am loving! Thanks for having me:)

Hello, and a belated Happy New Year to you all. I'm a 30 year old librarian living in the Norwegian capital. My father passed away recently, and I inherited his artist-supplies, including nibs, inks, papers, fountain pens and a lot of things I don't know what is. Though he gave me a caligraphy set when I was younger, he never spoke about his tools with me, and I never saw him use them. Since his passing, I have started getting acquainted with his things, and the Fountain Pen Network has been invaluable in understanding how things work. Though I'm used to writing as a hobby, most of the nibs seem adapted to drawing, and I'm surprised to learn I like to draw (which I haven't done in adult life). Now that I have become obsessed with the whole deal, I thought I'd join, and not just stalk the forum. Thank you for having me

Hello Everyone, This is introduction thing is cool! I'm surprised people even pay attention to these. Anyhow, I'm brand new to the fountain pen world, but I'm already hugely interested. I've been borderline obsessed over fountain pen research over the last few days. My mother bought me a Waterman Expert (M) for my birthday, and the first fountain pen I bought for myself was a Lamy Safari (F). I've got some ink samples from Goulet on order.

Hello FPN members! Just made an account couple of days ago. Looking forward to meet awesome members and learning new stuff about fountain pens. Feels good to know I'm not alone who have an affection for pens. I own 2 fountain pens; Pilot Metropolitan M Vintage Tropen Scholar Iridium Nichroma an a free brandless stub pen Hope to stay and have a nice day

Hello! I'm a new user from Mexico. I currently study videogame design at SAE Institute. I've used and collected fountain pens for around 2 years, but I've always liked pens since I can remember. There's something romantic and meaningful about putting down word to paper. On another note, I will travel to carlisle, pennsylvania around july to meet some world of warcraft friends irl. I am not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but does anyone know of a pen store near Carlisle? Thanks a lot.