Inky T O D - How Did You Get Started On The Long And Inky Road? Merged With Your Inky Journey?

[SujiCorp12345]

I used to go with my mom to buy school supplies for the school year in September, and one day I noticed in the pen aisle some pens that were outrageously priced (or so I thought at the time). When I got home, I looked them up, and learned about fountain pens. I've wanted a FP for a long time, but I hate asking my parents for anything so fast forward a few years until I had a part time job. I bought my first FP ( a Safari) and grabbed my first inks: Lamy Black and Iroshizuku Momiji, Tsuki-yo, Kon-peki, and Shin-ryoku. I've always hated how the pens I've used before FPs were the same dull colours- black,blue, and red, so I was ecstatic about trying inks with exciting colours.

[WC Lee]

About 3 years ago, my father gave me his Parker 45 and 75, which I have never seen him use anyhow, at first I thought I would use the Parker 45 for sketching, so I started researching for a suitable water resistant ink in case I wanted to use wash on the sketch, well that started me with Noodler's Black and Private Reserve Invincible Black (I got Platinum Carbon Black eventually). After that, I decided I wanted a finer nib so I got new pens, now I need more inks to use, then I needed better paper and journals.... and it kept going ever since ... and today, I got enough pens, inks, notebooks/journals to last me the rest of my life and beyond.....

Edited June 16, 2014 by WC Lee

[Gaslight]

Gone to school in Germany so fountain pen were nothing special, blue cartridges and later with my first piston filler I just bought whatever blue was available. (Mostly Pelikan)

 

Early this year my wife bought a bottle of Parker Quink washable blue home... what a boring color... I also was looking for a new pen.

 

On a cycle blog there was an off-topic post about a TWSBI 580, I liked it and ordered the pen and while waiting for it I found FPN...

 

Placed an order for one bottle of Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo and the rest is history....

[casualmerlinconstant]

I'd been using Parker Quink Blue right up till I got into university. The day before I finished my University entrance exams, I broke my Hero 100 which I had being using for about 7 years. So the fountain pen story ended for me there for a couple of months. After being fed up with ballpoints, I went and bought a Lamy Safari on an impulse buy as I walked past the pen shop. It was dryer than my old pen and I couldn't stand the faded purply look that Parker Quink Blue had in the Dryish Safari. It annoyed me enough to start trawling around FPN to find another ink. Heard about Noodler's, thought all their colours were bulletproof (LOL) so I went into the local penshop and bought a bottle of Noodler's Blue.

 

I was disappointed that it wasn't very waterproof, but then I discovered that Noodler's Blue had the most gorgeous shade of sky blue in my Dry safari. When it shaded the lighter bit was the colour that I wanted all the time, not just when it cropped up once in a while. And so, after buying a drawer-ful of blues, I found Sailor Sky High and was content.,,and then they discontinued it. I had retired from the inky road mostly (except for the odd purple or orange that struck my eye). Apparently its time to get back on it haha.

 

PS. I blame Sandy1 for all ink-related expenditure.

Edited June 16, 2014 by superglueshoe

[MusterMark]

I've been using Pilot V5 pens for years. I'm a PhD student and a teacher, and the liquid ink worked well for annotating and marking papers. When I was studying for my qualifying exams, I wanted a pen that would be easier on the wrist/hand. Enter Lamy Safaris. But then I bought a Lamy 2000. And I've always been into tinkering with old bicycles, so I started into vintage pens as well. Now I almost always use one of my pre-1950 fountain pens at work.

[casualmerlinconstant]

My story actually begins when my wife was in middle school. Her family had moved to England (somewhere near London, I believe) and she was attending school. Having grown up in the States until that point, she had never even heard of a fountain pen. According to her, EVERYONE at her school used fountain pens, and so she eventually convinced her parents to let her buy one. Fast-forward several years and she is living in the states again, can't find cartridges for her fountain pen, and so it goes into a memory box. When we were dating in college she would talk about her fountain pen wistfully.

 

A few more years pass and I find myself writing a number of brief letters and notes as part of my job. I had never really been one to write things with a pen, and writing with a ballpoint regularly just fatigued my hand. A bit of research and some conversations with my wife led me to pick up a cheap Baoer. I grabbed some Parker Quick - Black from our local Staples and started using it. I fell in love fairly quickly. Far more comfortable to write for extended periods of time. A few weeks later (this would be the end of 2013), I found FPN, Goulet Pens, sbrebrown, and several other blogs, youtubers, etc. I was pretty much hooked. So many colors to choose from! Now I have probably too many ink samples and a wish list of ink bottles far longer than it should be. Plus, I've gotten my wife back into using a fountain pen!

I could only wish for a romance like yours xD.

Hm. I wonder if there's ever being a FPN wedding..

[TheModernGent]

I was always obsessed with school supplies. I was the kid that would painstakingly put all my new erasers on all my new pencils and switch them around until they were just right. I coveted the pencil cases people put in their Trapper Keepers that didn't have a zipper but more of a Zip-lock slide enclosure.

 

I was, therefore, always inclined to check out the stationery aisle of stores. And one day, whilst in an Albertson's with my mom during the 1989-1990 school year (10th grade) I spotted a clear-barreled Sheaffer school pen and prevailed upon her to get it for me. I don't remember which cartridges I had first, but I soon got my best friend addicted, and we searched for the rarer colors—like Burgundy, Grey, and King's Gold—at the small brick-and-mortar stationery stores that still existed back then. Eventually, my pen broke and when I sought a replacement, I ended up with a Sheaffer Reacktor, which couldn't use the carts I had stockpiled. So I just kept everything for, like, twenty years.

 

Then in fall of 2011 I found this place and went ink wild.

This is basically me also.

 

As far back as I can remember, I've always been obsessed with school supplies, and LIVED for back to school shopping for that purpose! My obsession seemed heaviest towards writing instruments. First it was pencils (and I HAD to have the "right" sharpener), then mechanical pencils (I always had to have "aftermarket" erasers LOL, the ones that came on pencils never lived up to my high expectations). At one point I started getting into specialty art pencils/gum erasers and paint pens, this was around middle school. One day while spending the entire time my mom was doing shopping in the supply aisle (per my usual), I saw a burgundy Parker Vector with 2 blue cartridges for $6. I persuaded her to get it for me and was in LOVE. I had this pen all throughout middle school, but eventually lost it sadly. Upon losing that pen, my interest kind of faded along with it. I moved on to gel pens and felt tip marker/pen type things. This satisfied me from high school to the work force until my favorite pen (Uni-Ball Jetstream 1.0) was no longer available anywhere near me (the Staples in town closed down as part of their mass store closings and the supermarkets and Wal-Mart/Target didn't carry it). I took to online to see if I could find a bulk deal on them somewhere and ended up stumbling upon FPN somehow. I don't know how my google search lead me here, but I'm quite glad it did. The page I clicked on from google was for a review of a Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator. Hmm, that looks like a cool pen, and only $15, sure what the heck. So I placed the order and picked up a bottle of Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (which was my next google search "bottled ink" and again lead to a review here on FPN) and the rest is history. Two months, 4 pens and 10 inks later (all of which are growing) here I am.

 

I don't only enjoy using the ink in my pens, I enjoy pushing them to their limits and experimenting with them. What makes them sheen, what is their correlation between nib and paper? How do variables like nib width, paper absorbency and ink surface tension play with each other etc?

[vicki92]

I collected pencils as a child, so I suppose the jump to pens isn't really all that odd.

 

I grew up in Europe and all children learn to write properly with fountain pens. My first pen was something generic that I'm sure would have cost less than €5 by today's standards. Of course back then I didn't know ink came in colours other than the generic blue and the generic black sold in giant bags of cartridges, and I (be ready, you will be shocked) strongly preferred writing with pencils for years. A bit later, during back to school my mother bought me a Schneider Base and a Pelikan Pelikano (the old style when they were still postable) with a jar of coloured cartridges. Thus began a life long love with purple and turquoise inks. I still have some of the cartridges from that jar that weren't up to my "standards" - a few browns and olive greens mostly, which I thought were "disgusting colours", which is ironic as I now love olive and golden greens and browns. I have owned a few other cartridge filling school pens since then, but the discovery of bottled ink occurred in secondary school when my mother gave me her Parker 25 and a bottle of Parker Quink in black and one in washable blue, and then later a bottle of Sheaffer Skrip in Peacock Blue.

 

Once I acquired a Lamy Safari with a converter, I was thoroughly hooked. I now own several nicer pens and more ink than I'd care to admit. I love Waterman Inks, Visconti Inks, Rohrer & Klingner, J. Herbin and Diamine... Though I certainly don't discriminate against the others either... I suppose that I'm lucky to have grown up where kids are still introduced to fountain pens, even if it is only for a period of time in school. Why they ever give them up in favour of the ball point, I'll never understand.

[InkStainedWings]

Where did I start?...ehhh....it's kind of a rambly story but I'll try

 

When I was a kid, I always loved the look of calligraphy, so whenever my mom found a 'calligraphy set' in a thrift store (which was often. She's a reseller by trade, so I lived in the thrifts as a kid), it quickly became mine. I didn't even realize it until recently, but I played with No Nonsenses basically from the time I could write until about 6th grade....which I guess is part of why I like them so much now

 

Fast forward a bit. 7th grade I started teaching myself to draw. My main medium was gel pens. I always liked trying new pens, though, so every time I passed by an art shop, stationary shop (there are a few that still exist up here. I hope to visit them this year), Staples, etc...I would go in and try to buy a brand I'd never bought before, so I could slowly find my preferences. At some point (I'm guessing freshman year) I picked up a Varsity, which I loved...except that it bled like crazy on all my paper. I ended up putting it away for a long while.

 

Near the end of my senior year I was taught to crochet, from which I jumped to spinning my own yarn. This became my 'big obsession'. I ended up joining Ravelry (like FPN, but for fiber people), and I got involved with swap groups (people are assigned a partner to send a surprise package to, while someone else sends to them...an artsy Secret Santa type of deal). Earlier this year I was assigned to send a package to someone who liked fountain pens, and I decided to incorporate some of that into the package (the actual theme for that round was Sherlock Holmes, so I figured it'd fit). At some point while doing the research for her package, I looked over and saw my Varsity in one of my pen jars, as well as all my dip pens and Higgins (I occasionally used them for line work for watercolor paintings). Curious, I decided to see if there was a waterproof fountain pen ink to replace my inda ink (since I never liked the stuff). I ended up finding Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and buying the big bottle with the pen, and falling in love...I sent my swap partner a bottle of J. Herbin Vert Empire. I bought myself several bottles of Noodler's and a bunch of Preppies. It's only been a few months since that point, yet I have...45 pens (split between Preppies, which I now use in place of markers...each is inked in a different color...and a mix of No Nonsenses, Sheaffer school pens, and some Jinhaos and other Chinese pens) and 32 bottles of ink (with plenty more on my list...I need a full set of markers! lol) So...yeah...that's how it started ^.^'' I've now also converted over my two youngest brothers; they each have picked a favorite pen and ink color, so I'm buying them each a Jinhao in the color of their choice (one wants black...the other wants black and white...so I'm buying two blacks and a white and swapping the caps ) and a bottle of their fave ink (one is getting Diamine Red Dragon, the other is getting Pelikan 4001 Turquoise). Now to convert my five other siblings... (yes you read that correctly. I'm the oldest of eight).

[Tas]

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_sheaffer_triumph_1947_cropped.jpg

 

I soon discovered you guys on this wonderful forum and slowly, but ever so surely, I was hooked.

 

I first fell in love with HDoug's meticulous handwriting and admiring the colours of his inks started decided to try out a few colours myself.

 

I think Pelikan's 4001 Blue Black was the first bottled ink I bought but the colour looked nothing like what I'd seen on here and so began the search for the perfect ink & pen combo (paper had yet to play a part).

Sailor Blue Black (diluted) still lives in my Tuckaway and after three years or so am about to eat plenty of humble pie as the often maligned (by me) Pelikan Blue Black has now found much favour (with me) having recently filled my Noodler's Konrad with it "for a laugh" and discovered it's beauty.

 

My favourite thread was, and still is, the "Don't Just Tell Us About The Pen You're Using, *show* Us".

dcpritch's glorious pens and expansive colour palette has cost me dear over the years but I am richer for it - if that makes sense.

 

I visit this site daily as a break from my work and find it an incredibly calming influence.

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_thanks.jpg

[flyingfox]

What a fun thread! Here is my story...

 

My Mom was a fountain pen user, and I believed that grown-ups use pens like that. She had a black MB, and always used blue black. Many of my elementary school teachers used fountain pens as well. Back then, however, I thought it was the most boring pen ever. I was also a cute school supply fanatic, and- since I grew up in Tokyo, I had plenty of supplies as long as I can remember! I loved pens in many different colors as well as cute designs. Also, I totally took it for granted that notebooks have pictures on EVERY SINGLE PAGE!!!

 

I got my first fountain pen when I was in high school (back in 1990.) I got my first pen pals around then- girls around my age, one from Italy, the other from Germany. Both of them used fountain pens, and it seemed like the coolest thing ever. I got a cheapie at Tokyu Hands (a HUGE chain of office supplies in entire Japan that sells practically everything.) It was a white pen with mint green accents, and it only took cartridges. I used it only for letter writing, as cartridges were expensive! Pack of 5? 6? was like 300 yen (about $3.-.)!!!!! I almost always used purple, but sometimes switched to turquoise. When I moved to Philadelphia for college, however, I stopped using it because I could not find a store that carried cartridges, and lost the pen during one of my many moves. (Between 1993 and 2003, I moved 12 times! Of course it was easy then... my entire worldly possessions fit in two standard size cars LOL.)

 

My got my first "real" fountain pen back in 2002. I was in Montreal for vacation, and randomly walked into a sweet little stationery store in old section of Montreal. I always LOVE checking out stationery stores wherever I am! There, I saw a bunch of bottles, and color sample. I was drawn to a particularly beautiful color, a dusty purple. It was Poussiere de Lune by J. Herbin. Now I know that it is a pretty unique color even among fountain pen ink, but then it seemed so beautiful, almost out of this world. The lady at the store told me that is is for a fountain pen. After all, I bought that bottle, along with a Lamy Safari. I used that for a little over two years, until I ran out of the ink. The pen just stood in my pen cup, waiting.

 

Fast forward ten years... In Fall 2012, I was on vacation in New Orleans. I walked into a nice little stationery store, and saw that they have their own line of... fountain pen ink!!! WOW!!! I have been there many times before, but somehow never noticed those before, presumably because I was just too dazzled by all the other shiny beautiful stuff they have. I was agonizing over which colors to get, when the lady told me that they also have an online store, and I can always order more. Online shopping for fountain pen ink!!! Of course!!! That night, I googled fountain pen, stumbled across the virtual door steps of Goulet, as well as FPN. And I went to Philly Pen show in January 2013...WOW!!! Now I own more pens/ ink than I have ever thought possible LOL, and the PdL remains to be the only bottle I have ever finished to this day LOL....

[Hardcase]

My grandparents had a beautiful fountain pen in a shadowbox frame at their house for as long as I can remember...this pen:

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o715/drew_dunn1/nanas_pen_zps0d6db043.jpg

It was my great grandmother's pen. I remember in junior high school in the mid-1970s, I kept after my parents to get me a fountain pen like that. As I recall, they finally got me an inexpensive Sheaffer (I know that it was a Sheaffer because I always misspelled the name). I'm pretty sure that my mother resisted because she remembered just how messy fountain pens could be when she was in school in the '30s and '40s.

 

Somewhere along the line, I picked up one or two others and always had one around. I used one in the Navy, which was always either a conversation starter or caused consternation. They were always cartridge fillers, so before a six month deployment, I'd order a supply of cartridges so that I wouldn't run out. This was before email and such, so letter writing was the only communication home (other than an occasional collect phone call) and the logs were all hand written.

 

After I got out of the Navy and went to college, I took most of my notes with a pencil (which can be an addiction all its own), but when I started working as an electrical engineer, the fountain pens came back out. There's something about engineers and old technology that go together - there are several of us in my office who use them.

 

I found this site about six months ago and started actively posting about a month ago. And suddenly, I went from three or four pens to over 30. And actual bottles of ink. Huh. I guess that I should be thankful that there isn't a pen store within at least 250 miles of here. I guess...

 

When my grandfather died, he left me my great grandmother's pen. I had it restored last month and it's back in the shadowbox.

[PJohnP]

A Parker aeromatic fill pen was the school pen for learning cursive, but then I dropped the use of fountain pens until undergraduate studies when I started back into the process. Even then, Parker Quink was pretty much the "long and straight road of ink" for me, with blue-black leading, then followed by green and red Quink. Post-graduate studies found me back in the U.K., where fountain pens were a regular sight, even in Loughborough, so that I gradually reached the point of having three pens all inked at the same time. Being in the Midlands of the U.K., Parker Quink was easily obtained, so I never thought about another ink brand, even though I relocated back through Canada and the United States.

 

A fair number of years passed, and Quink was indeed the "ink that paved the road", but then, alas and alack, Parker Quink in red disappeared from the US market. I looked around the usual sources without success. It was then that the winding road of ink began its twists and turns for me, but there are only two words to describe the start of that road, the initiation of the change, ah, the beginning of the grand "ink's pathway through the dark and the murk" :

 

Neil Frank

 

The owner of Santa Fe Pens made his usual expressive shrug when I asked for about the third (or more) time for Quink in red, and explained about two other lines of ink he carried that might possibly satisfy my needs, and the fast tumble off the easy path of decades' Quinky walks and onto the rocky stoney road of ink began.

 

The incline of the path sharply increased when Neil mentioned some weeks later that I could find reviews of ink on an online forum, which led me to Fountain Pen Network, upon which I jumped off a towering cliff looking downwards to a road far below in the mists. Fortunately, there were vast and amazing updraughts of reviews and commentaries that cushioned the fall, allowing me to alight unharmed on that misty inky path. Today, inks from the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and various other far-flung locales flow smoothly (for the most part) through my flocks of Pelikans and fleets of Sheaffers !

 

 

 

John P.

[amberleadavis]

Truly, these stories are wonderful. Please keep sharing.

[ac12]

FPN

 

Prior to coming here, I used BLACK for about 35 years, then I revolted and switched to BLUE a few years ago.

Then I came here and .... wow maybe I can try other colors.

So I gradually started adding colors; Waterman green, Sheaffer Skrip red, Waterman brown, Sheaffer Skrip turquoise.

- I used green for my 2013 Christmas cards, and that was fun.

- Green has become my personal ink color, replacing black.

- Brown I thought would look good on cream colored paper. But I ended up not using it much, and deinked the pen.

- Turquoise was an attempt to find a color that duplicated the old Sheaffer peacock blue, that I used and liked in elementary school, before I switched to boring blue and black.

 

Now I am looking at DARK blue, green and red, as a less harsh alternative to black.

With Toucan group buy I am getting green, crimson, scarlet, orange, and black.

 

Now the problem is to limit the number of inked pens, so I don't loose ink to evaporation, when I don't use the pen and it dries out.

[byggyns]

I was also a fan of writing implements while growing up. I loved unique pens, and primarily used mechanical pencils in high school and college. I got my first FP in 2000 when I went on a missions trip to Ukraine. I was always interested in them, but hadn't ever run into one in a store back home. So I bought a BP / FP set by Inoxcrom and the cartridges to go with it. Unfortunately, I was not writing very much at this point in time, so the pen kept drying out on me. I got frustrated with it, and it went into a box for years.

 

Around 2 years ago, I for some reason got interested in calligraphy again, which I hadn't done since I was in middle school. I picked up a set of dip pens, then found that there were fountain pens available for calligraphy, and that I could get a converter for my old FP as well. I picked up a bottle of Noodler's black, a converter and an Ahab around a year & a half ago. Since then, I've started a small collection of Esterbrooks that I've restored. My 2nd and 3rd bottles of ink came when I found some Noodler's on sale while I was ordering replacement sacs & shellac (Rabaul Red & Navy). I've since acquired modern pens as well as 7 bottles of ink. I've got samples from a few months of membership to ink drop, and have made several custom mixed colors from the bottles I have.

 

There are so many more ink brands and colors to try out, I'm afraid of how far this will go.

[Pentulant]

Loving all of the stories...thank you so much for sharing them.

 

A love of playing school turned into a love of pens and pencils. At the beginning of one school year, I remember presenting my parents with a listing of supplies I would need - very specific brands, colors, and quantity. They weren't fooled and knew I'd made up most of the things on the list.

 

I learned about fountain pens many years later when I saw handwriting like no other I'd seen before (it was the shading that caught my eye). Rather than go into detail, I'll link you to my blog for the story of my first fountain pen.

 

I was more into the pens than inks in those early days. In fact, I used to (omg) toss converters over my shoulder and into the trash and only use cartridges. Throughout the years, my interest in fountain pens waxed and waned.

 

After several years of waning interest, I came here to research something about some pen and that was that. You all led me to Goulet Pens (all of those ink samples!!!) and the Lamy Safari. So, thank you to everyone here for rekindling (in a major way) my interest in pens and inks. I don't see my interest waning anytime soon.

[Ravenlunatic]

My first exposure to fountain pens was at the tender age of three. I broke my older sisters fountain pen, and, like a banshee, she screamed at me until Mom came to the rescue. At age 7 I had a box of paper, pencils, pens and scissors that I carried with me everywhere.

 

Growing up in the 60's and 70's, I didn't see fountain pens at all. But I did like cool and exotic looking pens of any type. Military service, followed by a career in the civil service lead me to early retirement in 2007. What to do with all the free time? As I had retired on disability with a back injury, I was limited with what I could do. I also read a lot. One of the stories told of a man who used a fountain pen to write to his mate on another planet. The description of the selecting of ink, paper, and filling and cleaning the pen just captivated me.

 

So, buying a few cheap fountain pens on eBay, some ink, and a few notebooks, I was hooked. one of my searches lead me to FPN, and the rest is history. Now I have stationery, notebooks, pens, inks, writing slopes, and a couple of stationery cabinets. Looking forward to what the future holds for me.

[leofoam]

shortly after I turned 12 (4 years ago for those of you keeping track) i picked up a book on the mechanics of vintage pens at the library. Being the kind of kid who wanted to take things apart, seeing patent drawings and other such technical work blew me away. I begged for a pen for 2 years, eventually buying a pen and ink from Staples. That held me over for about 6 months before I searched the web for more on pens, hoping to find more vintage drawings and schematics. I stumbled on FPN, found the ink thoughts forum and caught the bug in a big way. I ended up literally spending all the money I earned from three summer jobs on pens and ink. i haven't looked back since.

[Algester]

uhh age 10-12 I stumbled upon a Cross Century Fountain Pen circa 1996 the pen was probably 1980s-ish with a broken nib, the tipping is half broke, while rummaging drawers at home, without any budget for inks I used those pump syringe Ink Jet Printer inks (I do not know if it was bad or good for the pen BUT I NEVER KNOW WHERE TO BUY those CARTRIDGES or CONVERTERS, FPs were and are still considered "luxury" in my part of the world) as for inks I didnt deviate normally I need to have a black and always needed a black so I used black ink eventually the tipping eventually gave out again I'm not sure if it was the ink jet ink or not again I did not know anything about pens heck the internet wasnt available in my part of the world during that time, so with nothing to lose I threw the pen I couldnt afford for a retipping nor was I living in America actually as a elementary student what could you expect, but then I was seeped deep into looking the "best pen that I could love" in the years gone by I went through the trouble-some Pilot G-tech, a Pilot G2 which didnt appease me, a V7 techpoint which was impractical, DONG-A gel pen cool but eh, panda pen, avanti ballpoint, Star-V ball point, Bic Atlantis it has a very silent click which people find pleasing) then I eventually stumbled on Pilot V5 retractable and it's sister model a V7 retractable with the gel ink which is different from the standard V7 techpoint with liquid ink, and boy was that a journey the pen became my pen for 6 years finishing high school with a bunch of refills, and then going into a stationary expo I stumbled upon Uniball's Jetstream series good but it didnt come close to my V5RT sure it was a fast writing pen (year 2006 where "fast writing" and less pressure pens were the "in" for the market) but the bond I had with the Pilot V5 was a bit too strong for me to waver my preference sure it's a good pen but I'm a Pilot guy so what the heck not, then during college this is where some person I know from our interest circle of otaku-stuff and gaming Zeroblade kind of rekindled my interest in fountain pens, not for the inks yet as I was sticking with either the big 4 Cross, Parker, Lamy, Sheaffer and the ink lines they offer so thats when I bought a fountain pen from Muji from one of the group trips I had with friends I still consider that as my "first official fountain pen" since going back then, bought me a Lamy Logo and a black ink bottle slowly but surely I got almost all of Lamy's inks line except for red (as well as most steel nibs), then I got me a Sailor Lecoulle, Lamy 2000, Sailor Kiwaguro ink (because the Lamy 2000 had flow problems that I could not fix), followed by a trip to Hong Kong bought me a Faber Castell Ambition out of Impulse buy (no regrets ITS GOOD STUFF) I later got introduced to GvFC because of it but those were expensive pens for me and knowledge that Faber-Castell makes FPs since in my country Faber-Castell is only known for selling coloring materials and mechanical pencils, followed by buying MY VERY FIRST IROSHIZUKU INK Yu-yake boy that was a hard decision I didnt know what color to get hahaha but I already knew Iroshizuku was a good performing ink and is touted as such, then bought my sister a Tombow Object (an advance gift for her graduation) this also gave me some knowledge that Tombow also makes fountain pens because in my part of the world Tombow is only known for correction tape and a few pens, this also when I found PIlot Parallel but I didnt buy them (I wish I did but eh...), then having finally decided to finally get in touch with my Lamy 2000 I sent it for "repair" for the flow issue after 1 month of waiting for my 2000's news I bought me a Lamy Vista also to replace the F nib that I broke after a full on experiment about tuning and grinding including smoothing (it wasnt a smooth F nib btw), and then having to want to try a new pen and dealing with cheap crappy paper our local dealer Scribes sells TWSBI pens so that's when I bought my TWSBI mini in EF, and before that J.Herbin Ambre di Birmanie because I wanted something different and then a Terre de Feu, lastly a Bleu Nuit having in need of a replacement for giving my Lamy Blue-Black to my brother who may not be using it. Then a tour in Tokyo-Osaka, bought me my FIRST PILOT PEN a Custom Heritage 91 in SM and additional Iroshizuku Inks Ina-ho, Murasaki-Shikibu, Take-Sumi, Fuyu-Syogun, and also another FP from Muji. technically we do have a Pilot retailer but they do not carry the fountain pens so... ok ok except for the G78, Birdie and MR (metropolitan accepting international cartridge) and then buying my friends some FPs for their graduation and probably eventual graduation namely 1 Lamy Vista, 1 Lamy Al-star, 1 Sailor Young profit? in music (sadly he never graduated but I think he's in the wrong path he's a musician not an "artist" by passion) and then bought my dad a Waterman Gentleman but is never used and is currently sitting in his cabinet. hahahaha oh and then came in Salor's 4 season line... that is a disaster in my part of the world, bought me a Tokiwa-Matsu, Sou-ten, and Shigure and then comes in the news they will be a LIMITED OFFER... DID I FORGET TO SAY THEY ARE ALSO DISCONTINUING THE REST OF SAILOR'S INKS... sigh... I guess Philippines can never have the good stuff

Edited June 19, 2014 by Algester