What Pen To Gift Someone? First-Timer?

[Pentheman01]

So what pen would you recommend gifting to someone else who knows almost nothing about fountain pens? I know everyone will automatically say the Pilot Metropolitan, but what about the other brands?

 

I was thinking about the Nemosine Singularity which comes w/ a converter and 6 cartridges, or even the Fission or Neutrino since those have metal bodies.

 

There's also the Parker Vector and maybe the Frontiers from eBay.

 

What do you think?

[Mech-for-i]

Well that kind of depend on your budget, any range you can tell us about. And then there's the preference of the person in concern, gent or lady, does he/she generally write with ballpoint, roller or pencils, pen size ( noticeably the girth ) can put someone off or give him/her joy in using a pen. Say a Cross Classic Century is pretty as slim as the typical hexagonal pencil, and a rather robust metal body ( but it is cart only ).

 

Metal pens are great and can stand a lot of abuse, but they usually also weight quite a bit more than the usual Acrylic / injection molded plastic.

[NinthSphere]

Depends on what kind of gift imo. Is this "here, have a fountain pen" or a birthday kind of deal? Like Mech said, I would also base things off of the person's preference in writing implements.

 

I've never suggested a Metro because I don't own one & they don't appeal to me. I might instead suggest a Jinhao or similar as a good value to start with.

[Runnin_Ute]

Long, short, heavy, light, skinny, fat....

 

Have they tried any of yours? Did they seem to like them? If so what did they like or dislike? Have they even expressed any interest?

 

Personally, if someone gifted me say a Jinhao 159 which weighs in excess of 50 grams and I was brand new, I might never use it or try fountain pens again. I had one after I had been using pens for a while. They are monstrous big (both long and fat), heavy and the one I had just didn't work well.

 

A Metropolitan is a good pen. Not my favorite pen I own, but a good low end pen that will work right out of the box. When I got mine, all that was available in the US was a Medium nib. Which is more like the fines I was used to (western).

 

My first pen was a Lamy Al Star, my second and third was a Waterman Phileas. The pens I have that get the most use? My Pelikan M200's, Platinum 3776 Century Bourgogne, TWSBI 580 and Eco and believe it or not some of the Esterbrook's lately. I rotate through about 6 Parker 45's as well. None of these weigh over about 22-25 grams. I have one as heavy as 30 grams.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Runnin_Ute

[ac12]

Something that is RELIABLE (tested that it works and is not "finiky").

Test and adjust as necessary to make sure that it writes, and writes well.

 

A CARTRIDGE pen. Of the pens that I gifted, even to people that used fountain pens before, not one person wanted to deal with an ink bottle. And give them at least a couple cartridges of ink, if not a pack of 5 (or whatever the pack size is). I would go so far as to remove the converter, so they are not confused.

 

Currently, my two gift pens are:

• Baoer 388; flighter or black/gold.
  • It looks like a $100 Parker Sonnet, so suitable for use in the office.
• Jinhao 599.
  • It looks like a Lamy Safari, so more suited for school or casual/home use than office use, especially the brighter colors. The darker black and blue models would be OK in the office.

Other possible gift pens:

• Pilot Metroplitan
• Lamy Safari and Al Star
• Parker IM and Urban (these are heavier metal body pens)

Edited March 8, 2017 by ac12

[PaperDarts]

Yes, it depends so much on the recipient; age, experience, level of interest. The pens I've given to beginners in recent years are the Pilot VPens (disposable), Lamy Safari, Pelikan Pelikano, Platinum Preppy, Waterman Kultur, and once a Pilot Prera to an adult friend who demonstrated both keen interest and good sense in handling mine.

[inkstainedruth]

I have given pens to a couple of people -- one was for my husband's niece, and I got her a Vector FP and BP "set" (well, they were the same color, anyway) when she graduated from high school. The other was a friend of ours, who liked my Dark Lilac Safari. Because I wasn't sure whether they were still available in that color last August, I got her to tell me a back up color, and she said red (so she's getting a Red with an F nib to go with the Dark Lilac M nib I got her originally.

Most of the suggestions seem to be pretty good -- except for the Parker Urban (mine was basically junk). If the person has small hands, I would say a Vector would be good -- otherwise I might pick a Metropolitan over a Safari (I wasn't sure I would be able to get used to the grip when I tried someone's several years ago), although I know some people don't like the step down to the section. I don't know enough about Nemosine pens to recommend or disrecommend them; I tested the various nib widths in Birmingham Pens, here in Pittsburgh, a while back, but didn't like any of the colors enough (there's rumors of ebonite Singularities coming out at some point, and if the colors are interesting I'm definitely thinking about getting one of those with a .6 stub nib).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

I would first make sure it's the sort of gift that would be sued and appreciated, I've done it twice and the receivers never used them (and they were not exactly cheap Pelikans!). I would go whole hog to give a shot of being used; find out their absolutely favourite colour and get them a bottle of ink, decent paper, a fountain pen with converter if no piston filler is available at your budget, ink and try out the pen before gifting it. In a nice pouch. In terms of money it doesn't have to get very expensive, say with a Lamy Safari, a small Rhodia pad, a diamine bottle, and a generic pouch.

[pajaro]

The Pilot Metropolitan would not even occur to me.

 

I would say Montblanc 146, Parker 51, or a Pelikan M200 or M205 demonstrator. There is no point giving pens I wouldn't even use. The gift of a secondhand MB 146 or Parker 51 nicely cleaned up would be better than a new junkpen. The Pelikan M200 or M205 demonstrator might be feasible, and would be a pen worthy of the word gift.

[Water Ouzel]

The first pen I got my wife was a Cross Coventry. Eventually followed by a Prera, Pelikan M205, Metropolitan, Noodler's Konrad, Lamy Al-Star, Twsbi Mini, Twsbi Vac700, ... with rare exceptions all with F or EF nibs.

 

The Coventry is still a favorite, the Vac 700 probably her very favorite writer. The Konrad lies clean and empty, as it persisted on irrigating the paper and her hand.

[Sasha Royale]

James brought an Esterbrook J to work, and filled it from my ink bottle. (All are welcome.) Then, James posted the cap, and seated the cap with a sharp strike from the heal of his hand. Surprise ! The cap split. James tossed the Esterbrook on the desk, "Cheap pen !" , he sneered.

 

"A pearl.", I muttered. I don't think the swine understood.

 

******************************

How would you feel if the recipient used the gift once, and never again, leaving it on the table at

Starbuck's ? For me, the gift of a Parker 51 or Pelikan M200, so treated, would hurt.

 

The a Jinhao x250 is a good writer, that is rugged, and suited for a "caveman".

The Pilot Metropolitan is more delicate, and still durable. Installed with a Pilot / Namiki black cartridge, it can be a very good "first writing" experience.

 

If there is later interest in an M200 or P51, then give one.

[voltron]

Pelikan M200/M205 - Very smooth nibs with a bit of flex

Faber Castell Loom - Smoothest nib among all pens priced upto 50$

[chromantic]

Sheaffer VFM would be a good starter pen. Nice looking, not too large, metal body/cap that's not too heavy, smooth writer. Only uses short international cartridges but everybody makes those. $15-20 on Amazon and ebay.

[EdeIstein88]

Pelikan M200/M205 - Very smooth nibs with a bit of flex

Faber Castell Loom - Smoothest nib among all pens priced upto 50$

 

yes i agree with this

[ridiculopathy]

Yes, it depends so much on the recipient; age, experience, level of interest. The pens I've given to beginners in recent years are the Pilot VPens (disposable), Lamy Safari, Pelikan Pelikano, Platinum Preppy, Waterman Kultur, and once a Pilot Prera to an adult friend who demonstrated both keen interest and good sense in handling mine.

 

 

I agree that it depends on characteristics of the recipient. I've gifted a Platinum Preppy and a Pilot Petit to my friends who had previously been using those ubiquitous Bics. They thought the fountain pens looked really cool...but didn't stick with it.

 

On the other hand, my first fountain pen was a Preppy I gifted to myself, and look where I am now!

[NinthSphere]

James brought an Esterbrook J to work, and filled it from my ink bottle. (All are welcome.) Then, James posted the cap, and seated the cap with a sharp strike from the heal of his hand. Surprise ! The cap split. James tossed the Esterbrook on the desk, "Cheap pen !" , he sneered.

 

"A pearl.", I muttered. I don't think the swine understood.

 

******************************

How would you feel if the recipient used the gift once, and never again, leaving it on the table at

Starbuck's ? For me, the gift of a Parker 51 or Pelikan M200, so treated, would hurt.

 

The a Jinhao x250 is a good writer, that is rugged, and suited for a "caveman".

The Pilot Metropolitan is more delicate, and still durable. Installed with a Pilot / Namiki black cartridge, it can be a very good "first writing" experience.

 

If there is later interest in an M200 or P51, then give one.

 

This is my feeling. The idea of giving a mid to higher priced pen is all well & good, but it depends on the individual & the better quality Chinese pens are actually solid users both as a starter or alongside other higher value pens, but won't hurt if they get lost or damaged as one decided if fountain pen use agrees with them.

Edited March 9, 2017 by NinthSphere

[Mech-for-i]

Just as one would not trust a novice driver to a Ferrari, its not wise to entrust a top or even mid high end pen to a first timer. It take time , practice and skill to learn to properly handle & use any tool, fountain pen no exception. By that, as a gift to a first timer, this need to be considered. And fountain pens today are just mature technology, Japan made some great pens, so do Germany, but so do India, China, and many others. Its too easy to fall into trap of wanting to gift the ( so marketed ) high end one but its not perhaps the right choice.

 

I think the OP's original statement about metal body sounds great , like it or not people today abuse their tools, pens in particular. I tend to shy away from gifting the lowest end of the lot to someone not because they do not work. Plenty of low end pens are low end only in market term but not low quality. Still their price reflect their nature in the market and longevity as well as robustness are not usually there. Take the Pilor Metropolitan. its so lightly build that its barrel can easily dented where for the same price I can buy a proper brass barreled from Hero, or Jinhao, and some others ( you can exclude the Japanese and most European Mfrs here as they don't want to sell us any of these at this price range )

 

And then the Gift part. well its a Gift so one really want the recipient to be able to use it ( I suppose ) but not making or having too much trouble in the process, right. One would, I wager, like to made an impression too; so there goes many of the less than good looking pens or pens that we here consider nice but would otherwise be just weird in others eyes ( say the Parker 51 certainly do not look anywhere contemporary any more , not to mention its colors are usually kind of off put by todays fashion ).

 

It's by simple exclusion that one can easily slim down the list.

[sandy101]

An MB146 - then they can decide whether they are going to take the plunge and buy a 149 or a Writer's Edition of their own.

 

Failing that - a pen which is easy to get cartidges for - the Parker Vector or Jotter, or the Faber Castell Loom or Basic if you can find them.

 

 

I bought a Frontier off e-bay and it's not the same quality as Parker's previous ones.

[ac12]

@Mech

The flaw in your logic is WEIGHT.

 

One reason for thinner metal is to keep the weight down, under 20 grams, and closer to 15 grams. In the past when people actually wrote a lot, most/many pens were light, compared to some of todays pens. For extended writing sessions (more than an hour and many pages), a heavy pen is rather tiring to use, especially if you are a finger writer. I prefer my pens down at about 15 grams.

 

The thick metal pens are heavier, 25 grams and up. Some are so heavy (more than 35 grams) that I do not even bother trying them.

Example, the Parker IM is a nice pen and writes well. But it is too heavy for me to use for an extended period of writing. So it has been put into my collection, never to see ink again.

 

I take exception to your comment "like it or not people today abuse their tools."

Your generality is false. Some people may, but not all. I do not see people abusing their laptops or tablets/iPads.

If one is reasonably careful, you won't dent the pen. I've used metal barrel Parkers for over 40 years, and have yet to dent one.

If you toss the pen unprotected into your school pack with everything else on top of it, and just drop the pack on the floor, then sooner or later you WILL dent the pen.

IOW, if you treat your pen like you treat your laptop or tablet/iPad, it will be fine.

 

And pick the appropriate tool for the job/task.

If you are going to toss the pen unprotected into the bottom of your school pack, then pick a Lamy Safari rather than a light metal (will dent) or painted metal (will get scratched) pen.

[pajaro]

It seems people here think a person should begin with a cheap pen. True, the investment is small, so, if interest is lacking, not much is spent. However, my experience with cheap pens would make me think that, had I started out with them, I would be using ballpoints exclusively today. I started with a Parker 51, followed years later by a Cross 10K, a MB 146 and a MB 144. Note that the first pen was so good that it was years before I wondered if there were something better. So, maybe the cheap starter is a false economy. Of course, if you don't care about the person, buy them something inexpensive.