How to choose your fountain pen?

Here are the various points to consider before making a purchase.

Which type of pen?

First of all, you should choose the type of pen you feel most comfortable writing with (felt tip, rollerball, ballpoint, fountain pen). Ballpoints and rollerballs are more practical, for example in a professional context. The fountain pen allows more variation and writing effects, for example with a flexible nib, but can be less practical for everyday use (risk of leaks, refilling the ink, etc.). The fountain pen often produces a more elegant line that gives more sensation.

Are you right-handed or left-handed?

If you are left-handed, a Fine nib will generally be more suitable.
If you are right-handed, all the options are open to you; the broader nibs often suit generous handwriting better.

Choosing the material

In the most recent pens, you mainly find pens in lacquer, resin or metal. Lacquer or metal pens are generally heavier and can give an impression of quality. Nevertheless, among the resin models you also find very beautiful, sought-after versions, such as the Duofold range from PARKER.
Lacquer pens are very chic, but more fragile in use, because of the risk of scratches. There are also wooden versions, made in the 1980s by WATERMAN, quite fragile (cracks or ink stains that are hard to remove from the wood) but very beautiful and very pleasant to use.

Choosing the filling system

Most major brands (Sheaffer, Pelikan, Montblanc, Waterman, Parker, Sailor, etc.) use their own cartridges for recent models, since the 1970s.

Some versions, often more high-end, are piston-fill.

Other versions can be used either with cartridges or with a converter, which allows them to be used with a bottle of ink, like a piston-fill pen.

Cartridge pens have the advantage of being practical to use, but piston-fill versions are more pleasant thanks to the handling involved in loading the ink.

Moreover, with the latter, it is possible to use uncommon ink colours, such as purple, light red or sienna, which are not available in cartridge format.

Selecting the nib

The nib is the point of contact between the pen and what you write; most nibs are made of metal, gold-plated metal, or solid 14- or 18-carat gold. The highest-end models are generally fitted with gold nibs; nevertheless, in the history of the pen, some models such as MONTBLANC produced models with a steel nib, for external reasons (i.e. during the Second World War, when gold was very scarce, so nibs were made of steel), and also for reasons of design or fashion, such as the Montblanc Turbo version, for which the metal nib suits the look of the pen much better than gold.

The gold nib provides very pleasant sensations; 14-carat gold nibs are more rigid than 18-carat gold nibs. On some models, such as older ones, the nibs are Flexible or semi-Flex, allowing very beautiful writing effects to be produced. In terms of nib sizes, there are many options, the main sizes being Medium, Fine, Large or Broad.

More rarely you find nib sizes XF / Extra-Fine; BB Extra Broad; Oblique, right Oblique, left Oblique, Italic. Generally, the more expansive and extravagant your handwriting, the more you will appreciate a Broad nib size, and vice versa. This can also depend on the language written; i.e. in Asia and the Far East, F or XF nib sizes are more appreciated, as they allow Asian characters to be written precisely, unlike broader nibs.

How to identify the nib size on a pen?

The best thing is to be able to try it; some sellers can send you photos of the writing strokes to give you a clearer idea. Some brands can also indicate the nib size in various forms:

At Waterman, there is often a letter, M, F or L, on the black part under the nib.

At PELIKAN, the nib size is often engraved on the nib itself in the form of a letter.

At PARKER, there is a letter on the black part under the nib, or a number corresponding to a particular type of nib.

Here is an example of the wide variety of nibs possible on a pen:

The price

In general, the higher up the range you go, the more expensive it is, particularly because of the materials used and the fact that the nib is solid gold with fine finishes. Some old models in lacquer or ebonite can reach high valuations (i.e. Viala and especially Dunhill and Dunhill Namiki).

Special edition

Some manufacturers, such as MONTBLANC, PELIKAN or PARKER, offer special or limited editions. Among the best known is the Writers series from MONTBLANC, released almost every year and with a book-shaped box. The most famous versions include Hemingway, Alexandre Dumas, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Jules Verne, Miguel de Cervantes, Agatha Christie, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, Carlo Collodi and Victor Hugo.

At MONTBLANC there is also a series of pens called “the Patrons of Art” on the theme of great figures, notably from science, industry or finance. Among the most famous are the Prince Regent, Lorenzo de Medici, Nicolaus Copernicus, Louis XIV, Charlemagne, Semiramis, Pope Julius II, Andrew Carnegie, Steinway, Luciano Pavarotti and J.P. Morgan versions.

At PELIKAN, there are variations of the M 600 or M 800 models on the theme of the world’s major cities, such as Toledo, Stockholm, Madrid or Shanghai. Prestigious models have also appeared, such as the Maki-e versions made in Japanese lacquer; the famous nib of these series probably corresponds to the seven wonders of the world.

At PARKER, you can find prestigious versions based on the DUOFOLD series, such as solid gold versions, the Mandarin version, or the limited series in Maki-e lacquer with a tiger or carp motif, which have a certain value.

Why a fountain pen?

I must say that writing with a fountain pen evokes a feeling like no other. The grain of the nib in contact with the paper, the smoothness of the pen’s body, the agility of the writing, the friction of the paper, etc. So many senses that make writing sublime and full of grace.

Once a symbol of culture and wealth, this luxury item seems to have been forgotten by most of us. Yet our elite has never moved away from using it.

Every American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has signed numerous pens, statutes and official documents. On 23 March 2010, Barack Obama launched the Health Care Act with 22 AT Cross rollerball pens before giving them to his staff. According to The Times magazine, George W. Bush is said to have kept one of the pens used to sign the Homeland Security Act following 11 September. Even in Europe, it is common for politicians to collect the “spoils” of these works. Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi… the examples of lovers of fine pens are numerous.

Adorn yourself with the finest jewels made from precious woods, precious metals and more. In recent years, fountain pens have become jewellery and are gradually regaining their aristocratic character. Fountain pen prices can range from 100 euros for high-quality pens to tens of thousands of euros for rare models. Thus, the finest luxury brands offer limited series that regularly appear in auction houses and are snapped up by enthusiasts at exorbitant prices.

What is the history of the fountain pen?

The history of the pen began with the quill. The main drawback of the quill was the lack of ink flow. It was necessary to constantly dip them in the inkwell to keep enough ink to write. Fountain pens were the first and best solution to eliminate the need to keep the nib dipped. The invention made perfect sense. It consisted of incorporating a water-based ink reservoir and a metal spring system.

Fountain pens can be filled in different ways depending on the pen’s mechanism. Some require a dropper, a syringe or a refill system to dispense the ink, some use a piston and some use a cartridge. After filling, the ink flows through the feed tube by the principle of gravity and capillarity, towards the metal tip, ready to write. Not only goose quills, but also duck, crow, eagle or rooster feathers were used to write on parchment. Ancient Rome preferred the calamus (in reed or bronze) and Egypt preferred copper pens.

In the period 973 AD, the book mentions the first use of ink reservoirs. The inventions would come from the Maghreb. The caliphs are said to have preferred a writing system that allowed them to keep their hands clean. Satisfied with the solution his servant is said to have offered him, the ink pen entered history. Metal nibs were not invented until 1820, thanks to new, more flexible and lighter steels.

These devices required the quill to be relentlessly dipped in the inkwell. And the pen could not feed itself until Petrache Poenaru invented the portable pen holder in 1827. But ink reservoirs are far from perfect… In the period of 973 comes the first pen mentioned with an ink reservoir design. The caliphs of North-West Africa – the Maghreb – once asked for pens to keep their hands clean without leaving ink. He then said he was happy to have a pen with an ink reservoir that could be turned over so the ink could flow without spilling.