Disposable fountain pens and most student-friendly ones, while certainly useful, only scratch the surface of what makes writing and drawing with a fountain pen such a gratifying experience. These entry-level pens, what beginners are usually told to start with because of the minimal investment, can end up making them feel, “Meh. That’s it?” Even expensive pens can be quirky and unsatisfying to use for a beginner who isn’t ready to pull out a loupe, check tine alignment, yank out a nib and whip out the micromesh.
To me, a serious beginner feels the need to express herself better. She could be a writer, an artist, a copious note-taker, a compulsive mind mapper, a meeting doodler, someone for whom the physical act of applying pen to paper is an inspiration. She has explored gel pens, highlighters, felt-tip markers, ballpoints of every color. Now she wants to try fountain pens.
A dear friend gave me an Esterbrook nib box for store counters. It shows 22 different kinds of nibs, and has the lines “the right point for the way you write” and “instantly replaceable by the user.”
Esterbrook box
That helped define for me what serious beginners need in a fountain pen: nib choice and ease of maintenance. Nib choice is crucial because line width and quality of line are what bring forth expressiveness. The pen needs to be easy to maintain, and good to go out of the box, because beginners want to ink up and play, not tinker.
If you consider yourself a serious beginner, consider these:
The Lamy Safari. Aside from fine, medium and broad nibs, italic and oblique are available. I have yet to buy a Safari that needs tinkering to write well. Fills by cartridge or converter.
The Pilot 78G isn’t as sturdily built as the Safari, but it has smoother writing nibs, in my opinion. Nibs come in fine, medium, broad and double broad (the broad nibs are italic). Fills by cartridge or converter (I recommend the CON-20).
Pilot Parallel Pens are for calligraphy and bold sketching. They’re not exactly fountain pens but they are the best calligraphy pens out there at any price point. Nib widths are 1.5, 2.4, 3.6 and 6.0 mm.
For those willing to spend more, the Pelikan M200 or M205 is a good entry point into customization. Richard Binder has ready-to-go custom nibs for most Pelikans in crisp italic, cursive italic, needlepoint, xxf with full flex. He also has custom nibs available for the Pilot Capless, but the Capless’ girth and clip placement is not for everyone.
No, I will not recommend a Noodler’s Ahab or Noodler’s Creaper to a beginner. Both marketed as modern flex nib pens at a reasonable price, they both require some knowledge of how fountain pens work to write the way they should.
Pilot Parallel Pen, Noodler's Creaper, Pilot 78G, Pilot Prera, Lamy Safari, Pilot Handwriting Pen, Cross Solo
In between the sub-$30 pen and the $150-200 a Pelikan M200 with a custom nib will cost, there are lots of options, including vintage. Many beginners become frustrated with vintage pens when the flow quality changes from the time they buy it, or when the pen starts skipping — not knowing the culprit could be a deteriorating rubber sac or buildup in the feed. When in doubt, choose an eyedropper, not a lever-filler. Eyedroppers are the easiest to maintain.
Beginners don’t stay beginners forever, and when the initial trepidation wears off, the wonderful world of tinkering awaits. I look forward to your first sac replacement. (I did mine completely, utterly wrong.)
Caran d’Ache’s Grafcube is a formidable chunk of graphite. You can letter with it, draw with it, or conceal it in your fist for added punching power.
Caran d'Ache Grafcube
(Pardon the dirty fingers.)
The graphite is dense. I did a test run to loosen my shoulder, because big letters call for big arm movements.
"The city is my church"
The Grafcube lets you rediscover calligraphy with your body. Wielding it feels like dancing.
Whoosh
I did this in two minutes.
Grafcube calligraphy
Then I decided to ink all over it, using Noodler’s X Feather with a bamboo pen. More dancing.
Start over
Get a Grafcube and sheets of A3 paper, and just let loose. It’s a happy thing.
You'll never know, a million heartbeats, fireflies
I have an art sensei. He looks like a bug and he answers to either “Phil” or “The.” He doesn’t teach me about materials, or make me memorize the taxonomy of art movements since the 12th century. What he does is ask a lot of questions. Most of them start with “why don’t you.”
Why don’t you make an axe-wielding zombie version of yourself?
Axe-wielding zombie Leigh. Watercolor, Derwent Inktense blocks, watersoluble graphite.
Why don’t you try working on a larger area than you’re used to?
The grand splatter, now on A3 paper. Glass pen, Noodler's Dark Matter.
Why don’t you use your left hand?
Layered like secrets and bones. Noodler's Kiowa Pecan, diluted Pilot asa-gao, folded pen, Huron Grande with flex nib.
Why don’t you do that non-female steampunk ninja?
…
Okay, that one will take a bit more work.
Do you have an art sensei? Someone prone to making profound pronouncements, who asks you strange questions, and prompts you to peek inside closets and around corners?
There is room in the world for cute.
a cute Kaweco Sport
When you go to the official Kaweco website, turn off your sound because it auto-plays a song that goes “I don’t want to set the world on fiiiiire…” I do not dislike songs, but I hate auto-play.
Anyway, back to cute. What’s good about cute is it’s a short, memorable word. It’s one syllable less than “kawaii.” (Or two syllables less, depending on how you pronounce “kawaii.”) Also, cute is, on its own, a neutral word. People don’t know if you’re a) insulting them or b) complimenting them if you look them in the eye and say, “You’re cute.” That’s why you have to accompany the statement with a) a deadpan stare or b) a genuine smile.
Cute nib
This pen is so cute, no converter I know of fits. Only cartridges.
Cute when posted
Those with non-cute hands will inevitably post the cap. That’s the only way to write with this pen in comfort.
Cute macro shot of chess print
The “chess print,” as it’s called, references the chased patterns on black hard rubber fountain pens from late 19th/early 20th century.
Cute scribble
With the cap on, it is a runt beside the Lamy Safari.
Cute couple
With the cap posted, they’re almost the same length.
Cute to the end
If you have a small bag, or just want a compact pen to carry around in a pocket, the Kaweco Sport might be your kind of fountain pen. Also, you need to like the word “cute.” (I have used up my cute quota for 2012. If I use the word in my blog at all this year, feel free to flame me in the comments.)
The coming Lunar Year is the Year of the Water Dragon, so I thought that needed appropriate wallpaper. For fans of geomancy and dragons, here it is.
Nakaya water dragon stopper
I’ll do a more detailed review, I promise. In the meantime I wanted to put up pictures.
Here’s the Mina in blue-beige ebonite. I love the subtle flare at the ends. Come to think of it this particular Mina would make a great pair of jeans.
The Mina in blue-beige ebonite
I asked for a 2.3 mm nib leaning towards crisp, and got it.
Mina with 2.3mm nib
Cartridge/converter, with better-than-expected flow. Then again Platinum Carbon Black and italic nibs work well together. Note the jagged end of the upstroke on the “c” in “italic” in the writing sample – the nib is not rounded at the edges and it takes some getting used to.
Crispy!
In for a penny, in for a pound. Here’s the Huron Grande in Tortoise Lucite. I asked Brian for a material that would let me see ink sloshing inside the barrel. When the Huron Grande came, I chickened out. It’s too beautiful to stain! For now I’m using the converter that came with the pen.
Huron Grande in Tortoise Lucite
Uncapped:
Yummy swirly pen goodness
The nib is a medium that has been ground to an XF and modified for flex.
A closeup of the engraving on the barrel
The flow is around 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.
(dip test - actual writing with converter installed to follow)
Size comparison: M101N, Mina, Huron Grande, Danitrio (around Takumi size).
Size comparison
The Huron Grande eats all my pens for lunch AND dinner.
I see more from the Edison Pen Company in my future. (Brian knows what pen people like.) Thanks for the exceptional service and attention to detail.
I breathe out ink on paper. I breathe in music.
Here’s the music that fed me this year. (Not in any order.)
Wild Beasts, Smother
“Tear jerker, shadow lurker, wonder worker, reach a bit further.” And they do.
PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
If this album had come out later in the year, Polly would have occupied England. The words that maketh murder.
M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Midnight City. Mutants. Saxophone. And that’s just one single.
Destroyer, Kaputt
Rock and roll in watercolor. Wash in a field:
And the more pigmented version:
The Weeknd, House of Balloons
Dripping with sex and badness. Gyration and bodily fluids required. A mysterious backstory only makes it better.
Frank Turner, England Keep My Bones
“She can get up, shower, and in half an hour she’d be gone.” Melodic, forceful, intelligent.
My Brightest Diamond, All Things Will Unwind
A bottle of unusual, decanted into a glass of beauty. Ding Dang.
Matt Nathanson, Modern Love
I’m late to the Matt Nathanson party. Damn, this guy’s good.
Here’s him straightening George Michael:
and doing the duet thing:
Raphael Saadiq, Stone Rollin’
Oh soul, don’t ever go away.
The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow
If this isn’t my top album of 2011, it’s pretty damn close.
“I don’t love you, and I always will.”
One day I want them to sing “A Heart Needs a Home” by Richard and Linda Thompson.
St. Vincent, Strange Mercy
Annie Clark is my girl crush. St. Vincent takes the thinking person’s pop to a most peculiar height.
TV on the Radio, Nine Types of Light
It’s an album. It’s a movie. It’s TV On The Radio’s best so far and that is saying a lot.
Los Campesinos!, Hello Sadness
This album hasn’t settled in yet but I can already tell it will. “By your hand is the only end I foresee.”
Battles, Gloss Drop
Battles only sound like themselves. Like a Moog humping steel girders. To a beat. With a smirk.
The Field, Looping State of Mind
Axel Willner transcends sublime. This is not techno as usual. Arpeggiated Love:
Fucked Up, David Comes to Life
Punk is not dead. It has, however, contorted itself into some kind of melodious disguise.
The Horrible Crowes, Elsie
Brian Fallon and Ian Perkins make the album I didn’t know I’d been waiting for.
“My first love was an arsonist.”
“I can smell him in your skin, I can taste him in your blood.”
“Be still my heart, I age 5 years at the mention of your name.”
Thrice, Major/Minor
I can’t help it. Rock is rock. Plus they used “numinous” in a sentence.
The Horrors, Skying
Will they save British pop rock? Who cares? Ignore the awful video. The album is a crow’s skull encrusted with crystals.
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
I was so scared at what could come after For Emma, Forever Ago. I shouldn’t have been. One of the best albums, singles, videos of the year. Just perfect.
Kate Bush, 50 Words for Snow
I love it when Kate is just Kate. I couldn’t find the title track anywhere. Here’s the 30s.
Kurt Vile, Smoke Ring for My Halo
Every generation needs its Lou Reed Jesus Bob Dylan.
Nakaya pens nestle in the ink-stained Enveloop. I am experiencing a belated hankering after some kind of organization.
Discipline, too. I carry upwards of twenty pens a day. Each one is different enough from the other to enable me to justify all of them. (Until my right shoulder and lower back violently disagree with me.)
(Testing WordPress for Android.)
It looks like I do. At first it’s novel, then it’s almost useful, because the sheer novelty of it all sends my brain scrambling to find justifications for owning one.
The Flat Point™ sharpener
The sharpener comes with a Flat Sketching™ pencil.
The Flat Sketching™ pencil
The instructions do not in any way capture how fun This Object™ is.
How to use the Flat Point™ sharpener
After a few side-to-side slides, the taper becomes obvious.
Gratuitous insertion shot
Even the shavings look different.
Flat Point™ shavings
So, after several side-to-side semi-wiggles, this is what the pencil looked like:
Not a Flat Point™ just yet
More vigorous side-to-side action finally revealed the graphite.
Flat Point™ graphite
Then it was time to shave off the sides.
The other side of the Flat Point™ sharpener
Almost there.
This is a lot of effort just to get a Flat Point™ on a pencil
And finally, it was done.
That looks flat to me
The packaging says “use for drawing and sketching, broad strokes and coverage, and calligraphy practice.” Guess which one I chose.
Flat Point™ calligraphy
My Amusement™ knows no bounds.
I enjoyed this sharpener very much, including its manufacturer’s extreme dedication to the ™ symbol.
