Later, through the Internet, I found that there were whole communities of people who were using and loving fountain pens, and I was hit by the collector's bug. Well, very mildly by it, because finances are quite tight and I generally can't afford anything above $50 and even that might be a once a year purchase.
Still, I am a pen user more than anything else -- artist and writer -- so what I prize is pen performance. I like to buy ugly beat-up vintage pens for cheap from Ebay, and then tinker with them until they sing again. I have a dozen or so $3 Hero pens that write beautifully (because I culled the bad ones, tossing them in the trash with no regret). Inexpensive Pilots with delicious smooth fine nibs. A couple of miraculous vintage flex nibs housed in dull, dingy, olive-brown hard rubber bodies.
-climbs up on soapbox-
I use flexible nibs for sketching, but unlike a lot of fountain pen users, I don't like wet-noodly soft flex nibs. They're impractical for drawing (too wet, so it takes way too long to dry. I end up smudging the lines). I can do calligraphy with them, true, but I have other media I prefer. And they're impractical for daily writing -- I usually produce around 6 pages a day of longhand, in 2-3 hour blocks, and the last thing I need is a pen that slows me down. I absolutely appreciate the expert craftsmanship that went into the creation of gold flex nibs, but for me personally, they don't have any more magic than a good sable brush (which also required, btw, craftsmanship to create. I've watched brushes being made. The process can't be automated, and it takes years of work to build up the necessary expertise.)
Anyway, for writing I like nice smooth, velvety nails in my pens. Speed demon nibs, as efficient as possible. I know very few people share my preference, but that just means more beat-up wonder pens for me.
-climbs down from soapbox-
Lastly, over the years, I seem to have built up an aversion to black ink. I used to use it exclusively, but perhaps it has to do with all the artwork I do. Black is for drawing. Colors are for writing? For legibility reasons, I rarely use anything very bright, but I like to mix my own dark palette of colors from the inks I own. If I see swatches of an ink I like, I try to reproduce it from my existing ink collection. I can usually get pretty close. It's not much different from mixing paints.
Okay, so that's me. I'm opinionated in a way (can you tell?) but on the other hand, I find other people's enthusiasm infectious and love seeing new things. Ultimately a pen is simply a tool for me, not a precious collectible, but I do so enjoy looking at all those beautiful maki-e Nakayas, and colorful handmade acrylic pens, and... and... you get the idea.
Glad to be here,
Elaine
Edited by Ebenfatto, 09 September 2014 - 02:01 PM.
