Review of some fountain pens

I'd always been intrigued to try out using fountain pens.  We'd used some dip pens in art at high-school (horribly scratchy things) that put me off ever touching one again, but ever-increasing hand cramps in recent years while using ballpoint pens made me look into them again.  I'd tried rollerball pens, but though they made writing a lot easier (far less friction) they damage easily with any damage to the tip (a single drop to the floor usually destroys them completely), and they run out of ink fairly quickly.

The quick summary:

• Yes, fountain pens made it easier to write.  You can get scratchy nibs, but they don't have to be; a decent inexpensive one can glide nicely across the page.
• Mine have survived quite a few tumbles that would instantly wreck a rollerball pen.
• While pre-filled cartridge ink refills can be quick to replace, they're expensive.  A large bottle of ink with a refillable pen is far more econonmical, though can be a bit messy and reqires some care.  I might only have to refill my pen every few weeks if I'm not doing lots of writing, otherwise it's every few days.  And a $15 bottle of ink may last a few years.  Yes, it is still more expensive than ordinary ball point pens.
• You can refill many of the single-use cartridges, if you don't mind messing around (literally) with syringes, and more dissembly of the pen than using a refillable cartridge.  Refillable cartridges (they have a piston to draw in new ink, when you turn their end-screw) are worth their expense.
• Yes, the ink does smudge, and is always vulnerable to that since it's water based.  There are some more permanent inks, but they can clog some knibs.
• There are some very expensive fountain pens, but that's the same with any kind of pen (you can buy gold plated ballpoint pens for hundreds of dollars, too).  You can find reasonable fountain pens for $30 (or less), brand new.  Still more expensive than a plastic biro, but on a par with any other nice pen that you might keep for the rest of your life.

What was my problem with ballpoint pens?  The ink is a bit like thick grease, which requires more effort to draw on the page (some much more than others).  This requires a firm grip on a tiny object for a prolonged period of time (if you're writing anything more than one paragraph), which causes me a lot of finger pain.  Wider body pens help a bit, but not enough.  The fountain pens were a massive improvement, for me.

I tried two fountain pens:  A “College” Online (pen model name, brand name) and a Lamy “Safari” (brand name, pen model name).  The Online pen was the first one I tried.

College Online fountain pen

It was one of those $30 pens that came with some pre-filled ink cartridges.

The (medium) knib was nice to write with (smooth and a decent width), but I was always suffering from ink leaking out of it (though still within the lid).  You'd get messy fingers after you uncapped the pen to write.

The cartridges became an annoying expense.  It's a few dollars for a pack of five, and each one doesn't last very long.  I briefly looked at getting a refillable cartridge, but ended up getting another pen, instead.

The leaking issue was seriously annoying, and the rubber fingergrip was irritating my skin allergies, so I thought I'd experiment with trying another (different) pen.

Lamy Safari fountain pen

This one was a bit more expensive at $50.  I got one of the transparent pens.  They're often called “demonstrator” versions, because you can see the insides.  It has a bit of a sci-fi look to it, with various bits inside that look more technical than they are.

It also came with some pre-filled ink cartridges, but I soon ordered a refillable cartridge and a bottle of ink.

Its (medium) knib was scratchier, and has improved with some deliberate harsh polishing of the end.  Firstly with rougher writing paper, then I took a gamble with a fingernail polishing stick (not an emery board).  It helped, but not enough to my liking, compared to the College Online pen knib's smoothness (unfortunately they're constructed differently and it can't be transplanted).  I could get another knib for it, but it hasn't been that bad that I've actually bothered to do so.

I don't get anywhere near the leaking issues I had with the Online pen (its lid seems to seal close to the middle of the barrel, so that any leaks from the knib can run down the entire end of the pen where you grip it).  The Lamy seems to seal the knib separately from the end of the barrel.  Occasionally I clean the end of the cap out with a cotton bud, but I was forever wiping down the whole end of the Online pen.

This has been the writing pen I've used for the last few years.

Leaking pens

All pens can leak, including ballpoints.  The runnier the ink, the easier it is to happen, but even thick ink will.  I had a pocket turn red from a red biro when I was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

There's capilliary action:  You leave the pen touching something, and the ink gets drawn out.  You can see this effect when you hold wet ink pens and textas against a sheet of paper, and discover the same results after you put a pen in your pocket without a lid on.

There's air pressure, where people have discovered their pens have leaked when travelling in a aeroplane (the ink was filled at ground level, as the plane rises the air pressure reduces and doesn't press back against the stored ink as strongly).

And there's heat expansion.  A pen in your pocket get warmed, the ink expands, and forces its way out.

I think the latter has been the main problem I've had to deal with.  Some pen caps have a nice tight seal that helps mitigate against this, and I suspect my College Online pen didn't seal very well.