How to Get a Vintage Fountain Pen to Write Again

(This is a guest mail service by Adam Di Stefano. Adam is a writer, armchair philosopher, one-time lawyer, entrepreneur, marketing professional person, obsessive compulsive, and complete generalist. He has too recently get addicted to fountain pens. You can read more of his ramblings on his blog at The Happiest Man in the World.)

I take e'er loved the expect and the mystique of fountain pens. As a author, I have a sentimental attachment to the written word, and all things that go with it. I've always had a bizarre fascination with stationery stores. I ain far besides many notebooks, and while you lot would have to drag me kicking and screaming into a shopping mall, I'll happily spend money on office supplies. As such, perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that I would some day grow addicted of fountain pens.

Just, getting into fountain pens is intimidating. It's a mysterious world, with its own vernacular, and full of odd people who watch ink dry and habiliment fishing vests when they assemble.

If y'all're like me, in that location aren't a ton of people you know who share this obsession that you lot can ask for communication on how to get started. So, instead, you plough to the internet to discover this information. In that location you will find a ton of swell info and great blogs (like this one, but most of it speaks to people who know what they're talking near. Not to us newbies.

If you lot're like me, you'll read a lot, yous'll feel lost, and you'll be intimidated. And then somewhen, after months and months of reading stuff that you barely sympathise, you'll decide to take the plunge and buy a pen and see what happens. You'll brand some mistakes, but eventually later some trial and fault, you'll start to realize simply what these fountain pen aficionados are so crazy about. Or, you'll give upwards because it'due south too much hassle and regret having waster your money.

That'south why I decided to write this. My goal is to give someone who wants to attempt fountain pens for the first time a stride-by-footstep guide on how to go from true beginner to early on-stage addiction in a single concise article, all the while removing some of the intimidation and fake starts that come with plunging in on our ain.

Some Basic Definitions

I could write a whole glossary just on the terms and terminology used in the fountain pen world, simply that'due south non my goal here. My goal is simply to requite you lot the almost bones definitions you'll need to understand the balance of this article. I desire to focus on things that someone who doesn't know much nearly fountain pens wouldn't know, while not getting into details that are unnecessary for someone only getting started.

The nib

The nib is the part of the pen that touches the newspaper, and that the ink comes out of. On most pens information technology will be stainless steel, and on college end pens it will be gold. Past changing a nib, you can completely change the experience of writing with a pen. One of the showtime decisions you'll have to make when buying a fountain pen is the size of the beak's tip.

On most standard fountain pens, nibs can come in various points from actress fine to bold. The tip of the nib will make up one's mind only how much ink is released, and the thickness of the lines that you will put down. In addition to extra fine to bold, at that place are also a multifariousness of other nib types similar a cursive italic, or a stub. These special grinds are best suited for specific handwriting styles.

To further complicate matters, nib sizes aren't standard. A "fine" beak on a Japanese pen, will tend to be finer than a "fine" neb on a German pen.

Sure nibs work better with certain inks, and certain handwriting styles.

Nibs made of softer materials, similar golden, will wear in such a mode as to adapt to the handwriting of the person using it. Equally such, if you have a very soft pecker on a pen, and y'all lend it to someone else, the ink flow volition seem strange to them, considering the pen will take literally adapted itself to y'all.

Cartridge

A cartridge is the reservoir of ink that you can swap out of your pen and supersede in its entirety, similar to how you would refill a ballpoint or a gel pen. The reward of cartridges is that they are like shooting fish in a barrel. When you're out of ink, you simply pop in a new cartridge, and you're skilful to become. The downside is that information technology costs much more to constantly supplant your cartridges than to but refill your pen with ink using a converter.

Converter

A converter changes a cartridge filling organization into refillable solution. There are diverse types of converters and filling systems, only the principal purpose remains the same: a refillable reservoir that holds the ink that your pen uses to write. Some pens come with converters, others demand to be ordered. For case, a Airplane pilot Metropolitan comes with both a cartridge and an empty converter, whereas a Lamy Safari comes only with a cartridge. If you want to refill a Safari, you either need to buy more cartridges, or yous need to purchase a converter plus ink.

Step past Step of How to Get Started

ane. Buy a Starter Pen

I of the reasons y'all'll have gotten into fountain pens in the first place is that they look and so damn absurd. Unfortunately, for virtually of us, the thought of jumping into ownership a $200+ pen without knowing annihilation almost information technology isn't and so like shooting fish in a barrel. As a result, it's probably a good idea to wet your feet with what I call a "starter pen."

In my travels around the pen internets, in that location appear to be two pens that come dorsum over again and again equally great starters: the Lamy Safari and the Pilot Metropolitan. There are other good pens in the sub $50 range but these two appear to be the best to human activity as starters for a few different reasons, which I won't get into hither.

For the time being yous should buy ane of them.

When information technology came time for me to buy my first fountain pen I asked the one and only, Brad Dowdy, what he recommended and he said, "Definitely the Pilot Metropolitan."

And then, naturally, I bought a Lamy Safari (it was an availability/lack of patience thing).

In all seriousness, either of these pens piece of work very well as a starter pen. I recollect if I had to recommend one to someone, I'd probably recommend the Metropolitan. It'due south slightly cheaper. It's better looking in a very classic mode. And out of the box it comes with a cartridge as well as a converter, so you can play with both filling systems.

The Lamy Safari is slightly more expensive, is a bit odd looking, and depending on your color option, can look a bit inexpensive. The Lamy Safari comes with a Lamy cartridge and if yous want to refill the pen using bottled ink, you'll need to purchase a converter separately, which will add to the price of the pen.

On the flip side, I actually prefer the way the Safari writes, so your mileage may vary.

Each of these pens comes in a variety of colours and looks, simply the nearly important decision you'll likely need to make is what size nib you lot want. I purchased mine with a fine pecker. Equally a general rule of thumb, if you have tiny handwriting, y'all'll desire a effectively bill. If you have bigger handwriting, you lot'll desire a bigger bill (you probably don't want to go higher than medium, though). Either fashion, the goal here is to go to know how the pen writes, and then selection i and don't worry too much about information technology.

Either way, either of these pens will be a great introduction to the world of fountain pens, so buy 1 and allow's move on.

ii. Get Used to Writing With It

The day I got my Lamy Safari, I started using it immediately. Admittedly, my kickoff impression was less than stellar. I found the pen scratchy to write with, and found that it was skipping. I began to wonder if I was doing something incorrect, and then questioned whether getting a fine nib might have been a error.

I stuck to it, and a few hours into taking notes with my pen, somethign magical happened: the ink started to menstruation improve!

This was my commencement fountain pen lesson. The mode a fountain pen works is different from the mode a ballpoint or a gel ink pen works. Pen doesn't just kickoff flowing automatically. The ink needs to piece of work its way through the entire nib. In addition, if ink has been sitting in the pen for a while, it may accept dried slightly, which will requite you a less polish writing experience. In general, using information technology volition allow y'all to get through the drier ink and then it will start to flow.

Equally I continued to write with my fountain pen, the more than I institute I liked it.

3. Try it on Different Papers

Every bit I started using my new pen, I began to find something that I had never really taken stock of using my quondam ballpoints or gel pens: paper quality. I before long institute that some papers worked bully with my pen, while others made it feel scratchy, or caused the ink to bleed.

You tin can read exhaustive articles on which paper is the best to endeavour with what ink and pen combination. Even so, my best advice is to try a agglomeration of different things.

Write on whatever plain pad of newspaper you take lying effectually the office. Write on postal service-information technology notes. Write in your favourite notebook. Write on scraps of newspaper.

You'll before long get a feel for the difference that paper can brand.

Brad recently wrote a not bad slice for Rhodia virtually how newspaper is like the tires on a car, and it's true. Yous don't really notice what kind of tires are on your automobile until you accept a high operation car that can take advantage of them. The fountain pen is a piddling scrap like the high operation machine.

Information technology'south also a proficient moment to call out the aforementioned Rhodia. I take a few Rhodia notepads, and I have to say, their paper is something else. For one, when you write on it, it'southward so smoothen that you lot wonder if you're actually writing on paper or if you lot're writing on plastic. If you desire to get a experience for a pen'south true potential I highly recommend it.

That said, I'thou non saying yous should at present write exclusively on premium paper. In truth, the bulk of my writing still takes identify on generic ruled function pads, the brand of which I couldn't tell you.

Returning to my car analogy, it's kind of similar having your every day tires for the commute to work, and saving your operation tires for the rail on weekends.

four. Learn How to Adapt Your Writing Style

I think at that place is a misperception about writing using a fountain pen that if you're using a fountain pen, y'all should exist writing in cursive (or attached messages equally I empathise it's called across the pond).

That'due south nonsense. Personally, I honey the expect of cursive writing, merely I just don't like my own cursive writing, and I don't feel like devoting the time to meliorate it. And so, I keep to write in either tiny all capital block letters when I'chiliad trying to exist neat, or very round, large lower case cake letters when I'm writing normally (I have had my handwriting compared to that of a seven-year old girl because of how bubbly my messages are).

So, if you don't take to write in cursive, why am I telling y'all to arrange your writing way? Well, just because a fountain pen writes differently than a ballpoint pen. The ink flows more than, and tends to dry slower. Furthermore, fountain pens need to exist held at a certain angle so that the nib contacts the paper in the right way to permit the ink to menstruation properly.

As such, some people may have to adapt their handwriting. Lefties for example, may need to tweak their style in club to avoid smudging the entire page. Some people have to change the way they concur their pen considering they tend to hold their pends nearly perpendicular to the folio.

In my instance, it merely meant making a conscious effort to elevator my pen when writing in block letters. My normal handwriting tends to drag the pen across the folio. As such, even though I write in block messages, they tend to announced attached half the time, but because I haven't actually lifted my pen. With a ballpoint pen, this doesn't cause many issues. However, with a fountain pen, more ofttimes than not, this leads to smudging. As a result, I've had to curb that habit.

5. Purchase Bottled Ink & a Converter

In my opinion, the truthful fountain pen experience only begins once you've started buying bottled inks and refilling your pens.

Cartridges are easier, neater, and more convenient. You can just swap them out whenever you want. But if you want to utilize cartridge refills, yous might every bit well stick with ball points and gel pens.

If you go into fountain pens, ownership bottled inks is the way to go. There's a few reasons for this. First, at that place's a very cool feeling when you lot're refilling a pen from a bottle. It just makes you lot feel similar you're writing a very of import letter.

Second, once you lot take a converter, you lot never have to worry about buying the correct cartridge for your pen, and you can apply the same bottled ink interchangeably amongst all your pens.

3rd, the choice of inks y'all volition get when you lot become the route of buying bottled inks dwarfs what you tin can find in cartridges, and so you lot can really begin to customize your writing experience.

And if you're concerned almost the difficulty of refilling your pen, like I was, considering you've heard it's messy and difficult, don't worry about it. Information technology'southward non every bit bad every bit you've heard. Here are a couple of links to some explanatory videos of how to fill a pen with bottled ink.

• Specifically for the Pilot Metropolitan
• More generic converter refilling video

vi. Notice the Colours

I of the slap-up things well-nigh fountain pens, and refilling them is the sheer variety of different colours. It'due south not unusual for a unmarried ink company to produce a few dozen colours. And before yous call back that later a few primary colours, all other inks are just variations of the aforementioned thing, you are missing a huge part of the ink experience. Information technology is only when I started using fountain pens that I started to truly empathize what information technology meant to capeesh an ink's texture and depth of colour.

Even the standard bluish that came with my Lamy Safari had more variation and depth than whatever other ink I'd ever written with before.

The moment you start getting excited virtually watching the ink of your pen dry out, that's when you know you're hooked. So, at this signal, I would advise that you buy at least one ink refill.

7. Play with it Some More

Now that you've tried a couple of unlike inks, different papers, and different filling systems, play around with your pen some more. See how each thing yous alter, changes the way the pen writes. Notice the feel of the pen. Acquire to capeesh the thickness or thinness of a line. Understand bleed and feathering. Unless you experience these concepts yourself, information technology is difficult to truly understand their importance.

In brusque, with the aforementioned pen, yous can have a number of different experiences. Learn to appreciate those, and the entire process at this bespeak has price you less than $l.

viii. Buy a Different Inexpensive Pen with a Different Pecker

At this betoken, if you lot're like me, you lot probably want to run out and buy a super expensive, cool looking pen, because you've now fallen in love with the feel of writing with a fountain pen, and you just take to have that next $200 pen.

Instead, what I'd recommend is y'all buy a different cheap pen with a different nib. If y'all bought a Pilot, buy a Lamy. If yous bought a Lamy, buy a Pilot. Attempt a different nib to see what size nib you prefer. Remember that if yous're buying Japanese instead of German language or vice versa, fifty-fifty buying the same nib size will actually requite you lot a different writing experience. Both my Safari and Metropolitan have fine nibs, but the Safari has a much thicker line.

I consciously bought this fashion so I could compare and contrast both pens. My adjacent Pilot will likely be a medium neb, just because it suits my handwriting better. My next Lamy, notwithstanding, volition probably still exist fine, because I don't recollect I demand a thicker line than what'due south provided by the Lamy Fine pecker.

I would non accept known any of this if I hadn't bought a second pen. Sure, I could take read nearly it, simply that wouldn't take helped me understand which neb I prefer.

ix. Try Different Inks

Before y'all spend a fortune on a Nakaya or some other crazy expensive pen, realize just how much fun you can take just past trying dissimilar inks.

In my mind, inks are a seriously under-appreciated part of the fountain pen experience. About articles you will read about fountain pens focus on the pens (with adept reason, it is what you lot're using to write!). Nonetheless, irresolute the ink in your pens is a more affordable way to get a great diverseness of experiences with your fountain pen.

Retrieve about it. Instead of spending multiple hundreds of dollars on new pens, you can spend a few bucks on a new bottle of ink, ink your favourite pen, and blast, but similar that, whole new writing experience!

Some inks are "expensive." For example, the get-go bottle of ink I bought was Pilot'southward Iroshizuku Shin-kai. This bluish-blackness is considered a premium ink, and I paid upwards of $twenty for 50 mL. That may seem like a lot, merely 50 mL volition likely last me a LONG fourth dimension and information technology is a heck of a lot cheaper than me buying a brand new pen when the mood strikes!

10. Purchase a Nicer Pen!

Now that you lot've got a experience for a couple of "inexpensive" pens, and how fun they tin can be to utilize, NOW y'all can appreciate fancy pens.

Read all those blogs that were too hard to understand before. Shop around. Talk to the weirdos wearing fishing vests. You tin can even try going to a Pen Show to see the selection. Whatever the case may be, you lot've now fabricated the leap into becoming a true pen aficionado.

Closing Words

At this point, you're probably thinking to yourself, this all seems like a lot just to buy a pen. And you're right. Information technology is. Nonetheless, if you only want a pen that you tin pull out at any fourth dimension and it but works, so I'd suggest grabbing a roller ball or a gel pen. There's a ton of nifty ones out at that place, and yous can read through Brad's reviews to find the best of the best. If y'all're looking for a utilitarian tool, that'southward the mode to go.

Still, if you lot're approaching fountain pens as a piece of art, a hobby, or worse, a potential habit, I remember information technology's worth taking the time to understand the basics with a few of the cheaper options before diving head first into the vast selection of premium pens that be out there.

Hopefully this guide will aid yous on that journey. All-time of luck, and permit me know how you relish it!

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Source: https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2015/10/1/the-beginners-guide-to-fountain-pens-by-a-true-beginner

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