I mentioned, when sharing my ink collection, that I had 58 pens and this will be a tour, of sorts, of all 58. It's an eclectic array of pens; from a cheap Noodler's Creeper to the now rather pricy OMAS Paragon Brown Arco Celluloid, my pens are hardly unified. I haven't really got a focus with the collection (though I haven't had, in the past, much of a focus with inks either!). I am, however, keeping an eye out for Sailor Store Exclusive or LE pens that catch my eye but in general I'm merely acquiring pens that I like a certain feature of (such as a nib or material) or a set of features. The closest I am to any form of organised collection is to complete my Visconti Wall Street set (I just need Blue) and I am, more generally, a fan of stacked celluloid.
Montblanc, OMAS, and Visconti
We'll start of getting the big ones out of the way. All here but the OMAS and the Visconti Southern Cross were purchased second hand. The Visconti's have been the most troublesome: the Souther Cross had to be sent for repairs several time, the silver Wall Street just cracked off its own volition and had to have a new barrel made (which is now even more out of alignment with the cap than it was before) and the other two have alignment issues as well. I absolutely love the look of them and they write nice and wet but they can be frustrating at times. The Homo Sapiens has a wet 1.3 stub on it but it does't like some inks, unfortunately.
The OMAS Paragon Arte Italiana Brown Arco Celluloid with a silver finish (just rolls off the tongue) performs perfectly. The medium nib is on the finer side but is juicy and has never skipped or had and issues at all. The Montblanc 146 has what I think is a broad nib. This pen has performed well, mostly, but didn't like Montblanc Lavender Purple, ironically. The Montblanc Heritage 1912 is a little on the dryer side and has a Masuyama Broad Italic nib. It is super smooth but the corners are quite sharp. If you rotate the nib slightly it can dig in a little (I have smoothed this ever so slightly).
Pelikan, Lamy, Diplomat and Parker
For the Pelikan m800 Grand Place I have a "Fine" nib (broader than your average western Medium!) and a Broad nib. Both are quite wet but the broad behaves better with some inks than others. I've also put a Medium m400 nib on the m200 Café Crème and the black m200 has a stock steel EF nib on it. They all perform quite well.
The Lamy 2000 has a medium nib and was one of my first good pens. I don't use this pen as much as I should because I am a fan of it. It's comfortable in my hand and is great to write with. It doesn't have a small sweet-spot either. The Studio was bought merely because I acquired a gold Lamy Masuyama Broad Italic nib and wanted something nicer than a Safari to put it in.
The Diplomat was my first fountain pen I ever bought. It has a gold nib and sings when you write but performs well. It's quite heavy and I definitely paid too much for it but that's OK. Live and learn.
When I first got the International Parker Duofold it was a little dry but I've adjusted the nib to how I like it and now it's wonderfully wet. I really solid and reliable writer.
2/3 Waterman, Shaeffer, Karas Kustoms, and Parker
Not pictured is my Waterman Charleston (which I forgot was still attached to my Traveler's Notebook); I use it as my black-inked pen. I'm not a huge fan of the metal band as it makes it look half-capped in my opinion. The Waterman Carène Meridian Pink Gold is super smooth, and nicely wet. I love the look of in-laid nibs and I wish this came with a screw cap so I could bring it with me more frequently (I just don't trust snap caps enough). The Phileas is a medium nib that writes as fat as a broad. Lovely and smooth I use this pen for more out-there Noodler's inks.
The Shaeffer Legacy II Black Pearl was a 2000 Limited Edition. I find it very ugly (charmingly ugly?). It writes like a dream though and the in-laid nib is one of my favourite looking nibs of all.
The Karas Customs is strictly an EDC pen. It's solid and doesn't break.
I don't use the Parker 45s of the 51 much as I'm weary about what ink I put in them and they all write a little too much on the fine side for me.
Platinum and TWSBI
The black Platinum Century #3776 had a Coarse nib (effectively a Double Broad) but I had that ground to an Architect but Dan Smith. It's interesting to write with but not super practical. I consider this a novelty nib. The Chartres Blue Century has a Broad nib and is nice and wet and the Gengetsu (an exclusive to Wancher) has a lovely smooth wet medium (not the "pencil" feedback often attributed to Platinum nibs).
The TWSBI Eco with the white cap is my Noodler's Baystate pen. It has had Noodler's Baystate Blue in it for the past 10 months without a clean. It has had no issues at all. Writes well every time I take the cap off. Little to no staining as well. The other TWSBIs have fallen by the wayside a little but I was recently gifted the two Vacumatics so I'm going to be using them a bit. I have put my spare TWSBI Fine Italic nib in the Vac Mini.
Ranga, Pensive Pens and Noodler's
The reason I have the two Rangas is because they fit my extra Franklin-Christoph nibs the two The Blue Pensive Pens Naked Pen has been retro fitted to be able to take a Pelikan nib when eye-droppered. I've not yet committed to an ink to eye-dropper yet so that should be interesting when I get around to that. I only really use the Neponset and the Ahab of the Noodler's pens. The Ahab I've had modified to to be super-flex by a friend and the Neponset needed a new feed (that I got from Fountain Pen Revolution). It works well enough now.
Lamy and Onoto
I rarely use the Onoto The Pen Junior. It has a lovely soft gold nib, however. The Lamy's don't get much use unless I'm wanting them for a review. I'm not a huge fan of the Safari shape or design to be frank.
Franklin-Christoph and Kaweco
The Franklin-Christoph Model 02 Intrinsic with the green finish was my first bigger pen buy. I'm honestly no-longer enamoured by it like I was but it's a solid pen with a good nib and I do still enjoy using it. The Model 65 with the ice finish was bought second hand and had my first Masuyama nib in it (Needlepoint and Fine Italic). It looked very nice eye-droppered (and it didn't burp or behave poorly) but I'm just worried that one day some of the ink won't wash off so I use a converter with it now. It's my main fine-nibbed pen as I keep the Needlepoint in it. The Model 45 is a recent purchase and I do like the shape and size of the pen.. I wish it could hold a converter other than the Kaweco Squeeze converter (which is anything but good) but it still works well enough with that.
I've collected a few Kawecos over the years. Most were rather early purchases. Solid pens but they have all had a baby's bottom that I have had to remove. The Macchiato-named Kaweco Skyline (and I have a Kaweco Cappuccino on the way) were bought only because of their names. Hmm…
Pilot and Sailor
I have the Japanese clear Pilot Custom 823 with a broad nib. I need to send this pen off to get the nib looked at, however. It writes fine with no baby's bottom but if you lift the pen of the page for a few seconds it'll dry out and hard start. Otherwise a great pen. The plastic feels great to the touch. I haven't used the Metropolitans in probably over a year and I don't use the Falcon much (I'm thinking about trying to sell it).
The Sailors are where I want to focus my pen collection from now on. The Black/Silver Pro Gear slim and the Black/Gold Pro Gear are pretty standard pens (medium and broad respectively) but the others are a little more interesting. The Maroon pen is a Standard 21 (available only in Japan I believe). It is a standard sized (smaller) 1911/Profit but with a 21k nib (as opposed to the more usual 14k). The Purple Wancher Limited Edition Wisteria Pro Gear is quite beautiful. It's mostly a magenta coloured pen but if you have a softer and bluer light it turns a rich purple. Lastly my most recent purchase, a Black Proske from the Nagasawa pen store in Kobe. It has a nice dark stealth music nib that is wet and reliable. I wish it was a standard sized pen but it's still lovely as is.
By The Numbers
Nib type:
- Stub 3
- Broad/Double Broad 13
- Medium 27
- Italic 2
- Fine 7
- Extra-Fine
- Other 5
Modified nibs: 8
Nib Materials:
- 14k: 18
- 18k: 9
- 21k: 3
- 23k Palladium: 2
- Steel: 26
Country of Origin:
- Australia: 2
- France: 4
- Germany: 17
- India: 2
- Italy: 6
- Japan: 11
- Taiwan: 4
- UK: 5
- USA: 7
Filling Mechanism:
- C/C: 34
- Piston: 10
- “Push”: 2
- Touchdown: 1
- Vacumatic: 7
- Aerometric: 4