I use a fountain pen exclusively for all my work. I used to use a Waterman Expert[1] but someone I lent it to dropped it and destroyed the feeder. I've tried to

I use a fountain pen exclusively for all my work. I used to use a Waterman Expert[1] but someone I lent it to dropped it and destroyed the feeder. I've tried to get it repaired but it's dead and gone. These days, I use a Noodlers Ahab these days. It has a flexible nib and so I can do some amount of lettering and copperplate calligraphy when I need to (e.g. headings and for emphasis). I've tried a number of inks and I've finally settled on Private Reserve Velvet black[3]. I use other inks for calligraphy because those are with dip pens and the demands are different (specifically Winsor and Newton calligraphic ink). The Ahab is always in my pocket along with a Rotring 3in1 Tikki[4] mostly for the pencil and for places which demand a ball point pen. I practice calligraphy and often use the Ahab to write nice thank you notes or other such short messages for people. A sad thing I've found is that much of the paper you get today doesn't go very well with fountain pens. They're either too shiny (typical photocopy paper), too feathery (typical fancy notebook paper) or drink the ink too much. I've found a few companies whose books and papers are manageable and stick to them as much as possible. Some of the other pens in my collection are a steel broad nibbed Sheaffer. It's a little too fluid for my tastes and I don't use it much. There's a small shop in Kozhikode (the town in Kerala, India where I'm from) who makes handmade pens[5]. It's fun to see. They have a foot powered lathe. They carve out ebonite rods and fix feeders and nibs. I have a few of these. As someone who's very fond of handwriting (especially cursive) and calligraphy, It's heartening to see a renewed interest in this. -- [1] http://www.waterman.com/en/expert/123-black-fountain-pen-gt-3501170951644.html http://www.waterman.com/en/expert/123-black-fountain-pen-gt-... [2] https://www.gouletpens.com/noodlers-ahab-flex-fountain-pen-medieval-lapis/p/N15027 https://www.gouletpens.com/noodlers-ahab-flex-fountain-pen-m... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Private-Reserve-Velvet-Black-Bottle/dp/B0013ISL6S https://www.amazon.com/Private-Reserve-Velvet-Black-Bottle/d... [4] https://www.cultpens.com/i/q/RT16730/rotring-tikky-3-in-1-multipen https://www.cultpens.com/i/q/RT16730/rotring-tikky-3-in-1-mu... [5] http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/253458-some-untold-stories-about-calicut-pens/ http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/253458-some-un...