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The practical tradeoffs all cut against fountain pens: they run out of ink quickly, they dry out quickly, the ink smudges until it dries, the ink will run or be
by smarks 3y ago
The practical tradeoffs all cut against fountain pens: they run out of ink quickly, they dry out quickly, the ink smudges until it dries, the ink will run or be erased if the paper gets wet, they are very sensitive to the quality of paper, they can leak easily in your pocket, etc.
Nonetheless I have several fountain pens, and I enjoy writing with them. There is a bit of ceremony about it. It slows you down somewhat; this is good. It's rather like kneading bread dough by hand instead of plopping the ingredients into the bread maker and pushing the button. It puts me in touch with the craft of writing instead of its mere utility.
- falcolas 3y ago> they run out of ink quickly, they dry out quickly, the ink smudges until it dries, the ink will run or be erased if the paper gets wet, they are very sensitive to the quality of paper, they can leak easily in your pocket, etc. Wut? It sounds like you're talking more about dip pens than fountain pens? Because aside from the ink drying time (it does smudge for up to a minute for really thick lines), most of those are artifacts of older inks and pens. And there are a lot of varieties of inks to take care of fast drying or waterproofness, etc. And a good cap will keep a pen from leaking in your pants.
- criddell 3y agoI have a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen and the ink in it evaporates really quickly. I bought a Platinum Preppy fountain pen for $6 and it’s much better in this regard.
- falcolas 3y ago> the ink in it evaporates really quickly I wonder, what kind of ink? Noodler inks last forever in my pens, and I've also been having good luck with some of the india inks. That said, some of the older style pigment inks do tend to gum up a lot more, but they're falling out of favor more and more.
- criddell 3y agoPilot Namiki black ink.
- smarks 3y ago> Wut? It sounds like you're talking more about dip pens than fountain pens? No. These things don't happen all the time with fountain pens, but they can happen much more frequently than with ball point pens.