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Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

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Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#151

Post by disqard »

3523582908 wrote: post #128
polygotdomain wrote: post #100

I always feel that fountain pens should come with bigger caveats than they're typically presented with. I absolutely love them (more than you'd even guess), but if someone is just going to "pick up" a fountain pen and just start writing they might be in for a bit of shift. Writing with a fountain pen isn't really the same as writing with a ball point, and there will be some adjustment that goes along with it. If you'…

One con: Pens dry out! If you're not regularly writing with them, the vast majority of pens (minus the Platinum ones) will dry out. Yes, my 20 year old ballpoint pen has dried out. But the vast majority of my ballpoints, gels, etc pens can all be picked up and written with without any regularity. My fountain pens have to be used daily, otherwise they cannot be used.

I've had the same problem with other pens, and have found that the TWSBI Eco always seals perfectly -- I once uncapped my Eco after several months, and it instantly wrote, flawlessly!

Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#153

Post by QuarterReptile »

chrismartin wrote: post #94
QuarterReptile wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends your goal. Write finely and precisely? Don't hurt your hand?

I believe Uni-ball Jetstream ink pushes this Pareto frontier. It provides the low-fatigue, low-drag experience of water-based gel ink, but dries instantly and is waterproof like oil-based ballpoint ink.

I think that your writing has to evolve into the best answer, which is very fine tips so that the ink is limited enough to dry quickly. Initially, you're probably still pressing down on the page, so the fine tips feel scratchy, but eventually you can use 0.3mm with no problem.

Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#154

Post by pyrophane »

blackoil wrote: post #79
pyrophane wrote: post #21

I ignored fountain pens for a long time because I'm not a calligrapher or artist and I mostly want writing to be easy and convenient. On a whim, I finally ordered a LAMY Safari and was really surprised at how much better the writing experience was. I noticed my penmanship improved and I was able to write more easily on parts of the page that I normally struggle with, such as near the binding in some notebooks. I attr…

What were you using before? Curious if they are better than Uniball and Pilot.

I'd tried quite a few but had largely settled on the Uniball Jetstream as the one I always had on me.

Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#155

Post by fsiefken »

wduquette wrote: post #138
schneems wrote: post #53

I’m not a pen guy. I mainly use pencils. The kuratoga is the best mechanism and the twist-erase is the best eraser. I hacked together some prototypes of the two together using a pipe cutter and a 3d printer. https://ruby.social/@Schneems/111115448981873661

I used to be a pencil guy. Then I got older, and found that low contrast between the pencil lead and the paper made it harder for me to read. Been using black ink every since, both the Uni Jetstream 0.38 and the Hi-Tec C Coleto 0.3.

The softness/hardness of the pencil determines the contrast. Have you tried the 3B or 4B? I'd imagine the contrast approaches the contrast of ink. https://pencils.com/pages/hb-graphite-grading-scale

Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#156

Post by cevn »

cflewis wrote: post #71
cevn wrote: post #14

Have to agree with the Vanishing Point being the best luxury fountain pen for writing... I have like 8 of them.

I liked mine a lot, but I got it in extra fine which was a real mistake. It's like scratching which makes inky marks, not writing. I should have gone with a fine or even medium nib. I now use a Pilot Custom 823 which is always going to be less sturdy than the Vanishing Point and my guess is it's always living on borrowed time. I'll replace it with a fine/medium VP when I eventually break it somehow.

Ah, yea I had a similar experience with Extra Fine. Now I buy them through Nibs.com which does some custom grinding, also they take into account my Leftyness, which makes for an extremely smooth and wet write.

Re: Best Pens for 2024: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#157

Post by cevn »

peddamat wrote: post #133
cevn wrote: post #14

Have to agree with the Vanishing Point being the best luxury fountain pen for writing... I have like 8 of them.

The Moonman A2 is my current favorite pen. Though it's a knock-off, the out-of-box nib smoothness was better than that of the Vanishing Point that I ended up returning. The fact that it's only $15 on AliExpress makes it a steal. No pun intended.

Yea, the out of box smoothness of the VP leaves a lot to be desired, I've been getting them from Nibs.com which smooths it nicely for me.
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