I like pens. If you ask my family they would tell you how much money I have spent (ahem, wasted) on pens. I used almost all type of pens there is, that is if they are available for purchase in India. My recent obsession is fountain pens. I love them. A good fountain pen writes miles better than any other kind of pen. But they are expensive. Like very expensive. But most the fountain pens are made so that they can be used for a very long time. I bought some with my own money and some from parents. Another benifit of using fountain pens is that a wide collection of inks, in color and in quality both. Right now I have 3 black inks one blue turquiose and one green shamrock. I mainly use black, as it is work appropriate and black probably looks the best on white paper.

List of the pens I own:

Parker Vector

It is the first true fountain pen that I used. Actually my brother bought and I borrowed from him to use it. The nib is definitely scratchy and the converter doesn’t keep much ink. Other than that it looks good and feels lightweight. The grip is smooth, so it’s prone to slip if you have a sweaty or oily hand. It’s overall a meh pen. There’s better alternative at this price point.

Jinhao 992 Fine

This is my 2nd least favourite pen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good pen, but the nib is too scratchy for my taste (I have been spoiled by smoother nib). The pen has a transparent body, that means it’s a demonstrator pen. The grip is smooth but much better than Parker Vector. The converter is big, also you can use this pen as eyedropper. If you can get over the scratchy feeing of the nib it’s definitely gonna be one of the best.

Jinhao x450 Medium

This pen is heaviest in my collection. It took me quite some time to be able to use it comfortably. But for long form writing I do not use it. Most of the time I use this pen without keeping the cap posted. This pen has the thickest line and can actually produce some noticeable shading with appropriate ink. By the looks, it’s definitely one of the best looking. Only problem I have with this pen is while disassembling. I tried so many times, so many way and still not be able to remove the nib from the main body. I gave up.

Platinum Preppy Fine

This is my 3rd favourite pen. This is arugbly one of the smoothest nib in my collection, despite being a fine nib. The weight is little bit on the lighter side, which I do not like, but I am sure that filling up the whole pen with ink (as eyedropper) will significantly increase the weight of the pen that would make me want to write with it. I’ll try it.

Pilot Kakuno Medium

It is my 2nd favourite pen. I bought it recently. Should have bought it earlier. There is no doubt that pilot makes one of the best fountain pens in this price point. It has a plastic body, but the quality of the plastic body is very premium. Because of the plastic body it is very lightweight, good for long writing sessions. Only thing that I do not like about this pen is that it has holes in its cap, which results in ink drying if you do not use it for few days. It is annoying at times. The nib is very smooth, but not as smooth as Pilot Metropolitan. Also, it took me some time to get used to the grip, it is definitely little odd.

Pilot Metropolitan

If you are at all interested in fountain pens, you probably have heard of this pen, and for a good reason. Of all the pens that I own, and have used this one is by far the best. Pilot Metropolitan with Pilot ink is one of the smoothest writing experience I have ever gotten. The grip is one of the best, if not the best on any pen. I love how its little heavy that you do not need to put pressure but also not too heavy that your hand starts to get tired. It is also the most expensive in this list, definitely worth the money.

If you are planning to try a fountain pen, my recommend would be to go with Platinum Preppy, go with the medium nib, if you don’t mind little thicker lines in exchange for a smoother experience. Although I do not like the argonomics, the very little weight and smoothest nib makes up for that. Also platinum pens can stay over a year without drying, if you keep them capped.