[ktzar]

I still think that fountain pens are the pinnacle of writing stationery. One lasts generations and there's no consumables that need recycling or disposing of, if you use a rechargeable cartridge and buy ink bottles.

[radicalbyte]

They're also horrible to use if you're left-handed and writing English or any other left-to-right language.

[mk_stjames]

There was this article posted here on HN about the geodemography of left handedness in the US, and all sorts of discussion about past culture of eschewing LH'ded children in schools and such...

and I was surprised that no one brought up the very real downsides of being left handed in a left-to-right writing system region of the world (which is most of it). Most comments were leaning towards backwards conservatism and straight up malice with regard to students being forced a hand in writing early in school and it seemed no one brought up the very real practical reasons for preferring to write right handed, especially with ink.

And I say this as someone who is completely ambidextrous when writing but does not do the 'hook hand' left hand to write, and thus I usually write right-handed with pens and pencils. I have a left handed friend who does write that way and it just screams RSI/Carpal Tunnel to me.

[avian]

As a counter example, I'm left handed and write hundreds of pages per year in a left-to-right language and don't have issues with smudging lines with my palm.

Maybe the inks I use dry fast enough (Parker Quink or Pelikan 4001) or it's the way I learned to write back in school.

[jbd0]

You can always write in reverse like Leonardo DaVinci did.

[christophilus]

Or if you occasionally spill coffee or any other liquid ever. I sometimes hand-write recipes. Fountain pens + sloppy kitchen meal prep are a bad combo.

[deltarholamda]

Perhaps a silly question, but would something like a Mahl stick help with left-handed writing? Painters and old-school draftsmen use them to keep their grubby mitts off the surface.

I suppose in today's public school you wouldn't be allowed one because it could conceivably be used as a weapon, but it would seem to be helpful.

[Foobar8568]

You need a fast dry ink and good paper. But yes with usual supplies, it can be problematic. My kid enjoys writing with fountain pain but her furnitures are given by school and they hand out a lot of printedpaper to fill..So no luck.

[noufalibrahim]

Ah yes. I'm right handed and I've suffered from this when trying RTL scripts (Arabic) for calligraphy. It's a challenge to keep your hand from blotting what you've written.

[bayindirh]

As a lefty, I disagree, but I don’t “overwrite”. I hold pen like a righty.

[criddell]

Fountain pens are great but that's only half the equation. You need to consider paper as well.

Because I'm usually using low quality paper, I mostly use ballpoint pens so that I can write on both sides of the page. Fountain pens can feel scratchy on cheap paper and the ink bleeds through.

[tiniuclx]

My first full time software engineering paycheque went towards a Lamy 2000. I've been using it for many years now and it's never let me down.

[someothherguyy]

That probably costs more than I ever spent on all writing utensils I've ever owned.

What makes this cost that much (other than they are owned by uniball)? The material certainly isn't worth that much? And the function would be replicated in the market for less? So, what makes it not some luxury bullshit?

[neilfrndes]

I agree :)

My daily driver is a Pilot Vanishing Point. It's a fountain pen with a form factor of a clickable ball point pen.

[bayindirh]

Vanishing Points are nice pens. I have an all matte black one. Also, pens tipping gets polished according to your handwriting over time, making it completely yours.

I also like Lamys. Most of their pens look simple but they’re work horses. Esp. Safari Umber.

I’m a bit too deep in that rabbit hole. :)

[WillAdams]

I wish I could find a faceted VP --- still kicking myself for not buying one when I had a chance a couple of years ago.

[quatonion]

Totally agree. I used a fountain pen all the way through school and university.

My all time favourite was the Parker 25 in stainless steel, with a medium nib and blue-black ink. Sometimes I would go for purple if I was feeling a bit raunchy.

I know a lot of people liked the 105, and I had one, and a bunch of others, but there is something about the utilitarian functionality of the 25 that I really have a soft spot for.

I think there was a year or two where I may have flirted with ballpens, but not seriously.

Also even used Rotring and Staedtler Mars technical drawing pens on and off for regular writing. That was always fun in the middle of a lecture with ink everywhere.

It's such a shame I don't get to write on paper that much these days. No real need. Such a beautiful experience though.

[michaelmior]

> there's no consumables that need recycling or disposing of, if you use a rechargeable cartridge and buy ink bottles.

Genuine question: don't you need to dispose or recycle the ink bottles?

[Havoc]

They’re usually glass and last years. So maybe Gp isn’t counting that as consumable

[avian]

> One lasts generations

Multiple Parker Vectors I had typically lasted a few years of use each before the plastic windings between the pen head and the holder wore out or broke.

My Pilot Metropolitan did the same just a few months back.

I still have the high-end pens my grandfather used that, while mechanically still sound, I am unable to get the ink flowing through them.

I love writing with fountain pens, but long lasting they are not in my experience.

[noufalibrahim]

I disagree. I used a Waterman Expert for a long time. It conked out when someone I loaned it to dropped it. I switched to a Noodlers Ahab (which has a flexible nib) so you can do a little bit of flourishing for headings etc. I've used it for a long time and still do. Recently, I switched to a broad tipped Lamy Safari (which was a birthday gift).

My main problem is that most papers can't really handle the inkflow from fountain pens anymore and since the place I come from is somewhat humid, the papers quickly start to bleed ink. So, my more common instrument is a Pentel graphgear mechanical pencil.

I do calligraphy as a hobby so I have separate arsenal of dip pens and nibs but those are not for daily use.

[bayindirh]

I have multiple pens which are a decade old, incl. a Metropolitan and Safari, and write like day one despite being used frequently.

I also have a couple ones older than 50. They also work. Clogged ones generally need a good flush with a fountain pen flush.

[tom_]

The stainless steel Parker Vector is much harder-wearing and available for under £15. Same nib unit as the plastic ones.

(I found them particularly good when used with the washable ink cartridges, never drying out even after long periods of disuse. The permanent ink isn't as good in this respect and the pens need more regular use.)

[triknomeister]

Parker Vectors were cheap Parkers in my experience. They were like the 40 dollar nikes that you used to get. More money was spent in the brand than the quality.

I got a Parker Sonnet as a prize in a competition. It is still good, even though I rarely use it nowadays.

[kps]

Parker, Waterman, Rotring were all bought by Newell (Rubbermaid) and gutted. You have to go back to 20th-century production to get the real thing.

[pjmlp]

My go to choice for several decades since high school, even got to collect some throught the years, mostly Parker.

However they are also dangerous, beware of hand movents when holding one, otherwise there is quite some cleaning to do, and even document rewriting.

[hangonhn]

Fountain pen requires some skill to write well. It's amazing in the hands of those who knows calligraphy and just creates extra smudges for those who are more used to normal pens.

[kulahan]

It takes no time at all to figure out if your only real goal is "I wanna be able to use this as deftly as a regular pen". Really no more difficult than knowing how not to smudge marker by closing a book while it's still wet, for instance.

[WillAdams]

Well, there are the bottles ink comes in --- I left behind a drawerful of empty Sheaffer bottles at a previous job which I've always regretted.

Agreed, except I have _not_ been able to get my Aurora Hastil to write/fill reliably for a couple of years now, despite cleaning, and I can't send it in to the manufacturer since the tip was ground to a chisel italic by Gretta Lostkemper (who used to oversee custom grinding at Sheaffer). Guess I need to get an ultrasonic cleaner and try that....

[crinkly]

Oh hell no. I used fountain pens, good ones, for nearly 20 years. They leak, blob all over the place, are difficult to refill, require cleaning, end up with servicing problems when you really need to write immediately. Also difficult to draw complex diagrams with. Absolute self inflicted pain and misery.

I use Muji gel pens now. None of those problems and you can take the cartridges back to them and they recycle them. And the pen bodies themselves last functionally forever.

[dist-epoch]

I vaguely remember the writing tip getting blunt after a while and needing change.

[WillAdams]

That happens on inexpensive nibs which lack iridium (or some similar metal/alloy) tipping.

A tipped fountain pen will be incredibly resistant to wear --- while I did significantly wear down the inexpensive Platignum (British brand, but despite the name untipped steel) fountain pen I had when I was younger after a couple of decades, when I finally switched to using more expensive pens with nibs for tipping, haven't had to replace a nib since.

[jgrodziski]

Yes definitely agree, I own the Rotring 600 and 800 pencil and they are fantastic, as already said the ballpoint version is dependant on the refill. The construction is sturdy and they feel very robust and heavy. But... I've recently transitioned to Pilot Capless fountain pen and it's night and day with the write feeling: https://www.pilotpen.eu/our-products/capless/ with ink bottle refill. The nib size is important, I found the medium too large and landed on the fine nib size.