a break from avoidance, and fountain pen shopping

[cimorene]

I recently, when filling out an application and hand-delivering it to Social Security, realized that was the end of my list of Reasonably Important, Official Things I Should Do Something About and suddenly I was in the happily unencumbered state of not having anything ominous that I really should just get around to doing already. (This doesn't apply to making the doctor's appointment I should make, because it's not an urgent one, and also it's not official, ie potentially legal, even if it is important.)

It's a dizzying sensation which was only slightly lessened when I realized I should technically also write somebody a polite email about it!

I decided I needed to celebrate because it was such a tremendous difference in background stress levels.

And I determined I'd do that by finally getting a fountain pen that is safe to carry around in my notebook and also fits in it!

I have two reliable fountain pens that always write without hesitation, won't break and don't ever leak: the Kaweco Sport Classic and the Lamy Safari... but both of these pens are slightly too fat to fit in the pen loop in my primary notebook, which is extremely annoying. (I followed a little tutorial to make an elastic pen loop attached to a mini binder clip, and it works fine, but I can't find a part of the notebook to attach it to that I don't need to use regularly and taking it off every time I open the notebook to write is also extremely annoying.) (I know the Pilot Metropolitan would also fit this bill while filling out the classic triumvirate of reliable beginner pens, but the shops within the EU never stock them in colors acceptable to me.)

I have several pens that will fit in this penloop readily enough: a couple of Hero 616s (decent clones of the iconic Parker 51, nice writers but aerometric fill, which annoys me, and both leak and blot) and a whole handful of Platinum Preppies (but these can leak when used as eyedropper pens once the ink level gets too low; also, they're a bit flimsy and I've already broken a cap of one, which raises the unfortunate spectre of breaking in a bag or pocket - great for keeping in the pen cup with different ink colors though, as they write well and never seem to dry up).

So I just need a slimmer yet sturdy pen here, which is unfortunately a bit vague. Even if I narrow it down to piston-fillers, which I also wanted the next pen that I buy to be, I'm having some trouble making a decision... though in this case it's a nice dithering as opposed to the familiar avoidance, so that makes a nice change.

Comments

[vass]

realized that was the end of my list of Reasonably Important, Official Things I Should Do Something About and suddenly I was in the happily unencumbered state of not having anything ominous that I really should just get around to doing already.

OMG ENVY. Erm, that is, I'm very glad for you. Really. And a new fountain pen sounds like an excellent way to celebrate.

[anatsuno]

I love this shark fountain pen
https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/jinhao-993-shark-fountain-pens/products/jinhao-993-shark-fountain-pen-red?variant=13169887969323
I found you the Goulet link bc it was easier, but here in France I got 12 of them (in every color) for about 12€ - a friend of mine found them on Ali Baba and got them straight from China, I think. they are delightfully whimsical, write finely and glide on paper, I and I WUV 'EM.

[owl]

I also love the shark pen - I ordered the lilac from Goulet the last time I was in the USA with work, but Pure Pens in the UK have them, assuming you can get the order in before the country implodes: https://www.purepens.co.uk/acatalog/Jinhao-Shark-Fountain-Pens.html

[lazulisong]

I love my shark pen!

[brewsternorth]

I have never seen those before. Whimsical is the word! :D

[cimorene]

Yeah, I did think about those because they are ADORABLE! But I will wait until I'm making a more expensive order from Pure Pens, which is the UK dealer that has them. They probably wouldn't fit in my pen loop use niche anyway. Ordering from China has been expedited a fair bit now but with small packages I'm always nervous about them going astray if they aren't registered and tracked because of how terrible our postal delivery service has been since they outsourced the local branch.

[brewsternorth]

Boo about the Metropolitans not being in the colours you like over where you are. My most recent pen was a Metropolitan with a Calligraphic Medium nib, and I rather like it.

The Vanishing Points/Pilot Capless are slender enough to fit penloops (especially the Decimo, which is almost *too* slender), but are much pricier.

[cimorene]

Well, I don't love the shape of it either, so I'm not too broken up about it. The Pilot that I really get wistful about is the Cavalier, which I keep thinking about ordering from ebay but I always decide to wait until they release new colors because they're always out of the ones that I really want when I go check for them, too, and I never want to settle for my second favorite color of them because they're so beautiful. I use a 1.1mm Lamy stub nib regularly for ordinary writing and I keep my four parallel pens inked all the time for calligraphy and I don't really want a daily use pen with a more calligraphic nib; so if I got a Metro I'd probably just order it with fine (though I've only got Platinum XF and F to go by since the lack of Metro means I haven't got to try out Pilot nib sizes for comparison yet).

Ironically though, given my statement about the Metro's design, what I actually ordered was a vintage Parker 45 Flighter from the 70s, and it's pretty similar in shape. The modern ones are even more cigar-like, but the older one just has a slight edge to the back end.

[brewsternorth]

FWIW, fair warning that Pilot nibs tend to run narrow - an F for them is more like some people's XFs, an M is pretty F, and so on.

[cimorene]

Yeah, the received wisdom is that that's all Japanese nibs, and Platinum's bear that out, but there's a possibility of further variation I'm interested in.