Oh great - I see one of my other obsessions is on this forum also. I've got a pen collection just a year old with 18 pens, mostly fountain pens. I'm a little bit over the top....or so my wifey says!
My collection seems to vary day to day. Wife and daughter seem to 'borrow' and they never come back. Good thing that I'm only into >price Chinese. ( the good ones are hidden. )
I have been using fountain pens for nearly a decade, after reading some posts at FPN back in 2005. In fact, it was a thread on wetshaving there that ultimately led me here. Things eventually went sideways at FPN, so I bailed about seven years ago. Still use fountain pens, though, and probably always will. As with shaving gear, I am definitely not an accumulator and so have only a few pens, a few bottles of ink and some plain Crane stationery. The pens take care of all my writing tasks quite nicely and are a pleasure to use. If you have a few spare minutes, FPGeeks is also worth a look. It has a wealth of information, and is a really laid back, friendly place. And they have a Lamy sub-forum.
Just watched "The Birds". She used a really cool fountain pen to sign the card to the girl. Also drove a neat Jaguar. It started every time, so I am thinking it had a Jaguar body, and something else under the hood. <just really not kidding too much>
I've used several vintage and a few new FPs and my favorite writer is the "cheap" (at the time it was released) Parker 21. Writes better than the 51, at least for me...very smooth. Luckily I don't have the leakage issue reported with this model. I do prefer the look of Esterbrooks (I have red and blue) but can't get them to stay writing well for long. Need to do an overhaul on them someday. I managed to turn a coworker on to FPs at my last job...once she tried my 21 she had to have one of her own. Gave her a Chinese knockoff and a cracked but writing 21. She said the 21 writes better hands down and can't bring herself to use ballpoints anymore
I love fountain pens and am always looking for a reason to use one. Unfortunately I dont own any substantial ones but my "everday" pen is a Pilot Varsity disposable which surprisingly writes very well with little to no splotching or smearing. I also use it for sketching.. http://coolspotters.com/home-garden/pilot-varsity-disposable-fountain-pen
My main pen is a Pelikan M200 with an italic nib, but I also have several Lamy Safari/Vista/Alstars with 1.1 mm stubs and a small collection of vintage Esterbrooks with a variety of nibs. I don't like writing with ballpoints. My fingers are stained Noodler's Sequoia right now.
I would like to try a fountain pen, but I'm a leftie. Can anyone recommend a pen/ink combination that would be less apt to smear?
I have a Pilot Metropolitan medium nib in black. I use the cartridges and have a converter but have not tried my other ink samples.
Found a couple old Scriptos from the early '70s I think. Forgot I had them. Loaded one up...writes okay. Said Medium nib but has a pretty fine line, and a bit too scritchy for me. Sticking with the 21.
Thanks. That's what I suspected, but I wasn't sure. Some of my ballpoints smear worse than others. The Zebra F-402 actually works pretty well for me, so I will stick with it.
I don't write lefty, but I hear that you can manage it with a fountain pen if you are able to "underwrite"... position the bulk of your hand so that it's completely below the line you are writing as opposed to keeping it dragging on the line you are writing. It may take some practice and also a faster drying ink is helpful too. You might try Noodler's.
You can also try, with a faster drying ink, the same idea but with the bulk of your hand curled over the top of the line you are writing. I only just skimmed this, but it looks like it might be helpful. http://www.thecramped.com/fountain-pen-guide-for-the-left-handed-writer/ http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand%20writers.htm
I haven't pulled mine out of the box in awhile, but I always enjoyed taking notes in meetings with unique colored inks that are possible with fountain pens. They also make prettier text, in my opinion, but like a rose is beautiful, the leakage is like the thorns. I still enjoyed it. Now I mostly do notetaking on the computer itself, so I don't write as much as I used to. I miss it. I might clean it up and put it back to work. I have currently only one, my Waterman Carene Medium Point, Amber Shimmer... You can always spot a fountain pen user! FOUNTAIN PENS ARE COOL...
You know, back in ye olden days, ink stained fingers were considered desirable as a sign of education and literacy. 'Course you lefties would have been burned as being in league with the devil.... I've guess there's a downside to everything.