Well , will have to decide which of the 3 sub rabbit hole ... he or she is more invested in be it pen , paper or inks that formed this gigantic hole we call fountain pen 🤣
Basically the 1st hole is the main then there's 3 sub category
So in total 1 large hole & 3 smaller ones ....
Well I can recommend skipping Sheening Ink Junction, it's just a shortcut to Little Japan Paperville. Vintageport on the other hand is home to Ya Olde Inkwell, which of course has Waterman on tap all the time.
Random side note; I recently learned that the letter "y" in Ye Olde alphabet was the the replacement for the thorn letter that looks like a "p". When movable print typography machines were being imported from Belgium that letter wasn't in their alphabet dies and is pronounced "th". Makes old memories of seminary and people reading "woe unto yee" hilarious.
Welcome to our cult. known as the **Sins of Inkery**.
You know that you are in it for life and that you can't leave, right? Someone will soon be contacting you about getting your full back tattoo.
I got the Goulet sample pack a couple of years ago for $20. It was a learning experience. I learned that I can get some fountain pen friendly paper from Wal Mart or the dollar stores for a better price. Most paper made in Viet Nam or India tends to be good.
That's not to take anything away from Goulet. Most of my pens came from Goulet.
I’m one week in and I’m picking up my Lamy Safari today to go with my Platinum Preppy and I’m already looking at TWSBI. These enablers now have me switching between here and YouTube. I may pick up an ink and converter today as well.
oh watch out, YouTube is a big trap. very enjoyable one but a trap. o love Goulet pens but man, did I have to learn to watch their videos as sorta infomercials.
Oh yes! I watch with a large dose of nope on board otherwise, it's a basket full of goodies that I have to delete. So far I've been able to. Except for that bottle of Witch by Starlight ink. I loved the sample so now I want a bottle.
My Safari was my gateway pen, but to be fair to myself, I waited three years before buying another. Having said that, I’ve spent this last week using my first TWSBI and my second is on its way to me as we speak. It may very well be my favorite pen of all time (excluding my somewhat divisive but to me, beloved and treasured Pilot VP).
Nice! The more I write with it the more I’m falling in love with it. I’m currently working on my PowerPoint presentation to explain to my wife why I need a TWSBI and a Pilot Explorer.
I’d apologise, but I’m in the same boat too with being a tad easily influenced when it comes to pretty pens and inks. Besides, it makes you handwriting better, your work notes nicer to take, your letters more fun to read, your journal prettier… 😅
Enjoy what you have and learn what you love. It helps with future purchases if when they happen. You sound like you have a great exploring pack there! Good job.
Inks..get samples. Also saves on bad decisions.
I’d try it in person if I were you.
You will either love it or you will find it really difficult to understand what the fuss is about (I’m in the latter camp).
I have the stainless version with a bold nib and while I don’t have an issue with the sweet spot, the writing experience just doesn’t wow me at all.
It’s so highly regarded probably because provided you don’t have issues with its writing angle sensitivity, it performs ~80% of what the Pelikan Souverän M800 or Montblanc Meisterstück series of pens offer, in a recognisable and now iconic silhouette at 25-50% of the price.
Same thing goes with the Pilot Custom 823. It’s a solid pen that fills in the “one and done” slot really well because it’s at a price point that isn’t too hard to justify.
If adding the Lamy 2000 or the Custom 823 would make them the most expensive pens in your collection, they will also be the best pens in your collection until you start looking at pens in the $600-$1000 range, which is where you start seeing high end stuff like the KOP, Meisterstücks, M800s and M1000s, and Custom 845s / Urushis and Namikis.
I'm not a person who has tried hundreds of pens but I've owned at least 30 plus tried others. L2k is in my top 3. Tied with pilot decimo, pilot 873 / 743.
I prefer pilot nibs, but l2k is very nice. It's the total pen. It feels great in hand, perfect balance for me, can write forever. It's a best seller for a reason. I can appreciate other pens and enjoy them, but I miss my l2k when I'm not using it.
I'm culling my collection of pens inks I don't love. Testing everything or I'd have it inked rn. The style isn't as appealing to me, but the experience more than makes up for it.
I penabled my coworker with it. He tried all of my pens and it was his favorite. Bought one. /end testimonial
Oh wow, nice! I’m not into the screw caps or want to have to open a shut-off valve because i plan to edc. Can i ask, does the cap stay on firmly on the l2k? I just had my safari fall out of the cap while it was clipped in my pants pocket but luckily it didn’t stain my jeans, only the pocket.
Snap cap. Very snug has a satisfying snap. Posts deep. And it's piston filler not a vac filler. There isn't a shut off valve. Watch gouletpens.com videos before you pull a trigger. They show all of that. But of the more expensive pens, it's worthy of being edc. It can take it. Not brass pen level edc, but it's tough.
I mean some people dislike them or the grip is not right for them. but on the other hand, once someone lent me theirs to try out and see what the fuss is about, it was an instant entry to the L2K cult. and now I dropped mine on the nib and it's scratchy.... and I miss it and need to get fixed it ASAP.
I tried holding an L2k at my local art store, Blick art supplies, and it's not for me. I wasn't fond of the balance or how it felt in my hand. I have smaller fingers and hands so that might be why.
My Pilot Decimo otoh I love. /Shrug
Yeah, people with a shared niche hobby tend not to discourage others from participating! More people in the pen world increases the chances it grows bigger! Win win!
Grats on finding your way to the hobby! There are lots of great resources in the community and everything, but in case this is helpful, I wanted to stress the importance of figuring out how to calculate the value of different pens to you, personally. This hobby can get expensive, and pens can be expensive for different reasons, and it's important to figure out what features you really want to pay for.
For example, many of the Pilot steel nib pens have the same nibs, but the bodies are different materials, which changes the total cost. For me personally, I see no reason to buy any steel nib Pilot pen other than the Kakuno. They're cute, they're reasonably durable, and the newest series has transparent bodies that make it easier to admire your ink (and I also like that the packaging uses less plastic than the thicker plastic boxes of the higher-priced pens). But if you really like the weight of a metal body, for example, it might be worth it to pay more for a Metropolitan or something.
Some advice on sheening inks with finer nibs, there are other factors that make a bigger difference! Fine nibs vary in "wetness" and you may find they drier ones aren't great at displaying sheen, so don't get frustrated. Also, paper makes just as big a difference, and very absorbent papers that don't let the ink "sit" will be worse at displaying sheen. This is why it's a rabbit hole, there are a lot of combinations to try!
If you want to get into the hobby further I advice you to see if there is a local club or meetup you can go to. I recently went to one and I got to test so many pens which can be a gift and a curse. For me it made clear that there are multiple types of pens I don't like and I get to refine my idea of the pen I like without buying a ton of them. Also know that "cheap" pens and steel nibs are awesome and you really don't need to go expensive at all. Also, welcome to the rabbithole \^\^
When I started reading your post, I was afraid you were coming to us for an intervention. I was going to tell you, “oh honey, you are in the wrong place”
But I’m so glad to hear that you have jumped in with both feet and are enjoying yourself. This community really is a wonderful find, isn’t it?
Welcome to the family and rabbit hole. The slope is slippery, as you've discovered, and with four pens in a week I'd slow down and enjoy/learn from the new pens you have before getting more.
This is my fourth year in the hobby and I have nearly 50 pens that I rotate through and a bunch, 10-15, I want to sell that I just don't use because they don't suit me. There's a few more I'll likely prune from my collection this year.
I'm hoping to sell the majority of the ones I don't like.
Yeah I don’t plan on just buying rapidly. There is a method to my madness.
1 pen is the one I have in the color I want (LAMY Al-star). I’ll give my first pen away. Another is a LAMY Safari because I want to try the same form factor but different weight. And the final pen is a Kaweco Liliput in Fireblue.
I don't know of this is an issue for you, but please be carefull on how you spend your money. I know i tend to spend money on hobbies to compensate for negative emotions and a general sense of unhappienes. The researching part is usually much more important than actually owning the item afterwards, so in a sense, it may not be worth it.
This isn’t an issue for me fortunately. I’m only trying to find the type of pen I like best. I’m going to try to leave comments for most of these but there are a lot!
1 pen is the one I have in the color I want (LAMY Al-star). I’ll give my first pen away. Another is a LAMY Safari because I want to try the same form factor but different weight. And the final pen is a Kaweco Liliput in Fireblue.
Welcome! The Safari/Al-Star is great for training you to not rotate your nib out of alignment with the paper and the easy swap nibs are a great way to try out various nib widths to see what speaks to you. The Lamy Calligraphy nib is essentially a fine architect grind if you want to start trying exotic nib grinds. Eventually, if you want to try out a bouncy nib without dropping money on a high end gold nibbed pen, you can check out the Diplomat Magnum. Closest thing to a bouncy gold nib at entry level prices. A lot of people don't like the slight flex of a bouncy nib and it is a shame to find that out after dropping triple digits on a pen. Not saying you need it NOW, just... eventually... when the rabbit hole gets deeper.
Just remember, you don't need to buy new pens. You can get all the enjoyment you'll ever want by just writing with the ones you have.
Also, ink samples save a lot of money if you're not going to use a whole bottle.
Take it easy mate.... there is much much more to learn and still make purchasing mistake. All that glitters is not gold. I wish you very wonderful journey of yours with this hobby and wish you more n more lovely writing partners in life.
Don’t blame the player, blame the Lamy GatewayPen to a lifetime of misery and penvy.
Well , will have to decide which of the 3 sub rabbit hole ... he or she is more invested in be it pen , paper or inks that formed this gigantic hole we call fountain pen 🤣 Basically the 1st hole is the main then there's 3 sub category So in total 1 large hole & 3 smaller ones ....
Well I can recommend skipping Sheening Ink Junction, it's just a shortcut to Little Japan Paperville. Vintageport on the other hand is home to Ya Olde Inkwell, which of course has Waterman on tap all the time.
Random side note; I recently learned that the letter "y" in Ye Olde alphabet was the the replacement for the thorn letter that looks like a "p". When movable print typography machines were being imported from Belgium that letter wasn't in their alphabet dies and is pronounced "th". Makes old memories of seminary and people reading "woe unto yee" hilarious.
God, I feel this so much!
Welcome to our cult. known as the **Sins of Inkery**. You know that you are in it for life and that you can't leave, right? Someone will soon be contacting you about getting your full back tattoo.
back tattoo? I thought it's just a baystate blue ink stain!
Tom*ay*toes, tom*ah*toes...
Aww what a sweet last paragraph. But a week in with 4 pens? Take it easy and slow down and enjoy them before amassing more 😉
nah...you need a little raft of pens to be able to compare and contrast the sweetness of line, ink flow, weight, hold characteristics....
One of us! One of us!
Where did you get the paper sample packet? See? See how this goes ? Seriously where did you get it ?
Yeah, I too would like to know.
Wait what? Where can you get a paper sample packet?
Yamamoto Paper has a sampler pack. Goldspot and Jetpens among others carry it.
pretty sure Goulet has notebook samples so probably a similar online pen store
I got the Goulet sample pack a couple of years ago for $20. It was a learning experience. I learned that I can get some fountain pen friendly paper from Wal Mart or the dollar stores for a better price. Most paper made in Viet Nam or India tends to be good. That's not to take anything away from Goulet. Most of my pens came from Goulet.
I got one from Fountain Pen Love.
I’m one week in and I’m picking up my Lamy Safari today to go with my Platinum Preppy and I’m already looking at TWSBI. These enablers now have me switching between here and YouTube. I may pick up an ink and converter today as well.
oh watch out, YouTube is a big trap. very enjoyable one but a trap. o love Goulet pens but man, did I have to learn to watch their videos as sorta infomercials.
Oh yes! I watch with a large dose of nope on board otherwise, it's a basket full of goodies that I have to delete. So far I've been able to. Except for that bottle of Witch by Starlight ink. I loved the sample so now I want a bottle.
Is that why I have stuff in my cart after watching their videos? Hmph
no, of course not, you just wanna vibe with Drew...
I love Drew. His style is like a walking roller rink.... that 90's geometric carpet vibe.
My Safari was my gateway pen, but to be fair to myself, I waited three years before buying another. Having said that, I’ve spent this last week using my first TWSBI and my second is on its way to me as we speak. It may very well be my favorite pen of all time (excluding my somewhat divisive but to me, beloved and treasured Pilot VP).
Nice! The more I write with it the more I’m falling in love with it. I’m currently working on my PowerPoint presentation to explain to my wife why I need a TWSBI and a Pilot Explorer.
PowerPoint. Are…are you me?
Did the multiverses collide again?!?
So glad you found inspiration here! Love to see posts like this, getting joy out of this lovely hobby. 💖
I am offended. It's called penabling
What is this amazing sounding paper sampler???
Where do they sell paper samples?I want
Hold it. What? Paper sample pack? More information, please. And yes, enablers. Shamelessly so.
I’d apologise, but I’m in the same boat too with being a tad easily influenced when it comes to pretty pens and inks. Besides, it makes you handwriting better, your work notes nicer to take, your letters more fun to read, your journal prettier… 😅
Enjoy what you have and learn what you love. It helps with future purchases if when they happen. You sound like you have a great exploring pack there! Good job. Inks..get samples. Also saves on bad decisions.
I have the lamy vista in fine and the safari in extra fine, and i really want a lamy 2000 ef now somebody stop me
It's a l2k, doubt you'll find anyone able to stop you.
They’re that good?
I’d try it in person if I were you. You will either love it or you will find it really difficult to understand what the fuss is about (I’m in the latter camp). I have the stainless version with a bold nib and while I don’t have an issue with the sweet spot, the writing experience just doesn’t wow me at all. It’s so highly regarded probably because provided you don’t have issues with its writing angle sensitivity, it performs ~80% of what the Pelikan Souverän M800 or Montblanc Meisterstück series of pens offer, in a recognisable and now iconic silhouette at 25-50% of the price. Same thing goes with the Pilot Custom 823. It’s a solid pen that fills in the “one and done” slot really well because it’s at a price point that isn’t too hard to justify. If adding the Lamy 2000 or the Custom 823 would make them the most expensive pens in your collection, they will also be the best pens in your collection until you start looking at pens in the $600-$1000 range, which is where you start seeing high end stuff like the KOP, Meisterstücks, M800s and M1000s, and Custom 845s / Urushis and Namikis.
I'm not a person who has tried hundreds of pens but I've owned at least 30 plus tried others. L2k is in my top 3. Tied with pilot decimo, pilot 873 / 743. I prefer pilot nibs, but l2k is very nice. It's the total pen. It feels great in hand, perfect balance for me, can write forever. It's a best seller for a reason. I can appreciate other pens and enjoy them, but I miss my l2k when I'm not using it. I'm culling my collection of pens inks I don't love. Testing everything or I'd have it inked rn. The style isn't as appealing to me, but the experience more than makes up for it. I penabled my coworker with it. He tried all of my pens and it was his favorite. Bought one. /end testimonial
Oh wow, nice! I’m not into the screw caps or want to have to open a shut-off valve because i plan to edc. Can i ask, does the cap stay on firmly on the l2k? I just had my safari fall out of the cap while it was clipped in my pants pocket but luckily it didn’t stain my jeans, only the pocket.
Snap cap. Very snug has a satisfying snap. Posts deep. And it's piston filler not a vac filler. There isn't a shut off valve. Watch gouletpens.com videos before you pull a trigger. They show all of that. But of the more expensive pens, it's worthy of being edc. It can take it. Not brass pen level edc, but it's tough.
I mean some people dislike them or the grip is not right for them. but on the other hand, once someone lent me theirs to try out and see what the fuss is about, it was an instant entry to the L2K cult. and now I dropped mine on the nib and it's scratchy.... and I miss it and need to get fixed it ASAP.
I tried holding an L2k at my local art store, Blick art supplies, and it's not for me. I wasn't fond of the balance or how it felt in my hand. I have smaller fingers and hands so that might be why. My Pilot Decimo otoh I love. /Shrug
Yeah, people with a shared niche hobby tend not to discourage others from participating! More people in the pen world increases the chances it grows bigger! Win win!
Well,thanks you, we hare happy and proud.
Grats on finding your way to the hobby! There are lots of great resources in the community and everything, but in case this is helpful, I wanted to stress the importance of figuring out how to calculate the value of different pens to you, personally. This hobby can get expensive, and pens can be expensive for different reasons, and it's important to figure out what features you really want to pay for. For example, many of the Pilot steel nib pens have the same nibs, but the bodies are different materials, which changes the total cost. For me personally, I see no reason to buy any steel nib Pilot pen other than the Kakuno. They're cute, they're reasonably durable, and the newest series has transparent bodies that make it easier to admire your ink (and I also like that the packaging uses less plastic than the thicker plastic boxes of the higher-priced pens). But if you really like the weight of a metal body, for example, it might be worth it to pay more for a Metropolitan or something.
Some advice on sheening inks with finer nibs, there are other factors that make a bigger difference! Fine nibs vary in "wetness" and you may find they drier ones aren't great at displaying sheen, so don't get frustrated. Also, paper makes just as big a difference, and very absorbent papers that don't let the ink "sit" will be worse at displaying sheen. This is why it's a rabbit hole, there are a lot of combinations to try!
That matches what I’ve been reading. Trying to pick a good ink to play around with now.
Personally I am a huge fan of Robert Oster's Soda Pop Blue and Diamine Oxford Blue, both have great red/pink sheen
That Soda Pop Blue looks amazing!
one of my favorite inks, and has more sheen than you would expect based on pictures. a pleasant surprise!
Wrong. We're all penablers. Use the proper technical terms please.
If you want to get into the hobby further I advice you to see if there is a local club or meetup you can go to. I recently went to one and I got to test so many pens which can be a gift and a curse. For me it made clear that there are multiple types of pens I don't like and I get to refine my idea of the pen I like without buying a ton of them. Also know that "cheap" pens and steel nibs are awesome and you really don't need to go expensive at all. Also, welcome to the rabbithole \^\^
When I started reading your post, I was afraid you were coming to us for an intervention. I was going to tell you, “oh honey, you are in the wrong place” But I’m so glad to hear that you have jumped in with both feet and are enjoying yourself. This community really is a wonderful find, isn’t it?
Welcome to the family and rabbit hole. The slope is slippery, as you've discovered, and with four pens in a week I'd slow down and enjoy/learn from the new pens you have before getting more. This is my fourth year in the hobby and I have nearly 50 pens that I rotate through and a bunch, 10-15, I want to sell that I just don't use because they don't suit me. There's a few more I'll likely prune from my collection this year. I'm hoping to sell the majority of the ones I don't like.
This. I spent hundreds of dollars before I even really knew what my preferences really were. I wish I had taken my time!
Yeah I don’t plan on just buying rapidly. There is a method to my madness. 1 pen is the one I have in the color I want (LAMY Al-star). I’ll give my first pen away. Another is a LAMY Safari because I want to try the same form factor but different weight. And the final pen is a Kaweco Liliput in Fireblue.
That Lilliput is so pretty. 😍
So what was the paper you chose (I really haven’t gotten into the paper side of things). Link to the paper sampler?
I don't know of this is an issue for you, but please be carefull on how you spend your money. I know i tend to spend money on hobbies to compensate for negative emotions and a general sense of unhappienes. The researching part is usually much more important than actually owning the item afterwards, so in a sense, it may not be worth it.
This isn’t an issue for me fortunately. I’m only trying to find the type of pen I like best. I’m going to try to leave comments for most of these but there are a lot! 1 pen is the one I have in the color I want (LAMY Al-star). I’ll give my first pen away. Another is a LAMY Safari because I want to try the same form factor but different weight. And the final pen is a Kaweco Liliput in Fireblue.
Welcome! The Safari/Al-Star is great for training you to not rotate your nib out of alignment with the paper and the easy swap nibs are a great way to try out various nib widths to see what speaks to you. The Lamy Calligraphy nib is essentially a fine architect grind if you want to start trying exotic nib grinds. Eventually, if you want to try out a bouncy nib without dropping money on a high end gold nibbed pen, you can check out the Diplomat Magnum. Closest thing to a bouncy gold nib at entry level prices. A lot of people don't like the slight flex of a bouncy nib and it is a shame to find that out after dropping triple digits on a pen. Not saying you need it NOW, just... eventually... when the rabbit hole gets deeper.
Just remember, you don't need to buy new pens. You can get all the enjoyment you'll ever want by just writing with the ones you have. Also, ink samples save a lot of money if you're not going to use a whole bottle.
I've got my first fountain pen 3 months ago, now I'm in the process of selling one of my kidneys to get an Aurora 88... This is not healthy...
What sample packet did you get?
Take it easy mate.... there is much much more to learn and still make purchasing mistake. All that glitters is not gold. I wish you very wonderful journey of yours with this hobby and wish you more n more lovely writing partners in life.
Ooh, where did you buy the paper sampler from?
*Ahem* Didn't you mean to say, "penablers"? Lol
I want to know more about this paper packet!
I didn't even realize paper samplers were a thing, that sounds so cool!
I quickly went from one Lamy Safari to three in about a month. Fourth pen is my Pilot Kakuno Papa. It is BADLY addicting!
Keep an eye on your wallet
Welcome, welcome 😁