> It feels better in my hand than a biro

Ballpoints require one to constantly press down to keep the ink flowing. This makes writing tiring. (Fountain pens draw ink with capillary action.)

Yes - this is one thing that I really didn't realise until much later in age - writing with a fountain pen is less fatiguing.

I used to press down hard with fountain pens, like I did with ballpoints, which used to cause blotting and damage my nibs. As soon as I started buying expensive fountain pens, I changed my style completely to use virtually no pressure on the page, and I am enjoying writing so much more.

At least for that purpose (can't argue with the aesthetics of a fountain pen), there is a large selection of "post-ballpoint" pens that keeps the ink flowing with no effort. The Pilot V5 and Uni-Ball Eye are both ubiquitous classics in the space. Much cheaper and much easier to deal with than fountain pens.

Uni-Ball Signos live in my pencil case and my pockets, and a Pilot Metropolitan lives at my desk.

I agree 100% that the rollerball is cheaper and easier to use. There's much to be said for not having to clean the pen, being able to take it on an airplane without fear, etc. It's also much more pleasant to use than a ballpoint. For whatever reason, though, I find I can still write for longer without discomfort, and maintain a higher quality of penmanship, with the fountain pen.

(That, or I'm just a hopeless nostalgic. I also exclusively own wristwatches that contain no electronics.)

This is the main reason I use one, keeps my RSI from acting up when I have to write a lot.

Best $25 I've ever spent ($5 on a pen, jinhao x750, the rest on ink).

For what it's worth, those Sharpie felt tip pens also draw ink with capillary action. This is what I use and it definitely reduces fatigue as compared with a ballpoint.

Having used both: Sharpie felt tip pens drag on paper a lot more than fountain pens do. It makes controlling the pen easier, but overall there's more effort that goes into writing with them.

Sharpies have pretty powerful fumes...

Put a JoWo #6 nib on it ($15) and it will write like a $150 pen.

Sometimes just flushing the chinese pens out with a little water and maybe a drop of detergent will do the trick.

I’m curious - what makes the nib “better”?

It is subjective - they feel smoother, glass-like. One factor is most cheap Chinese nibs are not cut exactly at the middle. This can be seen with a 10x+ loupe. The metal is not as hard. Different metal types have different surface tension so it affects ink flow. It works without adjustment while most Chinese nibs need adjustment, alignment and polishing (which is fun in itself to do).

The original Jinhao pen nib is quite usable, but the other parts of e.g. a x750 pen are much better, so it is a popular mod to change the nib for a German one, or a Japanese Zebra G flexible nib.

I have recently bought a Lecai Chinese pen and the nib seemed to be flawless. These guys in the right track on making a 100% Chinese upper quality pen.

Both of the sibling comments, plus good nibs don't have any rough edges which touch the paper. They've been ground/sanded down so smooth that they effectively hydroplane on the ink they're depositing.

You can improve some inexpensive nibs by simply "writing" on a high grit sandpaper or sharpening stone, but if the metal is too soft you can quickly wear away the writing surface entirely. I'd do this with the pilot disposable fountain pens with good results.

Ink flow. But that can be (and should be) fine tuned even for expensive pens.

Why can't Chinese marketers come up with Western-sounding brand names?

This is so annoying.

They may be a better value, but European brands give you peace of mind.

Like “Canadian Solar”?

I’d prefer my Chinese products to be honestly Chinese. Write clear marketing copy, give a specification written in decent English without random Chinese characters interspersed, and you’ll have some happy English-speaking customers.

I agree to an extent, but I think it's mostly an issue of branding. Consider that Japanese brands were once associated with poor quality, but as their quality improved their brands became better known.

Chinese pens have been greatly increasing in quality for a few years now. Today, I recommend the Wing Sung 698 and 608 for new fountain pen users.

What ink did you choose?

I am having trouble with ink drying up in my pilot pen.

The pilot cartridges don’t dry up. Only the bottle ink.

Noodlers xfeather black, haven't had any issues, but I also haven't compared it to other inks. It's just been good enough and one bottle has lasted me years (since I first got a fountain pen).

Maybe a fountain pen would help me with my painful cracked fingers during the winter. My only fear is that my handwriting is so bad that my notebooks would look like something by Ralph Steadman.

I used to have bloody hands too but started using Lush's king of skin product about ten years ago. I buy one bar in the late fall and use it on my hands a few times a day. It's not lotion and will fix your hands.

https://www.lushusa.com/body/body-butters/king-of-skin/02176...

It takes practice, and small adjustments to your writing style, but it is possible to get there. My handwriting went to heck after years of using keyboard only, but after a few months of practice, I got it to a stage where I could reasonably expect myself (and other people) to read them. https://twitter.com/dsabar/status/728060728930799616

I like all of them, but I always had problems with fountain pens:

-Ink not coming out for the few centimetres of writing.

-Ink not coming out if I leave the pen for a few days without using.

-Having to refill if left unused for even longer.

-Leaky tips, dirtying the hand.

-Tips easily broken in a drop.

Somehow I always don't get the instant ink, no matter what pen or ink I use. This is the number one reason I kept giving up.

If you're leaving the tip open, i.e. the cap is not on for more than some seconds while you aren't writing, then the ink in the feed may dry. Another possible reason of these problems is low quality ink, nib and/or pen, and yet another is fibres of paper sticking into the cut in the middle of the nib.

edit: and dirtying your hands might be because you're a messy pen user. I definitely am, no matter if I use a ballpoint, a rollerball, a fountain pen, a marker, &c, I get my hands dirty. Personally I'm fine with that.

Pilot makes the Pilot Petit 1 which is a fountain pen that is tiny, although posted it actually has a nice size.

I have had a set of three for about 2 months and they never seem to be dry, unlike some other fountain pens I have used.

The only caution I can give is that their blue-black ink seems to flow very poorly.

They can be gotten on ebay with refills for a reasonable price.

Just want to say I'm so happy to see other fountain-pen users here on HN.

There isn't a single other person in my life who uses them.

Every schoolkid in Germany seems to be using them. They even come in the cheap pen cases you can buy at the supermarket.

I don't know if this is still accurate, but during my time in school (finished in 2009) we had to use fountain pens from grade two and most teachers stopped caring what we were writing with in grade 7. From that point on most of use used ballpoint pens.

Huuuge communities online exist though. You might be surprised - check out fpgeeks forums or fountain pen network - both forums list local gatherings and pen shows.

Reddit's /r/fountainpens, too. There's an IRC channel that's fairly active, but I don't have the server address in front of me.

Agree with all, but I would add a really important one that in itself could already justify using a FP.

- because (good) fountain pens are like good watches. You love your FP, you take care of it and you enjoy every moment you see it and use it.

Mechanical watches also have downsides, but a mechanical watch owner just loves the watch for a lot of other reasons that compensate by far the downsides.

I happen to think my fountain pens are quite a bit more work than a ballpoint and at times downright annoying to use, but you're right I just love using them.

See, I have opposite problem, my Vanishing Point is fantastic pen and reliable, but I am worried that someone might swipe it, because it is so beautiful and it is not cheap.

I had my Vanishing Point Decimo stolen by a cleaner in my university.

I'm still upset about that.

Thank you for proving my point. And I am really sorry you lost your pen.

Thanks! I got a new one later, but it's the regular (non-Decimo) kind, and it's my favourite pen right now.

I had a nice fountain pen that I had turned myself stolen at university, but rather improbably ended up finding it on the ground a week later. I guess the thief was clumsy.

For me one of the nice things about a fancy fountain pen is that you generally remembering to keep it with you, heh

If I don't like how a FP feels, I can possibly change the nib or trade it/give it away. My first thought isn't like a ballpoint where I'd trash it.

I don't get as OCD but I know of some who match their FP to what they are wearing and/or the color of ink to the color of pen.

Depending on the pen, it is also smoother when writing, offering less resistance. Useful to sketch diagrams quickly with smooth lines or have a nice regular writing.

Con: I have been using Lamy fountain pens for a while, and Lamy owners can recognise each other's in the firm to the traces of black ink on their fingers.

Obviously, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I've been using a Lamy (Logo; fine nib) for years now, and I've yet to have more than the (very occasional) weak smudge of ink on the part of my pinky and ring fingers resting against the paper.

I'm a leftie, even. (Mostly using Parker Quink, which dries very fast - occasionally using Diamine inks, too.)

I'm using broad nib, maybe that's why. But it's been consistent across all models and I have tried pretty much the full range.

As a regular Lamy user, none of my Lamys tried to mark my hand to claim me as its servant. Why your pen does it? Burping? Leak?

Across multiple models but with broad nibs. Usually it leaks into the cap when closed and then the part of the pen the closest to the nib is covered with ink.

I need to take a look at this. Are you sure that you're not gripping from the lip which locks and creates an air-tight seal? The grip would make it very uncomfortable though.

I have a medium Lamy which writes broad-ish (because of production tolerance + well smoothed nib due to long writing sessions) and wets its sealing lip, but even that one never stained my hand.

Which ink are you using? Is it extremely wet and eager to flow? Do you fly with the pen? Temperature around the pen?

I've been using only Lamy pens for the last couple of years, my kids too. We have about 10 of them, and we usually use the cheapest ones. The ink is also made by Lamy. And we have no such problems.

> People are less likely to walk away or accidentally steal your fountain pen

Especially if you keep hold of the cap, just pass them the pen ready to write.

One of the rules is to never offer your gold nib fountain pen to anyone. Gold nibs are soft and adapts to your writing style over the time that people who are not familiar with fountain pens but biros usually press too hard to the paper that alters the soft nib.

True, I use my nice pens in the office or at home. I've a Baoer 388 I carry around, apart from the lacquer that seems almost indestructible and writes very well.

I think I read a while ago that fountain pens don't wear to your writing style, that's an old tale. Pressing too hard will usually damage one though.

Depends on the nib. A 18K nib is soft enough to develop flatter surfaces over the time, based on the owner's writing style. It is also mentioned on one of the premier fountain maker's (and OEM nib maker) page: https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US.CMS.displayCMS.25...

I can't see where on that link it talks about the nib developing flatter surfaces. The nib is flexible and with long term use and excessive pressure can alter the angle of the tines. That can affect the ink flow through the slit affecting how the ink is laid.

The tip, the only part which touches the paper, is made of iridium[1], or similar, which is very hard. As far as I can tell that doesn't wear. Some very old or specialise/custom nibs may use softer metals and perhaps wear would be a possibility on those but in any instance I can't see you wanting a flat spot to develop.

[1] It turns out that modern iridium nibs probably aren't made of iridium. I was looking into wear on them and found, amongst others, this https://www.nibs.com/blog/nibster-writes/wheres-iridium which does into detail analysing the composition of a fair number of nibs. Down the rabbit hole!

“As the material is soft enough to adapt to your handwriting with time.”

Not every nib is flexible. My Duofold and Meisterstück certainly aren't, my cheap Noodler's Ahab just to a limited extent (but it is a special steel flex nib).

For me the only important point is that you do not need to apply pressure in order to write. The ink just flows.

You forgot the main reason for which most of us use fountain pens: they are cool.