This blog is about my journey through the world of fountain pens and the inks that we use in them. I’m a relative novice to the community with about six month under my belt, so I feel that puts me in a unique position to examine and review my pens and inks with the eyes (and vocabulary!) of someone new to all of this. I’m hoping my steps and missteps will be of assistance to other newbies and perhaps offer a chuckle to the seasoned pen user.
I’ve come to discover there are at least two types of fountain pen users with three subtypes. My friend, who I will refer to as T, is a One or Two Very Special Pen user of the subtype Vintage Pen Preferred. I’m a Many Pens user because I can’t commit to a nib or even a color of ink for a while day. My subtype is Unused Items Prefered. The third subtype that neither of us fall into but I hear exists is Latest and Greatest Pens Desired; these folks want to hottest pens just released and I guess this type of buyer exists for all technologies simple and complex, don’t they.
I have gone from “starter pens” to “med range” recently and I will have at least 6 or 7 different models/models with different nibs to review for you though I will take my time so don’t expect all of my pens to be cataloged in a scant few weeks. I will also review my growing, growing, growing collection of inks or more probably I will review an ink line and then talk a little about each color within that line that I have used…. I have a LOT to say about ink! And of course any other related products like paper, pen holder/protectors, even traveling ink vials will all get a mention. I think I’ll even bust out my camera for this!
Don’t expect the same old reviews you see elsewhere… I don’t know what the materials that make up the pen have to do with it’s quality, only if it feels sturdy and looks pretty. I’ve often tried only one pen with Nib X so a review will be both of a pen and a nib type together. I’ve only tried about six lines of ink but my color collection has passed 30, so I’ll talk a lot about opinions and compare colors, but I won’t be doing dry time tests or checking for ink saturation like other sites already do. Basically, this is a new kid talking to new kids about cool stuff we both love.
It would be wonderful if I developed the type of readership that gets a blog sent1) samples to review or ohhhhhhhh 2) samples to GIVE AWAY so please follow this blog and try to comment on as many entries as you have a thought about… nothing is too elementary and if you ask a question I can’t answer, I’ll send it over to the ever knowledgeable T, whose fault it is that I discovered this crazy, expensive, but beautiful world of pens and ink.
Jocelyn S.
PEN PALS AND FOUNTAIN FRIENDS 