In an attempt to avoid excessive thread drift:
Out of curiosity, do you find there is a noticeable difference when using a fine writing instrument vs. a disposable or an inexpensive Cross pen? I know a guy who loves pens and owns some incredibly expensive ones. I just have yet to get interested enough to dive in.
I wouldn't know. I don't use a fine writing instruments. I use a pretty decent pen. But, yes, I do.
I first got into fountain pens as a kid because I didn't like the poor quality line of a ballpen. I didn't have access to decent ones and so I abandoned it for a while. But then I hurt my shoulder and it start deteriorating pretty badly. Writing was very painful. I turned back to fountain pens because they require absolutely no downward pressure. I don't mean only a little pressure, as with most rollerballs, I mean none. First is was a throwaway, a Varsity, those disposable, non-fillable pens with fountain pen nibs and feeds. It fixed the ergonomic problem, but the line was not very subtle. It was prone to leaking. It was too light--like virtually all throwaway pens. It was ugly. I got a fairly cheap fountain pen from Levenger--$60 or so. It was poorly weighted. Writing with the cap posted was impossible. It was a fine nib, and it clogged easily. Poorly made nib. The section (the area the write grips) was coated with an enamel that was not pleasing to the touch. However, it took cartridges or a converter to allow bottle filling, and it worked for a time.
At least it produced a more attractive line than a Bic, gave me more ink choices, was a little heavier, was more attractive.
When I started law school I got a Cross ATX. Still a converter filler, which meant relatively small ink capacity. But, much better nib. More carefully made, less clogging. Well, no clogging. Much more pleasant to grip section--made of brushed metal, with an enameled body. The line wasn't fine enough for me, though, and I found the ink capacity deficient. I tried a low-end Shaeffer too, decent in most respects, but a more crude nib, too broad and imprecise for my tastes, and a cheap plastic section.
My current pen is a Pelikan m215, the black one with the diamon pattern.
http://www.fahrneyspens.com/Item--i-36364S. It's a very entry level decent pen. Still a steel nib, but that works well for me. Metal body, higher quality plastics for the other parts, so less sticky/slick feeling section. It's a true bottle-filling pens, so no messing around with converters. Since I can't afford to buy the pens I'd like, I've gotten into inks quite a bit. My favorite label over all is Diamine, although there are a half dozen I really enjoy, and many have really wonderful, subtle qualities of color, texture, interaction with the paper in various ways. More of a challenge for me because I am a lefty and I prefer Clairefontaine paper, which is coated and very smooth, so I need a quick-drying ink, but I also demand a very line with no feathering, and so some inks marketed as quick-drying don't work for me at all.
It's just no fun playing with inks with a converter pen. The Pelikan makes it all a lot more fun. It feels perfect.
A few criticisms: The classic Pelikan clip is prone to catching on things and getting bent if one is fairly active. I was always tossing it in my back pocket, and it caught on my seat belt several times. After the third time I disassembled the whole thign to fix the clip, I just ditched it. Works fine without. Some days it feels a little too small. I really have my eye on one of the LEs:
http://www.fahrneyspens.com/Item--i-363129S. It's a little bigger, and I like the clip design better. Way, way out of my budget though. Right now, I'm just hoping to be able to buy a term's worth of paper in the next couple of weeks.
I also have a couple of vintage Esterbrooks, with very fine, very stiff steel nibs. My writing, when I pay attention, is much more beautiful and much more legible that it could be with a Bic or similar. My hand doesn't get cramped. It's easier on my healing shoulder. It's more enjoyable. I prefer that things that I do every day be delightful. If I can spent $100 (or, maybe, in a few years $300-500) for a pen and $200-500 on paper and ink over the course of couple of years for an instrument I will hold and use constantly, I'll go with that. Writing is a pleasure with a decent pen. My husband used to think I was nuts, until I took him to a pen store and got him to try out some decent pens. (I won't let him use mine because a nib because worn to fit the owner's hand, and mine more pronouncedly because of my left-handed, so it wouldn't work well for him and could damage my nib if he wrote extensively.) Now he wants a pen too, and I'll probably pick one up for him at the local pen show in September.
Those $30 Crosses are a travesty of a pen. Those slick, shiny, slim bodies are designed not for people who want a nice pen but for people who don't know anything but a Bic. They are poorly balanced, they are kind of on the heavy side--not generally a good quality in a very slim pen, contributes to hand fatigue. They are just a way for folks to get a decent-looking pen without investing much time or effort.
[And this, my friends, is why I have an Apple: Pens, paper, ink, and talking about them are all in the list of the 200+ things I'd rather do than build and customize a computer.
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