No, this is not a scary spooky season post! It's just a thought experiment, I promise. Back in April, the "you can only keep one from each brand" question was applied to fountain pens by Rachel at Rachel's Reflections, and others in the community shared their own choices.The most challenging prompt you could give me is ranking items or picking favorites... how do I decide between items that have completely different strengths, histories, aesthetics?
I actually started this post months ago, but things happen and here I am finally sharing this list of favorite pens that I've tried to capture in photos and words for Fountain Pen Day 2024.
Fountain Pen Day is celebrated annually on the first Friday of November. This will be my 5th FPD, since the first instagram post on my pens and art instagram account was for Fountain Pen Day on November 7th of 2020. In the little over four years since I bought my first TWSBI, I've collected quite a variety of pens.
I went through my pens list on Fountain Pen Companion, reviewing each brand alphabetically and picking the one pen I would keep in this proposed universe where those are the rules. I did skip a few brands I didn't have a lot to say about (like Jinhao), but did include those with only one pen to choose from to share why I picked that pen in the first place.
Starting off with an easy choice because I only have one Abigail Markov pen, but there's something special about selecting a pen that was made by hand (which is why this is the first of many on this list). This Bebe pen in Lavender Ice may not be my typical color, but it's perfect for dusty purple inks and interesting grays, and the recent addition of a Perspective grind from Gena Salorino has made this pen even more enjoyable to use.
I didn't expect Benu pens to be for me, but I changed my mind after one came my way. I now have a few, but this purple and orange Pen Addict x Benu Euphoria is particularly special. I love that some of the orange confetti pieces are hearts, and that with a closer look the dark areas are a sparkly deep midnight blue. I've had the nib ground into a Scythe by Kirk Speer, and it's currently inked with Pen Addict x Robert Oster Fire on Fire on Fire 🔥🔥🔥.
I picked out two pens on Jonathan Brooks' table at the 2023 Atlanta Pen Show and am fond of both, but this matte Cenote material with translucent cobalt blue stands out like a jewel, especially when backlit by sunlight.
I only have one pen from Darail Penz, but it didn't take me long to pick this one out at the Atlanta Pen Show this year. I love this material and shape, and it's been polished extremely well. I got a Katana grind from Kirk Speer on the nib, this pen is simply a joy to use.
This was an easy choice: the Esterbrook JR model is the best fit for me, it's a lovely chatoyant green, and I got the pre-ground Scribe nib by Josh Lax. The Scribe grind is a variation of an architect, where vertical strokes are narrow and horizontal strokes are wide.
This is a more difficult choice. I really like my Model 46s, but if I have to only pick one I think it has to be the Pocket 66 in Antique Glass. It's a clear eyedroppered pen that will show off any ink color, and while I generally prefer a flat-end shape over the traditional "cigar" shape, I do enjoy the more extreme taper of this model.
The Kaweco Sport in Dark Olive. It's green. It writes well. It's easy to slip into a pocket. 'Nuff said.
The Luna model was my second Kilk pen, I love the moon theme. The real silver hardware and moon finial really stand out, and the tone of the gray shimmer in the material matches the metal perfectly. An elegant model with a well-executed theme makes this an easy favorite, though a couple other Kilk pens are close behind.
If you haven't noticed by now, I really like green. The problem here is I like 2 different Lamy models, the matte Safari and the Studio, and I have nice green versions of both.
Well, I'm going to pivot and choose this special edition Safari in off-white with green accents instead! This is the Song Dynasty White Jade Lamy Safari, a very beautiful colorway. With Lamy pens I like how easy it is to swap in other nibs, like the cursive nib or a gold nib, to change the writing experience.
I like the style of the Leonardo Momento Zero models, and there's a great variety of interesting materials. I have a mix of regular and grande versions, but since smaller pens are my preference and this material and hardware combo really works I'm going to choose the Bohemian Twilight Momento Zero with rose gold trim.
It's hard to pick favorites among interesting and varied resins but I affectionately think of this London Pen Co Christopher 13 Jr model in Argent Emerald material as my "toothpaste" pen, with it's minty fresh aqua green sparkle (even the dark gray works since charcoal toothpaste is a thing). Coincidentally, the Teranishi Guitar "Brilliant Mint" ink is a fantastic pairing in both shade and name.
I only have one Mad Science pen, the Beta Type-Q "Juma Woodland." The matte finish of this material is silky smooth and it's the perfect shade of green. I like the experimentation in design from this maker. I bought this special pen on the day I said goodbye to my beloved cat, Boo, as a memorial and celebration of the many years we were able to spend together. It is inked with Wearingeul "I am a Cat."
Most of the offerings from Montegrappa exceed the amount I am willing to spend on a single pen, but a good sale and the right colorway on this Elmo 02 model in Nirvana swayed me. The material looks like streaks of oil paint from a painter's palette, with a bit of clear mixed in to give the material interesting depth. The nib wasn't my favorite at first, but after getting it ground to a Katana by Kirk Speer I am fully enjoying this beautiful pen.
This was an easier decision when I only had one Newton pen. Even though I really love the second pen I picked up at the San Francisco show, I've had more time with this pen, an Orville model with a gorgeous Eel & Anchor resin.
This was a difficult choice because I've really come to enjoy using Opus 88 pens. I like the Japanese eyedropper filling system with the shutoff valve, and the nibs continue to surprise me with how nicely they write. The Koloro model is a nice size for me, and this combo of translucent dark teal and a warm gray-brown ebonite looks great. It pairs very well with one of my favorite inks, Taccia Ainezu.
I wanted at least one Pelikan pen, and the Pelikan Souverän M400 in Tortoiseshell White is the size and color I was drawn to. The medium nib puts down a lot of ink so this is a great pen for using lighter yellow or green inks that would be difficult to read otherwise.
This pen made by Nic Pasquale was my first "maker" pen, a giveaway win at the first in-person pen gathering I attended (a Pelikan Hub). I love the colors in this material and the pen is so comfortable to use, it has become the first of many "maker" pens.
I wanted to try one of the more unique nib types offered in some of the Pilot pen lines, so I took advantage of the opportunity to test several nibs, repeatedly, at the Pilot table at the Atlanta Pen show. Despite the pen rarely being offered in anything but black, I did like the flat-end shape, size, and silver trim of the Pilot Custom 912 so I tested all the nib choices until finally settling on the Soft Fine Medium. It puts down a nice amount of ink, but the slightly springy nib makes delightful little points at the bottom of some letters.
While I have a Platinum 3776 with a lovely medium nib, the Preppy is such a nice writer for a fun entry-level pen. This Preppy Wa in a dark blue black with silver and gold dragonflies is my favorite.
My first gold nib pen was a Sailor Pro Gear Slim, and that model has become my favorite for planning and scheduling notes. I'm particularly fond of the Manyo series of pens, where each pen is inspired by a pair of Manyo inks. Sailor Manyo Shirakashi is the ink that opened my eyes to how complex, interesting, and beautiful fountain pen inks could be, so the "Nuts" pen inspired by Shirakashi and Yamabuki, a dusty green with warm yellow accents, remains my favorite.
This may be my favorite Spoke Design pen simply because it is my only Spoke Design pen, but how sharp is that white Delrin material and that grip! Since these pens are designed to be customizable, I was able to try two different grip shapes and also swap the gray sleeve (with the help of a little in-person customer service at the Atlanta Pen Show) with green to personalize my pen, which is such a cool feature.
I've tried the Teranishi Guitar fountain pen which works well and has a nice fit and finish for the price, but my favorite pen from Teranishi is actually a capped glass nib pen, used as a dip pen for fountain pen ink. The nib is real glass and works pretty well, but the compact body and cap means I can throw this into my pen meetup toolkit and take it on the go! The cap screw-posts security to the back of the pen to be a comfortable writing length.
This R615 pen from The Good Blue is one of the more unique pens I have. I've decided I like Ultem as a material, though this is my only Ultem pen so far. The finish is described as "flame grilled" Ultem, paired with stainless steel and a Titanium flex nib. This pen demands a wet ink (and may leak into the cap if jostled around), but it's fun to use.
The TWSBI Diamond 580 in Prussian Blue was my first fountain pen, and remains one of my favorites. This color has been extremely popular for a reason, and while I love having a whole fleet of different color TWSBI Ecos, the Diamond 580 is a little extra fancy.
I love the look of this White Bear Ursa pen so much: the way the clear cap features the nib engraved with a bear, the combo of soft, elegant colors, the shade of purple/orangey glitter. In San Francisco, I leveled up the nib with a Journaler grind by Gena Salorino.
This Zodiac Pens Capricorn pen is full of fun memories from the Atlanta Pen Show: meeting Bart to find the perfect ink to match his pen, swapping ink samples, picking out a pen that captured lightning streaking through the dark sky, then finding out the material was made by another new friend, Lisa Marie of Pourly Controlled.
