I have had a slow-growing introduction to fountain pens during my Bullet Journal journey. What had started as an easy-in with my first Lamy AL-star ,which I got for Christmas a number of years ago, has turned into an appreciation and slight collectible hobby. This pen was great because it didn’t intimidate me at all. I used the cartridges to get into the pen and just started using it.
This was an easy pen to get introduced to fountain pens. Easy to use, a lot of fun colors, and writes really nicely.
Once I started using the pen and researching more about fountain pens I learned about ink converters. These allow for you to use a pen like this one, but with filling it with fountain pen ink. This opened me up to a world of new potentials… and a new hobby – Collecting Ink.
I wouldn’t say I went too hard when I started looking at inks, but I definitely did not expect the variety and different types of inks that would be available to me. As with most things, I start really getting into something, research, buy, and then come onto a brick wall of an issue. See, not all journal paper loves fountain pen ink. You get feathering and sometimes bleed through depending on the paper and ink combo. When I started using Archer and Olive notebooks I thought it would handle all the inks well because of the 160gsm paper – but it was iffy. No bleed through or ghosting, but a lot of feathering.
So I have laid off fountain pens in my Archer and Olives for a while. UNTIL NOW!!
I just received a bunch of great gifted products from a few pen and ink companies. I just did a big unboxing of all the goodies. I am going to be doing individual videos and reviews for each but I am really excited about a few of them.
I have been using the Monteverde USA Engage pen all week. I absolutely love it! It will probably be the first review I do, I like it that much.
Along with the pens, the inks were pretty cool too. I’ll be going through them all too, trying them with the pens, but so far, the Private Reserve Inks, and specifically the Quick Dry ink.
Remember when I told you that fountain pen ink didn’t work well in the Archer and Olive notebooks??? Well, I was wrong because this works PERFECTLY!
Be sure to check out the full unboxing for all of the pens and inks I got. It’s a lot of fun. Talk soon!
-Mark
Great post. One downside of getting into fountain pens is that now my journals are very limited to the paper quality. Even Leuchtturm doesn’t do it for me anymore. But there’s also a certain kick in finding cheap paper that handles fountain pen ink surprisingly well. Anyway, thanks for this post!
You are totally right – it gets limiting. Even the 160 gsm paper doesn’t mean smooth fountain pen sailing.
Heck yeah. I’ve quickly learned that 52gsm paper can easily outperform ones that are three times its weight. I wish I could still use Starbucks planners and such though. I envy my friends who don’t have that limitations, lol. Okay I’m sounding snobbish now.
I have always used an ink pen even when I left school.
After buying several Monteverdi engage pens many years ago, and ruining dress shirts because they leak, I can’t say anything good about them except, good riddance!
Oh no! I can definitely understand how that can rub you the wrong way.