Fountain Pens — A Love Affair

When hobbies beget hobbies

This feels like a weird piece to write, even though it’s been an important hobby for me for a long time now.

Perhaps because it’s an addiction.

Like anything you know little about, once you learn about it, you find an entire subculture of experts and hobbyists abound. It doesn’t even matter what subject or hobby you pick, I’ll bet there’s an underground society you knew nothing about. Beer brewing, gun collecting, soap carving, card tricks, flax scutching, R/C vehicles, and yes, fountain pens, all have deeply entrenched cultures.

Hobbies open up new worlds for us. Remember how they told us that marijuana was a “gateway drug?” Well, a couple of years ago I bought my “gateway pen.”

I had been a fan of Pilot G2 pens for a long time. I enjoyed moving to the finer points: from the standard .7mm gel pen to the very fine .38mm. It wasn’t a real stretch for Amazon to recommend the Pilot Metropolitan, which costs an ungodly $17.99. For one pen! What kind of idiot spends that kind of money on one pen?

I’ll tell you: This kind of idiot.

But then…

You’re hooked. You like the experience. It feels refined. Fancy. Professional. Distinguished.

And then you wonder what else is out there? You read and searching and suddenly you learn of pens that cost more and wonder what the increased cost gets you. $30? $50? $150? $300? $9000?

A $9000 pen better write itself a bestseller that’ll make me at least that much in royalties. Luckily, I haven’t fallen that far into the rabbit hole. Yet.

However, at some point, the writing experience levels off. Then you get into the manufacturing process and the materials the pen itself is made from. From brass and aluminum and plastic to Urushi lacquers and finishes that look like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (This isn’t a joke. The manufacturer went nuts trying to match Van Gogh’s paint pallet while painting these masterpieces. Check out a video here of an overview by Brian Goulet from gouletpens.com.)

The most I’ve spent on a pen is about $200. A couple of years ago, if you would have told me I’d spend that much on a pen, I would have thought about taking a swing at you.

But here I am.

I would say this is probably the most I’ll ever spend on a pen, but I’d be lying. Never say never, as they sometimes say.

It’s got a 14k gold nib, which is a bargain-basement gold nib. (Seriously.) And any pen that comes in its own coffin is cool in my book. It writes practically by itself. It’s known as being very smooth and a delight to write with.

I’m trying to keep my interest in hand-writing, and this is how I’m trying to do it. I’ll probably fail and keep blasting away at these keys. I realize that I’m nowhere near the top of the mountain on this journey, and I’m only exploring the world of fine writing instruments. Like all hobbies, they’re expensive and take time. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Regardless of how you feel about fountain pens, I think it’s interesting to know that each and everything we do has an entire undercurrent of interesting stuff going on just beneath the surface.

It’s not until we explore we find the true treasure.