My 2019 Retrospective

What an epic year to close out a decade! 2019 was not only one of the best years I’ve had on the blog in terms of traffic and overall reader engagement, but I was able to visit more pen shows than ever before and truly feel like I engaged with and made an impact on the community. Today I want to recap the last year and share some of my own reflections and travel plans for 2020.

2019 Pen Shows

I was able to attend the Los Angeles, Baltimore, Arkansas, Atlanta, and D.C. Pen Shows in 2019, and enjoyed meeting many more readers in person. Overall, pen show attendance seems to have stabilized, and smaller shows like Atlanta continue to grow in popularity. By far the highlight of my pen show year, though, was Baltimore. Timed to take place a the end of the dreariest part of the year, just before spring, this well-run and friendly show could eventually steal D.C.’s place as the premiere East Coast pen event. To its credit, the D.C. Pen Show seems to have resolved most of the logistical issues plaguing the past couple of years, and from behind the Vanness Pens table, still seems as well-attended and busy as ever. On the other end of the spectrum, the local community-focused Arkansas pen show in Little Rock offered a refreshing change of pace, including an after-hours meetup at Vanness Pens.

I’ve linked to my recap of each 2019 pen show in the paragraph above. The current plan is to attend most the same shows in 2020, replacing Los Angeles with Philadelphia and possibly adding San Francisco. Since both D.C. and San Francisco are in August, I may have to choose one or the other and haven’t yet made a final decision. For those of you who back The Gentleman Stationer on Patreon, I am working on special pen show meetups for those shows where we overlap. See below for more details.

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My Five Favorite Pens of 2019

It was pretty easy for me to pick out the five pen reviews that I most enjoyed writing. All five of these posts discuss pens that I acquired for my own personal collection, and have used extensively over the past year. As I’ve mentioned recently, I scaled back my personal acquisitions pretty significantly in 2019, and will continue that trend into 2020. I still plan on reviewing pens on the blog, but I do want to mix in some different types of content and the main goal is not to hold onto things that I won’t use over the long-term.

1. Leonardo Momento Zero. What can I say? As someone who mourned the loss of Italian pen company Delta, the emergence of Leonardo filled a void in the market (and my own collection). I have Momento Zeroes at the high end (the “Maestro set”) and from the standard mid-range lineup, and they’re all excellent.

2. Lamy 2000 Bauhaus 100th Anniversary. I let Lamy have it a little bit here for their curious decision to severely restrict the release of this exceptional limited edition pen, and for pricing it at an inaccessible - and somewhat incongruous - price point. That said, I love my Blue Bauhaus, and it’s going to be the “one pen” for 2020 that’s always with me.

3. Aurora 88 Sigaro Blu. Though it’s easy to get lost in a seemingly endless flood of limited editions, the Aurora 88 is a classic fountain pen that’s one of the best workhorse tools out there.

4. Franklin-Christoph Model 20 Marietta. 2019 was the year that I finally settled on the Model 20 “Marietta” as my Franklin-Christoph pen of choice. “Winter Pine” for the win - bring it to the standard lineup!

5. Montegrappa Extra 1930. Montegrappa has really emerged as a major player over the past two years, and not just at the high-end of the market. While the Extra 1930 is an expensive pen, the craftsmanship and material are such that I don’t regret the purchase at all.

I have a few other favorite posts from 2019 that were not necessarily pen reviews. I particularly enjoyed writing this piece on my own thought process behind purchasing more expensive pens, which is the culmination of a year of thinking about how I want to frame my own interest in this hobby. I also wrote a bit about the direction of Chinese brand Moonman, which has taken a different turn recently that’s not altogether positive, in my opinion. Finally, check out my article on “Picking a ‘Workhorse’: How to Choose a Fountain Pen for an Everyday Writer.”

Anticipated 2020 Pen Show Calendar

I currently plan to attend the following pen shows in 2020:

• Philadelphia Pen Show (January 17-19)

• Baltimore Washington International Pen Show (February 28-March 1)

• Arkansas Pen Show in Little Rock (March 13-15)

• Atlanta Pen Show (April 3-5)

• DC Pen Show (July 30-August 2) TENTATIVE

• San Francisco Pen Show (August 28-30) TENTATIVE

In addition to attending shows, I hope to organize more meetups during my other travels. To that end, I will be in New York City at the end of the month to attend the National Stationery Show with the crew from Vanness, and we are targeting a meetup the night of January 31. Stay tuned for additional details!

Patreon Update

Many thanks to everyone who has backed The Gentleman Stationer on Patreon! Check out the Patreon page for full details, but I wanted to post a few quick updates. First, I am now able to offer backers a new benefit in the form of a special “thank-you” coupon for 10% off your order at Vanness Pens, in addition to other periodic promotions that will be exclusive to my Patreon members. As I discuss on the Patreon page, one of my longer-term goals is to be able to develop some exclusive products of my own that I can offer in partnership with retailers and manufacturers, but in the meantime I’ll be exploring other ways to bring value to the membership. Second, I will be attending the Philadelphia Pen Show next weekend, and since I’ve met the first Patreon goal I’ll be doing something special for any Patreon backers in attendance. I’ll post details on the Patreon page. Finally, I still have plenty of pens and ink available in my year-end clearance. Patreon backers get early access through the end of the month (in addition to discounts for certain tiers of support), after which the sale will be opened up to the general readership.

Many thanks to all my readers for a great 2019, and I look forward to making 2020 even better! I have my first review of 2020 lined up for Saturday, as we leave the last decade behind us for good.

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates.

Five Themes for 2020 and a New Decade, and Introducing TGS Patreon

New Year’s resolutions have rightly fallen out of favor, given how they’re nearly always doomed to fail. After trying - and failing - to keep traditionally framed “resolutions” for most of my life, I’m now firmly on the “yearly themes” bandwagon, in which I try to keep things fairly general and then build new habits to support the theme throughout the year. I don’t plan on writing a full length piece on this idea, at least not here. If you’re interested in reading more on this idea, you can check out books by James Clear and Charles Duhigg, and if you’re more of a podcast person than a book person, the latest episode of Cortex on RelayFM digs into the concept of annual themes.

With that said, after spending the past few days ruminating on what worked - and didn’t work - in the 2010s, here are five themes that I’d like to build on for the next year (or ten), all of which will affect the blog in some way. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on going anywhere, but I also don’t want TGS or my outside personal and professional life to stagnate, and you’ve got to evolve to keep things interesting, right?

Write.

The most stationery-centric of these “themes”, and perhaps the most important because it ties the rest of them together. I need to write more. Not here, on the blog, but offline - in notebooks, in journals, on scrap paper, wherever. And not just writing for the sake of writing, to test pens, notebooks, and paper. I need to do real writing, because that’s how my brain works best, whether it be processing complex ideas, planning out projects, keeping track of tasks and to-dos, or finishing the half-novel I’ve slowly churned out over the past eight years. One possible outcome is that you see more process-focused reviews here as I re-evaluate not only how I use things but how well products actually hold up to daily use.

All of this ink needs to go. Details on how I plan to run my sales this year at the bottom of this post.

Own Less Stuff.

Cancel subscriptions. Give stuff away. Sell stuff off. Use stuff up before buying more. With the exception of a few specific products that I churn through on a regular basis, I stopped stockpiling stationery last year. I’ve reached full S.A.B.L.E., and if I stopped buying stationery today, I’d never use up what I already have. Some of this can be sold off to recoup unwisely spent funds and/or to re-invest in TGS, which I will discuss further below. I’m not going full Marie Kondo, but when stuff becomes clutter it develops a sort of psychic weight that prevents me from fully enjoying those things I am actually using at the moment.

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A fraction of the pens I acquired over the past couple of years that don’t get nearly enough love. They need to move on to new homes. All of these, and more, will be available in the stationery sale discussed below.

Stop Chasing the Latest and Greatest.

Relatedly, “upgrade culture” has burned me out. A lot of the clutter around my house consists of old devices (computer components, phones, tablets, Kindles, etc.) that have accumulated as we’ve been asked to spend ever-increasing amounts of money on devices that represent, at best, only marginal improvements over the last iteration. Pen companies aren’t necessarily doing the same thing - there’s no need to “upgrade” a fountain pen unless it breaks and can’t be fixed - but I wrote last month about the seemingly endless proliferation of “limited editions” that aren’t limited in any meaningful way, which really makes nobody happy. It ticks off collectors who might be looking to acquire something special, and for others it confuses the market and creates FOMO. Starting last year I’ve focused on making more informed purchases with an eye towards longevity and craftsmanship.

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I need to work my way through my book backlog. Only a fraction of these have been read.

Read More.

If I have one great regret from the 2010s, it’s the degree to which I allowed so much of my media and information consumption to be pushed online. I used to consider reading books a core part of my life, and though I still technically “read” a lot, it doesn’t feel the same. I have shelves of unread books to plow through, and while I managed to read more than 15 books last year and mostly kept up with a New Yorker subscription, I can do - and have done - more that that in the past. Actively reading makes me a better writer, drives creativity, and just makes me feel better about myself.

Try New Things and Trust Others to Support Me.

All of these entries will touch on the blog in some way, but perhaps this last one more than others. This coming April, I will have been writing The Gentleman Stationer for six years. Over that span of time, not much has changed in terms of format. The site has focused on product reviews, namely pens, pencils, and other fine writing accessories that not only look good and are fun to collect but serve a functional purpose. TGS is a one-man show. I’m the reporter, editorial board, and business manager, and as the site started to consume more of my time over the years I took on sponsors, advertisers, and affiliate partnerships to generate revenue to cover my costs and compensate me for at least some of the 3+ hours per day, 7 days a week I was putting in.

I don’t have a problem with my current business model, per se. I love to write. I retain full creative control and operate with relatively low overhead. I’m careful about who I partner with, and nearly all of my advertisers and sponsors are also friends. That said, it does create some discomfort on my part that the success or failure of The Gentleman Stationer as a business is driven entirely by clicks and commissions, and having to generate revenue in this way offers little flexibility to explore new ideas for content such as audio and video content, livestreams, curated retail, product collaborations, etc.

For the past year, I’ve considered how best to fix this. Should I create a “membership” model that I run myself, with a paid newsletter, etc.? Should I branch into curated retail? Should I write a book? At the end of the day, I’m still considering different options, but decided that the Patreon platform offers me the most flexibility given where the site is now. I like the idea of trusting my readers to support the site to whatever degree they see fit, and having the opportunity to interact with my most dedicated supporters on a much more personal level.

Patreon Benefits

First of all, absolutely nothing will change here on the main site. Content through Patreon will be 100% extra for those who wish to help support the site financially. If the Patreon is successful, you may see fewer advertisements on TGS as I choose to work closely with a smaller number of sponsors and partners. For now, the main benefits for Patreon sponsors include the additional content available on the Patreon platform and early access to my periodic “gently used” sales with progressive discounting based on your level of support. Other benefits will include pen show meetups, first crack at any exclusive products, a members-only “e-mail hotline”, and more if things take off. A full discussion of the various tiers and benefits is available on the Patreon page. If you decide to support TGS, you will have immediate access to the Patrons-only content, which will contain a link and password to access the sale page. The sales will run quarterly, and will remain Patreon-exclusive for the first 30 days after which I will open them up to the general readership. Currently, the sale page contains dozens of pens (including Aurora, Edison, Esterbrook, Leonardo, and Pilot), bottles of ink, and pocket notebooks, with more being added as I work my way through Goal No. 2 discussed above (“Own Less Stuff”). I’ve really tried to price this stuff aggressively to reward you all for supporting me. I can’t afford to give it away, but I can do my best to make it worth your while!

I know this has been a long post, but it’s one I needed to write, and I truly believe that changing things up will help set TGS up for success over the long term and ultimately keep this site an interesting and inspiring place to visit. Thank you for your years of readership and support, and I look forward to many more!

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates.

The Ten Most Influential Stationery Products of the Past Decade

Notice that I’m not framing today’s post as another “best of” list, but rather something different. Here I’ve tried to identify those stationery products that have most influenced what is currently on the market today, which necessarily may include some products that either weren’t good to begin with or haven’t held up over time as the stationery market has evolved. This list may also include products which weren’t released in the 2010s, but still established their popularity and influence during the past decade. This New Year’s is bittersweet for me. My foray into pen collection (let’s just call it “pen enthusiasm”) really started up again in early 2010, so it’s hard to believe that ten years has passed. Writing this list brought up a lot of feels. I hope it does for you as well. Happy reading!

1. Field Notes. To me, naming the Field Notes pocket notebook, and the brand as a whole, as the most influential stationery product of the past 10 years is something of a no-brainer. I wasn’t going to do a ranked list, but after evaluating my top five, I’m pretty comfortable with the order, and leaving Field Notes as the undisputed No. 1. The Field Notes quarterly edition subscription program has taken on a life of its own, with certain coveted past editions arguably qualifying as design icons. Absent the success of Field Notes and Moleskine (see below), I have a hard time seeing many notebook-focused companies enjoying the level of success they are seeing today. While Field Notes have fallen out of rotation for me personally, that’s more a function of my own needs than anything else.

2. Moleskine. I debated whether to include Moleskine on this list, as the brand launched in the late 1990s and expanded throughout the 2000s, which is when the “black Moleskine” notebook first became synonymous with hipster stationery, and later, omnipresent. Why did I ultimately include it? Because Moleskine inspired countless companies to attempt to “build a better Moleskine” - a black everyday carry notebook that contained consistently decent paper and held up over time. Without Moleskine, would the Leuchtturm 1917 or the Rhodia Webnotebook be as popular as they are, or would brands such as the Dingbats notebook or Endless Recorder even exist?

3. Blackwing 602. Am I talking about the vintage pencil or the modern pencil? How about both? At the beginning of the decade, as the stationery-obsessed began to “rediscover” pencils (or at least talk about them on the internet), you could still find lots of original Blackwings at what would now be considered reasonable prices on eBay. Then CalCedar, maker of the popular Palomino pencil - may it rest in peace - announced that it had acquired the right to the Blackwing and would begin making a modern version of this classic pencil. Today, Blackwing is on its way to becoming a brand to rival Moleskine.

4. Noodler’s Ink. I’ve mentioned numerous times how, ten years ago, Noodler’s Ink was one of the only options if you wanted “boutique” inks in colors other than the standard black-blue-blue/black-red, green, and purple. Five different shades of each color? Now, boutique ink manufacturers such as Robert Oster Signature, KWZ, and Colorverse are the norm, and even old-line pen companies like Pilot and Sailor have vastly expanded their ink lineups to include dozens of colors.

5. Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Pen. The so-called “refill that launched a thousand Kickstarters,” and arguably the entire modern machined pen industry. JetPens even built a business around sourcing Japanese gel pen refills that are difficult to find in the U.S. I’ve fallen away from the Hi-Tec-C in recent years, but for those who love needle-tip gel pens and write small, it still has enduring popularity. I still field weekly questions about whether this or that machined pen is compatible with the Hi-Tec-C.

6. Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock Limited Edition Ink. Did this 2012 ink launch the “limited edition” ink craze? In my mind, it did, since it’s definitely the first ink I can remember people purchasing in lots of up to a dozen bottles to hoard, back in the days when there weren’t so many inks that you could find a similar shade elsewhere. Of course, that doesn’t keep people from trying to duplicate what some consider the best red ink ever made….

7. Edison Pens. Brian Gray of Edison Pens was the first to truly take the “custom fountain pen” industry into the mainstream, offering not only custom designs but unique filling systems, including modern recreations of vintage-style filling systems such as the pump (vacumatic) and pneumatic fillers, as well as his own innovations like the “Draw Filler”. Today, those looking to design their own ideal fountain pen can also choose to work with Shawn Newton, Renee Meeks (Scriptorium Pens), Jonathan Brooks, and many others, but Edison Pens kicked off the trend!

8. TWSBI 530/540/580. In addition to custom-designed fountain pens, which can cost hundreds of dollars or more, the 2010s were notable for the reintroduction of mid-range and entry-level writing instruments of a quality unavailable since the so-called “golden age” of fountain pens decades earlier. Leading the pack was Taiwanese company TWSBI, which has now introduced several iterations of its 5XX series fountain pens, in addition to the acclaimed TWSBI Eco. TWSBI designed its initial release, the TWSBI 530, with input from the fountain pen community (making it sort-of-crowdsourced-but-not-really), and tweaked the design throughout the decade in response to customer feedback and quality control issues. Now, TWSBIs are regarded as some of the most reliable low-cost fountain pens available, and their accessible price point has served to keep other companies (relatively) honest.

9. Nanami Seven Seas Notebooks. This entry on the list could easily be “Tomoe River Paper,” but I decided to go with Nanami Paper, which was one of the first companies to offer an accessible fountain pen friendly notebook stuffed with hundreds of pages of excellent ultra-thin Japanese paper. For a while, Nanami couldn’t make enough of their Seven Seas Writer and Crossfield. Though today there are plenty of other companies offering similar notebooks, it’s still hard to match Nanami’s quality.

10. Hobonichi Planner. Perhaps as part of the greater rebellion against digitizing anything and everything, the paper planner has made a comeback. While the planner resurgence could justify it’s own stand-alone article, the Hobonichi Techo makes this list as the first insanely popular fountain pen friendly Japanese planner that is now available in an English-language version. Whether people love the Tomoe River paper or the flexible format, the Hobonichi looks like it’s here to stay, and has driven the popularity of other Japanese planner systems like Kokuyo’s Jibun Techo, my own planner of choice.

A lot on this list is, of course, affected by my own personal experience and preference, and you can argue about the “Top 10” anything, but I don’t think there can be much dispute that all of these were influential. Stay tuned for more year-end recap content over the next couple of weeks! Happy New Year to everyone, and know that I appreciate your readership and support.

Disclaimer: Wherever possible I’ve tried to link to a past post of mine reviewing or discussing the items listed here. Otherwise, I’ve linked to sponsors or the companies themselves.

Thoughts on Purchasing Expensive Pens (or Any Luxury Item)

I’ve been collecting notes and thoughts on this topic for a while now, as I’ve noticed my own acquisitions starting to trend in the direction of purchasing fewer-but-nicer pens, and as more brands seem to be directing significant manufacturing and marketing efforts towards high-end pens and limited editions. Honestly, there are now so many limited/special/store editions on the market that it’s easy to get confused and caught up in FOMO, spend a lot of money, and wind up with an extremely expensive pen that doesn’t meet your needs or isn’t as great as the “hype” made it seem. Believe me, I’ve been there. So I thought it might be helpful to write a piece on my own thought process when acquiring pens - especially expensive high-end pens - and the various considerations and questions that I ask myself as I evaluate whether a prospective purchase is “worth it.”

Before we start, I need to preface this discussion with an acknowledgement that what constitutes an “expensive” or “high-end” pen is subjective, and necessarily changes from person to person. A $50 pen is extremely expensive to some people, and I’m not necessarily talking about financial means. Some people simply prefer a functional daily writer and don’t want to have any more money than absolutely necessary locked up in a writing instrument they might lose. With that understood, I don’t think the analysis changes significantly based on where you draw the line on what’s “expensive” or “high-end.” Hopefully this article has something helpful for everyone.

My own baseline for what I consider a “very expensive” pen is roughly $500. Some might set the baseline even lower, and there’s definitely an argument for that. I chose $500 because this price point captures most brands’ non-limited or standard edition “workhorse” pens such as the Pelikan M800/M600, Aurora 88, Montblanc 146, Sailor Professional Gear, Pilot Custom 823, and even some Conids. (While the MSRP on some of these pens may be greater than $500, you can usually find them below that, either by purchasing on sale or with a discount code, or by acquiring them secondhand in barely used, or even mint, condition.) Once you get past this baseline price point, in my opinion you are definitely paying for more than functional hardware - i.e., a gold nib, build quality, filling system - and get into more subjective forms of “value” like artistry and branding. I think hard before purchasing above this baseline price point, and if I do, there has to be a compelling case. I use my pens, so I’m not a pure collector in the sense that my primary focus is on making sure the pens do not depreciate in value for later appraisal or resale. I may buy something because I view it as a “work of art,” but it’s a functional piece of art that I still intend to put to good use as a writing instrument.

Leonardo Officina Italiana makes some of my favorite limited and special edition pens currently on the market. They’re all handmade, and the runs truly are limited - especially those in rare celluloids.

First Consideration: What Exactly Am I Paying For, and Why Am I Spending this Money?

I firmly believe that you don’t need to spend more than $65, tops, to get a reliable fountain pen to use as a daily writer. For $200 or less, you can purchase what I consider one of the best-designed fountain pens ever made, the Lamy 2000, which is my own “desert island” writing instrument. As I mentioned above, once you pass a certain price point, you stop paying for additional functionality and get into things like design, artistry, and, yes, branding and hype. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But one thing I do try to do when contemplating an expensive acquisition is figure out exactly what I’m paying for and why I’m fine with paying it. For example, a $600 Nakaya is not $600 because it’s a “better” pen than a $150 Platinum 3776 in terms of functionality. For the most part, they write similarly because they feature the same nib, and the Platinum might actually be a “better” choice for most people to take to work everyday because it posts and the pen is lightweight. The Nakaya, however, is a vehicle to showcase artistry, namely the Japanese tradition of Urushi lacquer work and other traditional pen designs. Do I really like the design of this particular Nakaya, or is this a FOMO-driven acquisition influenced by online discussions and/or podcasts? Put another way, do I like this pen and want one because “other people” are telling me I should have one in my collection?

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Two limited edition fountain pens that I’m glad I purchased. On the left is my Delta Fusion 82 in “Pompeii” celluloid, and on the right is the Leonardo Momento Zero “Maestro” in discontinued Omas Burkina celluloid. I grabbed both of these immediately, knowing they really were limited and won’t last.

Second Consideration: Is this “Limited” or “Special” Edition Really That Unique?

When considering the purchase of a “limited” pen, I try to remember to ask myself how “limited” or “special” the pen actually is. In my opinion, these two marketing taglines are overused. Case-in-point: I own a couple of Montblanc Writers Edition fountain pens, which retail for nearly $1000. I’m a Montblanc fan, and generally appreciate the brand’s design and build quality, but is a run of 16,000 fountain pens really limited enough to qualify for the “limited edition” designation, and command the sort of price being asked?

In my opinion, probably not. Older Writers Edition fountain pens, like the Hemingway and Agatha Christie, command higher prices on the secondary market because Montblanc made fewer of these pens, and they’re difficult to locate. That’s exactly what some pure collectors want to see - appreciation in the value of the pen due to scarcity. But it’s hard to see a run of 16,000+ pens that cost $1000 apiece appreciating in value anytime soon, which is why you can find later Writers Editions like Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Friedrich Schiller, etc. for much less than the original retail, sometimes still NIB (“New in Box”). If you’re a user, like me, that’s not a bad thing at all, which brings me to the third consideration….

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On the other hand, Pelikan limited and special edition fountain pens tend to linger, like the M101N pictured here, and you can get extremely good deals towards the end of the year….

Third Consideration: How Badly Do I Want This Pen Now, and Should I Wait for a Price Drop?

For the past couple of years, I have made 90% of my pen acquisitions in November, December, and January, which is when most retailers run inventory clearance sales and holiday promotions, starting with Fountain Pen Day sales and running through the post-New Year’s clearance events. At the top of the list for retailers to clear out are those “limited” and “special” edition pens that haven’t sold over the past year or two - after all, they need to make room for the next year’s releases that start shipping in February and March - and if you wait patiently enough you can often find the “older” pens discounted as much as 60%, or even more once you factor in holiday coupon codes that are always floating around. With respect to the Montblanc Writers edition pens noted above, I found two of them at around 70% of what they originally cost, and was able to use a 20% off Black Friday coupon to get the price down even further. In short, if you can resist the FOMO, patience can pay off. If a limited edition isn’t really “limited,” just wait for a while, and I suspect you’ll enjoy that pen all the more having paid half the original purchase price.

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Aurora limited and special editions typically remain available for at least a year or so. I waited a year for the Aurora 88 Sigaro Blu to go on sale and got a slightly better price than I would have had I purchased it upon release.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a pen is a uniquely personal experience, and as you gain experience, you’ll develop your own set of considerations, or even rules, that you take into account when building your collection or accumulation. I do hope this piece is helpful. I’ve made my share of mistakes in my decade or so in the pen hobby, and the ones that always burn the most are when I gave into the FOMO and purchased something expensive that I either didn’t really like it or could have purchased a year later for half the money. On the flip side, I’ve also missed out on some truly limited releases because I dawdled, but I tend to regret those instances less because there is always going to be something else to take its place. Trust me on this one.

Happy holidays, everyone! After tomorrow’s “Links” post, I’m signing off until after the New Year, when I’ll be back with all sorts of new things in store for 2020 and the next decade!

The Best Value Buys in Fountain Pens in 2019

When I evaluate items purchased or sent to me for review, I focus on a few key points. The first, and to me, the most important, is quality. If something is a poorly made piece of junk barely capable of putting ink on the page, I don’t care what it looks like, how little it costs, or how easily replaceable it is - I won’t recommend that anyone purchase the product. The second point is practicality. I use my pens, so in the context of reviewing I consider the pen’s functionality as a daily writer. Did I need to adjust the nib out of the box? Does the pen balance well in the hand? Does the cap post to my satisfaction? Is the pen so comfortable to use unposted that I don’t care? Is ink capacity an issue for longer writing sessions?  The third factor, which I’ll focus on today, is the pen’s overall value proposition. Though the concept of value is highly subjective, and much depends both on the traits and features that one considers important as well as one’s budget/price sensitivity, I’ll assume for purposes of this particular article that the majority of my readers are willing to spend anywhere from $20-$200 on a fountain pen, and share most of my personal preferences in terms of what they look for in a pen. With this in mind, I’ll discuss several pens that I think give you a lot of bang for your buck. 

Value Considerations In a Fountain Pen Purchase

So what do I look for? To me, whether or not a particular fountain pen represents a good or bad value proposition starts with the price point at retail. In today’s market, I consider the baseline price of a high-quality steel-nib fountain pen that will give you years of consistent service without much fuss to be around $135. If a pen I’m reviewing falls around this price point, has a good nib, is comfortable to use, and doesn’t feel inexpensively made or mass-produced, I generally consider that pen to be reasonably priced and a “fair” value. As you would expect, if a pen ticks all those boxes and falls below this $135 mark, it becomes a better “value proposition” (i.e., you get more for your money). Pens that exceed my baseline price point can still be good value propositions, but they need to offer something more that distinguishes them from run-of-the-mill offerings. 

With respect to those much less expensive pens that I consider great value propositions, I feel that I am getting something in terms of the writing experience that one would typically only find in a more expensive pen. For example, an injection-molded plastic TWSBI may not feel as well-made or appear as attractive as a pen from Franklin-Christoph, but it does offer a reliable, smooth piston mechanism with a large ink capacity for less than $70. For that reason, I think TWSBI generally offers excellent value. Similarly, pens by PenBBS and Moonman have exceptionally smooth nibs, and I understand that Moonman nibs are actually hand-tuned at the factory. This is something you don’t usually find on inexpensive pens that can be purchased for under $20.

On much more expensive pens (say $250-plus), I apply the “Lamy 2000 Test.” I can usually purchase a Lamy 2000 - probably my favorite fountain pen on the market - for $200 tops, and typically less. What is there about a more expensive pen that justifies spending the extra money? Is the pen made from an uncommon or special material, like celluloid or a manufacturer-exclusive acrylic? Is the pen a special or limited edition with a theme that holds particular meaning for me? Is the pen hand-turned by a small maker or a collaboration where a portion of the proceeds goes to a cause I care about? Do I love the aesthetics of the pen so much that I simply don’t care about having to shell out the extra money? 

My 2019 Value Recommendations

With these considerations in mind, what fountain pens do I think represent the “best value” in 2019? 

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Lamy 2000. It’s hard to beat the Lamy 2000 as a value proposition, especially when you can grab it for less than $150 on sale or by using a coupon code. I won’t go into what I like about this pen as a daily workhorse for the umpteenth time - you can read my “Workhorse Pens” profile here - but for the money you will get a reliable, lightweight piston filler with a 14k gold nib. The way prices are trending these days, a similarly equipped pen from another major brand like Pelikan would run you at least $300. (Purchase Here)

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Anything From Franklin Christoph. The main selling point about Franklin-Christoph pens are their nibs, with the unique resins and acrylics coming in a close second. The Franklin-Christoph Model 20 is one of my personal favorites, and it starts at $165 with a standard nib, but you have the option to add a hand-ground S.I.G. (Stub Italic Gradient) nib for $20, or a Mike Masuyama specialty grind for $25. (Prices are for steel nibs; gold nibs cost extra.) The ability to add a customized stub or italic nib to an already exceptional fountain pen, and still come out under $200, equals huge value in my book. (Purchase Here)

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Leonardo Momento Zero. One of my favorite new brands is Leonardo Officina Italiana, and I am a huge fan of their Momento Zero fountain pen. The base model is a hand-turned acrylic pen with a stainless steel nib - on paper, nothing special - but Leonardo offers unique materials that I think have the look and feel of vintage celluloid, with the pens starting at $169 retail and often ending up priced even lower. That represents outstanding value for such a high-quality handmade pen. My one very high-end purchase this year was one of the Momento Zero “Maestro” sets, which gave me very little hesitation since pens made from those specific Italian celluloids are retailing for much more than the Leonardo set when considered on a per-pen basis. (Purchase Here)

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TWSBI ECO. For those looking to break into the world of bottled ink without spending a lot of money, it’s hard to do better than the TWSBI ECO. Retailing at around $30 or less, you get a well-made pen with a good steel nib, large ink capacity, and a reliable piston. TWSBI also has started to release the ECO in a range of transparent colors, making it a fun and inexpensive series of pens to collect, if that’s your thing. Honestly, if I had to, I could make do with a TWSBI ECO as my sole daily driver. (Purchase Here)

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PenBBS 308. At the sub-$20 level, you have PenBBS, which I’ve found to be one of the more fun and reliable inexpensive brands. While I don’t have enough experience with their more sophisticated filling systems (vacuum, syringe, and piston fillers) to make a long-term judgment on their durability, the cartridge-converter PenBBS 308 can be found for less than $20, and comes in a range of unique, colorful materials that I’ve never seen at this price point. I also really enjoy the slightly upturned nib, which I’ve consistently found to be a smooth writer. (Purchase Here)

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Pilot Pens in General: The Pilot Custom 74, the Pilot Custom Heritage, and the Pilot Vanishing Point will all net you a pen with a gold nib for $200 or less. (The Custom Heritage runs around $220 but 10% discount codes are fairly easy to come by.) Though the Vanishing Point and its slightly smaller sibling, the Decimo, have their fans and detractors due to the placement of the clip, which can interfere with grip depending on how you hold the pen, the Custom 74 (cartridge-converter) and Custom Heritage (piston filler) are standard-shaped pens that most can use quite comfortably. In my opinion, they are also both highly underrated and don’t receive nearly the amount of attention they should. (Purchase Here)

This isn’t intended to be a sophisticated economic analysis of the fountain pen market, just a general discussion of what I consider when offering my opinion on whether specific pens represent “good value” or, on the other hand, are overpriced. Different people will have different considerations, but I thought it might be helpful to my readers to lift the veil a bit on what I consider in the course of my reviews. Feel free to reach out or comment if you have any further questions.

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