#I always chime in on Peter Morwood fountain pen posts

[laughingcatwrites]

I second @petermorwood's cheap fountain pen recommendation for the Jinhao shark. The only (ONLY) downside to the shark is if you need to keep it in a standard pen case, it may be too long. I've gotten them on sale before for as cheap as $2 USD per pen, and you can't even get a gel pen that cheap these days.

I've found that Jinhao pens tend to be excellent workhorses of fountain pens that are cheap enough that nobody will cry if they lose one. The majority of mine I haven’t even had to clean before using, but basic SOP is when you first purchase any fountain pen and disassemble it to attach the cartridge or converter, you take the nib and feed section (the pointy bit that writes through the bit you grip when writing and the threaded area you just unscrewed), bring it to the sink, hold it with the nib facing down and run some water through it to clear out any residual dirt or oil from the assembly process.

Jinhaos come in all widths and weights, go from fun (like the shark) to fancy (they've got some beautiful porcelain ones) to executive-appropriate to shapes that would belong on a dungeon master’s/game master’s table, and almost all of them are postable, which means that you can stick the cap on the back end so you don't lose it when you're writing. (This is important fountain pen terminology. I didn't know this term during my first fountain pen show and let's just say that things Did Not Go Well with a few sellers because of it.)

One important thing I think people need to know before buying a fountain pen, though is that writing with line weight variations (thick downstroke, thin upstroke) will not happen unless you have a gold nib, and those are firmly in expensive fountain pen territory. For right-handed people, you can get a similar, though not quite as extreme, look using flex nib, or converting artist G nibs over to work with fountain pens, but for my fellow lefties out there, I have tried and am sad to report that I have yet to find a single one that works. If we want line variation on the cheap, we're still stuck with felt calligraphy pens or offset dip nibs.

A steel nib, like the ones on most fountain pens under $400 USD (although I haven't looked at any fountain pen websites recently and the base price for gold nib pens may have changed), will give you a nice, even line when writing, similar to a ballpoint or gel pen. The joy of a fountain pen is, like @petermorwood said, the lack of pressure you use to write. You have no idea how much force you use until the first time you hold a fountain pen and accidentally stab it through a page. Because you use so much less force, writing becomes easier, and you can write for much longer without getting any cramps or feeling your arm get tired. This is especially important for lefties.

Hey there Neil. So sorry to bother you, but I need to genuinely ask, how do you handwrite and are able to read it after yourself? I have this trashy notebook where I write when I can't do it on my laptop, but my thoughts are faster than my hand and the writing always turns out absolutely horrid and most of the time I'm just unable to read it after myself. Thank you, have a lovely day.

Fountain pens. Ballpoints and pencils leave me unable to read what I wrote. Fountain pens I can read my writing.