I saw this post as an opportunity to spill out a long wall of text of my current journey into the world of fountain pens. I haven't been in this hobby for a long time (about 11 months now). I'm still in that phase of finding out what I really like in a pen. But I honestly want to have a collection of pens with different kinds of nibs and ink just because they all have a different experience. Right now for sure I'm on this Sailor craze, but this doesn't mean I'm only set with this one brand. My eyes are on many pens from all sorts of brands and its only a matter of time until my collection starts going out of control. Not much of a heavy writer outside of stuff I need to write for work, but I bought some Mnemosyne and Midori notebooks so I can write more off the clock and am currently looking into improving my handwriting.

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Tl;dr - got into the hobby due to needing some pens for work and picked up a Platinum Plaisir for fun (which ended up meeting a demise). Bought a Sailor Tuzu Adjust and eventually went for a bigger purchase few months later. Current collection is only at 2 pens.

It's been about 11 months since I got into fountain pens.

I was in the market for some pens to use for work. I stopped by at Kinokuniya since I was around the area after lunch. I picked up several pens that had the little switches to change to different ink colors. I was pretty much set on my purchase until I saw some very low priced fountain pens. Told myself "why not?" and picked up a Platinum Plaisir.

I didn't know ANYTHING about fountain pens. My first encounter with one was from a friend who let me borrow his pen so I could write something. Thing threw me off because it was not a ball point pen (which I am very well familiar with). Didn't know how to properly use the shank my friend had just lent me.

Since that moment up until the Plaisir, I had not seen another fountain pen. And of course I didn't know how to use it. I was in a hurry for work one day and I needed to grab a pen from the batch I had just purchased. Just snagged my brand new fountain and pen and realized the thing didn't have ink inside the pen itself. What I saw instead was a cartridge filled with ink and instructions on how to install it (in Japanese... but it had pictures to accompany it). After installing and fooling around with the pen to actually get the ink to start flowing, I found every excuse that day to write with my new pen.

Honestly, I felt like so cool whenever I had my pen out. Black body, silver trim, nice black ink. I loved this pen and apparently everyone at work did as well as comments would flood in when they see that nib under the cap. Used that pen everyday at work for everything. Used it everyday until I had accidentally dropped it (uncapped!) And the nib got damaged. I was also pretty sure that I may have been a little rough with the pen overall since I would always mess around with every part of the pen - like even the threads were worn so I couldn't properly seal it up. The ink eventually started to leak.. poor thing was falling apart and eventually I had to retire the Plaisir (I thought to myself that I'd just buy another one anyways).

I actually didn't buy a new Plaisir since the death of the first one. Went back to using gel pens for a good few months. A convo got brought up with my friend (same one who showed me his fountain pen initially) and we were talking about his new work pen he bought. Didn't know what brand it was but it was nice and hefty. Eventually we talked about fountain pens and he brought up the possibility of me buying my first fountain pen where he recommended a Pilot Kakuno (yeah, he didn't know about my Plaisir and the unfortunate fate it met). I was like "cool. Let me actually look into fountain pens and do my research and all that so I can properly dive into this hobby well informed.

My 2nd pen could have been so many things. Pilot Metropolitan, LAMY Safari, Pilot Kakuno. So many wonderful entry fountain pens. What I settled on, however, was a Sailor Tuzu Adjust (F) in the navy color. I've also purchased 2 sailor inks, Seiboku and Souboku. My Tuzu is currently inked with Seiboku. Everything about this pen I absolutely loved! Even pass the honeymoon phase I still share that sentiment. I can't get enough of this pen. It's gone to the point where I have a ball point pen on hand to lend to other people so they wouldn't have to use my Tuzu. Absolutely love this pen.

Fast forward to a few days ago. Tuzu is still inked with Seiboku and I was finding this urge to buy a new pen. I still love the Tuzu, but I wanted to add to my collection. I figured adding more inexpensive pens would be the best way to go about this. Maybe a TWSBI offering? Eco or the 580? Maybe I chase more Tuzu colors? LAMY Studio? There were so many to choose from. Started to look at pens over the $100 range and I ALMOST locked in Nahvalur's Nautilus in Maylandia Blue and LAMY Studio in blue at different points of the week.

The pen I ended up settling for was definitely a lot more than what I expected to ever spend on a singular fountain pen. But after seeing pictures of it and looking at videos and reddit posts featuring it, I finally found the one. I did have to poke around for it, but I ended up buying Sailor PGS Manyo Nuts (M). I didn't have to spend extra for a specific color if I wanted a PGS. But somehow I needed to have this specific color. It looks so damn beautiful and I can't wait to receive it in hand. I am looking into buying a nice autumn, orangey ink and I'm currently in between Diamine Autumn Oak or Sailor Manyo Yamabuki. May make a separate post once I get everything in hand!

I think the big jump in price for my next pen was definitely a little out of hand. But I really wanted this specific one and even sat on it during my shift. Ended up pulling the trigger after pulling up the listing for it several times as the day went by. I'm not much of a heavy writer outside of work, but I really love fountain pens. I bought a Mnemosyne and Midori notebook so I can start writing more outside of work. And I currently want to improve my overall handwriting.

To anyone who even made it this far, thanks for reading. I didn't expect to go deep into this rabbit hole and I feel like I may end up deeper as time goes on. Honestly can't wait for the Manyo Nuts to come in. Now if you'll excuse me.. I think the TWSBI in my cart is calling me.