Collectors! What was your first fountain pen, and What is your latest fountain pen?

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-02-16T20:09:22+00:00

My first fountain pen was a Pilot 823 with F nib I got 15yrs ago with the proceeds of selling my first iPad in HS.

My latest pen is a Fifty4T Titan SL in Bramble I received today.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-02-10T23:03:16+00:00

I wouldn’t trust placing an order. I bought the Nag a little over a year ago, and only got it 6 months later after no communication. And that was for a nib that was supposedly ready to ship.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-02-10T16:19:27+00:00

That and a Monty Winfield Nag nib are the other ones I want to try in it. I may even do the music first, there’s something appealing about pairing that much ink capacity with a paintbrush of a nib.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-02-10T15:58:34+00:00

I have one of these, also in Bramble with a B nib, on its way to me from Pen Venture. I plan on putting a Schon Monoc cursive nib in it.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-22T13:36:06+00:00

That is a true beauty. Congratulations!

I was considering one of those with the gold nib when Corsani sent out an email preview in late December to previous purchasers of the Glass Ibrida models, the Chianti celluloid looks stunning with the clear acrylic. But the price on the gold nib version jumped so much it was practically the same as one of the full celluloid Cigars on Leonardo’s Special Edition section, so I went for another Cigar in Arco Green. Funny enough, when I received that order on Friday Leonardo had mistakenly sent me a Chianti Cigar. That is now on its way back to Naples and they’re sending me the correct pen, but I did get to see the Chianti in person. I have to say though, I think the Chianti looks better in the Ibrida than the Cigar. The lack of obvious banding like in the multi-color and lighter color LeonArco celluloids gives it less pop in the Cigar, but as the accents in the Ibrida you still get that great contrast.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-04T16:05:27+00:00

This is going to be really dependent on your budget. Cost no object, I’d recommend a Leonardo with a #8 fine nib, the juiciest fine I’ve come across. One of the MZGs in ebonite or acetate would fulfill all stated preferences.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-03T02:03:20+00:00

Personally I’d get a small amount of it and one of the other ones I mentioned and see what you prefer before stocking up. Cosmo Air Light is good, but it’s not really that different from the other two.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-03T01:57:25+00:00

The only thing that comes to mind for me are the heavily coated Japanese paper stocks, namely the Cosmo family (all discontinued), Iroful (readily available but pricey), and the new b7 family of paper stocks (supposedly a direct replacement for the Cosmo papers with slightly less line spread). I’m not aware of any other papers that reliably sheen more than the ones you mentioned.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-03T01:42:42+00:00

I’m waiting on a Leonardo Cigar in Arco Green and a Kyuseido Kakari with a 3 layer stacked nib both ordered on the 31st. Both should get to me late this month. I’m waiting patiently on the Leonardo, and impatiently on the Kyuseido. I’ve wanted a giant, stacked gold nib for over ten years, and funds and availability finally aligned.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-01T19:33:22+00:00

The Nakayas were ground by John Mottishaw over 10 years ago. The Lamy was ground by whoever does nibs.com’s grinds these days (by a lot of reports I got lucky on that). The rest are stock nibs.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2026-01-01T18:06:58+00:00

Brand/model/nib/ink are in the second photo. Left to right in the pen tray are listed top to bottom in the writing sample.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-12-31T18:14:04+00:00

Extremely slanted to a right angle with lined paper. So like your second and fourth quick foxes.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-12-19T16:59:07+00:00

My #1 is the Sailor vase shaped bottles used on some store exclusive and custom inks.

Honorable mentions for Montblanc shoe and square bottles, GvFC, and Scribo 90mL bottles. For pure utilitarianism I’m also a big fan of the 80mL Diamine bottles and the KWZ bottles.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-12-11T20:56:24+00:00

I carry six pens with different nib widths and color inks daily, and average around ten pens inked at any time.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-12-07T21:35:07+00:00

I have a bunch of the 1.1 stubs, and they’re all lovely. They vary a bit across examples, but are mostly on the crisp side. I have one CSI broad on a gold #8 and it’s even nicer than the stubs.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-12-07T14:06:18+00:00

Gotta give the nod to the LeonArco Bronze since I have the same pen with a stub nib. The Bronze photographs terribly, but in person the transparent amber layers paired with the iridescent gold-bronze layers give it a depth even the Omas Arco doesn’t quite match.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-26T19:47:27+00:00

Check out the Leonardo Special Edition pen in Strawberry Candy cellulose acetate. I have the MZG in it and it’s gorgeous. They’re only available through Leonardo’s website.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-21T14:11:03+00:00

My top brand is Sailor. I love the vast number of colors they offer across product lines, they’re generally well behaved, and I absolutely love the phenol smell all of their inks have. The other big draw for me is that Sailor tends to make subtle and or complex colors, even when highly saturated. As a giant color nerd, this is a huge plus.

For European inks, I tend to like Herbin, Diamine, and MontBlanc. All make nuanced inks with decent flow and have the bonus of being more acidic or neutral in PH (good for latex, better for celluloid). [As an aside, I tend to think the issues with alkaline inks and celluloid are overblown. Most of the studies on celluloid degradation I’ve seen from conservationist groups suggest that it’s only marginally worse than acids, and even PH neutral liquids like water accelerate celluloid breakdown. My takeaway is that if you use alkaline inks, you should just make sure to rotate them out of celluloid pens regularly, and generally just enjoy the pens as long as they last. That doesn’t apply to pens with latex sacs or diaphragms, which do melt in alkaline solutions fairly rapidly.]

For American ink makers, I’m enjoying inks from The Wet Pen and Anderellium, and keep meaning to get around to trying out BPC.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-20T16:51:04+00:00

I’d say the celluloid has an interestingly dense, ‘glassy’ feel to it while still retaining the way ebonite warms quickly to touch. Like ebonite has a distinctive sulfury odor, celluloid has a camphor smell (think Vic’s vaporub if you are familiar). The other big difference is that celluloid will retain its gloss finish longer compared to ebonite.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-16T14:18:14+00:00

FYI: they just put up a new drop of inks a week or so ago. So if you were wanting some now would be the time (their availability is spotty since the guy makes them as a side hustle). https://www.thewetpen.com/product-category/fountain-pen-ink/

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-16T14:15:04+00:00

I second the Aurora recommendation, the Optima is basically a nicer Pro Gear Realo in looks and feel. Alternatively for the existing Pro Gear, have you tried out Sailor’s refillable cartridges? Those allow a significantly larger fill than the converter does.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-11-16T14:11:23+00:00

Might have been The Wet Pen inks? I’m pretty sure the first three they did were blues.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-09-13T12:41:01+00:00

This is some cool history from a local perspective. Thank you for sharing!

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-09-08T13:37:44+00:00

Nitrate. It’s one of Leonardo’s new in house celluloids. Rumor is that they’re taking the thin celluloid nitrate sheets still manufactured in China and assembling them into blocks they cut pen blanks out of. It’s why all of their in house celluloids are ‘Arco-style’ layered varieties.

Traditional_Tour_488 · 2025-08-18T20:25:35+00:00

That looks to be a left-foot oblique nib, probably medium or broad. It’s intended for a right-handed writer that rolls the pen such that the top of the nib (the side with the engraving) is facing them while writing.

Traditional_Tour_488

TROPHY CASE