On Fountain Pen

First, I want to say that I do not take a good care of my pen. In fact, I would say that I abuse them. My approach is that tools are meant to be used, not to be kept, so I get the most out of my tools. This includes my laptop (many of my friends take really good care of their apple laptop – from dust, dent, etc.), my notebook, and my pens. I use them. I beat them.

I do not have a pen sleeves. I do not have an EDC bag that a lot of people in this hobby have. My EDC setup is that I have one fountain pen in my shirt pocket, and a Midori MD-Lite B6 Slim notebook in my jean pocket. I do not use any kind of cover for the notebook, either. I may write about my EDC setup later — if I am in the mood.

That pen in my shirt pocket is, most of the time, the only pen I carry. Well, I sometimes carry a ballpoint if I know I would need them, but most of the time it is just that one fountain pen. it is with me, and it needs to stand the abuse it gets.

I have tried many pens. The funny thing is, I find that most pen cannot withstand these abuse. All Chinese pens I have bought leak into the cap frequently, so I am no longer buying any Jinhao or Wing Sung. But it is not just the Chinese pen. Pilot and Sailor regularly fail me too.

In the end, I just find that LAMY and Platinum are the brand I mostly used. Living in Japan, I have not used the pen from European maker a lot, so I cannot comment on other brand. I have TWSBI, but its body seems very prone to breaking.

I do have some Pilot Kakuno and love them, and find them not that bad, but it still occasionally leak if I was being too careless. On the other land, LAMY never fail me once, and I take it literally everywhere.