My First Fountain Pen Since Childhood
The past few weeks I'd been talking to a friend of mine about fountain pens. As an enthusiast himself, he was somewhat aghast that I didn't own a fountain pen, and hadn't even used one since I was very young.
So he set about correcting that omission, by helping me look for a used one on eBay. He'd recommended the Parker 51, seemingly recognised by many as one of the best fountain pens ever made, especially for the money. He found one in "battleship grey" for $50 USD, and very kindly polished and cleaned it for me.
Well, yesterday I was fortunate enough to receive a package from him, containing not only the pen itself, but a couple of letters, and a small painting he'd made for my long-suffering wife.
(It's amusing to me that neither photo captures the pen's grey colour successfully.)
It surprised me how light and comfortable the pen feels in the hand, and I appreciate how it looks used if you examine it up close; the remnants of a past life of writing, I like to imagine.
All that was missing was ink, therefore a trip was made into town to Tylee pen shop, with its huge array of inks. After a long time perusing their binder of writing samples, I ended up choosing a Japanese dark blue-purple ink called 国芳葡萄鼠 (くによしぶどうねず) by Taccia. It came in a lovely box with matching bottle; part of a special collection of inks.
Following my friend's instructions, I filled it with ink, and he was right that it is a lovely pen to write with. With this in my hand, I'm actually excited to write more letters and (🤫) Aerogrammes. Hopefully it will also help to improve my handwriting!
Will this be the start of a collection? Famous last words, but I don't think so. I do like to keep my possessions to a reasonable minimum, but let's see.