Skip to content

Category: Fountain Pens

The Pen Consumer Tag

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

OK, admittedly, these tag posts are hit-or-miss in terms of metrics, but I have a great time doing them. And, they help me reflect on my involvement in the pen hobby. So expect some more in the future.

This post is based on the “Beauty Consumer Tag” video from Theresa is Dead. According to her video the Beauty Consumer Tag idea originated from Nineties LoveChild.

This time, the idea is to evaluate what kind of consumer you are. And, to some degree, what type of consumer community you’re part of.

New Releases Round Up: October 2021

Posted in Fountain Pens

I’m trying something new. I really enjoy new makeup releases posts and videos, so I’m doing the same thing for pens. I plan to try this for the rest of the year. Depending on how I like the posts, and their reception, I may keep going after that.


There are, of course, way too many releases per month to realistically share. So this is not a round up of every release. Instead, this will be a round up of new releases that really caught my eye, or that I have strong feelings about. Click on a brand name to jump down to that section.

Colorverse | Esterbrook | Gioia | Montblanc | Namiki | Pelikan | Pilot | Platinum | Visconti

The Boujee Pen Tag

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

Like my previous tags posts, I’m adapting this from a YouTube video. This one comes from a Theresa is Dead video, in which she credits agapelovegirl as the originator of the idea. The general idea is that, based on your answers, you decide if you’re boujee.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Urban Dictionary defines boujee as “An abbreviation of the French “bourgeois.” A critical term used to describe people, things, and places that are definitively high-class.”

1. Would you rather buy one expensive/luxury item, or several items with the same amount of money?

It depends. Sometimes the more expensive pen is worth it, but sometimes the less expensive pens are. For example, I would take a Pilot/Namiki Yukari Urushi pen over 21 TWSBI 580 series pens. But I would take 4 Pilot Custom 74s over a Pineider $700(ish) pen.

2. When it comes to pens, do you believe you “get what you pay for?”

Again, it depends. Sometimes, yes. But Goulet Pens has a YouTube video about diminishing returns. Sometimes you pay more for the art of the design. But sometimes a pen is just, plain overpriced. And, other times, a pen performs far outside its price range. I’m looking at you TWSBI 580s and Pilot Custom 74.

3. What’s the most expensive pen you’ve bought with your own money?

ARTUS Four Elements Fire

Posted in Fountain Pens

Ah, another ARTUS pen. As I said in my 200th Pen post, I wanted my next pen purchase to be something special, and this certainly qualifies. Like its “brother pen,” it’s a magnificent work of art. The layers of paint give the flames a three-dimensional quality that tricks my eyes. Every time I look at it I find something new to look at. Note: You can view the images a little larger — much larger if you’re on mobile — by clicking on them.

ARTUS Four Elements Fire

Enjoy all of the delicious pen porn contained within this post. I take no responsibility for purchases resulting from them.

Delights from my Dislikes

Posted in Fountain Pens

As promised, I’m back with delights from my disliked pen brands. Once again, this is based on a video from Angelica Nyqvist.

Disclaimer: I’m calling this “dislike[d]” brands, but that’s really for the alliteration. I don’t necessarily dislike the brands, it’s more that their pens don’t tend to work for me.

Montegrappa

I’ve had hard starting issues with most of my Montegrappa pens. It’s the reason why I’ve sold the ones that I have. But, my Extra 1930 Shiny Lines/Dove is a true delight. The nib is wet. The material is stunning. The nib and cap band are beautiful. The only thing I would change is the ink capacity, as I keep writing it dry.

Montegrappa Shiny Lines/Dove

Fails from my Favorites

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

I’m not sure where it originated, but the other day I watched a video from Angelica Nyqvist about fails from her favorite makeup brands. Seeing as I had so much fun with adapting the makeup tag to pens, I figured I could do the same thing with this. So, without further ado, here are some fails (for me) from some of my favorite pen brands.

Disclaimer: I’m calling this “fails,” but that refers to failing to satisfy my pen wants & needs. These aren’t bad pens, I just don’t like them. Also, the alliteration is fun.

My 200th Pen

Posted in Fountain Pens

5 years, 8 months, and 19 days after buying my first fountain pen, I purchased pen number 199. Granted, I haven’t kept all of those pens. Between selling, gift, breakage, and loss, I currently own 121 pens, of which 110 are in regular use.

But, the main point is that my next purchase will be pen 200!! That’s huge, and deserves an appropriately special pen.

Because I wasn’t carefully cataloging my pens yet, I blew right past pens 50 and 100 — although, by sheer dumb luck, #50 was my first 18111 pen. And I didn’t think to save 150 for a special pen, so 200 has to be awesome.

18111 Ivy Pen
Pen number 50. She’s certainly gorgeous.

Dark Radiance

Posted in Fountain Pens

Before I get started, let me say I take no responsibility from pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from this post. Pen porn abounds. You have been warned. Now, enjoy!


I fell in love with my Tamenuri Studio pen when Michal posted his close up images (see image 2).

I sent him a message ASAP, and, luckily it was still available. Michal was kind enough to send me some photos of the whole pen. It lost nothing in the further distanced photos. He posted them a little later, so you can see them, too.

Capsule Pen Collection

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

Ink Journal’s September 10th Flex Nib Friday issue included a link to ukfountainpens.com‘s article The Three Pen Collection for £1,000. The idea was based on a series of posts on the watch blog Worn & Wound called the three watch collection for $5,000. UK Fountain Pens adapted the idea to pens, dropped the budget to $1,000 because “watches are much more expensive than pens” — *chortle* some watches are much more expensive than some pens — and limited picks to pens you can go out and buy today.

It’s an easy enough premise. My problem, however, is that the pens I’d choose don’t work out well with the budget provided. So, I gave it some thought and decided to curate two collections, one with the adjusted $1,000 budget and one with the original $5,000 budget. As a note, I did not include taxes when figuring out my choices.

The Fountain Pens Tag

Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens

The other day, I watched a video on Theresa is Dead’s YouTube channel covering The Eyeshadow Palette Tag. It was an old video, from a year ago, and based on an idea from Allie Glines and Samantha March. However, it occurred to me that I could have fun with it — with some modifications — for fountain pens.

Some of these questions were hard for me to answer, but, let’s give it a try.

1. What is your newest fountain pen?

At the time of writing (9/5/21) my newest pen is the Retro 51 Wings of the Monarch fountain pen.

Retro 51 Wings of the Monarch

I decided not to get the rollerball version last year, and regretted it. So, when a fountain pen version was released a few days ago, I jumped on it. No regrets here. It’s stunning, and I already did a Makeup Monday look with it.

Jowo Update #3

Posted in Fountain Pens

Well, here’s hoping this is the last Jowo update. I’m honestly getting a little tired of Jowogate — my blog is meant to be a fun space — so I don’t know if I’ll write additional posts even if there is more information in the future. Time will tell.

Anyway, Jowo finally released a statement. I’ve included it below in case you don’t want to check their Instagram. In an interesting… coincidence (?), their website is down reading only “Diese Seite wird derzeit aktualisiert. Bitte haben Sie noch etwas Geduld,” and their contact information. Which, according to Google Translate means, “This page is currently being updated. Please have a little patience.”

Jowo Update #2

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again we interrupt our scheduled programming on the 2021 DC Pen Show for a special bulletin on Jowo issues.

After my last update, I received comments and messages about the too-tight housings. So many, in fact, that I decided to measure my nib housings. Clearly, I’m not the only one who’s experienced the super-tight housings.

So, being the data nut that I am, I carefully measured some of my housings. The results were inconclusive at best. Let me start with disclaimers.

  1. I can’t give manufacturing dates for my housings. The best I can do is say a housing was manufactured before I received it.
  2. I don’t recall precisely which nibs were in cracked housings when I did my big cleanout a few weeks ago. With the obvious exception of the two cracked housings listed, I don’t THINK any of the ones I measured were. But I’m not 100% sure.
  3. I did my best to measure everything in the exact same location. But, I’m human, and humans are neither perfect nor precise. So consider that when looking at the results.

Jowo Update

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again we interrupt our scheduled programming on the 2021 DC Pen Show for this special bulletin on Jowo issues.

Things have moved quickly since I decided to write about the Jowo nib housing issue. Because of that, I have two updates for you today.

Official Statement

I can’t call this Jowo’s response. This is Meisternibs’ response. It’s a good response. Brian acknowledges that the issue is more severe than they thought and provides a temporary, easy fix.

The following was copied and pasted from Meisternibs.com on 8/17/2021 at 4:20pm to preserve the message for future readers.

Housing Issues

On behalf of Meisternibs, I would like to recognize the issues that have been occurring with nib housings.

We truly appreciate all of the feedback from penmakers and consumers so that we can make the best decisions and offer the best products. We have been aware of and have considered all of these issues since they were initially reported.

In the beginning, this issue seemed to be isolated to a very small percentage of our nib housings. However, after receiving reports over the last 7 days (not only from penmakers but also from consumers) we now understand that this issue is larger than we had originally thought.

We believe that this issue is related to a few faulty batches during the injection molding process of nib housings. We also believe that the issue has already been addressed and fixed months ago and that no faulty housings are currently being shipped to our penmakers or consumers.

However, please understand that a faulty nib housing from our facility would have come from the overseas factory, then to us as a distributor, then to a penmaker, and then to the consumer. This period between manufacture and consumption means that faulty nib housings from months ago could still be out there.

Considering this, we have made sure that we have replacement housings available to all of our penmakers and consumers as needed. These housings are from the latest moldings that we have tested thoroughly. Anyone who possesses a faulty housing is welcome to request replacements at no charge from Meisternibs.

If this is the case, please email brian@meisternibs.com. Please include a photo of the problematic housing and a shipping address. If you can provide a photo, we will send you a replacement and we will cover the housing cost and shipping cost. If you cannot provide a photo, we will only ask you to cover shipping costs. Photos are preferred so that we can have as much information as possible regarding this issue.

The above verbiage outlines the most accurate information that we have as of today (8/16/21). As more updates are available, we will post them here.

Rest assured that we are working very hard on this issue to ensure quality control.  If anyone has questions, I am always available at the email listed above, or you can use our contact form.

Lastly, I would like to address the "radio silence" that I fully understand has been frustrating. The truth of this matter is that I have never had a means for mass communications besides this website and emails. When Meisternibs began more than 12 years ago, social media wasn't exactly what it is today. Meisternibs caters primarily to penmakers. So when Meisternibs was formed, penmakers became quickly aware of us despite the lack of social media outlets. So even when social media became as large as it is today, we truly did not need it for visibility. Bottom line...I am (and always have been) available for all communications via email or the phone. As these issues have occurred, I believe that every penmaker will attest to fast responses and attention to their needs. I will kindly ask consumers to not confuse a lack of activity on social media with a position of indifference. I have always been available with fast responses via email to all customers, be it penmaker or consumer.

Thank you

Brian at Meisternibs

But it’s not the response I was looking for.

Ever-Growing Jowo Problem

Posted in Fountain Pens

We interrupt our scheduled programming on the 2021 DC Pen Show for this special bulletin on Jowo issues.

My next post will be back to DC Pen Show fun, but I felt that Friday the 13th was the perfect day to post this.

The Issue

Over the past year (ish) the number of posts I’ve seen about cracked Jowo housings has steadily increased. What started as an occasional post has turned into multiple posts per week, from makers and buyers alike. This clearly isn’t a small, single batch issue, it’s a manufacturing problem.

I recently went through my own Jowo nibs and found around 10 cracked housings. I don’t remember the exact number, nor did I keep them for later documentation (lack of foresight on my part). However, in checking my nibs again last night, I found two more cracked housings.

Deciding Which Pens to Sell

Posted in Fountain Pens

This seemed like an apropos time to share this post, with the DC Pen Show going on and other pen shows (hopefully) to come later this year. Lots of us sell pens to give us bigger pen show budgets. That’s probably why I’ve seen some posts recently wondering how to decide which pens to sell. If you’ve never sold a pen, the first one can certainly seem like a wrench. And the occasional posts about seller’s regret wouldn’t help that feeling.

I give my sales significant thought, specifically to avoid that horrible feeling. On the hope that it might help someone, I’m sharing how pens end up on my “for sale” list. I love being able to sell a pen to pay for a new one. I want to make sure that I’m very clear that this post is about how to choose what to sell once you’ve decided that you want to sell pens. It’s not about telling anyone that they should sell pens.

Using All My Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens

I’ve had several people ask me how I use all my pens. I went through a few methods before I settled on the current one. It seems to be working pretty well. I’ve gone through 4, maybe 5, rotations with it so far, and I don’t see myself changing it any time soon.

The base of my strategy is separating my pens into categories. It doesn’t really matter what the categories are, you just don’t want more categories than the number of pens you’ll have in use. I keep 5 pens inked — not including my always inked pens — and split my pens into “Less Expensive” (under $250), “More Expensive” (Over $250), and “Indie Pens” categories.

My Current Pen Wish List

Posted in Fountain Pens

For a very short while earlier this year, I had a very minor pen wish list. But, I’m acquisitive by nature — I try to temper it, but the crow-brain is strong with this one — so, lo and behold, I have a significant wish list again. It’s not as long as it could be — or has been in the past — so at least there’s that.

I’m going to share my current wish list, and maybe revisit it a couple of times a year to see what I buy and what I ultimately decide against. Maybe you’ll find some pens to add to your wish list. Muahahaha — erm, *cough cough*. Sorry about that.

Note: I’ve listed these in alphabetical order by company name.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that I can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to this website and helping me to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

This information is provided in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).