fountain pen

by Tony Thomas  One of my favorite You Tube personalities is Amy Schmittauer ( @Schmittastic on Twitter). Her channel, "Savvy, Sexy, Social", offers plenty of valuable information on social media marketing.  I watch her channel regularly as she is a thought leader in the field. Back in April of last year, I wrote her a short note with one of my fountain pens for which she thanked me on Twitter. When I heard she was writing a book, I decided to send her another handwritten note and a Platinum Preppy fountain pen and refills.   From watching her videos, I learned that she likes to write everything down rather than just putting it into a computer.   That made her the perfect candidate for a little bit of "fountain pen evangelism".  To my surprise, she unpacked the pen and read my note on one of her You Tube videos leading up to the book launch.  You can watch it here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXXtsJsUwk Amy's book, "Vlog Like a Boss: How to Ki...

by Tony Thomas I know I am late to the party, but I finally bought a TWSBI Eco fountain pen, made in Taiwan. Due to its amazing popularity, the Eco has been a difficult pen for me to score. Every time I was ready to pull the trigger, it was on backorder. Now I see why. To their credit, TWSBI is company that puts a lot of thought into the design of their pens. They are always experimenting with new and innovative designs, building prototypes and getting feedback from the fountain pen community. You can always see what they are working on by checking out their Facebook page. A pen like the Eco is the result. "Eco" is short for "economical", and at less than $30, this pen is pretty amazing. Aside from some cheap fountain pens from India, this is the least expensive piston filler you can buy. The main advantages of piston filler pens are their large ink capacity and ease of use and cleaning. In the case of the Eco, it is easy to disassemble and clean using the ...

by Tony Thomas While I have reviewed the standard Platinum Preppy previously, I wanted to check out and review the extra-fine 2 mm version as well. To my knowledge, this is least expensive Japanese extra-fine pen that you can buy. As with the standard Platinum Preppy, this pen is easy to hold and very comfortable. Because it is molded from light plastic, it is certainly more fragile than more expensive fountain pens. It comes in black and blue-black and can be used with standard Platinum ink cartridges or a Platinum converter (that costs more than the pen.) I found the nib to be very smooth and a pleasure to write with. If can be found for as little as $4, and it really is a bargain for those who are like to write very small or very fine text.

by Tony Thomas It is hot outside and you know what that means: Your fountain pens will be more prone to drying out. What do you do with bone dry pens? Conventional wisdom says that you clean them out and refill them with fresh ink. But I have another, more frugal, solution. When two of my less expensive pens dried out suddenly, I just reached for a syringe and a bottle of distilled water and filled the cartridge or converter up with water. I then dipped the tip of the pens into some water and they wrote perfectly again. What you have to realize is that ink is nothing more than dye suspended in a water solution. When the water evaporates, the dye is still there in much more concentrated form. When you add water, it dilutes the dye and the pen will write again. Depending upon how much water you add and how much dye is left, it may be more or less saturated than the original color of the ink. But it will write and you will save a bit of money on ink. And, for me, that is a good ...

by Tony Thomas The Platinum Preppy is one of the wonders of the fountain pen world. You can find it for as little as $3 and it is refillable. An amazing price for a decent quality fountain pen!  You can get it in various colors and in fine and medium nib sizes.  A set of two refills can be found for less than $2 and you can refill them with bottled ink to save money.  You can also turn it into a an eyedropper pen with an o-ring and a bit of silicone grease.  The nib quality of this pen is excellent for the price and can even be made better with a bit of smoothing. It is a pen that you can carry with you and is cheap enough to give away to anyone who is interested in fountain pens.  It is a great little pen!