I have far too many interests, but one of those is in fountain pens. Just like anything else, they can be an addicting path to go down and can drain you of money surprisingly quickly.
I've been using them daily for about 10 years now, but have had periods of going in and out of heavy acquisition of pens and/or ink.
For the last 5 years or so, my main daily writer has been a Montblanc 146(late 80s production) filled for a while with Montblanc Midnight Blue pre-formula change(they got rid of the iron gall and made it a non-permanent ink in 2012ish) or Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black. I consider the 146 a nearly perfect pen-perfect size, weight, and balance, and I consider MB nibs almost universally excellent.
Needless to say, though, I'm a bit of a Montblanc nut and it's the single best represented brand I have. I have come to particularly enjoy Montblanc's large oblique nibs, and the past month or so my go-to pen at least for now(and usually with a dark blue ink made by the guy who developed the Penman inks for Parker and is intended to mimic Parker Penman Sapphire, something it accomplishes nearly dead-on) has been a Montblanc 149 OB.
More recently, I've also been bitten by the Parker bug. I mostly have vintage Parkers-primarily Vacumatics and Duofolds, but also some obligatory "51"s mixed in(I have an OB 51 in the mail to me). My kick lately has been capillary filling 61s, a somewhat polarizing pen that fascinates me, and I've had good luck buying "dead" ones on Ebay for next to nothing and managing to get them working again without much more than a glass of water and a lot of patience(I can spend 2-3 weeks soaking a bad one with water changes a couple of times a day, but eventually they all come to life). I do have one modern Parker, a Duofold Centennial "Big Red" that's a fantastic pen.
Does anyone else here collect and/or use these relics from another time? If you do, what are some favorites of yours, and of course I'm also obligated to ask about a favorite ink or favorite inks.
I've been using them daily for about 10 years now, but have had periods of going in and out of heavy acquisition of pens and/or ink.
For the last 5 years or so, my main daily writer has been a Montblanc 146(late 80s production) filled for a while with Montblanc Midnight Blue pre-formula change(they got rid of the iron gall and made it a non-permanent ink in 2012ish) or Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black. I consider the 146 a nearly perfect pen-perfect size, weight, and balance, and I consider MB nibs almost universally excellent.
Needless to say, though, I'm a bit of a Montblanc nut and it's the single best represented brand I have. I have come to particularly enjoy Montblanc's large oblique nibs, and the past month or so my go-to pen at least for now(and usually with a dark blue ink made by the guy who developed the Penman inks for Parker and is intended to mimic Parker Penman Sapphire, something it accomplishes nearly dead-on) has been a Montblanc 149 OB.
More recently, I've also been bitten by the Parker bug. I mostly have vintage Parkers-primarily Vacumatics and Duofolds, but also some obligatory "51"s mixed in(I have an OB 51 in the mail to me). My kick lately has been capillary filling 61s, a somewhat polarizing pen that fascinates me, and I've had good luck buying "dead" ones on Ebay for next to nothing and managing to get them working again without much more than a glass of water and a lot of patience(I can spend 2-3 weeks soaking a bad one with water changes a couple of times a day, but eventually they all come to life). I do have one modern Parker, a Duofold Centennial "Big Red" that's a fantastic pen.
Does anyone else here collect and/or use these relics from another time? If you do, what are some favorites of yours, and of course I'm also obligated to ask about a favorite ink or favorite inks.
