I've used the same fountain pen and Fisher Space Pen for years: I used to constantly lose disposable pens, costing me scads of money every year. The two refillable pens I own now cost enough that I'm always a little paranoid about their whereabouts, so I've yet to lose them. Filling the fountain pen costs pennies. To snag a refill for my Space Pen up in Canada, I can expect to spend around eight bucks, plus shipping. That's 12 different kinds of BS.

Earlier today, I ran across this video. After watching it, I picked up the Zebra refills at Office Depot. It worked!

With my ink budget sorted out, I can spend more money on fancy paper. Read the rest

For $9 this is a really nice pen.

I'm surprised at how nice this EastVita fountain pen is! I expected very little. The seems well made, hasn't leaked, and puts ink on the page when so applied!

Yes, the wood is real.

EastVita 8812 Fountain Pen Rose Wood Barrel Vintage Style via Amazon Read the rest

Swiss "writing instrument" manufacturer Caran d'Ache and watchmaker MB&F collaborated to create the Astrograph fountain pen, an otherworldly pen with the astronomical price of $20,000. There will only be 99 of them produced and each includes a small, magnetic astronaut. Do not chew the cap.

This writing instrument is fitted with an ink pump, but may also be used with cartridges. The pen nib is made from rhodium-plated 18-carat gold, available in size M...

The rocket-shaped pen body is rhodium-plated and either highly polished or sandblasted matt, or plated in ruthenium anthracite. The chequered pattern is made from anthracite lacquer...

The base of the "engine" is plated with ruthenium. The stabiliser legs, the joints and miniature ladder are polished, sandblasted, satin-finished and rhodium-plated.

The Astrograph (via Uncrate)

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Expensive fountain pens are lovely, but I want to cry when I lose them. This $15 Metropolitan by Pilot does a nice job of bridging that gap.

The weight of its brass barrel gives the Metropolitan a feeling of gravitas. I am using the, impressively for a $15 pen, included converter to fill the pen with Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and the pen flows smoothly. The fine stainless steel nib a pleasure. Overall construction is exactly what I expect from a Pilot pen, it is quite pretty. You may also fill it with a standard Pilot cartridge.

As a first fountain pen, or just one you won't terribly mind losing, I highly recommend the Pilot Metropolitan.

Pilot Metropolitan Collection Fountain Pen via Amazon Read the rest

For taking notes, sketches and generally just having paper with me that works well with my fountain pens, I've been using Fabriano's EcoQua notebooks.

The dot-ruled, staple bound sheets of 85gsm off-white paper work fantastically with my my favorite pens and inks. There is nearly zero bleed through or feathering, and ink dries fast. My favorite Noodler's bulletproof black and red-black are both bold and bright, though the red-black becomes distinctively more red.

I really the dot-ruled paper. It is a more subtle version of quad-ruled graphing paper, but helps me sketch and draw out ideas.

There is a lot of marketing hullabaloo over the environmentally friendly nature of these notebooks. I find this ironic, as we start with killing a tree, but appreciate it regardless.

Ecoqua Dot Notebook 5.8X8.25 Navy via Amazon Read the rest

Fountain pens have always been my favorite. This Huashilai reminds me an awful lot of my Parker Duofold, and writes just as nice! Read the rest