Are you one of the lucky few with money to burn this holiday season? I’m not… but if you are, and if you’re looking for a gift for someone who spends their days writing (say, a student, a lawyer, etc.), may we suggest fountain pens? Not only do fountain pens still exist, but they’re also significantly more fun to write with than your everyday, disposable ballpoints: an elegant weapon, of a more civilized age.
But if you’re going to buy a fountain pen, it’s important to know what not to buy. While heavy-hitter brands like MontBlanc are probably the most visible & recognizable fountain pens around, they’re also some of the worst, and the most expensive. Most MontBlancs are shockingly fragile, made of an easily scratchable, lightweight resin (to get around these deficiencies, MontBlanc advertises its resin as “luxurious” – gag), and waaaaay overpriced. In short, buy a fountain pen, but avoid MontBlanc.
There are a few exceptions. The MontBlanc Boheme fountain pen – shown below – is one of them. It’s made of the same disappointing resin, but there’s less of it, and the pen’s compact size and novelty make up for it. You see, the Boheme is one of the few retractable fountain pens that actually manages to pull of the whole retraction gimmick without compromising the pen’s lifetime or usability.
Although the gemmed clip is ridiculously pretentious – and likely fake – the gem isn’t an indispensable part of the model. If you want to get one of these pens, just go to your local pen store (avoid the MontBlanc stores: they’re pretentious and marked-up), and ask for the black/platinum/no-gem model (ditching the gem also shaves $50 off the price). It writes fantastically, cuts a simple profile (sans gem), and, in the 5+ years I’ve had mine, it’s proven quite durable even for daily use. Fountain pens are, after all, meant to be used and loved: if you bend the nib, that’s what pliers and fine motor skills are for!
Retracted; cartridge out.
If you’re not convinced by the Boheme, but want to stay within the MontBlanc brand, there’s always the rubberized Starwalker: it’s similarly durable and writes well, though it’s not as clever as the retractable Boheme. But outside of these two pens, and the ridiculously expensive but always quality limited editions, stay away from MontBlanc if you’re in the fountain pen market. There’s better out there for less: but that’s for another edition.
Next time: the Rotring 600s, and why eBay isn’t useless.
Well, that was certainly the most esoteric post I’ve seen by you, Ames.
Posted by Radioactive afikomen | December 14, 2008, 8:13 pmI aims to please!!!
Posted by Ames | December 14, 2008, 8:20 pmA large number of people (myself included) in physics and math tend to swear by Pilot precise pens–cheap and wonderful to write with. I don’t know how much more benefit we’d get with a fountain pen, but I think we could come up with a whole system of gifts by field of study.
Physics/Mathematics: A copy of Mathematica, puzzles
Biology/Chemistry: Things for home brewing
Engineering: Tools (there are never enough tools)
Music: Equipment (God how we live for equipment) or some Urtext
etc. etc.
Posted by Anzezzle | December 14, 2008, 10:51 pmI really like writing with fountain pens or with the more expensive ballpoint pens, but they’re really unsuited for doing math. They bleed through paper so that you can’t use both sides and it’s really hard for me to pack a bunch of tiny symbols on a line with them.
I’ll second Pilots as wonderful pens.
Posted by Gotchaye | December 14, 2008, 11:17 pmI’ll third the Pilots as wonderful pens thing. I actually have one in front of me (on my open Quantum Field Theory notebook), another in a geometry notebook, and a few more lost in my apartment…
Though in response to Gotchaye, I’ve got a rather nice ballpoint pen, which doesn’t bleed through the paper in the notebooks I use in any appreciable way (was the first thing I checked when I got it as a gift).
Posted by Charles Siegel | December 14, 2008, 11:47 pmYou’re all right about fountain pens being inadequate to the task of math/science – there was a whole year where I was a physics major, and I had to put aside the fountain pen, and take up the
swordpencil. Luckily, there are a few awesome pencils…Faber Castell eMotion, Rotring 600 series mechanical.
Also try Parker gel refills in rollerballs, or a MontBlanc fineliner refill in the same :).
I know too much about pens… and, as it turned out, not enough about physics!
Posted by Ames | December 15, 2008, 12:51 amOMG! And I got a fountain pen ad in the adbox below on account of this post! Win!
Posted by Ames | December 15, 2008, 1:47 amAnzezzle, you can clearly get more use out of an ordinary Mont Blanc fountain pen because of its acid-squirting and electronic bugging capabilities. You just have to be sure to get the James Bond Q-Branch model.
Posted by Steve | December 15, 2008, 6:47 amThat is true that the normal Pilot pen lacks said features, but that simply requires you to implant the bug or acid cartridge yourself.
Besides, there’s the advantage of ease of transmission–if you have to plant your bug on someone, you can’t just hand them a fancy $500 pen and then “conveniently” forget about it! It would raise alarm. But to write something down for your friend and leave the Pilot there? It’ll go right into their pocket (and probably in the wash a few weeks later, but these things happen).
Ames, you were a physics major? I had no idea! What caused the switch? 111/112?
Posted by Anzezzle | December 15, 2008, 12:45 pm(Please bear in mind my comments are not meant to discourage anyone here from sending me gifts of said $500 pens. I’d still happily take one…)
Posted by Anzezzle | December 15, 2008, 12:48 pm