My grandmother bought me a shiny silver and gold scrivener when I went and spent a weekend in Florida. Since then I've learned a lot.

My first pen was a scrivener, chrome and gold. Got it at Office Depot. Now I have like 20 fountain pens, and will never ever go back to ballpoints.

Black Inks

Originally I used just the default Scrivener black ink cartridges, but they were not black enough. I moved to Waterman Black, which was like 10x worse, in terms of actual blackness. For my black inks, I want it to be as rich as possible.

I settled on Monteverde Midnight Black.

It works with both Medium and Fine nibs. I have yet to own an extra fine.

Color Inks

I have a few favorites here, I'll get to that in a bit.

Originally I just got the random ink sets and stuff from Goulet, but then I started getting specific ones I liked.

My favorite ink is actually from a different company, Birmingham Pen Co. Their Jade Inferno is just perfect. It's like a teal green-blue.

It's a nice little company out of Pennsylvania.

Other favorites of mine:

Blue: Ku Jaku, from Pilot

Red: Oxblood from Diamine. Deep red, like blood.

The Hound of the Baskervilles from Wearingeul, a company out of South Korea. Another deep dark red.

Paper

Normal 24lb copy paper works great for normal writing, but I prefer nicer papers now.

Clairfontaine shows the properties of the inks, especially ones like Jade Inferno or Blue Dragon, that have a lot of sheen.

And Tomoe River paper is much thinner, very light, and shows the properties just as well.

Ink properties

Sheen: (my favorite.)

Sheen is a quality that's shown by the direction of light. It's amplified by the paper you use. The slower the ink dries on the paper, the better the sheen shows. I like inks with a lighter, less intense sheen, like Jade Inferno. Another good one is Blue Dragon.

Shimmer:

Glitter. That's about it. Usually has a good flow rate to accommodate the glitter. One of my favorites is Emerald of Chivor by Jacques Herbin, or Hades by Wearingeul.

Wearingeul also sells glitter additives. These are very nice.

Shading: Not a personal favorite of mine. Basically the more ink on the page, the darker it goes. Boring. But some love it, so you do you.

Scent and water resistance/permanent ink also exist. Not very interesting though.

Pens themselves.

I own a ton.

Twsbi Diamond 580, Iris variant — the Eco is really good too. The 580 is my desk pen.

Kaweco Brass Sport — my pocket pen. Other variants are good too.

I know I may sound odd, but AliExpress and Chinese brands have some great stuff.

Great alternative to the Pilot Vanishing Point.

No comparable one I know of: Majohn B25.

Majohn is a great company, as is Jinhao.

I only really trust this one shop on AliExpress: 365Days Stationery Store.

In Conclusion

For me personally, fountain pens are such a good hobby. They write better than any other device I've ever used. They are FUN.

It's a huge rabbit hole, and it's a great hobby, especially if you are into handwriting — even if it isn't cursive.

Join the dark side.

NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY PRODUCTS SHOWN