For me it started because it was mandatory in first grade, so starting to use them was not my choice. Then I stuck with it because the ink choices were boundless, which wasn’t (ans still isn’t) feasible with other pens (even if I do re-ink Uniball Deluxe pens with fountain pen inks), that’s what kept me using them when I was a kid, and is also something I thoroughly enjoy still to this day.

Then there is the fact that nibs are much smoother, so less fatigue and more enjoyment in using them. Nibs also offer variety in size and shape that can’t be matched. Using them, I can write a lot faster, more legibly and for longer.

There is also the less technically relevant aspect of aesthetics. If we overlook the kaküno, preppy and the likes, there is no arguing that they are more satisfying to look at and hold in hand.

I have used them my whole writing life, and even if do occasionally use the odd BIC cristal, or some gel pens, fountain pens are, have been and always will be my main writing instruments. I have around 25-30 inks and 70+ pens, I use around a half liter of black ink per year (I have plenty of other colors, but they see less consistent use, so it’s much harder to track), so I can see I use them a LOT, and using disposable pens feels extremely wasteful.

On the rare occasion that I have to use a gel pen for the day, a full refill for a Uniball S207 or comparable pen barely lasts the day, and it can happen that one does not even last the whole day. I do write and sketch a lot for work sometimes, and while these are uncommon examples, they are significant enough that they are a factor in not relying on gel pens… except when I don’t have a choice (and I usually pack two spare refills).

Outside of fountain pens, no pen can write the same as a J. Herbin Emeraude de Chivor, that shading and shimmering is just not achievable otherwise. And yes, this is my favorite ink, even if there are plenty I do love. But the breadth of colors and effects achievable for daily writing is just completely out of reach of any other form of pen.

Granted, all that has a cost, not just upfront; but also in terms of finding paper that works with the inks one desires to use. Though, where I live, high quality paper is very affordable (3,50€ for a Rhodia 80 sheets in 90g/m² velum for instance), so I am lucky enough not to have to worry about that aspect.

Edit: typo

I just think they’re neat.

I feel like they are honestly easier to write nice with. With a ballpoint pen, I tend to scribble where as with a fountain pen my writing seems more legible. I also find them more comfortable for longer writing because I don’t have to press the pen on the paper. It’s more like its gliding across it.

I also like that they are refillable with pretty much any ink I want and that their refills come in glass bottles as opposed to metal or plastic cartridges that are just thrown away when empty. Of course there are plastic ink cartridges for fountain pens, I just don’t use them.

“I don’t recall any point in time where I had any interest in fountain pens.”

Proceeds to write blog post about their interest in fountain pens that started last fall.

For me, it forces me to slow down my writing and make the letters right. My scribbling with a fountain pen looks so much worse than scribbling with a ballpoint or pencil, and I already have difficulty reading what I write with ballpoint or pencil. Now that I’ve used fountain pens for a bit, I write slow enough with other writing implements to be readable.

Personally I like the way they fell, write and the fact that they are less wasteful.

I find them to be far more customizable, less throw away, and more expressive for what I’m trying to write. It combines to make your writing feel more like you. I also just like them because they’re built with longevity in mind without much concern for cost in most cases, with the exceptions being customizable to bring back to life if desired.

But also WHO fountain pens? 🤔

Because they’re fun.

There’s thousands of pens to pick. They can be as cheap or as expensive, as colorful or as understated, as stock or as custom, as gaudy or as classy as you like. There’s an infinite amount of ink shades you can try out. There are inks with sparkles. There are inks with metallic shades. There are basic round nibs and calligraphy nibs. There are gold nibs. They’re easy to fix and customize. Treat them well, and they can last a lifetime.

My daughter loves her transparent green sparkly pen with hot pink ink.

Writing in cursive is better for your brain. Cursive was designed around nib-based pens, like dip and fountain pens, and it’s easier to write in cursive wiþ a fountain pen þan any oþer kind of pen.

Additionally, it can be cheaper to own a fountain pen, as your only consumable is ink. It’s also better for þe environment þan ball pens, because þere’s almost no disposable waste, aside from a tiny amount of wasted ink if you clean your pen.

Fountain pens are more versatile - þe diversity of inks you can get, in a rainbow of colors, wiþ sheen or shimmer… and you can use þem all while owning only a single pen.

Writing with one is way better tactilely than a normal pen. It’s more meditative.

I needed a pen that I can write quickly woth in class without causing fatigue and fountain pens work so well for that.

As it turns out there are quite a few people that were or are known to use fountain pens:

• Mark Twain

IIRC, Mark Twain also lost a considerable amount of money investing in an early typewriter company.

searches

Apparently he was also a very early user of typewriters.

https://historyfacts.com/arts-culture/fact/mark-twain-first-typewriter-book/

I was the first person in the world that ever had a telephone in his house,” Mark Twain once claimed, adding that he was also “the first person in the world to apply the typemachine to literature.” The author born Samuel Clemens was indeed the first to publish a book written on a typewriter, though he may have misremembered which one it was — Twain recalled it being The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but it was more likely 1883’s Life on the Mississippi, according to typewriter historian Darryl Rehr. Twain didn’t type the book on a typewriter himself, however — he handwrote it and the manuscript was later typed.

The typewriter in question was a Remington 2, which the company later told the public about as part of a marketing campaign. In an advertisement published in Harper’s, Remington published a letter that Twain wrote, in which he made this observation about the emerging technology: “At the beginning of that interval a type-machine was a curiosity. The person who owned one was a curiosity, too. But now it is the other way about: the person who doesn’t own one is a curiosity.”

Because other people sleepwalk through their lives on easy mode, totally unskilled in anything. Creating nothing, inventing nothing, contributing nothing, learning nothing, understanding nothing. They expect to be catered to, waited on hand and foot by some corporate machine, and as soon as they experience any adversity they tap out.

That’s why I write with a fountain pen. That’s why I carry a balisong knife. That’s why I drive stick shift. That’s why I ride motorcycles. Because these things are harder than the alternative and require some modicum of dedication, and occasionally require you to think.

Plus they’re neat, and anachronistic. Or possibly neat because they’re anachronistic.

@Unattributed

I get ‘not found’ error on this link.

Here is another good ‘Why Fountain Pens?’

https://penfount.ink/top-10-benefits-of-using-fountain-pens/