Terrific idea for a thread, and thanks for sharing your collection. Agree re the dark claret red Japanese pen - that is is a very attractive pen.
Well, as I have been writing with fountain pens since I was a teenager and rarely write with anything else, I have quite a few fountain pens. And they are used.
Unfortunately, as my camera still runs on film, and my phone is an antique Nokia, the world of digital photography is entirely beyond me.
Might I ask that if individuals do post pictures that they actually describe what has been shown, and perhaps add something along the lines of when and where they bought it, or got it?
As a teenager - and later - I must say that I never liked Parker pens, I thought them too large and heavy and uncomfortable and unbalanced in my hand. Thus, I never really cared much for them.
My preference at school for quite a few years were the small Papermate fountain pens; at school, I also was given a few that my father had, he had a few nice Cross pens, but he mostly used Shaeffer fountain pens, and I these are what I used at university, inheriting (or begging from him) the ones that either he didn't wish to use any longer, or that I really liked, or that he handed over to me as he wished to buy a new one for himself.
Later still, when working as a teacher - and travelling - I picked up a beautiful Waterman, in Heathrow airport, which looked gorgeous - even my former Professors admired it - but wasn't terribly comfortable to write with for any length of time.
Over a decade ago, I bought a Caran d'Ache stainless steel fountain pen and found it extremely good, sturdy, and reliable, but yet heavy.
For the past few years I have been writing with Mont Blancs.
Initially, had I disdained them, thinking the brand a triumph of hype and style over substance. I disliked some of their massive pens - thinking them a monument to macho, plutocratic self-indulgence.
Ironically, it was a rather battered Mont Blanc roller ball pen that I inherited that changed my mind - the thing wrote so beautifully, and was ergonomically so well designed, it fitted my hand and wrote without the slightest strain that I found myself compelled to take a look at the brand as I love fountain pens.
Since then - the best part of five years ago - I have been writing with Mont Blancs.
My personal preference is the Mont Blanc 144, a black, classic Meisterstuck. This is a superb pen. It is light, and perfect for someone with small hands. I used it - and use it - daily for note-taking, and preparing briefings - in fact, I used it so much on one foreign posting that the black resin casing cracked and had to be replaced. This pen is my favourite - ever.
The ergonomics are superlative, for it is perfectly balanced in my hand, glides along the page, and neither tires nor strains my wrist. Physically, I can write with this thing all day long, It does - perfectly - exactly what it was designed to do. Moreover, the ink never leaks - some of my other pens (even some of the expensive ones) suffered from this design flaw, and the Mont Blanc nib never stutters, or blobs, or feathers, offering no ink one minute and a gush of ink which blots the next.
The problem is that Mont Blanc have discontinued the 144. I have a 145, and a 146, but both - frankly - while lovely pens are actually just that little bit too large for my hand to be entirely comfortable when held, especially if I wish, or need, to be able to write for a considerable period of time.
So, I ordered another 144 - my specialist pen shop managed to cannibalise one for me, which leaves me with two working Mont Blanc black-resined case Meisterstuck 144s. In London last year, in the exquisite Penfriend shop, in Piccadilly, I also acquired a sterling silver version of my Mont Blanc 144, which writes every bit as well as its black resined siblings, but, for obvious reasons, travels abroad a lot less often.
