Over the past several years, I have been lucky to get introduced to the world of fountain pens. This world does not limit itself just to the physical pen hardware itself but also to the wide range of people who have either always used fountain pens or who, like me, came to understand the allure of them later. The "Pen Shows" accessible to anyone in the dozens of cities that host them throughout the world are a treat as I have only found interesting, energetic and friendly people who have a passion for this analog communication method.
The pen community is also comprised of ball point, rollerball, dip-pen and even pencil people. The community is broad and inclusive.
But what makes Fountain Pens so special?
In a nutshell, fountain pens provide a unique writing experience due to the differentiation of nibs, ink and housing. In the housing, pens are made in variety of sizes with unique and differentiated material (Acrylics, hard rubber, wood, Urushi lacquer, painted, etc.). Nibs range in both size (#5, #6, #8, #10) as well as in material composition (Steel, Titanium, Gold) and ink, hundreds, if not a thousand or more colors available.
That is TOO MUCH Dave, what about people who do not want the complexity of choices you mention above? They just want a nice pen.
There are also many good choices of production and custom manufacture pens like my company who offer an option for something other than fountain pen. What I have decided to offer is some of the benefits of the traditional rollerball with some of the benefits of the fountain pen. My Mercury line is designed to allow someone to either swap between a fountain pen and rollerball nib as well as allowing them to take advantage of the hundreds of available ink colors, all with the same pen. This is accomplished by using the interchangeability of "Jovo #5" fountain pen nibs with the SCHMIDT® Cartridge-Rollerball-System PRS.
When I mention this people's eyes' light up. They say... "Oh Really ?"
This will address a lot of .... WANT
In this way, the user can decide to use either the fountain pen or rollerball nib by simply unscrewing the one and replacing with the other. Using the same ink is also possible although inks with heavy solids or shimmers may not perform well with the Schmidt Cartridge-Rollerball System.
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