The Five Best Fountain Pens For Artists 

You’re welcome. I love that combo and am happy you do too!

You're welcome, Larry. Thank you for your support.

@@mkompan You are welcome.

Thanks for the recommendation! I didn't know that the Kakuno could take the larger converter.

You're welcome, Gabe! That's great to hear about the Leonardo, and makes me wonder if Parallel nibs will slide into any pen that uses #6 Jowo housing.

@@mkompan It should theoretically work on all of them. I figured if it fits in an opus, then it should fit in other Jowo housing units. :)

@@gabemadorma2933 Not all of them. For example, in my Franklin Christoph pen, the converter plugs directly into the #6 Jowo housing unit, so the Parallel nib will not work. It would be nice to compile a list of pens that this trick will work with.

@@mkompan interesting, good to know. That would be a good resource, the only pen I could contribute would be the Leonardo.

I've tried making fudes with modest success from cheap Jinhao nibs, but don't dare try it with a Jowo nib. How do you do it? Any tricks to share? This is something I would love to master (and eventually share with my viewers).

​@@mkompan I use a pair of pliers, specifically a Victorinox Swisstool but any flat jaws should do, with each side wrapped with paper so there's a few layers, then some scotch tape so the ink doesn't soak in and pulp the paper. Then I just hold the nib and section together tightly with my thumb and finger, get the pliers in line with the pen and just give it a good solid bend. It might take a few tries to get the angle just right, but you need to be fairly bold, like with many crafts being overly hesitant or nervous about ruining something makes it more likely that you'll have problems. I've done this 4 times now though and it's been quite successful each time. Then you need to grind the nib, first flattening the tipping to the same level as the rest of the flat, then refining the tip to be as smooth/fine as you would like. I'd never tried grinding nibs before but as it requires the same kind of skillset and materials as sharpening blades I had no problems at all. I used a smooth diamond plate to get the initial flat, a 600 grit will get it done very fast but a 1200 would be just fine too and probably reduces the chance of putting large scratches into the tip that would need to be smoothed out. The first few nibs I did like this I gave a subtle curve to the 'belly' with a rocking back and forth technique, but you can go too far with that and I've found I prefer a flatter more aggressive belly which can be less smooth but requires less angle and pressure to adjust line width. Then for shaping and sharpening the tip you can start with a combination of hard stones/plates to cut some angles into it and quickly remove material, I found that I like a bit of a lateral curve to the belly with a thinner contact area on the paper, so I rotate the pen slightly and bevel the sides. It's also probably a good idea to use the plate to sharpen up the tip a bit, sometimes it can be tricky to get the angle acute enough if other parts of the pen or nib get in the way, so it helps to use the edge of the plate/stone. Getting a small handheld stone might be a good idea too, one that you can hold comfortably between thumb and fingers, that way you can hold it up and see what you are doing easier. You will need something thin to remove the burr from the inside of the tines, I use some 4000 grit Tamiya lapping film which works just fine. Something I've come to understand intuitively from knife sharpening is that whenever you remove metal from an edge you end up with a burr to deal with, and it usually requires going back and forth between each sides working lightly to gradually minimise and eventually remove it. The same principle applies with nibs. Each time I remove metal from the bottom I'll wedge the film in between the base of the underside of the tines and just pull it through to the tip once or twice, then flip the film over and do the other side too. You don't want to over do it I think, because it's easy to round over the inside corners too much and end up with 'baby's bottom'. The goal is just to keep the burr to a minimum as you shape the nib to prevent it impeding ink flow and catching on the paper fibers. You can worry about it less and less as you work through the finer grits as you polish it up. For smoothing out and polishing the nib I like to use some micro-mesh sheets, I got a pack which has 4000/6000/8000/12000 grits. Starting with the 4000 you'll just want to round off any sharp corners, remove any burrs from the outer edges, and smooth out any scratches left by the stone/plate. A loupe helps here obviously. With the 4000 you can do some subtle shaping though it will take a while, I think with my current nib on the Opus 88 I started using a rocking motion at this point to get a very subtle curve. Then once you're happy enough with how the nib performs you can progress through the other grits, polishing the surfaces and tip as required. Remember to occasionally lightly run the lapping film between the tines to clear the bur and any gunk build up. I think theoretically you probably should remove the nib from the housing once your done and clean out any grit and gunk that may have accumulated in there, I wasn't confident in removing the nib from the Jowo housing so I didn't bother and just flushed some water through the section, and it's been fine as far as I can tell. It certainly makes sense to try all this with a couple of cheap pens first, just to get the idea. Hope that helps. You probably already know much of that but I thought I'd fill out the details for other viewers' benefit.

@@GurtTarctor thank you for that wonderfully detailed explanation! This is something I hesitate to try on my Jowo nibs, but I think practicing on cheaper Jinhao nibs is a waste of time. I think I’ll have to dive in and try it.

Thanks Gwen! And thank you for writing such a useful, detailed response. These days I've decided not to purchase cheaper pens because well, I have too many already, but I love to recommend inexpensive pens to my students and people getting started with fountain pens and will look into your recommendations. My favorite cheap recommendation is the Platinum Preppy. The nibs re very smooth and the fact that you can easily eye-dropper it is a huge plus. They do crack eventually, but then they're still perfectly usable as a cartridge converters. Andrew Loomis was probably an influence on many of my instructors at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where I studied. I use his books in my teaching frequently, but mostly for his advice on topics related to illustration.

Some nice choices! I have two Dukes, the 209 and the giant, three tined 551. Both perform super well and are my recommendations for expensive fudes. And the Jinhoas X450 and X750 should also be runner up pens. For some reason they work really well with flex nibs such as the FPR Ultraflex.

@@mkompan if you like a heavy metal pen the Ruby is 35g compared to the 209s 20g. It is about the same diameter but a bit longer too- 5mm unposted and 15mm posted. It was also nearly half the price of the 209 which appealed to me too.

I have a mini, and it’s great! It probably deserved an honorable mention (along with the mini vac). I didn’t include pocket pens in the mix because they deserve their own video (which will be coming early next year). BTW, the mini and the eco use slightly different nib sizes. The ECO uses 4, the mini #5.

@@mkompan I will subscribe and look forward to that video next year. Didn’t realize the nibs are slightly different. Interesting. 😃

My pleasure!

Thanks! :) Yes, that Opus 88 with the modified Pilot parallel nib is such a great combination. I find myself using it all the time.

Did he explain why the plunger is hollow? It's such a pain to clean.

@@mkompan it is supposed to provide additional ink capacity. I don't own a Noodler's pen (yet) so you will probably make more sense of his explanation if you watch it yourself. His channel is Inkneedlastforever

@@williamfraser Weird way of adding ink capacity. I actually watch Nathan's videos. They're long, but very informative.

@@mkompan Isn't there a clear hollow tube that goes from the nib unit into the piston filler plunger? It was like this on mine when I first got the pen, but obviously can be taken out.

I like the untipped version too, I guess because I’m so used to scratchy dip nibs. Smoothness is overrated.

The falcon is a fantastic pen, and for most drawing purposes you don’t really need anything more flexible.

May I ask what nib you're using in your Metal Falcon please? Thank you!

I draw with Rotring Isographs as well but was thinking about getting a Pilot Falcon or an e95 but I don’t know whether to get an extra-fine or fine nib. My other fountain pens have med nibs Twsbi, Noodlers, etc. I been looking at gold nib pens and figure if I get an extra fine I almost never have to use a Rapidagraphs/isographs .20-.25

Glad this was helpful to you.

Thanks for finding my channel! You can order the music nib from Franklin-Christoph.

@@mkompan Found it! Thank you.

Thank you Lihn.! The nibs in the TWSBI Go and the ECO are both #4 and are interchangeable. The nibs in the 580, the Mini and the Mini Vac are #5 and are interchangeable. You can make the #5.5 ultraflex work in the ECO by using a little scotch tape to make the fit tighter. I believe the same trick would work for #5 mini nib. As for the Himalaya V2, making it wetter is easier than making it drier. Heat setting can make the gap between the nib and feed tighter, making the pen a little drier. There are lots of heat setting tutorials on RU-vid, even one made by FPR. The other option is to order a standard 6.3mm feed (as opposed to the flex feed) from FPR. This feed is not designed for flex pens and should reduce wetness, but it might not work as well when it comes time to flex the pen. Adding flow is easily done on an ebonite feed with a razor, so you can adjust the flow little by little to get it to where you need it.

It’s a never ending quest isn’t it? :) and thank you for the pen tips. I have a Pelikan 140 and 400nn and they are indead fantastic. And I’ll be looking into the Wingsun 626. The Scheaffer balance design with a touch of flex looks enticing.

@@mkompan Wow, I also have the pelikan 400nn and I love it, it's beautiful and has a fantastic nib! If the 626 still comes with the same nib, I think you'll love it, the only downside is having to do 3 turns to unscrew😒. I don't know if you already have the 601A, older version, but it's a pen that I love to draw with, which despite having a nail in place of the nib is a nib that writes with some character, always writes first time, has a design inspired by the Parker and Sheaffer's tubular nib, which in my opinion is a successful mix.👍

@@fenixway1 Considering that all of my Opus 88s inexplicably require 6 turns to unscrew, three turns is not an issue.:)

@@mkompan wow! I couldn't cope with that..

Hey, that's three questions. :) 1.The Conrad with also take the #6 ultraflex nib. 2. The 5.5 is a very loose fit in the ECO. You can use a little bit of tape, or some other shim to make it stay in. 3. It will fit perfectly in a 580 without any tinkering.

Yes, I have a custom made fude in a 580 made by FPnibs and it works great. I use it in many of my videos on fude pens.

Hi David. it looks like the confusion stems from the fact that we're dealing with two distinct companies with similar names, Fountain Pen Revolution (FPR) and FPnibs. FPR sells the #6 ultraflex nib, which fits into a Noodler's Ahab and some other pens that use a #6 nib. They also sell a smaller #5.5 nibs that fits into many other pens, such as the TWSBI 580, the mini and the mini-Vac. FPnibs is a company that does nib customizations, such as turning regular nibs into flex nibs and fudes (a type of nib with a bent tip). Jowo is a popular nib brand that FPnibs uses for many customizations. It's a small company with limited inventory, and currently they're not selling nibs for the TWSBI ECO. I have a separate video on Fude pens and the #6 ultraflex nib if you need more information. Hope that helped!

Hi Donna. I'm sorry you're having problems. This is a pen that often requires a bit of tinkering to get work without problems. Your dripping problem is hard to diagnose. One thing to try is heat setting.There are tutorials for it on RU-vid, but all it requires is to heat water just under boiling, and then hold the pen up to the nib for about 30 seconds to heat up the ebonite feed. Then, after taking the pen out of the water, using a paper towel, squeeze the nib and feed against each other for about 30 seconds. That process shapes the ebonite feed and usually reduces dripping. Another thing that helps is to see the pen full, since the air inside the ink reservoir can cause the pen to burp. Hope those two things help. The Ahab is a great pen, but can be a headache.

First thank you for finding my channel and watching my videos so carefully! My apologies if the inconsistency caused confusion but these videos were not made at the same time. The Falcon was the first Pilot in my collection, and I made the review before I bought the 912 or the custom 74. Now that I have the 912FA the custom 74SF and the 743FA, my opinion has changed. I still love the Falcon very much, but the 912FA flexes better and is more fun to use, and the custom 74SF is far cheaper, has an equal amount of flex, and has better ink capacity when used with the con-70 converter. I would recommend the custom 74SF for everyday writing. Unlike the other pilots which write a little on the wet side and require better paper, the 74 works well even on cheaper paper.

Thank you! That’s very generous of you.

I don't think I've tried the Uniball Air. I'll have to pick some up. My go to rollerball is the Pilot g2. I take my my fountain pens everywhere, but if I had to only use a rollerball, that would be it.

@@mkompan You can take your fountain pens on a plane? Please do try the micro version and let me know what you think.

@@spiritsjoyI empty the pens and carry the ink in a Pinieder travel ink bottle. Some pens such as those with vacuum filling mechanisms, can go on planes without emptying.

That nib is an extreme version of a posting nib, called a concord nib. I ordered mine from the Toronto Pen Company. Very fun nib!

@@mkompan Thank you! I just looked at some up close photos and wow! A bend so good it looks bad 😁

It is very wet, and doesn’t not fit every single purpose, but I think it’s the best option if you want a perfectly reliable full flex pen.

Thanks for the tip! I have a number of modified parallel nibs but only one free Opus 88 to stick them into. This looks like a great, inexpensive option. I’ve also heard that they fit into one of Moonman demonstrator models (the C-4, perhaps?)

@@mkompan I tried the Moonman, I couldn't get it to seat cleanly. Leaked badly. Tossed it. So far zero problems with the Pilot Spare Sign Pen.

@@ichirofakename good to know! Thank you.

Generally, yes, though how long it takes to clog varies greatly depending on the pen, storage/climatic conditions, etc. It’s good practice to clean pens inked with Carbon black every three weeks, and not use it in pens that are difficult to clean.

@@mkompan Thank you for the information.

I bought the one with two slits and it works great. The pen already writes wet, I’m not sure three is necessary.

I think all artists need a reliable semi-flex for general drawing purposes, and the Falcon definitely fits that bill. I you didn't have one, I would recommend the Montblanc Monterosa or a Pelikan 140, both of which are cheaper and slightly flexier than the falcon, with better ink capacity. The best source of vintage nibs is the German Pen Board. The prices for most #2 size nibs are around $40. Not all #2's are the same size, so look for a nib with the dimensions of the original Kaweco, and request dimensions where they are not given. A less time consuming, more practical alternative is to order a steel semi-flex for the Kaweco from from FPnibs. I made a review of it recently, and it's excellent. The great thing about fudes is that even the super cheap ones perform great, so your decision mostly comes down to pen body. A great start is the very sturdy Duke 209. The FPR ultraflex is a tricky nib. In my experience the only pen that can handle it perfectly is the Ahab, but many people insist that the pens made by FPR have been improved and no longer suffer from poor performance. If you're not into the Ahab, perhaps give them a shot? Then you can get a #6 fude nib for it (under 10 bucks for a pack of five on Amazon). This "rounding out" of your pen collection, as you put it, is a tricky business, involving trial error and expense, no matter how much advice you seek. Best of luck!

@@mkompan I wound up buying a TWSBI VAC mini and plan to get a Fude nib from FPnibs and a 5.5 Ultra Flex from FPR. I may end up getting another VAC mini so I can have both on hand eventually. I'm considering giving that flexible steel Kaweco nib a try. I imagine I know the answer, but how does it compare to the vintage one you found? I actually found a good vintage pen at an estate sale (Moore Pen Co from 1950 at the latest) and the nib looks like it's about the right side, but I can't bring myself to separate it from its original body when I could find a nib without one elsewhere. Thank you for your thoughtful response!

@@LeviRedrook Good call on the #5.5/vac mini combo. This pen is a friction fit, so you can switch out the nibs quickly. As for how the steel semi-flex compares to vintage flex: It's close to many of my vintage semi-flex nibs, but yes, vintage is better. I wouldn't de-nib a vintage pen that someone could potentially lovingly restore. There are plenty of loose nibs around.

Sailor has a fude fountain pen.

I've seen it, but haven't seen anyone review it. I might have to be the first.

@@mkompan ya, fountain pen therapy channel did an overview on it along with some ultem pens looking forward to your review

Those sealable cartridges only fit the Noodler’s Ahab and Noodler’s Tripletail. There is a way to reseal cartridges with a glue gun that I demonstrate in my recent review of the Kaweco Sport AL. You can also buy little brass screw on caps for international cartridges (which the Rotring pens use) from an Italian company. I don’t have the name of it on hand, but I bought some and they work great.

@@mkompan Thanks a lot, Marc. I'll search for those screw-on caps online. A friend is visiting India from the UK by Christmas. He'll be happy to get them for me. If I can't find them, using a glue gun is a great idea. Thanks, oce again. And yes, I'll chack out your other video as well. 🙏

@@mkompan Found it! It's called 'GreatFountain'. Already placed an order for 4-pack. Thanks a million.

Thanks for that very detailed comment! You sound like an expert, but heat setting the Ahab helps with the burping issue. A great option for the FPR ultra flex is to get a #6 Jowo housing unit with an ebonite feed from the Flexible Nib Factory, which will allow you to use it in any pen that takes #6 Jowo housing. I'm testing the 9019 and the 630 (with a steel nib) at the moment. Both great pen bodies but I have to say, the nibs leave much to be desired.

@@mkompan they are stiff. I spent the extra money for the gold nib which is quilt bouncy.

It’s so happens that I just got a Safari, and will be doing a review of it soon, but if you don’t care to wait, it’s very good for drawing.

While there are a few exceptions, fountain pens should only be filled with inks specifically designed for them.

Inky playtime. :) I assume you meant fude instead of fudge. How do you convert? Do you bend the fude nibs yourself? Or are they really fudge nibs, in which case I'm curious to know more.

Here to help RU-vidr 452! Fountain pens nibs aren't sized precisely, and there's no consistency between brands in the way they size their nibs. I think for most Japanese brands .5mm would be equivalent to a medium fine or a medium. If you're willing to spend a little over 100$ the Pilot Custom 74 is a fantastic pen, with great ink capacity (if you use the con-70 converter) that's very smooth. Smoothness is not a quality I look for in a pen, but Lamy and Faber Castell nibs are considered some of the smoothest. European nib sizes run a little larger, so an F nib will approximate a .5mm line. BTW, one great thing about fountain pens is that you can customize the writing experience. You can buy Mylar polishing paper from Goulet pens, and in seconds make any pen write glass smooth.

@@mkompan Great answer, one of the best responses i had in a while thanks! You made me curious what do you look for in a pen when spending time drawing in the studio?

@@youtuber-452 You're welcome! The first "What's in my pencase?" video I made has a section where I talk about the qualities I look for in a pen and why I think the TWSBI ECO is best overall pen for artists: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qBZxWux-G1U.html

Preppies are surprisingly good for their price, and it’s good to have a pen you’re not afraid of losing. Perhaps I need to make a video on a new category: pens no one will steal. :)

1. Thank you! Your comments are always thoughtful and most welcome. 2. No fountain pen is easy to switch inks with, it's just not in their nature. The Ahab's simple design makes the process simpler, but there's no way to do it quickly enough for it to make sense during the drawing process. When I want to use pens with multiple colors, I turn to the platinum preppies. I was experimenting with ink drawing using CMYK colors a few years ago and they worked very well for this purpose. Sadly most of them cracked, so I'm down to just two at the moment. 3. The Noodler's cartridges allow the Ahab to be portable. As much as I love the Ahab, it's a drippy mess when it comes to transport. 4. Thanks for the Mahjon (Moonman) tip. This is a brand that I've been looking at for a long time, but have yet to purchase.

@@mkompan I would love to see your multi-color approach some day.

@@ichirofakename That does sound like an interesting topic. I'll have to restock on those Platinum Preppies.

Sure! Perhaps I just send my bank account info, and you take what you want. :)

Thanks!

It actually stinks. The plastic the pen is made from smells likes vomit. Everyone complains about it, but the smell dissipates over time.

@@mkompan Wow, what an amazing design flaw :D, thanks for the reply.

@@anthonykoeslag the plastic is actually quite sturdy, which makes it ideal for working outdoors, where the smell is not so bothersome.

@@mkompan :D:D:D