Entry Level Fountain Pens

Note: Prices may have changed since this video was made, and pens may have been discontinued. Updated version coming soon!

In this video, I cover a number of ‘entry level’ fountain pens that are fairly cheap (ranging from about $3.30 to about $28.00) and that I consider to be good ‘beginner’s’ pens. Clearly, some of these are a bit more high end than the others, and the fact that they’re cheap does NOT mean they are bad pens!

For your convenience, I’ve put the pens with price indications and filling mechanisms down here, in the same order I discuss them in the video.

1. Pilot Petit1, $3.30, Pilot cartrdiges;
2. Platinum Preppy, $3.95, Platinum cartridges/converter [?]/eyedropper conversion;
3. Noodler’s piston-filler, $14.00, piston-filler fills from bottled ink;
4. Ohto F-Spirit, $16.50, cartridges (I think international cartridges will fit)/converter;
5. Parker Vector, $24.00, Parker cartridges/converter;
6. Kaweco Sport Classic, $21.00, international cartridges/Monteverde mini converter/eyedropper conversion;
7. Lamy Nexx 88 M, $28.00 [price went up!], Lamy catridges/Lamy Z24 converter;
8. Noodler’s Aerometric, $24.00, aerometric converter (supplied w/pen)/eyedropper conversion.

Something went wrong with the still photos at the end of the video. If you need high-resolution pictures of the writing, send me a message and I’ll e-mail them!


Pelikan Tradition M200 Fountain Pen

Check out my review of the Pelikan Tradition M200 fountain pen, with a broad gold-plated steel nib. Thanks to Pen Chalet for sending this pen for review! Use the code “sbrebrown” to get a 10% discount on your purchase(s).

Pelikan M200 Tradition Fountain Pen 1Pelikan M200 Tradition Broad Nib Writing SamplePelikan M200 Tradition Fountain Pen 3Pelikan M200 Tradition Fountain Pen 2
Check out the Flock of Pelikans shootout for more Pelikan goodness.

Need something?
Montblanc Irish Green
Clairefontaine Wirebound Notebook – Graph

Full disclosure: Contains affiliate links, which helps me to review more items for you!

Pelikan 400N Grey Stripe Fountain Pen

Here is my review of the Pelikan 400N Grey Stripe fountain pen, with an oblique double broad nib. (I’m not an expert at identifying these pens: this took some checking and I had some information from the seller. Don’t quote me on the exact model!)