Pens

Ballpoint pens

Ballpoint pens require a lot of pressure. But I do carry one on me at all times. I have a Rotring 600 with a Fisher Space Pen G2 insert (~~black medium, #SPR4~~ black fine as of 2025-09-23). The cartridge isn’t always smooth (2025-09-23: the fine one seems smoother), but it does let your write upside down and on your hand. The Rotring 600 is nice because it’s solid metal (probably brass?) which gives it a weight that makes me kinda lose it less frequently.

Dip Pens

I really like dip pens (see Spencerian). They’re cheap; like $5 for both a holder and nib, and you can get a ton of ink for cheap or make your own. Steel nibs like the Speedball Hunt #101 have a nice flex to them and are also USA-made (and yet also cheap! Like 2 for $4!). They require less pressure than a ballpoint pen. You can have fun with different inks you experiment with yourself. They’re modular; you can try a bunch of different nibs, pen holders, and inks. There aren’t really any super-proprietary parts of a dip pen.

For inks, I like using Noodler’s bulletproof black. Also USA-made, and for some reason bulletproof black specifically has less of a bleeding option than other inks.

Ink bleed

Okay, so the issue of ink bleed or feathering I was having was due to two factors: one is the ink, but the second is the quality of the paper. Some papers aren’t great and assume only ballpoint pens, and these ones can bleed like crazy. I thought some inks tended to bleed, when in fact they worked really well on nicer paper that was either smoother or didn’t soak it up in the strange way poorer papers did.

Gum arabic really helps. I read about it in a Spencerian book, but couldn’t really find it in stores. I ended up eventually getting some at Flax Art (https://flaxart.com/) in Oakland in 2025. I got some gum arabic after talking with Jane, head of fine pens, who knows a lot about ink and pens there. Turns out that you’ll probably find gum arabic near watercolors, because that’s what it’s used for a lot. Gum arabic is sold like a sticky syrupy solution. It works pretty great for reducing ink feathering by making ink more viscous and sticky. You can put it in your ink or on your nib directly. I like to have a small amount in a bottle with an eyedropper so I can drop some on my nib or mix it with ink. Note: Once you mix gum arabic with ink, it’s no longer fountain pen safe and can only be used with dip pens. Also note that gum arabic also tends to make ink more shiny and reflective after it dries. I kind of like that, but it does mean that for some inks (like Noodler’s ghost blue ultraviolet secret-message type ink) it’ll show up (like that secret ink becomes slightly less secret).

Striking out this paragraph from March 2025. Or maybe my issue is feathering. Anyway, counterintuitively one of the ways to solve the issue is to dilute the ink (with water, I guess). I forget why this works. It might be that the ink has something that lessens or strengthens its surface tension relative to water? Get gum arabic or change your paper, the water thing doesn’t help as much.

Cons of dip pens

Obviously there are some negatives.

Not really portable (though I did get a Tachibana dip pen holder with a cap).
You need a pen wiper (a piece of cloth).
You probably want a pen stand.
You have to know when to dip it.
The ink you use will probably not be compatible with a highlighter.
You have to hold a dip pen with a relatively stable angle. You should arm-write rather than finger-write (though you do also use your fingers for flexing the nib tines apart).
The paper (see also paper) matters a lot more for a dip pen than a ballpoint. I can’t write on some postcards I got because they’re too glossy and don’t absorb ink. 2025-09-23 update: Gum arabic I think helps with this.
The fineness of the lines and the ability to flex really bring out the shittiness of your penmanship. Like, at least a ballpoint or fountain pen keep a relatively uniform width line.
You have to use less pressure and glide on your fingernails, otherwise you get too much of a scratchy noise. If you hear that, you’ve been using really bad ballpoints for too long (me).
You’ll get ink on your fingers some times.
You’ll have to wait for the ink to dry.

Fountain pens

Fountain pens are kind of a weird world because you can really get into… uh… I don’t know how to say this… “gearslut” territory. Basically, people that fetishize the pen more than its utility, or that use it as a status symbol when their handwriting is shit (of course, my handwriting is shit). Some people want to show off their gold fountain pen they got at a luxury brand shop near a mall, but it’s like… you don’t even write normally or like writing that much, so what was the point? Like, fountain pens are more portable than dip pens and require less pressure than ballpoint pens, but fountain pens are a way more expensive category with less modularity than dip pens. You’re limited in the types of nibs you can use and the types of inks.

Lamy Safari

I’ve got a fountain pen. It’s the basic Lamy Safari that’s like $30. It’s nice in that it’s more portable than a dip pen, but the cap still falls off in my bag and gets ink everywhere. Also, even though the nib I have says it’s “fine”, it’s way less fine than my Hunt #101 nib for my $5 dip pen. And it doesn’t even flex! I guess it’s good if you want to write a lot in one go, and for some reason you don’t want to use a pencil.

Osprey Scholar + Zebra Comic G nib

In June 2025 at Flax Art, Jane showed me an Osprey Scholar pen with a Zebra Comic G nib that flexes. ~~I might look into that a bit later.~~ I got the Osprey Scholar in September, and I’m writing this the day that I got it, but I think I already like it better than the Lamy. The pen body and nib combo was like $55.13 ($26 for the body, $24 for the nib/feeder adapter, tax), by the way, but I think that’s pretty good, price wise.

So, why I like it.

For one, the pen cap actually screws on, so I don’t have to worry about it accidentally opening completely in my pants.

The ability to use a dip pen nib (the Zebra Comic G is intended for dip pens) is really nice (though we’ll talk about the issues Jane warns about in a second).

Third thing is that the instructions that come with the Osprey pen seem… I dunno… just fairly honest? Like it sounds like actual pen people wrote the instructions. Like they talk about the issues of needing to clean the nib, and how you’d do that with soap and possibly ammonia if you have it. They also just recommend some types of paper they like, including an HP Printer Paper (Premium 32), and they’re not even associated with those brands. Anyway, I like that, which reminds me that I need to actually link to Osprey Pens: they’re website is https://www.ospreypens.com/.
Also, I like that the Zebra G nib is actually fairly fine. It seems possibly finer than the Hunt #101, but I’ll caveat that a lot that there may be something in the way the Zebra G is being fed by the Osprey whereas I tend to dip too much with dip pens, or maybe I’ve worn down the tip of the Hunt #101 too much. Also, I can get the Hunt #101 on a dip pen to be more fine by putting more gum arabic on it. However, the Hunt #101 can flex way more than the Zebra G, and even if the G could flex that much it seems like the feeder wouldn’t be able to keep up with the ink demands.

The warning for the Osprey + Zebra G nib is that dip nibs aren’t meant to be in contact with ink constantly, so the nib (I’m told) will start to rust. This means you really need to clean the nib regularly. The instructions say to soak the nib and fed in pen cleaning solution, but I’m not sure yet how often you’d do that. Jane showed me how to remove the feeder using a knockout block. Apparently the feeder can get kinda clogged, and a new feeder is like $5. Zebra G nibs themselves are fairly inexpensive, like maybe 12 for $15, so even cheaper than Hunt #101’s. They’re a product of Tokyo, Japan, I think. Anyway, since it’s still my first day of having this pen, I’ll need to see how much I need to maintain it. I guess questions I have for my future self are:

How often do I need to change out the nib, or how quickly (days/weeks/months) does it take to rust?
2025-10-31: Wiping the nib can be helpful. I haven’t noticed rust on it really yet, but sometimes the ink flow can slow. I think the feeder can get clogged sometimes. I don’t really have a day/week count, but I’ve cleaned out the feeder like 2 or 3 times since getting it. I haven’t needed to change the nib yet, but I did get some similar (but slightly different) ones at Blick Art, which I haven’t tried.
How often do I need to clean it? Is regular cleaning mostly wiping, or also regular disassembly?
2025-10-31: Maybe once every couple weeks or so? Mostly when I notice more of an issue. The pen can leak inside itself a bit, probably from being in different weird positions as I sit down or move, so I do need to refill it more often. Not all of the ink gets used, and often I’ll need to wipe it before writing with it because the screw threads may have some ink. It does make sense, being a dip pen, that it’s not as concerned about dripping ink. Still worth it. I do wipe it with a cloth fairly often. I’ve cleaned the feeder channels a couple times with a brush or pick. The feeder can get a bit clogged.
Did I get spare Zebra G nibs yet? Haha.
2025-10-31: Got some similar ones at Blick, but haven’t tried them.

Markers

Are these technically pens? Anyway, here are some brands I have in case I need to find them in the store.

Pigma Micron 05 - Archival ink. Does fine lining I guess.