10 Reasons Why You Should Use a Fountain Pen

We live in amazing times. I know, sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but, if you broaden your time horizon, there’s plenty to marvel and appreciate about how connected we all are now.

At no other point in human history, do we have so many options to express ourselves and communicate instantaneously with people worldwide. Only decades ago, if you didn’t have a phone, the only way you could communicate with someone on the other side of the globe would be sending them a handwritten letter.

It’s understandable to think the digital age would retire old-fashioned pen and paper. Yet, despite the array of digital communication tools available at our fingertips, many people still reach for a traditional fountain pen.

In this post, we explore 10 reasons why people opt to use a fountain pen for writing in the 21st Century.

10 Reasons Why You Should Use a Fountain Pen - Writing Benefits

I could list out 100 reasons, but I cut it down to ten for brevity. Before you see my reasons, I’ll provide a bit of context by telling you about my journey in fountain pens. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, there wasn’t any school requirement to learn cursive writing with a fountain pen. It wasn’t until Goldspot Pens hired me that I was properly introduced to these glorious writing instruments.

Hello everyone, my name is Tom, and I'm a fountain pen enthusiast. For 15+ years, I fell deeper and deeper in love with the fountain pen’s writing ability, design, feel in hand, potential for customization, and community feeling. Despite not using a fountain pen for most of my life, I had used ballpoints, gel pens, and pencils - all lacked the satisfaction and sophistication I now feel when using one of my fountain pens.

I hope the above statement doesn’t come off as pretentious - I just love fountain pens and couldn’t imagine taking notes, writing these blog posts, and journaling without them. At every possible opportunity, I’ll try to share my love with others in hopes that they, too, might find the same enjoyment in writing with fountain pens that I do.

So, here are all the “write” reasons to use a fountain pen:

Improves Handwriting

The effect a fountain pen has on someone can be psychological as well as physical. Writing with a fountain pen nib, especially one that’s decorated, inspires awe and respect. A fountain pen also requires a whole lot less hand pressure to lay a bold stroke of ink on paper. The nib’s graceful look and gentle touch on the paper aid in improving your handwriting.

In addition, you could opt for specialty nibs like a calligraphic stub or a flex nib that add line variation to each downstroke, amplifying the artistry of your letters. Find out more about the different types of fountain pen nibs in this article here.

Reduces Hand Fatigue

If you’ve ever had to take a handwritten test in one of those little blue exam booklets, you’ll know the pain and cramping that comes with using a pen that’s not up to the task. Most ballpoint and gel pens require you to press down on the page with ample force to make a dark mark. Fountain pens require only a featherlight touch to the page. The difference is like running a 5k with a weighted vest. Your hand will feel like a weight has been lifted when you write with a fountain pen.

Limitless Ink Colors

Although you might need a business-appropriate black or blue ink for the office, one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing with a fountain pen is the ability to load it with virtually any ink color you can imagine. Even blue and black inks have their subtle variations that allow the writer to express themselves. Things get more interesting when you explore the full spectrum of inks - from deep, sheening indigo colors to lightly saturated, multi-chromatic dual shaders. Interested in exploring the entire rainbow of fountain pen inks? Find our favorite ink colors here.

Customizable and Collectible Designs

When shopping at the office supply store, you might be accustomed to finding pens available in several body colors. There’s blue, black, maybe a silver one, possibly pink and purple. Fountain pens, on the other hand, are available in a mind-boggling variety of colors, materials, finishes, patterns, and styles. Designs range from simple plastic to elaborate, hand-painted ebonite with a lacquer finish decorated with abalone shells and rare metals.

For a more exclusive, collectible pen, some manufacturers produce a limited number of pens in a special finish or design. These pens can be highly valuable over the long term. Sometimes, these pens represent a theme - a special person, place, or event that holds historical significance. Chances are, you can find a fountain pen that resonates with one of your interests, deepening the connection between you and your writing instrument.

Not only can you find a pen that fits perfectly for your hand and aesthetic taste, some can also be customizable by having it engraved, adding a clip (if it lacks one already), or having your nib custom ground by a specialist who will tune it to your exact liking.

Expressing Individuality Through Pen Choices

As mentioned above, there are so many different choices of pen shape, material, color, and theme that you can find one to best suit your style. Like clothing, watches, shoes, and bags, the fountain pen you carry makes a statement about who you are as an individual. If you’re fun-loving with a bright and quirky personality, you might write with a swirling, colorful pocket fountain pen. If you are the executive of a big company with a big presence in the boardroom, you might reach for a conservative, black fountain pen with elegant gold trims. It’s completely up to you!

Durable and Long-lasting

Ask any vintage pen collector if they think a well-made fountain pen can last a lifetime. There are plenty of centenarian pens that are still being used by enthusiasts today. Several brands (Parker, Pelikan, Waterman, Mont Blanc, Montegrappa) that existed during the golden age of fountain pens are still producing pens today and will stand by the quality of their work. Don’t worry about the nib wearing out - most fountain pen nibs are tipped with a hard-wearing ball of iridium that might continue writing long after you’re gone from this Earth.

Convenience for Frequent Writers

If you polled most writers today, I bet that a majority use a keyboard more often than a fountain pen. However, the fountain pen offers more convenience and concentration for the offline writer. A computer or mobile phone distracts and offers its autocorrecting editing services without your permission. A fountain pen never has to be charged and never needs a software update - it’s always ready to start working for you.

Vibrant and Supportive Community

Thankfully, a diverse community of people from around the world banded together to become modern stewards of the fountain pen hobby. It was the internet, ironically, that brought us all together to appreciate analog tools and pass along this knowledge to future generations.

Fun to Use and Experiment With

Fountain pens offer an virtually endless array of shapes, sizes, materials, nib sizes, and ink colors to find the perfect combination of aesthetics, feel in hand, and writing performance. Even the same fountain pen model can have many different color options, themes, and nib types to explore.

Take the Esterbrook Estie, for example. It’s a relatively straightforward, cigar-shaped, tapered barrel fountain pen made from acrylic resin. Yet, pen enthusiasts go wild for all the various colors, materials, and nib styles (like the specialty grinds made in collaboration with nib specialists like JJ Lax, Gena Salorino, and Kirk Speer), keeping Estie pen collectors coming back for more with each new variety.

A Gateway to a New Hobby

Did you know that the modern fountain pen comes with a ticket to a warm, welcoming community of pen enthusiasts you can find with a simple click, swipe, and tap? Yes, the moment you declare “New Pen Day” on /r/fountainpens Subreddit, you’ll be greeted with many like-minded fountain pen hobbyists from around the world.

The greater fountain pen community tends to be patient and helpful with new members, offering support and answering typical newbie questions like “what fountain pen should I get next?”

Aesthetic Appeal and Artistic Expression

Besides acting as a status item, fountain pens are vehicles for artistic expression. Today, there are fountain pens made in a wide range of styles that reflect a person’s aesthetic and fashion tastes. For example, a person who values function and utility will be drawn to a Bauhaus fountain pen like the Lamy 2000. An artist will appreciate a pen inspired by their favorite Van Gogh painting, Starry Night, from Visconti.

The variety of fountain pen colors, shapes, sizes, and themes continues to expand and diversify. Chances are, there’s a fountain pen match for your specific taste in clothing, the way you paint your nails, your favorite place to travel, books you enjoy reading, and so on.

Educational Tool for Better Learning

At Goldspot, we regularly chat with educators who instill the values of handwriting with a fountain pen to younger generations. Studies show taking handwritten notes increases the ability to learn and memorize information when compared to digital means of notetaking. Although most school curriculums introduce children to tablets sooner than fountain pens (if at all), it is commendable for teachers to introduce kids to this option of learning and digesting information.

Enhancing Academic and Professional Writing

While many students and professionals are turning to ChatGPT and other generative AI solutions to help with their writing, there’s still nothing like being your authentic, genuine self, speaking in your own voice - complete with all its flaws, idiosyncrasies, and brilliance. While AI can be helpful in certain respects, it shouldn’t replace our uniqueness and perspective. Therefore, when writing for academia or in a professional setting, starting off with a fountain pen in hand is a wise decision.

Tips for Carrying and Using on the Go

We often get questions about flying with fountain pens, which Mike Matteson answered in a thorough post on the subject. To give a quick summary, many people fear taking fountain pens on a plane, imagining that the air pressure changes will cause the ink to explode. For the most part, you don’t have to worry about pens exploding on a commercial jumbo jet.

For extra security and peace of mind, there are a couple of things you can do to protect your pens from the rigors of travel. One is putting them in a secure pen case that keeps the pens from bouncing around and hitting each other. Second, you can use pocket pens with small ink capacities - like the Kaweco Sport fountain pen with an ink cartridge. If you prefer pens with larger ink capacities, be sure to get ones that have a shut-off valve. Opus 88 fountain pens have a shut-off valve to prevent ink from burping due to pressure or temperature changes.

Stand Out in a Digital World

Fountain pens have a broad appeal that isn’t dying in the digital age - they’re thriving. Are they as ubiquitous to have in your pocket as a smartphone? No, of course not - that’s the point. In a world where technology is developing a mind of its own and seems to be running faster than human beings can keep up, writing with a fountain pen grounds us in reality that isn’t virtual.

Technological Advancements in Fountain Pens

While it might seem like a losing race to try and keep up with technological advancements in AI, cryptocurrency, and social media, fountain pens have a comfortable familiarity to their design that hasn’t changed substantially in decades.

So, you can use a vintage pen from the 1950s in the same way you would a pen made today. Anyone who uses a pen with the same filling mechanism can fill, write, and clean a pen made decades ago in the same way. On the other hand, try using a personal computer with a MS-DOS prompt operating system from the early 1990s. Cut the wi-fi and dial up a 56k modem and you see my point.

In the golden age of fountain pens (around the 1920s), the major pen manufacturers like Conklin, Waterman, Esterbrook, Parker, and Pilot, etc., worked to refine the design of fountain pens, making them easier to fill, less of a messy liability, and better suited to the task of productive writing.

Since then, the basic principles of the fountain pen - filling mechanisms, ink delivery via feed and nib (capillary action), capping, overall ergonomic design - haven’t changed all that much. This means a decades-old fountain pen is easier to repair and maintain than, let’s say, a 6-year-old iMac computer.

Are Fountain Pens a Good Investment?

I’m not going to try and sell you on the idea that you should park your retirement savings in limited edition Namiki fountain pens. Instead, I will echo the words of investment legend Warren Buffet in saying that “investing in yourself is the best thing you can do.” If writing with a fountain pen contributes to your productivity, creativity, self care, and mental health, then I would say it’s an excellent investment.

Although, I think the law of diminishing returns applies here when it comes to pens number 4, 8, 17, 63, and so on.

Advantages of a Fountain Pen in Daily Life

Life is just better with a fountain pen in hand.

You know those moments when someone looks around and asks, “Hey, does anyone have a pen I could use?” As a fountain pen enthusiast, you are that person. People will always assume you have not just any pen, but a nice fountain pen, at the ready at all times. Is this an advantage? Maybe not, especially if you’re not the type to loan your pen (and I don’t blame you). But, it’s better to be known as the pen geek than the person who always falls asleep first at a party. In that case, people might borrow your pen to draw on your face as you snooze.

Life is sweeter when you use a fountain pen daily. You can be more self expressive by writing down your ideas and observations. You can be more peaceful by writing notes of gratitude and noting the small joys in life. You can communicate more clearly with your loved ones through sincere letters. True, you could do this with any writing instrument. But, a fountain pen makes it so much better.

Getting Started with Fountain Pens

At this point, I’m hoping that I convinced you that using a fountain pen is going to be a major life-altering improvement. If so, you’re in the “write” place. Goldspot Pens is one of the best pen retailers in the United States, if not the world. If you can’t tell from the above article, we care deeply about the handwritten word and want to do everything in our power to make fountain pens accessible to future generations to appreciate.

If you’d like to learn more about fountain pens, you can venture to our Fountain Pen University and learn the basics about how to use a fountain pen, how to fill a fountain pen, and how to clean a fountain pen. We also have a collection of starter fountain pens we recommend.

If you have any more questions, Goldspot is one short e-mail or phone call away to help you get started on your inky journey.

If you’re shy and have a question, maybe it’s answered below in these frequently asked questions: