The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Part 5 (Fountain Pens)

 In the years since I started on this pen testing journey, I did dabble in fountain pens as well. As a lefty, I was always hesitant to get into fountain pens, but I couldn't resist their allure. Here I'll give a brief overview of the ones I tested.

Pilot 912 Green Limited Edition - I was looking at Pilot with the intention of trying a Waverly nib, which is supposedly suitable for my weird 90 degree writing angle and my left-handedness. I'm a big fan of green and brown pens, and was hoping to find something from Pilot in green. Endless searching for the right one led me to a store in Japan that partnered with Pilot to make a few limited edition colors of the 912, including translucent green. It came with a Fine nib, and wasn't going to have any WA nibs til the end of the year, so I thought I'd give it a try. This was the last fountain pen I bought, because it actually worked perfectly as-is (though I'd still like to try a Pilot WA). Beautiful pen, much more reliable writer than my other pens. Quite dry though, but it works to reduce smudging. My only gripe with it is that the material feels a bit lighter and more fragile than other pens - I'm worried about the cap cracking one day.

Pilot Ecrino Green - I actually started searching for this one because I stumbled across the Lucina, which apparently has some unusual alloy for the nib that gives it some unusual properties (so I bought one in black). After more research, I found out that the Lucina was the updated version of the Ecrino, which came in more color varieties and had matching sections. I wasn't sure if the nib used the same material, as the printing on it was different. After a few months of searching, I found a green Ecrino and picked it up, and swapped in a Lucina nib. It's very fine and a bit scratchy, but maybe it just needs to be serviced.

Ecrino and 912

Lucina

Stipula Xalegrafica Theta - I picked this up because of its technical features. Apparently a while back, Stipula made reissues of old famous pens in limited numbers. One was a replica of the Aurora Etiopia, which has a quite unfortunate history - it was made for holding a special powdered ink (which was included with the pen) that would slowly be fed into the lower half of the pen, so that Italian troops could use pens in the desert. It also accepted a cartridge, which I installed, and it writes very wet and a bit tough to control for me. 

Filcao Desiree - This is supposedly made with some kind of special celluloid that provides it strength and transparency. The clip and metal trim could feel stronger, and maybe the material could be thicker, but I actually quite like this pen. It is one of the best writers by far, and uses a nib made by the (defunct) Reform company of Germany.

Pineider Metropolis - I wanted to try this pen also because of the material, which is supposed to be unbreakable. The material does indeed feel good, but it writes terribly. Not sure if it's related to me being a newbie, my weird way of writing, or if it needs to be serviced, but it feels like it has a lot of drag/texture on the paper, and it skips when I write.

Kaigelu 316A / PenBBS 355 / PenBBS 456 / Majohn T1 - I'm putting these in the same review because my comments are similar. I bought these all brand new. The materials feel fantastic, they look beautiful, and fill perfectly. However, again - not sure if it's because of my weird 90-degree writing angle & left handedness, or maybe they need to be cleaned, but they all skip on me. The Majohn (Moonman) is a bit more reliable, but it's hard to get the angle right. The PenBBS ones write very dry when they do cooperate.

Sheaffer Statesman Triumph - Another one that came up in my research on waverly nibs, the 1940s Sheaffer Triumphs are beautiful and check all the boxes for me. This was exactly the model I was looking for with the continued celluloid pattern on the grip section and the vac-fill system. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to use it yet because it needs to be serviced and I need to find someone who can do that.

Parker Vector XL - Cool looking pen that I picked up at the shop. Writes well a lot of times with a bit of feedback and some springiness, but can get finicky and unreliable if I change my writing angle too much or when it dries out.

Lamy Aion - I got interested in the Aion after seeing the green ballpoint version in my local shop, and it was quite striking. I then read that Lamy is using a unique nib for the Aion fountain pen that differs from their other nibs, which intrigued me even more. I decided to give it a try and I've been pretty impressed with its reliability and forgivingness with writing angles. I always looked for smoothness, but the bit of feedback is pleasant, and I enjoy writing with it. There are 2 down sides though: it can dent easily (mine has one dent for which I have no idea how it got there), and the cap kind of spins freely (which doesn't seem to affect it drying out, but doesn't exactly inspire confidence).

Botticelli Stilo - There is zero information about this pen or its brand beyond what's written on the pen, its box, and the instruction pamphlet (in Italian). It was made in Italy, made from some kind ground-up stone mixed with the resin (?), and it says 1994 on the nib. The nib is surprisingly flexible but writes nicely and gives a lot of character to the ink with different levels of saturation. It's a piston filler (with all metal components), but the piston is very stiff (not sure how to resolve this). It feels extremely well made for a pen of such mysterious origin.

Conclusion - The Pilot 912, Lamy Aion, and the Filcao Desiree are the winners for me. The Pilot is writing a little dry, and I'm thinking to try getting the WA nib for it. It feels amazing but almost precious/fragile. And considering how hard it was to find, I only use it at home. The Filcao is fun, but lets out a bit too much ink. I find myself actually using the Lamy the most, since it's fun and reliable, and I'm not afraid to take it out. I wish the Chinese pens would work for me (they feel amazing), but maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'll probably narrow down my collection to the pens I actually use.