I love fountain pens. For a few years now I’ve started collecting a handful of cheaper pens to experiment with and figure out what sort of nib I enjoyed. I’ve got a few EF (extra fine), some M (medium) and some F (fine). I learned there’s a difference between EF in the East, and EF in the West, depending on manufacturers. I don’t own a broad nib yet, but that is on my list. None of my pens are particularly expensive, minus the one that I inherited from my MIL when she passed. From front left to right is: Lamy Safari, Parker 21 (birthday gift from my husband), HongDion Forest series, Sailor Fude, two Kakuno, a Wing Sung 3008 (I bought this from Temu for $5, and it’s my favourite pen), and a TWSBI Eco-T. Up top is the Pelikan Jazz, and my St. Dupont Laque de Chine. I used the Safari for many years before ever venturing further into this hobby (and yes, it is a hobby) and used the same purple ink for all of those years. The pen was gifted to me for Christmas by my cousin. It basically cemented my love for fountain pens, and it wasn’t until 10 years later that I started experimenting a little bit. I suppose most of that comes from finally having ‘grown up money’ to spend on things. For many (many) years I simply didn’t / couldn’t. I love writing with these pens, and I love drawing with these pens. There’s just something very tactical about them – and I absolutely love playing with the ink that goes along with them, too. I’ve got a few bottles now and some absolute favourites. Especially ink that has shine or sheen. Any way. Fountain pens do NOT have to be expensive. I mentioned above that my favourite pen actually came from Temu and was $5. It has a HUGE ink reservoir and writes beautifully. I think I’ve also gotten quite lucky with my pens, most of them are just lovely. The most expensive would be the St. Dupont, followed by the Parker 21 (they’re both vintage pens), and then the TWSBI ECO-T and that one was around $50. The rest of the collection are all $5-$20. I do still want to add a broad nib or a flex tip to the collection sometime, but for now I have more than enough.