The truly economical guide to fountain pens

[cashew]

Because I'm tired from getting angry at fútbol, I've swapped over to looking at pretty fountain pens for some eye candy and distraction. Then I started reading pen blogs again. And then I keep going back to the claim fountain pens are more economical than ballpoints.

I never quite fully felt satisfied by that particular argument, probably because the people who are making that argument are usually not the ones who ever needed to be economical with their writing instruments. Usually, those who are touting the economical aspect of fountain pens are people who own 30+ pens and at least one $700+ pen in their collection. I think their idea of economical is a little confused.

So, since cashew is taking a break from ranting angrily about fútbol, it's time to take on Fountain Pens.

The Truly Economical Guide to Fountain Pens

Do you care about the environment? Do you want to contribute to saving the world from plastic pollution? Would you like to be one less person contributing to the constant build up of plastic waste in our world today but don't know how you can live without the convenience of plastic and really don't want to pay extra just because you're doing the right thing?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, I have some good news: You can reduce plastic waste and save money at the same time!

It starts with your writing instrument.

Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "You want me to what with my laptop/tablet/phone?!"

Back up.

No, I'm talking about the disposable ballpoint pen. Yes, that thing you had to battle in school and associate with homework, notes, and exams. It turns out that America alone dumps 1.6 billion pens in landfills annually. This is a very scary number. 1.6 billion pens is a lot of plastic.

A box of BIC crystal (50 count) is currently selling for $16.99. 1.6 billion pens would cost America just a little less than $544 million. And that's just assuming you buy the cheapest pens that are out there.

So, let's talk about the ballpoint pen alternative. Fountain Pens.

The environmental advantage of using fountain pens is two fold:

1. Fountain pens run on ink refills, which means you are not tossing out waste, but reusing the same pen over and over and over...until the thing breaks down and you are forced to purchase a new writing instrument.
   
   
2. Because of point #1, fountain pens fulfill the tenants of the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). By not throwing away the pen, you reduce the need to buy new pens. By refilling the old pen with ink, you are reusing the pen instead of replacing it. And if your pen is made of recycled material, you've hit that last R.

So, now that we've established that fountain pens are ecologically friendly, let's look at the cost.

Let's assume you are able to use the same fountain pen over the course of ... 4 years of high school, 4 years of college. Since there are still perfectly working vintage fountain pens that are 100 years old, I think it's safe to say that a modern fountain pen will last you 8 years.

Currently, an estimated 56.6 million students attend elementary, middle, and high school in 2019. There are roughly 19.9 million students in colleges. It's probably fair to say that these students contribute to the majority of the disposable pen waste. Rounding down, that's ~20 pens a year per student.

(Personally, I went through a 12-pack of rollerball pens every semester, so the number sounds about right to me.)

At a rate of 20 pens per year per student, the average spending on disposable pens as set by the BIC standard would be ~$50. That's assuming you are satisfied using the cheapest of pens, but let's go with that, since we're talking about economical fountain pen guide.

In terms of sheer economy, you can't beat JinHao Shark pen. At $3.50 with free shipping including converter (the refillable ink reservoir in fountain pens), the price simply cannot be beat for the completeness of the pen. (I'll go into a little more detail later.)

Of course, you cannot write with a fountain pen if you do not have ink, so you're gonna have to shell out some money for the writing liquid. Again, in terms of pure economy, you cannot beat Noodler's ink (see Noodler's and antisemitism) Pelikan 4001. At $56 for a 1L bottle, that works out to about 5.6 cents per mL. A 1L bottle will last you (provided you're not dumping ink out for some reason) pretty much your entire academic career (>5 pages a day).

Now, let's add our ink cost ($56) with our pen cost ($3.50), that works out to a total of $59.50. So after 8 years, you'll spend ~$10 more than you would buying cheapo BICs. Fountain pens aren't quite winning yet, but wait!

This is assuming you are one of the most penny pinching students to have ever existed. In my personal experience, students, whose lives mostly involve writing a lot with a pen despite having tablets and laptops, are pretty finicky about their writing instrument. Most would like to not have to battle the BIC crystal to get a smooth writing experience and would prefer the more satisfying rollerball liquid ink pen or gel pen.

The Pilot V5 is the most popular writing instrument of students. I won't sing its praises here, there's plenty of reason to use them over the crappy BIC crystals. But, they come at a cost of $10.48 per pack of 6 on Amazon (which is honestly not a bad deal). That works out to roughly $279 across 8 years at ~20 pens per year.

To be fair, a rollerball justifies its cost with superior writing smoothness. To match the rollerball's fine line and much more smooth writing experience, I point you to Pilot Kakuno Extra Fine. With a writing width of 0.38mm, it beats the Pilot V5 in precision. (Fine nibs are 0.5mm and matches the Pilot V5, while medium nibs are 0.7mm and matches the Pilot V7 in terms of thickness and far, far smoother.) The pen is also made of 70% recycled plastic, so you can pat yourself on the back for recycling. Purchasing the Kakuno will set you back by a whopping $12.50.

However, the math isn't done yet. Unlike the JinHao Shark pen, Kakuno does not come with a converter, which means you cannot draw ink from a bottle. In order to use bottled ink, you must purchase the Pilot converter, setting you back by another $7.25. Together, a bottled ink using Kakuno will cost you $19.75.

Once you have shelled out $19.75 for your pen and $56 for ink, your total spending comes to $75.75. Instead of purchasing $279 worth of Pilot V5, you saved ~$200 on pens. You also saved 159.7 pens worth of plastic.

And that's only across 8 years of school life.

Fountain pens are not economical if...

This bit here is mostly for those who have already converted to the way of the fountain pen. If you write about the economy of writing with a fountain pen, do not bring up the following points:

1. Customizable nibs - fountain pens with changeable nib units are not economical. Nib units cost anywhere between $10 and $20, as the pen they are switching into cost no less than $30 to purchase. As such, it is not possible to keep the pen's cost down if you bring in nib customization. And I won't even get into the expensiveness of custom ground nibs.
   
   
2. Ink variety - While it is true that fountain pen inks are kind of mind boggling in terms of choice, a lot of them are actually very expensive. You can see why when some advertise gold flecks in the ink. What's more, every time you switch inks, you have to flush the pen properly, and that not only drives up the water bill, it is also ecologically irresponsible. Wasting fresh water to wash pens is not the argument you want to be making.
   
   
3. Aesthetic - Do NOT talk about how pretty the pen is. Just don't. Using rare metals, expensive acrylic, volcanic rock to create unique looking pens also result in $700+ investments up front and completely destroys your economical argument. (Not to mention the production of rare metals and expensive acrylic is not environmentally friendly.)
   
   
4. Cartridge fill system - This is a mistake I keep seeing, where fountain pen enthusiasts attempt to soothe refill anxiety for the newly converted by bringing up the ink cartridge refill system (plug in new cartridge when old one is empty). While convenient, the cartridge refills also contributes to the plastic waste while costing almost twice as much per mL of ink compared to their bottled counter parts. Cartridge is not economical. Don't bring them up.
   
   
5. Piston fillers - Literally one of the most expensive filling mechanisms in fountain pens. Apparently the technology used to build the refillable ink reservoir directly into the pen body shoots the price up to the >$50 range. Most brands cost >$100. Furthermore, due to the reservoir being built directly into the pen body, if there is a defect, the entire pen is null and void. Unlike a regular converter system, where the reservoir is removable and replaceable, thus allowing you to keep using the pen either replacing the converter for less money or go without by doing an eyedropper conversion But since we're trying to convince people to switch, maybe don't overwhelm them with extra stuff they'll need to purchase outside of the pen and ink.

TL;DR — Fountain pens are both more economical and more ecologically friendly provided you get the right pen and the right ink. Otherwise, it is primarily a hobby.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

But what if you've already replaced physical writing tools with your smart phone altogether? Like, I don't even remember the last time I actually wrote with a pen.

[cashew]

If you're not using writing instruments ever, then you're not not going to be more economical buying BIC ballpoints either, right?

Obviously, this is targeted at people whose lifestyles include a lot of analogue writing in their lives, i.e. people in academia. :p