I write every morning in a journal. It’s something I’ve done off and on for years, but for the last two years, it has become a steady, daily ritual. Three pages, every morning. Not a significant achievement in the Samuel Pepys scheme of things, but it has added up to a fair amount of paper coverage and ink usage.
I like opening up my journal in the morning, and starting a new page. I like the physicality and slowness of writing by hand. I like the feeling of accomplishment when I have completed the task.
As a daily writer and lifelong handwriting affecionado, I generally have a lot of pens around. My go-to for most of my adult life has been the Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V-7. Fine (0.7mm), in black. I’ve been so devoted to this particular instrument, I really should have purchased shares or, at least, ordered it in bulk.
Over the last few years, though, I’ve been increasingly interested in fountain pens. My foray down this new path got kickstarted when the Toronto-based pen specialists, Wonderpens, happened to open a new storefront in our neighbourhood.
As soon as I saw the store, I was enamored, but honestly, was initially daunted by the under glass selection, and assumed these were items out of my price range. It took one generous birthday gift, and a very helpful salesclerk at the store to guide me, before I was equipped with my first fountain pen, a Pilot Metropolitan Retro-pop in lime green (an excellent choice as an entry level pen.) Non-refillable pens soon felt like a thing of the past.
But at the start of the pandemic lock-down, I found myself out of Pilot ink cartridges and had to use whatever pens were available around the house. First, I found a fairly new Pilot Hi-Tec ballpoint, so happily continued my daily writing. It lasted for an impressive 50-60 pages before running out of ink. Then I scrambled around looking for any writing utensil and landed on a box of standard office-issue Bic pens bought as a Christmas stocking stuffer at Staples. (J can never find a pen when he needs one, so I thought these would be a good cheap solution to have lying around.) I was shocked when the first of the Bics lasted less than two days. I thought it must be faulty. But sure enough, as I went through the box, each pen last less than 5 pages (and I should note, these cheap pens were not that cheap!)
The waste of plastic as I quickly went through the entire box of Bics filled me with guilt and anger. As soon as Wonderpens started their curbside pick-ups, I made an ink order, and treated myself to a second fountain pen, a Kaweco Perkeo (also an excellent affordable entry level fountain pen.) I’ve since been happily been doing my morning writing, only needing to replace the ink every 20 or so pages.
My next adventure will be learning how to make better use of the “fountain” of the fountain pen by refilling the ink converter, instead of plastic cartridges.