Comparing a Wild Spread of Fountain Pens Ranging from $15 to $200

Whoops, it’s time for me to go down the fountain pen rabbithole!

I tried six relatively inexpensive (under $35) fountain pens, and for funsies, one expensive one: Pilot Custom 74 ($200). Is it worth the upgrade???

I started with three fine-nibbed pens: Pilot Kaküno, Platinum Plaisir, and Kaweco Sport. My initial thought was “These are all the same!” I had never used a fountain pen before, and they all felt similar in their difference from rollerballs or ballpoint pens: the ink flows smoother, a little wet at first; the lines all look very similar in final product. However, as I began to use them more and compared with other pens, I began to notice more subtle, subjective differences in the smoothness of the writing, the feel of the pen in hand, and the general enjoyableness of the experience.

Ink note: Where possible, I use a converter with waterproof ink (De Atrementis Document Ink).

Pilot Kaküno (Fine & Medium)

I got two in different colors and nib sizes. At least, the packaging says they’re different nib sizes, but I can’t tell the difference.

Cost: $13 each

Convertability: The Pilot Kaküno comes with cartridges, and is also compatible the Pilot Con-40 ($8) or Con-70 ($12) converters. Granted these do considerably change the price point. The Con-40 is ludicrously small. The Con-70 is annoying to fill up, using a vacuum pressure system that simply does not work well; but if you can get the knack of filling it, it holds a lot of ink.

Writing Experience: Compared to other fountain pens, these are fairly scratchy, with firm nibs and audible feedback on the paper. Slight skipping in some fine lines, but not on a large scale.

Writing Appearance: I tried it in Fine Nib and Medium Nib. Both look 100% the same to me: approximately like a 05 Micron pen.

Look: Large and friendly, with either a white or dark grey body and fun colored caps, these have a childlike feel which I personally find kind of fun. The nibs have a smily face on them.

Ergonomics: The body is chunky, one of the wider pens I have used. It has a hexagonal shape which is nice in that the pen won’t roll away, but not as pleasant to hold as round in my opinion. The grip is slightly narrower than the main body but not by much, and is also hexagonal. I tell you, though, you will not lose your grip. Length is good with or without posting the cap.

Overall Verdict: If you’re on a tight budget and you don’t mind (or prefer) a thick grip, this pen is absolutely going to get you there. The fact that I couldn’t tell much difference between pens leads you to the important takeaway that you don’t have to spend a lot to get the basic fountain pen experience, and spending more isn’t necessarily going to get you a lot more value.

Platinum Plaisir (Fine)

Cost: $30

Convertability: Uses Platinum’s converter ($11).

Look: It comes in various pale, frosted, pastel colors; I like the pink color that I got (although a “me problem” is that I got the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen in almost an identical color so I’m constantly mixing them up).

The aluminum body makes the pen feel a bit more high-end (even most fancy pens are plastic). That said, although the body is aluminum, the grip is plastic, so you don’t get any special benefit if you don’t like the feel of plastic. (Though personally I do think the softness of the plastic grip makes it fairly pleasant to hold.)

The nib is at a slight remove from the body, with a gap beneath it. This doesn’t seem to affect functionality, it’s just kind of interesting looking.

Writing Experience: Smoother and quieter than Kaküno, and I don’t need to press as hard. Minor skipping in fine lines.

Writing Appearance: I tried it in fine nib, and to me it looks identical to both Kakünos.

Ergonomics: The body feels like a more normal width for a pen compared to the chunky Kaküno; still thicker than, say, a typical pencil, but unremarkable, which I what I like. Length is good with or without the cap. Lightweight without the cap; posting the cap mostly adds weight, especially from the thick ring at the bottom of the cap.

Misc Notes: I have been told (but have not had the pen long enough to confirm) that the snap-on cap is helpful in preventing ink from drying up.

Overall Verdict: It’s a good pen! I have no complaints.

Kaweco Sport (Fine)

This pen is tiny! Even with the cap on it’s small, but when you take the cap off, you realize the pen was mostly cap. It is ludicrously tiny.

Cost: $35

Convertability: This uses Kaweco’s mini converter for small pens ($7). It’s very cute, and works perfectly well in the normal syringe style that most converters use. It doesn’t hold a ton of ink, but I don’t think that’s a problem necessarily – I don’t want to store ink long-term in my pens.

Look: Simple but cute, it’s a solid color plastic pen that comes in a variety of colors. I chose Cyan in the Skyline collection, which is a lovely, vibrant peacock blue.

Writing Experience: Very pleasant and smooth! Feels smoother than the Plaisir, while the lines are just as thin. No skipping.

Writing Appearance: I tried it in fine nib. Line width seems identical to all other pens.

Ergonomics: The length is a problem. Because it’s so short, it’s actually almost too short to write with, at least without the cap posted. It’s kind of like writing with a golf pencil. The back of the pen backs up against the crook of my thumb instead of resting there comfortably. Posting the cap to the back makes it long enough, but it’s not a completely satisfying solution because the pen still has a weird, unbalanced feeling.

The barrel is slightly narrower than the Plaisir, and well within the range of comfortable widths to hold. Note that the grip is also short proportionally compared to the grip length of other pens; if you don’t hold it right up against the bottom of the nib, you’re holding the cap threads. It’s not particularly uncomfortable or noticeable when writing, but it does make it seem like there’s no right place to hold this.

Misc Notes:

• There is no clip. You can buy one separately for $7. What???? I didn’t.
• I like the combination of a round body and a hexagonal cap. This is a good solution since it means when capped, it won’t roll away (even though there’s no clip), but it doesn’t affect the grip. Uncapped, the pen can roll away.
• This actually fits in the little tiny side compartment of the Pocket Art Toolkit that I ordinarily can’t figure out how to use. I don’t even need to use a full-size pen slot – I can save those for more water brushes!

Overall Verdict: My favorite writing experience. Great for travel, but I would say the ergonomics are not quite on point enough for me to use this heavily at home.

Kaweco Perkeo (Fine)

Cost: $17

Convertability: I did not attempt to convert this, but it is said to accept the full size and mini Kaweco converters.

Look: The current run comes in various colors I like, such as teal and pink, but from the photos they looked like weirdly depressing shades of teal and pink, like a hospital wall. Just an awkward compromise between muted and bright. I went for last year’s model, in an intentionally ugly color combo called “Bad Taste” – black with a bright coral cap. You know I like coral!

The nib is black, which is kind of interesting.

Writing Experience: Ugh. Very scratchy and loud. This is probably the loudest and scratchiest pen I tried. The Kakünos were a breath of fresh air in comparison. I now understand the phrase “it writes like a nail.”

Writing Appearance: Slightly finer than the Kaweco Sport, though both nibs are said to be “Fine.” Maybe this nib is just too fine for me. If I were to try this pen again, which I am not particularly motivated to do, I would expect Medium to perform better.

Ergonomics: The plastic body is very lightweight. It is faceted rather than round but has enough facets that it still tends to roll away, especially when uncapped. The cap is octagonal (8 sided), but the body has 16 sides – 2 for every side on the cap. I would prefer round for comfort or 6- to 8-sided for non-rolliness. The grip is a rounded triangle, which I think is reasonably nice to hold. The overall body size seemed good to me; the cap is as chunky as a Kaküno cap, but the body is narrower and closer to the Plaisir.

Overall Verdict: Did not like the writing experience at all, and the pen’s subpar look and feel didn’t make me want to try more nibs to make it work.

TWSBI Eco (Broad)

Cost: $35

Convertability: Converter not necessary! This pen is designed to be filled with your own ink, so it’s sort of converter built in. You dip the pen tip in ink and twist the back of the pen, which is basically exactly the same way you would use a converter, only you don’t have to disassemble the pen. If you plan to use your own ink anyway, this pen is functionally cheaper than other similarly priced pens since you don’t have to buy anything else. It also holds a ton of ink, and the ink chamber is clear, so you can see how much is in there.

Look: The body is mostly a clear ink chamber, but it’s sandwiched by cute colored plastic that comes in a variety of colors. I got Amazonite, which is a marbled white and mint green. Every TWSBI pen, no matter the color, has a red dot on the top of the cap with the company logo.

Writing Experience: Very smooth and flowy. Note that I am trying this in Broad nib, so it’s not an apple to apples comparison to the Fine pens above. Broad nibs will have smoother writing in general. But I did appreciate the writing feel of this.

Writing Appearance: The Broad nib is not as much thicker than the Fine than I thought it would be. It reminds me of 08 Micron Pen. I am undecided on whether it has utility. I seem to prefer using Fine for everyday drawing, especially small/travel sketches (and almost all my felt-tip fineliners are 05, which suggests that I find that the most useful size). I had hoped the broad pen would be thicker enough that it would provide a strong contrast, but I’m not sure it really does. Perhaps I should try a fude pen.

Ergonomics: The main body is round (though the cap and twisty bit are hexagonal), and nearly as thick as the Kaküno. It’s pretty chunky! Heavier than my other pens, at least when full of ink.

Misc Notes: Because the cap is twist-off and the back of the also pen twists (for the filling mechanism), it’s hard to open the pen without accidentally twisting the pen and possibly squirting out some ink. It’s also hard to remove the cap from the back without accidentally twisting. A snap-off cap would have improved this.

Overall Verdict: I like the writing feel, but I find the pen a bit chunky and managing the cap is overly fiddly. I’m also not sold on the whole idea of the converter-free pen. You save a few bucks by not needing a converter, but I actually think I prefer the converter’s mechanisms being protected inside the pen. The accidental twisting issue seems like a small thing but it bugs me every time I open the pen.

Pilot Custom 74 (Fine)

I’ve tried the rest, now the best? This pen is a big jump in price from other ones, but it was the cheapest one I could find with a gold nib and good reviews, and I was curious to see if switching to a 14k gold nib would deliver a significantly smoother writing experience than stainless steel.

Cost: $200

Convertibility: Not only is it convertible, it comes equipped wit the Pilot CON-70 converter. Granted the Pilot converter’s not my favorite, but it’s good to know they expect you to convert it.

Appearance: Plastic (they couldn’t spring for metal at this price point?), but cute, with a translucent colored body. I got it in Teal, and it is a nice, bold, middle-of-blue-and-green shade. The translucence makes it overall look less bright than an opaque color, but gives it kind of a cool classic iMac look.

Writing Experience: I was prepared to be wowed but I was not. If anything, I would say this was less smooth than my top $35 picks. In terms of scratchiness/feedback, noise level, and lightness of touch required, I would rank this slightly lower than Platinum Plaisir.

Writing Appearance: Slightly finer, perhaps, than the Platinum Plaisir F or Kaweco Sport F nibs. This may explain why I found the writing a bit scratchier and louder than those other pens. Perhaps I should have tried this in a Medium.

Ergonomics: Very similar in size and shape to the Platinum Plaisir.

Overall Verdict: Alarmingly mid.

Writing Comparisons

Conclusion

Shockingly, the $200 pen was not the best. At least in my newbie opinion, I found it very mid and fairly indistinguishable from the pens at the ~$35 price point. However, the ~$35 price point was a noticeable step up from the ~$15 price point.

In terms of pure writing enjoyment, the Kaweco Sport was my favorite: the writing felt the smoothest while still delivering a fine line. But I can’t ignore the ergonomics: it’s almost obnoxiously small, even when the cap is posted. Switching to the more normal-sized Kaweco Perkeo was not a reasonable solution since it ranked among the bottom of the pack for writing experience for me.

Overall, I would say the Platium Plaisir was best all-rounder. It didn’t wow me in any one category but it is solid in all of them, and quickly established itself as the one to beat.

Now, since I have discovered that I like a smoother writing experience and don’t mind a slightly thicker line, I think if I try any more pens I will try them at the medium nib.

Favorites: Platinum Plaisir, Kaweco Sport

Wanna try it? You can support the blog by shopping with my affiliate links. I couldn’t always find the exact color/nib combo that I used at each retailer, so in some cases I’ve picked out some cute equivalents.

Platinum Plaisir, Pink, Fine (the one I used!): Amazon.com
Kaweco Sport Skyline, Cyan, Fine (the one I used!): Amazon.com