What are your three most trusted fountain pen brands?

[FP_GaF]

While commenting to another post I started thinking about which pen brand has given me the best pen experience. I have bought and used pens from quite a few brands and countries. Pelikans, Faber-Castells, Montblancs from Germany, Pilots, Sailors and Platinums from Japan, Visconti, Aurora and Delta from Italy, some new and vintage Parkers and Sheaffers from the U.S., some odd Chinese pens, etc. Well, you get the idea. They are all dear to me and I try to use them all. But there are simply a few that I always come back to for both their beauty and writing quality.

Now, I was thinking which brand is it that inspires me the most. Which brand's design and technical quality speaks the most to me. So then I asked myself what are the three most "reliable" brands in my opinion, by which I mean which ones do I trust most to satisfy my pen taste. Again, this is a combination of design and technology. I am not including price because I am thinking about pens for which I would pay almost any amount of money. Yes, I have my limit and I have not tried every pen on the planet. And I don't own pens that cost more than $500 which means probably that I have missed some really incredible pens. But our fountain pen experience will always be limited since we are constrained in space, time and money. We can't have/try all of them and there will always be an upper limit that we'll pay. But given these boundary conditions I asked myself what are my three favourite brands that I have discovered and used in my entire fountain pen career (which has stretched over more than 30 year since I made my first humble scratches with a fountain pen on a piece of paper in primary school).

Well, if you are still with me, here we go:

On third place Pilot where great innovative ideas meet with high quality manufacturing and very nice design.

On second place Pelikan for their almost flawless technology and for their brilliant nibs that always write like a dream. Their design nearly hasn't changed in one hundred years but I am grateful for that because I like the design very much.

And on first place my favourite of all is... Visconti. Brilliant, beautiful design and technology of the highest grade. Gorgeous materials and never ending innovation.


There you have it. So now it's your turn. What I would like to ask all of you is first not, I repeat NOT, to tell me why I am wrong ('cause I ain't ), second to take some time and think for yourself about your favourite brands and why they are your favourite ones and third write me a little note to this post with your own ranking. Just your favourite three brands.

Let's have some fun here....

[manoeuver]

fine choices for sure.

#3: Sheaffer. most of my Sheaffers have come to me second hand. virtually all of them work (really well.) I give cheap secondhand sheaffers to people as FPE.

#2 Pilot. I've used 2 Pilot pens. Both really cheap. They put ink to paper like crazy. Love 'em so.

#1 Lamy.

[fountainpenkid]

3. Aurora
2.Parker
1. Pelikan

[JustDaveyB]

#3 Waterman - Solid pens that just work
#2 Lamy - Bulletproof
#1 Sailor - Never had a problem with any of ten I own - All wrote straight out of the box

[Tracy Lee]

3. Pilot/Namiki - incredibly reliable
2. Parker - write consistently
1. Visconti- no one beats the dream nib. Also, the right amount of heft for folks like me that can't use a light weigh pen. Ah, and beautiful.

[jar]

I don't see a fair way to cut things down to three but I can see a way to fairly break things down into three groups.

Makers where I have two dozen pens or more that have been 100% reliable. That would include Sheaffer, Parker, Waterman, ST Dupont, Montegrappa. I'd trust any pen from one of those manufacturers simply because I've never been disappointed and the sample size is large enough to make me confident.

Makers where I have fewer than than two dozen but all have been 100% reliable. That would include Yard-O-Led, Caran D'Ache, OMAS, Graf von Faber Castell, Conway Stewart, Ferrari da Varese. Again, since 100% of the pens from this group of manufacturers have been perfect, I'd be comfortable buying a new pen from them sight unseen and without trying it first.

Finally there are the makers where I have been more satisfied than dissatisfied and that would include Montblanc, Pelikan, Grifos, Wahl/Eversharp, Conklin (vintage), Franklin Christoph, Mabbie Todd (vintage), Thomas De La Rue (vintage), Venus, Aurora. Some of those makers like Pelikan and Montblanc would fall into the other categories if their QC were higher.

[outbackpengeek]

3. Parker (vintage)
2. Pilot/Namiki
1. Lamy

I don't know about Pelikan *always* writing well...my M800 doesn't like to write diagonal lines at random times

[JustDaveyB]

3. Parker (vintage)
2. Pilot/Namiki
1. Lamy

I don't know about Pelikan *always* writing well...my M800 doesn't like to write diagonal lines at random times

Pelikan would be my least reliable out of the box.

[Saintpaulia]

1. Sheaffer
2. Pilot
3. Waterman

[KrazyIvan]

I am torn. All of my pens with the exception of two, just work.

[goldiesdad]

I love all my pens ... the one's that are rough I tweak and make them my fav's ...

Right Now my favs are:

1. TWSBI - with Pendleton Points
2. Pilot's
3. All the rest ...

[inky]

I would have to go with:

1. Edison - these above all others just work for me. Something about the material and design just work for me.
2. Pelikan - I don't have many but the few I have used have always left me with the "Now that's a pen!" feeling.
3. Lamy - These make my list because I don't have to worry about them. They work and they work every time. Well except for my 2000 but that is my fault

[fountainpenkid]

I think I'll clarify my list:
1. Pelikan--all very reliable, beautiful pens with a great ink capacity. Not many cases of inky fingers either
2. Parker (Modern-Near Modern)--The P75 is one of my go to pens, with a nice heft and even less hassle than the Pelikans.
3. Aurora--The vintage Aurora 88 is one of the best pens ever.I've had two and they prove themselves to be well made, reliable user pens. A bit of a stiff piston, but then again, the ones I've had are hardly prime examples.

[Bogon07]

#1 Lamy
#2 Lamy
#3 Lamy

Just make sure you clean/flush before using the first time.

[FLJeepGuy]

1. Lamy - from the lowly Safari/Al-Star/Vista through the Studio to the 2000, every one of my Lamy pens are excellent writers and dependable to a fault.
2. Sheaffer - I've yet to run into a Sheaffer nib I didn't like, particularly the Triumphs and their inlaid nibs.
3. Three way tie (cheating a bit here?): Graf von Faber-Castell, Cross, Parker - I've got a bunch of them. My FC Classic is excellent as is my first year Cross Townsend. My Parker 21/51/61/75/Premiers are awesome as well. Hard to choose one or the other.

[FP_GaF]

Thanks for all your replies. This is a very interesting read. Quite a few brands turn up multiple times. Especially Lamy seems to have found a place in many a fountain pen lover's hearts.

[Petergly]

1. Rotring. Have a silver 600 with a LH nib. Absolute delight to use - reliable, wet, smooth and beautifully balanced in my southpaw.
2. Mabie Todd. My son got it for me in new York a couple of years ago. Again a delight to use - dryer than the Rotring, but always works, it's a fine and less smooth than the Rotring.
3. Elysee. Have had this one - a Parthenon in black - for almost 13 years; still plugging along.

[snedwos]

Waterman Lamy TWSBI (in no particular order). The only other noteworthy pen brand I have tried is Pelikan, and the nib is a bit faulty.

I've used old inoxcrom, parker and sheaffer pens, but they were beat up by the time i go them, so they don't count.

[nomad]

Onoto, Porsche Design, Visconti Homo Sapien.

[John the Monkey]

I only have cheap Watermans, but I've yet to buy a bad one.

Every Pelikan I've owned has been good (various Pelikanos, a Steno)

I like my TWSBI 530, and I'd trust TWSBI's nigh legendary customer service to sort out any problems with a pen I did buy from them.

Honourable mention to Lamy as well, although I've only owned Safaris, a Vista and an Al-Star.