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....
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