After a long hiatus of using fountain pens when I was younger, I recently discovered fountain pens again; I guess life got in the way and I had to travel a lot so ballpoints/rollerballs made more sense. I have a calmer and steadier life now, so fountain pens just naturally emerged back into my life.
Thanks to the immense resources we have online, and having the resources now to buy a variety of fountain pens, I have concluded that the only pens worth buying are those from Pilot and Sailor. I understand that other brands have other things to offer like style and other filling mechanisms, but purely from a nib quality standpoint, Pilot and Sailor are a few tiers above any other pen I've tried (in the same price range).
If I had to start all over again I wouldn't waste a dime on other pens and just stick with Pilot and Sailor. And now I do.
Is there anything else I am missing? (Sorry if this is a controversial thread. But I am new to this writing about FP's in a forum thing, so maybe it isn't.)
Addendum: I guess I am at a point that I don't need convincing anymore but I am still curious what others think (maybe other people are less serious about the FP quality - I am insanely picky - but this is an FP forum after all), and I suppose this is somewhat personal, but also the differences in quality are so great that perhaps it is also somewhat objective. I am not Japanese, and I am not one of those people who's obsessed with Japanese culture; in fact I prefer European/American culture; but just in terms of fountain pens and other stationery in general, I find Japanese-made products to be superior, maybe because they actually still care about the quality. It's in their work ethic or pride or whatever. Whatever they are doing, it's working for the quality in their pens. I find that maybe in other pen brands, quality is an after-thought and profits come first. They just don't have that "pride in quality" ingrained in their culture or something; or perhaps they just don't have the skills/experience/knowledge to achieve that high quality yet.
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