Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

[jace]

Yes, it is true. I've finally given up on fountain pens. Maybe this is just a temporary break, maybe it is permanent...

I don't know why I thought I would love fountain pens. Maybe I thought it would be more comfortable to use and that longer term it is cheaper to use fountain pens because you can just refill the ink instead of buying a new ballpoint pen every time it's finished - yeah no, neither of these points turned out to be true.

After spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on fountain pens, occasionally going to nibmeisters to "fix" some unruly nibs, the frustration of trying to make fountain pens work for me has led me to a breaking point.

Honestly, the best writing experience I have ever had with fountain pens was the Pilot Metropolitan M. Right out of the box, it worked. Every other fountain pen was a "forcing myself to love this pen because of general consensus high opinions of the pen". I feel like a big part of it is marketing and sunk cost fallacy.

I should just knock my head on the wall and induce a revelation... there is a reason why fountain pens are no longer popular in the general population and most people use computers and ballpoints now. No, fountain pens will not make you connect with God, no, it will not connect you with "history" or some other bullshit reason that makes fountain pens superior.

What my FP journey has done however, was it allowed me to try all different types of paper. And yes the paper is important. And I have found a paper that makes ballpoint pens just as good a writing experience as fountain pens. My handwriting looks more legible, there is zero frustration, zero distraction, pure writing my thoughts down unlike that I have with fountain pens.

Whenever I write with fountain pens, I always get distracted by the small imperfections like pooling of ink, feathering, the smoothness not to my tastes because of my peculiarity of writing; do I really like this writing experience? Is it me or is it the pen?. None of these distractions ever occur when I write with a ballpoint - it is simply click write click write - no bullshit.

So yes... I cannot believe it, and while I have enjoyed parts of my FP journey, it has led me back right back to where I started - using ballpoints. [Cheap ballpoints 0.7mm from Muji, if you really want to know.] But now I use found a good paper for them, so at least something good came out of using FPs.

[The usual YMMV/this is only my current opinion disclaimer]