Wow! Hello. Thank you for subscribing to carpenter, and welcome to the first newsletter. I’m so eager to talk about fountain pens and other sorts of stationery with you all. This year was so terrible for so many reasons, but fountain pens — and stationery, in general — as a hobby has really been a bright spot for me during the pandemic. And that’s for a lot of different reasons: I wrote letters to friends and family, and used a fountain pen to learn how to draw. It gave me something to get excited over in a particularly dark year, something small and consistent to get excited about each day.
Before this year, fountain pens have been a “me” hobby, something I kept to myself and fiddled with in my free time. But when I think about it, there’s always been a part of the hobby that helped me feel connected to others. I first wrote with a fountain pen at a dog park. I used to go to the dog park at the same time every day, and got friendly with the other folks — mostly retired — who did the same. One of those friends pulled out a fountain pen to write something down, and I asked him to try it. It was a brass Kaweco pen, with a worn-in patina finish. He let me try it, and I wrote scribbles in his Moleskin notebook.
I went to Bromfield Pen Shop, a beloved store in my area, to get my own — though I opted for a transparent lime green; the color reminded me of jelly sandals I had as a kid. I had no idea about ink or nibs or converters; I just wanted my own pen. Part of the fun in getting that pen was learning about how to use it, starting to understand the parts and what they do. That’s why I wanted to start here, with a post that breaks down the fountain pen into pieces — to show you how it does what it does.
You absolutely don’t need to know how a fountain pen works to use one. I absolutely didn’t. I just popped an ink tube in and started writing. But the more I learned, the more fascinated I was.
Breaking it down
This is a TWSBI Eco. It’s one of my favorite fountain pens — it’s affordable, writes well, and is durable. It’s designed to be accessible; each pen comes with the tools needed to fully dissemble the pen. It’s easy to do, too! All you need is the tiny, specialty wrench. I like the fully transparent pen because you can see exactly what’s going on. Everything is designed for its purpose. I think it’s a great starter fountain pen for that reason. It perfectly illustrates what makes fountain pens special.
Pens are relatively simple. It’s a container that holds the ink you use to make marks on paper. (Or hands, walls, or shoes.) For ballpoint or rollerball pens, the ink is thick and coats the little round tip, which rolls around to make marks — the ink is stored in little tubes that can be replaced or refilled. Fountain pens have a little bit more to them, but they’re still very simple. Instead of that thick, gel-like ink, we’ve got dyed or pigmented liquid, which come straight from a bottle or in a small cartridge that slots into the pen. TWSBI Eco fountain pens, however, only take ink from bottles — there’s no where to slot in a cartridge. Cartridges are really convenient, but I prefer to fill from bottles; there are just so many more options available for ink colors and properties!
The TWSBI Eco pen uses a piston-filling system to draw ink into the pen. That means ink is held right in the barrel of the fountain pen. The piston is controlled by the screw cap at the end of the pen, which moves the piston mechanism up and down. When the pen nib is submerged in ink and you draw up the piston, the pen will fill with ink.
Here’s a video, if you’re having a hard time visualizing it. Once the ink is inside the barrel, you’re good to go. The pen does the rest of the work, using the feed and nib. These are designed to do two things: let ink out (and onto your paper) and let air in, so the ink keeps flowing. Gravity helps in letting ink out, but the feed and nib keep it from flowing out and dripping all over your paper. (Though that certainly does happen if you shake a fountain pen!)
Ink is drawn into the feed through capillary action — Wikipedia can explain this science better than I can — with the assistance of gravity. It stays in there because air can’t get in to push the ink out. That capillary action pulls the ink down a super small slit in the feed, connected down through the slit in the nib. That’s why fountain pens only work when you’re putting pen to paper; the slit in the nib lets enough air in to let ink out. There’s is definitely more science going on here, but this is the gist of it. And, of course, different pens will work differently: most pens need “converters” to add a piston-filling or squeeze-filling mechanism. That’s why I like the TWSBI Eco as an entry into fountain pens — you just need the pen and the ink.
I don’t take my fountain pens a part ever, aside from the TWSBI Eco. I’m scared to break them, but with the Eco, it’s encouraged. I only dissemble the pen to clean it, when I run out of ink or want to swap out the color. Even then, it’s hardly necessary — so don’t let that scare you away from fountain pens. (There are ways to clean a pen without taking them a part!) But when TWSBI handed me that wrench (or rather, I pulled it out of the box it came in), curiosity took over, and that’s when I started to get really interested in how these mechanisms work.
Before I go
Writing this post has been such a pleasure. I’m so excited and happy to share this hobby with you, folks. Before I go, I want to invite you to send over any suggestions or questions: What do you want to know about fountain pens? What can I do better? I want to try out a bunch of different formats here.
I’d also like to share some links. If you’re interested in a TWSBI Eco pen (or any stationery!) my favorite shop is Yoseka Stationery, based in Brooklyn, New York. No affiliate links — I just love them.
TWSBI ink in Emerald Green — any dye-based ink will do, but TWSBI has really affordable ink!
You can email me at: carpenternewsletter@gmail.com, if you’d like to say hello!