Week 43 My Fountain Pen Every Day Carry

This week I’m in the pink…pink fountain pens that is.

*ahem*

Pink’s my favorite color. I even painted the walls of my home office in a lovely shade of shimmery pink — much to my husband’s chagrin. Let’s just say he doesn’t come in here much.

Anyway, as it’s my favorite I tend to pick out pens in that color. You could say that it’s infiltrated my fountain pen case.

The only non-pink pen this week is the Metro. I felt bad about leaving it out of the fun so, to compensate for its external somber color, I loaded it with KWZ Brown Pink (one of my favorite colors). The other pens are loaded with Iroshizuku Yama Budo, deAtramentis Red Roses (smells just like ’em!), KWZ Gray Luz, and Organic Studios Jane Austen.

But April, why so many Pilots? I started out with Pilot fountain pens because they’re economical, easy to fill, and are great writers. I think that Kakuno was the first Pilot I purchased –but it might be the Metro. I can’t remember anymore.

The Kakuno is a student pen, meant to teach school children how to properly hold a pen. Pilot stamped a little winky face on the nib so kids would know they held the pen correctly if they saw it. And not just school children. It taught me how to hold a pen correctly too!

The Esterbrook Pastel (pink of course) is the only vintage fountain pen in my case this week. It’s quite a bit smaller than all my other pens, coming in at about 4 3/8″ capped. The cap has to stay on when I use it otherwise it’s too small for my RA hands to use.

Interestingly enough, Esterbrook Pastels had two generations, the first had black jewels on the cap-end and barrel-end of the pen. The second generation had colored jewels. I believe mine to be a second generation fountain pen.

What I really love about Esterbrooks, in general, are their swappable nibs. If you didn’t like your pen’s nib, you could remove it and twist in a new one that suited you better. And with over 50 styles to choose from, there’s bound to be one or two that work for all your writing needs.

There’s a lot more about the Esterbrooks and why I think they make a great “first vintage” fountain pen but that’s definitely a different post!

I’m on Instagram (@april_picayunepen) or Facebook (AuthorAprilHayman) this week and showing off the pens I use each day. Why not drop by and say hi?

In pen, ink, & paper,
April