2021 Gift Guide - What to buy for that beloved fountain pen person

The gifting season is around the corner and it’s a daunting task to find the right presents for your beloved fountain pen person; or may be you are a fountain pen person yourself and you want to give a hint, hint, nudge, nudge so your loved ones would have an easier time finding out the best items to show you how much they care about our tiny little hobby (I know us fountain pen geeks can be a bit finicky and difficult to please sometimes). 

Here are some of my recommendations for the holiday shopping season:

Ink bottles / set

This one is a straightforward and fail-safe option for those who do not know a lot about the fountain pen world. Inks are consumables and a bottle of fountain pen inks can last from somewhere between 10 to 100 fillings depends on the ink capacity of the pen and how much ink is in the bottles. There are brands that produce the whole rainbow and you’ll find yourself sitting in front of the screen to compare and find the right shades:

•  J.Herbin: good old reliable, and they come in 10ml bottles so you could grab a bunch of colors if choosing become a difficult task, and they also have some scented ink that can make written words smell even better. https://www.jherbin.com/fountain_pen_inks.html

•  Diamine: another reliable choice and these come 30ml as well as 50-80ml bottles for the special editions and shimmering colors as well. Diamine recently released their advent calendar ink set for 2021 that contains a variety of ink samples with a random color for each day counting down till Christmas. They have a lot of similar colors so make sure that you compare photos of those shades to figure out which one is right for your fountain pen person. https://www.diamineinks.co.uk/listings.aspx?catid=90

•  Pelikan: specifically the Edelstein series of ink - these are in 50ml glass bottles and the colors are named after fancy gemstones so you could go in and pick the ink named after the favorite stones, well aside from the annually special release colors…This year they have released a shimmering Golden Beryl with a fancy looking M200 sparkly fountain pen that can be a really nice set to gift as a whole. https://www.instagram.com/p/CPF7qu1iOLP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

•  Montblanc: quite an expensive one but hear me out. The standard line up provides really good value for money with a roughly $30-35 price tag depending on where you get your ink; but if you have a bigger budget, feel free to check out their limited releases with the recent Enzo Ferrari Purple or the Arthur Conan Doyle Scarlet Red 50ml bottles. Oh, did I mention they make scented inks that look like Tom Ford cologne bottles? https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/collection/refills-stationery 

Notebooks

This is a pretty hard list to come up with because each individual will have their different use cases for their notebooks, and some might have some preferences with their paper and thickness of the page and the notebooks as a whole, so be sure to check in with your loved ones before pulling the trigger. Down below are some notable choices:

•  Tomoe River (TR): after buying my first TR notebook, it has secured its place as the best fountain pen paper I have ever laid my grubby hands on, period. The smooth texture might not be for everyone, but the way it takes the ink triumphs over any other types of paper: it can show all the shades and character of an ink and even with an extra-fine nib, the writing experience is still pleasant without too much feedback. However, as of right now stocks of TR are not as plentiful since the company producing them, Tomoegawa has sold the rights to produce TR to another paper manufacture, Sanzen, and the new releases of TR notebooks would not be coming out until next year; still, the initial reviews are looking quite positive. There are other notebooks on the market that uses TR paper as well such as these http://rediscoveranalog.com/tomoe-river-notebooks-to-try-in-2020/

•  Rhodia: a solid choice for a lot of fountain pen users as these are quite affordable and come in many different sizes and formats, from hardcover notebooks with secure straps to perforated pads with pages that can be torn out. The only downside to Rhodia paper is that they do feather and bleed through the other page just a wee bit if the ink is especially wet or your fountain pen nib is really broad, but the color shows on the page is vibrant and they stay on the page for a quite a few years with minor fading. I would personally recommend the a4 dot pads https://rhodiapads.com/collections_orange_black.php

•  Midori MD: these are the essential japanese style of threaded binding the pages with a mesh covering glued to the back of the cover to provide a solid notebook that can last for a long time. They can also be opened flat on the desk as the mesh is flexible enough to provide a pleasant writing experience. In comparison specifically with fountain pen nibs, they provide a more feedbacky/textured writing experience as the page is not coated similarly to TR or Rhodia, the pages take ink really well with fast dry time and show the color with decent saturation and brightness. https://www.midori-japan.co.jp/md/en/products/mdnote/

Pen storage (cases/pouches)

This one is another tough list to make since us fountain pen users have preferences… but the style of pen cases usually align with or aesthetic choices (i.e. clothing/accessories etc….) so you could make some educated guesses about the cases that fit their likings:

•  Leather case: the old-school choice - usually come in black or brown but there are companies out there that make custom ones with funky cool colors that could get some attention out there in coffee shops or libraries. Most fountain pen brands offer these leather cases accompanying their fountain pens so I would suggest asking your fountain pen person for their current collection first, or you could check out third party makers such as Galen leather for their rolls and pouches. In general these leather cases provide a bit of shock resistance so drops wouldn’t be able to severely damage their precious pens. https://www.galenleather.com/collections/leather-pen-cases

•  Canvas cases: these are the environmentally friendlier options to those who want to stay away from leather. Most of these can be hand washed so keeping them clean is also an easier task for the user. However, I would make sure to check the type of material of the lining and canvases as some might prone to give hairline scratches to resin and plastic fountain pens. These artsy style of canvas cases from Rick Shaw might give you some ideas https://www.rickshawbags.com/pen-things

•  Paper/Wood cases: these are more of a decorative piece on a desk or a shelf, just pay attention to the type of wood used for the cases since a few types of wood may impact certain scent onto fountain pens and it might come off as unpleasant, but all in all, these are solid choices and my favorite are from Toyooka Craft https://toyocraft.com/en/home/load_more/pen

•  Hand-sewn cases: these do not provide as much protection as the other cases, but each of them are made with more care and the japanese style fabric will certainly go very well with the fountain pen counterpart. https://sakicollection.com/saki26_p22.pdf 

A brand new fountain pen

I would not recommend you to venture into this one blind, but if you insist and know what your loved ones’ preferences and their wishlists are, then go for them.

Look around over the written reviews or the youtube channel so that you could pick one that would be the best for you.

this Muji fountain pen for example, would fit pretty much any collection as we could always use that one extra back up pen in the bag (watch not included).

Handwritten letters from you

Finally, this might surprise you but a handwritten letter goes a long way, even if it costs barely next to nothing to make, aside from time and a bit of imagination. It’s the thought that counts, and in the holiday season during the challenging times like the recent years, a few words of sympathy might do wonders ;)

These are pretty much my personal opinion, and if you think I miss anything, feel free to leave me a few words in the email, thank you! Happy holidays!