A fountain pen is a pen that has a reservoir of water-based ink. Like something forbidden, has the thought of owning a fountain pen left you feeling like you were out of your league? Captivated by the art of writing, the type of pencil or pen you use makes a tremendous impact on your penmanship. Are you intrigued by the classic elegance of artistic, well engineered fountain pens that can seduce, as well as intimidate you at the same time?

Today the fountain pen is not used as much anymore with the creation of the Bic pen and the pens that come with ink in them and when they run out, you simply throw them away and use another. It was not until the early 1920s that fountain pen improvements not only gained in popularity but also in reliability.

The first mention of fountain pen can be traced to the Egyptians. If you take good care of your fountain pen, it will last you a lifetime.

There are two techniques that allowed fountain pens to be self-sufficient: The lever filler and the button filler. If traveling by plane, it is a general rule to follow with fountain pens to fill or empty them completely and keep them stored in vertical position with the point upward.

When not using the pen, keep it stored vertically with point upward to prevent ink from settling in and clogging the feed. When ink doesn’t flow properly, the gap between the tines should be checked and cleaned with a razor blade. Pen cases are available in the shape of an easel, upright-standing frames, cheroot box-like cases with transparent glass tops, cups and many more.

Pen cases are made of wood, leather, metal and glass with detailed attention to aesthetics. Fountain Pen innovators created filling systems that gave optimum performance in their reservoir designs. International cartridges of all makes can be used in some fountain pens, while others accept only cartridges of their own brand.

The progression of writing apparatuses has taken a profound leap of success since the quill pen. The eyedropper filler ink pens have the maximum capacity to hold ink, with the least capacity attributed to the piston refills pens.