Reddit mentions of PILOT Iroshizuku Bottled Fountain Pen Ink, Take-Sumi, Bamboo Charcoal (Black) 50ml Bottle (69224)

Pilot Iroshizuku come up <$20 on Amazon with some regularity.
Right now:

Shin-kai $19.99

Take-sumi $20.84

Tsuyu-kusa $19.48

Look, you don't need to go down the rabbit hole and as much of a pilot fanboy as I am (Fal-con, Fal-con UUUUUUUBER ALLLLLLLES!!!), the Vanishing Point is just odd and expensive for something that's a gadget sort of pen. If you want to up your writing experience, get some awesome inks. You literally can't do any better than Pilot's Iroshizuku line of inks. They make any pen a-motherfucking-mazing. Live that Take-sumi life. Its quality makes Noodler's Black bend over a barrel and request many foul and degrading things be done to it. And one bottle will last you a looooooong time. Get a good blue like Private Reserve DC Electric Blue or Visconti Blue (Lamy's Blue is quite nice as well).

After you get a good ink, get some Rhodia A4 pads. Lovely things, those Rhodias. But also Mead has some tablets which are high quality but I can't remember the name of at the moment because I'm about half a big bottle of wine into the night.

Stay with less expensive pens and realize you don't need to break the bank on this hobby. Look up some Jinhaos, PenBBS, etc. You can have great writing experiences without keeping up with the Joneses. I don't regret my purchases, per se, but I know they weren't necessary. This sub is great and fun to dork around in, I do enjoy it, but it's bad for the wallet.

Peace, love, and Humptiness forever. Time to go put the laundry from the washer into the dryer.

Oh yeah, always empty your pockets before you go to bed. Don't want them puppies going through the wash, ya herrrrrrrrd me?

)


[Edit: I forgot to mention getting a fun and ridiculous pen because they're cheap and people will sometimes think they're super expensive. Like the Jinhao 950 here. I own one with a different design. It's heavy as heck and nearly everyone thinks it's either cool or funny. Lastly, welcome to the subreddit, you should have a good time.]

Ohh I'll have to check that out.

And I see you like Faber Castell, haha. But you should definitely keep checking massdrop every now and then. They get some good deals for fountain pens (everything else too)

But seriously, you're not kidding. After getting into fountain pens and writing with them, I take my time to write legibly. I love it!

And really good ink isn't bad at all! Check out Pilot Iroshizuku

OK, that is the basic, clean package. There are a lot of pens that will meet your needs, as others have said, the Pilot Metropolitan is a really nice pen, and will work very well, it is a solid win, and is recommended a lot because it is a very nice starting pen. Good looks and writes well.

Alternatives that would be good are the Nemosine Singularity medium or fine nib (I would avoid Extra Fine for a beginner). If you like the shape, the Lamy Safari is a pen a lot of people like, I don't think they are the best, but they are well regarded and reviewed.

There are others, Parker IM, Cross, etc. I also really like a lot of the chinese pens, but really think you might want to get down the road before jumping in on those in general. The only exception might be the Jinhao x750, but it is a larger/heavier pen.

Get a converter with whatever pen you buy (the Pilot and Nemosine come with converters, the Nemosine has a nice screw piston converter).

Now, get some ink. You are pretty good on budget, so if you want to go all out, get some Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi. This is an expensive ink, but one of the nicest inks you can get. It is a luxury to use, and the bottle is exquisite. If you get this ink, you have hit your budget.

A little less expensive ink, but really good, get some Noodler's Black, EEL Black, or X Feather (if planning to write on really bad paper).

Hope that helps, you will get a nicer kit than the package above. If you want to add a journal/sketchbook Pentalic works well with fountain pens for cheaper than some of the other brands.

Also Yama Budo for $15.29 and Take Sumi for $14.87

Starter: Lamy Safari with some cartridges.

I have this pen at work and use cartridges rather than a converter to save time and prevent potential catastrophes of filling them. If you like the fountain pen in the GIF, TWSBI Vac 700, should be a great second starter or you can get a converter; just know you'll need bottled ink.

My favorite ink right now is Pilot Iroshizuku, lines are clean for most of my foutain pens, it dries decently fast and is easy to clean out of the pen aswell.

What marketed place on the totem pole? Montblanc doesn't even acknowledge the existence of other pen companies, they don't advertise their ink as being superior to others.

On US Amazon Iroshizuku and Montblanc inks are both around $20, and Montblanc bottles have 10 ml more ink.

>Though everything you said holds true for both montblanc’s ink lineup and Pilot’s

Then why does Pilot's ink put Montblanc's to shame if they are so similar? To me it seems like the difference between the two is just in color, not quality.