The historic trajectory of the fountain pen is a bit of ironic: what started as an essential merchandise for the educated individual to write down cleaner and quicker is now a distinct segment writing instrument that encourages one to decelerate. And by area of interest, I imply a rising international market price $1 billion.
The world of fountain pens will get deeper as you analysis. Bodily talking, there’s a pen for everybody on the market: from a sleekly polished exterior to a extremely adorned metalwork one to a 100+ yr outdated classic pen. And the nibs could be simply as various and customizable with gem stones, designs, and laser engravings, to not point out the numerous restricted version pens that drive the collector’s market. The thought of “one pen for the remainder of your life” is an odd one should you’re used to the present enshittification of merchandise, fbut sustainability is a draw for fountain pen customers.
“You’re a short lived caretaker; the pens are designed to final your total life, your children’ total life, and their children’ total life,” notes Alvin Nguyen, who works at a Chicago pen retailer and individually buys and sells uncommon pens. The Japanese phrase for “fountain pen” has this longevity enshrined: “万年筆,” with its three Kanji individually that means “ten-thousand years brush/pen.”
For an trade over two centuries outdated, it tracks that espresso has appeared a number of instances in pen and ink kind. Impressed by Japanese kissaten cafes and the espresso jelly dessert savored in them, the Platinum Century 3776 “My Favourite Issues – Espresso Jelly” ($368 retail on the time of writing) includes a 14K gold nib. It comes with a wealthy “Darkish Syrup” mixable ink, harking back to the darkish grade maple syrup utilized in espresso jelly recipes, and is packaged up neatly in its personal field.
As a part of its Espresso Version assortment, trade stalwart Sheaffer produced a fountain pen (in a smooth brown gradient, after all) with a espresso cup emblem on its cap and an ink scented with espresso. To take it a step additional, Manufactum paired up with ink producer DeAtramentis and created an unique, coffee-derived ink. In keeping with the product web page, “the espresso has been filtered a number of instances too and afterwards coagulated and introduced into the specified consistency by utilizing glycol.” For those who assume that is too kitschy or a type of “as a result of we are able to” merchandise, they aren’t the one espresso inks I discovered; there are complete collections of gastronomic-scented inks on the market.
The fountain pen, as we all know it at this time, is made up of 4 important components: the nib, the ink supply system, the barrel, and the cap. There are totally different mechanisms for filling the ink reservoir and feeding it to the nib, however I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of all of it. Relaxation assured, there are lots of websites, boards, movies, and pen golf equipment out there to help together with your training.
The primary patent for a fountain pen was filed in 1809, granted to Frederick Fölsch in England. However, patents don’t at all times align with the primary inventor, and pens with reservoirs weren’t an exception. As a result of fountain pens have undergone many evolutions, there are totally different opinions about who invented them. In 953, there was a pen talked about within the Islamic historic guide “Kitab al-Majalis wa ‘l-musayarat” the place “ink ought to solely stream when desired and the ink mustn’t stain or leak.” And within the sixteenth century, a number of European inventors described the existence of “reservoir pens.” On the time of the patent submitting, Fölsch improved upon the frequent ink-dipping pens by putting in a spring-loaded valve on one finish that, when opened, the air stress allowed ink to stream.
Further advances to the ink reservoir had been made by Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru in 1827, and in 1884, Lewis Waterman patented a capillary feed system that used gravity and capillary motion for ink stream. Early pens had been handmade by artisans, however with the introduction of factories and mass manufacturing, they turned extra accessible to on a regular basis folks.
There’s an undercurrent between lots of my characteristic articles: this return to analog supplies and devices, be it hand-painted indicators, neon, or board video games. All of it encourages you to decelerate. “We’ve got seen large progress within the trade simply at my firm alone, and the expansion has been nearly unbelievable,” says Nguyen, noting that the pandemic kicked the resurgence off, particularly when folks had been searching for something to do. Details again him up: the worldwide writing instrument market—which incorporates pens, pencils, and markers—is projected to succeed in $23.9 billion by 2030, whereas the stationery market (as a result of ink and paper are important, too) is projected to succeed in $40.4 billion by 2033. “There are such a lot of methods to benefit from the pens—not solely simply how they really feel to write down with and having that sensation the place you are feeling such as you’re writing with one thing particular—but additionally simply reconnecting with actuality, like journaling.”
In a extra granular view, a beforehand cited report discovered that the fountain pen phase is predicted to develop from $1 billion in 2024 to $1.28 billion by 2034. Within the US, 44% of gross sales are pushed by the collector group, who worth premium and customized pens.
Brandon Reed, collector and refurbisher at Rocky High Pen Co, is a part of that collector group. “I believe there’s an curiosity that’s rising within the fountain pen market as a result of our world is so digital that there’s a want and a draw again to the tactile pen-to-paper strategies of writing, speaking, and the entire like. Particularly now with ChatGPT, anybody can write something and it may possibly sound great.” He provides, “Not everybody can write one thing with a pen and make it look great.”
Reed first realized about fountain pens over twenty years in the past when he seen his professors writing with “what I assumed was the best factor ever.” As soon as he skilled the distinct tactile really feel of fountain pen to paper, and realized concerning the craftsmanship behind them, he was hooked. Ninety-five % of the time, he’s utilizing fountain pens, and the remaining 5% is when ballpoint pens are required. His assortment is now over 100 pens, however two years into amassing, he started repairing and restoring pens, taking particular care to protect the unique nib and feed. Those that catch his eye nowadays are the 100+ year-old pens, typically engraved with somebody’s title or location. All year long, Reed attends pen reveals and membership gatherings (“Really, on Friday evening, we had what’s known as a Pelikan hub—85 folks got here to that.”) to remain linked to the pen group.
With a continuously evolving assortment of round a dozen pens, Nguyen’s assortment technique is extra of a supply, promote, or commerce one: he buys to get pleasure from and appears for more and more uncommon ones. He’ll additionally pay associates who journey to Japan to supply pens for him, explaining, “There’s a joke within the trade that the entire finest merchandise—probably the most coveted stuff, and their finest concepts—they don’t depart the nation, as a result of they’re Japanese exclusives, so then it turns into rather more uncommon to see them stateside.”
Considered one of his favourite pens he’s bought off is the limited-edition Pilot M90, produced in 2008 as a re-creation of the favored 1971 MYU pen. In contrast to most pens, it has an built-in nib, that means the nib and barrel are machined from a single strong piece of stainless-steel. A pleasant profit from the trade progress is the increase of unbiased makers and artisans, like nibmeisters, who create customized nibs and repair current ones. Evaluating them to jewellery makers, Nguyen says, “You’re engaged on the tipping materials of pens, which could be as little as two ridges of your fingerprint extensive, and so they’re working at that scale with actually excessive precision, and most of it’s finished by hand.” He references nibmeister Regalia Writing Labs’ intricately detailed work and I can see the comparability (this prototype nib, concerned “hours of hand-filing and forming, within the pursuit of letting the construction of the metal cling by a thread,” bought for $9,999!).
A specialty espresso firm and a fountain pen producer’s pen collab when? In all my analysis, I couldn’t discover this collab—somebody ship me a be aware if it exists!—which signifies that this advertising thought is ripe for the taking. To jot down this, I realized a dizzying quantity of pen data and historical past, plus a deeper appreciation for slowing down…and that I may nicely be looking for a fountain pen within the close to future. Nguyen says, “Within the maker group, I believe that persons are seeing that they will create one thing that folks get pleasure from, and I believe that’s a draw that all of us have, whether or not it’s espresso or whether or not it’s fountain pens.”
Jenn Chen (@thejennchen) is an Editor At Massive at Sprudge Media Community. Learn extra Jenn Chen on Sprudge.
