My Fountain Pens, their pros & cons, and whether it's worth it or not.

(This is mostly intended for Indonesians who are thinking about getting fountain pens but don't know which one to get or how to start.)





1. Pilot Kakuno

My Backstory (Skip if you want)

This was my first fountain pen I ever had. I got in Singapore, December 2024, in a Japanese Store. I first didn't know how it worked so I bought a platinum preppy cartridge as well, thinking it was the same thing. Looking back, it was king of stupid, but thats okay! I got a hang of it pretty quickly and I couldn't believe how good this pen was. It was the start of my journey.



My Opinion (Important)

It's often framed as a "Cheap", "Beginner-friendly" fountain pen because to the west, it's cheap and it includes cartridges and instructions on how to use it. Yes, it is beginner friendly. But is it cheap to Indonesians? No. The usual pricing you'd find on Shopee is around Rp.120,000k+ without any discounts. To an average Indonesian, It's quite expensive.

But what about the quality and writing? Well, since these are also marketed for kids, they included holes on the cap for safety reasons. But the holes create another problem: drying out. If you don't use this for 2 weeks or more, the ink inside the pen will dry out and you won't be able to use it till you clean it by either soaking or flushing it out. But in some cases, this drying out problem can also be solved by dipping it in some water and it'll write again. I'm not sure how this works but it works.





2. Jinhao Shark Pens

My Opinion (Important)

First of all, this is a WONDERFUL brand with WONDERFUL pens. Not only are most of these brand's pen's affordable, they are also incredibly high quality for their price. In my opinion, this is the best starting fountain pen. Price at around Rp.~20,000k , the writing quality is incredibly good for this.

Pros: Cheap, Great writing quality, easily ac