The best paper I’ve ever found came from a business hotel in Montreal. I swiped every page in my room, asked for more, and asked my business associate to do the same. Sadly, I never could find a source for it in the States and have lost my last piece.

Is there an expert out there who could give us a tour of the great papers?

I own a handful of great pens right now, but my mainstay is a Parker 51 from the 70’s- it’s fantastic. I know now why everyone raves about the 51. The Nib is covered, so there’s no drying out of ink (my Pelikans dry out horribly, as well as my True-Writer- actually he’s the worst). I can put the 51 down for a few minutes while discussing the vagaries of the many worlds theorem (I’m kidding), then pick it back up and write without a hiccup. It’s wonderful.

I used to be afraid of ink, but after losing almost a whole ink-bottle-full onto the carpet, I worry less. Yes, that was a fun day. Let’s just say I’m much more careful with my ink while filling pens and no longer do it on the arm-rest of my favorite chair.

Now that I’ve tried bottled ink, I can’t go back to any other… converters save the day for me with my Truewriters, and cheaper Parkers.

A few warnings: 1) There are always many nice pens that whisper: “Buy me! Buy me!,” and they are much more expensive than Bics. 2) Luckily Ink is fairly cheap… and there’s only a few hundred, or maybe a thousand to choose from… 3) As soon as you use a fountain pen on the last piece of paper you used that old Bic on, you’ll realize two things: (i) Paper quality has gone seriously downhill in the US and (ii) you need to buy better paper (like Rhodia, or Exacompa, or Clairfontaine- oh how I love thee Clairfontaine…).

So: fair-warning!!