Grass Padrique | The Fabulous Scientist
If you asked me a year ago whether I could attend a pen meet with only five fountain pens, I would have laughed nervously while quietly stuffing fifteen pens into my bag “just in case.”
Yet here I am.
I’m attending a local pen meet later this month and, with my collection continuing to grow at an alarming but entirely justifiable rate, I decided to challenge myself: if I could only bring five pens, which ones would make the cut?
Naturally, this required a selection process that was rigorous, scientific, and absolutely not influenced by favoritism.
After careful consideration, I settled on five categories that every worthy pen contender had to fulfill:
- Pretty Pen – The pen had to embody the overall theme of my collection: chatoyancy, pearlescence, and enough shimmer to distract me during meetings. Ideally, it should also be so beautiful that I would instinctively shield it during a building evacuation.
- Smooth-Writing Nib – If I’m going to penable a newcomer, they deserve to experience a nib so smooth that it rewires their expectations of what fine writing can feel like.
- Limited Edition – Scarcity may not increase writing performance, but it certainly increases my willingness to stare at a pen admiringly from different angles under direct sunlight.
- Novelty – Every pen meet deserves at least one conversation starter, preferably one that causes people to ask, “Wait, that’s actually a fountain pen?”
- Penabler Pen – The gateway drug. Affordable enough not to induce cardiac arrest when someone looks up the price, but good enough to start the inevitable descent into the fountain pen rabbit hole.
With the categories established, here are the five chosen representatives.
The Pretty Pen: Pelikan M200 Cherry Blossom
This category was surprisingly difficult because, if I’m being honest, most of my collection exists because my brain sees chatoyance and immediately shuts down all financial decision-making processes.
Still, the crown has to go to the Pelikan M200 Cherry Blossom.
This pen is absurdly beautiful. The baby pink pearlescent body catches light in a way that makes me rotate it in my hand like some sort of gemstone appraiser. The translucent body lets you watch the ink slosh around inside, which is somehow infinitely more entertaining than it has any right to be. What’s surprising is that I didn’t even like pink as much as I like blue but this one is so pretty, I just had to have it.
If fountain pens had beauty pageants, this one would at least make the finals.
The Smooth Operator: Asvine C80
For the smoothest nib in my collection, the title goes to the Asvine C80.
This nib simply disappears on paper. Writing with it feels less like dragging metal across cellulose and more like gently guiding the pen while it does all the work itself.
The ergonomics help too. The body fits my hand perfectly and makes long writing sessions effortless. It has become such a constant in my rotation that if it ever goes missing, I will probably organize a search party.
The Limited Edition: TWSBI Kai
If you’re part of a writing community and have heard of TWSBI fountain pens, you’ve probably encountered the TWSBI Kai.
As my first piston filler, it holds a special place in my collection, but sentimentality isn’t the only reason it’s coming along to the pen meet.
The combination of the chatoyant blue body and rose gold trim is simply gorgeous. The nib performs beautifully even on ordinary paper, which makes it dangerously easy to keep reaching for it day after day.
It also helps that very few enthusiasts in my local circle own one, which practically guarantees it will become a conversation piece.
And if nobody asks about it, I will probably find an excuse to bring it up myself.
The Conversation Starter: Wancher Puchico
Every pen meet needs a wildcard.
Enter the Wancher Puchico, one of the smallest fountain pens in existence and proof that engineers occasionally wake up and choose chaos.
People see it and immediately ask two questions:
“Is that really a fountain pen?”
“Does it actually write?”
The answer to both is yes.
Despite its tiny size, it is a surprisingly capable writer with a smooth nib and a beautiful pearlescent blue body. It is equal parts novelty item and functional writing instrument.
Naturally, I intend to pair it with my smallest notebook because commitment to the bit is important. I might even wear it as a necklace as I did during the Manila Pen Meet early this year.
The Great Penabler: Jinhao 82 Mini
If my mission is to convert an unsuspecting newcomer into a fountain pen enthusiast, this is the weapon of choice.
The Jinhao 82 Mini continues to surprise me with how much quality it delivers for its price. It writes smoothly, looks fantastic, and comes in finishes that satisfy my apparently incurable attraction to chatoyant materials.
This is the pen I hand to people who are curious but hesitant, especially those whose first reaction to fountain pen prices is a facial expression usually reserved for medical bills.
The risk, of course, is that they enjoy it too much.
First comes the affordable starter pen.
Then comes bottled ink.
Then comes “just one gold nib.”
Before long they’re explaining piston mechanisms to friends at dinner parties and arguing online about the merits of Japanese versus German nib sizing.
I have seen this happen before.
Mostly because it happened to me.
Final Thoughts
Choosing only five pens turned out to be much harder than expected, but perhaps that’s the point.
A small selection says more about your collection than bringing everything you own.
These five pens represent the things I value most in fountain pens: beauty, writing experience, rarity, novelty, and accessibility.
Also, limiting myself to five pens significantly reduces the probability of accidentally bringing an entire pen case that weighs more than my laptop.
Probably.
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