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I love the Leuchturm notebooks, the B6+ soft cover format being my favourite. Would love to try the Midori ones - I think the minimalism invites you to customise them. To make a sleeve, or a cover, and make it yours. Very clever thinking on Midori's part!

You DID NOT repeat the NAME of your fifth and highest rated journal, you said “this one” multiple times. So frustrating. Didn’t even write it on screen. Then at very end you slurred the name once. Not worth subscribing.

The fraying is gorgeous :) I don't believe you can beat these for the price (here in the UK), assuming one likes the look of them, which I do.

Have stainless steel and titanium models. Wonderful. I bought a single red refill from bastion when the black ran out by mistake. Bought a pack of blue refills when I realised. I won't need to replace any for a long time

I had 2 Lamy Safaris that wrote well for a couple of months, then both totally dried up and refused to write, regardless of cleaning, etc. No more Lamys for me!

I’ve been considering the Kaweco Sport, but given how I’m totally with you on the TWSBI, Safari, and Preppy (haven’t tried the Explorer) I think I’ll take you for your word and give it a pass…!

I can kinda understand what you mean by the Preppy. It’s a starter pen, after using it you should know that you’re into fountain pens and move on to something better. So yeah no reason to buy again. I probably would have used it longer if it didn’t flex in the middle.

Great review of very similar pens.

An excellent presentation. I totally agree with you.

you must be surrounded by hot babes 24/7

Wax seals on bottles are still used today, most famously with Maker's Mark whiskey.

I have purchased fountain pens up to $150 price range. I’ve had bad experiences with all of them. I stopped using them because they are fussy, finicky, and not compatible with most paper. I have lots of inks leftover. I use my ink up with dip pens now, usually for art practice. The fountain pen inks are too fugitive for serious art.

Just clicked on your video about 5pens you’d never buy again-and my Kaweco Sport has similar issues. I use Kaweco ink with it and have been very frustrated that the ink stops flowing at random moments; apparently with a will of its own. I will try this because it makes sense that the channel may have been molded improperly. Thanks so much for such a clear explanation - you probably saved me a trip to the pen repair for a $30 pen😊

If platinum preppy and prefonte are prone to cracking then platinum plaisir is a good option...most people compare plaisir with preppy but the real competition is with Pilot kakuno

Any alternative to twsbi (piston filler) in the same price range.

Thank you. Really brillant video

I have dozens of TWSBI pens, most of them Ecos, and no cracking. I think I’m generally fairly gentle with my pens. I was super impressed with the Explorer, but haven’t tested it for longevity. I’ve had horrible luck with Lamy pens in general. Out of about seven pens, I only have two nibs that are decent. And one of those was a gold nib I bought to save one of my mid-range pens.

I’ve had long use of the Prefounte pens in terms of body build and holding ink.

❤

ofcourse i get this video recommended to me right after i buy a moleskine

The under $50 fountain pen brands, that over the years I have found to be consistently reliable are Lamy and Twsbi. As a hook handed lefty writer that contorts my hand into a completely unnatural position to get the best out of any fountain pen, nib quality is everything.

What about Traveler’s Company notebooks?

Ok i have stacks and stacks of Moleskine. I begun with them and always bought the same. However, i hate the paper because of the fountain pen. You had convinced le to give a try to Rhodia. That is one of the reason i adore TH-cam. You never know how the next video will change your way. I push the like button and subscribed

Thank you for this. As a fountain pen newbie, I appreciate this video! So although I am going for a cheap 1st fountain pen to experiment with, I dont want it to be so bad its disposable!

My Pilot Explorer cap liner cracked/split too after only a couple of months. Loved it when I first got it. Thought it was the perfect fp to replace the cheap ballpoint edc I kept in my shirt pocket. The Explorer was lightweight, relatively inexpensive, and a reliable writer. My first fp was the Pilot Metropolitan and the metal body sadly was too heavy to keep in my shirt pocket. Explorer could have been perfect. Sad to see someone else had problems with the cap liner breaking and no longer capping.

I think buying Safari was not a great choice for me, that beautiful clip and pinacolada colour are the only good things in it. It got two crakes in a week with moderate use.

I bought my first Preppy about 12 years ago on a trip to Japan. I just retired it this week because it started leaking. Yes, the cap cracked years ago, but a little bit of Scotch tape fixed that. 12 years of use for about $5 is not too shabby.

So sorry your pearl Sport gave you problems. My pear Sport F worked great out of the box.

1. Kaweco Sport - I have 2 and have had no problems with cracking. I find both lovely to use. My pearl version seems like a more durable plastic than my translucent one which feels brittle. So far no problem, but I am not optimistic about it surviving a fall onto a hard floor. 2. Pilot Explorer - I completely agree with you. Fantastic writer but the cap dies entirely too soon rendering the pen useless. Also I won’t buy another Metropolitan because they don’t fit my grip - the barrel to grip step is forever in a bad spot. I do recommend the Pilot Kakunas - dependable writers, fun colors, fun nibs and durable enough. Excellent bang for the buck. 3. Platinum Preppy - I half agree. The Prefounte (whatever) is not worth the extra money. It seems more fragile than the Preppy & both of mine leak annoyingly into the cap so the grip is all inky when you take the cap off. Grr. I totally recommend a Preppy to anyone who wants to try a fountain pen without committing. For $5-ish you cannot get a better pen. None of mine have died, but if one did, it owes me nothing. I got my money’s worth long ago. There are lots of throw away rollerballs that cost as much or more than a Preppy and are not nearly as much fun! 4. TWSBI Eco - I have 2 and have had no issues with cracking. I have swapped nibs a few times and not had any problems. You really should get the Irish Green one. Get it with your favorite nib and don’t swap it ;-) It looks so cool! 5. Lamy Safari EF - thanks for the warning. I am very happy with my F nibs in my Safaris but I have noticed they are not the wettest nibs I own. I guess I am not shocked the EF is not good and I will avoid it. Also, I have notice that black nibs in general tend to be drier than regular nibs. I suspect the black coating is the culprit.

Maruman Mnemosyne or Midori MD. Mark+Fold is very nice too.

Leuchtturm performs similarly to moleskine for me! It bleeds so much and sheening/shading inks do not show well, and the paper texture gives a slight drag with writing... Tomoe River is still my favourite sigh

I love the Kaweko sports looks and design but I hate the nibs. Scratchy, skips and just horrible. I don't understand how people call them reliable ! I've watched a lot of videos of people going through a ton of hoops to get make the nib better but it's not worth all that time and effort. I even bought a second one thinking I just got a rare bad nib. And the second one was worse. Absolute trash.

The preppy's way too dry a writer for me. Combined with dry inks it gives me this really squeaky sound when it draws across the page which is very grating for me. Kaweco nibs are so inconsistent. You can buy 'premium' ones though.

I actually gave my Lamy Safari to my son. I bought it in fine and it wrote like butter on a hot skillet, but I hated the fact that it felt so very cheap for the price point. Also, when unscrewing the barrel, it got "stuck" for some reason and I had to twist a little harder to get the barrel to come off so I could get to the converter. When I did that, I heard a crunch inside and wondered what happened. All I did was apply a little more pressure to twisting, but I didn't manhandle the pen or pull on it or anything. When the barrel came away, I noticed one of the "teeth" where the converter slides in, was chipped and coming apart. I had NO idea how this happened as the only thing I did was twist the barrel like normal to get the thing unscrewed. So I basically took that one "tooth" off and it worked fine after that. But to break like that for doing something normal, no, not going to support anything Lamy after that. So, I gave it to my 9 year old son who had been eyeing my growing collection of pens. I also bought him a Wing Sung 3013 as a starter pen because they are so cheap and excellent writers. My bad experiences have mainly been with Jinhao and Hongdian pens. Hongdian N12 recently when the finial came off and the threads seem stripped as the finial will not screw back on. I just got this pen recently and it's already broken and unusable. I will not be buying this model again, but my other Hongdian pens are working great.

would you recommend this over a lamy safari?

I agree with your assessment of the Preppy, Eco, and Safari 💯 My favorite Platinum is the Plaisir. I love my TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR. I love my Eco but same problem, and I’m a tinkerer. I love my AL-Star (F) and the Safari (1.1) but not the (EF). Too dry!

I have a Lamy Al-Star. It was my second pen and I liked my first pen better, a Cross Bailey. I recently bought a Lamy Safari because I liked the color so much, Violet Blackberry. It was really feather light and I like the weight of the Al-Star better. I’ve since bought three Pilots, an 845, a 743 and an 823, all write rings around the Lamy pens. Of course they cost more.

I discovered Hobonichi with Tomoe River Paper last year and I'm now addicted to it.

My Kaweco Sport is reliable, but the fine nib is much too scratchy for me to enjoy writing with it. On the TWSBI front, I have never bought one of their more expensive pens and probably won't. What I do like is the TWSBI GO with the spring in it. I buy them in the broadest nib I can find, and at their price point, I keep them filled with inks I don't use often--my rare Iroshizuku's and such. They're great for that, and I don't have to worry about the acrylic construction, which I'd heard about from other people. Several years ago, there was a mania for giving certain pens an eyedropper fill. Two pens were primarily used--the Platinum Preppy and the Pilot Varsity. The Preppy was easier to convert, so I went with those. I bought a few, bought the o-rings and the silicone goo, and set to work. It was tedious and finicky, but I filled several. I do have to say that I have a couple of them lying around that are still working wonderfully with the remainders of their original fills. They just don't dry out. As for my Safari, I bought it when they first came out in the US, and that may be almost 30 years ago. It has a medium point. I loved it when I first filled it, and I still do.

Thank you for your review. Different things work for different people. YMMV. I have about 40 pens, but of them all, I have one TWSBI Eco that was never out of rotation. I have 4 TWSBI Ecos -- the baby blue; the white rose gold; the indigo blue with bronze; and the creme rose gold. The baby blue's been my workhorse pen, inked and never returned in its box since I purchased it. I do have a couple of Kaweco Sports and 5 Lamy Safaris. I don't use them as much, except for the Lamy Safari Stripe Japan Limited Edition.

As for the Safari EF nib writing dry, hey, you need to learn how to increase the ink flow. It's easy. Lots of TH-cam videos on how to do it. Check them out.

During many years of use I have NEVER had ANY problems, dry nibs or anything else, with any Kaweco Sport

I don't like the standing desks. But I have a Laro Moll Winner adjustable in height and tilt of its surface sitting desk that definitely worth the money I've paid 25 years ago to buy it. It was super expensive back then ( and it is still now) but it is still in pristine condition, heavy, steady, and made with super high quality materials. These desks are supposed to be made for children so you can adjust them from a very low to a very high position. They can accommodate people up to tow meters height. Not that I'm that tall anyway!

I haven't tried the pens of your list aside the Lamy ones which I agree that are not that good pens but not because of their nibs. The thing that I don't like in Lamy pens is the way that the front part of these pens is made with the cut flat shape for fingers that doesn't work for me. I also don't like these pens because they take only proprietary cartridges, only the Lamy ones that are not available everywhere. I use my fountain pens for urban sketching and it is more convenient to hold with me sealed spare cartridges instead of a bottle of ink in order to refill a converter. But the Lamy pens don't take the universal cartridges which are available filled with De Atramentins, Diamine, Kaweco, Platinum, Diplomat and other inks. My favourite pens are the JinHao that I bought years ago along with a set of different nibs including the fude ones. I can change or replace the nibs on these pens along with their feeders and they have a very nice and balanced for the hand shape.

The sketchbooks that are great for fountain and dip pens are the Talens Art Creation ones. They are available in two different colours of paper. The creamy yellowish one and the bright white one, blank at 140 gsm and 80 sheets per sketchbook ( 160 pages). These books are great for pencils, colour pencils and water media as well if you use water media in moderation and they are super affordable particularly in EU. The A5 one costs 3,5 euros in order to get an idea with the smaller sizes being cheaper. Moleskine and Leuchttrum1917 are way too overpriced for the quality of the paper that they offer IMHO with less pages and not that sturdy covers. Greetings from Athens Greece. :)