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All Dispatches

Field Notes in Action

Fountain Pen Tests

February 18, 2009 by Bryan

FIELD NOTES have found a lot of fans in the fountain pen community, largely thanks to some good reviews on enthusiast sites like Fountain Pen Network, Richard's Pens, and a few others. Fountain pen fan John G. Lowe of Laurel, Maryland decided to go a step further and try out more than a dozen pens -- new and old, of various styles -- in a FIELD NOTES notebook and mailed us the book for reference. His complete results follow:

Note that you can see the back of each page in the next photo. Click on any photo to enlarge it. His conclusion?

"I'd say this paper holds up rather well to my fountain pens… This paper seems to perform better than Moleskine."

Here's the complete book for reference:

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Parker 51 fountain pen, medium nib
Private Reserve Ink (Blue/Black)

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2007 ST Dupont Medium Rollerball (Black)

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2008 Mont Blanc fountain pen, medium nib
Private Reserve Ink (Ebony Blue)

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2005 Pelican fine ball point (blue)

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1960 Parker 61 Flighter fountain pen, medium nib
Private Reserve ink (Ebony Blue)

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1970 Pilot Elite fountain pen, fine nib
("Pocket Pen" designed to draw Kanji Characters)
Pilot ink (Blue Black)

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2008 Lamy Studio fountain pen, broad nib
Parker ink (Blue Black)

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2008 Lamy Studio fountain pen, medium nib
Parker ink (Blue Black)

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2008 Lamy Studio rollerball (blue)

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2008 Lamy Studio ballpoint (blue)

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1966 Parker Concord fountain pen, medium nib
Visconti ink (custom mix, 90% Red, 10% Brown)

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1955 Parker 51 Demi fountain pen, fine nib
Private Reserve Ink (Naples Black)

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2008 Mont Blanc Meisterstuck medium-point rollerball (black)

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1980s Waterman Liason fountain pen, medium nib
Ink unknown

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1970 Mont Blanc #32 fountain pen, double broad nib
Parker ink (Blue Black)

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Parker 51 fountain pen, fine nib (hard pressure trying to bleed through paper)
Private Reserve Ink (Blue/Black)

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1970s Waterman Gentleman fountain pen, broad nib
Ink unknown

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John's observations and conclusions

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Thanks a million, John! Sorry it took us so long to share your work with everyone, but we really appreciate the time you took to test the book so throroughly and I bet others will, too.