Your first month with fountain pens
Most people think the pen is the hard part. It isn't. Here's what the first month of fountain pen writing actually looks like — and what clicks when.
By The JustBeginning Editors · Published May 23, 2026
The fountain pen has a reputation for being a fussy, high-maintenance tool that rewards obsessive tinkering. Some of that reputation is earned — there are people in this hobby who spend more time cleaning pens than using them. But it doesn’t have to be you, and it definitely shouldn’t be you in month one.
Here’s what the first thirty days of fountain pen writing actually looks like: what to do, what goes wrong, and when it stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like writing.
Week 1: Filling and writing
The first thing you do with a new fountain pen is put ink in it. If you bought a Pilot Metropolitan and a CON-70 converter, the process takes ninety seconds: screw the converter onto the grip section, dip the nib into a bottle of ink, and twist the piston knob counterclockwise until the converter fills. Wipe the nib on a paper towel. Write.
That’s it. There’s no priming, no soaking, no break-in period for a modern pen.
What you’ll notice immediately: you’re holding the pen differently. Fountain pens write at a shallower angle than ballpoints — roughly 40–55 degrees instead of 60–90. And you’re pressing almost nothing. The weight of the pen itself is most of the writing pressure you need. If you’re pressing hard enough to indent the paper, you’re pressing too hard.
The pen will feel foreign for the first few days. Your hand is used to fighting through cheap ballpoint resistance. With a fountain pen, the ink flows onto the page with almost no effort, which feels wrong at first. By day four or five, it starts feeling natural. By day ten, writing with a ballpoint starts feeling like dragging a nail across sandpaper.
Week 2: The paper moment
At some point in week two — probably when you use the pen on an index card, a Post-it, or a cheap notebook — you’ll understand why everyone talks about paper.
Cheap paper (anything under ~80gsm with significant wood pulp content) does two things to fountain pen ink: it feathers (the ink wicks outward along the paper fibers, making your writing look fuzzy and wide) and it bleeds through (you can see your writing on the back of the page). Neither is a pen problem. It’s entirely a paper problem.
Swap to a Rhodia pad or a Leuchtturm1917 notebook and both problems disappear. The ink sits on top of the paper instead of soaking in. The line is clean and sharp. The nib glides instead of dragging. This is what the pen was supposed to feel like.
Some people discover they prefer cheaper paper and fine nibs, which are drier and more forgiving. Some people become obsessed with the smoothest possible paper and wettest possible nib. You won’t know which you are until you try both. Week two is when you start finding out.
Week 3: Switching inks
Most beginners use one ink for the first few weeks, then get curious. This is normal. The ink is the part of this hobby where choice is most visible — it changes the color, the sheen, the dry time, and the feel on paper.
Switching inks requires cleaning the pen first. Here’s the fastest method for a converter pen:
- Remove the converter and empty it.
- Fill the converter with room-temperature water and flush it through the nib section twice.
- Repeat until the water runs clear (usually 2–4 cycles).
- Let the pen air-dry for a few minutes, or press the nib gently against a paper towel to absorb remaining water.
- Fill with new ink.
The whole process takes five minutes. Dried or stubborn ink can be soaked in water for 30–60 minutes, which loosens almost everything.
This is also the week most people discover they want a second pen. Having two pens means keeping two different inks loaded simultaneously — a practical blue-black for daily notes and something more expressive for journaling, for instance. This is a completely reasonable position that you are already being set up for by the hobby.
Week 4: The hobby inside the hobby
By week four, something has usually shifted. The pen isn’t a novelty anymore — it’s just your pen, the one you reach for when you need to write something down. At that point, you’ll notice you have opinions about things you didn’t know you had opinions about.
Ink color. You started with one bottle of Diamine Oxford Blue or Midnight. You’re already looking at the color swatches on the Goulet Pens website wondering what Pilot Kon-Peki looks like on your paper, or what a shading ink means and whether you’d notice.
Nib feedback. You know if you like the slight resistance (called “feedback”) of your current nib, or if you want something smoother. You know if you prefer drier ink or wetter ink. These are real preferences, not abstract concepts.
Paper. You’ve written on at least two different papers. You probably have a preference.
None of this means you need to buy anything. A single pen, one or two inks, and a good notebook is a complete system for years. But if the curiosity is pulling you toward a second pen or a different ink, that’s exactly what the TWSBI Eco and Pilot Iroshizuku are for.
Cleaning: the thing people worry about but shouldn’t
Every week or two, or whenever you switch inks, rinse the pen. This is the entire maintenance schedule for a modern fountain pen.
The only situation that requires more attention: you left the pen uncapped or unused for several weeks and the ink dried in the nib. In that case, soak the nib section in a cup of room-temperature water for 30 minutes. The dried ink will soften and flush out cleanly. No damage, no drama.
Don’t use hot water (can warp some materials). Don’t use soap (leaves residue that can gum up feeds). Don’t use anything other than water for routine cleaning. The pen doesn’t need to be perfect-clean between every ink switch — a slight color bleed from the previous ink into the new one for the first few strokes is normal and harmless.
What to do at month two
If you’re still writing with the pen daily at the end of month one — not because you’re trying to, but because it’s just what you reach for — you’re a fountain pen person. Accept it.
A few things change the slope of your experience at this point:
Try one more ink. Pick something with a different character from your first bottle. If you started with a blue-black, try a warm brown or a teal. The difference will be immediately obvious and will tell you something about what you actually like.
Look at the TWSBI Eco. Not to buy necessarily — just to understand what a piston-fill pen feels like. Many pen stores have demo units. A five-minute test tells you whether the convenience of built-in filling is worth it to you.
Read the r/fountainpens wiki. It’s well-written, not overwhelming, and answers the questions that come up naturally in week four.
The hobby has depth if you want it. A dozen pens, a wall of ink bottles, a serious paper collection. But it’s also perfectly satisfying with one pen, one ink, and a good notebook. Month one is how you find out which kind of person you are.
Ready to buy your first pen and ink? See our fountain pen gear guide for the three things worth buying first and everything you can skip.