10 Best Pilot Fountain Pens For Every Budget – Reviews & Guide

Fountain Pens have a class of their own. When you write with fountain pens, it's like you are making a writing statement. It's a creation of a unique art form. However, many people still don't realize the practical usage of pens, especially those who deal with writing every day.

People have been using its counterpart, ballpoint pens, more frequently. But, you have to exert more pressure while writing on paper with ballpoint pens. That is not the case with fountain pens. As soon as you touch the paper with its nib, the ink begins to flow automatically. You need to correctly angle the pen, and it will take care of the rest.

As the pilot fountain pens beginning to gain popularity, the demand is increasing. You can find various brands selling fountain pens, but which one is the best? That's why we have reviewed the best pilot fountain pens on the market for you to ease your buying process.

So, let's help you find the best fountain pens to create your artwork without any more delay.

Best Pilot Fountain Pen -Reviews

Consider the following eight pilot fountain pens that we have reviewed that guarantees to provide you with an enjoyable writing experience. Take them wherever you want and let them be a part of your crucial writing journey.

1. LAMY Black 2000 Fountain Pen

German-designed Lamy 2000 is an iconic pen that was introduced first during the 1960s. Since then, it has been updated with many features but has maintained its consistent performance and popularity.

The pen boasts a brushed Makrolon body, platinum-plated 14k gold hooded nib, piston filling system, and a brushed stainless steel grip. At once, you can overlook the modern, streamlined design of the Lamy 2000, but you cannot neglect the pen's high tolerance and precision.

You can easily view the ink level inside the pen through 4 small and transparent windows. They are attached around the barrel's circumference of the pen. Furthermore, the pen's weight is evenly distributed such that it feels perfectly balanced in the hands. You have a weighted front end due to the stainless steel section.

The pen's gold nib must be appreciated as it makes the whole writing process so effortless and smooth. Additionally, the gold nib is equipped with a spring that forms a cushioned surface for you to write comfortably.

Another interesting factor is its piston filler, which holds sufficient ink to perform everyday tasks. The mechanism functions smoothly. It does not use a cartridge or converter. Lastly, the Lamy 2000 comes in a simple black cardboard box. The box design perfectly fits the pen inside.

2. Pelikan 801850 M205 Piston Fill Fountain Pen

Pelikan is back again with the top-quality fountain pen, which is brighter than ever. Since 1838, Pelican is widely known as a good manufacturer of the pen with the finest available collection to choose from. The classy M205 fountain pen is highly durable to last for a longer period.

The intense blue color provides a certain familiarity with the Green-marbled color pen. Also, the range of blue shade gives a certain depth to the pen. With chrome-colored trim and stainless steel nib, the pen comes with a chrome clip and black medallion on the cap.

Adding to the pen's design, the two chrome barrels encircle the pen around both the barrel's and cap's bottom. It also includes a small transparent section from where you can check the ink level within the pen. Which makes it one of the best pen for pilots.

The new and updated version of the M205 pen series offers a combination of a ballpen and differentiated piston filling mechanism in a fountain pen. Unlike other fountain pens, this one has a polished and shiny silver stainless steel nib.

The extra-fine steel nibs come in various sizes, including broad, medium, and fine size. You can select the nib size as per your writing style. Furthermore, the balance and the weight of the pen is good. It offers a great grip so that your fingers won't slip on any surface.

3. Scribe Sword Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges

Scribe Sword Ink Cartridges is known for its smooth and effortless performance. When you try to sign crucial documents, you wouldn't want your pen to get stuck in the middle. That's why Scribe Sword Ink Cartridges help you to glide the nib on any paper smoothly. You can even use this pen for calligraphy, all because of the great nib.

If you use a Pilot fountain pen and are out of ink cartridge, Scribe Sword Fountain Pen Cartridge is here to help you out. The standard size cartridge will fit almost all sizes of a fountain pen.

Just like the Scribe Sword pen tries to create an excellent and effortless writing experience with its smooth nib, the ink cartridges also provide smooth and perfect lines without any hassle. The black ink cartridge is designed to draw and write from very broad to fine lines.

The product comes with a package of 30 black ink cartridges having standard size. The ink is perfect for most calligraphy and fountain pens.

4. Kaweco Classic Sport Fountain Pen

Another great pen in the fountain pen series is the Kaweco Classic Sport Fountain pen with a fine nib. If you are searching for a fountain pen for the first time, this could be your perfect option. At a relatively affordable price point, the fountain pen makes a great addition to your pen collection.

The key feature of the fountain pen is its construction. The plastic resin construction makes the pen quite lightweight and balanced. Also, it is adorned with branding on the cap with Kaweco Sport engraved with gold letters and a gold medallion with a logo on the cap.

As far as the appearance is concerned, the pen is compact and small, making it ideal for carrying as you travel. As you close the cap, the size becomes even shorter, and if you post the cap, the size increases by an inch, which is great for writing, drawing, or calligraphy purposes.

Another interesting feature about the cap is its shape. Due to octagonal sides, the pen does not roll whether the cap is posted or not. Furthermore, the pen is a cartridge style pen that can accept any universal ink. You also add the Kaweco squeeze converter to squeeze the ink.

5. Lamy Safari Fountain Pen

Another addition from Lamy to the fountain pen list is the very versatile Lamy Safari Fountain Pen. The pen is built like a complete tank that can take any beating. Come in a range of colors, you can use the pen practically anywhere, at school, office, or home.

The Lamy Safari fountain pen is equipped with a piston converter. As you dip the tip of the fine nib in the ink bottle, you can twist the piston converter to pull the ink. It works as an injection; however, you have to rotate the piston to create a vacuum. Thus, it offers the easiest ways to refill your pen.

Another thing worth noticing about the pen is the small window. It enables you to view the ink reservoir so that you can refill the reservoir before the time. Furthermore, the elegant, modern, and sleek design of the Lamy Safari feels good in the hands.

Is there something left? Yes, the smooth writing experience. The pen's ink flows smoothly as soon as it touches the surface. The nib glides effortlessly without any scratches. Moreover, the pen comes with a clip attached to the cap.

6. Pilot Metropolitan Collection Fountain Pen (Silver Barrel)

Over the thousand years, the Pilot's Fine writing collection has created a writing culture with its exceptional fountain pens collection. The pens available boasts quality, craftsmanship, design, and art. That's why most prominent writers and pen enthusiast's first choice is Pilot Metropolitan Collection Fountain Pen.

The pilot vanishing point combines the elegant style and brilliant design in the retractable fountain pen. With 18k gold and medium nib, you can feel the performance of the pen while writing. Also, the internal mechanism will allow you to retract the gold nib into the barrel even when you are not using it.

When it comes to refilling the ink, you can do so with pilot metropolitan Iroshizuku inks. The name is derived from Japanese words where Iro stands for a wide range of colors and Shizuku means droplets. That means you can fill the ink in different colors to fill the reservoir and make your writing look even more beautiful.

7. Parker Jotter Fountain Pen

Since 1954, Parker Jotter has manufactured ballpen and fountain pens with great and unique designs. If you don't own any fountain pen, this could be the first in your pen collection. The timeless elements of a pen can add a modern sensibility to your writing style.

The pen's grip section is quite good as it connects with the nibs and doesn't let the body slip from your fingers. Because it's a very lightweight pen, you can work with it for hours. In terms of the ink filling system, the pen comes with a blue cartridge.

The highlight of the pen is its well-thought design. Everything is well sorted, from the signature arrowhead clips to accented bright trips and placed nicely on the pen. Moreover, the feather tip nib makes sure that every word is written nicely and accurately to create an artistic and meaningful expression on the surface you are writing.

The pen is equipped with a popular Parker arrow clip, high-shine trims, and stainless steel cap and barrel. Additionally, the variety of finishes and colors makes the pen an elegant gift for first-time writers, job seekers, or anyone who loves writing.

8. PILOT Metropolitan Collection Fountain Pen (Black Barrel)

Appealing both intellect and eyes, the Pilot Metropolitan collection fountain pen in the black barrel can improve your writing experience to another level. The exceptionally designed pen with stainless steel accents comes in three elegant styles, including Animal collection, Retro Pop collection, and Metropolitan Collection.

The Metropolitan collection is engineered with a metallic finish and premium brass barrel in various colors such as champagne gold, burnished silver, and black. The black barrel pen aims to add a refined style to your writing.

The vanishing point pen is ideally designed for beginners but can be used by advanced writers or calligraphers. With an ink-control system, you don't have to worry about creating perfect and smooth lines with its finest tip.

No prior practice is required to write with this pen as it is effortless to handle. Also, you don't have to invest money in ink or worry about a filling system as it includes a starter cartridge.

How to Choose the Best Fountain Pen for Pilots

Fountain pens are an elite stationery requirement for most people. The better the fountain pen, the better the confidence and personality projection. Therefore, choosing the right fountain pen is of utmost importance for anyone.

When you are a pilot, you will have to look further into the wide variety of fountain pens. It would be best to consider the following things while you are buying a fountain pen as a pilot.

Size and Weight

As a pilot, you will always want to pack light. While considering a pen's size and the weight seems redundant because they're anyway pretty small, but it is something most pilots take very seriously.

The best fountain pen size for pilots is the queen size. It is small enough to fit in your pocket at ease but too small to hold and operate at ease. Queen size fountain pens are also not too heavy on your pocket.

Tight Caps and Seals

While you are traveling by air, your fountain pen will have to endure a lot of air pressure and gravity. If the sealing is not adequate, fountain pens are at a higher risk of leaking.

When buying a fountain pen as a pilot, you should always ensure that the cap is completely air-tight to avoid too much air pressure acting on the ink reservoir. Getting fountain pens with tight pens might also save your clothing and belonging better if the ink does leak due to the air pressure on the aircraft.

Nib Positioning

Most good fountain pen manufacturers know the importance of keeping the nib skywards. This is important because if the pen is upside down, gravitational forces will only make the pen leak worse. However, there are still companies that do not place the cap and nib perfectly.

Especially as a pilot, you need to make sure that the cap goes over the nib so that even when you place the pen in your pocket, the nib will be pointing upward.

Writing Smoothness

needless to say, when you buy a fountain pen, you must have the best writing smoothness possible. Fountain pens tend to get smoother over time. However, some nibs, such as high-quality steel or gold nibs, are very smooth to use from the beginning itself.

Investing in good ink will also help you get the best smoothness possible with your nib. The smoother a fountain pens nib, the better experience you will get out of your investment.

Travel-Proofing

Travel proofing is not necessarily present in all fountain pens. However, some of the most elite ones do have it. Travel proofed pens are the best to carry as a pilot or someone who travels in airplanes a lot.

Travel proof pens come with a valve that shuts off the ink reservoir from the nib. You can get travel-proof pens in just about any price range. However, the best ones are produced by Pilot at the medium-to-high range.

Frequently Asked Questions

In this section, let us have a look at some of the most commonly asked questions about fountain pens and their flying compatibility.

1. Can you take a fountain pen on a plane?

You might think of fountain pen refills as liquid and, thus, not permissible to carry in hand luggage on a plane. However, much like ballpoint pens, gel pens, rollerball pens, and pencils, fountain pens are safe to carry on a plane.

The only condition of carrying a fountain pen on a plane is that the pen should only be a single open cartridge in use, and the refills should be under 100ml.

2. How do I choose a fountain pen?

Choosing the best fountain pens might require some thought due to the variety of available qualities. You must consider the fountain pen's size, weight, filling mechanism, nib width, and nib quality while choosing the right pen.

You can choose fountain pens from a variety of quality. You can get stainless steel or gold nib for different performance levels. In the end, choosing the right fountain pen depends on your requirements and whether or not the pen matches them.

3. What is the smoothest fountain pen?

From our analysis of the above list, Pilot creates some of the best and smoothest fountain pens in the industry. However, the Scribe Sword Fountain Pen is also worth noting.

You can surely buy some extremely smooth fountain pens with excellent nibs. However, you would benefit by knowing that fountain pen nibs tend to get smoother over time. The more regularly and frequently you use the fountain pen, the better the smoothness will get.

You can even speed the smoothening process by either using smoothening sticks or a micromesh on the fountain pen's nib.

4. Why are fountain pens expensive?

Fountain pens tend to be elite. They made an impact on the users' personality projection and self-confidence. To stand up to their elite reputation, fountain pens tend to be very expensive. The simple reason behind the cost is the massive cost of production due to expensive and high-quality raw materials.

Depending on the quality of the nib you end up choosing, you will have to pay for different materials. Naturally, fountain pens with a gold nib are the most expensive.

5. Which is better: ball pen or fountain pen?

The everlasting debate between fountain pens and ballpoint pens is a very subjective one. Whether you choose to use a ballpoint pen or a fountain pen depends on your quality and work requirement.

Ballpoint pens use thicker ink than the liquid ink used in fountain pens. Therefore, they tend to last longer but also get sticky or scratchy on surfaces. On the other hand, fountain pens, a fountain pen's ink doesn't dry quickly, but the nibs make the writing experience extremely smooth.

Another important difference to note is that ballpoint pens can be used on just about any surface. On the other hand, fountain pens must be used with care to prevent the nib from getting scratchy and rough.

Final Thoughts

Pilot fountain pens are highly favored among budding or professional writers. With fountain pens, you can master the art of writing seamlessly in no time. Not just writers, the calligraphers and artists can also learn and improve their writing skills with the fountain pens.

Now that we have reviewed all the best pilot fountain pens in this article, it's time for you to select the one that matches your writing style and, particularly, budget. Also, don't forget to read the buying guide to make a well-informed decision.