Fountain Pens versus Ballpoint Pens

Fountain pens have been the most popular writing instrument since the beginning of the 20th century, but are being caught up by the ballpoint pen. In my opinion the fountain pen is the ultimate writing instrument, and has many advantages. Firstly they are so stylish in appearance, epitomising traditional elegance from a bygone era. Secondly they write much more smoothly, and require less pressure to be applied to the paper. The reason for this is that fountain pens take liquid based ink, whilst ballpens have oil based ink. There is an added benefit here, because fountain pens allow much more expressive penmanship due to the liquid ink. Fountain pens are much more collectible, with some vintage Parker pens worth thousands of pounds. To read more about fountain pen collecting visit Nibs website. This isn’t to say that ballpoint pens don’t have their benefits too; they are much more convenient and less messy. But in my opinion a fountain pen has the edge. To view an excellent collection of fountain pens for sale, visit an online pen store called Pen Heaven.