Best First Fountain Pen Starter Kits: Now Available!

Update November 6, 2020: We now have three more starter kits available now! Read about them here.

We know how intimidating choosing your first fountain pen can be. That’s especially true when you’re doing it online and you can’t hold it in your hand or feel the flow of the ink onto the page.

To help you make your first fountain pen purchase easier, we’ve designed two separate starter sets to give you everything you need to get going. The pens featured in the sets are two varieties that we recommend for beginners and experienced enthusiasts alike because they are so reliable, sturdy, and stylish!

If you’d like more help picking out the perfect pen for yourself or as a gift, you can always book an online consultation. They’re free, and we can help you find whatever you need just like you would if you were in the physical store!

Everyday Carry Pack - $39 CAD (down from $43)

The first pack that we’ve picked out is designed to be super portable. You can throw it into a purse, backpack, laptop bag, or even a pocket! This set includes a black Kaweco Classic Sport, a pack of five blue Kaweco cartridges, and a No. 14 size Rhodia pad.

For the fountain pen, you can choose between a fine nib or a medium nib, and what you will want to choose will largely depend on your personal preference. We recommend a fine nib if you write on the smaller side or want to add small details using your pen, and a medium nib works well if you write a little larger and you really want to see the properties of the ink on the page!

The Kaweco Classic Sport is a good choice for an everyday carry (or EDC in the fountain pen world!) pen because of its small size. It’s a super tiny pen when it’s capped, but if you post it, meaning you put the cap onto the end of the pen while you’re writing, it becomes a comfortable length to write with. The Classic version is made out of durable plastic, but you can always upgrade to one of Kaweco’s other options, like an aluminum or brass body, in the future!

All Kaweco Sport fountain pen varieties take international standard short size cartridges, pre-filled ink vials that you can just pop in and start writing. This pack also includes a pack of five cartridges, so you’ll be able to write for pages upon pages before you’ll need to worry about getting more refills.

Either nib size option will write beautifully on Rhodia’s smooth, high-quality paper, so you don’t need to worry about the ink bleeding through to the other side like you would with lower-quality notebooks. One of the best qualities of a fountain pen is how it just glides over the paper, and this combination will give you that experience right from the first purchase you make.

Fountain PEn Starter Pack - $35 CAD (Down from $39.50)

The second set we’ve put together includes some of our all-time favourites. It includes a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen, a pack of six black Pilot cartridges, and an A5 size ClaireFontaine notebook.

The Pilot Metropolitan, also known as the Metro or MR depending on where in the world you live, is one of the absolute best pens for a beginner. It’s super sturdy and it has a nice weight in the hand: it’s not so light that it’ll get away from you, but it isn’t so heavy that the average hand will cramp under its weight. Once again, you can choose from a fine or a medium nib, but keep in mind that these pens do tend to write finer than you would expect! A fine would be great for super tiny details or for someone that writes very small, and a medium would be ideal for all others.

A great bonus of the Metro for the, ahem, clumsy members of the fountain pen community is that the nib replacements are super affordable. Though you should never have to replace your nib just from use, if you do manage to drop and damage it, the nib units are super easy to get and replace for under $10. That’s also great if you want to try both nib options without having to buy a whole new pen! For a beginner, that can offer peace of mind and affordability to make mistakes.

The Metro takes only Pilot size cartridges, meaning you’ll have to stick within the brand if you’d like to use the disposable pre-filled ink vials. Luckily, the Metropolitan also comes with a squeeze converter, meaning you can use bottled ink with it in the future! In the meantime, the pack of six Pilot cartridges will keep you going as you learn to use your pen.

Finally, this pack also features an A5 size ClaireFontaine notebook. Like Rhodia, ClaireFontaine has incredibly smooth paper that will pair nicely with your new Metro. It’s great quality paper to get you started! If you’re not familiar with notebook sizes, an A5 is one of the most popular sizes of notebooks. It’s about the size of a softcover book or a little larger than your average-sized card. The one included in this pack is staple-bound, so it is thin enough to slip in almost anywhere!

What fountain pens would you recommend for someone just starting out? Let us know in the comments, and happy writing!