Happy International Fountain Pen Day!

My first fountain pen is Pilot Metropolitan.

growing up, i was mesmerized by my dad’s parker fountain pen. it was so classy. when i was older, i started to gather up my own fountain pen collection—-lamy safaris/al-stars. now that my dad is retired and downsizing, he gave me his old parker. i was ecstatic! pen maintenance wasn’t my dad’s thing, so there was a lot of built-up ink in it. i thought a good soak would help it. well, i was wrong as the whole pen fell apart.

Thanks for the opportunity and Happy Fountain Pen Day

Amazing story to ready, unbelievable passion in those words!
I got my first pens ( two at one time!) in exchange from some things I ordered from you actually. Sent a postcard in the box and I was blown away by the personal touch!
I donèt remember what he wanted in exchange but I still have and use all the time the black Pilot Metropolitan and the turtoise shell Noodlers Ahab. It’s the smell of Noodlers pens…The weirdest thing, but I cant live without it! :)

My first fountain pen was from you guys! TWSBI VAC 700R.

Awesome job!!

I loved fountain pens as a kid, and just rediscovered them as an adult. The best!

Hello! My favorite fountain pen is the pilot prera right now, I really want a Nakaya…going to have to save money for that purchase! I carry my pens in the TSL pen case I got from you guys recently and I love it!

I almost cried when I dropped my Pilot Vanishing Point and it of course landed nib down ?

First fountain pen? A Pilot 78g, from Wonderpens of course. Since been joined by two more Pilots, a Prera and a Custom 74, a couple of TWSBIs, a couple of Kawecos, and multiple Platinum Preppys. And a shelf full of ink, of course!

My first fountain pen was a dark lilac Lamy Safari with an M nib, still one of my favourite pens.
I’m so glad to have such a great fountain pen store in my country!

Great site. Do you also do nib work?

I’d love a duocart!!!!!
Lilian

My first fountain pen was a Pelikan M200. A lovely pen that started a madness adventure.

Hi. Thanks for this awesome giveaway.
20 years ago, I bought my first fountain pen – a Parker Frontier Stainless steel CT ‘M’. At the time, it was all I could afford.
A few years after that, I got a Waterman Apostrophe GT ‘M’- I sat on it after a week. It was a very bad, seriously painful, pen experience.
Anyway, I currently have way too many pens, including a Waterman Apostrophe (I had to get her back), and my EDC totally depends on the mood and occassion.
Happy Fountain Pen Day!
Cheers.

My first fountain pen was a Parker that I found. When I was a kid in the 70’s. Not knowing any better, I filled the squeeze converter with India ink and then tried cleaning it with rubbing alcohol when it gummed up. I wish I knew then what I do now!

Thank you for the awesome giveaway! My first fountain pen was a Noodler’s Ahab pen. My husband got it for me. From that point in I have been obsessed with all calligraphy and fountain pens! …. now please pick me to win!! Lol
Ps. I love how your blog gives us a little insight into your store and how it all started :)

Thank you for sharing the origin story of the shop! As a new customer to the shop, I am so glad to have found it.
My First fountain pen was from a big box store that I was given as a gift. It was a 3 pen set that came with a rollerball pen and a ballpoint pen. Similar to your experience, once I used the fountain pen, I fell deep into the rabbit hole. My favourite now is the TWSBI Precision with a Fine nib, which I purchased at Wonder Pens during the Pen Addict meet up!
Thank you for the wonderful stories you share on the blog, it’s always a real treat to read.

I truly enjoyed your blog post Liz about your joy for fountain pens. I first learned about fountain pens through my father who owns several. I was hooked after receiving one as a graduation gift in high school, and still use it to this day. I hope to pass along my love of fountain pens and beautiful penmanship to my family in the future. I’m so happy that both of you took the opportunity to open up Wonder pens!

It’s only been a couple years since I got my first fountain pen and I have never looked back. Now, I have decent sized collection of pens, a love purple inks and notebooks…. Let’s not forget about all the notebooks.

I had bought a few Pilot Metropolitans for my boyfriend and I at Christmas several years ago, and never looked back. Our “collection” has grown, and now use fountain pens almost exclusively. There’s something special about having MY pen, just the way I like it, and that I’ll have it for years to come!

I’m just getting into fountain pens and my first was the Platinum preppy pen in black; it’s a great beginner pen, though I wish I’d gotten the extra fine nib as well. For the price as a starter, you really can’t go wrong, especially since it comes in at least six different colours.

I remember I had been interested in picking up a nice pen for a while, and was unable to find something satisfactory. I was walking down Dundas with my girlfriend at the time to picnic in Bellwoods, and we saw your shop.

The rest of the story goes as any other stationary addict, but all over Canada I’ve relied on your business, and I couldn’t be happier.

Wish there was a shop like this in my town! Love following along and would be so excited to journal with this pen! ❤️

My favourite pens are my Edison pens, I now have several. However I recently bought a Sailor Pro Gear and although the medium nib is fine, I fell in love (and of course, want to try out some other Sailor nibs. Wonderpens has converted me to Sailor inks!

My favourite fountain pen is my black Faber Castell ambition that my wonderful boyfriend got my for Christmas last year. I don’t use any pen as often as that one and the medium nib is the nicest I own, including the gold nibs!

My first introduction to fountain pens was through my grade six home room teacher at Queen Mary Public School, in Hamilton, Ontario.
He always wrote with a Sheaffer fountain pen loaded with a Peacock blue ink. I fell in love… with the pen and ink colour. I use my fountain pens daily, and yes, I have a Peacock blue ink that appears in my journal writing often.
I love your shop, love your stories about pens, inks, paper, journals and of course family.
A new pen would be lovely.
Thank you, Sandy

I really like sketching with fountain pens but the two I have aren’t the best quality. Would love to try out the Aurora!

What started as an attempt to force myself to improve my dreadful handwriting (New Years Resolution 2018), led me first to fountain pens then to journaling. Quite a journey. I hadn’t used a fountain pen since grade-school! Shortly after getting my first new pen, a Jinhao 188 from Wonder Pens, my 92-year-old mother saw me using it and immediately wanted one for herself. And then my wife….

My favorite is my vanishing point. It’s so handy!

My very first fountain pen was given to me for my birthday about 3 years ago – a pink Lamy Safari, and I was hooked after that. My favourite is my Visconti Starry Night

I received a Sheaffer Calligraphy fountain pen set as a Christmas gift in the early 1980s. I was super excited to get it and all of the fun coloured ink cartridges that came with it. I’ve also loved trying out the fountain pens in your store on letter writing nights. Now I just have to figure out which one to get next :D

I have a collection of fountain pens. Some are glass dip pens, some are wooden dip pens, and a number are bladder or insert fountain pens. The problem these days is finding pen blotters and pen ink wells and the holders for blotters and ink wells with covers that are spring loaded as opposed to screw top bottles such as come from Pelican, Mont Blanc, and many others. My favorite dip pen is a glass pen purchased in Venice, Italy many years ago, which is a very smooth writing pen. The other dip pens I are not nearly as smooth or as fine tipped as this one pen. Anyway, I love the feel when writing with that pen but find locating another glass dip pen with that fine and smooth a point very difficult.

Hi guys!

I went to the meetup and the pen show this past weekend, and I have to say it was an absolute blast! First time going to a pen show, and while it was a little overwhelming (I never expected so many people!) I had a great time and picked up a couple neat goodies.

I’ve also got to thank you so much for your part in getting Brad & Myke & Ana here and hosting such a great event!

You guys are awesome.

- Chris

I loved reading about your journey from first fountain pen to fountain pen store ;)

My first fountain pen was a Lamy Safari Vista that I randomly purchased a few years ago from the gift shop at the Bauhaus Museum in Berlin. I had always been a stationery junkie but had not made the leap into the fountain pen world and that “light switch turning on” moment totally resonates with me. These days I find myself mostly typing (I am a PhD student nearing the end of my degree) but sometimes I will pull out my Lamy to write out some notes and thoughts when I need some extra motivation :)

I love fountain pens, but my penmanship is disgraceful. My first pen was a cheap student grade pen in the 90s. I can’t remember the brand, but it was turquoise, with turquoise cartridges. After that I stopped using fountain pens for about 20 years, but picked it up again recently. My notebook at work is now a rainbow of notes and doodles.

First fountain pen was a Preppy from the 906 shop! I have the receipt somewhere still :P

Fountains are a very pleasant addiction. I grew up in a household that insisted on using fountain pens for all sorts of wiring. Both my parents were exellent writers. Their handwriting was beautiful to look at. My father who is in his nineties still insists on using a fountain pen to write or sign with!! Naturally growing up in a house where there was an abundance of fountain pen ink and fountain pens, I naturally took it forgranted that every one uses fountain pens. In 6th grade we were supposed to use fountain pens. The life of using a pencil to write my school work had come to an end. Everyone in 6th grade was so excited that we were going to be like the adults. We can use fountain pens. I among others in the same grade filled stationary shops looking for that single pen that made me so distinguished. I came across a parker 45 which looked so different than many other pens, I felt it was the one. I searched high and low and finally settled on a Parker 45 that had a red barrel as I recall. Every one else I knew had a Parker45 that was entirely metal in construction. I loved that pen. Carried it everywhere. Wrote with it for hours. Since my parents refused to allow us to use ballpoints at the time, I found it a wonderful opportunity to get three more fountain pens to fill each with a different colour. Since I was ecstatic with myparker 45, I elected to get pens from different companies . I got a Sheaffer, a Waterman and another Parker ( different model, which I cannot remember) . This way I could write and underline in the colors available at the time. Blue ( School homework and class notes), Black (important stuff in class notes and when filling up school forms), Red and Green ( mostly for underlining or adding important comments).
The first two or three weeks of grade 6 was exciting and at the same time scary. Spilling ink all over the desk while filling the pen with ink was a disaster. Forgetting to screw the cap on the bottle of ink properly and then putting it in your school bag became a nightmare. Ink spilling all over the schoolbooks and me having ronreqrite all my notes on new notebooks made me pay attention to detail and always check my inkbottle caps. When ink cartridges became available. That was pure joy. No more ink bottles. Just a pack of cartridges does each pen. At exam time it was the best. When one cartridge finished, a simple swap was more efficient and faster than the old days of filling the pen from an ink bottle. At the time saving two or three minutes was wonderful as it meant I could write more to finish my exam papers. We wrote a lot and I mean a lot.
Those were the days. From there I collected some nice ones such as Dunhil, Yves Saint Laurain, Montblanc.
In the Nineties I discovered Noodlers ink. Now I love Japanese inks and pens.

Happy fountain pen day! I used fountain pens a lot back in elementary school in China – I had a Hero fountain pen, I believe. Many years later, my mom gave me a Lamy Studio and like you, I fell into this “rabbit hole” hard. I was also glad I found your brick and mortar store when I lived in Toronto!

Wonderpens was the first fountain pen store I walked into, and from that first time years ago, I’ve been obsessed ever since! I purchased a Lamy Safari on my first trip there, and after many many buys after that, I’m now a proud owner of the Visconti Homo Sapiens, my new favourite pen (for now)!

I’ve been shopping at Wonder Pens since the store first opened near Trinity Bellwoods! Now I live 5000km away, but happily use the online shop. My current favourite every day carry is a black Pilot Metropolitan which is most frequently inked up with Sailor Jentle ink in yamadori.

My first fountain pen was my father’s Sterling Silver Parker 75. Lovely pen, found in his desk some years after his death. Everyone should try to get one of these pens for the collection… Or as your first, as it will certainly get you hooked on the hobby.

My grandfather started me down the fountain pen rabbit hole. It was a Parker 45 burgandy, M nib.
There’s been no looking back since, hopelessly lost in this hobby!

I started using a Sheaffer fountain pen in Grade 3 when we started using pens instead of pencils. In those days, ball points at school were an oddity. I rediscovered them recently. I am sorry I am not in Toronto to spend Fountain Pen Day with you. My daughter moved back to the Maritimes so I will have less opportunity to visit but will still continue to order online. Good luck!

Hi there, love your store and nothing beats a wonderful pen, it’s like having a great friend to always count on. There when you need it, listens to your words :)

My first fountain pen was a Pilot Varsity V, but at the time I was deeply unimpressed by the medium nib and plasticky exterior. Oh, the folly of inexperience! I moved to a Pilot Metropolitan, to a Kaweco Sport (my first Wonderpens purchase), and then to many many Lamy Safaris. These days I mostly use my Safaris, Lamy 2000s, and my brand new Lime Green Sailor 1911L, all of which have medium or broad nibs. Go figure!

Wonderpens is my favourite store!

Great idea! My wife gave me my first fountain pen as a gift for a major birthday. It was a Faber-Castel Ambition. I wrote my first collection of poetry long hand with it. Signed a contract with a publisher this summer and my first book is coming out in April 2020. Celebrated by getting a Pelikan m205 smoky quartz :) That Ambition was the best gift ever!

My first fountain pen was actually from your store, it was a Green Pilot 78g with a fine nib. My partner wanted a pen for themselves and convinced me that I would like one too. Really, it would have been so much kinder to our bank account had she not gotten me hooked, but it’s too late now :)

I lo e fountain pen since I small age…. until now! I still exploring different various fountain pen. Happy fountain pen day!

First of all, thanks for opportunity. My favourite fountain pen Visconti Hall of Music Jazz and Sailor Pro-gear Slim Lavender.