Everyday Carry. What essentials do you carry on a daily basis?
What do you carry on a daily basis?
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If you want a nice little pocket pen, the Kaweco Lilliput. It's great for things like signing receipts or taking quick notes.
I will definitely consider it whenever I advance to fountain pens. The only thing holding me back is I like my ink to dry pretty quick. My schmidt easyflow 9000 takes a while to dry as it is.
I use Platinum Carbon Black cartridges in it and I would say it dries pretty quick. Or I've never felt like it took a significant amount of time. Using a fine or extra fine nib can help with that too. If you do get into fountain pens, stay away from Noodlers inks, besides a history of antisemitism they also have inconsistent ink quality that often takes awhile to dry.
I'm a fan of the Karas Kustoms Retrakt. I'm a nurse at a facility that still paper charts, so I write a ton at work. I find it to be a nice middle ground. You can get them on sale for decent prices and the weight on the aluminum version is nice.
I've got a tactile turn as well. I'd say that the details on it are nicer, it is a pricier pen, than the KK, but I find it to be too heavy for long writing sessions.
The fisher space pen is the only one I keep. Writes cleanly on many surfaces and the refills aren’t terribly expensive.
No time at all for overly expensive fancy bolt action pens and the like.
The space pen is an all around classic. I might get one of those myself.
I have carried one for ~6 years now and can also recommend it. I like that it fits in the coin pocket of my jeans.
There are a lot of great machined pens out there. My personal favorites are the TiScribe series from Urban Survival Gear. They changed their company name, and designs, but you can still find the TiScribe for sale from other dealers.
I also recommend Autmog. They are very simple and clean designs. Their side-click mechanism is very clever and works beautifully.
I think the pen I see the most on EDC posts is Tactile Turn. I don't own one but I've wanted to try the Side Click Short for a while. Let's say that if I could get any pen right now, I'd like to try that one.
The second one I think of is the Refyne EP1. It's more affordable and also seems well made.
The third and most expensive one I can think of is the Grismo The Saga. It's very expensive but something something tolerances.
I currently own an Everyman Grafton Mini Twist and for the most part I really like it. The only thing I don't like about it is how slippery is. It's actually strange how smooth it is. I was on their website a few days ago and noticed they have a new Super Matte version that is coated instead of anodized and supposedly has a rougher texture.
There are a lot of other pens available but those are the ones that catch my eye.
Edit: Because the original Grafton is so slippery I couldn't recommend it. I would try the Matte version though.
I use a Moonman/Majohn A2 with De Atrementis Document Black at work daily, so you may want to take my advice with a grain of salt. That being said, I love (!) push-retractable fountain pens for any setting where you write with them at least twice a week so the ink doesn't dry out. I believe there is close to no buyer's remorse among those who splurged on a Pilot Vanishing Point pen, and I'll extend that recommendation to Moonman's really excellent knock-offs.
As for ever-ready, on-the-go ballpoint pens, a metal body Parker Jotter filled with a 1mm Schmidt easyFLOW 9000 is my conference bag staple for quick, short notes.
Among friends and family who aren't into fountain pens, I've heard lots of praise for the Caran d'Ache 849 ballpoint pen, too.
@pineapplelover Maxlvledc on YT has a couple videos on EDC pens including specifically affordable ones, you'll have plenty of ideas to choose from after watching that.
Edit: I didn't read your original post over on Lemmy, and see you're looking for more premium options. There's still some good premium options in his recent videos, but the comments here seem quite useful anyways