Oh, beware... as you are now treading onto dangerous ground :) The fountain pen hobby can become all-encompassing.

How do you define expensive? Are you looking for new? Or vintage?

The more pens I buy, the more I wander towards the vintage pens... and in that light, my favorite day-to-day writers are vintage Esterbrooks (many of which can be had for less than $50.00) and the ever-popular Parker 51 (many available for $50 - 100). Neither of these fall into the thinner category though.

Nor does my favorite new-style inkstick, the Namiki Vanishing Point, a retractable fountain pen which writes great, is carried nib-up in the pocket, and can be had for $100.00 or so online.

Of course, the Lamy you've got is a popular pen as well.

If you'd like to try some fun writers for next to nothing, I've played with the Waterman Phileas can be had for about $30.00 at almost any office supply store, as can the Parker Varsity, which will set you back almost $7.00. Cheap, but actually not bad writers.

I'm looking for cheap. This one at about twenty bucks was fine, but I hate to go over 30 because I don't trust myself not to lose it. I had an inexpensive Cross fountain pen a few years ago -- it was under fifty dollars. I kept up with it for a couple of years, then lost it, and that bothered me more than I'd like to admit. So I want to keep the stress level down.

I know how addictive it can be -- I got on the mailing lists for all the catalogs and boy, there are some gorgeous pens out there!

I don't mind ending up with a few of the cheap ones, though. I learned to write with a cheap old Schaeffer that had a clear green plastic barrel and used cartridges. I wish I'd held onto that one!

What I discovered with this Lamy is that the EF nib is actually easier for me to write legibly with. I don't know what size the other nib was but it was probably medium -- I like a bold look with a fountain pen. Problem is, my handwriting is horrifyingly awful and hard to read, and I now realize that bold pens make it worse.

I got the EF nib on this one because my planner I'm using is very small, the lined pages are very narrow, and my writing tends to scrawl. To my surprise, the EF nib just looks a lot nicer on any page -- not just the narrow lined ones.

Thanks for the feedback -- I'll explore some of those options!

ETA: I have gotten converters for my fountain pens because I prefer drawing in the ink and changing colors as desired. What I'd probably end up doing is reserving separate pens for different colors of ink. Right now, that's four bottles I have.

Over on www.isellpens.com he has a lot of imports, some of which are both slender and very inexpensive. The only brands I've personally used are Hero and Hubert, though I've heard good things about Duke as well. The quality of the nibs is a bit variable on the Huberts (speaking from my experience only), but a 2.99 on special Genius that I bought and is now filled with a scented ink has turned into a nice fun pen. (No affiliation, just a customer.)

You already have one of my favorites: the Safari. (I also have the Al-Star and the Vista - same body style, just different materials.) Others have said they like Pelikan's GO and Future, but I haven't tried those. Check out www.swisherpens.com[/url] or [url]www.pendemonium.com for a really wide selection. (Same as above: no affiliation, just a customer)

For cheap and ready to go, there's always the Pilot Varsity. It comes pre-filled and is disposable, but there are instructions out there on how to refill it.

The ones Jestre mentioned are all very nice, too. :)

Scented ink?

Ooh-la-la! Where would I find such a thing?

Thanks for the new sites/recommendations!

I second the Pilot Varsity rec, although $7 is overpaying by a lot -- I think mine run about $3. I picked a couple up the last time I went shopping for disposable pens, because I realized when I saw them in the store that while I always keep good fountain pens around for fancy occasions, I'd lost the habit somewhere along the line of using them for day-to-day work. They're no match for the pretties, but these write much smoother than the disposable fountain pens I remember, and don't cost me any more than a decent rollerball.

I don't recall seeing the Varsity pens at Office Depot. Where are you finding them?

I generally get pens at the looniversity where I work (because I'm lazy that way), but I'm pretty sure I've also seen them at one of the office supply places -- Staples, maybe?

I don't know where you're located, but though all of the local office supply stores had them listed on their website, only the Office Depot stores had them in stock. I got my three pack (three different colors) for $6.99. You might simply try another branch.

Best of luck

Maybe they're there and I haven't noticed. I'll look again. Thanks.

The Pelikan GO is swell--I don't think they are distributed here (it's a German school pen), but they're findable on eBay. But it's a fatter point. Any of the Pelikans are great, and they have lower-end ones. They maybe start at around $45 or 50?

Hero is a Chinese pen that I've heard good things about, and their fine point is very fine.

I have a Safari in white (eBayed all the way from Kuala Lumpur, you can bet my credit card company called me to verify that one) that I love.