Back To School Time.

we have lots of guys around the forum who are still making their way through the education system. It's time once again for us in the nib to through out our suggestions for school gear for those who need supplies that will withstand the backpack and do so on a college budget. so let's hear it guys, thoughts on paper, ink, pens and any other gear you would get yourself if you were going back to do it all over again.

let's see your best kits under 50 bucks, under 100 bucks, or see if anyone can even get the elusive under 25 and still do it in style.

September is upon us no denying it now.

I used a Parker Vector, and later a Parker 15, in my school days. When I went to university, I received a Sheaffer Targa as a gift.

Nowadays, I would say that a Pilot Metropolian, or a Lamy Safari, would make excellent school pens.

Back when I went to school you got a pen on your very first day of school and heaven help you if you lost it before graduation .
That was it.
the school benches were made of wood.
It was hot in the summer cold in the winter, you had to walk up hill both ways.




That is what our school bag looked like, still got mine still use it to this day, SMS was called passing notes, now get off my lawn.

one cut said:

Back when I went to school you got a pen on your very first day of school and heaven help you if you lost it before graduation .
That was it.

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Yes, in primary school we got a Pelikan Pelikano. I lost that one sometime in secondary school :-(

what I remember from University, is lots of note taking, lots of exam writing, and not much time to deal with running out of ink part-way through the day.

Money being no object, I'd take a Pilot Custom Heritage 92 with a Fine nib. (And yes, that's one fine nib, regardless of the size.) But now we're over $100, so maybe that's not the best option for starving students.

Those needing "survive the backpack" pens, I'd say eyedropper a Kaweco sport. You can probably get that done for about $30, including the silicone and syringe.

Alternatively, I'd say get a Konrad ... personally I'd get an ebonite one for $40, but the others are just $20. Short of that, eyedropper a Pilot 78g ... done under $15.




For ink ... we're taking notes on cheap paper, and writing exams on cheaper paper. We're getting caught in the rain and having to dash across campus to our next class, hoping our notes don't get smudged. Our buddy in the dorms spills his beer all over our notes ... can we still read them? We need an ink that will start writing at the drop of a hat, and not "hard start" after a few minutes of non-note-taking in between the good info.

Noodler's Black.

My son just started high school and asked for my Lamy Alstar.

He has dropped it once requiring a replacement nib but other that that, he hasn't had anything but solid performance.

Ink is Noodlers Eel Black.

Here's one for the under $100 category...

Lamy Al-Star 37.60 - Pick your color and nib...
Lamy Converter 4.95
Lamy Cartridges 4.50 - Just in case one needs a really fast refill
Diamine Ink 12.95 - Pick your color
Sustainable Earth Notebooks 20.00 - 5 of them to get you started at full boat price
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$80.00

You get a great durable pen with the ability to easily replace/exchange nibs.
You get a great ink that is very usable on many different types of paper.
You get the ability to make a fast refill under tense situations.
You get really good spiral notebooks that are very fountain pen friendly and stand up to lots of carrying

lwt210 said:

My son just started high school and asked for my Lamy Alstar.

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Exciting times! Our oldest is about to start her first university year (going to study German language and culture).

I'm waiting for Staples' penny a pencil sale.

ouch said:

I'm waiting for Staples' penny a pencil sale.

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I know a good professional sharpener for when you get them

I went back to middle school one year (called junior high back then) with a black Esterbrook lever-filler, a scratchy old fine nib to boot. No, I'm not that old, but it was something I found around the house, probably my mom's. I'd sit in the back of class tinkering and taking it apart over and over, blue ink on my fingertips. Later I used a Sheaffer school pen but I hated having to buy cartridges (didn't know I could refill one and didn't have a syringe of course) but I never really liked that style.

I recently found that Estie, cleaned it up and replaced the 1550 nib. Amazingly, the sac is still functional. It probably instilled my love of black fountain pens which I currently still collect.

So don't forget to consider a vintage pen for day-to-day use, most were built to take punishment.

I went back to college after dropping out 12 years prior and ended up graduating this past December. I used a multipack of Pilot Varsity fountain pens, a Pilot Metropolitan with Noodlers ink, a bunch of Ticondaroga pencils, and good old Mead multisection notebooks. Not fancy, but well within my budget. The rest of my money went to books. Holy crap were those ridiculously more expensive than the first time around.

I am currently in school for Nursing that said i have to take a lot of notes. I am new to fountain pens but my current set up for school is.

Twsbi Mini, fine nib and a Lamy safari, Fischer space pen
Rhodia 9x11.75 wire bound notebooks $9 (which are cheaper then 6.25x8.25 by 5 bucks which is odd)
Mead 5 star wire bound multi subject notebook (for back up purposes, handles quite well with FP ink)
Waterman's intense black, Noodlers 54th mass, Noodlers beaver

Any recommendations for additions to my set up are welcome

Also could you use a stub point italic like a highlighter or is it recommended just to get a brush pen id like to have a refillable highlighter.

Corey said:

I went back to college after dropping out 12 years prior and ended up graduating this past December.

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Congratulations! That must have been quite a culture switch after 12 years.

Eeyore said:

Congratulations! That must have been quite a culture switch after 12 years.

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Thank you. I couldn't have done it before. In the past I had no idea what I was doing. I think I switched majors about a dozen times before I just dropped out because it felt like a waste and I wanted to party and have fun more than grow up. This time around I was laser focused and knew exactly what I wanted to do. having a goal made college far more rewarding this time around than previously.

Congratulations Corey!

madmax20 said:

Also could you use a stub point italic like a highlighter or is it recommended just to get a brush pen id like to have a refillable highlighter.

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Refillable highlighters are available. Platinum Preppy highlighters can be refilled with a converter or by turning them into eye droppers with an O-ring.

I have several stub nibbed fountain pens in different widths. I would not use any of them to highlight words. They do a great job when it comes to underlining and arrowing.

I used 4 different colors when taking notes, just to keep everything organized. I'd lay them out in front of my notebook and use a different color for different parts of the info. General text was black, important parts were red, or underlined red if I didn't have time and had to go back, bullet points were blue to indicate a main point transition and words prior to a definition were green. It took a few days to work out the system, but it made finding information in the 5-10 pages of notes I took in some classes more manageable when it came to study time. I believe thinking about when to change pens also reinforced a lot of key points.

That said, I'd probably have to go kind of cheap to do what I needed. I think I'd get a set of 4 hero 616 pens with Noodler's inks in the above mentioned colors. The 616 nib is small enough to accommodate my writing and smooth enough to not bother me. It also holds a pretty good amount of ink. I'd keep one of those Pilot super fine point rollerball pens on hand for ink emergencies.
I always bought the cheap, dollar notebooks from Walmart since I used one for each class. I'd probably go that route, or maybe something a little heavier.


Edit...looks like I used 5 colors in this class and the color code is a little different than I remembered. Same concept though... Enjoy and/or laugh at my madness. I'm glad I'm done with college.

For a highlighter, you can't beat an eyedroppered 3.8mm Pilot Parallel.