I bought my first fountain pen in October 2023, and from there, fell down the rabbit hole. In that time I’ve bought a lot of pens, and so I decided that now, three years in, I should probably reassess my collection.
Looking back over my pens I found that a majority of my purchases were actually from the very early days of my collection, when I was still experimenting and didn’t really know what I liked. Now I find I buy less pens, and am much pickier, which has resulted in me buying more pens that I love, and use often.
I was previously storing all my uninked pens in a 48 pen leather binder off Amazon, and I realised that most of the pens in there hadn’t been inked up in a very long time. So I went through them all, and set aside pens I was happy to let go of, or pens that I had several of and didn’t really use enough to warrant having multiples.
For example, I decided it was time to let go of the last of my Jinhao 82s: I bought lots of these in the early days, and whilst I do think they are great for the price, I just don’t gravitate towards them anymore. Similarly, my Ferris Wheel Press Carousel fountain pen wasn’t my favourite when I got it, and over time I’ve come to like it even less. Pens like the Majohn Wancai and the Asvine P20, however, I am keeping one of each and am letting of the surplus.
Once I had reduced my pen collection (still to a sizable sixty-odd pens!), I set to work reorganising them. I posted a while ago about my desk set up, but I recently found it getting quite cluttered, so I’ve moved things around a bit.
I then designated three places to store my pens: my display box, a pen holder, and a set of Cinnamoroll desk drawers.
In my display box I keep my favourite and/or currently inked pens.
I have three Lamy pens that I keep on a pink pen holder I got from the Northern Pen Show – these are usually inked.
And then I put my uninked pens in the Cinnamoroll drawers.
A lot of my cheaper plastic pens like my Kakunos and Preppys I put in the top, and then I have a very convenient mini compartment at the front which is the exact right size for Kaweco Sports! Then, I lined the drawers with fabric and put all my other uninked pens inside.
I like to think that this new organisation method, where all my pens are to hand means I will get more use out of them, and rotate them more often. Previously, I feel like the pens that were put away in the 48 pen case were mostly forgotten about, and left unused, so I’m hoping this new system will work better!
I’m also going to continue to try and be pickier with my fountain pen purchases. I don’t mind having a fairly large collection, but I also don’t want it to grow too big. I think my absolute limit is going to be 100 pens, and then I would need to reassess again, and I’m hoping to not hit that number in the next couple of years!
So how do you manage your fountain pen collection? What do you do for storage, and how often do you reassess it?
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