The Best Fountain Pens Under £100
What are the best fountain pens for under £100? It's a very open question, and different people will have very different answers. And 'under £100' is a pretty wide range, and covers a lot of very good pens.
So we're going to break it down into a whole bunch of different categories, and make some suggestions in each. And even that way, there are a whole load of very good options that we won't mention, so don't think a pen isn't very good just because it's not in this list!
Starter/Beginner Pens
Let's start, as so many people do, with the Lamy Safari. It's probably the most often recommended pen for beginners, and it's hard to argue. It's not the cheapest pen around, but it's still very reasonably priced. It's not fancy, but it's very functional. And it can look pretty smart in black, or quite funky in some of the brighter colours.
Add an annual special edition (sometimes more than one), and there are even more choices.
And while it may be plastic, it's tough ABS plastic, able to take some knocks. And the nibs can be replaced at a low cost too.
The Sailor TUZU is a relatively new offering, and a bit different - it doesn't get mentioned as often for beginners, but that seems a shame to us. It's very practical, and the adjustable grip makes it suitable for people who don't get on with the Safari's fixed triangular grip. And it's a pretty great deal to get a Sailor pen for such a low price, too.
If you're not so sure about fountain pens, the Platinum Preppy is the perfect way to try one out without much cost. They write very well, giving you a fair chance to see what all the fuss is about, and they're refillable. That wouldn't be something to mention, except they're so cheap you might expect them to be disposable!
Luxury
Can you get much luxury under £100? Well, yes, there are some pens we'd call luxurious, that still fall under that price. The Laban Rosa is a good example. For under £100, you're getting some really pretty resin finishes, a shape with a bit of style (while not being too weird!) and gold-plated trim and nib. They use standard cartridges, and are supplied with a converter, so you're ready to go with bottled ink too.
The Lamy Studio is a more modern bit of luxury, with beautifully simple styling, and that 'propeller' pocket clip. There's the option of gold nibs, but that takes the price way out of our budget, but Lamy's steel nibs are really good. Depending on the finish, though, they can come in well under our £100 barrier.
The return of the Parker 51 has been mostly well-received. While some people will never accept a '51' that takes cartridges, Parker have done a pretty nice job of keeping the style of the original from the 1940s, updating it for modern practicalities, and have kept the price quite reasonable. Some finishes go way over our limit, but there's a good choice of colours for less than £100.
Kids’ Pens
Does anyone make pens for kids that are over £100? Not that we know of, so this section should be pretty wide open!
We love the Lamy Nexx. It's not all that far different from the Safari, which is no bad thing. Lamy have made it a bit more comfortable for kids' hands with a rubber grip, and added a big colourful cap that may be just a little bit harder to lose.
The Schneider Base Kid is bright and colourful to appeal to kids, and comes with long and short barrels, so the pen can grow as your kids' hands grow. Smart thinking there, Schneider. And they include a name tag that can be attached to the cap, so hopefully it'll find its way back to them if they lose it.
While Pelikan are best known in the UK for their luxury Souverän fountain pens, in Germany they're one of the top suppliers of school pens and art materials. Their long experience with making pens for kids makes the Pelikano Junior a great choice. It's simple and solid, and the specially-developed grip helps kids put their fingers in the right places.
Pocket
There aren't many fountain pens smaller than the Kaweco Liliput. But, somehow, it manages to be quite comfortable for most people to use. The cap screws onto the back of the barrel in use, extending it. It uses short standard cartridges, and there's even a super clever folding converter available if you really want to use bottled ink. And it's metal. And if the Liliput is just too small for you, check out the more obvious choice of the Kaweco Sport.
The TWSBI Diamond Mini manages to pack a piston-filled fountain pen into a small space, while still having all the features of the bigger Diamond 580. Bottled ink only, but to TWSBI fans, that's a positive feature - you get a bigger ink capacity that way, and less plastic waste.
But what if you want a pocket pen with a bit of vintage style? Well, the Laban Pocket has you covered pretty nicely. A choice of lovely resin finishes, in a dinky form factor, where the cap screws onto the back to make it comfortable to write with.
Classic
Sticking with classic styling, and sticking with Laban, the Antique is a really nice choice for some classic good looks. With or without the stripes, the finishes all have a bit of vintage charm about them. Nice.
Usually known for more modern-styled pens, Kaweco get the inspiration for almost all of their pens from their own old designs. But they stay with a more classic look for the Dia 2. A classic black resin fountain pen, with a look that never gets old.
The classic Cross look, with the slim body, flat top, and low-slung clip, doesn't usually come cheap. But with the Coventry, cross have brought their classic styling to a more mid-range pen, and they look really good.
Gifts
With more modern styling, the Cross Bailey makes a great gift - at a surprisingly reasonable price, too.
The Faber-Castell Ambition would also make a lovely gift, and they're available at a range of prices, depending on the finish. Our £100 limit covers most of them, though, including some lovely wood finishes, and several very nice colours.
What? The Ambition is just too straight-sided for you? You want some curves? Well, that's fine, here's the Faber-Castell e-motion. It's pretty much all curves. And like the Ambition, some finishes will take us over £100, but there are some lovely wood and resin ones under.
Demonstrators
You want to see your ink? It's ok, it's not weird, plenty of us like to look at our ink sloshing around inside the pen.
The most obvious is probably the TWSBI Diamond 580. Clear barrels is kind of TWSBI's whole thing. And the 580 is very popular for good reason. Piston-filled, nice big ink capacity, reliable, and even the fanciest finishes fly under our limit.
Did you know Kaweco has a demonstrator? Well, the Student Transparent is right there, with its clear barrel, ready for your standard cartridges. And less than half our budget gets you something a bit different. Bargain.
But what if you want a piston-filled pen, but didn't want to go with the obvious TWSBI? Well, that's a strangely specific requirement, imaginary shopper, but we're here for you. And so is the Nahvalur Original Demonstrator. And it's a pretty great price, too.
Cheap
You might have already notice that this list isn't just about pens that are almost £100, plenty of them have been way under. Well, let's take that to an extreme. Way, way under budget, but still getting a good fountain pen? It can be done, but it won't necessarily be very fancy.
The Kaco Retro is one of our favourite pen bargains - around £10 gets you a nicely stylish fountain pen, in a nice box, and even comes with a converter to use bottled ink!
The Pilot V-pen is disposable, so there's no refilling, but that does mean you get a lot of ink inside, so they last longer than you might expect. And sometimes it's nice to have a fountain pen you don't have to worry about at all. And they're still really nice to write with.
You wanted it refillable, but not quite as basic as the Preppy? Platinum have you covered, with the Plaisir. It's the same workings inside as the Preppy, but dressed up in a shiny aluminium body, with a bit of shiny decoration. They're still quite cheap, and that metal body should make them stand up to a few more knocks.
Weird
You like your pens weird? That's ok, you magnificent weirdo, just keep being you.
The Benu Pixie is tiny, but still unmistakably Benu. Who else would make these ridiculous colours and add glitter to the mix, then make really good fountain pens from it? Nobody else, it's just Benu. But we love them for it.
We could have included a lot of pens from Retro 51, but we decided to go with the Tornado Escape. It's modelled after NASA's bright orange escape suits.
And finally, let's return to Nahvalur, for the Original Plus Summer. The Original Plus range are vacuum-filled pens, which is a little bit weird to start with. But for the Summer, they mixed swirls of orange and blue into the clear acrylic barrel, so it looks weird and works weird. Love it.