@freemo I have a #3776 Century (F tip) from Platinum, it's the cheapest model (~100 USD). I started using it since high school and now I still use it.
I'm not a fan of collecting pens, but I do like using pens since I don't need to swap the cartridges (the Gel Pen Refills). This pen works very well. Before that, I was using LAMY (also the cheapest model, about ~20 USD), but it had a lot of problems and I eventually decided to invest more.
I like using carbon black ink, however it's not good for pens, especially when you don't write a lot. But this pen handles it pretty well.
But now I rarely do handwriting after graduated. I don't know if this is good, but the ultrasonic cleaner is pretty good at dealing with dried carbon ink.
@freemo Yeah, I wrote a lot when I was in school, and carbon black ink is better than the black dye ink.Thee dye-based one looks like dark purple instead of true black.
But now I mainly write things with pencil (easy to change the design), so the carbon ink often dried in the pen.
🇳🇱
@skyblond its a richer dark, but it is also more permanent. If you write with flex fountain pens it is also very much superior when it comes to not "railroading" (when a flex stroke breaks the ink film and creates 2 lines instead of one thick one).
@skyblond I have used carbon black ink in my fountain pens for years.. never had an issue with it in any pen... If it dries out it would be hard to clean, but other than that its a great ink and every pen ive tried handles it well.