The 1920 to 1940's are referred to as the Golden Era of the fountain pen in terms of the use of fountain pens in North America. During this time fountain pen companies, that included Waterman, Conklin, Wahl Eversharpe, Sheaffer and Parker, produced a range of fountain pens in various materials and designs.
From the 1940s and 1950s the ball point pen started its climb as the predominate pen of choice. At first, ball point pens were expensive, leaked and had problems with smooth ink flow. By the 60s the ball point pen replaced the fountain pen as the pen most commonly used. Fountain pens became pens for occasional or specific writing use.
The next emergence of the fountain pen has been more of an writing instrument of choice as opposed as a pen for the masses. Companies, such as Montblanc, illustrate the excellent use of marketing and product definition and established the fountain pen as a pen of choice for a particular segment of the writing instrument market.
Essentially Pens is a web site about the fountain pen, from the buying experience, with numerous great pen stores or stores of note, to the companies that design and produce pens, see information on the Companies), and of course, to the ink referrences and reviewed in the Ink section used to create the writing experience.
In the many years of using and "collecting" fountain pens, I have exchanged a fair amount of correspondence with other pen users. Recently, a pen enthusiasts wrote me to say that he choose a fountain pen to write with consideration of the person who would be receiving the note. Nice perspective.
The links to the left navigate to pages on my various pen sites that provide information about pens, pen stores, pen ink some specifc reviews of inks I have had the opportunity to provide and some of my thoughts or views about pens.
I hope you find the information interesting and helpful.