Alright long post... let's take a journey.  Once upon a time I tried a disposable fountain pen.  I liked it.  I liked it enough that I acquired a refillable pen.  Don't ask me what it was, I haven't a clue.  It used cartridges, and frustrated me to no end, because it ran out of ink insanely fast, and cartridges were disgusting expensive (at the local office supply store anyway).  It also had a kind of scratchy and unimpressive nib.  It tended to mangle some of the paper I wrote on, but I still had the fountain pen bug.  YEARS have passed, and I always had the intention of getting back into fountain pens.  A couple weeks ago, this group shows up in my Reddit feed...

I looked at Jinhao, and Asvine, and all the entry level pens from Lamy, and the other major vendors.  But I'm a vintage guy at heart.  I shave with straight razors and safety razors.  I ended up on eBay, and acquired a lot of 3 vintage pens.  One of which was a beautiful but common Esterbrook J.  Another a dime store Penman (which no one seems to talk about), the third a Wearever, which are talked about, but rarely with much regard.

The Esterbrook needs an ink sac, as expected.  The Wearever I was surprised to discover was a cartridge pen (the listing was terrible, pictures looked like they were taken with a potato, and description was something like used pens for parts or repair).  Esterbrook came apart easily.  The Wearever was a piece of cake.  A trip to Barnes and Nobles of all places got me some cheap ink cartridges that fit, and which I have been refilling with my own ink (basically a cartridge a day when I'm in a writing mood).  The Penman...well, I don't know if someone was in there previously, or they were glued from the factory.  The ink sac seemed to be at least partially functional, but it didn't seem to draw up much ink at all.  I assumed something wasn't right, and figured I would just re-sac all the sac pens in one shot to save on ordering costs.  I spent days soaking the thing. I tried gentle heat.  I even ran a razor blade along the seem between the barrel and section.  I finally got it apart, but It took so much heat that I actually melted the barrel at the cap threads a bit.  So now I'll be experimenting on ways to get fix that faux pas.  (Also, the ink sac seems entirely fine after basically destroying the pen to get it apart.  Maybe someone put a wrong size sac in and that's why it wasn't drawing up much water or ink)

I also ended up scoring a good deal on Etsy for an Osmiroid Lettering Pen Set.  Bought to use the nibs for my Esterbrook.  Pleasantly surprised to find it's a fully functional lever fill pen.  Boring, black plastic.  But with the interchangeable nibs it's as fun as the Esterbrook even if it isn't as beautiful.  (Yes, after the writing sample I fixed the B2 nib that I couldn't finish with, the tines were horribly misaligned, and the ink slot gap was way small, it writes nicely now).

So from December 26 when I placed my first order, to now, I'm up to 4 pens.  2 fully functional.  One that needs a re-sac.  One that I'm going to try to save.  2 bottles of ink, and a set of cartridges in plain black and blue.  I'm hoping the interchangeable nibs will keep me enjoying my pen experience enough that I don't need to buy a hundred pens like some of you.  But I doubt my self control.  Lol.

All your fault