I write four or five pages of meeting notes a day and have about 120 pounds to spend, once. I keep flip-flopping between a single nicer pen with a gold nib and a handful of solid steel-nibbed ones so I can keep different inks loaded and have a spare when one dries out. No stationery shop nearby to try nibs in person.
Several, for your specific use. Four or five pages a day means the pen gets dropped, left uncapped on a desk for an hour, and forgotten in a bag over a weekend. That's a case for pens you aren't precious about, and multiple pens means you never stop mid-meeting to fill one.
But spend it as two, not four. Roughly 70-80 on two known-good workhorses in different nib widths, and keep the rest for ink, decent paper and a bulb syringe, because paper affects your daily experience more than the pen does. Buying four and finding you dislike the nib width on all four is the failure mode here.
The gold nib argument is real but it's about feel rather than performance, and you can't evaluate feel from a website.
Two plus budget for paper and ink is a better plan than either of the ones I'd given myself.
Second the paper point strongly. A 30 pound pen on good paper beats a 200 pound pen on whatever pad the office buys, every time.
Slight counterpoint: one pen you actually love gets used every day and four adequate ones become a drawer. That's been my pattern anyway. If you go single, buy from somewhere with a returns or nib exchange policy given you can't try in person.
Fair, and I'd agree if this were a journalling question. Meeting notes is a tools job, not a pleasure job, at least until you know what you like.
Whatever you buy, buy one bottle of ink, not five. Sample vials exist for a reason, and 120 pounds of pens with 60 pounds of inks you don't like is the classic beginner outcome.
@scope_of_work_sky · 9mo ago
Nib width matters more than price at your volume. Fast notes on unpredictable office paper wants a fine or extra-fine. A medium on cheap paper is exactly how people conclude fountain pens are impractical at work. If you buy one pen, buy it fine.
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