The 10 Fountain Pens That Saw the Most Ink in 2022 (Plus One Bonus)

Introduction

Every so often it is worth stepping back and asking a simple question: which pens actually earn their place on the desk? Not the ones that photograph well or arrive with the loudest announcement, but the ones that keep getting inked, capped, uncapped, and carried. What follows is a personal roundup of the ten fountain pens that saw the most writing time in 2022, plus one unexpected bonus pick that earned its spot the hard way. The list is deliberately eclectic: handmade sterling silver, bronze-toned celluloid, faceted acrylic, oversized eyedroppers, and one genuinely affordable surprise all share the page.

A quick note before diving in: several of these pens are limited editions, boutique releases, or gifts with personal history, so treat this less as a strict ranking and more as a curated look at pens that deliver real writing pleasure.

Leonardo Momento Zero Grande

The Leonardo Momento Zero Grande in its limited edition material is a stunner, with swirling blue-green tones and a subtle glittery speckle that brings to mind alpine lakes seen from above. This version skips the ink window of the 2.0 but carries the new section shape, which proves genuinely comfortable in hand. The most interesting part is the nib: an extra fine that is also elastic, allowing for lovely line variation on demand, paired with an ebonite feed. Only a small number of this edition were produced and it was sold exclusively through limited pens Korea, so availability is very limited. One practical bonus: the pen can be disassembled with the wrench Leonardo sells, which makes maintenance refreshingly easy.

Cross Peerless Darth Vader

At a glance the Cross Peerless Darth Vader looks like an understated black pen, which is exactly the point. Up close, the details emerge: the chest panel pattern, the helmet and mask on the cap, boots, the Imperial crest, and a red crystal detail for the lightsaber. It is a metal-bodied Peerless model with a nib made by Sailor, and the medium nib is a wonderfully pleasant writer, fine enough to use comfortably at work while staying smooth. For business settings where discretion matters, a pen that hides Star Wars fandom until someone leans in is a quietly brilliant trick.

Yard-O-Led Viceroy Grand

The Yard-O-Led Viceroy Grand in the Victorian finish is sterling silver, hand hammered in the UK, and it is as tactile as it sounds. The broad nib is fantastically smooth, the heft of the silver feels substantial without being unwieldy, and dark washable blues in this pen are an absolute winner. For anyone drawn to this pattern but wanting something smaller and lighter, the Viceroy line also comes in standard and pocket sizes. It is a conversation piece in the best sense: genuinely hand-made, instantly recognizable, and a joy to write with.

Armando Simoni Club Bologna Extra

The ASC Bologna Extra in Arco bronze celluloid is a big pen, and the brand does not pretend otherwise. Some find it clunky, and it will not fit every pen case, but the brass liner gives it a satisfying weight and the Arco material itself is difficult not to love. It uses a distinctive filling system and carries the 18k Magic Flex nib, which writes as a pleasant medium with no pressure and opens up real line variation when pressed. Paired with a warm brown ink that complements the Arco tones, this is a pen that makes everyday writing genuinely fun.

Magna Carta Elements Earth

Magna Carta is an Indian pen company, and the Elements Earth model proves how far a well-tuned steel nib can go. It shares a pneumatic filling system with the Bologna Extra, has an ebonite feed, and offers consistent, generous ink flow. Out of the box the nib ran a touch dry, but a simple widening of the flow turned it into exactly the writer it should be. The material is attractive without being ostentatious, which makes it one of the more practical choices here for a professional setting, and the size is generous without being obscenely oversized. It posts only loosely, but the pen is big enough that posting is unnecessary.

Lambrou Pens LB6

The Lambrou Pens LB6 faceted is a larger, girthy pen built around diffusion-bonded acrylic in an intense, deep red with remarkable depth. Handmade by the late Paul Rossi, it carries handmade clip, center band, and ring details, sterling silver hallmarks, and in this example a serial number among only ten pieces. The faceted body catches the light beautifully, and while it originally shipped with a medium number 8 nib that ran very fine, swapping to a bolder number 8 nib unlocks the pen’s true character. The LB6 line is based on virtues, and this one, themed passion, even carries flame motifs on the clip.

Conid King Size

The Conid King Size is a bulk filler about the size of a Montblanc 149, and in this example it wears an 18k number 8 Dani Trio stub nib tuned by Mike Masayama, a swap made possible by a skilled pen-smith. The result is an exceptionally smooth, almost speechless-inducing writer on a pen that can be carried to work far more easily than most pens that could house such a nib. Conid’s own filling system is a pleasure to use, and the combination of a practical, portable body with a dream of a nib makes this one of the most satisfying pairings on the list.

Edison Collier Grande

The Edison Collier Grande in tortoise lucite is translucent, nicely patterned, and simply fun to use, with details in the material that occasionally mimic ink drops in a way that keeps you looking twice. The draw filler is a paid upgrade over the standard cartridge-converter or eyedropper configuration. It ships with a number 8 steel nib with an ebonite feed, made by Magna Carta and supplied to Edison, and out of the box it wrote beautifully. The broad nib even has a touch of pleasant bounce to it, though being steel it should not be treated as a flex nib. The pens are designed to be used unposted, and at this size that is no hardship.

Classic Pens LB7

The Classic Pens LB7 shown here is an artist proof, a prototype handmade entirely by Paul Rossi, with an AP etched into the end cap. The LB7 line never went into production, which makes this pen both rare and a quiet tribute to a jeweler-turned-penmaker who did remarkable work. The Blue Lagoon material genuinely evokes swirling water, the 18k medium nib is a very pleasant writer, and the size hits a sweet spot that worked for everyone who tried it. For collectors, a hand-carved prototype from a revered artisan is about as compelling as it gets.

Conway Stewart Great Exhibition

The Conway Stewart Great Exhibition is an eight-inch, eyedropper-filled statement of a pen, with a silver overlay worked entirely by hand by silversmith Henry Simpole, including letters and motifs carefully wrought into the metalwork. A limited run of 50 pieces is cited, with a vermeil version rumored but never seen in the wild. The medium 18k nib looks deceptively like a number 6 simply because the pen is so enormous, and the huge hourglass section is surprisingly comfortable, though smaller-handed writers may balk. With a huge ink capacity, it is not an everyday carry in any conventional sense, but as a conversation piece that also writes smoothly and reliably, it delivers completely.

Majohn Q1: The Bonus Pick

The Majohn Q1 earns its bonus spot on pure determination. Arriving in barely functional condition, with both pen and included eyedropper struggling, it took a little nib adjustment, a wetter flow and slightly spread tines, to turn it into a pen that actually writes pleasantly. The design, inspired by a Tombow pen created to help writers with arthritis, is odd but endearing: post it and you get a chunky, comfortable grip with a simple number 6 nib and plastic feed. At around twenty dollars it is a fixer-upper, not a polished performer, but once tuned it genuinely earns its desk time, and that is enough to make the list.

Buying Advice

If one lesson emerges from this lineup, it is that price and writing pleasure are not perfectly correlated. The Q1 costs a fraction of the silver overlays and prototypes here, yet all of them earned comparable ink time. Match the pen to the hand and the use: something like the Elements Earth or Collier Grande suits daily professional writing, the Peerless Darth Vader blends discretion with character, and the oversized eyedroppers are best treated as celebratory writers rather than commuters. For the limited and handmade pieces, expect to hunt secondary markets and boutique retailers rather than mainstream listings.

Conclusion

A great pen year is less about acquiring the newest release and more about finding the pens that keep asking to be used. Between hand-hammered silver, bronze celluloid, artisan prototypes, and a rescued twenty-dollar oddball, this list shows that a favorite pen is simply the one that makes you want to write one more line. Whatever your budget, that pen is out there waiting.