My wife  bought me a nice  fountain pen for father's  day. I
can't recall if I mentioned  that anywhere, so forgive me if
I'm rambling or repeating.

The pen  is a Cross. I've  had ballpoint cross pens  of some
quality, and I've liked them,  but never a fountain. I think
I had a Parker and another brand in France, and I liked them
a lot. I purchased a Chinese  one on Amazon a while back and
didn't really like it at all.

So far, I've  written two 3-page letters with  it, a journal
entry, and a few other things. I like the way it writes, and
the way  it feels in the  hand. My only complaint  so far is
that the cap  doesn't seat well on the base  of the pen, and
it pops off from time to time while writing.

I don't know how Cross is  viewed in the pen community. This
pen was about $50. It's a dark blue enamel with silver trim.
I have both blue and black ink, archival, which does well at
not seeping through on the  paper I've tried (nothing fancy,
just lined paper and some card stock.)

User  tomasino   put  out   an  invite  for   physical  mail
interactions, so I'm hoping to write a bit more. I love that
hand writing can be a pleasure and a wonderful memory.