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#FPQuestion of the day:
If you received any stationery or pen-related holiday gifts—from friends, family, colleagues, or perhaps in our #FPSanta exchange—what was your favorite gift? Or, now that you’ve had the chance to play around with your gifts, what particular ink, pen, notebook etc. have you found to really suit you that was perhaps not on your radar?
#FountainPen
@penfount My birthday is January 2 and I usually get a new journal for my birthday. I got a Midori planner this year as well as some stickers. I also got a small budget to pick up a pen during the Atlas Stationers experiences pen sale on Discord. I was able to pick up a Laban 325!
The Midori planner is fantastic, I’m loving it. I put a 1.5 stub nib in the pen and it’s lovely.
@penfount I got 100 loose leaf sheets of Clairefontaine A4 paper and a King Jim Magflap Clipboard. This might not seem like much, but this duo has been ultra effective at getting me to write more frequently!
@penfount bit of a roundabout path, but one of my Santas gave me a Kakimori dip nib. I had no standard nib holder to put it in, and I didn’t want to just buy the cheapest $2 nib holder, so this started me down a huge rabbit hole of dip holders and calligraphy supplies. I never really got into dip pens in a huge way, always preferring fountain pens, but apparently now I’m interested…
@paradoxmo
Same exact here! Despite all my nice fountain pens & inks lined up, I'm suddenly in the rabbit hole of dip pens. And loving it! The upside is that everything required seems to be way less pricey than with ftn pens.
I've tried several nice vintage nibs, and some new ones too... so far, the Zebra G comic nib is my favorite.
Good thing nib holders tend to be cheap, because they don't always fit nibs that they claim to fit! 
@redbanjer @paradoxmo
Ha! Cheap, that's funny. Rivercitypens will gladly sell you a $115 nib holder. They are drop-dead gorgeous.
Yes, we all know that fountain pen supplies can be cheap. I could write happily spending less than $30/yr on a pen, ink, and paper. But all this stuff is shiny and cool. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Oops, is that a Montblanc in my pocket?
@tallastro @redbanjer I did buy a nice Bortoletti brass and rosewood straight nib holder and an aluminum oblique holder from Tom’s Studio (: so more like $40 each but I think for a one time cost that is fine. I do now have a couple cheapy holders and they’re eh, I like the nibs they came with more than the actual holder.
With ftn pens, you have the pen and then the nib. Because of all the inner workings, a millions issues can happen with the pen part of the equation, all issues large and small can effect how the nib writes.. it's complex.
With dip pens, you have the holder and the nib. As long as the holder holds the nib securely at a reasonable angle, the nib will write. The ink does not have to pass through the holder or through any 'workings'. Not implying either is good or bad, just that dip pens are direct and uncomplicated in comparison.
@redbanjer I get why artists and calligraphers sometimes prefer dip pens, it’s easy to change ink and nib which is a good thing for those applications. I am not a calligrapher, I guess I just play one on TV, so overall I think I still prefer FPs, but dip pens are great for the choices.
@paradoxmo
It's also extremely convenient to use a dip pen to test an ink out, without having to clean and fill a whole fountain pen. I see that people do that a lot.
@redbanjer for ink testing I don’t want to use a traditional dip pen or dip nibs, I prefer the Sailor Hocoro which is a dip pen but with a non-consumable fountain pen nib and reservoir and writes like an FP when used with FP inks.
@paradoxmo
That sounds cool!
@penfount - I got a notebook set, 6 booklets, pretty and sized to fit in a pocket. Turns out they work with fountain pens really well so now I have a new brand to check out (Rifle Paper Co.).