1. Ebonite
Ebonite is vulcanized rubber, and it is one of the most popular, premium materials for fountain pens thanks, in large part, to its durable nature. It has the added benefit of having a different texture and chemical composition from plastic, which allows the material to retain more heat. This is why many fountain pen users love pens crafted from ebonite, as it quite literally retains a bit of warmth long after a writing session.
This is why when we were designing our flagship Dream Pen collection, we eventually decided on the premium ebonite material made in Japan. This would also serve as the base of our most iconic Urushi pens such as the True Urushi, Yakumo-nuri, Echizen Urushi, Son Mai, and more.
2. Natural Wood
Wood is the original material - not just for fountain pens - but for writing instruments in general. Since the Phoenicians used a wooden stylus to carve cuneiforms into tablets, wood has been a reliable and seemingly perfect material for pens. This is why you can find examples of Natural Wood pens such as the Sekai World Tree collection, and it is also an incredibly compatible material with raw Urushi (Japanese lacquer), which is why it is used as a base for our Sekai Aizu Urushi collection.
3. Stabilized Wood
Stabilized wood refers to the wood stabilization process, which infuses a wooden material with liquid resin (specifically, an acrylate) in order to decrease the weight, increase durability, and alter its appearance. Although this is a difficult and time-consuming process, it has slowly gained recognition for how it can bridge the gap between a traditional material for pens like wood and a modern material like resin into something that is stronger and more valuable than the sum of its parts.
This is why we used Stabilized Wood for our Olympus Titan and Stabilized Ballpoint Pen collections.
4. Titanium
One of the most expensive, lightest, and most luxurious metal alloys, titanium has been a mainstay as the material for parts of a fountain pen, but very rarely is it selected as the main material due to the price-per-gram of Grade 2 Titanium. However, titanium is a perfect choice if one is considering making a metal fountain pen, as a complaint against the normal metal pen is that they are often much heavier than a wooden or ebonite pen. The Grade 2 titanium, on the other hand, may even be lighter than some pens made from wood.
The Dream Pen Primo Fountain Pen is crafted from Grade 2 titanium so that it can be as lightweight as possible without sacrificing on strength and durability.
5. ABS (Tamesukashi, Aizu, Echizen Urushi)
ABS is a thermoplastic created from the following three monomers: acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene. The combination of these three monomers result in a tougher-than-average acrylic pen that has almost all of the strengths of Ebonite and PMMA resin. This is why we frequently use this material as the base for the likes of our Tamesukashi Fountain Pens, which feature a demonstrator body (transparent body) and multiple coatings of thick Urushi. A pen made of a different material can be transparent, but it may lose the chemical compounds necessary for the Urushi to bond with it, while other materials may possess the compounds compatible with Urushi, but lack the capability of a transparent form factor. Not only that, the material itself is fantastic for Urushi even in its solid, non-demonstrator form.
This is why you can find several Urushi pens such as the Tamesukashi and Aizu Urushi which utilize an ABS Dream Pen as the base.
6. Acrylic (Puchico, pochaco, mofu)
Acrylic, in its base form, is a transparent thermoplastic, and it has become an increasingly popular choice of material for fountain pens because of the scalability of the manufacturing process. However, in order to increase the uniqueness, many manufacturers inject the acrylic with different chemicals in order to alter the transparency into new and vibrant colors instead.
This is why we chose acrylic as the main material for our 1xOnexWan pens such as the PuChiCo, PoChaCo, and Mofu, because it allows us to lower the barrier for entry for anyone who wants to enter the fountain pen hobby without sacrificing on the creativity.
7. PMMA
PMMA (Polymethyl Methacrylate) is a more specific type of Acrylic, which is known for its lightweight yet durable composition. You can find examples of PMMA fountain pens like our Exclusive Design pens - The Matcha Fountain Pen, Queen of Hearts Fountain Pen, and many more.
From ebonite to PMMA, there are so many great materials to choose from when creating fountain pens, and at the end of the day, it comes down to which material works best for the story behind the pen itself. When it comes to designing new pens, it is important to our philosophy to be intentional with every single aspect of the pen starting with the material.