Sustainable ink pen solution for a lefty

I'm fond of fountain pens and I'm a righty... but even for me, some inks are inconveniently slow-drying since I'm using my pens in work situations where I don't have the luxury of blotting the paper or letting the notebook lie open to dry. Look for reviews of fast-drying inks and opinions on how they behave in various pens. Some of the small companies, like Noodler's Inks, might have inks more suitable for your purposes, and in a broader range of colors. Different inks perform better-or-worse with different pens too, of course. This is a particular kind of rabbit hole that you might find enjoyable or obnoxious. Having used fountain pens costing one dollar, ten dollars, a hundred dollar, a thousand dollars(!)..., I personally think the price/performance sweet spot is going to be in the $15-50 range. When buying pens of current manufacture, once you're over the $150 mark you're mostly spending on the appearance and potential collectibility rather than practical usability. There are some really exceptional and usable pens currently manufactured in the $150-400 range, like Pelikan's and http://www.edisonpen.com/page.cfm/Production-Line-Main-Page (the only company in this comment whose products are U.S. made!), but at that price I really think it's worth finding a way to try them before buying, because of the risk of committing to buying an excellent pen that ends up feeling not quite right in the hand for whatever reason. There are a lot of excellent suggestions for http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/6651-Recommend-your-favorite-pen-21-or-less on http://fpgeeks.com/forum/forum.php. In fact I would recommend http://fpgeeks.com/forum/forum.php in general because there's a much greater community interest in fountain pens as functional tools rather than exclusively as collectibles. You can get practical questions answered without implicit sneering at your disinclination to spend a lot of money. As for pens... I think the Lamy Safari is an excellent pen BUT its grip makes it an idiosyncratic choice; for those for whom it works, it's awesome. My partner has several, for making diagrams and multicolored annotations and notes; it's her favorite pen. For others (like me), it's a difficult pen to use. There are good cheap pens at the $20-and-under mark from Pilot (Japan), Jinhao, and Baoer (China). The Hero brand (China) is a love-or-hate company among western fountain pen fans but personally I think you really can't do better for the price (you can still get a pack of ten Hero 616 pens for about $12 including shipping -- even if most of them are clinkers, you've got a bunch of pens that work for less than $6 apiece). I've also used some good pens from India (via Fountain Pen Revolution), although like the Hero pens, manufacture is inconsistent and the pens tend to require some tuning up before they're dialed in. The TWSBI pens, at $50 and up, are fantastic writers, although some people find them awkward. The larger TWSBI pens also have some notoriety for the barrel developing cracks. The manufacturer is very prompt to satisfy customers with the issue, though. I've never had difficulties ordering pens from overseas. If you're interested in Chinese pens, the best venue is going to be AliExpress or Ebay. But within the U.S., retailers to consider include http://www.fountainpenrevolution.com/ (sells pens from India). http://www.isellpens.com has an eclectic range from the cheapest Chinese products to kilobuck European models. I also prefer I Sell Pens' ink samples more than Goulet's: Goulet provides a better selection (and an ink club, and some degree of curatorship) but ISP provides more ink per sample, so you can try it in a few different pens. http://www.xfountainpens.com sells mostly Chinese pens at significant markup (eg, the $15 x750 is a rebadged $6 Baoer 750), but tunes pens before shipping, so the price is justifiable. xFountainPens is also the only vendor I've found for the http://www.xfountainpens.com/Nemosine-Singularity-Velvet-Black-German-Nib-p/nem-sin-vb.htm, which is a pretty great pen for $15 and was my re-introduction to fountain pens after a long number of years away from them.

I bought a bunch of the http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FB3SBZM/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ ink refills, and use them in my stainless steel http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002L6RB80/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ pen body. Because the F-701 is retractable, it takes a little bit of crimping/modification to seat the spring on the ink refill, but now that I've got the hang of it that process only takes a moment when I'm renewing my ink reservoir about once a month. The JetStream ink has gotten a lot of praise for being The Best ink for lefties because of the way it attaches itself to the paper. It only smears when I use it on something like photo-quality paper, and then only if I touch it immediately. If it has a second to set it's fine. I get a lot of compliments on my pen, and take great pleasure in it myself. In my humble opinion it marries the best ink to a damn great pen body.

Oh, this just popped into my head - are you flushing your pen before you refill it? Because that makes a world of difference to my pens. I use the converter/filling system to draw up a penful of a very weak dish soap and water solution, squirt it out, then do the same with a few penfuls of plain water to rinse out the soap. I then try to thoroughly dry the nib before I fill it again to get rid of any crusted up ink. As for types of inks, I've had good luck with plain old Lamy ink, Parker ink, and I recently bought a couple of bottles of Sailor Jentle that are pretty and smooth and lovely. http://www.inknouveau.com/p/tips-tricks.html has a pretty extensive tips-and-tricks section that might be of interest. Oh, and I also remembered that lots of people are saying the http://www.gouletpens.com/Pilot_Metropolitan_Fountain_Pens_s/1336.htm is a killer beginner's pen. http://www.gouletpens.com/Pilot_Iroshizuku_Namiki_Bottled_Ink_s/945.htm are also supposed to be very smooth to write with.

http://www.jetpens.com/Good-for-the-Left-Handed/ct/555?&pn=1&sa=popularity&so=0&ip=24 has a buying guide for lefties.

(I really need to get all of my thoughts down in a single answer. Sorry this wound up being in three parts.) Finally, here is a page on http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand%20writers.htm - a change-up in technique may alleviate some frustration.

I'm a lefty with pretty small writing, and my current pen of choice is this http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002R0DYZ4/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ gel ink with a fine tip. It writes right away, and the ink dries very quickly, I never see smudges.

I'll poke my head in to say that ultra-fine on a safari is a pretty frustrating experience on shitty paper. They clog up and carry bits of cellulose ans smear and I had a bad experience and converted to fine point. Now everything is better.

One more thought on the matter: There's a small industry of pen tuning, the craft of turning good pens into great pens through their skill at nib shaping and adjustment. Some superstars of the form are http://www.richardspens.com, http://www.mikeitwork.com, http://nibs.com, and http://pendletonspens.com. They all handle online orders and one or more of these guys are usually seen at the larger pen shows to work on pens while-you-wait. Their services are not necessarily cheap ($50 is probably the baseline), but they can turn a pen that isn't quite right (for whatever reason) into one that does just what you need -- in your case, maybe, one that works better for a lefty.

Seconding TWSBI and nerdfish's cleaning suggestion.