Carrying a pen

[Wowbagger]

The skill of writing seems to have deserted me since I became attached to a keyboard. I had a couple of nicish pens but I don't suppose they'd cut the mustard against some of the jewellery on display on this thread.

[Flying_Monkey]

All the more reason for taking up writing again. It was when I was studying Japanese calligraphy that I realised that I couldn't write for shit in my own language anymore (as a result of using computers...). That isn't good.

[Hot Flatus]

Damn this thread.   I had a frustrating dream last night where I was trying to write a love letter with a brand new very expensive fountain pen, but everytime I put nib to paper the end spread itself wide and ink pissed all over the page.

[Gaseous Clay]

Mr Freud would have a field day with that one!

[epa611]

Just bought one of these for my birthday 

Special Edition for Unicef, so I get a nice pen and donate to a worthwhile charity at the same time

[Hot Flatus]

Mr Freud would have a field day with that one!

I think you are being somewhat premature

 

[pcolbeck]

I always carry at least one Lamy fountain pen and usually a propelling pencil as well. I have been known to buy stuff from Mr Woofage's excellent emporium. I love nice pens, I prefer to write with a fountain pen but like nice ball points and roller balls too. Cult Pens do a great selection of roller balls and propelling pencils.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Rather random post this, but rootling about in my older photos, I found this shot of a Visconti Wall Street in action. As you can see, I do not have the ideal technique for fountain pens, but with a fairly fast drying ink I rarely create too much mess. I think I took that shot to demonstrate my hold for the purposes of custom nib creation:

[Woofage]

Do you use an oblique nib or normal rounded point?

[Sergeant Pluck]

A stub, normally (although the Visconti nib above was stock).

[Hummers]

5 pages.

Brilliant.

 

H

[mercury]

I keep a Waterman fountain pen in my computer repair tool bag...

[Ian H]

Do you use an oblique nib or normal rounded point?

Now there's a chat-up line.

[grayo59]

When I was a teenager I had a job as the internal mailman for a large zinc manufacturer which entailed riding around the site 4 times a day to various offices on a single speed butcher's bike with a box for mail on the front.

Anyway I digress - one of the electrical engineering supervisors for whom I collected mail was called John Green and he always used a green bic pen for all his correspondence. I would have liked to have done similar for my surname but sadly grey or gray would be viewed as a shade of black I reckon.

[SteveC]

I like the Namiki Vanishing Point Untitled Document .  I've had one for about 10 years.

Tried one of these in the 'proper' stationers in Bath before Christmas.
Lovely pen.  Very heavy.  But £110 was a bit much!

What I actually use these days is either a Pilot G-TEC-C4 (very fine nib) -- I almost always have one of these in a pocket or on the desk -- or a cheap Asda cartridge pen.  I thought it was worth blowing 99p to see if a proper pen would make any difference to the way I write.  Which it does, so I will be resuscitating one of my old pens or getting a decent new one soon.

S

[rogerzilla]

I rather like Pentels, but the last packet I bought had the first bad one I've ever known - it just won't write smoothly.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I like the Namiki Vanishing Point Untitled Document .  I've had one for about 10 years.

Tried one of these in the 'proper' stationers in Bath before Christmas.
Lovely pen.  Very heavy.  But £110 was a bit much!

I use a Pilot Decimo which is a lighter version of the Vanishing Point, and much nicer to write with as a result. The Decimo takes (with some very minor fettling) the same nib as the VP:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pilot-Namiki-Capless-DECIMO-GRAY-18Kt-B-Fountain-Pen_W0QQitemZ380194135176QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5885561c88

[Woofage]

The daft thing is that the Decimo is 25% more expensive than the standard Pilot Capless  .

Mrs Woofage has a Pilot Capless, but the older version with the faceted plastic body. I prefer the look of the newer models but they are slightly fatter.

Today, I are be mostly using my Parker Duofold Centennial "Greenwich" SE with J Herbin Violette Pensée and my Lamy 2000 with Rohrer and Klingner Salix.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I really liked my Lamy 2000 but I just couldn't get it to stop over-producing ink (and leaking into the cap when not in use) - tried a replacement nib but had to give up on it.

Both the Capless and the Decimo seem to have got a hell of a lot more expensive since I bought mine.

[rogerzilla]

I appear to have accumulated a pile of pens since a fountain pen craze broke out in our office last year.

Currently:

1. Sheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pen with an italic nib.  I wrote my university thesis with it in May 1990 and then retired it for 21 years.  It worked first time I put a cartridge in it.  Has a screw cap which is something else to fiddle with in meetings.

2. Sheaffer Agio in the lurid limited-edition plasma/rainbow finish.  People lust after this pen at work and I have to be careful where I leave it.

3. Sheaffer Triumph Imperial (the 1990s model) in a rather nice burgundy with that over-engineered inlaid nib.  Looks great but the cap just pushes on in a non-positive manner, unlike any other push-on cap I've tried which clicks on.  This annoys me a bit.

4. Lamy Al-Star in blue.  Like all Lamys the medium nib is actually pretty wide and wet.  Not pretty but writes very smoothly when it's not clogged.  I've given up on Lamy ink and am using a converter and bottled ink now.  Used the 1.5mm italic nib for a bit but it wasn't anywhere near as nice for italic script as the Sheaffer.

5. Lamy Al-Star in raspberry.  Same as above, writes the same.

6. Lamy Vista (transparent plastic version of the pens above).  As a practical fountain pen this is all you really need, and it cost about seven quid.  You can see how much ink is left at a glance and there are some funky chromed parts, like the inner cap and the Lamy logo.

I also keep finding 1970s Papermate ballpoints in the changing rooms.  I advertise on the work intranet but no-one ever claims them.  I should probably get the burgundy and black-barrelled versions off eBay to complete the set.

We have a contractor in this week who is using a Montblanc fountain pen with orange ink 

[Euan Uzami]

Is there any truth in the rumour that fountain pens "break in" and become specific to their owner in the similar way that brooks's do?

[Frere]

Is there any truth in the rumour that fountain pens "break in" and become specific to their owner in the similar way that brooks's do?

Yes. No one else is ever allowed to use my fountain pens.

Frere

[rogerzilla]

That's what we were always told, but a nib tipped with iridium (or whatever they use these days) is pretty damn hard and unlikely to be damaged by occasional use by foreign hands.  The best reason for not lending one is that most people under 30 have no experience of them and may squash the nib through excessive pressure or writing at a near-90 degree angle, as is possible with a ballpoint.

[Fast Bill]

I've had a thing for Cross fountain pens for a while now. I am sure I can give them up any time I choose ... 

And no, they're not for lending.

[Feanor]

Or being a sinister type like myself who pushes the nib, causing it to dig into the paper and bend!

And then my following wrist smudges over what I've just written.

Perhaps I should buffer a line of text in my head, and output it in reverse, writing from right to left.

Fountain pens are not for me.