Carrying a pen

[Woofage]

Continuing on from this topic I wonder which of us still carries or uses a decent pen (ie anything other than office issue throwaway things)?

I'm a self-confessed pen accumulator. My current pen-du-jour is a Pelikan M620 "Stockholm":

[tiermat]

I always carry a pen, despite working IT, but mine is nowhere near as nice as yours...

I always have one of these about my person:

Fisher Space Pen & Fisher Space Pen Refills - Allwrite

[Frenchie]

I have a collection of Pentel Pro in 0.5mm and 0.7mm. I have 2-3 in my desk drawer, a couple in my bags. I have them in green, blue, black. I use them all the time for work. I am an engineer.

[tatanab]

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

[Rob S]

This thread is nowt without pics.

My bestest pen....

[clarion]

I like pens, but I'm too brutal, so they tend to leak/break/give up the will to live in my bags.  Currently, I use an understated Parker.  But more often, whatever cheap/free pen is to hand.

[Woofage]

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

Mrs W has one of those but it's a European Pilot branded model.

[clarion]

Yes, that VP is an interesting design.  Awful colour, but interesting design.  I've always had a problem with losing caps, so something integrated is quite attractive.

[Clare]

I have a Waterman of indeterminate age (about 1986 ish), with a wide nib. It is lovely to write with, although my writing style has degenerated greatly with the advent of a computer on every desk. I used it as my everyday pen when I was an oafish student, it got put away the day I caught my supervisor coveting it. Now I scrawl with a Bic and only use my decent pen occasionally.

[tatanab]

Yes, that VP is an interesting design.  Awful colour, but interesting design.  I've always had a problem with losing caps, so something integrated is quite attractive.

The yellow is a special edition.  Mine is a nice sober green one.  Red, blue, black etc are/were available.

[nicknack]

I've always got one of a number of different coloured Lamys about my person. Mostly obtained from the place that links to. Nice and cheap and write well.

[Jaded]

I love writing with a fountain pen. I was given a simple Parker Pen as a leaving present in the last 90's. I lost it in a train carriage in '99.

I liked it so much that I bought a new one exactly the same. My problem is that I hardly ever need to write now - I type most stuff. Therefore it dries out and every time I want to use it there is half an hour of washing it out and refilling it!

[fred the great]

 I carry a nice Parker ballpoint pen or an ex Company presentation Roller Ball, both are very nice.

In my desk drawer I have Parker Quink and two nice fountain pens, a Parker which has a good antique value and with a two sided nib, fine and normal plus a Sheaffer, again both are very nice.

In addition I have copy sets of Mont Blanc and Jaguar pens bought in Jakarta. I took the Mont Blanc ballpoint to a Mont Blanc shop in Bangkok for a refill. The lady politely informed me it was a copy, "My goodness, said I"

I write neater with a ballpoint but writing with a fountain pen, neatly, has been a lifelong failed ambition

[clarion]

I have to confess that my handwriting is awful.  And, as I'm left handed, I've had a problem with smudging the ink when I write, especially with a nib pen

I'd like to have a nice pen that doesn't get battered, and write neatly with it.  But I know that just ain't gonna happen.

[andygates]

This thread is nowt without pics.

My bestest pen....

Design triumph, that pen.  Tough, cheap, nice to write, expressive, decent for sketching too.  Accept no imitations!

I used to be a total Rotring queen, but they're so damn leaky and I have always had hot hands that make liquid ink expand and ooze everywhere.  Got a Schaeffer fountain pen too, but the same applies.

[geraldc]

It used to be a rite of passage giving your kids a fountain pen.

I remember when I was about 9, my dad gave me a Parker, that his gran had given him when he went off to college.  I remember being thoroughly unimpressed. However as I was cack handed, my mum took me to the local stationers to try get a left handed nib. The guy on the fountain pen counter, took one look at the pen and told my mum that it was actually far too valuable for a child, and so I got given a cheap osmiroid instead.

After uni I joined a pen firm called Platignum, which the new management team drove into the ground ( I was just following orders). However I did get to travel around attending stationery fairs.  I'm still shocked by Graf Von Faber Castell, them with the £200 pencil Luxury in Simplicity

[Woofage]

The guy on the fountain pen counter, took one look at the pen and told my mum that it was actually far too valuable for a child, and so I got given a cheap osmiroid instead.

That's very sad. Osmiroid pens were (mostly) crap.

[perpetual dan]

My writing looks crap with a fountain pen so it would be wasted on me. I keep a propelling pencil and biro with a rubber bit for your fingers in my bag. In fact, I usually write in pencil. No pens in my shirt pocket though. 

[andygates]

Gods yes.  Scratchy nibs - the lefty Osmiroid nib is what drove me to technical pens at school - and watery Quink.  I can almost smell the school dinners now.  

My writing, alas, looks lovely but is illegible. 

[border-rider]

My writing, alas, looks lovely but is illegible. 

Mine looks shocking and is illegible, even to me*.

I welcome the freedom from writing that's come with computers etc

I do like pens though, and if I could actually write I'd have a lovely pen...

*as a small Volio, aged about 7, I was told I would never amount to anything in life because I couldn't write properly.  I replied that by the time I grew up we'd have machines for that stuff.  Which earned me time standing outside the classroom

[nicknack]

Utterly shameless plug follows...

I should have said that The Writing Desk is a great place to buy pens.

Mr Woofage hides his light under a bushel.  

[Jaded]

My writing, alas, looks lovely but is illegible. 

Mine looks shocking and is illegible, even to me*.

As a lefty mine was always poor - then I went to Uni and we had to take notes - 20 pages of A4 in an hour. Now I cannot read my own writing.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Rotring tart here.

I have a couple of the very solid metal bodied 600 series ones, that lock each tip into place with a ball bearing. Pencil + pens + stylus. Bought myself one the hex bodied ones, then my kids lost the clicker top bit.  Wife tried to get me a replacement, but could only find a Quattro - same mech, but doesn't have the same style.

I've worn out 3 of the Rotring artpens. Cheap nib pen that works so reliably.

[Woofage]

Rotring tart here.

It's a shame that Rotring has disappeared as a "consumer" brand. However, they still make drawing pens and other technical drawing instruments .

Those 600 series pens were amazing things. A former colleague had a set of FP/BP/MP and I was rather envious! Plus, the FP could double as a deadly weapon, which was nice .

[citoyen]

I carry a nice Parker ballpoint pen or an ex Company presentation Roller Ball, both are very nice.

Mmmm. A Parker Vector roller ball is my favourite ever pen to use. Simple, inexpensive, fine. I've had loads of them over the years but don't currently own one. Must remedy that.

I've never got on with fountain pens so it wouldn't be worth me having a nice one.

At work, I have a range of Staedtler Lumocolor permanent markers in assorted sizes (medium, fine and superfine) and colours for marking proofs. For disposable pens, they're very nice.

d.