Fountain pen, someone?

Fountain pen, someone?

  • Fountain pen

    Votes: 205 69.7%

  • Roller

    Votes: 33 11.2%

  • Computer

    Votes: 37 12.6%

  • I do not write

    Votes: 5 1.7%

  • Others

    Votes: 14 4.8%
  • Total voters
    294
Nice to see this old thread revived. I have a Parker 51 in my breast pocket today. About to start experimenting with some Chou Kuro platinum black ink. Nothing like a fresh bottle of ink, except maybe a new pen. . .I probably have more Waterman's than anything else. I do have a Pilot vanishing point pen somewhere around the house. Sadly I dropped it while it was "unvanished" and it never really wrote the same way afterwards. Brilliant design though.
 
DownUnder said:
My favorite pen of a long lifetime (mine, not the pen's) is a Mont Blanc Noblesse from the 1980s, a red one with a 14K fine nib, which I found in a charity shop in Melbourne about ten years ago for $5. The volunteer who sold it to me said she thought it was a cheapie from China. Good on her! It's a classic and worth a fair bit, but more importantly it's the best writer I've owned - I have about 50 in my collection box, so this is most definitely an "informed" comment, at least for me.

For reasons obvious the Mont Blanc rarely leaves home. A few years ago I was using it on a train in Indonesia, when I had finished writing my travel notes I put it in my travel pack but it fell out to the floor. A very kind lady in the seat across from me pointed this out to me. I owe that lovely woman a great deal, the loss of this pen would have devastated me.

Now and then I make a valiant effort to use several of my other pens but the Mont Blanc is by far my favorite. Currently on my desk as I write this is a fairly new Parker something or other (the box bears no information as to its "lineage" and I've not been able to trace it on any of the several pen web sites I occasionally check) I picked up in a charity shop in Springwood, New South Wales, last year for $8. It was a retirement gift to a lady named Emma R and is inscribed with her name, which obviously reduces its value to a collector but not to a user/writer.

My second favorite is a classic, a Parker 51 finished in rolled gold, dating to the 1960s, given to me as part of a set (pen and pencil) by a close friend (sadly long deceased) in Sydney in 1980. I've used it a few times but it occupies a place of honor in my collection box as whenever I take it out it triggers many happy memories of our friendship. I rarely use this pen, at most once a year, but it's a good writer.

the '00s saw a revival in FP usage. Many of my friends use them. They have mostly Parkers, Shaeffers or Kawecos and say the Liliputs are fine pens but fiddly to write with. I own three in their classic metal tins with all the accessories, but I have to say I've not really taken to them. Too small for my hand, maybe.

I have a few very old pens including two unusual Art Deco ones I picked up in Europe in the 1980s. At that time ('80s and '90s) fountain pens were being dumped by the zillions in favor of the newer fine-liners which everyone seemed to want to use, even we did in my architectural office in the '90s as they were, as they say, "cheap and cheerful", never leaked, were very fine-lined and once emptied could be thrown away (in the recycling bin) and new ones bought for about $1 each. I'm now retired and I have no idea if these pens are still in popular use or not. I'm now more into environmental issues and I try to no longer use anything that gets thrown out after its use-by, not that I'm particularly successful at this but we do have to try and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to take out a bottle of Lamy ink and fill up an empty fountain pen - which sort of takes me back to the 1950s when I was a grade school kid and had two highly valued pens, cheapies of their time (probably Sheaffers) which invariably leaked blue ink and stained my shirt pockets...

I never did take to biros when they first appeared in the shops in eastern Canada (this was about 1959) as I found them difficult to write with. For me a fountain pen is more easily held and I can easily draw good letters of fine lines with one. So for me, the die was cast - or the ink, as it were.
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As long as we are telling stories, when I returned to the States with my Diplomat, I had filled out my customs cardincluding the Mont Blanc Diplomat @ $150. I always filled out the customs questionnaire honestly; why cheat and get caught? Not worth the effort. Anyway, the US customs official gave me a hard look and said brusquely, "let's see that fountain pen". Nervously, I took it out and handed it to him not knowing what I had done wrong, if anything. He looked at it, opened it, inspected it closely and handed it back saying, "I've never seen a pen costing $150 before". :giggle:
 
Benjamin Marks said:
Nice to see this old thread revived. I have a Parker 51 in my breast pocket today. About to start experimenting with some Chou Kuro platinum black ink. Nothing like a fresh bottle of ink, except maybe a new pen. . .I probably have more Waterman's than anything else. I do have a Pilot vanishing point pen somewhere around the house. Sadly I dropped it while it was "unvanished" and it never really wrote the same way afterwards. Brilliant design though.
Click to expand...
I have more Waterman's ink than you do, I reckon. About 30 bottles. Mostly bought in Asia during my travels as until recently ink prices there were far lower than in the West. In 2015 in Bali I was mooching around in an old department store in Kuta (now closed) and found ten unopened bottles of Mont Blanc ink which I bought for around UD $4 each bottle. The find of a lifetime.

Like you I also hav a Parker 51, in fact two of them. And a Parker 45. (I've already written about one which I acquired in 1980.) I've made a note to myself to take them out and clean them later. And use them. Good pens need careful attention and now and then, a bit of lovin'...

Between the two of us we should open a fountain pen ink shop.
 
DownUnder said:
I have more Waterman's ink than you do, I reckon. About 30 bottles. Mostly bought in Asia during my travels as until recently ink prices there were far lower than in the West. In 2015 in Bali I was mooching around in an old department store in Kuta (now closed) and found ten unopened bottles of Mont Blanc ink which I bought for around UD $4 each bottle. The find of a lifetime.

Like you I also hav a Parker 51, in fact two of them. And a Parker 45. (I've already written about one which I acquired in 1980.) I've made a note to myself to take them out and clean them later. And use them. Good pens need careful attention and now and then, a bit of lovin'...

Between the two of us we should open a fountain pen ink shop.
Click to expand...
Parker 45 gray (2nd in the picture) was my first fountain pen, my mom bought it when I started in 2nd grade
I got a stainless one (1st on the left) for my 1st communion (1980) and have used it ever since as you can see in the wear of the body where the cap is posted.
I have since amassed a good collection of 15 or 20 of them in many more colors. Love the design, simplicity and the fact that they just work!

I never liked the P51, the hooded nib aesthetics were not of my liking, but my father in law gave me his (late 1940s) and after having it refurbished it is a wonderful pen.
 

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Benjamin Marks said:
Nice to see this old thread revived. I have a Parker 51 in my breast pocket today. About to start experimenting with some Chou Kuro platinum black ink. Nothing like a fresh bottle of ink, except maybe a new pen. . .I probably have more Waterman's than anything else. I do have a Pilot vanishing point pen somewhere around the house. Sadly I dropped it while it was "unvanished" and it never really wrote the same way afterwards. Brilliant design though.
Click to expand...
@Benjamin Marks, if the Pilot hasn't vanished in the house, they do sell replacement nib units:

Pilot Vanishing Point Replacement Nibs | JetPens

Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pens feature easily replaceable nib units. Change tip sizes or swap out a damaged nib with one of these replacements.
www.jetpens.com www.jetpens.com
 
James Evidon said:
As long as we are telling stories, when I returned to the States with my Diplomat, I had filled out my customs cardincluding the Mont Blanc Diplomat @ $150. I always filled out the customs questionnaire honestly; why cheat and get caught? Not worth the effort. Anyway, the US customs official gave me a hard look and said brusquely, "let's see that fountain pen". Nervously, I took it out and handed it to him not knowing what I had done wrong, if anything. He looked at it, opened it, inspected it closely and handed it back saying, "I've never seen a pen costing $150 before". :giggle:
Click to expand...
RFF is a wonderful site for story-telling...

Overlooking my once-in-a-lifetime find of a MB Noblesse for AUD $5, I am envious of your MB Diplomat for the price you paid for it. I tend to thinner pens for my style of writing, and my Noblesse comes across as anorexic compared to the somewhat fatter girth of your Diplomat, but then both are fine writing instruments, and I would be equally happy with either. Me with my Noblesse, you with your Diplomat. Two cases of win-win.

It is a fine pen and well worth spending that much on it. As we here all know, a good fountain pen is a lifetime investment.
 
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