Fountain pens - anyone write?

I have a few not too rare Parkers and Sheaffers along with Chinese Heros, etc, but my favorites are the Esterbrook '40's and '50's "J"s. I have a dozen plus of these and while several are awaiting new sacks and j bars, I manage to keep the rest in continuous rotation.

For school I usually carry three pens, with Black, Red and Green or Blue inks. I prefer the Noodlers inks, but have to confess to a bottle of J. Herbin "Violette Pensee" and some "Purple Haze" lurking about. The fine Esterbrook nibs with Noodler's Black or Rattler Red do well enough in Moleskine notebooks, as well as the Hero Parker "51" clones, but all will show through the back of a page. One day I'll get around to making up my own Moleskine style notebooks with some nice Cranes paper.

I really like the way these pens write and the fun of tweaking the many nibs for best performance, but if I was able to one day indulge myself, I'd go for a Salior "1911" Large or Standard". In Black, Yellow or Red, that's one fine looking pen.

For me, using old camera kit or fountain pens or milsurps is not about being somewhere or at sometime or assuming something I'm not, but rather enjoying the qualities of well made objects that function as they should and have some personality as well.

Eli
 
upon my return home, and a dig through my desk - as well as a phone call...

I was mistaken.

The only FP's I have here with me are one of the cheaper model Aurora's, medium nib - with a converter and Pelikan black ink, and a currently empty MonteBlanc Meisterstuck fine point.

The others are apparently with my father. Which is cool - if he's using them, more power to him.

I may start taking the Aurora around more. It *is* fun to use.
 
I've got a few fountain pens, but nothing too exotic. I'll occasionally use them to draw, but very seldom to actually write with. Personally, I much prefer typing to writing by hand.

I like nice pens though, and I've happened upon a few interesting non-fountain pens. I've got a Mont Blanc Meisterstück Solitaire Doué that I found on the ground in a particularly ritzy neighborhood, and a simple engraved Waterman given to me by the security detail of Aleksander Kwaśniewski when he visited the U.S. as the President of Poland. (Yes, I've had some rather strange jobs.)
 
Yes! I have too many to list, both vintage and modern. Some brands that I have are: Waterman, Parker, Sheaffer, Cross, Montblanc, etc.

My favorite modern pen is a 1970's Montblanc 146.

--Warren
 
Dammit. Y'all made me go buy an inexpensive fountain pen just now - a Rotring Initial. I used to love my Rotring Rapidographs when I was studying mechanical drawing, so I'll give this pen a try.
 
I have a few gold plated Parker and Shaeffer pens from the 80's when one Iraqi Dinar was worth US $3.443. I also have a brownish Waterman from the 80's that is new.

Raid
 
In the early '80s, I bought a Mont Blanc Diplomat with a skipping nib - that POS had to be destroyed. The replacement was a much nicer Waterman. The pen I lost and really miss, however, was a cheap plastic Pelikan for artists: it used India ink and had a refillable reservoir! Never saw such a fountain pen again. India ink is black as a coal mine, and permanent... just beautiful.
 
Rico said:
India ink is black as a coal mine, and permanent... just beautiful.
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I'm told that Aurora black is one of the nicest looking. Haven't tried it yet, but will soon (Aurora and Parker cartridges are interchangeable).
 
I went back to using a fountain pen because I found that using ball pens was making my handwriting bad (no I don't know why). I try not to use anything else now and people can read what I write again!

I think constantly using word processors also males us bad handwriters - not sure there is much I can do about that though :)
 
Rico said:
In the early '80s, I bought a Mont Blanc Diplomat with a skipping nib - that POS had to be destroyed. The replacement was a much nicer Waterman. The pen I lost and really miss, however, was a cheap plastic Pelikan for artists: it used India ink and had a refillable reservoir! Never saw such a fountain pen again. India ink is black as a coal mine, and permanent... just beautiful.
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Rico: Pelikan pens are widely used in Germany. Students must use ink at schools in Germany. I went through it myself. We typically chose between pens by Geha and Pelikan. I recently had exchange students from germany study in my department, and they used such pens.

Raid
 
chris000 said:
I went back to using a fountain pen because I found that using ball pens was making my handwriting bad (no I don't know why). I try not to use anything else now and people can read what I write again!
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It may partly be due to the extra pressure needed to use a ballpoint just to get and keep the ball rolling. The fountain pen needs no pressure at all, so the hand can be more relaxed.

chris000 said:
I think constantly using word processors also males us bad handwriters - not sure there is much I can do about that though :)
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One of the reasons I started using fountain pens again several months ago was because I noticed that as my keyboarding skills increased, my handwriting got worse.
 
Pelikan (black, bought in Holland in 1985) and my fathers 1920's Duofold, fountain pen and pencil set. The pen had a new bag fitted a few years ago, its brick red with 18k gold trim with matching pencil (the eraser is still unused)
Biro's I only buy cheap throw aways from Lidl!!
When I use a ball point my writing deteriorates badly!!!
Ink, I've always used royal blue!!
 
When I started reading this thread, I immidiately started a new search for my German Rotring fountain pen - a weapon I bought in the late 80´s - made of steel, in a six-sided design (the grip´s round, though). It´s so heavy and well balanced (without the hat attached) that it probably coud be used as a anti-tank missile (a small tank). But just lovely to write with - as long as you left the hat off, that is. Otherwise your hand would tire from the overload.
I used to like the mass-produced plastic Lamy pens as well ... That probably explains something about me, but Lamy makes a lovely light blue ink!

No bass, just a couple of 6- and 12-string guitars that I don´t play much. I do drive Citroën cars though.

leif e
 
Im constanly signing my name everyday at work, but due to it being on triplicate paper, by law, it must be a ball piont pen and black ink! Other times i like to use a nicley wieghted parker fountain pen with blue ink, cheap one id never trust myself with an expensive one id loose it!, but it feels nice in the hand and writes well on a molskine notbook!

Stu.
 
John Robertson said:
Biro's
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No one calls them that any more?

I have to use a cheap Parker Italic students kit, as I was taught a chancery cursive and if I dont have a chisel nib I might as well have a spider write for me.

Yes Ive still got a Parker 51, a Cross, and several Sheffars.

Nostalgia seeme to be all the rage here.

Noel
 
Wrote with a Waterman for years, but now have a suite of Lamys. First was the Safari, a dirt-cheap pen with a polycarbonate barrel. But being a snob about metal bodies, I had to have the Al-Star, which has an aluminium barrel. Now have four of them, I think, divided among work, home and bag.

They're very reliable pens. No leaks, no skipping, and the nibs are strong enough for other people to use them without deforming them (of course, you may not like this if you go for a flexible nib that will give your penstrokes variable width). I can even press down hard enough to sign a duplicate form.

They also have that Germanic form-follows-function design that we know and love... ;)

Inks include a Herbin orange, ideal for commenting on b/w xeroxes, and Noodler's Firefly, which is a highlighting ink.

The analogies with photogear are all there. I got Aurora's black, mentioned above, because I read so many people say it was the best deep black. Two years on, I still haven't opened the bottle. What was it about doing 90% of your writing with 10% of your gear?
 
Collecting Fountain Pens is one of my other hobbies

Collecting Fountain Pens is one of my other hobbies

I have a fair sized collection of Parker 51's and four 75s the other main theme of my collection is Pelikan I have a few vintage 400s, some modern 400s, some M600's and a pair of M800s. In the Italian file I have Omas Ogiva Hi-tech and Saft Green Celluoid Paragon, Aurora 88p and a modern 88 and a pair of Optimas and a Talentum.

If you are in Toronto on the weekend of July 21 and 22, I am co-organizing the Toronto International Pen Show at Casa Loma. http://torontopenshow.com

Bill
 
I like brown ink; I use a cheap plastic Parker pen with a nib worn to a rag. My writing looks like a Tom Waits song.

I write in pencil, mostly. (Fewer problems going thru the chemistry.)
 
Uncle Bill,

I am hooked lately on Aurora pens; must be the Italian style. My light blue Talentium and newly aquired sterling ribbed Ipsilon give me a lot of joy to use and hold. I also recently inherited my wife's late father's Parker 51, refurbished by Richartd Binder. Now I am looking for a Cedar Blue 51...when will it end?
 
stumar said:
Im constanly signing my name everyday at work, but due to it being on triplicate paper, by law, it must be a ball piont pen and black ink! Other times i like to use a nicley wieghted parker fountain pen with blue ink, cheap one id never trust myself with an expensive one id loose it!, but it feels nice in the hand and writes well on a molskine notbook!

Stu.
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A Parker 51 with a medium nib will work in that case. Inkwise, Noodler's black ink is the safest (archival) ink available, much safer than any ballpoint ink.

Cheers,

- Cesar
 
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