Fountain Pens: Who uses them, and why?

[Orion]

The day-to-day pen that I've used for the last 15 years or so is the Parker Vector cartridge-based fountain pen. They're really quite nice and also very affordable: usually found for around $6. They've become scarce in the big box stores here in the US, but I still buy them on eBay or on the few times I've been to Europe.

At my desk, I keep a couple of fancy vintage pewter holders, a couple of ink wells, and whatever nibs catch my fancy. I picked up a jar of over 500 mixed brand-new nibs a couple of years ago at a flea market...for $1.00! HOLY COW. (I dated some of the designs and the nibs range from the 1890s to about 1940.) The dip pens I use for handwritten correspondence (a sadly dying institution), signing cheques, and birthday/Christmas/etc cards.

What it boils down to is that I hate ball point pens. They make my hand ache with all that pressure you have to put on them. Fountain pens are so smooth. I also love fountain pens because you can alter the angle of the nib to write in bold or italic; even normal handwriting looks fancier due to the different-width lines. People often remark on my 'fancy' handwriting, when mostly it is just the pen doing all the work.

 

[Subvet642]

Some interesting points there. I might try looking out for a new vintage pen in the new year.

Does anyone have any thoughts/review regarding the snorkel filling pens, they interest me most at the moment, but I'd like a pen that I can use.

Snorkles hate me, and I find that they don't hold much ink. I've never had one work right for me.

 

[John in Covina]

If you are interested, my friend Carmen Rivera is trying to do a Facebook page on Fountain Pens, she buys and sells them extensively too. Also she has the most awesome collection of Pilot Vanishing Points from the earliest to the latest ones probably the best private collection in the US of VP's.

Her link is here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carmen-Rivera-Pens/153223014710

 

[derleicaman]

Great thread! I've been using fountain pens most of my life, for at least the last 45 years. I must have at least 30-40 by now and have the usual suspects (Montblanc, Shaeffer, Pelikan). Also made some forays into the world of Japanese pens (short-longs, Mu, etc.). Most people can't understand why you would use such an old fashioned thing to write with, but I find it quite relaxing and enjoyable compared to a ball point pen.

fountainpennetwork is a great forum to visit and learn from, just like this one.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

At the risk of off-topic:

Making ink bulletproof
Dec 10th 2009

HAVING recognised the fallibility of human memory, people have been keeping records written with ink for over four millennia. Thanks to the durability of those early inks, the thoughts of our ancestors have been preserved. Indeed, civilisation itself could be said to depend on the persistence of the written word.

Early inkmakers mixed fine black soot with resin and water. Water suspended the soot, keeping the ink runny enough to write with. Once the water evaporated, the resin made the carbon particles stick to paper or papyrus. Today this is called pigment ink, and it remains in use in pens and inkjet printers. Another ancient way to make ink is to use dyes, in which the colour is dissolved rather than suspended in its solvent. The existence of two such venerable yet reliable technologies, however, has not prevented a number of companies from trying to make better inks.

When Newell Rubbermaid, an office- and home-supplies company based in Atlanta, began marketing one of its Uniball pens with a gel-based pigment ink as “fraud resistant” in 2005, it was not expecting a higher than normal level of demand. But thanks to the ink’s durability compared with dye-based inks and smooth writing due to the gel’s low viscosity, sales grew by around 25% a year. Other penmakers followed suit with similar gel inks.

This ink’s durability and fraud resistance arise because the pigment particles are so small that they lodge between the fibres near the surface of the paper, making them impossible to remove without visible damage to the page. Applying solvents like water, acetone or bleach will dissolve most dye-based pen inks, but will not remove the pigment particles. And when it comes to writing cheques or doctors’ prescriptions, an ink’s ability to resist attack is important.

The company with the reputation for the most “bulletproof” of inks, however, is Noodler’s Ink, a small American firm. The permanence of its inks relies in part on dyes that react with the surface of the paper’s cellulose fibres. Once written, they resist a variety of solvents known to be used by forgers, as well as more mundane solvents like water.

The reputation of Noodler’s inks recently caught the eye of Nicholas Masluk, a graduate student at Yale University’s physics department. Mr Masluk, who has been tinkering with lasers since his high school days, thought he could make Noodler’s ink disappear without harming the paper underneath. He found that many of Noodler’s inks, as well as other fraud-resistant inks, could be removed with diligent use of a laser that he built for a few hundred dollars using parts bought on eBay. Although these inks can resist chemical attack, they can be blasted away by the infra-red output from a laser. Ink removal thus becomes a matter of careful aim and delivery of very short, high-energy bursts.

Mr Masluk contacted Mr Tardif with his discovery, and the two went on to test a variety of inks to see how well they could withstand laser attack. The most resistant of Mr Tardif’s inks was a popular and particularly vivid one called Baystate Blue. But it was not as chemically resilient as others, since many of Mr Tardif’s customers had expressed a need for this particular ink to be removable with bleach in case a fountain pen leaked while in a shirt pocket.

Noodler’s has since developed a new series of inks resistant to both chemical and laser attack, the most durable of which is called, somewhat eccentrically, Bad Belted Kingfisher. Although it seems unlikely that one of his customers would become the target of such high-tech forgery, Mr Tardif wants to maintain his bulletproof reputation and feels compelled to create new inks that can withstand all known attacks.

History holds a lesson for innovators of ink. Iron-gall inks displaced carbon inks because they were less prone to smudging, but they turned out to be corrosive over time. Leonardo da Vinci and Johann Sebastian Bach used iron-gall inks, and their creations have suffered as a result. Ink technologists must hope their novel creations do not inadvertently destroy what they seek to preserve.

Bulletproof ink suggests phrases such as "The pen is mightier than the sword" and other writing instrument weapons.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

I've taken the plunge and just purchased a green Schaefer(sic) Sheaffer Snorkel pen. I'm also using the vintage Parker '17' with the ink sac, to think it lay unused for so long in my drawer.

 

[Shangas]

It's spelt SHEAFFER, people. SHEAFFER. I have no idea why people always get this brand-name wrong, and then they wonder why they can't find information on their pens when they type search-terms into Google.

Congratulations on your new, old fountain pen, Mr. Bentley. I hope it brings you many years of pleasure. That's what it was designed to do.

Noodler's Bulletproof Black is considered the hardest-to-remove of all fountain pen inks, making it truly bulletproof. The Noodlers Ink Company has a reward of $1000 (which rises by another $1000 each year), for ANYONE who can remove said ink from a standard cheque, without first destroying the paper.

...So far the prize is still up for grabs.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

It's spelt SHEAFFER, people. SHEAFFER. I have no idea why people always get this brand-name wrong, and then they wonder why they can't find information on their pens when they type search-terms into Google.

Congratulations on your new, old fountain pen, Mr. Bentley. I hope it brings you many years of pleasure. That's what it was designed to do.

Noodler's Bulletproof Black is considered the hardest-to-remove of all fountain pen inks, making it truly bulletproof. The Noodlers Ink Company has a reward of $1000 (which rises by another $1000 each year), for ANYONE who can remove said ink from a standard cheque, without first destroying the paper.

...So far the prize is still up for grabs.

Thanks for the correction Shangas, sloppy proof-reading on my part. I am looking forward to trying it out.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

"Bulletproof Ink" is something I really don't understand the point of. If you're worried about someone getting hold of one of your checks and wash out what you've written so they can write in a different payee and amount...wouldn't it be better to be done in an ink that's completely unstable? Someone "washes" a check - isnt it better that all of the writing become a smeary mess and disappears - everything, including your signature - so when they write a check for a million, billion dollars, none of it is in your own writing.

 

[John in Covina]

When the check is washed they cover the signature with tape so it is not washed out.

 

[swaviator]

I've been writing with fountain pens since I was in high school. When I graduated from college an aunt gave me a Mont Blanc Diplomat which I cherish; however, my daily writers are a Parker Vacumatic, pre-war, a Parker 51 Vacumatic and an early Sheaffer's Triumph. For "fancy" writing I have a Jackwin from the early 30's with a most flexible nib.

Aside from the looks and feel of a good fountain pen, I simply can't write in an intelligible hand with a ball point.

 

[Subvet642]

(SNIP)...Aside from the looks and feel of a good fountain pen, I simply can't write in an intelligible hand with a ball point.

Me neither, but have you tried a Parker gell refill in Medium? It's awfully smooth, and the effective writing angle is very forgiving, such that I can hold one at the same angle as I would a fountain pen.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I just bought that JE Classic Pen Set as seen on TV, my curiosity got the best of me! I'm going to give it away as a Christmas gift to a High School Senior on my list to get him started early! But, I'm looking forward to trying them myself you to judge the quality. Informercials!!!

-dixon cannon

 

[Shangas]

Hey Dixon,

Is that the one where they throw it into a dartboard and then stab it into a coke can and then...Lord knows what else...before they write with it?

I hope for your sake, that your student hasn't seen that ad, otherwise that pen won't last long. I wouldn't dare do either of those things with a fountain pen and then expect it to write out the Great American Novel or whatever. Fountain pens are delicate, precise instruments to be treated with love, care, respect and to be enjoyed, along with good paper, to write out your ideas and thoughts in quiet, relaxing solitude.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Hey Dixon,

Is that the one where they throw it into a dartboard and then stab it into a coke can and then...Lord knows what else...before they write with it?

I hope for your sake, that your student hasn't seen that ad, otherwise that pen won't last long. I wouldn't dare do either of those things with a fountain pen and then expect it to write out the Great American Novel or whatever. Fountain pens are delicate, precise instruments to be treated with love, care, respect and to be enjoyed, along with good paper, to write out your ideas and thoughts in quiet, relaxing solitude.

Yeh, that's the one! Hopefully he's smart enought not to try that - who know why that's a selling point for a fountain pen! If he likes it and takes care of it then maybe he'll get a Mont Blanc for college graduation in a few years. I've been using mine since 1984 and it just keeps going - he doesn't get to touch that!!

-dixon cannon

 

[Ethan Bentley]

I've been using my snorkle pen to write the Christmas thank you notes and I must say it is delightful, gives my handwriting a slightly different, wispy look.

 

[Shangas]

...and the charm of vintage fountain pens lives on!! Huzzah!!

 

[John in Covina]

Over the last few days I have been snagging some of the fountain pens in my office and flushing them out to get some others from the collection to write with. Flushed out my Lamy Vista Safari, Visconti Van Gogh, Sailor 1911M, Platnum Music Nib pen, and I'm thinking about how it's been ages since I used my Conklin or any of the Vacumatics. Maybe grab a Pelikan.

 

[QMcK]

I use a Parker fountain pen for writing special things. I know what you mean about ball-points making your wrist sore. But does anyone take a bottle of ink to a lecture theatre? (Imagine if it was knocked over when you had the lid off!) I have been using the cartridges, but they're expensive. I assume bottled ink is more cost-effective. It would be more feasible if desks still had those ink well holders.

Gel pens are nice, but they can be a bit deer, too. However, I do think gel pens would be much more conducive to everyday use.

Good on you for using fountain pens. They really are lovely to use.

 

[fiddletown]

I save cartridges for when I travel. Back in my university days, I found that My Mont Blanc or Pelikan easily held more than enough ink to get through the day. So I got into the habit of filling my pen each morning. I've kept that habit to this day.