Period Correct Writing Instrument

[binkmeisterRick]

I love handwritten notes and letters. There is something added knowing it was penned by hand. However, I must admit that it's difficult with my schedule to find the time to sit down and write a full letter, added with the usual lack of postage stamps handy. And without stamps, it could take me a week or more to finally mail it.

So I usually resort to E-mail because it is quick and easy and still allows me to express my thoughts. Yet there is something to be missed without the expressiveness and color of line, the occasional crossed out, mispelled word, and the endless doodlings which adorn the margins.

I constantly write and sketch in my notebooks, but often done while on morning trains or at my desk or somewhere out in the world. Usually for me to write a full letter, I need the time to sit at a good desk for a while. Ah, the dilema.

 

[Barry]

I find e-mails somewhat impersonal. However, I have recieved a few that I have kept for some time now. I believe the feeling can come across electronically.

I think a note written with an old fashioned typerwriter (or on a word processor with vintage typewriter fonts) on personal stationery is a good choice.

My cursive is terrible. Although I enjoy using a nice fountain or roller ball pen I do not see my handwriting improving anytime soon. I just print - it makes things a lot easier on those who receive my notes.

Barry

 

[John in Covina]

Better Handwriting

For some the use of a stub or italic nib can make a marked improvement in their handwriting. For others it takes a program and some practice.

One book out of the many that seems to get the nod is:

"Write Now: The Complete Program for Better Handwriting" By Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay.

For others the improvement will only come when they can do that Matrix information download as in "I Know Kung Fu!"

Also, most people don't like their own handwriting, while others will say it's not that bad.

Best regards!

 

[John in Covina]

Stamps on Line

I love handwritten notes and letters. There is something added knowing it was penned by hand. However, I must admit that it's difficult with my schedule to find the time to sit down and write a full letter, added with the usual lack of postage stamps handy. And without stamps, it could take me a week or more to finally mail it.

**********
I live 4 blocks from the Post Office an have in a pinch got stamps at the grocery store so stamps are usually not a problem. I have a big selection of thank you notes and cards from Crane plus my favorite Amalfi Amatruda writing paper, so when the need comes up or I want to write i am good to go.

I also have some interesting to downright weird postcards i use now and again for a quick note to friends.

Also, I think there is an online stamp buying / print program, where you hook up with the Post Office and print your own stamps.

 

[binkmeisterRick]

I used to have cards and the like handy, but they've all been long ago used up. I guess it's time to get my stock back up, eh?

 

[John in Covina]

Notes, cards and paper!

I used to have cards and the like handy, but they've all been long ago used up. I guess it's time to get my stock back up, eh?

For those Crane note cards, i have had really good luck getting them on sale a Farr's Stationary in my area. It my sound ridiculous but I get a little giddy picking out note cards and writing paper, it makes me very happy.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

HJ,

I am willing to bet you are much younger than me and have lived most of your life in the Personal Computer age so for you the acceptance of Emails as an interchange for handwritten notes is more indicative of your life experience. As for me emails have as much sentimetality as an ATM statement. The content may be rich with sentiment, full of sorrow or joy or be very funny indeed but the coldness of this computer printed sheet does nothing to enhance the message or the personable type of connection.

Imagine finding both the handwritten manuscript of some great novel and the pc produced first draft of the same. Would one have some significance over the other in the eyes of collectors, relatives or the auctioneer? My bet is on the hand written manuscript every time because of the personal connection.

Not picking a fight here just trying to clarify the meaning as to my values and probably those of many others.

This might make for an interesting poll!!!

Best wishes,

No worries, John, I don't see you as picking a fight at all. I do agree that it is based on life experience and I fear you lack the specific life experience that I have had. I am almost 40 years-old and I have been single the last six years and in that time I have had wonderful correspondences with amazing women, and along with that came some incredible letters and email. Emails often allow people to express themselves in a very relaxed,complete, and wonderfully expressive way. I have been privy to the full emoitional landscape of some wonderful people through emails that I will always cherish and always have archived on my computer. Not to mention the photos, artwork, handwriting letters they scanned!, poems, stories, and other things they have sent me and I have sent them.

It is not the medium, it is the sentiment. I have also been blessed by associating with amazing individuals.

Computers have romance as well. My iBook has a lot of personality, my ClamShell more so.

I agree that handwritten documents are beautiful and amazing, but I would not discount something just because it was produced electronically.

 

[John in Covina]

Perspective.

HJ,

you are absolutely right and your perspective is right for you, I am coming up on 50 so I have a that decade earlier for my perspective.

I picture things from a different light then and I just shudder to think of mom's across the country saying: "Ok, little Johnny, email gramma a nice thank you for the gift she sent you."

In a way you are right because if an email is the only way people will communicate it is better to get an email than nothing at all, since they cared to write, but... I guess I am holding to a more traditional mode.

Best wishes!

No worries, John, I don't see you as picking a fight at all. I do agree that it is based on life experience and I fear you lack the specific life experience that I have had. I am almost 40 years-old.
I agree that handwritten documents are beautiful and amazing, but I would not discount something just because it was produced electronically.

 

[MB5]

I typically use an Alvin Draft/Matic in 0.9MM, with a Staedtler Radett close by.

 

[John in Covina]

Improving your handwriting!

Along with italic nibs and stub nibs are the oblique nibs and the wonderful music nibs that all give the thick thin line which can really spruce up ones writing.

Even spacing, keeping the tilt the same angle, and not writing too small will often bring a marked improvement in one's handwriting. Many people get better at all three with the above mentioned nibs. Slowing down often helps with the results, too.

After that we try the snake pit or electroshock therapy!

 

[Lady Day]

Im an illustrator

Learning to use a fountain pen is like part of the credo


LD

Plus I have a friend who restores them as a hobby. Hes taken junkers and turned them into works of art. Even gave me a couple for Christmas and birthday presents.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Thanks to you gentlemen here at The Fedora Lounge, I have become addicted to fountain pens. For a few years I have had a Waterman Phileas, which I used for journal writing. I always thought it was a great pen, the price can't be beat, I never, until recently thought of buying another type of fountain pen. Now I have a small collection, although all modern, I'm still very happy with them. My everyday pen is a well priced Waterman Charleston with a nice fine nib that writes beautifully. I think writing with a fountain pen actually makes my handwriting much nicer. On special occasions I bring out my Cartier Mini Diablo. A fine writing instrument, the perfect size for my small hand. I also have a Parker Sonnet with a fine gold nib. It's a nice pen, but I don't use it as often as the others. It is a bit scratchier than the others I have. Sad to say that since I purchased these other pens, I really don't get much use out of my Phileas anymore
I have been doing a lot of research on vintage writing instruments, and have been taking in all the information that you all have been giving in other threads about which vintage pen I should purchase. I'm hoping to get one soon.
Baron, if you are looking for a good entry level fountain pen that won't cost you a lot, I recommend The Waterman Phileas. Not only are they low in price, but you can find them in a lot of office supply stores. Although not vintage, it is art deco inspired. Inexpensive enough to use everyday and not worry about it.
As for letter writing, I see a lot of your points. There is something very romantic about filling my fountain pen, taking out a piece of my favorite stationary, and writing out a letter.
I do, however, see Hem's point about the medium of e-mails. I have received a lot of e-mails from close friends that mean a lot to me, and I too have them archived on my laptop. They mean just as much to me as if they were written on paper. To me it's not what they were written on, but what they say and who is saying it.
Well, I'm hoping to find that perfect vintage fountain pen soon. I had no idea that something like a pen could be so personal, and addictive!

 

[panamag8or]

I carry either a gold-filled Parker 51, or a black/chrome Sheaffer Sentinel with gold clip, depending on whether I am wearing a gold or silver tie bar. The Parker is a vintage Mark I, and the Sheaffer was just built for me last year. I probably have the only 2005 Sheaffer Sentinel in existence. Both write like a dream, and I abhor using ballpoints now, unless I am writing a check, or need to make multiple copies of something, like a FedEx form.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

What, no Sharpie?

Been writing with a fountain pen since I discovered one in a drawer back in high school. Wrote all of my stories and novels with 'em. All my letters. Taught myself calligraphy as a youngster, too.
Or I used an orange Flair.

 

[Dayonfire]

Mabie Todd...Maybe Cross

Mabie Todd Swan No. 2 (ca. 1932), flex nib

OR

Cross Sable Titanium (modern), with a extra-fine nib.

 

[DeaconKC]

For everyday carry at work I use my Pelikan 150 and one of some other modern FPs. For when I'm home and sending a friend a note, I use my old Sheaffer Balances from the 30s.

 

[Dayonfire]

Pics and the Soul

Hey, let's see some of these beautiful writing instruments, eh?

Sometimes my online journal entries are scans of my written words. There is NOTHING in the world to me like sitting in the corner of my favorite bar or smoke shop, pulling out my fountain pen and journal and distilling the world through the still of my soul.

The feel of the pen bleeding onto the page is sensual, a purely aesthetic experience like no other. I use the computer all the time, but to me, old school hand-cramping your deepest thoughts onto an unwitting page...now there's something.

 

[shortbow]

I have an old Esterbrook, writes like a dream, hard to believe it was a budget pen, also a Watermans, and had a real nice Vacumatic, but a friend coveted it so I gave it to him. My everyday walking around pen is a Chinese Dannitu 222. Beautiful true celluloid, cut-in threads, GP nib, excellent writer, got it of ebay for $20, new, a genuine bargain. When I really want to put on the ritz, I use a dip pen or a quill, walnut hull/iron gall ink, rag paper and finish it off with a wax seal. People love getting letters like that.

 

[John in Covina]

Hey, let's see some of these beautiful writing instruments, eh?

Some Parker Pens

Wahl-Eversharp

Esterbrook Replaceable Nibs Chart

My Esterbrooks including desk sets

Various with some Pelikans on top