Do you use a fountain pen?

[BryanC]

I have 3 LAMY Safari pens on my desk, all adapted with a piston fill and Red / Brown / Black inks. I will admit to using them for both writing and sketching when the mood takes me. Great pens for the price too, all with standard medium nibs.

Handwriting with a fountain pen requires a small effort to retain legibility and about 30 years ago I made an effort to improve my style based on cursive Italic and recommend Tom Gourdie's book 'Italic Handwriting' although now rarer than hen's teeth and other books must be equally as good.

Before writing a personal letter, I always do a few lines of coke :-) of practice lettering eg 'The quick brown fox' etc to get into the rhythm and legibility, and have been told that receiving an old fashioned handwritten letter in ink is one of life's very small pleasures.

I still keep a Black and Gold Parker 51 that my late mother bought for me - nearly 50 years ago. It has a weird silicone coated torpedo absorption reservoir and now holds no ink but kept as a memento. Perhaps I might try to get it restored ?

Edited by BryanC on Tuesday 27th December 15:15

[Sticks.]

Skodasupercar said:

I don't like the 'speed and flow' of ball point or gel pens any my writing goes quite sloppy. I only use them for writing in cards or similar with shiny paper.

I wonder whether the OP might bet better to use a ball point for a while, given his almost exclusive use of a keyboard until now.

Disposable ball points are disgusting I think, but I find the Parker Jotter, slim, light and well balanced and, with a fine or extra fine refill, good for writing with a light touch.

OP might find this a useful step which will help him get used to (lightly) handling fountain pen.

Interesting points about pens, thanks. 350! That's quite a collection.

[Robbo 27]

BryanC said:

I still keep a Black and Gold Parker 51 that my late mother bought for me - nearly 50 years ago. It has a weird silicone coated torpedo absorption reservoir and now holds no ink but kept as a memento. Perhaps I might try to get it restored ?

Edited by BryanC on Tuesday 27th December 15:15

i think that may be a Parker 61 Bryan rather than a 51, it filled by capillary action soaking the ink up through the reservoir and up towards the nib. This was unique to the 61but it had a problem in that it was easy to get clogged up with dry ink if it wasnt used every day. You can get it useable by a thought flush eaither with a drinking straw or with one of these rubber ear bulbs,

[Robbo 27]

AlexC1981 said:

Those JinHao pens are very cheap! I like the concealed nib and simple slender look of this one, might give it a go.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/JinHao-606-Orange-...

When I search for Jinhao medium fountain on AliExpress, I get suggested searches for medium sized butt plugs....Is that just me?

I have used aliexpress but ebay have them for 99p including postage, such as this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JINHAO-599-Sky-blue-Busi...

I have a fine nibbed 599 and it isnt for everyone, whereas the medium would suit most people

[BryanC]

Thanks Robbo - will give it a try.

[Robbo 27]

BryanC said:

Thanks Robbo - will give it a try.

If you get stuck let me know

Just in case it is a Parker 51 and not a 61 here are pictures of both,

[bitchstewie]

motco said:

In the past I have habitually used a fountain pen, but like the OP, most writing is now done by keyboard to the extent that my handwriting is very seriously degraded.

It's kind of why I want to give it a go.

Don't get me wrong my handwriting is very legible but I remember as a schoolkid having a sense of pride in what I wrote whereas now it's mostly hunting around trying to find whatever random post-it note I've scrawled the thing I'm looking for on.

I suspect I've given the impression I've forgotten how to hold a pen and that I write with a claw - not quite

Regards pens, I tend to get on best with the £1-2 gel pens and a bit like Robbo says they're cheap enough now that it's easy enough to collect a few plus it's quite interesting how many different types of inks are available.

Edited by bhstewie on Tuesday 27th December 16:18

[Robbo 27]

bhstewie said:

It's kind of why I want to give it a go.

Don't get me wrong my handwriting is very legible but I remember as a schoolkid having a sense of pride in what I wrote whereas now it's mostly hunting around trying to find whatever random post-it note I've scrawled the thing I'm looking for on.

I suspect I've given the impression I've forgotten how to hold a pen and that I write with a claw - not quite

Regards pens, I tend to get on best with the £1-2 gel pens and a bit like Robbo says they're cheap enough now that it's easy enough to collect a few plus it's quite interesting how many different types of inks are available.

Edited by bhstewie on Tuesday 27th December 16:18

People who buy a fountain pen, then find that they enjoy using it and their handwriting starts to improve then ask themselves the question, what do I do with it now.

Something that you may want to keep is a handwritten journal that could be passed onto future generations, Some of you may remember the TV program that Joanna Lumley did on her travels through Japan and how she kept a journal with provision for Japanese hand stamps and a daily record of where she had been and what she had enjoyed each day.

If you do decide to keep a journal I would avoid the Moleskine range, they now use a type of paper that doesnt work for fountain pens. A better quality journal is made by Seawhite which uses good quality 130gm paper;

https://www.jacksonsart.com/seawhite-jackson-s-a6-...

[motco]

bhstewie said:

motco said:

In the past I have habitually used a fountain pen, but like the OP, most writing is now done by keyboard to the extent that my handwriting is very seriously degraded.

It's kind of why I want to give it a go.

Don't get me wrong my handwriting is very legible but I remember as a schoolkid having a sense of pride in what I wrote whereas now it's mostly hunting around trying to find whatever random post-it note I've scrawled the thing I'm looking for on.

I suspect I've given the impression I've forgotten how to hold a pen and that I write with a claw - not quite

Regards pens, I tend to get on best with the £1-2 gel pens and a bit like Robbo says they're cheap enough now that it's easy enough to collect a few plus it's quite interesting how many different types of inks are available.

Edited by bhstewie on Tuesday 27th December 16:18

It may be me only, but my mood affects my handwriting. If I'm relaxed I write tolerably well, but if I'm stressed it descends into the first form schoolboy scribble. As a lad I wanted to be a doctor but my inherent laziness worked against me - I have the rubbish handwriting to suit though. My son, on the other hand writes quite legibly and he IS a doctor! How can this be?

[miniman]

Keep meaning to take my Mont Blanc Starwalker in to work, haven't used it for years.

[ali_XFR]

Had to use fountain pens at school. Good old Parker vector. Since then I've had a couple for work. I got a waterman when I got a new job a few years back. First day, first meeting somehow managed to drop it on its nib. Never been the same since. I've always wanted a Pilot Myu/ Murex but never got round to hunting one down on eBay and now the prices are nudging £300. Surprised it's design hasn't been mimicked by someone else



https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2013/1/28/my-founta...

[AlexC1981]

Robbo 27 said:

AlexC1981 said:

Those JinHao pens are very cheap! I like the concealed nib and simple slender look of this one, might give it a go.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/JinHao-606-Orange-...

When I search for Jinhao medium fountain on AliExpress, I get suggested searches for medium sized butt plugs....Is that just me?

I have used aliexpress but ebay have them for 99p including postage, such as this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JINHAO-599-Sky-blue-Busi...

I have a fine nibbed 599 and it isnt for everyone, whereas the medium would suit most people

It was the 606 I liked, mainly because with the hooded/concealed nib it doesn't look much like a fountain pen! I don't think I would like one of the Lamy styled pens as I can't get on with the triangular grip on my Lamy ballpoint.

[bitchstewie]

Thanks, I have a Rhodia notebook, one of the 90gsm ones as I also figure part of "making an effort" should probably go beyond a 50p spiralbound notepad.

I'd welcome any feedback on cartridges vs. convertors vs. piston fill pens.

[Robbo 27]

bhstewie said:

I'd welcome any feedback on cartridges vs. convertors vs. piston fill pens.

There are a number of other filling systems too but in the three you mention cartridges are convenient, converters allow you to use bottled ink which means a greater variety of colour, piston fill pens tend to be higher cost, pens such as Montblanc, Pelikan and a few others. Piston fill pens benefit from having a large ink capacity. It could be argued that there is more to go wrong in a piston filled pen because the rod can break or the piston leak can fail. I havent had these problems myself, just heard of them from others.

Other filling systems are a lever on the side of the pen which squeezes a rubber sac creating a vacuum in the pen which draws up ink, a button on the end of the pen which does the same think, a Vacumatic pen which pumps ink up into a chamber, the Parker 61 capillary as mentionned above and the Parker 51 aerometric, basically a squeeze bar filler.

Is anyone still awake?

[Sticks.]

I'd imagine there's a wider range of ink available than just the Quink of my schooldays. Is there much between them? I'd imagine it'd depend what you wanted to do with it.

[bitchstewie]

Robbo 27 said:

Is anyone still awake?

Yes thank you I'm tempted by the TWSBI piston pens as they seem reasonably priced and I struggle to find any bad feedback on them.

@Sticks http://www.purepens.co.uk/acatalog/Fountain-Pen-In...

http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/fountainpenink.php

[sticks090460]

Yes. Basic Lamy. Cost virtually nothing, work really well. I never use anything else if I can help it. Hate Biros.

[Sticks.]

bhstewie said:

http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/fountainpenink.php

Saved, thanks

[Robbo 27]

Sticks. said:

I'd imagine there's a wider range of ink available than just the Quink of my schooldays. Is there much between them? I'd imagine it'd depend what you wanted to do with it.

Parker Quink remains a good allrounder that is readily available. there is a huge choice of colours available and there isnt much to chose from in terms of quality from the different manufacturers and you can spend between £4 to £25+

Most of us need black, blue or dark colours for work or documents and apart from avoiding an ink company called Diamine, which has variable quality between batches, I would buy whatever is available, I dont think you can buy a 'bad' ink.

If you have a pen with a large open nib which is piston filled



Have a think about the bottle design because if the bottle has a large flat base you will find that before the bottle is 33% used the pen will be drawing up air with the ink. If you are fortunate enough to have a £650 Montblanc 149 you should look at Lamy bottles with a dimple in the bottom of the bottle or Montblancs own bottle which is styled like a shoe so that you have a good depth of ink.



This will cost you about £13 and last a very long time, the empty bottles are even saleable on ebay.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Tuesday 27th December 18:34

[E24man]

My Dad was a lefty and used a fountain pen nearly every day.

I use a fountain pen every day, picking any one of a few Dunhill's I have collected.