What was your first fountain pen.

[jar]

My first fountain pen, a hand-me-down from my Grandfather.



I was probably 12 or 13 at the time and a pen that filled with one push of the plunger and then wrote for almost a week was neat. Plus if I held it up towards the light I could see how much ink was left.

It was a significant year:

Ike was President.
Claudette Colvin got carried off a bus for refusing to give her seat to a white woman.
Ray Kroc opened his first store.
The Salk vaccine was granted full approval.
Disneyland opened.
Bill Gates was born.
The US sends the first military to Vietnam and sends the US 7th. Fleet to patrol the Formosa Straits and help evacuate Chinese Nationals from Dachen Islands to Taiwan.

[datainadequate]

My first fountain pen was a Sheaffer, with an inlaid nib and squeeze-sac filler system. It was all-gold if I remember correctly, probably a 70s model. My guess would be a Triumph 727 or (less likely) a 777. It was a hand-down from my Dad who couldn't get on with the fine nib. It was always a bit of a dry writer, which caused me much frustration as a teenager, and eventually I gave up on it, and on fountain pens generally. I fear that it may have gone missing during various house moves, I must go through my not-yet-unpacked boxes of non-essentials and see if I can locate it.

[gregamckinney]

A Pelikan M800 green stripe.
Mail ordered (phone ordered) it from Fountain Pen Hospital around 1995-6. I still have it. The original fine nib is gone, swapped out for what I eventually discovered to be a preferred broader nib (ground to stub.)
Started me collecting M800-family Pelikans, then lots of modern, then vintage too, then the full-on madness had me firmly in grasp.

Best Regards, greg

[MediaVita]

Mine was a Lamy Safari White. It was intended for sketching, and it was supposed to be the only fountain pen I'd have.

But I started to get more and more pens and now I'm addicted.


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[fqgouvea]

I don't remember my first one. It was long ago, and long before using fountain pens turned into an obsession. Along the way I remember various Sheaffers, and a Parker 51 from either my mother or my grandmother, light brown body and scratchy nib. There was a Parker Ciselé that moved from a girl friend to me wihout making her a girlfriend. There were Watermans (Phileas, Expert), an airport-bought Montblanc with a snap-cap that eventually stopped snapping, a Pelikan 200 in black, a Conklin that I killed.

I think the death of the Conklin was one of the things that called my attention to the sophisticated engineering behind these everyday objects, the a conversation about flex nibs led to a Noodlers Ahab and a vintage Eversharp Skyline... and It was clear that a habit of using fountain pens was turning into a hobby and a collection.

[WallyRussell]

An Esterbrook cartridge filler, purchased for $1 at a local discount store that went out of business about 50 years ago (Treasure Island in Pittsburgh). The pen came with several cartridges and converters so that you could use Sheaffer or Wearever cartridges in the pen. My father collected pens of all sorts and worked in a store that sold them,, and I later acquired some of his Snorkels, Parker 51s and Waterman CFs.

[Wade]

Pilot V-Pen (Varsity) disposable.

[grainweevil]

My first serious ownership beyond "you have to have one for school" cheap Stypens and wotnot, and still with me today, was a rotring Art Pen with 1.1i nib. A school friend had one and trying it caused scales to fall from my previously medium-hating-extra-fine-pursuing eyes and reveal unto me sunlit uplands of line variation. Coming up for thirty years ago, that was, and an addiction I have never quite managed to overcome.

[Sailor Kenshin]

It was a Sheaffer (Skrip) cartridge pen with a translucent yellow body and chrome cap. Wish I still had that particular one, but I still have a green model that I got only a few years ago....prompted by a similar question.

[Blue Note]

The first one I can remember clearly is a blue Parker 51 that I used in high school in the sixties. I think I had an Esterbrook before that but I can't recall for sure. In university and for many years after it was ballpoints all the way. Then in the late eighties I picked up a Geha Schulfiller, a German student pen, at a junk store. It is a great writer that I still have. In 1997 my mother gave me my father's sterling silver Parker 75.
That was it until 2011 when I bought a Sheaffer Prelude and an Aurora Style in England. After that It got out of hand, and I now have around 65 assorted fountain pens.

My mother also gave me my father's 1940s Rolex Oyster Pioneer and I have acquired a couple more watches since then. I am now trying hard to resist the urge to start collecting expensive watches. That collecting gene is a tough bugger to keep under control.

[Brilliant Bill]

Very interesting context. Rather ironically, the only loser on your list is the U.S. military, the group that specializes in conflict.

Ms. Colvin is still with us, living in New York. Her cause is yet unresolved but persists.

Kroc and his corporation have literally conquered the world. Where can you go on this planet and not find one of his stores?

Polio has been vanquished. It was a scourge of our young years. I can still hear Mom yelling, "Don't drink from that water fountain, you'll get polio."

Disney has become the engine of delusions fueling the "American Dream." As George Carlin said, "You have to be asleep to believe it."

Gates (along with his family connections) conquered the analog world.

Today I see peace in Vietnam; I do not see that in my own country.

Anyway, my first fountain pen was around third or fourth grade -- a graduation from pencils. We were forced to use them for several years before the ball point finally achieved dominance. And I gladly forgot about fountain pens until a year or two ago. So, the fountain pen is another winner on your list.

[Lady Onogaro]

I'm sure it was either a Sheaffer or Wearever cartridge pen. We started using them in the third grade. It wasn't long, though, before everyone made the transition to ball points.

[carlc]

Parker 25. I had to save up my pocket money and still remember the little stationers I bought it from.

[sharmon202]

I do not recall exactly when, guessing late 1990s a plastic Cross at a big box office supply store. Pen, carts, ink, etc set. Did not work worth a dang, Put it away and forgot about it until about 4 years ago. Still have it, not sure why.

[Anne]

A couple of clear Kaweco Classic Sports.

[Bob]

Very interesting context. Rather ironically, the only loser on your list is the U.S. military, the group that specializes in conflict.
Is this a condemnation of the US Military?

Ms. Colvin is still with us, living in New York. Her cause is yet unresolved but persists.

Kroc and his corporation have literally conquered the world. Where can you go on this planet and not find one of his stores?

Polio has been vanquished. It was a scourge of our young years. I can still hear Mom yelling, "Don't drink from that water fountain, you'll get polio."

Disney has become the engine of delusions fueling the "American Dream." As George Carlin said, "You have to be asleep to believe it."

Gates (along with his family connections) conquered the analog world.

Today I see peace in Vietnam; I do not see that in my own country.

Anyway, my first fountain pen was around third or fourth grade -- a graduation from pencils. We were forced to use them for several years before the ball point finally achieved dominance. And I gladly forgot about fountain pens until a year or two ago. So, the fountain pen is another winner on your list.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Red Harry N. G.]

A red Parker Vector. I received it as a birthday gift from my grandmother the year we started using them in school. I loved it – although, I was a bit annoyed by the proprietary cartridges. I usually didn't carry an extra one with myself, and didn't check the level of ink at home, so it was not a rare occasion that I had to write with some other writing utensil.

The pen is long gone – the cap cracked, and I didn't hold on to it.

[BayesianPrior]

Cross Century II, matte black with gold appointments. Purchased by my mother for my father sometime between 1982 and 1984 (judging by the imprint on the credit card slip - remember those?!) I managed to gunk it up with the wrong kind of ink and the kind people at Cross sent me a brand new pen. Great sentimental value, despite it being a ship of Theseus. It also has a springy XF nib, which is very difficult to find on this kind of pen nowadays.

[catbert]

This, or something very like it.*

I remember the conical nib, short clip, and touchdown filling system - not that I would have known to call it that. I was about 11.

*The original was lost or broken decades ago. Weirdly, I still have the case. I got the pictured pen NOS just before joining FPG and stepping onto the slippery slope.

[Paddler]

Somewhere around third grade we were given Sheaffer cartridge pens and packets of five washable blue cartridges. These were only to be used in school at the direct behest of the nuns. I am not sure that constitutes real ownership. I still have the pen and it still works as well as it ever did. These pens were the replacements for the traditional dip pens and inkwells.

The first pen that I really owned was a red Wearever "Pennant" that an aunt gave me. Included was a small bottle of Sanford's blue ink. I started writing a journal with that pen. Sometime down the years I lost it somehow. In the last few years I replaced it, just for the nostalgia. It is really not a very good design; the feed doesn't have enough buffer capacity and it can drip unless you baby it.(Like the Parker 21)