What's your Fountain Pen History?

[Shangas]

These days, very few people grow up using fountain pens. They're often discovered somewhere along the road of life's journey.

How did you trip over your first fountain pen? What were your first fountain pen experiences like?

I started using fountain pens when I was seven years old (waaaay back in 1994); I discovered a cheap one in a drawer in our house and I never looked back.

[eriquito]

I did not grow up using fountain pens, but my third grade teacher (who shall remain nameless) forced the entire class to use fountain pens while we practiced our cursive writing skills. I do not recall liking or disliking fountain pens at that point in my life.

In the 80's, I ran across a Readers' Digest article extolling the virtues (and scarcity) of the Parker 51. I decided I had to have one, so I began scouring swap meets and flea markets. I finally found a Parker 51 pen and pencil set and purchased it immediately for fifteen bucks.

The pen, however, would not fill, so I placed it in a drawer where it sat for many, many years.

In the 90's, I happened upon a Montblanc boutique and somehow walked out the proud owner of a 145 (Chopin). That pen would fill (converter) but had a terrible skipping problem. It was placed in storage for a number of years right along side the Parker 51 set.

In 2008, I was gifted some fountain pen bottled ink and some cartridges, so I dug out the Montblanc and asked it to dance. Again I encountered the skipping problem. This time, however, I began searching for a solution rather than simply tucking the pen back in for another long nap.

While searching for a solution to my skipping problem, I discovered that there was an entire world of fountain pen enthusiasts. I read. I queried. Above all - I purchased! By February 2009 I had my "trader" ticket admission to the Los Angeles Pen Show. By April 2009 I had over 50 fountain pens to play with, most of which had no skipping problem what-so-ever.

The rest, as they say, is history (written with a fountain pen).

=) Eric
Son of Ragnar

[dannzeman]

I can't say when I saw my first fountain pen. I always enjoyed their design but had never written with one before. I remember a couple of times in high school and college I would see a fountain pen in the book store and think about getting it but I thought they were too expensive.

Then one day in December of 2008 I received an advertisement from my local art store, called The Art Store. They were having a sale on fountain pens. It was a pretty good sale too, 50% off your first pen, 40% off your second pen, and 30% off your third pen. This prompted me to do some searching online because I knew absolutely nothing about them. I discovered a couple forums and dozens of websites devoted to these things! So I went to The Art Store and found three pens that I really liked but couldn't decide which I wanted. Unfortunately, none of the three were part of the sale. Well, I couldn't just get one so I asked the sales person "If I buy all three will you give me the discount?" and sure enough I walked out of that store a proud owner of three brand new fountain pens.

The three I bought were the Faber Castell Ambition, Retro 51 Scriptmaster II, and a Retro 51 Tornado. I ended up selling all three, which allowed me to buy even more pens. And that cycle just keeps repeating itself...

[Shangas]

I started seriously collecting fountain pens and becoming really interested in them when I was about 18-19. I had finished highschool and I was able to dedicate more time to mucking around with fountain pens, which I was madly in love with at the time. For the past four or five years, I've been actively engaged in collecting, using and repairing my pens.

[Kelly G]

My history with fp's is not out of the normal. From way back in the 1950's I have vague memories of a fountain pen in my Grandmother's house. It must have been a Sheaffer as I remember the striped barrel of the pen. Mostly I remember how the pen smelled - that phenol smell of vintage ink and the ink was a purple shade. My other Grandfather was also an avid Sheaffer user - more on that in a bit.
My first writing experiences with fp's were with the ubiquitous Sheaffer school pens of the 1960's - the ones with the translucent barrels - and cartridges. They were all the rage with the Jr. High crowd. Once in high school fp's were long forgotten. I moved on to felt tips and Pentel mechanical pencils.
Skip ahead a few decades; I'm 17 years out of college and moving up in the world. My wife, sometime in the early 90's bought me a MB 144 for Christmas. I had developed a liking for nice writing instruments and carried a couple of Cross gf Century select tips with the company logo of course. The 144 was genius move on her part as it triggered my latent fp gene. I tried using the pen for several months using cartridges but was not happy with the result - skipping, bad ink flow. I put it away for a year or so and then finally figured out that strange contraption that came with the pen - the converter. I picked up a bottle of MB Blue Black ink at Staples - if it was a MB pen it had to have MB ink right? - and I was on my way. I carried and wrote with the pen daily - taking lots of meeting notes. I flew with the pen with abandon, not realizing it could be a problem and it wasn't.
Move ahead again to 2001. I decided I needed a finer nib for my note taking as I have small handwriting. I began searching on the internet and discovered the Pelikan Steno at swisher.com and in the process found acp-p and the world of fp users/collectors/accumulators. And, I found e-bay. It was a perfect storm. The Pelikan did the trick with its extra fine nib. The folks on acp-p were most helpful and entertaining. I won a black Esterbrook (turned out to be a J) for a few bucks on ebay. Hal Arnold and Frank Dubiel talked me through the Esterbrook restoration - Hal even sent a couple of sacs and nibs, gratis to aid in the repair. That was the beginning of my slide into fp accumulation oblivion. E-bay was my primary source for pens as I'm a bit isolated in mid-America. That necessitated learning to repair my finds. I bought everything that was cheap and managed to get a few decent pens and a lot of fodder for my repair trials.

In the process, I learned a lot about vintage pens, what I liked, what I didn't; an appreciation of quality vintage pens. That enabled me to recognize a good deal when I saw one, which helped slow down my e-bay frenzy and turned me toward estate sales and auctions. Over the years I've managed to accumulate somewhere over 250 pens, probably around 80% vintage. There have been some amazing sumgai deals and great stories that go along with them (great to me anyway). I've now entered the very slow accumulating phase and only buy a pen when it strikes me as a pen I really would like to own and use for a good long while.

I have sold a few pens but I'm not in any hurry to part with any more - but you never can tell.

[dannzeman]

Kelly, wow, you must have quite the collection. If you have any pics would you mind creating an album in your profile so we could see? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see...

Sent from my HTC HERO using Tapatalk

[Kelly G]

dannzeman - right now my schedule precludes any big photo project - or small photo project for that matter. My vocation keeps me away from home at least three days/week and usually more. Plus I'm back in school (after a very, very long absence) and that is taking up all my spare time.

If I get an opportunity, I'll try to post some pics, but please don't hold your breath as it may be months until I can get around to it. Before I take pics, I need to get that striped Duofold vac filler that is on my work bench back together with a fresh diaphragm - it has been waiting for nearly six weeks!

[penspouse]

I remember first using a fountain pen in Jr. High (back in the dark ages). I had a Sheaffer No-Nonsense and several school pens. My favorite ink was Turquoise for all notes and assignments. I used fountain pens through High School. I don't know why I stopped using them in college, or maybe I did and have forgotten. Old age stinks. My hubby has always been interested in fountain pens as well. About four years ago, we learned through one of our son's seminary profs that the old fountain pens could be repaired and restored. It has been down the slippery slope since then. My favorites are my Pelikans and my Parker "51" Demi collection. Although, we have way too many others to discount them.

[southpaw52]

I did not grow using a fountain pen. My first fountain pen was a Sheaffer and a Waterman Phileas. I began collecting fountain pens as a hobby several years ago. I enjoy using a fountain pen because it is more expressive then a ball point pen. For awhile I used roller balls, was dissatisfied how fast the ink was used. I now use fountain pens exclusively in my daily writing. I use mostly vintage fountain pens and a few modern fountain pens. In this day and age of instant everything, I still prefer writing a hand written note. My vintage collection includes Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker, and a few third tier pens. Fountain pens are so expressive and distinct in their personality. The rainbow of ink colors is so varied and one could never be bored with the choices.

[TWRDO]

My fountain pen history is short but intense.

It actually started with a Retro 51 Tornado rollerball, which I bought in January. After buying the RB, I was looking at the Retro 51 website and noticed the Tornado had a matching fountain pen, which piqued my curiosity. I did a bit of reading on FPs, stumbled across the FPN, and learned enough to get me started. I bought a couple of Pilot Varsities to try out FPs without spending a lot of money and I was hooked. I ordered 3 Pilot 78Gs and picked up the Tornado FP to match my RB. Then I picked up a Rotring Esprit Telescopic to use as a daily user (which is a great pen BTW).

Initially, I was interested only in modern pens with a little curiosity for the Parker 51. Then I got my first 51 and the world of vintage pens exploded. Now, only 2 months later, I've bought several 51s, Vacs, Esties and a Snorkel, most of which I've repaired myself, and a few of which I've already sold.

I've found FPs to be so enjoyable I find excuses to use them. And since I enjoy repairing old pens as much (or more) than using them, it's a hobby that might actually be self-funding. Of course that's assuming I can part with enough of the pens I fix...

[SMK]

Now this might sound strange but I think I've always been obsessed with pens - even before I knew how to write.

Yup - thats right. One of my earliest memories is holding a bunch of fountain pens (Eagle or Dollar - I don't remember but these were pretty cheap) and showing them to a classmate (and his astonished look) when I was in pre-school. I don't think any of these were inked but I do distinctly remember asking for another one whenever we were out. I had them in several colors and always wanted more.

This continues to this day and is not limited to FPs - I like to buy myself a writing instrument of some sort whenever I go out.

My younger son has the same bug - he has a bunch of pens, rollerballs, markers etc. in various colors. He recently asked for an 'expensive fountain pen with a golden nib and one that fills from the ink bottle' when my mother told him she'll get him anything he wanted for his 12th birthday. He has tried several of my inks with the pen and is partial to Waterman Green.

S.

[Mellock]

Being raised in a small community on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium, I was taught how to use the fountain pen at the age of 7. They were the standard writing implement that was mandatorily used until you got out of primary school at age 12. The left-handers got a red pelikano, the right-handers were given a blue one. (I was always jealous of the blue ones, being a southpaw myself.)

After going to highschool, I continued to use a fountain pen, although most people there used a standard Stylo or Bic rollerball. Most of my pens were cheap Chinese pens, bought yearly. Most of them cost around 5 to 10 euros.

After highschool, I bought myself a Waterman Charleston for 150 euros, but found the nib to be too fine to my liking. (I didn't try it in the store). That's when I started looking online. A Lamy Safari, Waterman Hemisphere and a handfull of cheapies followed soon after. Then I discovered ink. And paper... And now I'm hooked.

[sokuban]

I only recently got into fountain pens. I was relearning cursive right after I started university because I wanted to be able to write quickly and legibly to keep up with notetaking, and in that process I learned about the existence of fountain pens. Then I asked my dad for one, and it started from there.

I should note, that before I even knew about fountain pens, I was a writing instrument geek. Mainly pencils, because I found pens boring. (Hey, cut me some slack, I only knew ballpoint pens then.) After I realized that fountain pens have some much more... depth and variables, I immediately switched from being a pencil geek to a fountain pen geek.

[Maruk]

I only recently started purchasing fountain pens, but my history goes back a bit.
I always had an eye out for quality - or at least precision, often using my fathers' old pentel drafting set and his newer pilot v series pens. I eventually moved on to rollerballs and felt-tip for actual substance and usefulness (writing with a ballpoint/gel pen is hard now - they just do not write). Now I am at fountain pens and dip pens because of the choices offered to me.

I have known about fountain pens for a long time, but the shop prices and descriptions of them kept them away.

[liapuyat]

Like I mentioned in my "hello, i'm new" message, my first fountain pen was a Pilot 55 with a cracked cap and a Japanese F nib. I used this all throughout college a while back. Then my dad gave me an MB Chopin for graduation (my interest in pen and paper supplies developed because of him, whose office desk was littered with various types of writing materials). My first pen from my first ever salary in the 1990s was a Sheaffer No-Nonsense in translucent purple (loved the color and the smooth nib). Next was a Senator piston filler with a nice wet M nib. I still have and use them. A few Parker Vectors came and went (some ended up with my mom and my sister).

Here in the Philippines the usual fountain pens being sold in bookstores and art supply stores are Parker, Waterman, Cross and Rotring. When I finally learned how to bid on eBay a couple of years ago, that's when I started trying other brands. When I attended a local pen meet for the very first time a couple of years ago, I was introduced to Esterbrooks by a senior member - my first vintage pen was a blue SJ. Now I have a few Esterbrooks, all of which I love dearly and use regularly. When relatives and friends learned I loved fountain pens I started getting modest gift pens. That was the start of a sort of collection (if you call random acquisition collecting). I have a few Sheaffers, Esterbrooks, Pilots and Pelikans. I have a preference for reasonably priced daily users rather than expensive display pens - If I'm too scared to bring a pen with me on a daily basis, I'm not getting it. The only pens I keep for exclusive home use are my MB and a full-size Sailor 1911.

Because I have small hands and my handwriting is also rather small, I started out liking EF nibs. Now most of my writing is with F and M nibs, as long as they're wet. Later on I realized I could actually use B nibs and wide cursive italic nibs or stubs in letter-writing if I just adjusted the size of my handwriting and if the paper is friendly.

It's only after having a variety of pen-and-ink combinations to choose from that I realized that my preferences depend on what it is I'm writing, and what I'm writing on.

[PMS]

The first pen I ever wrote with was a Sheaffer clear School pen. It must have been about 1961, third grade, graduated from pencil to pen. Still smeared them both badly, I'm a lefty, I had that always present graphite or blue stain on the side of my left palm. I very seldom smear now, changed my writing style as a college student.

I remember changing cartridges in both my Sheaffer and Parker pens. My mother came home with some Bics in 1966 and that's what I used in 8th grade and through high school. But you know I still smeared the ink on the Bic.

In college I used Rapidographs, the drafting pens. I printed, small and precise when taking notes and I liked the fine lines of the drafting pens. I was an Art major in college (early 70's) and I bought an Osmiroid sketch pen, a fountain pen that was filled with Osmiroid black drawing ink (I still have a bottle). I wish I still had that pen.

Alas, I didn't take up fountain pens again until about 5 years ago when I found an old Parker 21 that belonged to my grandfather. I filled it with some old Parker Quink and it wrote. I have since given that pen to my youngest son and have written with fountain pens since. So much better than ball points!
PMS

[sexauerw]

I started using fountain pens a long time ago, probably in fourth or fifth grade. That would have been back in the mid-1950's and the pens were the early Sheaffer Cartridge pens, the ones with the clear barrels and the chrome caps. They never seemed to last too long so I remember having had a number of them, one after another. But by about eighth or ninth grade ballpoints had come into vogue and the fountain pens were forgotten. In the latter half of the 1960's and into the 1970's I did a lot of drafting and much of it was ink on Mylar or ink on vellum. This was all done with Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens, which were sort of like fountain pens, but different. You couldn't really use them for general writing because they only worked when held perfectly perpendicular to the paper, which is pretty awkward. Fine for drafting but not for writing.

Fast forward to the mid-1990's. I hadn't used anything but ballpoints and pencils since the 70's. My father was in failing health and too weak and tired to do much of anything, so my brother and I took turns going over to his house and helping out. Mom had already passed away. One of the tasks that became my job was to do his bookkeeping, pay his bills, etc. I used his Sheaffer Targa to write the checks for the bills and realized how much nicer it was than my ballpoints. I shared this opinion with my wife and for my next birthday I received a Sheaffer-Levenger Mediterranean fountain pen with a wonderful fine nib. I started using it and I was hooked.

Dad eventually passed away and I inherited the Targa along with its supply of Skrip Emerald Green cartridges, the only color ink Dad ever used. It was just the basic model, matte black with chrome trim and a steel nib, but just as smooth and nice a writer as the 18K nib on my new Mediterranean. I bought several more pens, various brands and models, and eventually decided to collect Targas since I liked Dad's pen so much. I now have a collection of 349 fountain pens. My Targa sub-collection has 119 full-size fountain pens, 26 slim fountain pens, 48 ballpoints, 11 pencils and 7 desk set ballpoints/pencils. There are still a few models that I don't have, so the collection is not yet complete. I don't know if it will ever be. But the fun is in the chase, I don't know what I would do if I completed it.