What pen did you.......

[Massaya]

What was the first pen you ever bought, when did you buy it and why that particular pen.

When I was young the only pen I ever saw that I wanted to own, was a Parker. I had the opportunity to write a small amount with one belonging to my mothers employer, and I never forgot it.

I had to wait nearly 30 years to own one and I still have it 30 years later my Parker 51, and it's still going strong.

[lisantica]

I cannot recall my first, but I recall my first fountain pens. I bought them both from the same seller Here's a photo of how it all began.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/23/za3eva2u.jpg

[Jeph]

Pilot Varsity
last summer
it was a cheap way to see if what all of those fountain pen geeks were saying was true.

They got delayed in the mail, so the first pen I ever tried was a Sheaffer Prelude Blue Shimmer (M). I bought it becasue the Varsities got delayed, I found it on sale for 1/2 retail and had seen enough information to know that it was a good price. Plus SBRE Brown had given it a good review. Thankfully the pen worked flawlessly out of the box and I was blown away by what I was missing. As you might have noticed, I have been trying to make up for lost time ever since.

When my Pilot Varities did finally arrive I managed to convince myself that the Prelude wrote better but I am pretty sure that I was lying.

[caribbean_skye]

The first pen I ever bought was a Sheaffer school pen when I was nine. Someone has just stolen the Cross pen my dad gave me and I needed something that took cartridges that i found buy easily (they didnt sell bottles of ink). i still have the pen and it still writes.

[Kaputnik]

Well, I assume you mean the first fountain pen, since the first pen I bought would have been a ballpoint without much doubt. Maybe a felt tip. When I started school in the early 1960s, some schools still prescribed fountain pens for their students, but I grew up only vaguely aware that some people still used them. Had to wait for middle age to discover what I'd missed.

First fountain pen was a Parker IM.* Without making a long story about it, it didn't work out too well, and I don't think it was just my inexperience. It made me curious, though, and I bought a Lamy AL Star to see if that would be better. It was. A number of years later, I have a ridiculous number of fountain pens.

*Edit. Oh, why that particular pen? When I decided that it would be interesting to try a fountain pen, I started looking at them, and was floored by what seemed like the high prices on most of them. On the other hand, I figured that the few really inexpensive ones might be cheap knockoffs. So I picked the Parker, which was $22, because I had always liked Parker Jotter ballpoints, and figured it would be a good brand. I now know that it's more complicated than that, and I've paid much more for a single pen, to say nothing of what I've paid altogether.

[inlovewithjournals]

It all began with a little order placed on Goulet Pens. It was a Starter Pen Package that I just fell in love with. And I haven't looked back since. :)

http://inlovewithjournals.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ink-and-box.jpg

[reprieve]

I've been wild about pens and paper since childhood. I always had a hoard of crayons and markers and sketchbooks and composition books. My first fountain pen, though, was a Sheaffer school pen. It's something very similar to the No Nonsense, but I don't think it's called a No Nonsense. I used that thing for years--until the office supply shop stopped selling the cartridges for it. I didn't know about converters or bottled ink back then.

My first "nice" fountain pen was a Pelikan M215, bought from Fountain Pen Hospital along with a bottle of Noodler's Walnut. I used that pen and ink exclusively for over a year. For some reason (I don't remember why now) I decided to order a Pilot Vanishing Point and a Lamy 2000, and then a Parker 51 set, and then it was all downhill from there.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Similar story to Reprieve. I remember a lavender Bic ball-point that was my favorite pen until it got broken around when ai was 11.

First fountain pen was a Skrip cartridge pen I got in the sixth grade, one of those silvertone cap-translucent barrel combos. Mine was yellow. I don't know what happened to it.

I think my first real fountain pen I bought as an adult was a Rotring Artpen, because I wanted something for both writing and sketching, followed closely by a Sheaffer No Nonsense and a Diplomat Butterfly because it was cute. It's all a blur after that.

[85AKbN]

First fountain pen: a silver Lamy Al-Star and a bottle of Noodler's black. All from amazon reviews, which are remarkably similar to fp forum reviews, pro and con. Remarkable performance ootb to date; pen and ink. Before it arrived I had a makrolon Lamy 2000 on order from Goulet Pens, which was test written by them and also a hundred percent reliable ootb to date.

[raging.dragon]

Probably a cheap ballpoint. My first fountain pen was a disposable Pentel (?) bought for middle school.

[TerraNoir]

Well my VERY first fountain pen that was purchased FOR me, I am sure that it was a Zebra fountain pen that I got at Walgreens when I was younger for school. It was recommended that I try.

My first fountain pen that I purchased for myself is a Pilot Metropolitan and a bottle of Lamy Green ink from JetPens. And I researched for hours. Watching videos and decided that the Pilot Metropolitan would be my first pen. Still have that pen and I LOVE it.

[fountainpenkid]

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/5838-Pet-Peeve-Needlessly-Ambiguous

[Cookies]

I picked up a Platinum Preppy 03 when I needed to reach free shipping on a Jetpens order. I though the fountain pen was a neat idea, but as I had microscopic handwriting I'd always been more interested in finding the absolute finest pen available.

I ended up hating the Preppy, but the bug had already bitten me and I was off to find a more suitable pen. After reading many reviews I picked up an EF Lamy Safari and a bottle of Noodler's black. The pen was mediocre and the ink was dry, grey, and dull (I now think I must have received a bad batch). You would think that would have stopped me, but no no. I kept reading & acquiring and finally found a few I enjoyed. The Pilot Prera, Pilot 78G, and a 1.1 italic I put on my safari. I found the lovely watercolor-esque J. Herbin inks and finally figured I preferred fine Japanese pens or custom cursive stubs.

And then I found vintage...

[imaginerhetoric]

In college I bought a "no name" pen set from an office store that included a fountain pen. It skipped like crazy, but I WANTED it to work. A fp user at a writer's conference suggested I look at Fountain Pen Hospital...talk about pricey pens for a college student :jaw: but I got a Pilot Varsity. This time no skipping, but it feathered and bleed plus it was way too big for my handwriting.

A few years later I was in a Monoprix in Paris and remembered reading about a great French ballpoint pen- I never found it- instead I picked up another "no name" fp for under 10 euros. I loved that pen and wrote everything with it. I had a lot of fun learning how to refill it's cartridges, but I mistakenly put India Ink in it. :shocked: In a forum I read that I could fix it by diluting the ink with rubbing alcohol....you can imagine what the poor feed is like now. :cry:

Luckily I'd just heard about the Goulets and after much browsing I bought my Noodler's Nib Creaper, which I consider my first "real" fountain pen.

[LagNut]

My first FP was a Schaeffer cartridge pen in the 60's - elementary school.

First FP after that would be a Parker 25 in college. Still have that pen and it's mate. I actually had a nice Montblanc a little later which I no longer have because I goofed up the nib from an accident. I suspect I could fix that very easily now, but my FP knowledge level was much lower at that point.

[odd_soul]

I certainly don't remember my first pen. I've been obsessed with pens since I was a kid. But the first fountain pens I bought were a Lamy Al-Star in black and a TWSBI 580, because I couldn't decide between them! This wasn't very long ago, but it was significant. :P

[lsmith42]

My first was in 2006. A Montblanc Stainless Solitaire with a double-broad nib. It was a $1,000 pen for $300 since the local boutique was closing.

[tiffanyhenschel]

I had been intrigued by fountain pens since I was eight years old and my cousin moved back to the US from Germany. She had all kinds of cool pens and pencils, one of them a fountain pen. That was the mid-1970s. I bought a cheap, no name cartridge pen from Target at some point, but I lost track of it after I couldn't find any more cartridges.

Somewhere along the way I found a Levenger catalog and began drooling over their True Writers, but I was a single parent going to school. The idea of paying close to $100 for a pen was as out of reach as flying to the moon. Then I started using eBay :) and bought my first "real" fountain pen, a True Writer in Periwinkle, for $15. Another True Writer in Golden Tortoise soon followed.

For several years I used just those two pens with Levenger Amethyst and Raven inks. Two pens, two inks--one for work and one for fun. What more would I want?

Then I discovered online pen forums ...

[Lady Onogaro]

I'm sure my first fountain pen was a Shaeffer cartridge pen from elementary school (I still have a cheapie plastic Shaeffer that is maybe 30 years old). My first "grown up" fountain pen was a Reform demonstrator that leaked like a sieve (the barrel was cracked). Two years ago I discovered the Lamy Vista, and that was that. I got hooked.

[Avalona]

First pen was so long ago that I don't remember it. Now, first fountain pen was a Pelikan Pelikano Junior about two years ago or so. I was curious about it (I didn't know the difference between fountain pens and calligraphy pens at the time, but I understood that they were pretty similar with different sorts of inks), but didn't want to spend too much. One geared towards children seemed to fit the bill pretty well. 35 pens later, and the Pelikano Juniors are still some of my favourites (I own two now).

[Rickygene]

Sheaffer Targa Imperial Brass in 1989.
A lot of money at the time but I still have it. It's a bit beaten up but is a lovely writer.