One Pen

[fountainpenkid]

As of today, I have listed all of my collection (a mere 6 pens) for sale, as well as a good portion of my inks and will hopefully soon be left with only 1 pen--a Pelikan m400 white tortoise. Has anybody experienced having just one pen before (as a person who has been in the hobby for a few years)? How long did you last if so? I will report on this odd phenomenon if necessary. I think I will be able to last.

[welch]

I had one pen for two or three years; tossed it and wrote with one pen for the next six or seven years. Parker 45. One ink: Sheaffer washable black, most of the time. Of course, nobody had more than one pen in the olden dayes...

[Laura N]

I had one fountain pen and one ink for years, but it wasn't a hobby for me then, honestly. You'll be fine. To everything there is a season.

[earthdawn]

While I have only had a brief period where I owned just 1 pen I can tell for sure that the Pelikan m400 white tortoise is one SWEET pen to be left with. I mean to have just one pen is how it was back in the day.. and to have it be such a stunning one at that I think you will be fine. How long will you be able to resist getting something else I can't say.

PAD (Pen Acquisition Disorder) is a slippery slope my friend!

[Dreck]

You'll be fine. To everything there is a season.

Truer words were never spoken ( especially since this is from Ecclesiastes Ch 3). Revel in and enjoy to the fullest your one pen & feel no shame. If I were forced to own/use but one fountain pen, I would do so without compunction or regret. Considering we are halfway through Lent, this is a great time for you to cast off the Lust of the Flesh, The Lust of the Eyes, and the vaunting pride of possessions. : D

[Manny]

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/fpgeeks/0329140207_zps08zyyxqu.jpg

[Jon Szanto]

I spent many years with only two fountain pens, but at any given time I could usually only find one. So I understand, and neither was as nice as the Pelikan. At the end of the day, it's what you write, not what you write with, that counts.

[amk]

If you had only one pen and it was a Bic biro, that would be sad.

But a white tortoise Pelikan... displays taste.

[Paul-H]

Hi

I also had only one pen for many years, it was a Parker 51 Aerometric and was my only fountain pen for the best part of 30 years. I still have it but now I collect pens so its one of many.

A pen for use can be quite different to a collected pen.

Paul

[da vinci]

I think this is a great thing to do, and i am looking forward to hearing how you get on. I would love to simplify my life in all sorts of ways, but collecting fountain pens is proving as hard as nicotine to cut down on!

How did you select your 1 pen? Did you consider selling your all your collection to buy 1 new pen?

[kaisnowbird]

Hi Will, if you don't mind me asking, what made you want to reduce to just one pen? Would you consider having at least two - one as back up, or more than one nib grades?

[tiffanyhenschel]

You will do fine with one pen. For the first. Several years after I began using fountain pens, I had two pens and two inks and was perfectly happy. I have expanded beyond that now, but I still embrace a less is more policy. After I reach a saturation point, I inevitably sell off pens that were previously indispensable. There comes a point where you can enjoy other people's pens without needing to own them yourself.

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

I functioned just fine with a Parker Vector as my only pen. My ink was Parker Quink Permanent Black.

[kia]

If I had to, or felt compelled to, I could use just one pen. For myself, I hope that does not come to pass, as some of my pens were acquired for specific reasons. Honestly, I would go through some serious withdrawals before becoming accustomed to only one pen. But that is me, not you.

If you feel you wish to only use one pen, then one pen it is. It is your personal choice, and you have my respect for being you. If you should return to having multiple pens, I'll respect that, too.

[kaisnowbird]

Same here. I totally respect, and admire, those who can use just one pen and/or one ink, but reckon I would face serious withdrawal if I should attempt it.

[pico]

One pen is fine, and great choice. I used one pen at a time since I was in high school. My Parker flighter lasted me from about 1982 until about 2010, then I broke it and replaced it with a Parker Urban. Only used Parker black quink for that entire period until I discovered these forums and the FPN a few months ago. I've enjoyed exploring some other pens, nibs and inks. But, I will probably settle on a favorite set of a few nib/pen/ink combinations and go another 30 years. haha.

[rdcalhoon]

I think having just one pen would be like having a tool box with just one wrench. It would work if you only had one size bolt, I suppose.

[79spitfire]

One pen to rule them all???

I could do with fewer, but I'm fascinated with the variety still.

I am over my Indian pen phase. In order to make them useful I have to put a western or Chinese made nib in them. It ruins the 'point' for me. (Still love the feel of the ebonite ones though!)

[00Photo]

I color code data and notes at work. There is NO way I could make do with one pen. That's crazy talk.

[Plume145]

oh yeah - you're entering a One True Pen phase. I reckon most people who have used pens for quite a long time go through those :)

I've used FPs since second grade, and I've had times where I had several pens in use with different inks, and times when I had just one and maybe a backup (eg with exam friendly Erasablue ink back when I used to have exams). It just sort of cycles, y'know? It's often triggered (for me) by coming across a truly awesome pen, or one that took effort getting my hands on (eg when I got my MB145). Maybe that's the case for you too? It sounds like that Pelikan is a pretty awesome pen :) The multi-pen stage comes from an expansion of horizons, eg when I got all my dad's pens or when I came across the online FP community in 2012 and discovered a ton of new stores, ink brands, and types of nibs. I'm still in that phase, but I can feel an OTP phase coming on because lately I catch myself chafing at frequent refills and cleanouts and am starting to feel like I have too much ink to really enjoy. I don't see it going with a single pen, so maybe it will be the four musketeers or whatever :P

But I do think the One True Pen phase is something that happens more to those who are more users than they are collectors.

[broadoblique]

Through most of my school years I used only two pens for everything I wrote, Esterbrook Js with Osmiroid italic medium and italic broad. This was in the 1970's-1980's, just before widespread word processing, so I used them a lot. I wore out a couple of nibs, but never wanted more pens, even though I knew there were plenty at my parents' house. They were tools.

When I had more time to enjoy pens as a hobby I started accumulating pens, too many pens.

Congratulations; I envy you. I find that I spend a lot of energy trying to have fewer pens, but am either too weak willed or delusional to accomplish much towards that.

[VertOlive]

Well sure, you could do that with a White Tortoise!

[ac12]

I went through undergrad with essentially one pen, a Parker 45.
But I had a backup, P45 so that I would not have to change ink cartridge in the middle of a class.

The P45 still is a great pen.
And if I wasn't distracted by other pens, I would still have that pen today.

[Kaputnik]

I only discovered fountain pens in the past few years of my fifty-odd. It was something new and interesting to me, so the chances of stopping with the first one, or even the first good one, were never very great. Now the number of fountain pens I have is quite surprising. Should I sell off the surplus and go back to one? I do have a couple of candidates for "only pen". It only requires making a choice.

Even theoretically, I can't see not having at least two. There always has to be redundancy. Better make it three.

Okay, I want to have at least three fountain pens. But do I want to "simplify" by getting rid of all my other ones? Certainly not. I never expected to enjoy having a collection, but I do. At some point I may need some extra cash and try to sell off a few, but it's not like they're cluttering the house. Getting rid of the extra ones would be more a symbolic gesture than anything else.

For that matter, after giving away a lot of extra ballpoints recently, I'm keeping all of those that I still have.

[Tsuki yo]

Kudos to the OP for having the strength of will to go down to one pen. I, being of an addictive personality, will probably never get rid of my pens. And given some of the other things I collect: Vinyl records, Comics, Warhammer 40k figures, DVD's. The pens take up relatively little space, just one desk. I tend to have 4-5 (never exceeding 5) pens inked up at any given time, I use them for writing (different colours for different edits) and drawing. I could conceivably cut it down to three. But that's never going to happen.

As with all the things I collect, each pen I own gets used, I'll swap out for a different pen when one runs dry so they all see some in-hand time.

[broadoblique]

I've thought about this and concluded that I could do with just one of each model and color of every brand of fountain pen, but not just one pen.

[inlovewithjournals]

Good for you fountainpenkid! I am on a self-imposed spending freeze so I am not adding more to my small collection for the foreseeable future. Cheers to using and appreciating what you have!

:tea:

[Adhizen]

Before I came to a place where I could afford to explore purchasing many nice pens. I had one pen. It was not a fountain it was a hand turned roller ball that I carried every day for about 10 years. I travel all the United States and world with it... lost it in Egypt and then found it the next day... Finally had to retire it when the internal mechanism began to breakdown to 2 years ago ... that lead to my return to fountain pens... the rest is an on going evolution... I enjoyed have one pen for many reasons. I never felt afraid to let others use it. It was a conversation starter in some places. Any way... my 2 cents worth :)

[pajaro]

For quite a few years after college I used just a Parker 51 medium. I still use it, but the typical materialistic gluttony has led me to add lots more pens. I like the 51 better than the others, because it gives less trouble.

A Pelikan M400 White Tortoise will make a perfect tool. I have one and I use it sometimes. Hoarder's Disease again. It's a really good pen.

[brewsky]

I had a pelikan m215 for a few years.. then went pen crazy. Went wonderful, I just wanted more lol. Pelikans always have a special place in my collection and are my focal point

[Runnin_Ute]

I had only two for many years. (late 1990's to 2012) A Lamy Al Star and a Waterman Phileas. Purchased in that order. Sadly, I no longer have that Phileas as it was lost about 3 months ago. (I do still have one though) It was a red marbled with fine nib. I had a bid in on an identical one on ebay recently, but it got to be more than I wanted to spend so I stopped bidding/following.

For years I kept one loaded with Levenger Cobalt Blue the other with Raven Black. Then I changed to Pelikan 4001 Blue Black and now I have a rainbow of colors.......(and more pens!)

[Mags]

I suppose if I had one pen it would be a Pelikan and about 5 different nibs to screw in to it.

[RuiFromUK]

For around 30 years I only had a cartridge filler Romus fountain pen which my parents gave me to write the secondary school admission exams. I still have that pen and it still works.

In the 1980's I bought my second fountain pen: a MontBlanc 146 Grande and in 2006 my wife gave me the original Platinum MontBlanc StarWalker. The rest is a long story.

[oldstoat]

I used only one pen, a Parker Frontier from 1989 to 2009 when I realised that one could have more than one pen and more than one ink....

[ethernautrix]

I can't even have only one pen inked and used exclusively for one day. But now that I think about it, I have never had only one pen, and I had hundreds more before I started using fountain pens.

Right now, I'm patting myself on the back for having only two Nakayas inked (these primarily for writing but also for drawing) and the other two, maybe three, for drawing. I'm not counting the two Platinum Preppies and three, no, four Pilot Parallels that I tried out for the first time in about six months (they all worked without issue). Should probably clean out the Platinum Preppies. The Pilot Parallels I use (or intend to use) for drawing and writing letters.

The One Pen Way does interest me, though.

I'd be impressed with myself if I could get it down to one pen case (a dozen pens), not including the inked pens for which there is no room in the case.

[picautomaton]

One pen only might kill the Enthusiasm for fountain pens and inks.

On the plus side this will allow you to focus on your hand writing and stop the ouroboros of looking for the elusive perfect pen.

[fountainpenkid]

It has actually been great. Although the other pens haven't sold yet, so they are still at my house, although they are unused and uninked.

[tintak]

From the late 1960s till about three years ago I had only one pen,...a lovely tortoise Pelikan 400NN (OBB). The nib on this Pel. was amazing!
Life was simple, one pen & two inks.

After the 400NN's demise, I went crazy buying C/C pens, to try somehow to duplicate my former writing experience. No nib has come close, but I now have nine pens.

[tintak]

Will, you can't have too many dogs.

[Poeticnook]

If I had only one pen left, I'd want it to be the m1000. :)

[Aleks]

While I have only had a brief period where I owned just 1 pen I can tell for sure that the Pelikan m400 white tortoise is one SWEET pen to be left with. I mean to have just one pen is how it was back in the day.. and to have it be such a stunning one at that I think you will be fine. How long will you be able to resist getting something else I can't say.

PAD (Pen Acquisition Disorder) is a slippery slope my friend!

Did Carey just coined a new ailment? ...if so let me be the first to be diagnosed.. :jester: ps this whole "1 pen idea" is intriguing... for me it would probably be a Sailor Pro Gear; not too flashy yet eye pleasing and very functional; i think.

[kataish]

Well sure, you could do that with a White Tortoise!

As someone who has a white tortoise... if I had (ie, was forced at gunpoint or something) to only pick one pen, that would be it out of my collection. But... I use more than one pen in every letter. I can't imagine only having one pen. That would make me a very sad panda! My collection isn't HUGE but it isn't small either. I did consider selling some pens briefly but I literally do use every single pen I own (and not just occasionally).

[kaisnowbird]

If my circumstances change so much that I have to sell most of my pens, I think I can still be happy with about a dozen pens and half a dozen ink choices for many years, but reduced to just one pen (even though I know exactly which pen it will be) is just too cruel. :cry: