Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
As I think about it, my feelings toward my pens (and similar objects) is quite probably formed in line with my life's passion: music. I have amassed a very large collection of percussion (and other) instruments that I use in service of the art. Certainly I exercise caution with some of them, due to fragility, rarity and sheer irreplaceability. A valued pair of glockenspiel mallets, gifted to me by a mentor, date back to the 1920s and nothing I've found, including mallets made all the way up to today, give me a sound like those. I thought I had lost them once, for a period of about two years, until once I was on a gig and one of the other fellows said "are these yours?". I had loaned them, and I've not loaned them since.
Long story short: yes, I do think about which pens go into harm's way with me. I find the situation immensely aided by decent quality beater pens or a handful of Chinese ink-spreaders. I do not feel efete or dainty when I tend to keep most of my good pens in my studio at home; in fact, it makes sense since that is where I do most of my writing. I like to look at these writing instruments as friends and I treat them as well as they treat me. I don't think of it as precious, I just think I'm being respectful.
Addendum: Some of my favorite pens - to eye and for task - are 80, 90 years old. I am silently grateful to the original owners who took good care of them. Had they been treated in a cavailer manner I wouldn't have the enjoyment of use and ability to appreciate them to this day. All the more reason for me to care for them, as well.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I treat my vintage pens with care, as they deserve. They will travel in pouches, with slots. Even my EDC P51´s are well treated.
I suppose that´s the way I am, careful with everything I handle, books, tools, records...
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
One of the reasons I limited myself to sub £10 pens, is I specifically didn't want to worry about giving them a hard time. I want to just sling it around the way I would a cheap biro. I don't want to be frightened of dropping them, losing them, or getting them scratched up from having something else in the same pocket. I don't want special carriers, or storage. I want to be able to grab it and write with it if my hands are dirty or greasy. I don't want to have to compromise myself for a pen. It's there to serve me, not the other way around.
I have put a pen in the same pocket as keys. I have held it in my teeth as I've moved stuff around. When I'm not using it, it gets dumped in a metal pot with scissors and other stuff. I'd feel awful doing that with a £50 pen, which is exactly why I don't have one. A pen I can't treat roughly, is a pen I don't want.
If any of you ever meet me, don't lend me your pen ;)
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
Perhaps it is worth asking what people did back in the day when a fountain pen was a much more common everyday tool.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I treat all my pens (but two*) equally. I would never throw them loosely in a bag together or into a pants pocket with keys and change, but I don’t go out of my way to baby any of them. I would have no problem putting them all in a pen cup, for example. If I can’t use something as intended then it’s not worth having.
*My Kaweco Brass Sport goes into my pants pocket with whatever other items said pocket may contain; I bought it specifically for this purpose. The other exception is my Izumo. I don’t baby that pen, necessarily, but if it’s not in a shirt pocket then it’s in a pen holder or a case. I’d hate to damage that urushi.
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Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Wuddus
If any of you ever meet me, don't lend me your pen ;)
Count on it. :D
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I don't have any $1000 pens, I have a couple in the $300 range and a handful in the $150 range. Most of my pens are restored vintage that didn't cost much.
I keep them in zippered cases when they aren't in use. But, they all get used. I don't carry a pen case. When I get dressed in the morning, one pen goes in the shirt pocket. It gets carried all day, when it runs dry, it gets swapped for a different one. I am reasonably careful with them, but I don't treat them like fragile flowers...
Okay, I have a Kaweco Sport that jangles around with car keys on summer days when I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt...
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I'm currently reminded of a story that changed my view on the hoarding of things simply for their possession. When I lived in San Francisco, I got really into tea. I always loved tea, but in SF, I god deep into tea things. I have 20 year old Pu-erhs, fragile yixing pots for different teas, and rarities of other varieties. After about three years and a near shameful amount of money later (definitely have spent more on tea than I have on pens), a story was released in...Hong Kong Free Press? The Shanghaiist? Not important. What was important was the story. A gentlemen living in china had passed away rather suddenly (I believe he was in his early 50s) and he was a known collector of very rare teas. The author of the article was a close acquaintance and was tasked with sorting through his tea collection. Among them was a very rare brick of puerh that was valued in the $20-$30K mark, the prize of the collection. On closer inspection it turned out to be a fake. A very convincing fake, but a fake none-the-less.
The article went on that the man had planned to drink that tea after he retired (puerh is a tea that benefits from aging) and share it with his friends. The man died before he was ever able to taste this tea that he so had longed to drink and was prepared for the day he would finally get to drink it. The final conclusion by the author was that our time is limited and unknown and that we should drink the tea, as that was what it is for, when we are able.
I remember having quite the period of introspection around that article. I, for the first time, started actively drinking and enjoying teas that I was too afraid to drink otherwise. Some of those teas are gone now, but that is the nature of tea, and I miss some of them dearly, but am able to think back on them fondly.
The point? Get those nice pens. take care of them as you would a friend, as Jon mentioned, but use them. If taking your $1000 pen to work and using it brings you joy, then so be it. If its a beautiful pen that just sits in a case/desk/whatever and and you are perpetually afraid to take it out for fear of damaging the pen...life is too short for that. I think many of the vintage pens I have that are found in good shape are found as such not because their owners took care of them, but because they were tossed into a drawer, forgotten, and thus spared the ravages of time.
I know some (or many) will disagree, and that's ok. I'm not advocating chucking your pens around like bics, but if you want to use that expensive pen out in the wild, go for it, but accept that something may happen to your pen (something terrible might befall your pen at home, too, where you might be more relaxed and off guard or your home burns down or is robbed, but that's a different matter).
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I differentiate between fountain pens from my collection (only vintage ones) and my daily writers (mostly vintage ones).
The pens of my collection are as good as possible protected from everything that could harm, or could let them age faster. Usually they do not see any ink and use. It is my goal and project to preserve them for enthusiasts who will come after me. I pass them on part by part to the museum for design zurich. (https://www.emuseum.ch/en/search/F%C3%BCllfederhalter)
The pens I use on a daily basis are treated differently. They were choosen by their writing characteristics and practical handling qualities. I am talking about pens like Parker "51" and 61, Pilot capless, Pilot Myu, Pelikan 140 and Aurora Hastil for example. All of them are sturdy pens and suitable for daily use. Any one of them could be replaced.
Nevertheless I do not transport them in a pencil bag as I did during school time. I carry them for example in the pocket of my jacket, or the pen slot of my notebook case. In this way, they only develop slight sings of use and age. I don't pamper them, but I also don't expose them to unnecessary wear and tear either, as I am doing with my watch, my clothes, my bicycle, my shoes etc...
Quality products age with dignity. But the more you take care of them, the longer they will last.
C.
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
For the record, here is an example of what I consider "EDC." I took this photo in June 2016 during an 8- or 9-day bicycle trip along the Baltic Sea coast of Poland with a couple of friends and a dog, a trip that included crossing a bog on the comically-laid EURO BIKE PATH (through which, while swarmed by mosquitoes and horseflies, at one point, we had to remove our panniers and throw them over a particularly swampy patch and carry our bicycles and Łapa's przyczepka (mobile throne, er, trailer) through it). No harm befell the pens.
I have since sold the two Pelikan Toledos, but the other four pens remain as EDC. Actually, one of the Nakaya PIccolos (the brown one) is in the Pen Valise, because I'm carrying three other Piccolos, plus a Pilot CH912 (PO) and a Pilot CH92 (F).
I, too, want to enjoy my favorite things and not let them collect dust and merely exist as objects to be gazed upon every once in a while, with anticipation of future use.
So, is the next step to carry them together without case protection? So far, the answer is... no, not yet.
Attachment 44698
As for all the old pens that are in such good condition today -- if they survived extensive, daily use back in the day, surely the high polish was done by contemporary restorers of vintage pens. You should see the magic these people can do, scratches and dings disappear! Broken pistons and deteriorating sacs repaired and replaced! I'm sure the micro scratches on my Nakayas and the teeny, tiny dings on Kurouac would take only some minutes to polish out (the dings some minutes longer).
Mostly, I'm practicing nominal care (carrying a pen without a sleeve or case) with two PIlots -- the CH912 and the red Falcon (in the photo). And... I have dropped those two pens, unintentionally (of course), so they are missing a tiny bit of plastic, both on the edge of the top of the cap. It's hardly noticeable on the black 912, and the edges of the "pit" on the red Falcon have "softened," almost burnished just from being used (if "burnished" is the correct term).
Here's my dirty little secret regarding carrying those two Pilots bareback. I have a back-up of each.
Hehehe.
What? It's only cheating if you believe there's a rule against it.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
P.S. I take care of my things in general, because I want them to last, because I want to use them for a long time.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ethernautrix
P.S. I take care of my things in general, because I want them to last, because I want to use them for a long time.
I didn't doubt that for a minute! However, as to the comment about potential current condition of a vintage pen being from restoration, the key is barrel imprints or similar. Overpolishing a pen will always remove material, making an imprint shallow and indistinct (or show where they masked it off). I am enamored of the old pens I have that I *know* have been cared for. One of my favorites is from 1929 (easy to date) and I know that the pen was a one-owner pen, sold to me by his son. The man used it all his life as a lawyer and it is immaculate. I believe use + care = preservation. Not fetishism, just reasonable care.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I only own a dozen or so pens, and I use all of them. If I find I'm not using one, I pass it along to someone who will. I usually choose a less expensive one to carry when I leave the house, but even then I don't carry them in a pocket with keys or change or anything that could mar them, but in a shirt pocket or a leather sleeve. Occasionally I 'll carry one of my more expensive pens, but then I'm extra careful with it. A couple of times I thought I'd lost one that I'd carried, but each time it popped up after a few minutes except for only oncee, and that pen was very cheap and damaged to boot -- and I still expect it show up eventually because I lost it in the house. (I have at least one black hole in my house. Occasionally it coughs something back up that it had previously swallowed.) And not only have I thus discovered that it's possible to lose a pen without taking it out of the house, but I discovered it's also possible to damage one at home. Case in point: my first Sailor, a 1911 with a 21K nib, was less than a week old when it rolled off a tabletop and did a nosedive onto a hardwood floor in my house. It landed nib first, and required an expensive stay of about a month in an out of town nib hospital.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ethernautrix
P.S. I take care of my things in general, because I want them to last, because I want to use them for a long time.
This. Not precious — careful. I want my tools to last. I hope their journey continues after me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Wuddus
If any of you ever meet me, don't lend me your pen ;)
That's OK — it would be something vintage and/or hooded that you'd reject anyway. :rolleyes:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Empty_of_Clouds
Perhaps it is worth asking what people did back in the day when a fountain pen was a much more common everyday tool.
How common was it to own more than one, though? All the more reason to take care of it.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
To illustrate my Office "Waste Dump" (according to my wife).
And just to make it clear, I also take care of my pens (things in general) and do not damage them on purpose (actually I hate it when things are not treated with respect as everything costs money which was earned trading it for life time, so things should last a long time).
But as tools they are built to be used and I´m not afraid to put them together with other pens/stuff to the heap on my table.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/...4c1ea571_o.jpgOffice Waste Dump ;) by Ptero Ptero
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I use all of my pens as daily writers once I have them in writing condition . I do not own one that I would not carry . I am fairly careful with them and almost always carry them in an etui unless I am wearing a shirt with a snap closure pocket . I will carry them in the bibb of my overalls with the pocket snapped so they can not fall out if I bend over . All of my pens are pre 1960's and most are 50's or earlier . I treat them all the same , i take good care of them but use and carry them like they were made to be . I consider them usable works of art .
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
My pen-handling sensibilities have evolved as my taste in pens has centered around antiques made out of celluloid and hard rubber.
Back when I owned modern pens, I did in fact frequently experience ethernautrix's urge--to "wear in" a brand new pen, giving it the scars of one's ownership. I remember making a deliberate effort at this, being extra careless with setting it down on the table, putting it in the bag etc.
Now, owning old pens of modest (at least $100) value, this urge is gone. Even with my go-everywhere, user-grade Waterman's 12S Safety, there wear is already there; the aging process is more-than-complete. And with the more valuable ones, I have a sense of duty to the history of each pen: a desire to give it a long and useful life. They are carried in a case and kept out of light whenever possible.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I have sold or traded any pens I was reluctant to carry. When I carry a pen it is in my shirt pocket, maybe with a coordinating ballpoint. Before retiring I might carry two to four pens in a nice case. The expensive pens are gone. I am much happier that way. The pens I used to carry were a Parker 51, a Montblanc 144 and/or a Montblanc 146. Pens I bought up to 1990. I thought of them as tools. The other stuff I didn't carry, most of which I didn't like anyway, were collectibles. Draining the swamp.
When you are up to your a-- in alligators it's difficult to recall that your original objective was to drain the swamp.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
I only buy pens to use, old or new. I don't go out of my way to baby any of them. I'm not particularly worried about damage or preoccupied with pen pampering.
I just handle them with sufficient care that they will outlast me even if I live another thirty years. Just like I do with any special thing that might get passed along to someone else: pocket & wrist watches, pocket knives, my flute, firearms, cars, records, etc. Of all those my EDC knives get beat up the worst. Actually let's scratch those off the list altogether. [emoji1]
Life is short. I watched my mom save up lots of money and work real hard and barely got to enjoy life to any degree. I watched my dad store stuff away that "might be worth something someday" only to have it deteriorate or tarnish.
That's not for me. I derive joy in using far more than owning.
Re: Fountain Pen "Hobby" Comfort Zone...?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
christof
I differentiate between fountain pens from my collection (only vintage ones) and my daily writers (mostly vintage ones).
The pens of my collection are as good as possible protected from everything that could harm, or could let them age faster. Usually they do not see any ink and use. It is my goal and project to preserve them for enthusiasts who will come after me. I pass them on part by part to the museum for design zurich. (
https://www.emuseum.ch/en/search/F%C3%BCllfederhalter)
The pens I use on a daily basis are treated differently. They were choosen by their writing characteristics and practical handling qualities. I am talking about pens like Parker "51" and 61, Pilot capless, Pilot Myu, Pelikan 140 and Aurora Hastil for example. All of them are sturdy pens and suitable for daily use. Any one of them could be replaced.
Nevertheless I do not transport them in a pencil bag as I did during school time. I carry them for example in the pocket of my jacket, or the pen slot of my notebook case. In this way, they only develop slight sings of use and age. I don't pamper them, but I also don't expose them to unnecessary wear and tear either, as I am doing with my watch, my clothes, my bicycle, my shoes etc...
Quality products age with dignity. But the more you take care of them, the longer they will last.
C.
Maybe it's just me but when I read this it made me feel quite sad. To think that the beautiful pens that we've all seen in your collection are destined to never be written with during all of their lifetimes, as they will pass from your collection unused, to a museum collection never to be used. :cry: