What was your first fountain pen.

[FredRydr]

What was your first fountain pen.

In the early 60s, I wrote a bit using a copper Esterbrook with stub nib that my mother kept for writing Christmas cards with green ink. I destroyed that pen in the end. 15 years or so later after college I bought a navy blue Parker Vector to write letters to friends; they were surprised. That pen disappeared in one of my moves to the UK, but the image of that pen always brings fond memories of good correspondence with old school classmates I wish I'd known better.

I've just convinced myself to find one of these blue Vectors!

Fred

PS: Update. I bought an old NIB blue Vector off the 'Bay. Boy, they are cheap!

[Mister5]

Cathbert - that looks like a Sheaffer Imperial II.

My first fountain pen was a Parker Vector that I purchased at Woolworth's. I guess this must have been early-to-mid 1980's. I was probably using it like a ballpoint and found it to be a horrible writer.

[titrisol]

Anyone rememeber the dispsable fountain pens?
I rememeber buying a few in college; blue or black ink (Pilot I think)
PS I'll be darn... they ae still availabe (Pilot and BIC)

Hey- now don't laugh at me here...

Years ago I worked in a college bookstore. They got these plastic tipped fountain pens (Fountain Pentel they were called then). I used a couple then they disappeared and you couldn't get them anymore. I searched for more and about 25 years later I ran into a Pentel rep and they told me they were still available in Japan, and so I discovered Jet Pens and I got a few more (Now they call them Tradio). I wound up with a Pilot Metropolitan, and later a Pentel Tradio regular fountain pen (reviews trashed it, but I swear, it's one of the smoothest nibs I've got).

Anyway- the plastic tipped fountain pen turned out to be my 'gateway' pen. Now I'm broke (!) but have lots of cool pens.

dan

[catbert]

Cathbert - that looks like a Sheaffer Imperial II.

Yes indeed - it's an Imperial II Deluxe. Not sure what the deluxe part is, but it's a nice writer.

My first fountain pen was a Parker Vector that I purchased at Woolworth's. I guess this must have been early-to-mid 1980's. I was probably using it like a ballpoint and found it to be a horrible writer.

I have a Vector rollerball of similar vintage that still gets used occasionally.

[mrcharlie]

My first was a Sheaffer Cartridge Pen purchased from a drug store (I'm about 80% sure) between 1975 and 1977. I was amazed that anyone still made fountain pens at the time; I was about 11. I can't remember what color the barrel was. My next two fountain pens were of the same type but purchased in the early 1980s and then early 1990s; one of those had a clear barrel and one was yellow. I still have those, although the yellow one has a replacement section/nib/feed that is from the late 1950s or possibly early 1960s.

I was disappointed in the "Washable Blue" ink color, and when I'd used the carts up I bought a half dozen "Deluxe Blue" ... only to find that was the new name for Washable Blue. Then I bought some Jet Black and was happier. Washable Blue was no longer sold by the time I bought the second two.

I don't remember how, but I somehow destroyed the nib of that first pen. I also later somehow destroyed the nib from the yellow one but didn't throw that one out.

I now have a couple dozen of these pens, in all three shapes (original rounded ends, 1960s shallow conical ends, and 1970s and later flat ends) and nearly always have one inked.

Anyone rememeber the dispsable fountain pens?
I rememeber buying a few in college; blue or black ink (Pilot I think)
PS I'll be darn... they ae still availabe (Pilot and BIC)

BiC seems to have discontinued their Disposable model fountain pen sometime in 2015. It is no longer on their website (either US or global version) and I haven't found one in stores locally in over a year. You may still find them in a store somewhere though.

Pilot Varsity/V-Pens are still around. I think they are great, especially for school/work/cubicle use where someone might walk off with any "nice" pen you leave laying on your desk.

[AndyYNWA]

A Lamy AL-star with a fine nib (actually it's more like a medium), which I bought last summer.

[RocketRyan]

Back in my school days it would have been a Parker Vector, in blue if I recall. And I was very jealous of a class mate who had a Parker Frontier with gold trim. As an adult it was a cheap ipg nibbed pen from wh smith, which I used when I went back to college. I still have it, and use it, currently with waterman's tender purple ink. The pen that revived my love of leaky pens!!!

[pollyskips]

I had a red student platignum fountain pen in primary school, which someone in my class stole :-( I then had Sheaffer and Waterman pens in secondary school and college.


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[Liquid360]

I received this burgundy Montblanc for my high school graduation in 1989. My first FP and shockingly, I still possess it.



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[Wahl]

Black Parker 21, I was 11 years old.

[distracted_mom]

I bought a cheap-o fountain pen in the pen aisle at WalMart in 1988 or 89. I have tried in vain to remember the brand. It was on a card with the plastic bubble and took international standard cartridges. I know I had all kinds of colors in the cartridges because I distinctly remember changing cartridges in my freshman language arts class and being fascinated by the way the ink gradually changed colors as I wrote my notes. (Romeo and Juliet wasn't doing it for me.)
The only thing I really remember about that pen was that the nib had been painted...I remember the paint chipping off.
After college and marriage, and after my sister came back from Germany with a Pelikan, I decided I finally needed another one. I've killed multiple Pelikano student pens along the way.

[Bisquitlips]

Montblanc 144 in Burgundy. On a trip to China in 1989 and one of my first journaling attempts.

Still have it and it still holds a lot of memories!

[ppdiaporama]

My very first pen was a Sheaffer Fashion or TRZ. I was 15.

I didn't like ... the point was too fine and the pen too slim.

I replaced it the following year with Sheaffer Imperial (Burgundy GT) with a medium point. It got me through the rest of high school and university. I dropped it and bent the nib.

It laid dormant in my souvenir box for close 20 years until just over a year ago. I bought a new nib and started using it ... then I lost it :-\ I guess that it wasn't mean to be!

[lady in red]

my first one w as a parker 51 I think that is what it was called . sadly I think someone stole it and my dad is no longer alive and he left me the parker 51 and a black long wool coat . I would love to have that pen back but I have not had the money to replace it and it hurts my heart that my daddy gave that to me and someone helped theirself to it not knowing the value it had . My heart hurts so bad from that .

[ms8109]

My 1st Fountain Pen back around 1985., was a Blue Waterman Lauerate ( spell)?, 2nd was a Mont Blanc 149........F.P.


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Best Regards,
Mike

[wee40811]

My first fountain pen was an old Chinese Parker 45 style pen that I found somewhere in our house. It was beat up cracked and never worked. My first real fountain pen was a Sheaffer burgundy snorkel with a xf triumph nib. It was very dry and I remember not liking how it write. Still don't like how it writes now, maybe I'll send it out for tuning sometime and it'll write great.


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[matteob]

My first decent fountain pen was a Parker Vector when I was about 10.

[AzJon]

'Twas a Parker Frontier. Bought at Staples in 2005.

[farmdogfan]

My first real Fp was my late fathers Montblanc 146 from the early fifties, and is the reason why i got interested in fountain pens, and also the reason i started collecting old MBs.

I can vaguely remember writing with a fountain pen (a Penol school pen) in the early years of school.

[RNHC]

Sheaffer Cartridge fountain pen from mid 1980's. I remember getting it in a bubble pack from People's Drug Store and using it in high school.

The smoothness of that pen was a revelation that started me on the hobby. I recently found it again in a box of old stuff. I gave it to my son as his first fountain pen. Of course, he promptly lost it.