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Thread: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

  1. #41
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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    A response by Pterodactylus got me thinking. There is a difference between collectors and accumulators. Collectors actively seek additions to their collections, while accumulations just seem to happen. I have an accumulation of old cameras. I didn't set out to collect them, but I couldn't see throwing them away when they were replaced. So, they sit in a box on a shelf in a closet.

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Well, it's been forever since I posted here, though I lurk every once in a while. ;-)

    I, too, have spent thousands of dollars on pens. And I, too, have pretty much stopped buying them. The main reason is that I took a steep pay cut a couple of years ago, and I could no longer justify spending money on pens. (Well... I did buy one pen last summer, my first in two years, but it wouldn't write, and I couldn't fix it, and sending it to a nibmeister didn't make sense for a variety of reasons, and so now that pen is in some landfill somewhere. Oh, well.)

    But I haven't stopped using them! Oh, I acknowledge it was kind of insane to sink so much cash into writing instruments, but insane or not, that's what I did, and now I have a lovely collection of pens to enjoy. No, the collection won't grow, or at least not very much, but it doesn't matter: I have enough pens to last me a couple of lifetimes. Whenever I get bored of one of my pens, I just look into my collection and ink up something I hadn't written with in a while.

    So, dear OP, maybe you should indeed just go back to ballpoints. But then, after a few months, maybe you can go back to your FP collection and see how you feel about it. Don't buy anything! Just use what you've got. You may like it better than the first time around. If not... Well, sell or give away, whichever you prefer.

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Am I the only one who imagines this guys voice as Schmitt from New Girl?
    Gotta say, I empathize. I often catch myself thinking how childish it is to nearly obsess enough about a fricking writing instrument that I’m an active member of a pen forum... a fricking pen forum......

    What really annoys me the most is I can’t even take my pens out of my home (unless I bring a backpack or a notepad) because no one else on this planet uses them. So that means that no one else on this planet uses fountain pen friendly paper... you can’t even sign most receipts with a fountain pen. You can’t write on printer paper, normal legal paper, napkins, sticky notes... nothing normal! Lol what the fuck are we doing here guys?


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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Quote Originally Posted by spencerwilli View Post
    Am I the only one who imagines this guys voice as Schmitt from New Girl?
    Gotta say, I empathize. I often catch myself thinking how childish it is to nearly obsess enough about a fricking writing instrument that I’m an active member of a pen forum... a fricking pen forum......

    What really annoys me the most is I can’t even take my pens out of my home (unless I bring a backpack or a notepad) because no one else on this planet uses them. So that means that no one else on this planet uses fountain pen friendly paper... you can’t even sign most receipts with a fountain pen. You can’t write on printer paper, normal legal paper, napkins, sticky notes... nothing normal! Lol what the fuck are we doing here guys?


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    You are just using the wrong ink, IG ink is the key.

    Get a bottle ESSRI and you can write decently on any paper down to toilet paper, as a bonus your writing is also waterproof and permanent.

    Easy, isn’t it?

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    I agree with the comment above. Your problem has to be rubbish ink. I use Diamine and it works well on everything from copier paper and supermarket receipts to brown wrapping paper. Admittedly, it bleeds and spreads a bit on toilet paper and paper napkins, but otherwise paper type is not an issue.

    I have to admit that I have begun to consider the obsession with 'fountain pen friendly' paper many here have expressed to be rather neurotic!

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Quote Originally Posted by spencerwilli View Post
    ...snip...
    What really annoys me the most is I can’t even take my pens out of my home (unless I bring a backpack or a notepad) because no one else on this planet uses them. So that means that no one else on this planet uses fountain pen friendly paper... you can’t even sign most receipts with a fountain pen. You can’t write on printer paper, normal legal paper, napkins, sticky notes... nothing normal! Lol what the fuck are we doing here guys?
    I second the use of iron gall to get around many of the "not fp-friendly paper" issues. I use ESSRI to jot notes in the pulpy, mass-market paperbacks we read in class, in my Teacher's Edition textbooks, on my students' homework (whether lined loose-leaf or copier paper), and even on receipt paper. Although I keep a ballpoint with me, I could count on one hand he number of times I've used it in the past seven years. I keep a small piece of blotter paper in my wallet. I'm already getting out a credit card, so it's only the work of a moment to get the blotter out and ensure any extra ink does not make its way to the cashier's fingers.
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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    OP - you're not the first as you'll have seen from previous replies here. I met someone who had done the same as you a few years back. He had been collecting for 10 to 15 years, cut back as he needed to control his costs and over time, after having stopped buying them, he noticed he just was not using them any more - there was nothing concious there. For him it was as much the collecting and enjoying as he was involved with his hobby. Once he effectively stopped collecting over time he just started using what was at hand and then noticed this (or it was pointed out to him). In the end he started to sell off his pens, with no regrets (he had kept a few key ones I should add).

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    I have some decent vintage and more modern ballpoints, and I am using them more as I quit using fountain pens that get ink on my hands. Some good pens, Parker 51, Montblanc 144, some Cross and Sheaffers are good, but I am using them less. I have quit taking the fountain pens out of the house, as stuff happens to them and the ballpoints are less costly and not missed so much if something happens, which is often that pen gets misplaced and lost. I think settle back and just keep the pens as a collectiom.

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Quote Originally Posted by pajaro View Post
    I have some decent vintage and more modern ballpoints, and I am using them more as I quit using fountain pens that get ink on my hands. Some good pens, Parker 51, Montblanc 144, some Cross and Sheaffers are good, but I am using them less. I have quit taking the fountain pens out of the house, as stuff happens to them and the ballpoints are less costly and not missed so much if something happens, which is often that pen gets misplaced and lost. I think settle back and just keep the pens as a collectiom.
    Life is far too short to use fountain pens, or even any pens, that leave you with ink on your hands.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    I don’t think I’d ever be able to give up fountain pens now that I’ve been using them again. There is nothing comparable for low-impact writing, and it’s so much better on my carpal tunnel.

    Try Sailor Nano-Ink. It takes a little more fountain pen maintenance but performs wonderfully and dries quickly. My favorite is Seiboku.


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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    It's funny, I've been having trouble with ink on my hands recently. I use a Platinum Carbon Pen (medium) in a stand every day, and recently its taken to flooding a little and I find I get ink on my middle finger from the section. Not sure why; it may be I tend to use it just after washing up the breakfast things and my hand is too warm and makes it burp, or it may be the one that developed a crack in the section and my repair has failed. Either way, it's been annoying me the last couple of weeks, off and on. With Christmas Day approaching, I removed it from the dining table where it usually lives so Pa Weevil and I can pretend to be civilised weevils and dine with table cloths and place mats and other "posh" things instead of slumming it at the kitchen table. So when I came to draw out the Sudoku puzzles of the day today (It's what I do and oddly mediative. Or maybe just odd), I was forced to use a Pilot G-2. An excellent pen of its kind, but by gum, I missed my fountain pen. The gel pen was dry, and needed pressure, and was just all round unsatisfying. I came to the conclusion I'd much rather have ink on my hands.

    But I'm also going to take a hard look at the Carbon Pen and see if there is a crack. Because FPs are fickle beasts, and if you don't love their virtues enough, then their vices will put you off.
    In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    Ballpoints are better than fountain pens for some people, but that's OK. To each his or her own. The important thing is that more and more people are exposed to an increasing number of alternatives.

    I still like fountain pens much more than ballpoints, but what do you expect from someone on a fountain pen forum?

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    At least try a rollerball

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    Default Re: Quitting fountain pens and going back to cheap ballpoint pens!

    OP: Is it me or the pen?


    FPGeeks: It’s you.


    FPGeeks: It’s never the pen.




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