Fountain pen, someone?

[Dan]

The only one I want a copy of besides those, is a NOS Rotring 600, old style, black. I just haven't felt like laying down that much cash yet.

Yes to that desire and yes to what's holding you back!

 

[agentlossing]

I've still never found a good super flexible extra fine point pen. I used Zebra nibs for a while but those are a pain since they wear out and then have to be changed.

I think that's what happened with my extra fine Kaweco nib as well, but if I only need to change it every 2 years or so, I'm okay with that.

 

[titrisol]

How so? I am not familiar with fountain pens very much, though I’ve used inexpensive ones. I’m fairly familiar with the Citroën DS 21 and 19, so this remark intrigues me.

Reading this whole thread, there is sometimes a certain embarrassment or apology for the perceived “Luddite” nature of using these pens. On the contrary, just as with mechanical watches, film cameras, or even manual transmissions, the appeal of using these devices is that they give the user a sense of involvement, engagement, and the appreciation of craftsmanship.

My favorite pen for daily use is the ubiquitous PILOT G - 2 07.

Parker 51 sold millions and millions of units! It used to be the world's best selling pen (still made under several brands in India and China)
A workhorse of a pen, one of the first with a fully hooded nib, prevents frying of the ink, rarely leaks and doesn't break (in contrast to the Citroens )
It was launched in the 1930s, and I believe one was used by Douglas McArthur to sign the japanese surrender

I appreciate its usefulness, but didn't really like the aesthetics, preferring the 45 over it.
However I recently inherited one from my father in law and it is a nice pen.

Parker Penography: PARKER 51

www.parkerpens.net

PS Both Eisenhower and McArthur used the Parker 51 !

Mightier Than the Sword: The Parker Pens That Ended World War II | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur were men with very different personalities and yet both used the same brand of pen for the surrender documents in 1945. Each pen represents their owners’ personalities.

www.nationalww2museum.org

 

[Cyriljay]

Actually this is off the topic , but it is relatively fitting to the writing ink pens and art. I am on to fountain pens and writing and this another aspect of the art of writing. I love all of my vintage and antique writing instruments. They are precious little things !!

 

[Henry]

My wife recently procured a J. Herbin glass dip pen (not unlike these). It's a lovely writing implement.

 

[telenous]

I hardly write with anything other than f.p.'s. I have three English leverfillers from the 30's in black chased rubber and semi-flexible nibs that are just outstanding writers. Nothing comes close to the writing experience they give. Pelikan pens from the 50's are usually hard nib writers but they have the best ink flow I've come across, probably because of the Ebonite feed. A simple Pelikan 140 from that period is one of my favourite pens. I give it any kind of ink and it just starts every single time. Parker 51s are terrific writers too, I am just less keen to use them with permanent inks because of the possible deterioration of the pli-glass sac.

 

[Cyriljay]

I have a collection of Onoto de la rue pens / Vintage and antique waterman and Swan Mabie Tods pens they are some of the best English collectable pens. I have few Sheaffer pens too and. I love to have pelican 140 and 50's pens but they are the only ones I am missing. I have two modern Pelikan that is 120 and a 120 vintage. Both pens are special One is having a 14K but the unique ness in the style pen is it is very soft flex nib . I only like EXF nibs and don't like M or BB nibs . I have them on my vintage pens as they are only collectible and just came with them. So they are not favourite pens. Also I have some Japanese modern pens and the are all have EX -F nibs . great writers.

I am also collecting mechanical pencils vintage and Antiques. That is again a big fun using pencils. I use them a lot.

 

[Mauro]

I own and regularly use different fountain pens: I still own the Pelikan fountain pen used by my dad many decades ago, unfortunately the piston fillin system cannot be fixed

 

[hap]

I use a Pelikan fountain pen. Somewhere in my office is a Parker 51.

 

[agentlossing]

I have a couple of blue Parker Jotters as well, I need to find and clean them out.

 

[JayOC]

My first good fountain pen was my Mont Blanc govern to me 35 years ago for my first Father’s Day. I later bought a Parker and Montegrappa. Both of which I have managed to los

 

[dourbalistar]

I think that's what happened with my extra fine Kaweco nib as well, but if I only need to change it every 2 years or so, I'm okay with that.

I used this Platinum Fountain Pen Cleaning Kit on my EF Kaweco nib, and I think it helped flush out old dried ink residue. After a good cleaning, the nib was back to smooth operation.

 

[agentlossing]

I used this Platinum Fountain Pen Cleaning Kit on my EF Kaweco nib, and I think it helped flush out old dried ink residue. After a good cleaning, the nib was back to smooth operation.

I write at a weird angle due to being left-handed, our writing is very much designed for right-handers. So my nib is nearly always on the paper kind of on its side. I think with enough writing (and I use it kind of a lot) the nib deforms a bit. That's just a theory.

 

[JayOC]

I write at a weird angle due to being left-handed, our writing is very much designed for right-handers. So my nib is nearly always on the paper kind of on its side. I think with enough writing (and I use it kind of a lot) the nib deforms a bit. That's just a theory.

I too am left handed. It takes a while but we eventually polish the nib to the way we write. I have found that writing with the pen becomes smoother the more I use it.

 

[agentlossing]

It may only happen with the extra fine steel nib from Kaweco. Or, there was another issue I couldn't solve with normal disassembly, cleaning and reassembly. But I was able to replace the whole nib and feed components for about $19, so it was not much of an issue. We will see how version 2 goes.

 

[Cyriljay]

A part of my Vintage and Antique pen collection in My waterman pen folder.
I don't count my pens and they are everywhere.

 

[telenous]

@Cyriljay So that's where all the pre-war English f.p.s have gone. 😁

 

[James Evidon]

Mont Blanc Diplomat, purchased in Paris before the Euro when the Franc was 8:1 against the dollar. It was approximately $150 US. It was very tough to break in, but I still use it often and it is a wonderful instrument.

 

[Richard G]

I am reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. Fascinating series of vignettes about notebooks. This led to me looking through a few of mine no longer current. I found one of my early university notebooks. The writing was neat and even and small and very legible. I took out the Parker 51 my mother bought me one afternoon after school, the pen in question, and unlike my last attempt to resurrect it I soaked the nib in a glass of water overnight. Now I can achieve small and neatish again. A work in progress.

 

[Bolo Kukus]

My favorite pen of a long lifetime (mine, not the pen's) is a Mont Blanc Noblesse from the 1980s, burgundy red with a 14K fine nib, which I found in a charity shop in Melbourne ten years ago for $5. The volunteer who sold it to me said she thought it was a cheapie from China. Good on her! (Here I have to say I didn't realize it was an 'original' MB until I got it home and looked closely at it.) It's a classic and worth a fair bit, but more importantly it's the best writer I've owned - I have about 50 in my collection box, so this is most definitely an "informed" comment, at least for me.

For reasons obvious the Mont Blanc rarely leaves home. A few years ago I was using it on a train in Indonesia, when I had finished writing my travel notes I put it in my travel pack but it fell out to the floor. A very kind lady in the seat across from me pointed this out to me. I owe that lovely woman a great deal, the loss of this pen would have devastated me.

Now and then I make a valiant effort to use several of my other pens but the Mont Blanc is by far my favorite. Currently on my desk as I write this is a fairly new Parker something or other (the box bears no information as to its "lineage" and I've not been able to trace it on any of the several pen web sites I occasionally check) I picked up in a charity shop in Springwood, New South Wales, last year for $8. It was a retirement gift to a lady named Emma R and is inscribed with her name, which obviously reduces its value to a collector but not to a user/writer.

My second favorite is a classic, a Parker 51 finished in rolled gold, dating to the 1960s, given to me as part of a set (pen and pencil) by a close friend (sadly long deceased) in Sydney in 1980. I've used it a few times but it occupies a place of honor in my collection box as whenever I take it out it triggers many happy memories of our friendship. I rarely use this pen, at most once a year, but it's a good writer.

the '00s saw a revival in FP usage. Many of my friends use them. They have mostly Parkers, Shaeffers or Kawecos and say the Liliputs are fine pens but fiddly to write with. I own three in their classic metal tins with all the accessories, but I have to say I've not really taken to them. Too small for my hand, maybe.

I have a few very old pens including two unusual Art Deco ones I picked up in Europe in the 1980s. At that time ('80s and '90s) fountain pens were being dumped by the zillions in favor of the newer fine-liners which everyone seemed to want to use, even we did in my architectural office in the '90s as they were, as they say, "cheap and cheerful", never leaked, were very fine-lined and once emptied could be thrown away (in the recycling bin) and new ones bought for about $1 each. I'm now retired and I have no idea if these pens are still in popular use or not. I'm now more into environmental issues and I try to no longer use anything that gets thrown out after its use-by, not that I'm particularly successful at this but we do have to try and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to take out a bottle of Lamy ink and fill up an empty fountain pen - which sort of takes me back to the 1950s when I was a grade school kid and had two highly valued pens, cheapies of their time (probably Sheaffers) which invariably leaked blue ink and stained my shirt pockets...

I never did take to 'biros' (ballpoint pens) when they first appeared in eastern Canada (ca 1959) as I found them difficult to write with. For me a fountain pen is more easily held and I can make good letters and fine lines with one. So for me the die was cast - or the ink, as it were.