first fountain pen (uh oh)
Submitted by supenguin on Wed, 2007-08-08 03:34.
Well, I've gone and done it. Today I bought my first fountain pen. I've read so many people talking about how great they are and decided to see what the big deal was. Staples had a 3 pack of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens - black, blue and purple. Disposable fountain pens? That sounds so wrong.
I think it works out to around $2 a pen. These are most definitely the best $2 pens I've used. I like how smooth they are when you write, but after having used ball point and gel pens for so long, this is definitely different. I'll use them for a while and then decide if I want a better fountain pen or just stick with my G2's.
-Kenny
Resistance is futile
You will want a better pen. Welcome to the collective.
better pen
to quote the JediGamer
Resistance is futile. Welcome to the collective.
Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Inky Finger
I have a Pilot Varsity (other pens, too)
I feel they are a great beginner's pen that will give you a chance to get the feel of a fountain pen. BTW, you can refill them if you really want to.
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
more pens
Great choice! I haven't tried those, but looked upon them with wonder at such an affordable option.
Definitely play around a while, then take a look at some of the Llamy and Pilot pens - there's a Pilot Knight that's a fantastic value for the money, and Llamy has some great ones as well (don't have one, but they write well enough, and are very durable).
I'm using a Libelle, which has a nice German-made (don't know the manufacturer) steel point that writes beautifully. It's what I take notes with at work, write letters with to friends, compose grocery lists, etc.
Things to remember:
- don't keep it in a pants pocket.
- always carry it point upward.
- there are obscenely many ink colors and types to play with. Have fun.
- it isn't a ball-point pen, and may require some drying time before you can rub your fingers all over what you've just written.
- your handwriting will improve as you gain experience. I've been writing with mine for almost two years now, and my scrawl is, sometimes, almost a pleasure to read - even by other people.
questions about fp's
Thanks for those pointers. Carrying a fountain pen in your pants pocket sure would be messy. I've got rather used to waiting for my ink to dry a little bit. The Pilot G2 gel pens do need a bit of time to dry.
There are two things that I haven't been able to get used to with these fountain pens. I usually leave the pens laying on my desk. When I use them the first time in the day, I often have to scribble a bit to get the ink going. Is there any way around this? It is a problem the G2's don't seem to have.
Also, is it safe to keep in the pen loop of my planner? I just don't want it leaking all over.
I do love the way writing with these feels once the ink gets going.
-Kenny
Cap on?
Kenny,
When you say you leave your pen on your desk - is the cap on or off? The ink will dry a bit on the nib if you leave the cap off. I've had a Pilot Varsity for years (purple, naturally ;) ) that writes instantly no matter how long it's been sitting around - but - I always keep the cap on until I'm going to write.
The Pilot Varsitys (Varsities?) are very nice pens for the money, imo. If you do want to, uh, graduate to a bit nicer pen, then I can heartily recommend Lamy Safaris or Al-Stars. I have several of those and they all write smooth, if a bit dry, right from the start.
If you have some smooth writing paper, it's doubly wonderful to write with a fountain pen. Very little strain on your wrist/arm because there's so little resistance. Love my fountain pens!
cap is on
I do have the cap on. I've forgotten it once or twice, but it still has issues sometimes even with the cap on. I have paid attention and I think it may have something to do with the paper I'm writing on. It works great on the Levenger or Rollabind paper, but on the cheapest I could find printer paper or composition book, it has issues.
-Kenny
Carrying a pen in your pants
Carrying a pen in your pants pocket can be done (I always do if carrying in a pocket--women's shirts don't generally have pockets), but there is one piece of advice I"d give you: if it's a screw-on cap, don't clip it to your pocket, just put it in there. Otherwise it WILL unscrew itself in your pocket.
I found this out the hard way. Only once was it (almost) the very hard way: I put my pen in the pocket of my cargo pants. Later I noticed my leg felt damp and checked the pen, and it had done just that. It was an eyedropper filler, too, so lots of ink...and about half of it had leached into my pants.
Luckily they were black pants so no harm done, though my leg looked a bit funny for a while!
Welcome to the Club
The Inky Thigh CLub is the ELite Inner Circle of the Inky Fingers Club.
:D
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
Another Inky One
I learned the hard way that the clip-on cap on the Phileas was not so solid.
I had a brand new, ivory-color raw silk suit with a long skirt. I clipped the pen to a cargo-style pocket on the jacket and went on to a very important meeting. I walked out of the meeting (quite satisfied with the outcome) and my colleague looked at me very strangely. He pointed to my pocket. There was the biggest stain of Waterman blue-black you've ever imagined there. It went through and also stained the skirt.
Not even Amodex could do anything for my brand new suit. :(
So, indeed: never clip a pen to a pocket.
Lamy Fountain Pens
I am a pen freak, too. It really is a crazy thing having so many and I rotate among them depending on whim and function. I have a Lamy and just re-discovered it last week. I love it. It is light, very easy to write with. I even ordered two more (more exciting yellow than the boring grey one I have now and a clear one). The long nib feels different from other pens. One of my other favorites is a Cross fountain pen. I don't know why certain pens work better than others. However, when I graduate with my MLS in January, my DH is giving me a Mont Blanc....not so much for the writing feel, but the cachet. It is will be my first grown-up fountain pen. Back tot topic---I recommend Lamys but it is all so personal.
Lamy pens
I love the extra-fine nib. It makes my handwriting look so much nicer... I have a Vista, but I want to get a Studio because it's a nicer-looking pen with the same nib.
--
Steff
[ blog | photos ]
Welcome to the club (or madhouse)
I posted a picture of my FP yesterday on my blog.
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"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy." -- Steve Jobs
Fountain Pens
I bought the Pilot Varsity pens last summer and loved them and lost all 3 when we moved to our new house. I could not remember the name of the pens to save my life. I went to the a office supply store and asked for disposable fountain pens and they looked at me like I was crazy. Thanks for helping me remember. I am going to go to Staples over the weekend to buy more. I hope you enjoy yours.
Refillable disposable FPs
About a year ago I stumbled across a blog post on how to refill a Pilot Varsity. Seemed fairly straightforward, if I recall. Might be a nice to keep using them. Anyone remember seeing that?
Cheers,
rf
You love to bait me, don't'cha ?
Google is your friend
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)
You can check out my post
You can check out my post about this from about a year ago. I have done this to my Varsity Pens a couple of times and it works pretty good.
http://www.merlinstower.com/2006/07/02/how-to-refill-a-pilot...
-=-=-DA
www.PghGroup.com
Phileas
Hey Digital Angel,
After seeing your picture on flickr, I just got the Phileas black at Office Depot. It was $37 in their cheaper pen section rack. This pen is hard to find now a days. I had been meaning to get it a year ago. I'm a big waterman fan. I think it was one of the first fancy pen I bought was a waterman. I lost it and can find that style anymore. I have an Expert too.
Duc Ly
Phileas is a winner
One of my first modern fountain pens was a Waterman Phileas. It has a steel nib that is a smooth reliable writer and takes either long international cartridges or bottled ink with the included converter. When Swisher Pens was selling them at clearance, they were available for only $22. Hard to beat. Look a lot more expensive than they cost.
I concentrate mostly on vintage pens nowadays, but still take a Phileas on business travel where I need a pen with cartridges that can hold a lot of ink and if lost, won't cause a heart attack. :-)
I also found the Cross Solo (discontinued) fountain pen to be excellent, reliable writers. Bought some at a clearance sale at a Franklin-Covey store for $10-15. What a deal.
Walter
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The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
B. Banzai?
cross in the cross hair
Yes ... lately I'm looking at the Cross line of fountain pens too.
Duc Ly
yep, you all said it would happen...
I'm really liking the feel of writing with the fountain pen, although I'm still getting the hang of which way to turn it to get a different width of line. I've got a couple minor complaints about them but I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with fountain pens when possible, and when it's not - I've got my G2's for that :-)
First off, the thickness. The lines these pens makes seems to be really wide even though the they have an "M" symbol on them which I'd guess means Medium? I've did some looking around online and officedepot.com has Pilot Varsity pens in extra-fine, 0.4mm according to their site. Unfortunately I don't know how wide the ones I got from Staples are, they don't list the width on their website.
The other problem is color. I got so used to the system I had going - goals and long term stuff in blue, note completed tasks or answered questions in red text or red checkboxes, and everything else in black. Well, I don't have a red fountain pen yet and the blue is so dark that unless you're in bright light, it looks almost black to me.
I've found out that on Amazon.com and Pilot's website they sell a 7 color variety pack that includes red, pink (which my wife would love) and turquoise. Now if you could mix about 1/2 that turquoise with half the blue, you'd probably get about the right shade of blue for my liking. They also don't list how wide the pens are. One funny thing - when I looked earlier Amazon had the dimensions and weight of the 7 color pack listed as 7,500 pounds! That would be a lot of pens!
One more issue I have - this may just be me pushing too hard, but it seems that no matter what kind of paper I write on, I can see some of the writing on one side of the paper on the other side of the paper. It doesn't bleed through, but I can see the writing on the other side. This happens with anything thinner than cardstock, including the 60 pound Levenger paper. Is this just something I'll have to put up with using fountain pens?
Any way to find a place locally that sells Pilot Varsity pens? If I can just get a red one now, I'll be happy until I have some cash and time to find out what kind of fountain pen would be really good for me.
-Kenny
It's possible your pen is a
It's possible your pen is a really wet writer? Also, the broader the nib, the wetter as well. It also depends on the ink, as some write more wet than others. As far as darkness...again, the wetter the pen writes, the darker it'll look, of course.
Try checking out a site like Pendemonium (pendemonium.com) or Swisher Pens (swisherpens.com) (note that these are just the first two that came to mind because I've visited recently; I don't recommend them above anyone else for any reason other than that) and see their ink selection. I'm thinking especially look at brands like Herbin and Noodler's, which have such big selections of different colors that you could easily go broke! I'm certain you'd be able to find the exact right shade of blue and such!
(and, of course, with more colors you'll have to get more fountain pens, darn. May I recommend Esterbrooks in colors to match the ink? :) )
For pen sizes, people communities like Pentrace (pentrace.net/mboard.htm) will be able to give you an idea of sizes.
the pen is red, no blue!
It seems like the Pilot Varsity pens put out quite a lot of ink. Also, one of the reviews of them I read said the black ink in these pens is some of the blackest ink you will find.
That being said, I've been given a couple Extra-Fine width Chinese fountain pens and about 1/2 a bottle of maroon ink from Swisher pens. The pens are great, but I didn't like the color. I found out that Paradise Pen Company has a store in a nearby mall. They care inks from Waterman, Monte Blanc, Noodlers and a few others. I picked up a 2 oz bottle of Waterman "South Sea Blue" for $8. I also gave them my mailing address. They swear they won't send me junk mail but they do send new customers a $10 gift certificate.
One thing that was nice - my wife and I went in there wearing shorts and T-shirts and probably didn't look like the type of people who would walk in there and actually buy something. Some places probably would've just ignored us until we asked for help. They provided top-notch customer service as soon as we walked in the door.
My wife has her eyes on a nice purple fountain pen that was in there for $35 and some hot pink ink!
I'll probably end up buying some more pens so I can switch colors without cleaning out the pens. That was a pain in the neck!
-Kenny
For a very black ink, I've
For a very black ink, I've seen Parker Quink and Aurora black inks recommended. I use black Quink myself and like it, plus it's even available at some Staples/Office Maxes/Office Depots. It's what I'd call a blue-ish black ink, rather than a red-ish black (if you were to dilute it with water, it'd come out looking like a steel gray or Payne's gray rather than having a reddish cast like I've noticed some inks--Sheaffer black, for example--having).
The other thing I like about Quink is that it doesn't seem TOO water-soluble. I've not done extensive water tests, but gave it a go once and it seemed the black washed away but left a lovely, still-readable blue. This was with soaking it, though--obviously if whatever you were writing got caught in the rain you might just have a mess of water spots.
Medium nibs
Most people like us (who want to write small/on small paper) feel medium nibs are too wide. Unfortunately all the standard cheaper fountain pens (under 50 and/or sold at office supply stores) come in medium. You might try an Esterbrook (as suggested by someone here) since you can buy replacement points that simply screw out and come in some very needle fine options. Another alternative is to buy an older Parker 51. They also come with needle fine nibs and write smoother than most. European/Asian pens run smaller than the US nib sizes. If you buy a Namiki VP with a fine nib it will be more like a US XF nib. The finer nibs won't bleed as much (show thru paper) but some can seem to score the paper if you press hard.
Personally I like the XF/Needle fine nibs myself for daily use and then the other extreme of a nice italic for fun stuff with a flair. All vintage other than my Namiki VP.
Hope this helps.... regards, Carla (creator of the pens 101 site)
I am downright obsessed with
I am downright obsessed with Esterbrooks, so I'll recommend them any day. :)
But, I mean, come on, they're a great pen...get one of the J series for about $35, they hold up great, pretty but not "gaudy" colors, etc. What's not to love?
what makes Esterbrook pens so great?
I've seen multiple people on this site say that Esterbrooks and Parker 51's are both great pens. Two questions about both of them - what makes them so wonderful? And also where can you buy them? I was under the impression that neither of these pens are made any more.
-Kenny
Esterbrooks, that I know of,
Esterbrooks, that I know of, are no longer made.
Parker 51s were brought back in production a few years ago but you can find used ones for much cheaper I'm sure (although I'm no parker fan).
I LOVE Esties. I have a few back home and I truly miss them, I'll take them back with me next time I visit my parents. They are cheap pens but they really work hard. I especially like that you can change the nibs (they are screw-on units) to accommodate your mood, without having to empty the ink bladder etc. They are truly workhorses, and beautiful in their own way. I prefer function over form, but I find both pleasing in these pens.
Both are not made anymore,
Both are not made anymore, but you can easily find either used (the new 51s are not the same, I hear).
I never really got into Parker 51s, but Esterbrooks are great (I like the J series: it comes in 3 sizes of varying lengths and widths). They come in many colors (but not really gaudy stuff like multicolored swirls or anything), they're just generally pleasing to look at in general, you can get one for about $35 at the most, you can buy a number of different nibs and just screw them in and out as you please, and they're sturdy--the example I usually pull it is that most vintage lever-fillers tend to warp at the lever, but Esterbrooks never do...they're just a workhorse.
Parker 51 Options
Parker 51's are no longer made, but you can grab a Hero Pen (either their 616 or 100) are very close clones. I'm not into cheap chinese knock offs normally, but since the 51's are no longer made, I can't justify paying $50 or more for a used pen (even if it is 'vintage') when another, less expensive and not a rip off option.
Done gone and did it
Well, yesterday, I finally broke down, and bought a "real" fountain pen (I had bought a 75 cent cartridge pen a few months ago). I had heard about Quink inks drying fast, which is good for my left-handedness, so I did a dumb thing on Wednesday, and bought a small box of Parker carts--which did not, I discovered, fit in my pen. So yesterday, while out with my wife at our local mall, I broke down, and bought a cheapo Parker to use with my cartridges. ;-) Then, today, while at an antique market, I found a really cheap, older fountain pen. It's a no-name brand that I can see. It's a bladder pen, with a little spot to squeeze in, to create the vacuum to fill the pen. If I get a chance, I'll post a pic or two on Flickr, to see if anybody recognizes it. It's weird--but cheap--and an opportunity to try different bottled inks, without 1. breaking the bank, and 2. worrying about destroying a pen. :-)
However, the nice part is this. I need to fill out applications for our residency cards --six of them--11 pages each! I have _always_ dreaded doing this in the past, because my hand gets so cramped, from squeezing the pen while pressing hard on the ballpoint. Well, I'm using my Parker tonight, and realized that not only was it not bothering me, but it was almost (but not quite) enjoyable, and it didn't hurt at all! Gotta love fountain pens for that reason alone! ;-)
Now, to find a genuinely good pen. I think, though, I shall let my family get me that one for Christmas. I'll just guide them. It's tough, though, as fountain pens are way too plenteous here, but I don't see many of the names mentioned her--just Waterman, Cross, Parker and MB.
I guess I drank the kool aid/ink, too?
"Hi. My name's Jon--and I'm a FP-oholic...
-Jon