Felt Tip Pens

[Odysseus]

Does anyone remember the coming of the felt tip pens, in the Sixties?

 

 

[welch]

Yes. I tried the Papermate Flair as a cheap replacement for a fountain pen. One of the Japanese companies (Pilot?) also offered one. The Sanford Expresso "fiber tip" (mid-70's?) had a better feel.

[jar]

Horrid things. The Sheaffer Tektor IIRC and Glidewriter. Nasty.

[RLTodd]

I remember trying them in the '70's. Horrid things. Just not well thought out.

 

Later they got much better, but the first years were out of the wrapper, write a few pages, and into the garbage.

 

I recall a Parker with replaceable tips. Just as bad as the rest.

 

To me, a felt tip is buy a dozen and toss at the slightest problem.

After all these years I still haven't found one I like.

[pencils+pens]

I remember the original Flair pens mushed their tips fairly quickly. They also felt "funny" to write with.

 

I was able to pick up about eight Glidewriters on eBay. They were dirt cheap and only one was used, which might tell you something. I only inked the used one. It was fairly smooth, at least compared to the Flairs I remember. The Glidewriters take standard Sheaffer cartridges but if you mush the tip no replacements are available. I haven't decided whether to keep or sell them.

[balson]

i picked up a Flair pen with leather trim and a weird metal overlay with an early vac fill parker 51 at a yard sale. i have been curious about it ever since i found it but i have not found much information on them. this one appears to have a refillable cartridge. as you would expect the xylene in it is long gone.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5WpbJKNem4A/UjtG5d-Tn2I/AAAAAAAAAp0/rrVkeMPwn0k/s1600/FlairfeltTipPen.jpg

[DavyJones]

I'm a big fan of Papermate Flairs, I used to use green ones exclusively in college (only 4 years ago).

[SteveE]

I work with someone who uses only green Flair pens. At least we know who wrote the note.

[Odysseus]

i picked up a Flair pen with leather trim and a weird metal overlay with an early vac fill parker 51 at a yard sale. i have been curious about it ever since i found it but i have not found much information on them. this one appears to have a refillable cartridge. as you would expect the xylene in it is long gone.

 

 

The overlay on a felt tip pen is really odd; it belongs to another age..

[cellmatrix]

Does anyone remember the coming of the felt tip pens, in the Sixties?

 

 

Yes it would be interesting to know when they were first introduced and by whom. Just from a historical perspective. I agree they are not the best writers in the world.

[aicle]

I'm a big fan of Papermate Flairs, I used to use green ones exclusively in college (only 4 years ago).

 

I did too! 2 years ago for me though :-)

[pencils+pens]

Yes it would be interesting to know when they were first introduced and by whom. Just from a historical perspective. I agree they are not the best writers in the world.

 

You asked for it, Wikipedia has it:

 

"In the 1960s, the fibre or felt-tipped pen was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo Stationery Company, Japan. Papermate's Flair was among the first felt-tip pens to hit the U.S. market in the 1960s, and it has been the leader ever since."

 

Felt tipped markers are a bit older, from another Wikipedia entry:

 

"Lee Newman patented a felt-tipped marking pen in 1910.^"

[Synthy Pelikan]

http://www.pentel.eu/pdfs/1st_series_manga_august_07.pdf

 

I carry a Pentel Sign Pen when out and about: they're cheap, versatile and rugged.

[dogpoet]

I was a bit annoyed when Papermate stopped doing the white ultrafine flairs (nylons over here) recently. For my money both that and the fat tipped flair are design classics, but then I really like felt tips, and think it's a shame that none of the pen manufacturers make posh refillable ones anymore. I'm currently using a Waterman rollerball with fibre tip cartridges in it, but those have been discontinued now, so I'm going to be out of luck finding more at some point.

 

Looking at the posts above, I suspect that my own liking for felt tips is a generational thing. I was born in the early '70s, and remember drawing with coloured felt tips just as much as crayons or coloured pencils as a child. I didn't have any bad experiences with early lemons that didn't work very well, so I don't have the issues some in this thread have with felt tips as a result.

[cellmatrix]

 

You asked for it, Wikipedia has it:

 

"In the 1960s, the fibre or felt-tipped pen was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo Stationery Company, Japan.Papermate's Flair was among the first felt-tip pens to hit the U.S. market in the 1960s, and it has been the leader ever since."

 

Felt tipped markers are a bit older, from another Wikipedia entry:

 

"Lee Newman patented a felt-tipped marking pen in 1910.^"

Hey thanks!

[SteveE]

The earliest felt-tips I remember were refillable ones used in the mailroom where I worked (in the mid 1960's). I thought they were Speedball brand, but could have been another. They were cylindrical-shaped, with no taper at either end. IIRC, made of brushed stainless steel, and were thoroughly bullet-proof. If they could withstand the dropping, tossing and general hard use of a commercial company's mailroom, they must have been tough. Ink came in only two colors -- black and a nasty blue, and it was extremely PERMANENT. Once on your hands, only the cleaning solvent used on the offset printing presses would take the ink off. Far worse than all the old oil and grease from the old cars we had in high school.

[lalindsay225]

I taught school briefly in the mid-90s, and I used green Flairs for grading papers (red was and still is discouraged). Digging around in an old bag from back then, I came across a couple of these pens, and they still write! None had been used since 1995.

[Luma]

Pentel Sign pen for quick sketches.

[Sasha Royale]

Right after I sat on, and destroyed a Parker 45 (the second one, I think), I bought a "Flair" to finish the school week, until I could buy another Parker 45. After a few hours of class notes, the fiber tip wore

to a "wad". It was like writing with a Q-tip. I switched to one of my old T-ball Jotters for the rest of the

week.

 

Thanks for reminding me of the old pain.

[welch]

Right after I sat on, and destroyed a Parker 45 (the second one, I think), I bought a "Flair" to finish the school week, until I could buy another Parker 45. After a few hours of class notes, the fiber tip wore

to a "wad". It was like writing with a Q-tip. I switched to one of my old T-ball Jotters for the rest of the

week.

 

Thanks for reminding me of the old pain.

 

 

Yes! That was the feel: like writing with a q-tip. The fiber-tipped pens were better.

Edited September 30, 2013 by welch