I'm currently taking exams in school. I came prepared with a fully inked up Faber-Castell Ambition with Noodler's Black. I sit in the examination hall and look around. The person sitting in front of me is using a Bic Cristal with a sponge grip attachment. Someone across from me has a chunk of blue-tack stuck to his Bic as a grip. I chuckled internally. The F-C Ambition barely even has a grip, but after >2 straight hours of writing, my hand wasn't sore. This really shows how practical a fountain pen can really be. By the way, I finished a whole converter full of ink that day. I wrote so much that the ink got so dry I had to push ink into the feed with the converter. Faber-Castell Ambition: http://www.onlinehandel-as24.de/images/product_images/popup_images/2699_0.jpg (note the lack of a real grip) Bic Cristal: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg/640px-03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg