How old are fountain pen enthusiasts?

[AndyH]

56 here, soon to be 57.

 

Was introduced to FPs as a kid, when BPs/biros were rare and expensive. Returned to FPs more than thirty years ago, although I have always maintained the Sheaffers that belonged to my mom and dad.

 

My 29 and 30 year old sons are mildly interested in my growing addiction, but I think only the younger one will eventually take it up on the same terms that I have embraced it.

[susibilia]

I'm sixteen, and I started using fountain pens in November. There were several factors in the conversion - I've always loved pens of all times, and the idea of having virtually unlimited colors has always appealed to me, and I've wanted a fountain pen since I was about 10. When the callous on my writing hand cracked open from overuse, I had to order a pen. It's still there, but smaller now. I really just needed to adopt a pen that is more friendly towards my hands - I handwrite between 10-25 pages each day.

 

In these eight months or so, I've converted four other sophomores to fountain pens, and am working on a fifth.

[fixedgearhead]

I was taught by the Catholic Nuns at St. Annes Grade School, on Queen Anne Hill, in Seattle Washington, back in the 1940's. There the saintly Nuns, instilled the finer arts of penmanship with the aid of a metal edged ruler which was applied across the knuckles of the boys who failed to adhere to the stated rules, of penmanship, previously mentioned. This was long before the advent of child endangerment restraints in the teaching profession, and litigation by parents. The Sweet Young Sister who taught the finer rules of the Palmer method, was often seen using the aforementioned ruler across my knuckles, and it is a wonder that I still came to love and use fountain pens. I am sure she has gone on to her just reward and probably now resides in that curious place called Purgatory, where she is waiting out the time doing penance for her rather medieval approach to education. I believe she was Torquemada's illegitimate daughter.

 

John

[encre]

Fountain pens are sexy and will get you admiring glances from the opposite sex, that alone is a good enough reason to kneel at the illustrious Waterman altar and pledge your life to ink.

 

Oh, and I am in my mid twenties!

[penmanila]

i'm 55--old enough to have used FPs as a kid, which is what i still feel like when i'm running after them

[aircraft_electrician]

I'm 3 weeks from my 34th birthday. I've always liked pens. I remember when I was a child being at my grandparents' house and going through my grandfather's pens. He had coffee cans full of pens, mostly ballpoints. When I did come across the occasional fountain pen in one of his fountain pens, I was usually disappointed because it didn't write.

 

My next fountain pen experience was as a teenager when my grandmother gave me the Sheaffer school pen that my dad used in high school. I was intrigued by it, but it wrote horribly, only because I didn't know enough to clean out the 30 year old dried ink. I wish I could find that pen now.

 

After that, I became hooked on fountain pens when I saw a Phileas gift set in a stationary store and convinced my mom to buy it for me.

 

It's been downhill ever since.

[irishteamer]

46... I had a Cross FP in high school but thought it was a clumpy writer and got rid of it. I got another Cross in the past year and absolutely love it. Stumbled onto the FPN and became totally hooked!

[mana]

33 here. I come from a family of artists and creative/artistically inclined people so pens of all sorts have been around with me since my birth.

 

To be honest fountain pens had been more of a thing for my older brother (seven years senior). He had used them and rOtring rapidographs on and off since 80s and I remember getting ink on my fingers more than a time or two as a child when I and my younger brother went and tested them.

 

Of course being the big boys we were (8 & 9) we wanted to fill this one stainless steel Parker fp (a cartridge filler btw...) all by ourselves... with rotring ink meant for technical pens... ouch... that didn't go too well and my fingers were black for a loooong time, also got ink on my favourite shirt in that process.

 

During my adolescent years I got to try all sorts of dip pens and even quill pens. My mother was one of the founding members of a local childrens art school. I of course attended it 'till I was 16. She still teaches there btw. Off to retirement in a few years.

 

In high school and later when I was studying product design I used rOtring rapidographs (and isographs), still have a set of them lying around somewhere.

 

I had been given a few fountain pens before as gifts but they really didn't click with me. Their nibs needed some adjustment and the ink that was available wasn't quite right, finding ink for them was also a bit of a bother etc. I mean I wrote with them and everything but the experience was less than satisfactory, it just wasn't me, there and then.

 

It took me a while until I realized the desire within me for a better writing experience, improved hand writing and also came to the realization that I might actually be able to acquire certain design objects (namely the rOtring 600 series fountain pens) through the internet. I had been longing for them almost ten years, ever since I bought the 600 series mechanical pencils while in school.

 

So it all sort of gelled together more seriously earlier this year when

1) I bought the first fountain pen (rOtring 600) for myself and

2) in that process found FPN!

 

This forum and the people here have been immensely helpful both as sources of information and enablers. How was it, knowledge increaseth sorrow or somesuch? So thanks for that!

 

And now, after a relatively short time, I already have 12 fountain pens and desire more pens, inks and other things that the more modern among us consider complete anachronisms (like proper stationery, letterpressed calling cards etc.).

 

I have a feeling that this journey is only beginning and I will enjoy every moment of it...

[ianmedium]

I am 45 years old and have been using fountain pens almost exclusively since the age of 8, I find it hard to write with ball points not that I have anything against them. It is just that if I do write with one my writing looks like a spider has steppend in an ink well and had a bad case of st vitus dance!

[Augustine]

I'm currently 30, & will turn 31 this year.

 

I started using a fountain pen in elementary school. Not because I had to but because I wanted to. I saw one and liked it so my mom bought it for me. I have an uncle that has always used fountain pens. I use to like sneaking into his office and grabbing one of his lever fill pens to write with.

 

I used a fountain pen, and sometimes a dip pen, on and off through school. After I graduated high school I didn't use another fountain pen for a while. I used mostly mechanical pencils in college and when not using a mechanical pencil I used a Pilot V5. I lost my fountain pen at some point, and just a couple of years ago a coworker gave me a cheap fountain pen because she thought it 'looked like me'. That pen broke after a couple of months and I always thought it wrote too wide. But I had decided that I wanted to get me another one so I bought a charcoal Lamy Safari and shortly after that a Pelikan M200. Now in the past year I've added several Hero fountain pens to 'play around with', a Parker 51, a Pelikan M600 & M400, a Bexley Simplicity, a Lamy Vista & Orange Safari, a Cross Verve and a Rotring Core. And now I want more!

 

I was talking to the uncle I mentioned above recently and he was telling me how much he loved his old lever fill pens and a Shaffer snorkel he had but that the sacs had gone bad and he asked someone locally if he could have them replaced. Unfortunately who ever he asked told him that sacs are no longer made and that he couldn't get his old pens repaired: he threw all his old pens in the trash. He looked very upset when I told him that they could have been repaired.

[D.C. in PA]

58.

I do not recall fountain pens from school - at least not required by school.

I picked up my first FP when in high school - a Sheaffer school cartridge pen, red clear barrel. Still have it.

The attraction was probably that it was anachronistic, having seen FPs use by my parents at home, earlier.

The interest was relatively mild as college, jobs, grad school, and life-in-general occupied attention.

Then, one day in May, 2005, I walked into a news & magazine shop in town and saw Stylus Magazine on the shelf. FP stories and all those adds and connections in the back!

If you look up the term 'slippery slope' in the dictionary you will see my picture, taken in that store, on that day.

Glorious!

D.C.

[JeanMichelF]

I'm 59 but I managed to contaminate my 7 years old grand-daughter Clara. Every time she visits me, she tries a different pen from my collection (she's very fond of my various Wahl Dorics and Parker Duofold and vacs...) and afterwards, we read together in pen books the part dedicated to the pen she just used. I must admit that her writing is already much better than mine. She also loves filling the pen from the bottle of ink...Aie...

JM

[lapis]

Okay, you asked for it (just kidding)...

... I'm not gonna quit smoking and drinking a lot, nor will I refrain from s*x because if I do, I'll be punished by getting to be 100 years old.

 

Mike

[hoangngbao]

Hi everyone,

I'm 37 years old now. I had to use ink dipping pen when I was in first grade in Asia up to about age 8. Then from 9 -14 years old I was using Hero fountain pen because it was actually cheaper than ballpen. Then I settled in the U.S. and went through highschool, a long journey through colleges (I did 4 bachelors in college) with those gruelling ball pens. Recently, a co-worker introduced me to the Pilot Precise V5 (I saw them at Walmart and thought they were expensive, not because I was cheap but because of the fact that I have to throw it away and I thought that is wasteful). Then I recalled the childhood memory of the fp and stumbled upon the Waterman Phileas on the Internet and decided to give it a try. $50 for the Phileas was expensive to me back just a few months ago and to my Mom and wife, I ought not to have more than one pen because they think I also have 3 or 4 of everything I get into. I was very surpised about how smooth and lovely the Phileas was. Then I started ordering more expensive Waterman: the Charleston and 4 of these Carenes. I like gold nib as they are more durable if one happen to deal with acidic ink.

Yesterday I did something unthinkable: ordering a Waterman Edson and a Waterman Exception GT Day and Night at the same time (about 25% discount for a total of about 1.2K). I could have used that fund to buy a decent dSLR camera. I have 2 nice dslr cameras already and one bad thing about awesome cameras is that unless one is a pro photographer, people mostly use them occasionally, for me only when I go travelling, and the act of travelling itself to me does not make money and on the other hand cost usually a lot money. With fountain pens, I get to carry 5 to work everyday with 5 different inks of my choice to MAKE money (and yes choice is the spice of life for me too). I feel tremendously confident when I carry those fountain pens because if you have seen the movie Hero (starring Jet Li) calligraphy is analogous to swordmanship. Therefore I think that when we write we are actually practicing Kungfu lessons or performing one (think about how we practiced doing math, chemistry homework or even wrote an essay). I think a really nice pen to a sudent or proffessional today is nothing different than a valuable weapon to the ancient swordman (Of course more expensive pen does not mean the gold nib will be more durable than a less expensive one also with gold nib, but at least you can get another nib, just like swordmen have to sharpen their sword too).

Recently at work, due to the shorthandness of manpower as the result of the poor state of the economy, I have to take the job of almost equilavent to 2 workers which put me under a tremedous amount of stress as I fall behind in work by the hour. I felt I need a very powerful pen (remember the sword analogy?) that I can wield. That's how I ended up ordering these expensive pens. There were swords if you read about the ancient time, that can cut through armor, I don't know if I will feel that way with the Edson (it's still in the mail) but I'm sure it will boost my confidence enough for me to better handle the amount of work and stress I'm going through (I'm a manufacturing engineer). (I'd say these would be my most expensive pen ever, that's it, no more, serious!).

I had a little bit of buyer remorse after I hit the BUY button but it was quickly subsided. I've never been into jewelry, this time I also want to use them as jewelry, and like someone was saying in this thread: fp carries "a good mix of aesthetics, quality, and practicality", I can't agree more. What is the probability that I will be able to wear 5 rings to work without having people thinking that I'm crazy, but with a 4-pen pocket and my shirt button I can proudly carry 5 fps without any problem as they serve different purposes with different inks (I put the pen pocket in my trouser so it's even less conspicuous compare to putting it in the shirt pocket).

Lastly I think fp make one look sharper and more professional and this would help one's career in general, especially during this period of recession where you don't know when the next rif (reduction in force) is going to come.

Have fun and enjoy your fps today everyone!

 

BH

Edited June 13, 2009 by hoangngbao

[Michael W]

50 here but it gives me great hope to see all the young members here!!

[captaintom]

I just turned 66.

 

I learned to write using a dip pen. Ball point pens were just

being introduced but were outlawed in my school. Waterman pens

seemed to be the favored brand.I don't think I used a ball point until

8th grade.

 

Have always liked writing with a fountain pen - seems natural to me.

My handwriting is not the best so I switched to printing - others needed to

understand my writing. I can print as fast as I can write.

Trouble is I have been writing less and less. More is done on the computer.

It's getting so that even short notes make me pause.

 

I am not a collector but have been very surprised at the quality of very

inexpensive pens that come from China. I am also just starting to understand inks

and all their variables. Been fun learning and I have learned a lot from this site.

 

Capt Tom

[OtterNZ]

20. First used a fountain pen 5 or so years ago, but only regularly started using one in the last few months.

[DaleR]

42, and most of my fountain pens are older than I am!

 

Dale

[sexauerw]

I'm amazed and quite pleased by then number of younger people here. I count only six who are older than my 63 years and 124 who are younger, 75 of whom are under age 44. Like most of the others in my age group I used fountain pens in school when I was a kid, Sheaffer cartridge pens in my case. Probably 98 cents in a blister pack with a couple of cartridges at the Rexall Pharmacy. By the end of high school I had switched to ballpoints and didn't go back to fountain pens until the mid 1990s. I started using my Dad's Targa and decided I needed my own so I conned my wife into getting me a Levenger-Sheaffer Seas (Mediterranean) fountain pen and I have seldom touched a ballpoint since.

Edited June 13, 2009 by sexauerw

[dogpoet]

I was actually forced to use fountain pens in school. I'd assume this has put everybody else of my vintage in that dump off using a fountain pen if the can avoid it.