fountain pen taboos - don't enter if you're easily offended

[sombrueil]

I am a Santa Cruz hippie . . . or at least I used to be in the 1970's and I still live in the vicinity . . . and I do not care one way or the other about Mont Blancs (and even when I was a hippie I had no aversion for hamburgers although suits were a bit weird). They are just not my kind of pen. One really great thing about FPN is how easy it is to appreciate just how many pens there are out there that you don't feel moved to buy. All things considered, that's a blessing to me.

 

Please don't be angry at me, I live in Monterey and have to rag on Santa Cruzers a little.

 

Not angry in the slightest. I live there for work not because it's my hippie dreamland. Although, now I've gotten so very far off topic, I have to say that Santa Cruz has a reputation that has long ago ceased to be particularly true (can we say this of some pen companies?). It is a tense, overcrowded overpriced bedroom community for silicon valley and the site of a large research university, and it has great beaches. The hippie factor is just a scattering of local color over those basic facts. The days of Santa Cruz being small, easy-going, funky, and innovative are long over. Would that it wasn't so.

[TSWard]

The gold clip and trim on Pelikans remind me too much of the cheap, pathetic pens you find in a doctor's office. Like these:

[Vincent1278]

I'm not sure if we're all just ranting or supposed to list our pet peeves when it comes to FP's, but here I go:

 

Sending pens to a "nib meister" for anything less than restoration or re-tipping is funny.

 

I still fail to see the big problem with metal sections.

 

I won't buy a FP if it doesn't have some sort of built-in filling system.

 

A $20 plastic rod chucked to a lathe and turned by computer becomes a $300 pen? WHAAAAAT?

[Sailor Kenshin]

Here goes my list

Chinese pens are VERY inconsistent. I would not recommend one to a noobie as I worry of discouraging one forever.

 

 

Seriously? Of all the dozens of Chinese fountain pens that have passed through my hand over the years, only two had problems.

 

I returned one for a refund (two or three years ago), and this week 'fixed' the other by the simple expedient of soaking the section and flossing the nib. Now it's a great writer at an unbeatable price and fits my hand to a tee.

 

Did you get real brand-names or knock-offs?

[Vladimir]

I don't see how any pen over £250 could ever be worth it.

 

I bet that for every pen that costs over £250; there is another that costs under £250 that is at least as good, if not better, for writing with.

[Vladimir]

I don't see how any pen over £250 could ever be worth it.

 

I bet that for every pen that costs over £250; there is another that costs under £250 that is at least as good, if not better, for writing with.

 

 

Scrap £250, the real figure in my mind is probably more like £175 or so!

[Vladimir]

this is a good thread and i almost missed it.

 

ok, here goes: I HATE montblancs, specially the 149. VIVA P"51"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

YES!

 

51s are great! Great nib, great body, not too heavy, not too light, not too bulky. Great Pen!

[Penman1964]

From a personal point of view:

 

1) I see no point collecting lots of cheap pens. Instead of owning x10 $50 pens you could get yourself one very nice pen.

 

2) I see no point in people buying multiple copies of the same pen. There are 1,000s of pens out there, no one will own them all. Why restrict the number of different pens you will own by buying duplicates of ones you already have?

 

I buy multiples of the same pen because I like to use all my different inks for note making at the same time, as I like to change colour if the topic changes (roughly every half page for me).

 

Because of this, I need about 25-30 pens operational at the same time and seeing as I like to use Safaris, Vectors, Frontiers, and 45s, I don't see the point in buying anything else for a new ink. Also, I can't afford a pen that costs over £25 and I certainly couldn't afford to buy 25 pens that cost over £25 (that's over £625). As each pen I own has cost me roughly £7 on average, that's only £175 in total.

 

In a way, I guess you could say that I collect inks, and not pens. The pens are just a vehicle for the inks.

 

This, in my mind, is a valid reason for owning many cheap pens incl duplicates.

 

Like it

[Penman1964]

The gold clip and trim on Pelikans remind me too much of the cheap, pathetic pens you find in a doctor's office. Like these:

Actually, these clips/caps remind me of my montblanc ball points!!

[rachelcarpenter]

yep - totally awesome - rflol!!!

 

 

Myth: Using fountain pens makes you special or eccentric or noteworthy.

 

 

No, no, no, using expensive fountain pens makes you special.

No, using cheap fountain pens is the noteworthy part.

Nope, using only vintage fountain pens proves your superior aesthetics and VALUES.

What? No way, the more it costs, the more special you are!

Make sure everyone notices that you're using CHEAP fountain pens! That way they'll think you're cool and not a status seeker.

Carrying Montblanc pens means you can't think for yourself.

Black is stupid and boring. Who's going to notice you're using a FOUNTAIN PEN if it's a boring black one?

And using really vibrant inks means you're fascinating. No, it does. Watch: [writes in spectacular non-black ink color] "I am fascinating." See how that works?

Hey! Notice me trying to be not noticed for using a fountain pen! Hey! Heyheyhey! I'm using a FOUNTAIN PEN! How come nobody cares that I'm using a fountain pen? No! You can't borrow it. Touch with your EYES!

Why would you spend your money on that? How come you don't think like me? How come you don't think like me? How come you don't think like me? Let me show you how to live....

 

AWESOME POST!!!

HA HA HA!!!

[Garageboy]

Where do you buy an Edison nib and feed "OFF THE SHELF".!???????!!!!!!!!.also, there is much speak of not commenting on pens that people don't own or have never used??????????

Thanks

I've written with a Edison nib at the NY Pen show. It wrote nicely, but nothing spectacular. Off the shelf as in it bears the dreaded IPG markings.

I had 4 Hero 329s. Two had bad nibs. One had a great nib, but the filler guard detached leaving the pen as a bulb filler. The 4th one had funky nib hood alignment

[rachelcarpenter]

1) I don't understand why people love Parkers. (Don't try to explain it to me.)

2) I hate pen bodies and nibs in yellow gold. (St. Dupont might be an exception)

3) I am beginning to hate Lamy. (Not decided yet)

4) I hate overwetness.

5) I hate perfectly round, slippery FP bodies.

6) I live in a country where even men of letters mostly lack FP enthusiasm, and FP sellers don't know what they sell.

7) The idea of matching the notion of fountain pen with that of letter-writing irritates me.

8) The idea of matching the notion of fountain pen with that of signing documents, attending to meetings etc. makes me really sick.

9) St. Dupont and Caran d'Ache make the best FPs on earth, so I think currently.

10) To me, FP is not a wind from the past. FP is a writing tool, a machine in the strictest sense possible.

 

to be continued...

Sounds like Canada? Where do you live?

 

["blame canada..."!]:roflmho:

 

Bibamus, moriendum est.

[rachelcarpenter]

 

 

My faves: the Plumix and Petit 1.

 

 

:ltcapd:

 

those 2 pens ROCK and even the fine nib on the plumix can be widened easily with some wiggling of metal between the tines! love those pens!!! also the platimum preppy, in certain moods.

 

and... i have a MB, regifted by a friend, and i've ALWAYS felt guilty for not liking it more. i mean - i write with these things, that's the point, and the MB just kind of sucks, no matter how many times i wash it out (the ink just starts freaking stopping, and, ironically, i have better things to spend $ on than getting it actually looked at by a pen master...)

 

NOW I AM FREE FROM GUILT!!!!!

 

:notworthy1:thank you for this thread!!!

Edited March 16, 2010 by rachelcarpenter

[lovemy51]

1) I don't understand why people love Parkers. (Don't try to explain it to me.)

is that what your psychiatrist recommeded?

[rachelcarpenter]

Back to taboo breaking:

 

People who, in a website dedicated to fountain pens, decorate their profiles with pictures of their superexpensive cars, villas or watches. It's certainly ok to have all those if one likes and can afford them; but why put them on FPN...?

What about the cat people?

 

rflol at the cat comment, cat people, and the profile pic of cat rolling on keyboard. sweet!

[Lloyd]

 

 

My faves: the Plumix and Petit 1.

 

 

 

those 2 pens ROCK and even the fine nib on the plumix can be widened easily with some wiggling of metal between the tines! love those pens!!! also the platimum preppy, in certain moods.

 

and... i have a MB, regifted by a friend, and i've ALWAYS felt guilty for not liking it more. i mean - i write with these things, that's the point, and the MB just kind of sucks, no matter how many times i wash it out (the ink just starts freaking stopping, and, ironically, i have better things to spend $ on than getting it actually looked at by a pen master...)

 

NOW I AM FREE FROM GUILT!!!!!

 

:notworthy1:thank you for this thread!!!

 

I'd be more than happy to relieve you of your horrible, horrible MB.

[rachelcarpenter]

I'd be more than happy to relieve you of your horrible, horrible MB.

 

 

 

HAH! i consider myself just holding it for my friend until his daughter is old enough to use it... and i suspect that it actually is wonderful but i just haven't found the right ink or something!!

Edited March 16, 2010 by rachelcarpenter

[colormyalphabet]

I hate lamy.

I hate cross.

I hate the parker 51.

Krones make me sick.

Waterman was good but then turned into Sheaffer

Sheaffer was good but then tried to be cool and screwed up on their nib design.

 

Pelikans the only brand that has it right.

[bushido]

people who let other people borrow their pens and encourage others to borrow theirs as well, never fully explaining that there will be a few that will completely ruin your fp if you do. in other words if you have a nice fp you want to keep forever, don't hand it over or else you'll regret it. just don't say you weren't warned.

[johnptc]

 

I love my Lamy 2000 and Pelikan M400 and Pilot Myu M90. I just don't "get" larger pens. A Pelikan M600 feels too big, let alone anything bigger or heavier.

 

Sincerely,

Hany.

 

you must not have large hands........ anything smaller than m1000 / 149 makes my hand cramp after awhile

 

pet peeve not enough man sized pens !!!

Edited March 17, 2010 by johnptc