Ball point pen vs FP

[jjaberg]

I write alot at work - notes, memos, signatures on forms, etc. Using a fountain pen makes the act of writing in and of itself a rewarding activity rather than an endless drudgery that has to be endured.

 

I am continually impressed by the seemingly infinite variety and individuality that characterizes fountain pen use. A favorite pen, a favorite brand of pen, a particular shape or size of nib, a brand or color of ink, and so forth. Can you imagine someone answering the question: "What disposable ballpoint pen are you using today?"

 

Fountain pens are a welcome counterbalance to the disposable mindset of our era. I love the idea that a pen that is 50 years old is a favorite for everyday use. If you give it attention and care it can remain fully functional for a long time. A great metaphor for life.

[dval]

The fact the FP requires no pressure has saved my hand whilst taking notes. I used to write quite lightly with a BP, but now I can get a nice, dark line without straining my hands.

 

I have never found a BP with an ink nearly as beautiful as Pelikan BB. During all my life I've complained that blue BP are way too violet, but that ink for me is just perfect. My classmates also like me writing with an FP, not only because they can photocopy my notes with good results, but also it always calls their attention...

 

And if I almost don't listen to music composed after 1950 and attend Traditional Mass, using FPs to get three old-fashioned-customs is just natural...

[bigstick]

I am a FP user primarily because it was my first pen in school. We weren't allow ballpoints at all until junior high school. Once in college, I went back to fountain pens and started my pursuit of the 'one true pen'. This has led to a small collection, although I am not a collector per se. I have mostly users and a couple of fixers, but no 'for display only' or safe deposit box queens.

[memphislawyer]

I am going to be the odd duck. Yes, I prefer the beauty of the FP ink on a page, both its shading and vibrancy. But I take sporadic use of a pen. Bank deposits, quick notes on files, or telephone messages or quick notes in a trial, and I dont have time to always want to unscrew a cap. Writing is not a strong point and I don't write a lot of deposition notes - I mean, if they are going to be typed up, I will highlight, and if not, then I will make notes of only the most important things said, and if they are that important, I am going to get it typed up. Same with trial work. When I had a FP, I could go two months without having to refill a pen but mostly I could go an easy three weeks. BP is more practical for me. Not as pretty (I am still trying to find the perfect refill) by any stretch of the imagination.

[Aeltar]

My handwriting was absolutely terrible before getting a FP. Now it's almost readable!

 

The selection of ink colors and the fiddling necessary with FPs make them very appealing to me. I can get the perfect ink color - and chances are I can get it in a sample size, thanks to Brian!

 

I'm right-handed, but I write with a leftie stance and letter forming. FPs are very comfortable to me, whereas with a BP/RB my hand would start cramping after only a sentence or two.

[Jwolf24601]

To save money & trash, got tired of buying Uni-Ball Signo's for $2 each. I have to use blue ink at work and could never find the blue refills so had to keep buying the pens.

 

Purchasing pens on ebay for $5 I now have 2 pens that write well and 1 mediocre one. Including 2 bottles of ink I have purchased, I have spent $35 so far. It would take 35 weeks to see a savings if I stopped buying pens and ink now. But that is not likely, I believe any purchases from this point forward though are in the hobby category and don't count

[cchan]

Even before I was a fountain pen user, I had always been interested by pens and pencils. I remember having been dragged to the dance studio where my sister took lessons, and mom would always give me a few dollars a week to spend at the office supply store down the street. Perhaps it was a Freudian phallic fixation. But I liked all the different colours - my favourite pens in my late elementary school years were my Uni-ball Vision Elites in blue-black because it was just a really pretty colour and didn't look like anything that would come out of a normal ballpoint.

I was hooked on fountain pens as soon as I pulled the Forest Green Parker 45 out of my grandfather's pen cup when I was in seventh grade. Not only did it feel like a quality writing instrument, but it was a beautiful shape, and Grandpa said I could have the pen if I could find refills for it, which I did (Quink washable blue cartridges) at the local Office Depot. As soon as I inked the pen, I knew I was hooked. I was a left-handed overwriter at the time (now I'm an ambisinistrous underwriter) and it could keep up with my scribblings and still dry fast enough on Mead and Top Flight notebook paper that I didn't smear like I did with those horrendous Eraser-Mates our English teacher made us use. I lost it, found it again in the ninth grade, lost it again, and finally found it in my voice teacher's pen cup in tenth or eleventh grade. I maintain that that pen and I were fated to be together, since I found it after having lost it for over a year.

In my early time of using fountain pens, I just used the Quink blue and black cartridges. My eyes were not opened to the array of ink possibilities. Then I ordered a piston-filling FP from China (an absolute PoS I might add) and needed a bottle. I chose Waterman Purple because I like purple and it was pretty cheap shipped. Then I discovered eBay and FPN over this past summer and it's all been down hill from there.

 

That rambling aside, I use fountain pens for the pleasing feel of having a well constructed writing instrument in my hand instead of something cheap and plastic-feeling. I also love the way the nib glides across the paper instead of leaving an embossed texture on the other side like a ballpoint or rollerball does. Those two reasons kind of go hand in hand but one just as important is the variety of ink available. There are so many colours that are just not available at all with a rollerball or a ballpoint.

It's also a hobby for me. I don't play piano anymore, and I never had good enough eyesight or coordination to play sports, so I need something to occupy my time. And sometimes taking care of my FPs feels like taking care of pets.

[sjchun79]

A dry, scratchy nib FP may be par to a decent BP, but with a smooth nib and good flow, no contest.

[stonezebra]

I love using a fountain pen because:

 

- of the way it feels (and sometimes sounds), the pen nib moving across the paper

- of the beauty of the pens themselves and all the colors of ink

- it's a form of rebellion against the overwhelming nature of current technology, cell phones and email particularly

- as a connection to the past and its people

- of all the line variations that possible

- it makes me feel rather grand when I write with a FP (in a day-dreamy kind of way)

Edited June 22, 2010 by stonezebra

[The Royal Pen]

I use them for better handwriting, because I can just write easier with it than with that of a ball point. I also like the nibs, and the barrels, and the ink selections.

[caliken]

I agree with all the usual reasons for preferring FPs to ballpoints i.e. skipping, pressure required etc. but my main reason for never writing with ballpoints is because the are constructed in such a way, that they only work properly if held at too upright an angle to the paper. This contradicts my normal hand position and is uncomfortable - also my writing deteriorates badly.

[Grateful]

I've used fountain pens for twenty years because I can write as long as I like without my wrist aching (the drag of a ballpoint on paper, along with the smaller barrel that causes me to adopt a very cramped hold, results in pains after 10 minutes of writing).

 

But then I found FPN and discovered that there were so many other reasons to use fountain pens, not least of which is the endless choice of inks.

[nxn96]

I use a fountain pen simply because I prefer how they write versus a ballpoint. That being said, the more modern ballpoints, gel pens, can be pretty nice and seem to be a "split the difference" between the classic ballpoint and more tempermental rollerballs (i.e., sort of leaky and don't last too long); but they still don't compare to a well-tuned fountain pen. Personally, I carry a Parker "51" for my own needs and a good ballpoint (typically a 45 Flighter) with a nice writing refill, in case my wife or one of the children is in need of a pen. They've all been conditioned not to "pocket" father's pen....

[LisaN]

No one will borrow your pen.

[kathleen]

Stonezebra said,

"I love using a fountain pen because:

 

- of the way it feels (and sometimes sounds), the pen nib moving across the paper

- of the beauty of the pens themselves and all the colors of ink

- it's a form of rebellion against the overwhelming nature of current technology, cell phones and email particularly

- as a connection to the past and its people

- of all the line variations that possible

- it makes me feel rather grand when I write with a FP (in a day-dreamy kind of way) "

DITTO all the above reasons and I could not have said it any better; in fact I have not known how to articulate that last one, the feeling it gives me, stonezebra articulated it perfectly. I hope she doesn't mind someone riding on her coat tails (comments).

Edited July 17, 2010 by kathleen

[Bisquitlips]

To me the best reason to use a FP over a BP is that a fountain pen just simply makes writing fun!

 

Even the most mundane daily writing becomes interesting.

[J0rdan]

I used to think fountain pen owners were crazy, for a while I was really into ballpoints, gels, rollerballs, the $3-5 pen scene. I spent more money on those pens than I did on one fountain pen and have had more use from that fountain pen than all of them, most of which have since been lost.

 

Because our pens are legitimately better to write with.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I had a sterling silver Parker -75 that sat prisoner in my wife's jewelry box for 30 years.

There were some, inherited pens that sat in the back of a drawer for 15 years...sat for years before that too.

They were to be sold at the flea market. Needed a price, went looking.

A couple were very pretty, one was valuable.

Ran out and bought some ink the next day.

Didn't know anything.Bought some pretty pens inside a low budget.

Slowly learned....I wanted more than low budget pens.

Ran into a semi-flex nib, and a shading ink.

Color of the ink, line variation, flex of the nib, having all the the nib widths.

 

I still have a BP on my desk for when I want to write something quickly, click and I'm writing.

Most of the time I have the time to unscrew a fountain pen, or pull off the cap as may be.

 

Even found a couple of magic pens, ones that make my hand writing readable to me....even finally going to learn to write.

 

Not for standing out or status. Collecting, no one knows who cares but folks here on the com.

All I need now is a top of the line Snorkel or Touchdown with a semi flex or flexible nib. I would like to have a nice Soennecken, because of the nip, and the name.

 

I'm almost set with the nibs, I might need in semi-flex a "50's OBB, and do need a BB and a EF, in semi-flex. After that, I'm set.

I have a wet noodle that needs re-tipping, a medium flex nib and three lesser than medium flex but more than semi-flex. I have a small selection of dip pens, a few with flexible nibs.

 

Then it's repair pens, buy ink and paper...and learn to write.

 

Two years ago, had some one said, you are going to collect fountain pens and let your selections of Single Malts evaporate with out replacement. I'd known him for a real funny and died laughing.

[kiavonne]

I will preface my answers with the fact that I have been fascinated from day one (eh, the first day I picked up a pencil or crayon) with writing and with all its associated parafernalia: paper, pens, pencils, markers, stationery, seals and embellishments, even envelopes - and color. I had to have every color of those tiny mini pens when they first came out in the 60's, I had to have every color of Flair marker in the 70's. Every color of colored pencil and even art pastels. If I could make an expression of myself on paper, I had to have it. I still have to have a ton of stationery and embellishments and color - enough to fill a small store, but the writing tool of my choice now is the fountain pen.

 

My excuses:

 

- Ease of writing

- The fascination of seeing ink flow onto the paper

- Color!

- Improving my handwriting

- Slowing down to think through my thoughts and the joy of putting them to paper

- Romaniticism in bygone eras

- Simple function, I don't have to call IT to figure out why my pen won't boot after their latest patch - I just refill with ink

- Arthritis, no heavy pressure and I could get rid of the death grip and calluses, no more serious indentations in my fingers from a furious bout of writing

- Cost and economics and being "green" with ink and refillable pens

- Total variety

- Permanence

- Status in reverse almost, as I dare to snicker at the "power" pens of the top-of-the-food-chain executives. I'm terrible, I admit it. But my fountain pens fulfill the promises made by their ballpoints and rollerballs - in permanent and archival ink.

 

The truth:

 

All of the above plays a part, but the simple truth is that I like fountain pens and I enjoy using them. I can come up with many, many excuses. I just plain like them. And a side note regarding cost/economics/green: The fascination with writing is still there and the "gotta have" side of me is still rampant. I may not be tossing hundreds of sticks and non-refillables into the landfills, now, but there is nothing truly economical about having to have pens and ink and stationery and embellishments in every size, color, and price range that I probably will never be able to use all of in my lifetime. I just plain like them. Woe be to the person who must go through my desk and closets at the time of my demise.

 

I have just one request to Nathan/Noodler's Ink: You gave us an inexpensive, readily available piston fill fp, now please develop a better highlighter pen than the converted preppy for me to purchase (too many oopsies with those converted eyedropper preppy pens) and give me even more colors of Noodler's highlighting ink to put in them.

 

I am not an addict...

[khymeera]

I actually use a FP for several reasons like ink selection, handwriting, and just the feeling of ink gliding over paper. However, the biggest factor was ergonomics. I used to use a lot of pressure to write, especially with a ballpoint pen. Then two years ago, I noticed my wrist getting a little stiff when I'm using the computer, drawing, or writing for a long time. I'm only 20 and I'm already having problems...not a good sign. After a little research I decided to try out FPs. What a HUGE difference it made! I no long have to press hard to write and now I enjoy writing! My penmanship has improved as well and I'm just happier all around