Hey, do you have a pen I could borrow?

[CD7]

Say "You're cute but not that cute."

[Ray-Vigo]

I keep an old spare about most of the time. Either an old Phileas FP or a Phileas RB.

[Nellie]

Um, I could not vote actually, because none of the answers applies to me. This might seem very weird, but I actually give my pens to anyone who asks. Maybe it's not a problem here because everyone knows how to use a FP? The only thing I'd do if I give somebody one of my better pens, e.g. my PFM is tell them "this is valuable, so please be careful". Some people don't like borrowing FPs, though, and will not accept them.

[Kalessin]

One of the joys of carrying the matching ballpoint to a fountain pen is that you can lend out a pen that is just as great-looking as the FP, but won't be damaged by the borrower.

 

On occasion, I've asked certain people (people I can recognize as those who might benefit from writing with an FP) if they've ever used a FP, and if they say no or "It's been a long time", then I offer a quick lesson.

 

[rbbrock]

I voted for the cringe/lend it out option, as that's what I usually do. I wanted to be able to vote for the spare ballpen option, but I usually forget to grab one when I go out, and no one ever asks in the office as there are usually several pens resting on every flat surface. However, the people that ask to borrow my pen when I'm out of the office are almost always my co-workers, who all know by now how to use a FP properly.

 

I must relate one story though. I attended a super bowl party this year at a nearby hunting lodge whose owners I am acquainted with and, as always, put my FP in my shirt pocket when I left. As usual, I forgot an el-cheapo pen for a spare. At the end of the night, a drunken woman was (loudly and slurringly) looking for a pen to write a quick note with. I simply kept my mouth shut. However, the besotted harridan spied the gleaming rhodium clip of my M805 on my shirt pocket and, without so much as a by-your-leave yanked the pen out of my pocket, unscrewed the cap, posted it so harshly I wanted to scream, and proceeded to write her note with the nib upside-down and using her left hand as the writing surface. That's right, this inebriated slattern was shakily using my beautiful pen while standing [/i]with no table over a tile floor. I wanted to yank my pen back out of her hands and unleash a tirade about manners and respecting other people's property, but discretion won out. Well, discretion and the thought that if I ever want any of the other party-goers as clients I cannot berate one of their friends publicly... Luckily, she managed not to drop my pen or damage the nib and it was returned safe and sound.

[Nihontochicken]

Well, as you shoulda known, I ALWAYS carry a BP pen in addition to one or two FPs. So there is no prob. As a FP Philistine, I must say that, given the run of usual FP friendly inks, there is the relative more permanence of an oil based BP ink. Sorry, I love how FPs write, but the residual is only a rain drip away from extinction. When I want it to perhaps appear in court a few decades from now, well, I use a ballpoint. Okay, in my best Jerry Falwell voice, "Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned."

[DavidM1]

In my experience a ham fisted borrower can do real damage. Never again.

[Marcwithac]

I usually ask whether the prospective borrower knows how to use a fountain pen, which generally discourages the person and leads him or her to ask someone else. On rare occasions, I will apologetically explain that my pen is a rare vintage fountain pen and that we are both better off if he or she borrows elsewhere.

 

Years ago, I was having dinner with a client. After offering to pick up the check, the client quickly reached across the table, pulled my pen out of my shirt pocket and pulled the cap off. Unfortunately, the pen was a 1920s oversize, woodgrain Gold Medal fountain pen with a buttery smoorth nib and - you guessed it - a threaded cap. I still shiver when I recall the sound of those cap threads cracking. Now when someone moves toward one of my vintage pens, I either body block them or slap their hand away.

[guy]

It hasn't happened to me for a while... but during the week I attended an evening seminar. A woman sat in front of me and towards the end of the session turned and asked "Can I borrow your pen".

 

To which I said, "Sorry no!". Her face showed surprise to which I further said "its a fountain pen and I don't lend it out, sorry." She then preceded to ask to borrow a pencil from someone on her own line.

 

If she had said please, I probably would've been either more polite or even considered it.

 

 

[andyk]

I always keep at least one ballpoint/rollerball just in case, but usually people realise it's a fountain pen and look for something else.

 

[Jazzbaby]

I answered "no". Sometimes with the weaselly excuse, sometimes not. People who borrow things, be they pens or anything else, are simply unprepared to deal with their day so I do not feel obligated to supply them with said missing object. Who shows up to a meeting without a pen or two anyway? I have no patience for fools & those who constantly rely on others to get them out of a jam of their own making. Yup, I know, it's definitely a failing in the sympathy department on my part, but I look at it as a life lesson for them. Be prepared; the rest of us try to be.

 

That being said, I am happy to lend a pen to someone who finds themselves with a skipping ballpoint (at least they had a pen working or not) & there are a few people I'd like to convert to FP use. To that purpose I have just ordered a couple of cheap Hero 329's at isellpens. Nice price at $4.99 so I won't mind lending a pen to a select few in the future.

[juhtolv]

Well, if we really want to promote our great hobby, writing with fountain pens or even fountain pen collecting, one way to do it is to let people try out what is like to write with fountain pen. I lend my fountain pens quite often. If needed, I give short instructions: ”It is fountain pen. Please keep that shiny side up, when you write with it. There is no need to apply very much pressure.”

 

It might be a good idea to carry some fountain pen that is good for lending. It must be cheap but good. Rigid nib is good thing to have. It must be reliable starter, because many people tend to press pen harder, if it does not start to write.

 

These pens come to my mind first:

• Lamy Safari and derivatives
• Parker Jotter
• Pelikan Pelikano
• Pelikan Steno
• Lamy abc
• Sheaffer Javelin
• Sheaffer Award
• Rotring core
• Sheaffer NoNonsense/Viewpoint
• Sheaffer School Pen

[sirgrunthos]

QUOTE (wspohn @ Dec 30 2006, 05:01 PM)

How about saying "Sure, if you'll lend me your watch...."

Have you ever noticed, though, the pen scrounger is often wearing something nasty and disposable for timekeeping?

 

I've found that a lot of people, when it fully hits them, will not want to use a fountain pen anyway. (It's also a little amazing that some don't even know what one is).

 

I'll admit to having done most of the poll options at one time or another.

 

Jerry

[Nihontochicken]

QUOTE

How about saying "Sure, if you'll lend me your watch...."

 

QUOTE

Have you ever noticed, though, the pen scrounger is often wearing something nasty and disposable for timekeeping?

 

You mean, something like this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/nihontochicken/Watch1.jpg

 

Definitely not Mont Blanc! (Do they even make watches? Well, why not?) Anyway, this fine piece of horology set me back six bucks at Wally World. It's a bit fast by a half second a day or so, but has not yet needed a battery in the three or more years I've worn it. It has survived one broken wrist, one broken ankle, and four broken ribs, plus a full body slam the left deep purple from shoulder to knee (but, inexplicably, no broken bones). Gotta be the Hero of cheap watches! While I do appreciate fine timepieces (though more old pocket watches and long case clocks than modern wrist watches), I can't imagine a much more cost-effective tool then this old, abused dog.

[Kalessin]

Mont Blanc does make watches (or at least puts their name on them). They're swiss watches, with hefty prices. All just part of the Total Mont Blanc Accessories Lifestyle!

 

[Ink Stained Wretch]

QUOTE (Nihontochicken @ Mar 6 2007, 11:08 PM)

QUOTE How about saying "Sure, if you'll lend me your watch...."   QUOTE Have you ever noticed, though, the pen scrounger is often wearing something nasty and disposable for timekeeping?   You mean, something like this? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/nihontochicken/Watch1.jpg   Definitely not Mont Blanc! Hey! Wait a minute! That looks a lot like my wristwatch! I even use 24 hour time.   And it's what I want in a wristwatch. It's what I've wanted in a wristwatch since I was a kid. I guess that I've had my watch for something on the order of 20 years now. I've had to replace batteries and bands more than once. My previous digital wristwatch, which was very similar, had an integral watch band and that got broken when I was wrestling around with my then girlfriend. I'd had that watch for seven or eight years or so by then.   QUOTE (Do they even make watches?  Well, why not?)    Anyway, this fine piece of horology set me back six bucks at Wally World.  It's a bit fast by a half second a day or so, but has not yet needed a battery in the three or more years I've worn it.  It has survived one broken wrist, one broken ankle, and four broken ribs, plus a full body slam the left deep purple from shoulder to knee (but, inexplicably, no broken bones).  Gotta be the Hero of cheap watches!  While I do appreciate fine timepieces (though more old pocket watches and long case clocks than modern wrist watches), I can't imagine a much more cost-effective tool then this old, abused dog.    I can't remember what mine cost. It was more than six bucks, and mine loses maybe thirty seconds a year. It is indeed a rugged little piece of clockage. I like that I can tell precisely what time it is in digital terms with my wristwatch. And it keeps the day and date in front of me, which is something that helps me a lot sometimes.   I combine that wristwatch with my two Kaweco Sport "metallic" fountain pens (quite rugged in their own right) and I'm ready to take on the world, if I have a yellow legal pad handy, or a notebook or something like that to write on.

[sirgrunthos]

QUOTE (Nihontochicken @ Mar 7 2007, 03:08 AM)

You mean, something like this? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/nihontochicken/Watch1.jpg

Boy, I walked into that one! Excellent riposte!

 

As attached as you are to that piece, would you fork it over as security whilst borrowing someone's pen?

 

Jerry

[Nihontochicken]

QUOTE

As attached as you are to that piece, would you fork it over as security whilst borrowing someone's pen?

 

Sure I would, and then run off with the pen! I'm not really attached to the watch, just amazed that it is still working after all the trail riding incidents it has survived (usually in better shape than me!). I have previously KOed a G-Shock and an Iron Man, yet this one keeps on ticking like the John Cameron Swayze Timex of old. Like a Hero pen, you gotta admire something that is inexpensive and works, despite lack of bling/panache/sex/whatever that marks MB and the like.

[Philly Rider]

Interestingly, I was at a conference this past week and one of the people sitting at my table commented that he noticed I was using a fountain pen. He went on to say that he was a writing instrument collector and had quite a few FP's including several Parker 51's and a Parker 45. He was writing with a Mont Blanc roller, and I with a Parker 100.

 

He very politely asked if he could use the 100. I handed it to him, he wrote a few words commented on the smooth ink flow and handed it back. This was actually the first time that I allowed someone to use one of my FP's.

 

 

[Whome]

Offer a BP to most, FP to a select few!!

 

Lesson learned:

 

I usually keep my pen in my hand while speaking and pointing to numbers.

 

During a performance review, I gave an employee my new Pelikan M215 so they could sign and date. I was in the process of explaining how to use a FP when the rep. said, “Nice pen!" (Turned the pen sideways) and tried to write with the corner of the nib!!

Noodler's Polar Black splattered all over the paper!! I turned white as I bolted forward and corrected the grip...

 

When the smoke cleared...there was no damage to the nib, pen, or employee.