Most Durable Fountain Pen?

[Andrew H]

So in the laptop world, if you want a durable laptop, one that you could drop from two stories up and afterward, still have a functioning device, you get a Thinkpad.

 

Is there an equivalent fountain pen?

Does there exist a nigh-indestructible fountain pen that I could shoot out of a cannon into the ocean and then fish it out and use it to write a congratulatory letter to the manufacturer on how awesome it is?

 

Tangent: how durable are Parkers? I'm especially curious about experiences with 51s and Frontiers.

 

Andrew

[deifiic]

My vote goes to the Lamy 2000. See https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/92073-the-lamy-2000-experiment/.

 

The Lamy Safari is extremely durable, as well.

[Pickwick]

Yes, here is one to meet your category a Regal made in Taiwan. Very good writer, and I'm looking for two more so I can attach flights for a game of darts!

[Lalique]

Aloha, Andrew:

 

The fountain pens that best met U.S. military regulations for proscribed length and top military shirt pocket protrusion and that were the most sylish with a specially designed "military clip" were Sheaffer's Lifetime Balance Valiant, a full-length, standard-girth pen and slimmer Lifetime Vigilant that was about 15% less costly than the Valiant. Those pens were used by U. S. soldiers in the field during WWII.

Edited June 12, 2012 by Lalique

[Joe in Seattle]

My Lamy 2000 has several " mishap" divots but functions beautifully and barely shows the damage.

[Andrew H]

My vote goes to the Lamy 2000. See https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/92073-the-lamy-2000-experiment/.

 

The Lamy Safari is extremely durable, as well.

Cool link! Poor Lamy 2000 though. :blink:

 

 

Yes, here is one to meet your category a Regal made in Taiwan. Very good writer, and I'm looking for two more so I can attach flights for a game of darts!

Consider scaling down your image size please. Internet bandwidth is expensive for me! Edited June 12, 2012 by Andrew H

[Andrew H]

Aloha, Andrew:

 

The fountain pens that best met U.S. military regulations for proscribed length and top military shirt pocket protrusion and that were the most sylish with a specially designed "military clip" were Sheaffer's Lifetime Valiant, a full-length, standard-girth pen and slimmer Lifetime Vigilant that was about 15% less costly than the Valiant. Those pens were used by U. S. soldiers in the field during WWII.

Wow. That's intense.

 

 

My Lamy 2000 has several " mishap" divots but functions beautifully and barely shows the damage.

Another +1 for the Lamy 2000.

Btw, is that an Eyrie in your display picture?

Edited June 12, 2012 by Andrew H

[kkshadow]

I had a Parker 45 Flighter in college that survived a drop from my shirt pocket down the center of a stairwell from the 3rd floor to the concrete on the ground floor. The cap went flying and the end of the pen took a dent, but no ink was lost, and the pen continued to write as if nothing had happened. For several years, until it disappeared when I was a grad student.

 

I was (and still am) impressed.

[hanryy]

Rotring 600?

[Lalique]

During WWII, General Dwight David Eisenhower carried a Parker 51.

[Andrew H]

Are 51s more or less durable/scratch resistant/etc. than your "typical" FP?

Same question for the Frontier.

[Korybas]

When I think about "durable" , one pen comes to my mind: Visconti Homo Sapiens.

 

It has survived drops from my pocket, my bag and off the desk. In addition my, former, girlfriend tossed it out of the window of her car while speeding with 70mph - she thought it would hurt me if my HS was damaged. To her dismay, nothing but a little abrasion on the pen, writes beautifully as ever. The only problem if that when the pen is dropped the magnetic Visconti logo on the top of the cap falls off, but I found it and it sticks back on the cap.

 

Last year I read a thread here on the FPN of a FPNer deliberately dropping his HS down a ten story stairwell... You can read about it here... Not a scratch on the pen and that was it, if I remember correctly..

 

If this is not durable, I don't know what is!

 

 

[Edited for typos]

Edited June 12, 2012 by Korybas

[emiliovillegas]

I think the Schrade tactical pen could be a candidate fot this. I don't own one ... yet, but I have seen many reviews praising this pen. You should check it out.

Cheers

[Korybas]

As of the Aero Parker 51:

 

Parker 51 is a very durable pen in the sense of the filling mechanism and the nib. But I believe that the barrel will scratch and the cap will ding or dent if the pen is dropped from a height.

[estie1948]

My vote goes, of course, to the Esterbrook J. I have one that spent at least twenty plus years in the glove box of 1949 Chevy hay truck. My uncle got the truck from a grocery delivery company in the 1950s and the pen was in the glove box then. He used the truck for several years to deliver feed. Later when he went into the hay hauling business, he made the truck into a flatbed and used it. I spent more summers in the 1960s than I care to remember on the back of that truck bouncing around hayfields and lumbering down rutted roads into dusty barns. The whole time, that black Esterbrook J was bouncing about in the dusty glove box of that truck. The truck with the fountain pen in its glove box spent the 1970s rusting into the ground behind my uncle's barn. On a lucky Saturday while walking about on the barnyard once more before my uncle put his farm up for sale, I happened to sit in that old hay truck. Rummaging about, I opened the glove box and found the Esterbrook J along with a pair of wire pliers and some bits of bailing wire. My uncle said I could have the pen, the pliers, and the wire. I just took the pen. I replaced the sac, the j-bar, and the nib (the nib I replaced by choice, the original nib was fine and is now in another Esterbrook). It is a great daily writer and, I would add, a durable fountain pen.

 

-David.

[Bo Bo Olson]

There are thick heavy metal clunkers that you can use as a spare axle for your skate board too.

 

Many eventually get into the light and nimble pens...that can be broken.

Buy a pen pouch.

Shirts with pockets help too. One can have some one sew the shirt pocket so it is a pen pocket, that way the pen can't fall out if you are not on the monkey bars.

 

There are tough lacquer covered solid brass steel sectioned Chinese pens that are cheap and reliable, also.

 

My suggestion is if you are going to be using a heavy metal pen, learn to write with it resting in the pocket of the web of your hand.

 

Look up the thread 'Death Grip' in advanced search. In that thread there is a 'Classic Tripod' variant called 'forefinger up'.

I think that method of grasping a fountain pen would do well for heavy pens. It rests in your web of your thumb so you don't have to fight the weight, and develop the dreaded 'Crab Pinch Syndrome'.

[gizmoe]

I woud think that a Pilot Vanishing Point would be pretty durable. It's mostly metal. If you don't mind the limited ink supply, I would go with the Decimo model and save a little weight.

[Mags]

I use all my pens. The steel nibs are finicky pens in general.

 

My Mozart MB with a steel barrel is small and sturdy. It would take a beating but I prefer it all purdy and nice

 

The Shaeffer Targas are very durable even moisture friendly when using the gold nib.

 

I think all fountain pens would fail to write after the Bic javelin test where the pen is the javelin point and after a throw is used to write.

[richardandtracy]

Stainless steel finish pens get my vote - like the cheapest Sonnet.

Then pens with a metal section.

So how about the Kaigelu 356, which looks like a Stainless Sonnet and has a metal section?

 

The TWSBI is durable enough to drop 1.2m on a solid floor, as is the Lamy Vista/Safari.

 

The Parker 51 is durable enough to survive the same treatment as the owner, so if dropping 10 floors down a stair well is the sort of thing you'd fail to survive, is it reasonable to ask it of your pen?

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[WayTooManyHobbies]

My Rotring Initial (steel barrel) is almost frightening in its solidity. A friend's plastic barrel model is much less imposing.

 

However, my most durable pen is probably my Kaweco Liliput. The anodized aluminum is very tough, and the pen weighs so little that a drop really doesn't faze it at all. The cap screws on securely, and there's no clip to be damaged. It's a cartridge filler only, so no integral filling system to be damaged by impact.

 

My normal-use Parker 51 demi seems quite robust, but I really don't want to mistreat a 50-some year old pen.