What Do People Say To You When You Whip Out That Pen?

[byggyns]

The other day, in a meeting, I was asked "Is that a space pen?" I explained that it was in fact a fountain pen. The woman who asked said that her husband is a fan of using space pens and my Pilot Metropolitan looked a little like one.

[Kyburo]

Working in IT communications, I've had the unfortunate occurrence that people discussing with me something at my desk then want to draw me a diagram (great!) but they don't have a pen of course, and so without a thought they'll reach to my pen on the desk.

If (hopefully) it's not a screw cap and they do get into it, the next step is the fact that they are trying to draw geometric shapes and lines holding the pen at usually a near vertical angle, and then when it doesnt write immediately they do what you normally do with a biro, use more pressure....

 

Needless to say I luckily have for many years now ALWAYS had a biro on my desk or in my pocket to hand to people, and whilst they may initially think it's a little cheeky of me they actually end up happier as they can draw what they want as expected. Also luckily this was mainly when I was using pens like Lamy Safaris so no damage was generally done, but I sure did used to cringe each time it happened if they dove in before I had time to stop them.

Pretty bad really to think that a minority havent used a fountainpen in the last decade or longer (if ever) and don't realise the differences until they're trying to literally just draw a line. But having said that there are many things I don't know... I suppose what bothers me is mainly the fact that I feel it's in the same vein as someone asking to borrow your laptop, and then bashing the keys very hard or shaking it when it isn't working within 1 second. Surely we're not in that much of a rush we can't take a little more care with things!

[graphlology]

Had a snidey:

"Ooooooo, well aren't you Mr fancy b**locks!"

when I whipped mine out this morning.

 

I said:

 

"Nope, actually I'm Mr inky b**locks most days actually."

 

*silence*

 

 

Most people are usually curious and interested to be honest. I certainly don't see them in use very often in many day to day circles over here in the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

[maybeso]

An engineer I work with saw me using one of my fp's yesterday at a meeting.

 

He called me an architect. Which I'm not.

[Dj Shift]

I keep getting people who pick up my pen off my desk at school and try using it but none of them ever notice it's a screw cap so they try yanking it until i yell to unscrew it.

 

And today one of my friends asked to use it to write the rest of his warm-up paper so i said okay and handed it to him with the cap off. He proceeded to write with the nib upside down to write his paper but i just went with it and let him do that since oddly it seemed to be working quite well for him and not only that, it also got the ink flowing in a vacuumatic for the rest of the period without even loosening the back. And smoothed out the flow somehow too (not that it was really messed up in the first place but it's better now).

[GTOZack]

only 4 people i know that commented on my pen, two of which was an engineering dept director, he commented 'geez this is FANCY PEN, does it squirt like Henry Jones Senior's pen huh' I immediately knew what he meant.

 

time, I drew a presentation 'blueprint' for food on the plate. someone said " how did that line become wide, then thin, so elegantly" I showed the pen.

 

 

most of time, everyday no one bats an eye about the pens, But one day some woman was bragging about 1,000 bucks cowboy boots and such, I quipped that I'd rather spend 1000 on a fountain pen, she called me crazy

 

takes 1 to know 1

[maus930]

The most common comment i get is "Do they still make ink?"

[RiverWalker]

At work (not a real highbrow bunch to begin with, to be honest.) one of the guys has a penchant for calling me ben franklin, (various factors.. the most recent additional thing being the fountain pens)

one guy at some point was kinda like "you think you're all fancy with your weird pen don't you?" or something like that, then thought I was using a regular pen, ... but then saw it was the plain-er of the pens I carry at work.

another time when I was just starting, someone asked to borrow a pen. I handed him a platinum preppy and warned him it wasn't just a regular pen. ... and he tried to write with it sideways or upside down or something and it didn't work, and he thought he broke it or something, and gave it back, lol, I was like, you were just using it wrong.
Funny thing is the truck driver who was nearby recognized it as a fountain pen and was amused that he didn't know how to write with it. week or two later saw the driver again and he asked about it, and I was like "yeah, he just didn't know how to use it"

[SujiCorp12345]

Usually I get something along the lines of "Woah, how old is that pen?" or "They still make those?".

[GUNGA GALUNGA]

It just depends on who I whip it out in front of.

[Sasha Royale]

Children point and giggle, until parents make them stop. Men pretend not to notice. Some women gasp and swoon. Others,

make comments of contempt, but I suspect it is merely pens envy.

 

(Thank for setting up this one for me.)

[richardandtracy]

Haven't had any recent comments, but it does remind me of an occasion I was in my 2CV driving around a car park and I heard a little boy say to his mother 'That's a silly car.' So I stopped, flapped up the window and said very seriously to him 'It's not a silly car, and you've hurt her feelings'. It was funny, though, to see the tide of red wash up the mum's neck & cover her face. As we drove off, the car has a misfire on one cylinder and it sounded as if she blew a raspberry at the boy as the car's rear drew level with him.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Dj Shift]

Haven't had any recent comments, but it does remind me of an occasion I was in my 2CV driving around a car park and I heard a little boy say to his mother 'That's a silly car.' So I stopped, flapped up the window and said very seriously to him 'It's not a silly car, and you've hurt her feelings'. It was funny, though, to see the tide of red wash up the mum's neck & cover her face. As we drove off, the car has a misfire on one cylinder and it sounded as if she blew a raspberry at the boy as the car's rear drew level with him.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

I love the 2CV's! One of my favorite cars under $50,000 for sure.

[Valkydon]

I live in a relatively small town in Texas. I go into the local convenience store recently, and the very nice gentlemen who owns it and works there, and who I believe may originally be from Pakistan (he is about 60 years old), looked at me and said "That is a very nice fountain pen. A Parker 51."

That is a rare occurrence

 

Also had a person at the local Barnes & Noble correctly identify a Parker Vacumatic Maxima in my pocket, but to be fair, he said he was a pen collector from out of town.

 

Had one occasion when a person just whipped the fountain pen out of my pocket without asking and starting yanking on the cap (it had threads), because they wanted to write me a note, and I was so surprised I could not get any words out of my mouth for a about three seconds.

[Ecriveur]

People rarely see me using fountain pens since most of the time that I'm using them I'm at work and there aren't that many people near my office.

 

When people do see me using them, the typical reaction is that they say nothing. Perhaps they are rendered speechless by the beauty of my Visconti Van Gogh or (less likely) my TWSBI 580.

 

I am confident that no one will ever say that it is a posh pen, because this is the USA and no American would use the word "posh," even if we've all heard enough Brits over the years to know what it means.

[wspohn]

Nothing.

 

Who notices fountain pens?

[GTOZack]

I live in a relatively small town in Texas. I go into the local convenience store recently, and the very nice gentlemen who owns it and works there, and who I believe may originally be from Pakistan (he is about 60 years old), looked at me and said "That is a very nice fountain pen. A Parker 51."

That is a rare occurrence

 

Also had a person at the local Barnes & Noble correctly identify a Parker Vacumatic Maxima in my pocket, but to be fair, he said he was a pen collector from out of town.

 

Had one occasion when a person just whipped the fountain pen out of my pocket without asking and starting yanking on the cap (it had threads), because they wanted to write me a note, and I was so surprised I could not get any words out of my mouth for a about three seconds.

 

 

a gas attendant whom is a Pakistani man had cross FP anyone in different professions can use FP, so it looks like the demography plays a role sometimes. major group of ppl i notice that uses FP alot is the chinese my co worker used FP, and they do share similar passion because they need that variation to draw the lines

[aalmcc4]

I have to say, I truly cannot imagine how anyone could possibly confuse a fountain pen for a knife or a weapon. Wow. Are fountain pens that foreign to some folks?

 

Anyway, I really only got one comment from my secretary once when I was using my Lamy Al-Star. She asked if it was a Ben Franklin pen and laughed. No one else really notices.

 

Admittedly, I like understated pens. No bling here. Just not my thing. The most "blingy" pen I have is a black Namiki Falcon w/ gold trim & nib. At work I usually take along a hooded nib pen such as my Lamy 2000 or one of my Parker 51s. The 2000 & 51 are my favorite "everyday user" pens, with my Parker 61 trailing. Only one person has ever made a comment when I used them.

 

I was standing outside of a court room, furiously writing something with one of my Parker 51s and the lawyer standing next to me (who is about 60 years old) looks over my shoudler and says "Hey, that's a Parker 51. Where did you find one of those nowadays? They were the best pens ever made." I looked up and smiled a big toothy grin.

[GUNGA GALUNGA]

Children point and giggle, until parents make them stop. Men pretend not to notice. Some women gasp and swoon. Others,

make comments of contempt, but I suspect it is merely pens envy.

 

(Thank for setting up this one for me.)

Is that a bulk filler in your pocket?

[lynxcat]

i too am baffled by people who mistake fountain pens for knives or weapons. haven't they ever seen a decent knife?