...but I Always Seem To Find Myself Reaching For My....

[Cognaticrotty]

I have a nice collection of some BEAUTIFUL pens...but I always find myself reaching for my twsbi 540 stub. LOVE that one.

[jar]

The reason I have put up this thread is so that people with fancy pens can confess what they really do when no one is looking. C'mon, you know you want to get a load off your chest...let's hear you tell on yourself.

 

 

 

How about you?

 

 

I'm not sure I would be called a "collector" or more just a pack rat. I'm also not sure if any of my pens would be called "fancy pens" beyond the fact that I happen to fancy them.

 

But for the last couple weeks I've been using two pens...

 

a Graf von Faber Castell Terra Cotta Intuition:

 

(bottom pen)

 

http://www.fototime.com/40849B8FBA70B8D/medium800.jpg

 

and a Montegrappa Juliet:

 

http://www.fototime.com/3801B14340D4033/medium800.jpg

 

 

For about a month before I switched to those two I was using a Caran d'Ache Varius Metwood (on top) and a GvFC Classic Pernambuco.

 

http://www.fototime.com/C0C101565F3586C/medium800.jpg

[Sasha Royale]

You described my collection accurately, though mine is at the "poorer" end of the scale.

I try to rotate use of my pens, usually for one filling each. Regardless of the pen in rotation,

however, the one constantly in my shirt pocket, for decades, has been a Parker 45.

(Only a wooden pencil is more reliable.)

 

Stay inked.

[warblerick]

I too have quite a "collection"of fancy pens; special pens given by my spouse to mark an anniversary, birthday, Christmas, etc. I have an Aurora 85th anniversary FP that is really pretty, though a bit heavy for daily use. I have a beautiful Aurora Primavera with an italic nib that writes well, but is a bit too flashy for everyday. Until recently, my favorite and also my edc was my Aurora 88 demonstrator with gold trim, medium nib. It's a great writer and a perfect EDC. Then it had issues with ink leaking (though now I can't really recall where) so it got sent back to Italy, twice, before it came back, but it has never been the same since. Then I fell hard for modern Conway Stewarts, and though I own only 2, they are my favorites. I have a 100 series Coral Green limited edition (#12/50), and my newest (and most recent favorite edc) Belliver Poinsettia limited edition (#00/50!). Both have medium nibs, both write like butter. The Belliver is now for the most part, my EDC. Perfect balance, perfect size and weight, perfect nib for everyday.

[vickiehof]

You have described my collection except that I don't have any pens from older relatives nor do I have any Japanese pens (yet?).

 

I really don't have one favorite. That would be like only having one favorite pair of shoes. I would choose a different pen for different writing tasks. And, just like shoes, there are always some that, although beautiful, for some reason they just aren't picked first to use.

 

One of my favorites is an old black Mont Blanc Generation. I bought 2 additional nibs for it from a FPN member a few years ago. One of the nibs was just perfect IMHO and it has been my "daily carry" pen ever since.

 

On my desks at home and work I use several Esterbrook desk sets (in different colors and nibs) for quick notes, signing checks, etc.

 

Other pens that always are inked up and ready to go for letters, journals, or puzzles in the newspaper: Sheaffer Legacy II (I really like its heft, shape, and odd up-turned nib), Parker 51, Sheaffer Balance, MB 146, 149, Chopin, & Starwalker and TWSBI 540.

[georges zaslavsky]

any of my 149s or my 1923 big red or my conway stewart churchill

[XiaoMG]

What I tend to use from my collection is really not at all surprising. The best pens I have are the ones that consistently get pocket time. At least one of them is very cheap, and all my favorites are below 150usd. Everything above that has been a disappointment, whether production or custom. Custom-ground nibs have been the most disappointing, and will probably not bother with them again.

[GClef]

You are a seasoned fountain pen collector. You have a beautiful mature set of pens you have tracked down, snaffled up, and hoarded after you spied them at a flea market or on e-Bay...Though you have so many lovely pens, what do you reach for every day? Do you really use a fancy pen for daily writing?

 

The reason I have put up this thread is so that people with fancy pens can confess what they really do when no one is looking. C'mon, you know you want to get a load off your chest...let's hear you tell on yourself.

 

 

 

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/Tutuguans/0612131047-1_zpsd9fd2614.jpg

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hero 616.

 

Preppy.

 

Lamy Safari.

 

Guanleming 193. Weird little fude pen that makes my handwriting look almost cool.

 

These are my grab-n-go pens. My Sailor 1911s/Sapporo/Sapporo minis, my Waterman Carenes, all require much more thought.

[NewFPU]

Although I am not a seasoned collector, I do have a decent collection of fountain pens, according to my taste. I also have a smaller but varying collection of inks. Yet I find my favorite pen to write with daily is my Wing Sung with a fine nib (go figure) inked with Diamine Ancient Copper.

 

 

Myste

[welch]

- P51 vac, "stacked coin" cap, re-sacked by Tom Mullane, medium nib from Ernesto Soler tuned by Greg Minuskin.

 

- Backup: English P51 teal aero, generous medium nib

[Bo Bo Olson]

What nib do I want to use right now. Cost of the pen is not a factor. Some of my cheap pens I use more than more expensive ones.

 

I have a number of vintage pens 'pre'66...most are. That (outside of MB up to '75) is when German pens stopped making semi-flex (@25). The '50s and before for 'flexi'(12-13), and the thirties for easy full flex. I only have a couple of them.

 

What width? from OBB to F, seldom ever use a EF....do I want a wet or a regular or do I take out one of my dry nibs with a wetter ink?

 

I usually have 10-15 inked...more when I'm 'testing' a new ink. I find my self often using a semi-flex Geha 790 KM...a wet writing pen. Or an OBB(BBL in Osmia talk) Osmia.

 

My Pelikan 120 F is almost always in rotation, it is a joy to write with which is tied with my '90's M400.

My Geha school pen (don't know about yours) is a tad better then my 120, because I lucked into a semi-flex.

The other Geha screw in school pen nibs were regular flex, of the 'springy' '50's-mid '60's German school kid norm. They didn't fit that particular Geha school pen. I'm sure they would have written as well as my 120, in they were well matched competitors.

 

What is expensive? Living in Germany I was able to get most of my pens in the €20-30 or the 30-40 and occasional 50 range. Right now I'm using a loaner, the first Snorkel that I've touched since I held but did not write with my family's Snorkel back in the day when a Man had his fountain pen, and a woman might...and children were going to get a school pen. That Snorkel has a wonderful stub BB semi-flex....what a nib.

 

A '50's English Parker Jr. Duofold F in semi-flex. Expensive €50.

 

For pretty one of my three 'no name' stripped beautiful Clippers; rose and black or blue and black, blue X two...one of them with a 'flexi' Rupp nib, the regular nib, with a small 'Connie/Clipper' Super Constellation stamped on the nib is semi-flex. Often I only have one of them in 'rotation'. More affordable.

 

Then there is the Lamy black titanium oxide Persona with a CI nib. One of my more expensive pens at €90

 

Almost always in rotation is my #2 pen a '56 friction feed 400NN OF flexi and a MB 234 1/2 Deluxe (52-55 only) semi-flex KOB my #1 pen. They were part of a live auction lot, along with a Pelikan BP&MP from 1956. All 4 for €170...subtract the €70-80 worth for the BP&MP.'s...a very good deal. Some times Luck plays such a big factor...especially when I was so 'noobie' ignorant, I didn't know a thing about that MB234 1/2 Deluxe..why I was so ignorant I didn't know a thing about the pre'war 139 and thought it ugly...I was wrong, it's classy. With luck one expands one's tastes.

 

I got other pens that just sort of sit there...CPM-1 nail B, a 605 in BB; MB Woolf...nib is B=BB instead of B. , I made a mistake with the Woolf, in the shop on cheap paper the M was the B I was looking for, at home the M was M on better paper. I did not tell them I wanted a skinny B or a Fat M...so ended up with the 'modern' over wide B.

 

The 605 I swapped the M nib in to get a nib side enough to make a B CI or Stub....I might still get it in Stub someday. I have that Persona in a B-M Cursive Italic; so I don't need a B CI.

Use to vintage semi-flex B, OB and OBB, the modern fat and blobby Pelikan nib does nothing for me. The MB Woolf's nib is flatter (just too wide) and is the pen I reach for ahead of the 605. The structure of the nib makes a difference. For me it all comes down to what nib do I want to use now...not the brand or model actually. That is only a nib carrier.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Bo Bo Olson

[Moxoftritonytes]

I`m almost exclusively using my Sheaffer Legacy I with a broad nib. I do it because it is a fantastic fountain pen and way better than everything else I have in my collection. It is a very smooth and wet writer and you don`t get a long way with the ink sac filled but I don`t care. Pelikan and MB gold nibs do nothing for me anymore since I have the Sheaffer.

[apkayle]

I have a few pricy pens - Duofold Centennial, International, Onoto Magna Classic & the FPN Stipula Etruria.

 

The pen I reach for most often at the moment is a Kaigelu. In the week where I want nice writing it's a K316 with a home made barrel finial to replace the overweight brass one and a JoWo broad nib, and for the weekend when I need a robust pen, it's the K356 I go for.

I always carry a second pen, which will be a more fancy pen (one of the Duofolds, the Onoto or a P51/61 - but never the Stipula), but I do enjoy the Kaigelus a lot.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

I almost forgot! I ordered a Kaigelu 356 ($6 free shipping? why not?) and I love it. My pen came with slightly misaligned tines but a bit of bending fixed the issue. I find the nib to be about as smooth as a Lamy Safari nib. It will be one of my daily carry pens, not because it's a cheap pen to replace, but because it's so smooth and balanced.

[rwilsonedn]

Accumulator, not collector. I do have some moderately-expensive pens, including a 146 that I loathe. And I rotate a lot. But I do have go-to pens for some specific tasks: taking notes in meetings almost always falls to the Pilot VP because it is so good at it, and journaling is almost always, these days, a dip pen. Otherwise, the accumulation gets rotated, with preference going to whatever eBay find or refugee from time I've been able to service most recently.

ron

[requiescat]

I'm also an accumulator. The two pens I always seem to reach for are my azure Parker Vacumatic (although I need to send it out for repairs) and a black Webster Four-Star, both of which have superb nibs. The Vacumatic is just smooth; the Webster is a smooth XF with flex, although very slight line variation, just enough to be fun.

 

Probably the nicest pen I have at the moment is a vintage Conklin Crescent with a finicky wet noodle nib, but I scarcely use it. The nicest nib I have is my wet noodle Waterman 52V, but I doubt it's worth anything ever since I cracked the cap. (You are parting me from it over my dead body, however.) Great nib, but for workhorse writing (I'm a writer) I prefer one of the pens in the paragraph above.

[DrCodfish]

The big box holds about 40 pens. These are not inked. The little box holds a dozen pens, it is usually close to full and these pens are inked, they are the 'rotation'. Normally composed of what I have recently purchased, and whatever has been brought up from the big box for some ink time.

 

However, I find that slots one through three in the little box are dedicated to the following:

 

A new era Pelikan M600 with a sweet Motishaw 0.8 mm stub.

A 1950's era Pelikan tortoise M400, with a slightly wider B stub (also Motishaw).

A 1945 Parker Vacumatic (gren pearl) retipped to 0.9 mm CI, again Motishaw.

 

These three pens just dominate the sweet spot: feel good in the hand, excellent 'on the paper' characteristics (smooth, wet, good glide, good line width variation) and, each has it's own good looks.

 

Rolled together these pens reside at the intesection of all those traits that keep me coming back to the blank page.

[richardandtracy]

...Wing Sung with a fine nib (go figure) inked with Diamine Ancient Copper.

 

 

Myste

I'm using the Ancient Copper in my K316. An amazing ink, occasionally black, other times it's brownish, then sometimes almost orange and once in a while it looks reddish. Very strange & extremely nice to use,particularly with a B nib.

 

Richard.

[yolrgrand]

What nib do I want to use right now. Cost of the pen is not a factor. Some of my cheap pens I use more than more expensive ones.

 

I have a number of vintage pens 'pre'66...most are. That (outside of MB up to '75) is when German pens stopped making semi-flex (@25). The '50s and before for 'flexi'(12-13), and the thirties for easy full flex. I only have a couple of them.

 

What width? from OBB to F, seldom ever use a EF....do I want a wet or a regular or do I take out one of my dry nibs with a wetter ink?

 

I usually have 10-15 inked...more when I'm 'testing' a new ink. I find my self often using a semi-flex Geha 790 KM...a wet writing pen. Or an OBB(BBL in Osmia talk) Osmia.

 

My Pelikan 120 F is almost always in rotation, it is a joy to write with which is tied with my '90's M400.

My Geha school pen (don't know about yours) is a tad better then my 120, because I lucked into a semi-flex.

The other Geha screw in school pen nibs were regular flex, of the 'springy' '50's-mid '60's German school kid norm. They didn't fit that particular Geha school pen. I'm sure they would have written as well as my 120, in they were well matched competitors.

 

What is expensive? Living in Germany I was able to get most of my pens in the €20-30 or the 30-40 and occasional 50 range. Right now I'm using a loaner, the first Snorkel that I've touched since I held but did not write with my family's Snorkel back in the day when a Man had his fountain pen, and a woman might...and children were going to get a school pen. That Snorkel has a wonderful stub BB semi-flex....what a nib.

 

A '50's English Parker Jr. Duofold F in semi-flex. Expensive €50.

 

For pretty one of my three 'no name' stripped beautiful Clippers; rose and black or blue and black, blue X two...one of them with a 'flexi' Rupp nib, the regular nib, with a small 'Connie/Clipper' Super Constellation stamped on the nib is semi-flex. Often I only have one of them in 'rotation'. More affordable.

 

Then there is the Lamy black titanium oxide Persona with a CI nib. One of my more expensive pens at €90

 

Almost always in rotation is my #2 pen a '56 friction feed 400NN OF flexi and a MB 234 1/2 Deluxe (52-55 only) semi-flex KOB my #1 pen. They were part of a live auction lot, along with a Pelikan BP&MP from 1956. All 4 for €170...subtract the €70-80 worth for the BP&MP.'s...a very good deal. Some times Luck plays such a big factor...especially when I was so 'noobie' ignorant, I didn't know a thing about that MB234 1/2 Deluxe..why I was so ignorant I didn't know a thing about the pre'war 139 and thought it ugly...I was wrong, it's classy. With luck one expands one's tastes.

 

I got other pens that just sort of sit there...CPM-1 nail B, a 605 in BB; MB Woolf...nib is B=BB instead of B. , I made a mistake with the Woolf, in the shop on cheap paper the M was the B I was looking for, at home the M was M on better paper. I did not tell them I wanted a skinny B or a Fat M...so ended up with the 'modern' over wide B.

 

The 605 I swapped the M nib in to get a nib side enough to make a B CI or Stub....I might still get it in Stub someday. I have that Persona in a B-M Cursive Italic; so I don't need a B CI.

Use to vintage semi-flex B, OB and OBB, the modern fat and blobby Pelikan nib does nothing for me. The MB Woolf's nib is flatter (just too wide) and is the pen I reach for ahead of the 605. The structure of the nib makes a difference. For me it all comes down to what nib do I want to use now...not the brand or model actually. That is only a nib carrier.

So your go to pen is WHAT exactly?

[yolrgrand]

I'm using the Ancient Copper in my K316. An amazing ink, occasionally black, other times it's brownish, then sometimes almost orange and once in a while it looks reddish. Very strange & extremely nice to use,particularly with a B nib.

 

Richard.

I have the Ancient Copper in my brown striated Parker Vacumatic Maxima and totally agree with you!