What Was The First Fountain Pen You Owned And What Happened To It?

[penrivers]

Soak that rusti Phileas in water with ammonia for a night, it will clean the oxidation

Just the nib section.

[Loeschpapier]

http://img2.zkauf.de/ddr-f%C3%BCller-heiko-stift-sprint-gdr-ostalgie-evp-veb-set-7932335.jpg

^^The orange one above. Gave new meaning to the word "FOUNTAIN pen". More like ink hose, wet writer would be an understatement, hands and fingers covered in ink. The barrel would crack at the threads meeting the section but those things were cheap and plentiful. I actally learned writing with that one, too, no pencils. Another model had a cap that depicted an adorable hippo or crocodile and they seemed to leak a bit less.

I quickly became addicted to fountain pens and moved on to the next school pen - and that one had the cap attached with a nylon band - quite a design to keep students from losing the cap.

We had so many of those plastic pens floating aroudn in our family, no idea what happened to them but I think my parents de-cluttered a lot of stuff during one big move, two weeks before the Berlin Wall came down.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Loeschpapier

[penrivers]

Lost it. In 1956 finishing my third grade elementary school, an old lady, my teacher, gave me her Esterbrook J green marble in a sudden gesture of kindness.

I longed many years for the Citizen Kane's rosebud of my infancy (without the millions of dollars lol). Then came internet and I found it, now I have it with blues , coppers, greys, reds and black Js. Some times storys finish well , in closed finals.

Edited June 16, 2013 by penrivers

[brewerjeff]

Memory Lane. 1964 I went off to boarding school with an Esterbrook 444 desk pen from my father's law office. It sat in or on my desk for 4 years. I must have had something else too because I remember refilling ink cartridges. At some point in time after HS everything I had disappeared, little by little, including the Esterbrook. Then more stuff accumulated, and it all disappeared.... I liked the Estie a lot and wouldn't mind having another, but not for the $$ they seem to fetch now. sic transit gloria mundi

[TomJKT]

I belonged to the Pelikano gang opposed to the Geha gang in elementary school. Both pens were designed and priced for kids still learning to write. Though the very first steps to master writing were made with a pencil. So the FPs were a sort of one step further to becoming an adult. At least we were regarded as mature enough to take care of an ink loaded device. We would usually only discuss how cool or un-cool they looked. No discussion about the pens writing features, they performed both equally well I guess. All these pens used cartridges and we had to use the blue ones by order from the teacher. Being the 3rd child I "inherited" the later FPs from my brothers. As they would upgrade to the better Montblancs and Pelikans as they entered university I would use the M100/M200 (not sure whether these model typology was already used) pens of their high school time. I do not remember any other FP models to be used at that time in Germany, so Montblanc, Pelikan and Geha dominated the market to a 99% degree. Must have been the good old times for these companies. I still don't know, why Geha vanished, have to look it up in wikipedia

In my first job I met someone who used an MB 149 with green (!) ink, I considered this the ultimative expression of success and personality. How could he dare to write in green and show off with such a big pen? He must no fear anybody. Well, I have a somewhat different attitude towards this nowadays, but it instilled a certain interest in FPs. And this is all no advertisement for the mentioned brands - actually I'm more in Italian pens.

I do not know what happened with my first pens, they are no more I fear. One or two didn't survive a little soccer game after school. With one I tried to engrave the name of my girlfriend into the wooden school desk. The name came out well, the nib didn't survive it and our relationship neither. What a question - it drives me down the memory lane...

[tmenyc]

Parker 21, in 1965. A bar mitzvah present, not remembered who gave it to me. I used it regularly until around 2005 (have used fp's continuously since then...). Still have it, but need to replace the hood and the filler seems pretty shot. Also, the nib is pretty well used up. It's on the decommissioned list for now, not least because my 4 51's and 2 Vacs write so much better. One day I might replace the hood, filler, and nib, but probably not.

 

Also, my second pen -- MB149, was given to me by my parents in 1970 as a high school graduation present. It's in front of me, lives on my desk in an eyeglass holder, and has been in continuous use since 1970. A permanent slot in the rotation.

 

Tim

Edited June 16, 2013 by tmenyc

[Plume145]

Lost in the mists of time lol. I *think* it may have been a Reynolds or a Stypen - both pretty popular brands for school pens back then and there :-) And I'm even less sure of this, but I dimly recall a green body and purple nib section and clip - but I couldn't swear to it, and my mom doesn't remember either. Obviously, it's lost

 

the earliest pen I remember for certain was one that was red and gold flecks on a blue background, and it was part of a set with a ballpoint and everything. Real grown up stuff there! (I was 11) Sadly, it was stolen - not the last pen I've had that happen to, unfortunately. The kicker is that I saw it one day on the top of a roof of one of the school buildings, but it was inaccessible to me and I was too young to kick up a fuss to get a janitor or other maintenance person to retrieve it for me, like I would now.

 

The earliest pen that I still own is this Waterman Forum (far left). The nib's got issues that I haven't gotten round to properly sorting yet, but I will. It's a cutie

[orfew]

My first FP was a montblanc 147. I still use it. In fact it is inked at the moment with MB toffee brown.

[Tom Aquinas]

Parker 21, in 1965. A bar mitzvah present, not remembered who gave it to me. I used it regularly until around 2005 (have used fp's continuously since then...). Still have it, but need to replace the hood and the filler seems pretty shot. Also, the nib is pretty well used up. It's on the decommissioned list for now, not least because my 4 51's and 2 Vacs write so much better. One day I might replace the hood, filler, and nib, but probably not.

 

Also, my second pen -- MB149, was given to me by my parents in 1970 as a high school graduation present. It's in front of me, lives on my desk in an eyeglass holder, and has been in continuous use since 1970. A permanent slot in the rotation.

 

Tim

 

If you do refit and recommission it, remember the Parker 51 nib fits the P 21. My local Parker people (an actual Parker workshop...the golden days) recommended and fitted one in 1968. The pen is still going strong, it was the first "real" pen I bought , and closely followed it by buying the jotter and propelling pencil. Six months later I bought a similar P51 set.

[vickiehof]

I still have the blue Waterman Phileas that I bought about 20? years ago in an office supply store for about $25. I thought that was a lot of money for one pen.

[ajcoleman]

I vaguely recall trying a Sheaffer cartridge pen as a kid, but when the sample cartridge ran out of ink so much sooner than a ball point, I decided it wasn't practical. Jump decades ahead to about three and half years ago or so when my oldest son gave me a Levenger gift card for Christmas and I used it to get a black Levenger Truewriter and a box of cartridges. It got me hooked. Many pens since then, but it still sees regular use.

[sexauerw]

Cranking up the Wayback machine to about 1958 or so, my first pen was a Sheaffer Cartridge Pen, clear with a fine nib. I'm sure it ended up in a wastebasket as did several of its successors, they all ended up cracked and leaking. Perhaps it earlier than 1958, I should have been old enough by then to have taken better care of them.

 

Anyway, they all looked exactly like this one, which I bought on eBay fairly recently while in a fit of nostalgia.

http://bulk-share.slickpic.com/album/share/E24TMOAzMc2T2M/3623129.0/org/p/Sheaffer_School_Pen%2C_Clear%2C_closed.jpg

 

When we packed up to move to the West Coast in 1961, none of those cheap fountain pens made the cut. I did use some Rapidograph stylographic pens while working from 1965 to about 1975; good old Higgins India ink that clogged if you looked cross-eyed at it. But it was an opaque black that copied perfectly even on the crummy copiers of the day. My work assignments changed about 1975 and I started doing most everything on keyboards and have ever since until I retired a year-and-a-half ago.

 

I didn't get interested in fountain pens again until 1995 and started helping out my Dad, who was very ill. I would sit at his desk and use his Sheaffer Targa to do his bookkeeping and pay his bills for him. It was a wonderful writer (still is) and I was hooked. He's gone now, as is Mom, but I think of him every time I pick up His Targa, or even one of the 140 plus other Targas that I now have.

 

 

[playtime]

It was a gift from a good friend--a MB 144. Had used it for a time, was dissatisfied with its writing qualities, then stored away. It resurfaced maybe two months ago--after I had a run through quite a number of fountain pens. It is now in the rotation--what I though was a pen of poor quality was in fact one of enduring quality--with a more suitable ink:)

 

J

[Tom Aquinas]

Cranking up the Wayback machine to about 1958 or so, my first pen was a Sheaffer Cartridge Pen, clear with a fine nib. I'm sure it ended up in a wastebasket as did several of its successors, they all ended up cracked and leaking. Perhaps it earlier than 1958, I should have been old enough by then to have taken better care of them.

 

Anyway, they all looked exactly like this one, which I bought on eBay fairly recently while in a fit of nostalgia.

http://bulk-share.slickpic.com/album/share/E24TMOAzMc2T2M/3623129.0/org/p/Sheaffer_School_Pen%2C_Clear%2C_closed.jpg

 

When we packed up to move to the West Coast in 1961, none of those cheap fountain pens made the cut. I did use some Rapidograph stylographic pens while working from 1965 to about 1975; good old Higgins India ink that clogged if you looked cross-eyed at it. But it was an opaque black that copied perfectly even on the crummy copiers of the day. My work assignments changed about 1975 and I started doing most everything on keyboards and have ever since until I retired a year-and-a-half ago.

 

I didn't get interested in fountain pens again until 1995 and started helping out my Dad, who was very ill. I would sit at his desk and use his Sheaffer Targa to do his bookkeeping and pay his bills for him. It was a wonderful writer (still is) and I was hooked. He's gone now, as is Mom, but I think of him every time I pick up His Targa, or even one of the 140 plus other Targas that I now have.

 

 

 

 

Mine had red transparent plastic. Dad bought it for me for "copy book", so I did not smudge the dip pen everywhere, the rest of the story is posted above, save for the fact I wanted a Platignum with a lever...they were better for fountain pen fights, cartridges were too expensive. Shaeffer did however leave me with a lifelong attraction to Skrip Blue ink.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Parker Sonnet Flighter with gold M nib. Used it as my daily writer during my last few years at school, though uni, and continues on as my daily writer at the office. Totally reliable. I go out of my way to acquire its sole ink: Parker Bl-Bk with SOLV-X. We be mates.

 

Bye,

S1

[mirosc]

I belonged to the Pelikano gang opposed to the Geha gang in elementary school.

A man after my own heart :-)

Oh, those argument battles back then!

[Scribblesoften]

A Parker 21. It was a new pen for school. Since it was '72 it must have been out of production and sitting on a shelf in a shop. I remember my father picking it because he thought the squeeze filler would be simpler for me to use than the levers on the other pens. We had white uniform shirts and it was always interesting when someone ran out of ink. When filling, I remember multiple trips to the blotter paper folder. I lost that pen somewhere in the move between countries. I have had 21's since then and for nostalgic reasons, I'm sure, I have always preferred them to 51's. Cheers.

[dorothynotgale]

Talk about a blast from the past. In the mid-90s, when I was 10 or so, I had a few pens marketed by Shaeffer as "calligraphy sets" (a couple of pens with interchangeable sections and stub nibs of varying broadnesses). They usually came with little booklets on how to do basic calligraphy. I begged my Dad to get me a set for Christmas after seeing them at an office supply store, because I wanted to learn to write like the people who made medieval manuscripts (turns out I didn't have the patience, but I liked the pens anyway).

 

They were cartridge pens, thick and very cylindrical in shape - no taper at all. You could stand them up on end on a desk. The package came with several colors of ink for the novice to play around with. I didn't know to flush them, so after using up a blue cartridge, I would pop in a green and watch the ink gradually change color from navy to teal to green as it worked its way through the feed. When I ran out of cartridges, there was no way to get more (pocket money was quite limited in my family), so I tried a few times to mix up food coloring and water and poured the stuff directly into the barrel. The fact that eyedropper-converted pens are some of my favorites to this day probably has something to do with that.

 

I recently found one, translucent green, in a box of junk from my mother's house. It's sitting in my desk, and I may try cleaning it out and see if it still works, for old time's sake.

[martinbir]

From about the age of 9 we had to use ink pens at school and I think my very first was a Platignum which was followed by an Osmiroid 65 and later a very modern Osmiroid 75. Somewhere along the line I seem to recall an old Burnham.

 

The first pen I really cherished was a green Parker Junior I was given when I was about 11. I used this carefully, and only when I wanted to do my best writing, until at 14 we were allowed to use ballpoints. After a while I thought I would go back to the Junior but it was lost and my father very kindly bought me a Sheaffer Imperial which saw me through the rest of my education and which I still have.

 

My father died a couple of years ago and tucked away in his desk was a green Parker Junior with a badly damaged nib. Now this cannot be coincidence and my theory (completely unprovable) is that my much younger brother had taken it from my room and "played roughly with it". A crime for which he had previous convictions. I further surmise that the very generous gift, out of the blue, of the Sheaffer was actually a result of his being told the Junior could not be repaired.

 

Whether my story is right or not, it has become my truth and I am very pleased to say the revived interest in vintage pens has enabled me to get the Parker Junior repaired and back into regular use.

[HDRoot]

I got my hands on my Grandfather's pen when I was 12. Burgundy and gold. I killed it. I was trying to "fix" it somehow and I think pliers were involved. Years later I figured out that it must have been a PFM.

 

Herb