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

[The Blue Knight]

Back a few days a go I was thinking about the fact that this was the first time I've had a hand full of working fountain pens.When I was younger I would only buy a new one because I had broken or lost my previous one. Back then I did enjoy using fountain pens and I was an enthusiast however I wouldn't say I collected them now with four working fountain pens in front of me all inked I for the first time would class myself as a collector. I contemplated back 10 years ago and thought about the pen that started my interest. I remembered the battered reflex lying at the back of the study cupboard. I fished it out and quickly ordered another from amazon to relive that time.

 

Even though it barley writes and and is cracked I consider it more important than any other pen as if it wasn't for it I wouldn't have a pen collection. I find it interesting what (normally low cost) pen has started an interest for people

[nvbrennan]

My first FP was a Parker 51 vac in dove grey. I still have it though don't use it much as I feel like the nib has gone a little funny at some point. I also have another black 51 which is THE pen and gets most of my love. My second pen was a Pel 400nn in green stripe which I lost at a conference and never found. Though not the greatest fan of green stripe I still think wistfully of it.

[Opooh]

In 1963 or 1964, I was about 9 years, a Le Tigre FP , I know it was a pistonfiller. The only thing I know is that it didn't last long. Afterwards came the invasion of Bic crystal and orange, so bye bye fountainpen and that for some 15 years.

[rcannonp]

My first fountain pen was Waterman L’Etalon that I bought in 1998. I got a deal on it because it was a demo model. I quickly realized why it was such a deal. The cap was broken, and it would dry out. Waterman still offered lifetime service back then, so I got it fixed. I used it for a little while, but then it just ended up in a drawer. I didn't pay much attention to fountain pens for a while, but around 2007 I bought a Lamy Vista and got back into them.

I pull the Waterman out every now and then. It seems to be having issues again. I can't tell if the problem is with the feed or the cap. It could just be that it sits around unused.

[pajaro]

Wearever Leakmaster, for twenty-nine cents in 1957. Worth twenty-nine cents in 2013 money.

[Lyutsin21]

My first one was a pilot varsity disposable fountain pen. My second one was a Lamy Vista - the part of the front piece the converter attached to cracked and then I lost it after carrying it in my pocket at work. My third was a Lamy All Star which I lost at a conference. My 4th was a Ohto F-Lapa fountain pen which I might have left at an interview 2 weeks ago and I got the job but I never saw the pen again. I need a new pen. Something with a narrow grip section and a fine-very fine tip which can easily be refilled with bottled ink.

[Tom Aquinas]

My first one was a pilot varsity disposable fountain pen. My second one was a Lamy Vista - the part of the front piece the converter attached to cracked and then I lost it after carrying it in my pocket at work. My third was a Lamy All Star which I lost at a conference. My 4th was a Ohto F-Lapa fountain pen which I might have left at an interview 2 weeks ago and I got the job but I never saw the pen again. I need a new pen. Something with a narrow grip section and a fine-very fine tip which can easily be refilled with bottled ink.

Try a Caran d'Ache Ecridor ( and with respect put a padlock on it), best wishes.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Tom Aquinas

[irrigger]

The first was a Sheaffer school pen from the mid 70's. There were a couple more from the 60's kicking around the house and a couple of no-nonsenses as well. After digging around my parent house a couple of years ago, I found the school pens and re-claimed them. Unfortunately the no-nonsenses were never seen again.

Edited June 21, 2013 by irrigger

[inkstainedruth]

I have vague recollections of some sort of cartridge pen when I was a kid. I'm guessing it was some flavor of Parker (would have been mid-1960s), partly because when I went back to FPs years later, Parker was a brand name that I recognized. Also because I remember playing with some sort of strange leverfill pencil that I couldn't figure out where the leads went in -- I think that had been my grandfather's. What happened to either one? Dunno. Long gone, sadly.

In middle school I went through a severe Flair pen phase (lots of colors, but still used blue BICs for tests). I also remember having one of those big fat 10 color refill BPs that I used in my diary when I was about 10 (but of course that's not a FP).

My first college roommate had an Osmiroid for her calligraphy class (I thought that was really cool and wanted one, but when I took calligraphy the next year we were expected to use Speedball dip pens).

Years later, when I started journalling, I thought a fountain pen would be really neat and make me want to do it on a daily basis -- I started out with a couple of some unknown model Parker c/c pens with M nibs that came in blister packs at Staples for $6.95 US. They had horrible rubberized sections that disintegrated, and after that happened to the second one I eventually pitched them after getting a Parker Vector at an old time stationers in downtown Pittsburgh.

Lost the Vector just before Christmas after having it for at least 3-4 years (maybe longer). Really wish it would turn up.... I loved that pen....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Blazing]

Lamy Safari, it got stolen and then thrown around. I found it uncapped under a table and it has a lot of scratches.

[Noxonomus]

My first fountain pen was a Pelikan Future I bought while on vacation around 15-17 years ago and only used briefly around that time. Shortly after I started using fountain pens again a few years ago it popped in to my head and I managed to find it again. I cleaned it out after 15 years sitting with a half full cartridge it wrote... OK. The nib was extremely scratchy (probably why it took me so long to try fountain pens again) but after some tine realignment it's a passable if not a great writer. It has an very fine fine nib and I carry it around filled with Noodler's black as my can write on any junk paper pen.

[Pentulant]

Waterman Expert back in the 1980s.

 

I still have it.

 

http://pentulant.blogspot.com/2012/08/visiting-with-old-friend-waterman.html

[H. Lime]

Two Sheaffers, bought a couple of years apart. One with a medium nib which I didn't like, and somehow managed to ruin somehow. The second one came with a fine nib and it had plunged, nib-first, to its untimely death halfway through a final exam in university (the shock didn't really help my grade).

 

I'm better at taking care of my pens now.

Edited June 21, 2013 by H. Lime

[SimonOW]

One of a string of Parker Vectors I had at school until my parents finally let me use something that wouldn't play up so easily.

[Wahl]

I received a Parker 21 as a gift when I was 11 years old.

 

I still have it, 50 years+ after, and yes, it writes perfectly !

[dcpritch]

My first fountain pen was a Montblanc 146, given to me in 1991 by a coworker when I left my job and moved from Texas to Minnesota. He told me that whenever I used it I should think how warm it is in Texas and how cold in Minnesota. I've used that pen regularly since then and it still writes beautifully, and when I use it I always think of my friend and the temperature shift. Right now, it is 55 F in Northern Minnesota and 95 F in Dallas, Texas. I think today I'll take Minnesota! Writing this makes me want to pull out that MB and ink it, which I'll do right now.

[krz]

I think I remember it differently each time

 

A Rapidograph 3060 piston filler with an Osmiroid Sketch nib retrofit (1975ish). Still works great.

 

A handful of various Esterbrooks that still work perfectly with orig. Ink sacs.

 

A burgundy Sheaffer Snorkel PFM I pdag MF nib I bought NOS (1977ish) that needs servicing now. It was my work pen for many years and has the most wear on it.

 

A Sheaffer Sentinel Triumph vac. and a Parker vac. M stub from my grandparents. The Sentinel still works, the Parker needs service.

[K. Cakes]

My first fountain pens came in a calligraphy set I had when I was... 9? I loved them for a while but eventually ran out of cartridges and never got around to acquiring more. I'm not exactly sure what happened to them, they could possibly be floating around storage somewhere, but more likely they were donated or tossed.

[palendra]

My first fountain pen was a TWSBI 540 that I ended up buying for myself because I wanted to use bottled ink and had yet realize a piston fill wasn't the only way to use bottled ink.

I ended up giving it away about six months later to a guy who admired it. Last I heard, he's still writing with it.

[maus930]

My first REAL pen was a 1959 PFM -- I still have it , it is a favorite writer and it is one of the most cherished pens in my collection of over 400 fountain pens