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

[RMN]

A Sheaffer Connaiseur (or however they spell it) that my former girl friend got for me for Christmas. That former girlfriend is now my wife and has been for the past 27 years. And I still have the pen.

great pens. I adore mine.

 

 

D.ick

[Jebus]

A black Parker Vector when I was 7. Left it in the drawer for years... I've started using it at school when I was 14. I've never switchend back to something without a nib.

 

The pen is in my drawer. Nice memories.

[sargetalon]

A Waterman Expert given to me by my in-laws for graduating medical school. I had no idea what I was doing in retrospect and the nib was way too broad for me despite it being a medium. As I hadn't inked it up in years, I recently just sold it in the classifieds here to facilitate pen purchases that I would enjoy.

[halpen9950]

Like others, a Sheaffer student cartridge pen. (I now have several that work well for the most part)

My first collector pen was a striated Blue Diamond Duofold Ingenue that I acquired at a flea market

for a few dollars in the 80s. I had no idea what it was. It seemed in fair shape and was really neat. I got it to

fill and began to write with it daily at my office. The more I used it the more I liked it. I found out from

a pen shop that it was easy to service and recondition; so I had the work done. It came back good as new

and I continued t use it. (I still own and use this beautiful writer which has since been professionally restored)

My passion for pens had been fed and while I've been tempted to sell it I probably never will.

 

It's been said many times about many things... Good ones are hard to come by!

[Inkheart]

In high school (during the 80s), a desire for eccentricity got me writing with a fountain pen along with my good friend. I'm pretty sure we two were the only ones in the whole school, and what started as a quirk to be different turned into a habit we enjoyed for its own sake - racing through English sentence diagrams and German verb conjugations. We dearly loved our Parker Vectors. Mine simply disappeared in my senior year; no clue what happened to it. I have a couple now, for old times sake, that are in my rotation.

 

After an unintentional hiatus from fountain pens, an employer's luxurious Waterman got my attention, in 1992. My budget was much tighter than hers, but I managed to secure a Waterman Laureat that I still have and use.

[peterg]

My first fountain pen was an Osmaroid. It was a rite of passage pen from junior to senior school, so it would have been 1964. We had to write something on paper which was sent to the factory where it was 'interpreted' and the best pen and nib was selected for me! I think it cost 12/6, which was a lot in those days for a school pen. Probably a nice little earner for the school. I don't remember much about it now but I think it had a screw fill which was quite unusual for those days.

 

No idea what happened to it, I didn't like it much. It was followed by a succession of Platignum pens, usually 'RAF' blue (a kind of muddy blue) with italic steel nibs. I still have two of them. One has lost its cap and the cap on the other is heavily cracked and without the clip. School pen attrition was pretty high in those days!

[Mike_Dowling]

Pelikan M200, I sold it because it was too small for me, but it was a great writer.

[kostak]

A Pelikan 800 from John Mottishaw EF NIb

Best Nib to this day , unfortunately I dropped it and smashed the nib

Got a new Nib was never the same so sent original NIb to Greg MInuskin to re-tip to .8mm stub, amazing now back in rotation !

[sandy101]

The first fountain pen I owned was a WH Smith Sky Blue plastic one. We had to use FPs at school - and this one was probably as cheap as you could get. You bought a box/box of WH Smith blue or black cartridges and that's what you used for you school days. The barrel developed a crack after seven years of service, so it ended up going in the bin.

 

Twenty years later, I wanted to try Fountain pens again, as I seemed to remember that I got a better writing position with an FP, and I thought my writing was much better. So, I bought a platinum plasir with a fine nib and found it a very enjoyable experience. Then I discovered that blue and black were not the only ink colours out there and that there were some rather fancy pens out there too.

 

I've stopped buying pens just now, having acquired a couple of corkers. I want to write, not collect pens and writing poems in violet (purple prose) and turquoise amuses me.

[betweenthelens]

A navy blue Sheaffer Lifetime. I dug it out when I started getting back into fountain pens and was incredulous at my seven year-old self's handiwork. It looks as if I wrote with the pen on the sidewalk, and perhaps I did. Definitely not a Lifetime in my young hands.

[hermanlab]

In high school (during the 80s), a desire for eccentricity got me writing with a fountain pen along with my good friend. I'm pretty sure we two were the only ones in the whole school, and what started as a quirk to be different turned into a habit we enjoyed for its own sake - racing through English sentence diagrams and German verb conjugations. We dearly loved our Parker Vectors. Mine simply disappeared in my senior year; no clue what happened to it. I have a couple now, for old times sake, that are in my rotation.

 

After an unintentional hiatus from fountain pens, an employer's luxurious Waterman got my attention, in 1992. My budget was much tighter than hers, but I managed to secure a Waterman Laureat that I still have and use.

Sounds like a clone of my own story, almost. Only two kids in our school used fountain pens. Myself and a girl who had a beautiful handwriting, using an expensive Parker of some sort. Fountain pens were supposed to be prohibited in our school, but everybody allowed us our own eccentric brand. It felt like we belonged to an exclusive club, comprised of only two. I lost my pen eventually (I'll tell the story in a separate post), but last time I spoke to her, she still had hers. And yes, we also suffered through German grammar with those pens. LOL

[fountainpagan]

A Pelikan 120. I still have it (45 years)

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/842/79sz.jpg

 

[hermanlab]

Fountain pens were simply always part of my life. My father still enjoyed art in those days and dabbled with a bit of calligraphy at one point. The first definite fountain pen that I can remember was a cheapish dip pen that my mother bought upon my insistence at the local supermarket. It was probably around 1983 and I was probably 8 years old. It had a horribly scratchy fine steel nib and made perfect mess nearly every single time. Whenever I touched that thing I was left with blue hands and fingers. Nevertheless, it had its place and I till have it and use it sometimes.

Other pens more or less fell into my lap, but the first one I actually bought was when I was 16. My dad sent me on a solo trip to America for a month on a friend visiting circuit. One of them arranged for me to go on a hike in the Rocky mountains. While driving there he stopped at Teton village and told me "this is where the Parker widow lives." My mind lit up at once, and the moment we stopped at the next town, Jackson Hole, I bought a Parker there. I don't know what it was called. One of those bland and boring ones that never disappointed anybody and must have sold by the millions. It became my signature pen through the rest of high school. I later lost it at a youth camp where there actually happened to be one other boy who also had a very nice old Sheaffer fountain pen of his grandfathers. Someone sat on his pen which caused it to break through the screw thread section. He felt sorry for me and gave the remnants of his pen to me in the hope that I could somehow fix it.

I then bought a similar Parker to finish high school, and then bought two better ones to finish university. They all got lost somehow or other. When it started becoming really difficult to buy new fountain pens in regular shops I suddenly felt in love with old fountain pens. And that's a story on its own.

[Shangas]

My very first FP EVER was a cheap Pilot. What happened? Bugger if I know.

 

The next pen was a Sheaffer School Pen.

 

I still have that somewhere in my storage-case.

[Koyote]

The first fountain pen I owned was a Sheaffer Targa with a fine point. Silver-plated in a barleycorn pattern. A college graduation gift.

 

32+ years later I still use it regularly.

[Tangster]

It was a Parker Vector. I lost it after about 5 years when I was about 11-12 and replaced it with a cheap inoxicrom from WHSmiths until I graduated 6th form.

[Maple]

My first pen brings me back to my birth place, France. I still miss it no matter how nice Canada has been to me.

The pen was a Pelikan fountain pen, one of the youth friendly ones, it was about 3 to 4 euros. What I liked about it was that it was a very simple design, it could have passed for a funky design for adults. It was also plastic so that it was just the right weight for my hands. I remember that the nib was very smooth and wet. We wrote on pretty thick quality paper so it was never a problem.

 

I miss that pen. It was one of those ideal pens (not snobbish-everyone in class used something similar and cheap, wrote beautifully in that French cursive font).

 

"What's that? Why did I finish a whole pack of tissues!"

 

"I remembered a friend. That's what!"

 

 

[discopig]

My first fountain pen was a Lamy Safari (F), the 2012 LE green one. I still have it and use it daily.

[prettypink]

My first was a Lamy Safari with a 1.1 nib. I still have it although don't use it as much because I've gone off italic nibs (which shocks me greatly as I thought I'd stick with those forever)

[DjentleDjiant]

First fountain pen I received was when I was probably 13-14 as a Christmas gift. Was some sort of Parker fountain pen. At that point, I had no idea how to use one, so it ended up getting quite damaged honestly!

 

Moving on, the first fountain pen I purchased was last year in March - April. I was always into nifty Japanese stationary as I found it quite convenient not having to carry multiple pens around, but then a friend of mine showed me his Lamy Vista and I was hooked.

 

Shortly after, I purchased an Al-Star and some Iroshizuku Take-sumi (the ink was an impulsive purchase). Weeks later I ordered a Lamy 2000 and a couple months back I bought a Vac-700. Currently the Al-Star is in my friend's hand's as I'm in the process of converting her!