Fountain Pen Lovers With Bad Handwriting

[Argentum]

My handwriting is a somewhat legible scribble, but I've found that fountain pens and super-fine mechanical pencils seem to help make it more legible.

[Joe in Seattle]

All one need do is look at the classifieds. Sometimes the most expensive pens are offered for sale with writing samples that are nearly illegible. Odd couples indeed!

[Montblanc owner and lover]

I'm a lefty writing from the side so....very very bad handwriting but i love fountain pens and would like to improve...

[tedd]

My handwriting is terrible. I am taking steps to try and improve on it- writing exercises, journal entries, stub versus medium point fountain pens, etc. I have taken lettering and calligraphy classes while studying graphic design- frankly I was bad at it. It didn't help that one of my instructors was responsible for the Alaska Airlines company logo, among other company logos. He was a taskmaster!

[Dickkooty2]

I had the Palmer Method drilled home in the '40's in the Philadelphia school system. A stick pen, a steel nib, an ink well, and a pen rag. No wonder I struggle with legibility, particularly when writing fast. When I used to write longish memos and reports, I insisted on using yellow legal-size pads and a Dixon Ticonderoga 2B.

 

But now I am back to fountain pens and really enjoying it. I am working on my handwriting (Yes, Miss Hatton, yes!… 3rd grade) the feel is so good even if I am (bleep).

 

And so, in closing this thought:

 

 

PS

 

I forgot to write with black ink. Please assume I have a pen inked with Waterman Encre Noir.

 

D

Edited November 14, 2013 by Dickkooty2

[Gamma Goblin]

I have bad handwriting and am proud of it! None of the master penmen out there wil ever be able to copy it.

[martinbir]

[Beckwith]

I just started writing in cursive again over this summer as I was expanding my pen collection. If the whole point of the pen is to be enjoying the feel or writing, it made sense to me that I ought to be writing in a manner that keeps the pen on the paper as much as possible. I have absolutely horrific print, but having to slow down with the cursive has helped a lot, and writing is just much more enjoyable now. Additionally, I think cursive gives you a chance to enjoy the various faculties of the pen a little bit more than print (e.g. the flex or the line variation for italic/oblique nibs)

 

If you want a reminder of how gorgeous cursive can be, check out one of Doc. Brown's videos:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/sbrebrown

[Inkydinkydog]

Well, I have good days and bad days. My writing gets more inconsistent the older I get. But I have found that (1) using a stub nib on a fountain pen, and (2) sloooooowing down both help on those bad days. My writing is always legible but often not pretty.

[georges zaslavsky]

here you go from the dominant and non dominant hand

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/leftright.jpg

[OcalaFlGuy]

  On 11/12/2013 at 6:19 PM, kitsrock said:

Yup. Another one here.

 

I was over at Don't Just Tell Us About The Pen You're Using, *show* Us! topic not so long ago, and refused to handwrite notes because I was so self-conscious of my bad handwriting, especially compared to some people there.

 

Oh no, no, no, you're looking at that all wrong.

 

That thread is a rare one that is as much fun to Post to as it is to Read. Of course there is going to be some righteous penmanship, that skill is very related to this whole Forum not just that thread. For ME though, what's More fun to see in that thread than Just the penmanship is the excitement of the writer with their pens. No matter what their "scrawl" looks like, one's excitement and happiness with their pen, paper and ink still come through just fine.

 

That's the beauty of that thread.

 

Posts from happy, excited pen users with $5 pens are just as much fun, sometime More fun than those with $1000 pens and textbook writing.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Edited November 15, 2013 by OcalaFlGuy

[OcalaFlGuy]

After lettering for a couple years for Drafting in high school, my daily writing became more of a printed/cursive mixture. Perfectly legible as I recall but certainly not adhering to Any textbook. The longer I wrote like that, the less correct my Pure cursive writing became, from not being used.

 

That's a major reason for me getting interested in FPs. They DO make writing and practicing writing Fun versus a chore.

 

You get good handwriting (back) the same way you'd get it to begin with. Practice. Use your spare pen playing with time to work on your handwriting as you know it Should be and you Will clean it up over time.

 

Before I got back into FPs, I'd say my cursive had slipped to probably a C-. With hardly any "work" and a Lot of fun, I may have raised it up to a B-. The better news is it certainly hasn't gotten any Worse.

 

 

Brucelbee the Scribbler. In Ocala, Fl

[hbdk]

  On 11/15/2013 at 9:21 PM, OcalaFlGuy said:

 

Oh no, no, no, you're looking at that all wrong.

 

That thread is a rare one that is as much fun to Post to as it is to Read. Of course there is going to be some righteous penmanship, that skill is very related to this whole Forum not just that thread. For ME though, what's More fun to see in that thread than Just the penmanship is the excitement of the writer with their pens. No matter what their "scrawl" looks like, one's excitement and happiness with their pen, paper and ink still come through just fine.

 

That's the beauty of that thread.

 

Posts from happy, excited pen users with $5 pens are just as much fun, sometime More fun than those with $1000 pens and textbook writing.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

You made a good point here! I ll try to keep that in mind - thanks!

Henrik

[inkstainedruth]

  On 11/15/2013 at 9:02 PM, georges zaslavsky said:

here you go from the dominant and non dominant hand

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/georges2/pens%20%20and%20pen%20reviews/leftright.jpg

 

You're one of those ambidextrous people, aren't you. Got away with using the "cool" scissors in first grade because you were a lefty and everything, didn't you?

My husband was truly ambidextrous till he broke his wrist in 2nd or 3rd grade and got forced into being a full-time righty as a result. Apparently he would pick up the pencil with whichever hand was closest, and switch hands when the first one got tired.... Of course, his handwriting (now) is abominable, and I suspect that it had been all along. I can't read it for spit. The fact that his spelling is, um, creative doesn't help. I'm hoping that getting him a couple of FPs (albeit with EF nibs) will help. Of course, the first time he leaves the cap off the Esterbrook he will hear a few choice words (the sort that will make a sailor blush); the first time he does it to the 51 I picked up at the Ohio Pen Show last week I'm reclaiming it as "Well, since you don't know how to take care of nice things...."

My handwriting isn't stellar but at least it's legible. Mostly. My problem is that I got into the habit of printing years ago (high school, if not middle school, and that continued through college) and now have to retrain the muscle memory.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

  On 11/15/2013 at 9:41 PM, OcalaFlGuy said:

Brucelbee the Scribbler. In Ocala, Fl

Anything you'd prefer not to do -- other than writing with a BP, of course?

(And, okay, yes, I admit it -- I'm probably too well educated for my own good....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Fountainer]

[hungh]

Count me in on the "bad handwriting" group.

I never really learned to write in cursive so I kind of "invented" my own way of writing it, it's still legible, but sometimes even I can't understand what the heck I wrote down.
If I'm not in a hurry taking down notes, my handwriting turns to something like print. Very legible, but not what you'd call "elegant".
Slowing down and/or using a stub nib helps though.

 

Regards,

Hikari

[ParkersAndPaper]

My handwriting is in such a state that I could make most anyone's work look like professional calligraphy. It's always been this way. Fountains actually make it better.

[krz]

Well, I do keep trying!

[georges zaslavsky]

  On 11/16/2013 at 1:11 AM, inkstainedruth said:

 

You're one of those ambidextrous people, aren't you. Got away with using the "cool" scissors in first grade because you were a lefty and everything, didn't you?

My husband was truly ambidextrous till he broke his wrist in 2nd or 3rd grade and got forced into being a full-time righty as a result. Apparently he would pick up the pencil with whichever hand was closest, and switch hands when the first one got tired.... Of course, his handwriting (now) is abominable, and I suspect that it had been all along. I can't read it for spit. The fact that his spelling is, um, creative doesn't help. I'm hoping that getting him a couple of FPs (albeit with EF nibs) will help. Of course, the first time he leaves the cap off the Esterbrook he will hear a few choice words (the sort that will make a sailor blush); the first time he does it to the 51 I picked up at the Ohio Pen Show last week I'm reclaiming it as "Well, since you don't know how to take care of nice things...."

My handwriting isn't stellar but at least it's legible. Mostly. My problem is that I got into the habit of printing years ago (high school, if not middle school, and that continued through college) and now have to retrain the muscle memory.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

No, I was a natural rightie but as I explained a while back when I was young I broke my left elbow and therefore learnt to write and do everything with the other hand, it then became a a second dominant hand. I am better at some things with my left than with my right hand.