Poll: Win One Of 7 New, High Performance Flex Pens!

[PrestoTenebroso]

Survey complete. Sounds like a very interesting project. Being left handed I find using flex pens challenging but I still enjoy them very much and look forward to seeing what you develop.

Thank you very much!

[irish_monk]

Good luck

[mwooten]

Looking forward to learning more. Thank you for the potential opportunity.

[Mr5x5]

Filled it out and thanks for the opportunity. Best wishes in your new enterprise.

[Shaun500]

Filled out the survey! Good luck with getting more respondents! =)

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting survey. Like some other people, though, I found that some of the answers I gave needed to be expanded upon (and not just a either/or response). I would have liked to give multiple answers in some cases, and also had a place to clarify some of the answers I gave. For example, I have a couple of Esterbrooks J series pens with flex nibs (a 9128 and a 9788), but haven't had a chance to try them out. And I've used dip pens for calligraphy and drawing in the past, but not recently.

I think, Presto, that you may find that the commentary you get may be as valuable as the survey results. I have to routinely fill out surveys in conjunction with my other (i.e., non-FP) hobby, in order for other people to decide who should get recognized for their efforts. Sometimes the people issuing the surveys want the raw data: how many "yes" or "no" votes; how those percentages get skewed by the "abstain" or "I don't know this person" votes; etc.). Other people are much more concerned with commentary, such as what positive -- or negative -- impact a person being considered might have had over the course of their activity level (different people are asking for the information, over the course of a year, and once the potential "candidates" either get recognized officially or dropped due to poor polling numbers, the next list will necessarily change).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stonezebra]

It just struck me - why 7 pens, rather than to 6 or 8 or 10 or whatever

[Stehlo]

Is there a way to complete the survey and also opt out of the drawing?

[Davis19942003]

Done. I can't wait to see the final product.

 

I think the result of this survey is only one of the factors when designing a new pen. Everyone has their own taste.

May be you can add different nib options like flex nib that requires heavy pressure and a flex nib that requires light pressure

so we can choose the nib we need

 

Good luck on your project.

[Kataphract]

It just struck me - why 7 pens, rather than to 6 or 8 or 10 or whatever

 

Possible scenarios:

One for every day of the week.

He has Tolkien dwarves (not dwarfs) demanding one for each of the ancient fathers of the dwarven race.

His favorite movies are: The Magnificent Seven, Seven Days in May, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (not dwarves).

He rolled a pair of dice and that's the number that came up.

Biblical epic in the making!

The Odd Pen Hypothesis.

Seven is the coolest number to write with a flex pen.

6, 8 and 10 were all taken.

[PrestoTenebroso]

Done. I can't wait to see the final product.

 

I think the result of this survey is only one of the factors when designing a new pen. Everyone has their own taste.

May be you can add different nib options like flex nib that requires heavy pressure and a flex nib that requires light pressure

so we can choose the nib we need

 

Good luck on your project.

All good ideas. They've been and are being considered. Thank you very much!

[PrestoTenebroso]

Is there a way to complete the survey and also opt out of the drawing?

Yes, you just skip that question on the final page and click submit. Only write your email address if you want to enter. If not, skip it. It's fine.

[KBeezie]

I went ahead and filled out the survey the best that I could, I'm fairly new to fountain pens, but I'm already reaching a ceiling of 20 of them. No flex pens in my current collection other than an old green celluloid that's unbranded and has a tiny nib (so doesn't flex much, it's too wet for any line variation to be noticeable given the small amount of flex).

 

I know when I went thru the survey there were pre-cursors to stating if you've never used one you can skip, but then there's a list of questions right before then that assumes you have used a flex pen before (and then after that goes into modern and vintage flex etc).

 

Also my pricing opinions when filled out, is more or less from the perspective of a new user, for example some of the more experienced users may find it decent to spend 300-400 on a pen, but I haven't even reached that ceiling yet. The most I've spent on a single pen so far has been around 90.

[bitterwonder]

7 is a lucky number. I have seven piercings. Have been in agongy deciding whether to go for 8 as a 60th birthday marker.

[donwinn]

While I could not put it on the survey, my preferences in pen material are #1 Ebonite (pref black or green) #2 Celluloid or Resin, #800 demonstrator only. I have one demonstrator, and hardly use it. I have a TWSBI smoke, which is translucent rather than transparent. I stayed away from the full-size TWSBI until I was able to see one in person, to find out it is relatively translucent. Offering an option of a firm nib along with the flex nib, easily swapped, could be a real selling point, e.g., Pelikan (vintage).

[PrestoTenebroso]

While I could not put it on the survey, my preferences in pen material are #1 Ebonite (pref black or green) #2 Celluloid or Resin, #800 demonstrator only. I have one demonstrator, and hardly use it. I have a TWSBI smoke, which is translucent rather than transparent. I stayed away from the full-size TWSBI until I was able to see one in person, to find out it is relatively translucent. Offering an option of a firm nib along with the flex nib, easily swapped, could be a real selling point, e.g., Pelikan (vintage).

Thanks for the info!

[PrestoTenebroso]

I went ahead and filled out the survey the best that I could, I'm fairly new to fountain pens, but I'm already reaching a ceiling of 20 of them. No flex pens in my current collection other than an old green celluloid that's unbranded and has a tiny nib (so doesn't flex much, it's too wet for any line variation to be noticeable given the small amount of flex).

 

I know when I went thru the survey there were pre-cursors to stating if you've never used one you can skip, but then there's a list of questions right before then that assumes you have used a flex pen before (and then after that goes into modern and vintage flex etc).

 

Also my pricing opinions when filled out, is more or less from the perspective of a new user, for example some of the more experienced users may find it decent to spend 300-400 on a pen, but I haven't even reached that ceiling yet. The most I've spent on a single pen so far has been around 90.

That's okay. Data is data. Yours is perfect.

[PrestoTenebroso]

So, Presto, are you giving away that Franken-Pen you write so beautifully with? Even duct tape doesn't ruin your hand.

 

Paul

Oh, strictly speaking, that was electrical tape. ;-)

[Namo]

Not sure I can make it to the end, bit just one piece of info: if by "flex" you mean Noodler's flex (and it's not a criticism of Noodler's pens), I will not buy one.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Namo

[balson]

Lovely idea. Great to see you are collecting opinions from poeple who will be using the pens.

 

However - a few comments on the poll...

 

There were many questions I didn't feel I gave the correct answer to. I would have like the option sometimes to pick more than one response. My usage of pens is not always the same, my thoughts about things are not always the same. There are times when I'd compromise one thing for another, there are other times when I wouldn't - most of your questions did not give the opportunity to show this.

 

Also, along the way I'd have liked a few comment boxes so I could say more about why something was importnat - or not important. I wanted to express opinions that were not possible to express by selecting just one option out of five. Often the option I would have chosen was not there. That is always a problem with simple multiple choice polls - you sometimes need a comments box to get around it. I use polls all the time in my work, and often the comments are of far more value to me than the selected multi-choice answers. Multi choice are easy to evaluate, they give a basic overview of what people feel, but people's comments really tell and enable you to understand you what they want and why.

 

Sorry to sound negative - I don't mean to be. I hope it all comes to fruition and I look forward to seeing a finished product!

 

+1 on this