Your Very First Pen?

[beboy]

First fountain pen was a Cross of Parker bought at Staples 20 years ago, with artistic hopes, for under $20. It wrote so horribly that I threw it to the garbages after few days and I gave up with that outdated writing medium.

 

2 years ago, I tried my luck again and bought a VG Faber-Castell Intuition that was writing better, but was skipping terribly because of a huge gab between the nib and the feed. I almost gave up with fountain pens forever, but the pen wasn't eligible to refund because bought at discounted price. However, I got the nib unit changed for a another one and it wrote a lot better... I was hooked.

[Gump]

A Waterman Phileas gift set from my parents. Not knowing the first thing about fp'd I ended up with ink all over my pants and put the pen away for several years. Came across it later, learned how to properly fill the pen, and got hooked.

[ScienceChick]

A Sheaffer school pen, the kind with the translucent barrel that came in a blister package. That was in the early 70s. Yikes

[VinnyCordeiro]

A Parker Frontier Stainless Steel GT. Nice pen, but I don't use it as much now.

[Wahl]

Parker 21, black, when I was 11 years old.

 

That was a long time ago......

[melodiousb]

A small, dark blue pen my parents bought me when we were in Italy on vacation when I was eight. I lost it before we got home.

 

I think my Parker Calligraphy Set, which came with a Vector, was next, maybe three or four years later. I've lost the extra nibs, but I still have the pen.

[thatotherguy1]

My first fountain pen was a black Pilot Varsity I picked up on impulse while waiting in line at a Border's Bookstore (now sadly defunct as a company...). I had never seen a fountain pen before (that should tell you just how common fountain pens are around here, or how oblivious I was at the time, or both) and I thought it was cool enough to spend $4 or so on it. I kept that darn thing for years... I didn't want to lose it or break it, so I would only occasionally break it out to doodle for a while and write at home (oh the naivety!). I also think I was afraid that it would leak all over the place if I carried it. Shockingly, over at least two years the thing never once failed to start up. Never dried up.

 

The first FP that I got intentionally because it was a fountain pen was a matte black Bulow X-750 "Vertrag", which I later learned was simply a Jinhao X-750 that was rebranded to make it sound German and put into a nicer (though still obviously cheap) clamshell pen coffin so as to justify the $16 price tag (vs. a Jinhao for $6?). It was a gift I had asked for probably 2 years ago for Christmas. Nice pen for the price. Later on put a Goulet fine nib into it and used it as a beater pen, eventually loaning it to a friend with a refilled cartridge's worth of BSB. The friend liked it so much that he bought it from me (for the cost of the Goulet nib minus shipping- he knew what the pen was and how much it was worth)

[benbot517]

First pen was a Pilot Varsity that my friend gave me. A the time I was beginning to get into nicer ballpoints, and wasn't considering fountain pens, but a friend gave me one. Still have it, and it still works a year later.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

First pen was a Pilot Varsity I picked up more or less on a whim at Stamples.

[Sergio 46]

My first quality pen was a Montblanc 149 I bought when I got my first job, a long long time ago, and when I rediscovered it recently, maybe 2 years ago, and found also FPN, I became addicted! Since that time, I have bought many FPs, essentially from Japan and German brands, and now I have decided to make a break, until I find my Graal, that could be a Nakaya!