A Paradox On Pen Addiction

[Venemo]

Oh, yes, I am more or less into that: a tandem pen-ink for each particular writing task. Yes of course, it helps. Now, it helps, but it also increases the vertiginous scenario of having just a couple of seconds to write with each pen... In the limit (you mention endlessness first) you would have a pen for each letter of the alphabet. That's not very practical or attractive!

 

Surely it's not practical. But what do you think of the suggestions that I made? I've never met anyone who would grade my exams with two different colors and I'd think it'd be quite cool!

[Quintane]

 

 

Surely it's not practical. But what do you think of the suggestions that I made? I've never met anyone who would grade my exams with two different colors and I'd think it'd be quite cool!

When I graded exams or other scholar work, I used to use only red for every kind of mark. I still was not into pens and inks in the way I am now, so I only used red (Burgundy Red by Montblanc) for scholar works and black (Quink or Platinum Black) for my general writing. When the iPad came, I decided to save paper and trees and revise all scholar work there (I have saved tons of paper, to be sure). But alas, now in the iPad I use indeed different highlighting colors for my comments and annotations: yellow for highlighting something interesting, green for my comments, red for mistakes to be suppressed or corrected, cyan for suggested additions, orange for slight grammatical flaws. And of course, if now I should revise some scholar work on paper, I would do exactly the same with several pens and inks: that would go really according to my way of work nowadays. I just don't like light inks, so all would be somewhat dark colors. I don't have much now, but there are a lot of colors in different brands, and I find that also quite cool. In fact, I use a different color and pen in my sort of light diary, another in my more serious notebook for philosophical reflections, still another to the preparation of the lessons, another for my pocket agenda… So, yes, we are into that indeed. Thank you, Venemo.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Quintane

[Icywolfe]

This is a fine and ingenuos way to realize the idea of Venemo... But, let's see: how many writing jobs can one have? In fact, the problem is the love for fountain pens in the electronic age. When you discover yourself taking notes with your pen from an email you just wrote, you can see how near we are of a sort of sociopathy.

 

Thanks to all, really. It is encouraging to have so many responses, and so varied and so interesting!

What does "Venemo" mean?

 

Multiple writing jobs until each pen got a specific job. Also storage job (if that makes any sense) basically where on the person do you keep it. As in for me the N-Creaper and Pilot VP, both are pocket pens for me. The VP stays in the shirt pocket with the N-Creaper stays in the pants pocket.

[fpenluver]

I feel no guilt at all for not using a particular pen. It's not alive, it doesn't care. And I derive such great joy from crooning over the pretty colours of my early celluloids...

 

No, what I do feel guilty about is that I have so many pens I really need to re-sac. And I haven't managed to do anything about it. That's bad. That's really, really bad. :-)

+1

[Vlad72]

Personally, pens are tools for me, not jewels; but they are tools like a violin is a tool: because of the unique music it creates, (…)

My idea exactly. And that's the very reason why, now that I write *a lot*, every now and then I feel like trying out another pen and see how it goes. I didn't care at all about this as a youngster, even though I recall noticing how a feedback difference between my old Pelikano (dry) and an unbranded wreck (smooth) puzzled me.

I feel nothing bad for a particular pen lying clean and still in the drawer: it just isn't its time.

[Venemo]

What does "Venemo" mean?

 

It doesn't have a meaning, it's just my nickname.

[inkeverywhere]

I would presently own between 30 and 40 FP's. I have my everyday users, mainly Lamy (2 x 2000, a Studio and a Joy set) and a couple of Watermans. I collect vintage Parker and Lamy FP's and ink these form time to time as well. I have even taken to addressing my envelopes by hand rather than printing off from the computer, for the enjoyment of writing with them.

 

I take great pleasure from taking a display box out and just looking at and holding them, perhaps I am a bit strange but this, for me, is part of owning these FP's. I've got to ask can you really have too many FP's?

 

Greg

 

"may our fingers remain ink stained"

[Arkanabar]

I also tend towards minimalism, and not having stuff just to have stuff. So why is my collection growing? Because I don't yet know what I really like.

My Dad's "51" will never ever leave my collection. It is one of the very few possessions I prize. I like its quick deployment and very fine line, and love its absolute reliability, and more than anything, its connection to my Dad, who has become my hero.

Nor will my Pelikan M200 leave my collection. It was the first bottle-fill only pen I ever bought, and it is the pen I've had longest. It is an extraordinarily good pen, and I love its girth, its light weight, and especially the lifetime free repairs. Unlike my Dad's "51", I am willing to fill it with nearly anything (except Baystate inks, "51" ink, Superchrome, and iron gall inks). My M400 will likely get kept for very much the same reasons. I bought it to see if all of Levenger's blathering about the romance and warm feel of celluloid or the wonders of a gold nib had any meaning for me. They don't.

My mandarin yellow Ahab may get sold at some point. While I love its size, light weight, and brilliant color, and deeply appreciate the line variation I can easily get, I am not in love with the need to turn the cap (or barrel) three or four times to uncap, and two or three to cap it. With the Pelikans, this operation is a single twist each time.

My copper Estie hits a lot of high notes. It's beautiful, its medium manifold nib is very smooth, and it's very light. But it also requires at least two turns to cap or uncap, and it's just a little slim for my taste. I've learned that lever fillers hold no romance for me, even if I do appreciate how easy and simple they are to fill. In fact, I've occasionally been concerned that I might damage the lever if it snags on something because I failed to notice it was slightly extended as I slip it into a pocket or pen roll. I may come to sell it.

I have a Sheaffer PFM and a TipDip Imperial that should start to see regular use fairly soon, as I have been able to afford restoration. Because they are gifts from in-laws, I am likely to keep them no matter what. They reflect how quickly I earned the appreciation, friendship, and respect of my wife's brother and mother. And they ought to be pretty darned good pens. The PFM is likely to see the same sorts of ink restrictions as the "51", because snorkels are thin and finicky, and filling and flushing the pen doesn't flush the feed or nib, and they're rare and expensive. The Imperial, like the Pelikans, will be trusted to use PR and Noodler's.

So what does that leave me wanting to fool with? Well, a vac-fill, say a TWSBI Vac 700. Will this kind of fill appeal to me? Or will the need to unscrew the blind cap a half-turn for extended writing sessions annoy and aggravate me? What about the need to unscrew the cap, instead of just pull it off?

And a volcano grey Monteverde Intima. This pen is so absolutely gorgeous and striking I can hardly stand it. While I generally prefer bottle-fill, I've been refilling Sheaffer carts in my Viewpoint calli pens for a month or two, and it hasn't bothered me. And I have a small stash of international carts that I can use and refill. And it looks like I can swap in my Ahab's nib if I so choose.

And a Parker button fill, just to see what I think. And maybe a Vacuumatic, even though I know that the diaphragms often tend to go south. And a 1.5mm Parallel. And maybe a 2.4mm Parallel. And perhaps an ebonite pen of some sort, once again to see what I think.

I like the idea of having a bunch of cheaper and/or older pens with slip caps so I can try whackloads of ink. But common sense sort of dictates that I limit myself to about 4 or 5 at a time: a writer for black, a writer for colored ink, a broad/calli pen for black, and a stub for colored ink. And maybe a Platinum Plaisir for markup ink or a Noodler's super-cheap eyedropper full of Baystate Blue.

What have I learned I don't like? Pens that are heavy, narrow, leaky, flimsy, or require a lot of screwing and unscrewing to use. I like my pens to be convenient, comfortable, and trouble-free.

[Downcelot]

I also think pens are tool and using the pens are actually loving them. Unused pens are like unplayed piano - sad and lonely. However I think collectors are excused, they have to many and they are also preserving them by collecting.

 

I don't collect but it freaks me out abit when I get to 14 pens recently.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Downcelot

[Quintane]

I also tend towards minimalism, and not having stuff just to have stuff. So why is my collection growing? Because I don't yet know what I really like.

 

This is more or less what happens to me also. Not knowing what I really like, mixed with thinking that I know what I like but have never really got it (with one exception, the pen whose loss brought me here: Why I Am Here, Or Just Another Tragic Story…), and not knowing when I will stop trying to find it… I also have a short list of pens that I would never want to let go. Like in Arkanabar's list (a bit long to quote it) there is a Pelikan M200 included, and a Parker "51" with sentimental value (mine belonged to my grandfather), then a Sheaffer that my father gave me, and a Montblanc Boheme that my mother gave me… But the main reason why my collection grows is that it is very difficult to find a pen which complies to all my requirements: extra-extra-fine nib, smooth but not glassy, a very particular way to attack the paper, the ability, very rare, to make me write with a good handwriting, then some portability, a certain size, a certain postability, etc., etc.

 

I also think pens are tool and using the pens are actually loving them. Unused pens are like unplayed piano - sad and lonely.

 

I entirely agree. Lately I had the idea to give my unused pens to my doctorate students in the day of their examination. A Lamy ST is already gone in this way, and others are in line, mostly pens with Medium nibs, something absolutely unusable for me.

 

I also came to the comparison of my pen "collection" with a harem. Not fetichism, just a nice analogy. In a way, it is great to be able to be polygamous without any complaint! But I definitively don't have enough time and enough things to write for all of my pens. And the best of this analogy is that every pen has its own character, and therefore an individual, "personal" story. If a pen looses its charm, its peculiar attractiveness, it is time to give her a better life in other hands.