Do You Ever See Other People Using Fountain Pens At Work?

[Dronak]

No, I almost never see anyone else using a fountain pen. At one work meeting a few months back, someone even commented that I'm the only person who regularly uses fountain pens. Perhaps some others do use them, but not at work like I do? *shrug*

[spaceink]

In my professional circles, I do see fountain pens time to time. Most are Lamy Safaris or All-Stars, which are popular with some younger folks in the creative fields. That is pretty much it.

 

It's OK. I get to be the person with the "fancy" pen even when all I'm using is an Esterbrook.

[Sandy Fry]

Nope. Just me and my colleagues think it is insane to pay more than a couple bucks for a pen!

 

David

[bongo47]

On a college campus, I've often said, to succeed and advance you must cultivate your eccentricities. One of mine is my pen selection.

[deepak23]

Seven or eight users in my co. Two are fellow nuts. The others have one or two. A sheaffer prelude, a hemisphere, a hero a Reynolds and a few vectors are what I have seen around. The big wigs are all into felt tips and ball points...

[synerr]

People who use mechanical keyboards and / or fountainpens generally end up with work from home jobs.

[Mastiff]

Have seen a few (university)- mostly amongst older senior professors. Even them they only tend to use FPs in the comfort of their own office. I have only seen one person actively using a fountain pen in patient clinics.

[jthole]

I work in a large IT company. It is surprising how many people still take notes with pen and paper. Of those, about 10% uses a fountain pen, I guess.

 

So yes, I do see fellow fountain pen users in the workplace. However, the only pen collector I knew in our company retired some time ago.

[Bklyn]

One person used a MB 144 and another a Sheaffer Targa, both with exclusively turquoise ink. My boss had a black Cross ATX and the president used a black Waterman Le Man 200. A former boss had a Waterman Executive set. I used mostly a maroon marble Duofold International and sometimes when people at work saw it, it would enthuse them to bring in and resume using their own fountain pens.

Happiness is a real Montblanc...

 

Agreed my friend. Agreed.

[Bklyn]

Only once. I used to work for a CEO who had a MB 149 and it was lovely. It trend me lot FP's but that was 25 years ago. I have not seen a FP in the workplace since. I see jell pens which have tried in bold and they are OK but I am surprised that more folks do not use Fps at work.

[Dronak]

Happiness is a real Montblanc...

 

Agreed my friend. Agreed.

 

Speaking of Montblancs, a little while back, the founder of the company I work for said he'd get me one if the proposal I was co-managing at the time ends up winning. I doubt he was serious and it'll be a while before we get results, but if we do win the contract, I may have to remind him about this ...

[gammada]

I work mostly for clients in the contract furniture business. Many of these guys (who are either well-heeled executives or bona-fide hipsters) arrive to meetings with expensive pens and de-rigour Moleskine or Leuchtturm notebooks. The brand of choice seems to be Mont Blanc but much to my dismay, all those are either ballpoints or rollerballs. I'm the only at the table with a FP.

 

The only place I saw a fountain pen recently (last year) was during a radio interview. The show was about architecture and the host -being an architect-, showed-up with a Coffee Lamy Al-Star... which prompted me to spend almost $ 130 to get me one!!!

[cobalt]

I know a restaurant in central London (UK). It is usually frequented by people who I suspect would know the difference between a fountain pen and a fire hose. We can meet up, eat and pretend to be at work (hah!).

[figboot]

Sadly, no. I wish I had a FP buddy at work...

[Tojusi]

At a conference this week, with participants from around the globe, I saw at least three people using FPs. One MB, one Parker, and one I recognized as an FP but I was too far to identify it.

 

Not that many people were taking notes as the focus was more on networking so the ratio of FPs to other pens there must have been high.

 

Most of the handouts were on glossy paper, that discouraged my FP usage. Please use real paper, not something that feels like plastic.

[Jerome Tarshis]

Although my last office job ended almost 50 years ago, I became a journalist and found myself spending time in other people's workplaces. I've written about art, architecture, and design, among other subjects, and would say that the fountain pen is still alive in the world of visual expression. If I go to the press party for an art exhibition, I'm pretty sure to see some fountain pens in the hands of my fellow jackals of the fourth estate, and a fair number of artists take an interest in writing instruments. Even fountain pens. Graphic designers, too.

 

Where I live, San Francisco, the largest art-supplies store is probably Flax. Seventy per cent of the sales of their fine pens department are of fountain pens, I am told. And increasingly the buyers are young. So, yes, there are all those MB rollers seen on the job, but in some sectors of the economy FPs are not vanishingly rare, as they seem to be in the generic office environment.

Edited October 3, 2015 by Jerome Tarshis

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I saw a coworker sign some paperwork with a Pilot Varsity, but it was one that I had given him, so I'm not sure that would count. The only people I've seen use fountain pens anywhere, not just at work, are ones that I've given them to, and I haven't really made any converts; they don't seem to use them very often.

[Venemo]

I've never saw any fountain pens at either of my workplaces so far. Nowadays I go to university, and on some very rare occasions I see someone writing with a fountain pen, but usually they sit a few rows away from me so I can't start a conversation about it.

 

In the lab (where I write my thesis and work on some cool electronics projects) everyone knows I'm into fountain pens. (A guy even helped me repair a pen once.) I never boast about it, though, and nobody has ever made fun of it or commented on it, although sometimes when they see an interesting pen on the desk in front of me, they come there, uncap it, draw a few lines with it and then put it back.

 

On the rare occasions someone does mention them, they usually talk about them like "your elite pens".

(Even though none of my pens are actually really that elite. But it feels good that they think that.)

[sidthecat]

My boss uses them...I gave him a Waterman Commando, and his aunt gave him her dad's MB 149.

 

One of our production assistants had an interest in pens so I gave him a Jinhao I'd happened to acquire. He's a lefty like myself so he's working on his penmanship. On the other hand, my boss uses his for drawing.

 

So I suppose I'm the carrier.

Edited October 4, 2015 by sidthecat

[Schadenfreude]

Most of my clients i work for are elderly couples. Most of them still have fountain pens on their desks. There's a client of mine, with her house filled with all things vintage. Her husband, born in the year 1930's, took his fountain pen to write and i was like oh my.....what a nice cursive handwriting! I took a look at his fountain pen...and wondered whether or not it's still being sold in the market. So vintage!