What Is A Sane Number Of Pens?

[jdllizard]

24

 

1 extra-fine blue

1 fine blue

1 med blue

1 bold blue

 

 

1 extra-fine red

1 fine red

1 med red

1 bold red

 

1 extra-fine black

1 fine black

1 med black

1 bold black

 

One set for home and another for work.

 

Anything more (or different in any way) is insane.

What? No green? No Iron Gall?

 

Ya know, Noodlers has that cool new General of the Armies color.....

[lahlahlaw]

Over 3 pens is more than just "use". 4, 5, 6+ pens is the same as 100, we're all down the same hole:-).

[islandink]

A sane number? Probably one.

 

This really isn't the right place to be asking.

guilty as charged...

[Sasha Royale]

153 is a sane number of fountain pens . . . . . . . . . . . so far.

 

 

 

Edit :

 

154 is a sane number of fountain pens . . . . . . . . . . . so far.

Edited October 23, 2014 by Sasha Royale

[LamyOne]

Hello Islandink,

 

You're asking a pen sanity question here... was the phone-line to Bellvue busy?

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

 

Edited October 23, 2014 by LamyOne

[GregWrites]

Maybe psychiatrists could learn much about us very quickly by asking:

 

"How many FRs do you have?. How many are inked up today?"

 

Probably says it all about each one of us.

[Ink Blotto]

I'm not sure the precise number, but I'm not there yet.

 

Ink Blotto

[donwinn]

A few years ago, when an order of a black acrylic Noodler'd Konrad and an ebonite Konrad, my bride asked "How many pens is enough?" to which I replied "Normally I would say one more, but apparently the correct answer is two more". She was not amused, nor did she understand. I probably own only a dozen pens which cost more than $40, most of which are flexy and/or vintage. The remainder are inexpensive, less than $20 each. As my collecting matured, I became more particular, and sold off some "lesser" pens which I seldom used. Now I only acquire very nice pens at a really nice price. That seems sane to me. I do not spend $40 for a haircut, and my newer of two cars is a 2006 (the other a 2005), and do not generally exude conspicuous consumption. When my middle son discovered I was collecting fountain pens, he opined that "At least they take up less space than guitars" (I had 7 at the time).

 

Sanity is overvalued anyway. Disagreement with what one values is not necessarily a sign that one is insane.

Edited October 23, 2014 by donwinn

[B_Type13X2]

A sane number of pens is 1*10^27 no more and no less. I have to secure a lot more pens to have my sane number.

[WaskiSquirrel]

1

[sexauerw]

500-1000.

jar

 

 

Oh good, I'm about 100 pens below the minimum. I can go out and buy more pens! :)

[Cryptos]

I'm sorry, islandink, but you seem to have accidentally used the word "sane" in the same sentence as "pens". There is treatment for that. Stay where you are and someone will be there shortly to take you away care of you.

[jar]

500-1000.

jar

 

 

Oh good, I'm about 100 pens below the minimum. I can go out and buy more pens! :)

 

Ah and I feel bad being below even the minimum.

[islandink]

Hello Islandink,

 

You're asking a pen sanity question here... was the phone-line to Bellvue busy?

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

 

You cannot expect me to ask people who wouldn't understand...?

[Runnin_Ute]

I have 14 pens - all inked currently. This week I have regularly used 5-8 pens each day. There have been 2-3 that haven't seen any use this week. So maybe I have 2-4 to many inked. Nothing has dried up - yet anyway.

 

Is that just right, too few or not enough? Hard to say. Some days it would be one, others one of the others.

[Beethoven]

For me this is a rhetorical question.

[kidde]

1 is a sane number, unless you are ambidextrous, then 2. You would have to be crazy to write with more pens than that (excluding octopi and Kali). What? A sane number to own? Have you lost your mind asking a question like that? You obviously have some issues, so I suggest you send your pens to me for safe keeping. I'm sure they would have a lovely time surrounded by my hoard, I mean collection.

 

Paul

[Parker51]

It depends on if you coordinate your pen use with your attire. If you do then one for each shirt pocket size, times number of preferred nib sizes, times number of clip colors (assume at least two, one gold & one silver to match belt buckle colors), times total of number of desired solid pen colors and patterned pens based upon shirt & coordinating tie combinations. Then add number of special Limited Editions, and then increase total to include at least one example of every major fountain pen manufactuer, ensuring that the total also includes both steel and gold examples of each manufactuer, except for Sheaffer which must also include silver palladium as appropriate. And make certain you have at least one example of every filling mechanism, though the crescent, hatchet, matchstick, blow and sleeve fillers are optional given their rarity. But you must have examples in hard rubber, early plastic, modern plastic, brass, machined aluminum, machined resin, gold filled, Sterling and if you can afford it solid gold and precious Resin. Well, I can go on and on, and double the total if I would get both a mint example for collecting purposes and a copy for daily use.

[HandLikeAFist]

It's so odd. My answer is…two. I know, I know. But there you are. I have my grail pen, a beautiful sterling silver Montegrappa. I have my daily writer, of all things a Kaweco Sport Classic, with the best nib I've ever used. I gave my (few) other pens away. I don't have the pen collecting bug. But ask me about books...

[Quintane]

I have a proposal, though perhaps not for everyone. A pen per page. Get a pen, then write a page with it: a great page, a true page, a memorable page… It can be anything: it does not have to be a poem, or a letter to your son or grandson, or a deep philosophical meditation. Just a page that you feel proud about, a page that can move someone to something, a nice drawing, some beautiful calligraphy perhaps, a page with some lines that are expression of your soul, some lines or even some interesting babblings, or a transcription of some thoughts or some famous last words, or even an attractive post in this FPN. You will know what. A page that you can show to your wife or to your girlfriend or boyfriend when they ask what do you want a pen (or so many pens) for… Then that pen will be justified. It will be a part of your life. It will be attached to that page, and therefore to you, for ever. It always will be the pen you used to produce that page, and you will never want to give away that pen, unless you give it as a gift to someone who will know what that pen was used for. But now it can rest and give an opportunity to other pen. Then you repeat the recipe with this new pen. Of course you can write more than one page with each pen if you want. But you don't need to. One page--one single and true page---is enough for making you feel comfortable with each pen, and sane enough, I guess.