What's Your Quintessential Fountain Pen?

[theolu]

Hard for me not to go with the Lamy 2000. It's so iconic, well built, piston filler, writes great. Hard to beat.

 

My under-the-radar choice is the Pilot Custom Heritage 91. Classic style. Accessible price. Pilot gold nibs are fantastic writers and there are lots of options. Variety of filling options. It's one of the most practical, useable and veraitile pens I own.

[kestrel]

Vintage Sheaffer's Balance in carmine striated celluloid. The oversize version is perfect for my hand.

 

Pelikan M800 is my almost perfect modern pen. Good size, weight, and balance and the Binder Italifine nib is great.

 

Runners up would be a vintage Conklin #40 Crescent in BHR or a Visconti Copernicus, both crescent fillers with great nibs and ideal size and feel in my hand.

[max dog]

Folks. Just for clarification, the video clip is not mine. I found it on YouTube and liked what was said about handwriting. For respect and due credit to the maker of that video, I should have made that clear in the op.

Repost

[jmccarty3]

Montblanc 344

[max dog]

Thanks everyone for your input into what is your quintessential fountain pen.

Just for fun I tabulated the results to see which pen would come out on top.

 

Drum roll please.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pelikan M800 is No 1.

 

Montblanc 149 is a close 2nd

 

Parker 51 comes in 3rd

 

Pelikan M200 and Lamy 2000 tie for 4th.

 

I must say this list of pens look very familiar from other threads posted here in FPN, whether the qualifier was list your: faves, most iconic, top 2,3,5, or 10, best, most used, best selling, etc.....

 

So there you have it. If you want another perspective for the next pen acquisition, why not consider one of these very "quintessential" pens picked out by some of the most Fountain Pen savvy people on the planet!

 

....and if you don't like the results, you should have participated.

Edited July 19, 2015 by max dog

[Sergio 46]

Lamy 2000 modell 002 (metal) in EF, without contest!

[j1020]

Pelikan M800

+1 for the M800. Close 2nd for me would be any of my Parker 51s.

[inkeverywhere]

This week it is a Pilot Custom Heritage 92, fine nib. No doubt this will change in the next week or two when I get it in my mind to rotate some other pens into daily use.

 

 

 

Greg

[elysee]

I must admit that I am partial to Elysee fountain pens. Here is a picture of my three favorite Elysee pens; I must confess that I have several others. The broad Elysee nibs have lovely flow with a great smooth, responsive feel.

 

Edited July 26, 2015 by elysee

[Cryptos]

 

Folks. Just for clarification, the video clip is not mine. I found it on YouTube and liked what was said about handwriting. For respect and due credit to the maker of that video, I should have made that clear in the op.

 

That was a bizarre video. And it prompted me to ask whether people in general really did have better handwriting back in the day. Talking about at the population level, not among the privileged classes. It occurs to me that this nostalgia for the golden age of writing may well be another view through the rose-tinted spectacles. Obviously handwriting was the common personal medium before the electric age, but that does not mean that the general public were particularly adept at it.

 

Or perhaps they really were? I am still searching for an answer to this.

[jmccarty3]

 

That was a bizarre video. And it prompted me to ask whether people in general really did have better handwriting back in the day. Talking about at the population level, not among the privileged classes. It occurs to me that this nostalgia for the golden age of writing may well be another view through the rose-tinted spectacles. Obviously handwriting was the common personal medium before the electric age, but that does not mean that the general public were particularly adept at it.

 

Or perhaps they really were? I am still searching for an answer to this.

 

I liked the video, except for the dude's quartz watch, which introduced an element of cognitive dissonance, and all the pipe smoke. My take on this is that not everyone in the golden age may have had beautiful handwriting, but at least those who were educated were encouraged to do so, whereas now this encouragement has almost entirely vanished.

[ink-syringe]

The way I understand the word quintessential makes me even question the meaning of the thread's title. It seems to be odd to say "your quintessential" if means to represent the most typical of a class of items. That implies that is a consensus of many people and not merely "yours" so I'll take it to mean your idea of what a quintessential fountain pen is, unless, as usually on the internet the word quintessential was trotted out just b/c you didn't want to say favorite. Favorite is mostly what you are going to get as answers anyway. But when I think of "fountain pen" I think of something old, ubiquitous, no-frills, from the golden age of fountain pens.

 

Like an early to mid-century standard open nib Waterman/Sheaffer/Esterbrook Lever filler.

 

That's what a generic, iconic, typical fountain pen means to me.

 

not my favorite, not the best, not the most popular or innovative but what I think of and what I think most folks think of when they think old style fountain pens, from the era when they reigned supreme, when few folks were using dip pens, and few folks were using ball pens.

[fplover01]

If I have to think with my brain, well the Pelikan M200 would be the pen for me. Piston filler, reliable, does what it is designed to do and direct evolution of a classic and proven design. Not a recreation of something that used to exist, but a design that has survived through time. And it is affordable. Not cheap but affordable. Has done the job for 10 years als only writing tool (apart from typing on PC). Cannot imagine why it wouldnt go on doing it forever.

 

Now well if I put feelings in the equation, I do like the M800... I love the added weight, gold nib, binde. But i am well aware this is a luxury item and not really an essential pen. My M800s have not written even 1/10th of what the M200s have. But i still love them.

Edited July 26, 2015 by fplover01

[Newjelan]

This week it is a Pilot Custom Heritage 92, fine nib. No doubt this will change in the next week or two when I get it in my mind to rotate some other pens into daily use.

 

Greg

I agree about the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 but with a Medium nib for me. I have more expensive pens and more interesting pens but every time I pick one of my CH92s up (I have 4), I'm pleasantly surprised by how perfect it is for me.

[Manalto]

The way I understand the word quintessential makes me even question the meaning of the thread's title. It seems to be odd to say "your quintessential" if means to represent the most typical of a class of items. That implies that is a consensus of many people and not merely "yours" so I'll take it to mean your idea of what a quintessential fountain pen is, unless, as usually on the internet the word quintessential was trotted out just b/c you didn't want to say favorite. Favorite is mostly what you are going to get as answers anyway. But when I think of "fountain pen" I think of something old, ubiquitous, no-frills, from the golden age of fountain pens.

 

Like an early to mid-century standard open nib Waterman/Sheaffer/Esterbrook Lever filler.

 

That's what a generic, iconic, typical fountain pen means to me.

 

not my favorite, not the best, not the most popular or innovative but what I think of and what I think most folks think of when they think old style fountain pens, from the era when they reigned supreme, when few folks were using dip pens, and few folks were using ball pens.

 

Agree 100%. This is one of those questions that occur regularly on this forum where people pretty much ignore the question and respond, as you say, by naming their favorite pen(s).

[max dog]

Let's not over analyze this. For some their fave could be what they consider the most quintessential, and for some not.

Edited July 30, 2015 by max dog

[ssmui]

For today it is my Parker 51 flighter.

[ink-syringe]

Let's not over analyze this.

 

 

Strawman.

 

 

Besides, what, do you mean by over-analyze?

 

 

If you mean thinking about what the question means, giving a thoughtful on topic answer and not merely answering the question that you wished had been asked instead then okay, I am coming roaring out of the closet as pro-over-analyze,

 

, but words (over-analyize, quintessential) actually have distinct meanings.

 

Proof that over-analysis is not a huge danger would just be the very next post after yours.

 

Back to your regularly scheduled program-ily yours,

 

Ink

[Manalto]

Let's not over analyze this. For some their fave could be what they consider the most quintessential, and for some not.

 

I'd also like to know what "the most quintessential" means.

[Beechwood]

Not being smart I had to look up quintissential, 'representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class'

 

So the quality for me would be humility. I like the idea of a working person, perhaps 80 years ago putting the parts together on a pen or pencil that is still cherished today, I like my old Scripto pencil, my Victorian pencil with the silver extender/shirt clip and most of all my early 30s button filled Parker, boring and as black as your hat but having all the quality I want.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Beechwood