New Pen For A College Student

[Dakota_Wise]

 

Usually not. Sometimes the pens have some surface wear from being handled which is not a big deal. If a pen is old enough, the lubrication may have dried up, or an ink sac may have disintegrated.

 

If you are looking at the Sheaffers from Peyton Street Pens, they should be just fine. Peyton Street has a "no questions asked, money back guaranty" on their pens.

 

I see you use the California flag. Where do you live? I always recommend a trip to a pen store to look at a few pens and try some.

I'm in Redland. I honestly didn't know a pen store was a thing.

[ac12]

Would not bother with an eyedropper for school use. IMHO, it is too much of a hassle to load the pen, compared to cartridge/converter or piston. Also you have the problem of burping.

 

NOS is generally fine, but this depends on the specific pen. All that means is that it is an old pen that has not been sold before, thus "New, Old Stock." But as Frank said, age will take its toll on material; a rubber ink sac could harden and disintegrate, a piston pen may dry out, etc.

[ScienceChick]

Well I splurged. I bought myself a Parker 45 Fine nib, along with a converter and several different inks. I also have the TWSBI Classic coming as well. Thanks for the outstanding response. It looks like a great community I'm joining here

 

 

Edit: The P45 is from 1965. I'm not sure if years make a difference.

You chose a couple of dandy pens, IMO. The P45 was my first foray into vintage and I have, er, a few of them now Enjoy! You know you're on a slippery slope, right?

[Lam1]

Congratulations on you new pens.

 

Since you have already bought your pen(s), this comes a little late but perhaps something to think about for the next pens. Lots of people like the TWSBI's, but they seem to also have some problems of reliability (I never used one, but there are several threads around talking about this).

 

For modern pens at that budget I would either go with the Platinum 3776, which is a wonderful CC pen (~$80 from Amazon) with gold nib, or a Pelikan M2xx which you can buy from Regina Martini (http://www.martiniauctions.com/index.html ) for less than $80 shipped for NOS models or in the auctions. The Pelikan is a piston filler with an excellent steel nib. Another alternative is the Pilot 74. All of these are reliable pens that will last a long time.

 

For a little over your budget (~$30 more) you can get a Lamy 2000 from Regina's auctions (if your have a little patience) or a Pilot CH 92 from J-Subculture for example. Both are piston fillers with excellent gold nibs.

 

Good luck in college.

 

Edited to add: by the way, my son uses a Platinum 3776 Chartres Blue in college and loves it. But he will not take his Pelikans to class for fear of loosing them.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Lam1

[PDW]

I don't know how you work, but you could think of keeping both pens filled, one with blue or black for 'normal' use and the other with an easily-seen bright colour (green? maybe not red if your work will be hand-marked) for marking up notes and other times you want annotations to stand out from the rest of your text.

 

Do this, and you've justified spending money on two pens. Mind you, you might need a backup so you'll need another pen ... oops, that's the FPN effect

 

As for a standard ink, I've found Lamy blue an ink that works well on any paper you throw it at write on.

 

And, of course, all the best with your studies

[Frank C]

I'm in Redland. I honestly didn't know a pen store was a thing.

 

So, Southern California. Here's a list of some stores in that area:

 

​http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/storesofnote/usa/california.html

 

At this point, I would advise you to slow down, despite the fact that everyone is telling you to buy his or her favorite pen. Use your Parker for a while, get to know it, think about what you like or don't like about it. Then visit a pen store and talk to the knowledgeable clerks. They will point you toward a pen that you will like even more.

 

Initially, most people go through an intensive buying phase and end up with a lot of cheap pens they don't like. In retrospect, they wish they had saved their money to purchase one really nice pen.

 

One of the reasons that I use fountain pens is that they are fun to write with; I hope you have fun with this useful hobby.

[ScienceChick]

 

So, Southern California. Here's a list of some stores in that area:

 

​http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/storesofnote/usa/california.html

 

At this point, I would advise you to slow down, despite the fact that everyone is telling you to buy his or her favorite pen. Use your Parker for a while, get to know it, think about what you like or don't like about it. Then visit a pen store and talk to the knowledgeable clerks. They will point you toward a pen that you will like even more.

 

Initially, most people go through an intensive buying phase and end up with a lot of cheap pens they don't like. In retrospect, they wish they had saved their money to purchase one really nice pen.

 

One of the reasons that I use fountain pens is that they are fun to write with; I hope you have fun with this useful hobby.

 

Excellent advice.

[aeba]

 

So, Southern California. Here's a list of some stores in that area:

 

​http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/storesofnote/usa/california.html

 

At this point, I would advise you to slow down, despite the fact that everyone is telling you to buy his or her favorite pen. Use your Parker for a while, get to know it, think about what you like or don't like about it. Then visit a pen store and talk to the knowledgeable clerks. They will point you toward a pen that you will like even more.

 

Initially, most people go through an intensive buying phase and end up with a lot of cheap pens they don't like. In retrospect, they wish they had saved their money to purchase one really nice pen.

 

One of the reasons that I use fountain pens is that they are fun to write with; I hope you have fun with this useful hobby.

Good point, but without the journey of lesser pen(s), will Joe Average know why they are buying that expensive pen instead of just prestige?

 

More on topic: If I would get back to school, I would still take with me my trusty 0.5 / 0.7 mechanical pencil and 2.0 clutch pencil because there was always something wrong with my equations.

[terim]

What about Fred Krinke's shop in Monrovia, isn't that fairly close?

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/fountain-pen-shop-monrovia

 

Teri

[1maddog1]

My advice would be to practice with the P45. A lot. I know you've used varsities (which I think are great note-taking pens, btw), but you might be surprised at how much (and quickly) you will write in at least some of the science courses you complete.

[Frank C]

You can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak:

 

​http://www.socalpenclub.com

 

Go to a pen club meeting at a pen store. Be warned, fountain pen collectors are pretty geeky, myself included. You will get to see lots of nice pens and get more advice than you ever imagined. You will also meet some very nice people.

[gordonhooker]

And lots of nice geeks.....

[Runnin_Ute]

I just lost two 45's and replaced them with three. Go figure. Two from across the pond (Spain, Portugal) and the other from the midwest. (and I have a 45 desk set/pen as well)

 

Now to replace some others... a P51, and a Pelikan or three.

[Dakota_Wise]

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous repsone I got. My Parker 45 came in today, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I wish I had some sort of work to do so I could use it more!

[PDW]

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous repsone I got. My Parker 45 came in today, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I wish I had some sort of work to do so I could use it more!

 

Don't worry, your tutors will soon sort that out for you

Edited July 8, 2015 by PDW

[Frank C]

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous repsone I got. My Parker 45 came in today, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I wish I had some sort of work to do so I could use it more!

 

As a Biochemistry major, you could start memorizing the glycolysis pathway:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis

 

Your next assignment would be the Krebs Cycle:

 

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle

 

Let me know when you get done with those, I will prepare a quiz and your next assignment.

[1maddog1]

 

As a Biochemistry major, you could start memorizing the glycolysis pathway:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis

 

Your next assignment would be the Krebs Cycle:

 

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle

 

Let me know when you get done with those, I will prepare a quiz and your next assignment.

 

That shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. The next place to go would be the amino acid anabolism pathways.

 

 

 

[Frank C]

 

That shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. The next place to go would be the amino acid anabolism pathways.

 

 

 

 

You must have done very well in Biochemistry!

[ac12]

 

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank everyone for the tremendous repsone I got. My Parker 45 came in today, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I wish I had some sort of work to do so I could use it more!

 

Start a daily journal to give you some writing work, until school starts.

[1maddog1]

 

You must have done very well in Biochemistry!

 

Well, I forgot the details just as quickly as I learned them. I've also learned (and forgotten) the details many times.