How Old Are Fountain Pen Users?

[sirach]

I don't think I like being lumped in with 25 year olds... they can't afford to buy real pens yet :-)

Edited September 14, 2015 by sirach

[brownargus]

(78) Have been using fountain pens on and off for 67 years since I took over a John Bull from my mother in 1948 when I started grammar school. Most people used either dip pens or fountain pens and when the new Biros appeared they were not allowed at the school I attended partly because the ink printed through to the other side of the paper and in the post-war years we had to use both sides of the pages in our writing pads' and secondly they were said to ruin ones handwriting! When the John Bull started leaking I had a Platignum with a pseudo Aerometric filler but it didn't work as the breather tube was loose. I was given a Parker Duofold set on my 18th birthday which I still use daily. Since that time, I gradually acquired more pens (mainly Parker and Sheaffer) which I used regularly both in work and at home. Having retired, I became more interested in buying and using pens and then I came across FPN some years ago and found there were others with similar tastes. Sadly, the pens I have acquired will outlast me and no-one in the family is interested in this "antiquated way of writing" since they spend most of their time texting, facebook, etc.

Edited September 14, 2015 by brownargus

[pen lady]

I'm 66 and went to school in the UK too. I guess we just used pencils in elementary school, but at 11 when I went to a senior school it was dip pens and ink wells for one or two years then regular fountain pens. We were allowed to use ballpoints for rough work, but only f/ps for anything that was handed in. I sell vintage pens at the Toronto pen show and am delighted to see how many young people are fans.

[lgbpinho]

I am 30 I had one veeeery cheap german fountain pen when I was 10-ish. Several students (ages in the 17-22 range) love to play with the pens I take to the classroom. A few hate it when they find their fingers inked to the bone.

[FayeV]

I am 46. I started using FPs in my teens and it continued through college and my 20s. FPs were not required in school here in the United States, and most of my friends did not use FPs. I had plenty of free time back then which allowed me to indulge in epistolary pursuits before email became ubiquitous. Nowadays my FPs are generally used for bullet journaling, journal writing, and note taking.

 

My 10 year old daughter also uses FPs. She took them to school in 3rd grade and some of her classmates were curious and showed interest in her pens. I heard that some of her classmates have even persuaded their parents to get them FPs last year. Today, my daughter (now in 5th grade) told me one of her friends brought a charcoal Lamy Safari to school.

[inkstainedruth]

So what did the maker of J. Herbin use to write with his ink?

Given that the company was started in the 17th century, and IIRC started selling ink around 1700, probably quill pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Dhruv_Sood]

^Oh, I completely ignored the existence of quill pens.

Thank you.

[fireskink]

(78) Have been using fountain pens on and off for 67 years since I took over a John Bull from my mother in 1948 when I started grammar school. Most people used either dip pens or fountain pens and when the new Biros appeared they were not allowed at the school I attended partly because the ink printed through to the other side of the paper and in the post-war years we had to use both sides of the pages in our writing pads' and secondly they were said to ruin ones handwriting! When the John Bull started leaking I had a Platignum with a pseudo Aerometric filler but it didn't work as the breather tube was loose. I was given a Parker Duofold set on my 18th birthday which I still use daily. Since that time, I gradually acquired more pens (mainly Parker and Sheaffer) which I used regularly both in work and at home. Having retired, I became more interested in buying and using pens and then I came across FPN some years ago and found there were others with similar tastes. Sadly, the pens I have acquired will outlast me and no-one in the family is interested in this "antiquated way of writing" since they spend most of their time texting, facebook, etc.

Give them time yet - I spend a lot of time doing both, but also a lot of time writing with fps (though being bedridden probably contributes to both!). I'm seeing a resurgence of handwritten correspondence among people my age (mid 30s) which may be a hopeful sign!

[tinta]

I'm seeing a resurgence of handwritten correspondence among people my age (mid 30s) which may be a hopeful sign!

I'm sure encouraged about this.

The reason may be that handwritten letters bring with them a sense of reality that e-mail or SMS messages simply can't match.

Edited September 17, 2015 by tinta

[bijou3owl]

I'm 24 and started using FPs at 16. And I'm American! One who went through the American public school system!

 

(TBH I wouldn't know FPs were still a thing people actually used if it weren't for my French teacher, actually from France, who still used her FP from her school days and talked about how they're still common in Europe.)

[YugiRider2]

Who else replied <15? I'm interested to know - we can have a chat.

 

Nvm I realised that you can view the people who voted for what.

Edited September 17, 2015 by YugiRider2

[tragique]

It's interesting that there seems to be two majorities: 25-34 and 55-64.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Ballpoint pens got a real boost in the U.S.A. when the companies that had licensed the Biro or Bich (BIC) patent lost a court case. But for a while ballpoint pens were very expensive.

 

I started with pencils in school, and by the second or third grade I was using pens, which meant fountain pens. I have no idea of what brands the pens were, but they had to have been extremely inexpensive. So I began using fountain pens when the lower end versions were significantly cheaper than the relatively new ballpoints that were being sold. These fountain pens were all lever fillers. I thought that lever filling was the only mechanism that existed for filling fountain pens until I was an adult. I was still in grammar school when l switched to ballpoints along with just about everyone when their prices came down, and I remember incidents where the ballpoints would leak.

 

I went back to fountain pens when I was in late grammar school or somewhere in high school. Sheaffer was selling their cartridge fountain pens. Somewhere hidden amid all my stuff I have at least one and possibly two Sheaffer cartridge fountain pens that I'd bought in high school.

 

The Sheaffer cartridge pens were sold with a couple of washable blue ink cartridges. I was able to find a place that sold cartridges by the box of six, they were also washable blue. In high school I spent time trying to find some place that would sell black ink cartridges because I thought that black ink looked so much better. Eventually I found places where I could buy Skrip Jet Black ink in cartridges. I used those exclusively for the rest of high school and college.

 

Life went on and I used ballpoints for many things, and I used dip pens, which my mother called straight pens, for years on my own stuff that I would write at home. Those Skrip bottles with their internal wells were great. Here again I had to search for a source of Skrip Jet Black ink in bottles, while bottles of Skrip Permanent Blue/Black were ubiquitous in stores.

 

For my own purposes I used dip pens with Skrip Jet Black ink for years. And then I decided that a fountain pen would really be a good idea. I did not like spending so much money on cartridges, so when I saw an ad for the Platignum “Silverline” fountain pen for some relatively low price I bought one. I used that pen for years.

 

Life went on some more and I was using ballpoints a lot, and WordPerfect software. And then I saw a USENET posting for Sheaffer Imperial IVs for sale. I bought two, even though it was an extravagant purchase for me. I got one working with a cartridge refilled with Skrip Jet Black ink. Soak tests showed that Skrip Jet Black would not last as long as ballpoint pen ink or pencil. So digital writing predominated for a while. It wasn't until Noodler's Black ink showed up, talked about on USENET, that I saw a way to use the pens I liked and still have what I wrote remain permanent on the paper, and from there I really got into fountain pens and ink.

 

This posting has gotten far more garrulous than I'd planned . Well, that'll teach people to talk about their fountain pen history where I can see it!

[swanjun]

I'm 41. I got my first FP, a Sheaffer school pen, in 1990 at the age of 16.

 

I went back to fountain pens when I was in late grammar school or somewhere in high school. Sheaffer was selling their cartridge fountain pens. Somewhere hidden amid all my stuff I have at least one and possibly two Sheaffer cartridge fountain pens that I'd bought in high school.

 

The Sheaffer cartridge pens were sold with a couple of washable blue ink cartridges. I was able to find a place that sold cartridges by the box of six, they were also washable blue. In high school I spent time trying to find some place that would sell black ink cartridges because I thought that black ink looked so much better. Eventually I found places where I could buy Skrip Jet Black ink in cartridges. I used those exclusively for the rest of high school and college.

 

My best friend ended up getting a pen like mine, too, and I have very fond memories of the two of us finding hole-in-the-wall office supply places, trying to find elusive cartridge colors like Grey and King's Gold. Even though my interest in FPs waned for over a decade eventually, I kept all those cartridges and still have them today!

[Bookman]

61 years old, made in America, California to be more precise, L.A. to boot, I began using a fountain pen at age 36. All writing before that has been blurred into a half-BIC, half-Ticonderoga, half-Crayola (I was never good at maths), half-forefinger haze of a half-memory.