What Was The First Fountain Pen You've Used?

[Mr.Rene]

Greetings all,

Mine was a no name black piston filler fountain pen, with clear ink window and real cork seal...The nib was gold plated in fine point...IIRC was german made...After that... my father gifted to me his Parker 45 Insignia, a Parker 51 full size gold cap and navy gray barrel and a Parker 61 capillary burgundy with rainbow cap.They were my first expensive fountain pens...

By the way my father was borned in "Golden" fountain pen period but He loved to write with his Bic ball pens in fine point... ...

Regards

Edited December 15, 2015 by Mr.Rene

[sandy101]

It was early 80's, it was a Parker which my parents owned.

 

I used it for handwriting practise and to do my English homework.

 

It was an aerometric filler, but I couldn't tell you if it was a Parker 45, 51 or 21. I remember filling it every so often with blue Quink ink.

[bizhe]

Parker 88, for college graduation in 1992. Took it everywhere I lived, including three foreign countries, used it occasionally. Second pen was pilot decimo in 2011 after discovering fpn.

[sharonspens]

My first FP was a Lamy Safari, purchased from Levenger. Ended up with a couple of them, and used them until they were lost/broken. The pen I have had the longest, I think, is a cloisonné FP I purchased in China in 1996 while on a study trip. I do use it from time to time, maybe once a year or so.

 

Sharon in Indiana

[john74]

I am pretty sure that my first fountain pen in the early 80's was a Waterman Graduate (for elementary school). If I remember correctly, I dropped it on its nib and, in the late 80's, I switched to a Parker Vector, which I did not like at all, and later went back to a Waterman (I can't remember which model). All of those pens are long gone. But I still have the Waterman Laureate that I received as a gift for HS graduation in the early 90's although the finish is peeling like crazy.

[KKay]

Way back in September, I got my first pen. It was the Pilot Prera.

[Runnin_Ute]

Well it was my actual first fountain pen, but I don't really count it. A Shaeffer cartridge pen I bought at 7-11, I think I was about 10 or so, which would have made it the late 1960's,. It was confiscated by my parents within 24-48 hours due to the mess it made. (I made?) A variety of ballpoints... by the late 70's I was using a Parker Jotter - first the standard one, then a Flighter version.

 

A variety of other Parker Flighter style bp/mp sets including a 45 bp. My favorite bp of all time is the 45 Flighter bp. In about 98 or 99 I bought a Lamy Al Star from Levenger. Pen #2 was a red marbled Waterman Phileas with a very nice fine nib. ALso from Levenger. I still have the Al Star, but not that Phileas (but I still have one).

[OCArt]

My first fp was a Sheaffer cartridge pen purchased at a drug store in the early 1960's. I saved my pennies and got a Pelikan 120 in graduate school. The rest is history

[sharonspens]

Way back in September, I got my first pen. It was the Pilot Prera.

Oh, for the good old days.

 

LOL

[KKay]

LOL. Exactly. Better late than never. http://forums.mydigitallife.info/vb4_style/smilies/animatedwink.gif

[Zookie]

Mine was a Sheaffer "school" Pen.Early 60s. What I remember using more often, however, was a BIC stick Pen. You could take the insides out and they made great pea shooters.

I was a frequent visitor in the principal's office.

[cleosmama]

Mine was a Sheaffer cartridge pen (aka student pen) in clear green with a medium nib, blue ink. It was assigned to me when I was in the 3rd grade, for classroom handwriting lessons. I remember it well, sometimes using it as a tool to flip ink onto the back of other guys' shirts (a little game we played for a the first few days) and eventually "enhancing" the nib by deliberately bending the tines upwards. Somehow it still wrote.

 

It was eventually lost, but when I became obsessed with fountain pens I soon purchased a replacement. Of course it no longer fits my hand and so is uncomfortable to hold for very long, but I'm keeping it for sentimental reasons. And I'm leaving the nib alone.

 

That was mine, too, and I also got it when I was in the third grade. Mine was a cartridge pen.

[dasXFnib]

A Parker 45......as a middle school graduation gift in the mid-'60s.....

I had that pen for more than 20 years.....unfortunately it got lost in a move to new "digs".....

Someday I plan to replace it....It was a good writer!!

 

Always try to get the dibs....on fountain pens with EF nibs!!

[Sudhir]

Thanks for starting this post. it is interesting to see the different "firsts" that people used.

 

Though I do not remember the exact first pen that I used, mine was probably a local Indian brand available in the nearest stationery store.

 

I had written a blog post a couple of years back listing down some pens I've used in my school days. You might find this interesting.

 

http://thepenperson.blogspot.in/2013/10/some-photos-of-pens-used-during-my.html

 

Cheers

Sudhir

[Uncial]

My grandfather's greenish, blue celluloid thing. It had a rounded cap and a flat end. As a child I thought it was huge. It had a lever filler that hurt my thumb nail and it leaked everywhere. For about three months my hands were covered in black ink. Then I moved to his dove grey Parker 51. I still have it and today it is currently waiting on a new vacumatic unit. I posted about it not so long ago. It started leaking and the ink would literally pour out of it. I asked for your advice, opened the back of the pen to find a melted unit and a few other broken bits, but the new one is coming. Its a bit beat up but when I get the new vac unit in I have a little stub nib waiting for it.

[lacie]

Mine was a calligraphy set as a child when I was very young. The person who bought it for me meant well but they were not familiar with fountain pens themselves and couldn't show me so the whole thing ended in an inky mess. I remember that it came in a blister pack and used cartridges.

 

More recently when I was in japan I was scouring stationary departments for the best gel pens. I got onto the pen addicts top 5 lists of pens and noticed that he rated the platinum preppies I kept seeing and since they were so inexpensive I grabbed some. Now I wish I'd grabbed some of the pilot cocoons & kakunos that I kept seeing too!

 

My pen collection is still very modest. I've only added 3 pens - 1 TWSBI 580AL & 2 TWSBI Ecos. I think next up will be a Pilot soft gold nibbed pen. Maybe I'm getting carried away...

Edited December 16, 2015 by lacie

[Arkanabar]

You can have a Kakuno from jetpens.com -- not sure about shipping to Australia, though. Rakuten may be a better bet. Don't ask me how I got PIFed a Pilot Crystal (not normally available in the USA), but I did, and if you can, try that.

 

And Amazon has a plethora of inexpensive possibilities.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Arkanabar

[Tasmith]

Waterman Executive I bought in 1992.

 

 

[flipper_gv]

Pilot metropolitan.

[snowbear]

A Parker, most likely a 51. I was about 10 or 11 so this would have been around 1969.