Fountain Pen For High School Use

[chromantic]

A school pen that you can "throw in a bag":

 

> Pilot Varsity disposable - nothing fancy, the blue is a standout just for the ink

> Kaweco Sport - limited to short int'l. cartridges

> Pelikano Junior - P65 or P67/68 (the clip-less ones), uses short or long carts

[ac12]

An easy inexpensive single pen case is a travel toothbrush case. If the pen is not too big it should fit.

[PotatoJesus]

An easy inexpensive single pen case is a travel toothbrush case. If the pen is not too big it should fit.

That is so smart. A low cost way to keep your pens safe. I definitely will be trying this out.

[PotatoJesus]

Lamy pens are excellent*, but quite frankly pretty expensive in the US - I have a bunch of Jinhao x450's, they're pretty good. They do have a slightly flattened section for better ergonomics, though, which is something not everybody's too fond of. I love those sections, but if you don't, the x750 has a smooth section as far as I'm aware.

 

If you don't mind going pen hunting, the Parker 45 is indeed an excellent pen, though I'm pretty sure the section is slimmer than 10 mm**, and it does use proprietary cartridges.

 

There's also the Faber-Castell Loom, but that one has a plastic cap (I think), and I haven't had mine for long enough to say much about its durability.

 

*especially because you can easily swap nibs - careful, though the AL-Star may be a metal pen and look neat, but it scratches and dents very easily. It won't actually *break*, but it'll definitely show its age after a few years.

 

**I just checked - 7mm-ish at the front, 10mm further back.

Yeah the grip sections on the Lamy pens aren't for me the sections are flattened too much for them to be comfortable for me. Although a slight flattening, such as in Jinhao X450s are quite comfortable.

[AL01]

So I want to upgrade from the use of ballpoint pens at school to a fountain pen. I do have a pen that I enjoy to use at home to study with, but its made out of acrylic, which makes be very scared that it will break in my bag. I know for a fact that there will be times when the pen will be beat around my bag, so I want to stick with pens that are more heavy duty, and made out of metal so that it will be less likely to have any part of the pen break or crack. I do have a metropolitain, but I find the grip section way to uncomfortably small to use, so the grip section would preferably be ~10mm. I was thinking about getting a Brass Tactile Turn but I know there are other alternatives like a Karas Kustoms Ink(not a fan of the finishes they have for the aluminum versions) or the Kaweco Brass Sport. Are there any other metal pens that I should consider? It will mostly be used at school and will probably only have black or blue-black ink in them. I usually like to write in pencil at school (easier to fix mistakes) but when differentiating important notes from others and taking test it will be used.

 

eh... Just stick it in your pants pocket. You can try the Lamy Al-Star or some Japanese metal pen. I also like the Sheaffer Prelude. I am a student too, but I prefer plastic pens. My whole pen collection is listed on my profile.

 

(All of them are daily writers.)

Edited March 27, 2017 by AL01

[MuttonChew]

 

You NEED a pen case, to put the pen in. Don't just drop it into the bottom of your school bag/pack. Just as with a mechanical pencil, the fountain pen needs protection from being crushed by your books and other stuff.

 

Not necessarily... I've been using fountain pens all through high school and I just keep them in the front pocket of my jeans. It hasn't failed me yet.

[basterma]

Does it have to be a pen available in the USA?

[Flippy]

Hi, glad to see another high school student.

 

I would recommend the Lamy Al-Star. Great metal pen that can take a good licking.

[PotatoJesus]

Does it have to be a pen available in the USA?

I mean I should be able to buy it and get it shipped to the US

[PotatoJesus]

Hi, glad to see another high school student.

 

I would recommend the Lamy Al-Star. Great metal pen that can take a good licking.

As much as i would like to get in to Lamys (the new petrol color looks great) I cannot bear to use the grip section

[sandy101]

The Lamy Logo and the Studio do not have triangular grips.

[jar]

My first "school fountain pen" was my hand-me-down Sheaffer Balance plunger fill.

 

 

http://www.fototime.com/58A8DB926C0C2A0/medium800.jpg

 

 

Shortly afterwards I switched to a first generation Sheaffer Cartridge Pen (clear with chrome cap) for convenience and because as a border I could always buy cartridges at the school book store.

 

I still have both.

Edited March 27, 2017 by jar

[Mercian]

A pen for 'every day carry' in High School?

 

You will be taking your pen in to an environment in which you and it will be surrounded by large numbers of the most dangerous animal on the planet - teenaged humans.

As such, one must consider that it is an environment that has high risks of theft and/or damage by classmates.

 

Accordingly, I would immediately disqualify expensive pens - those should be kept for use at home.

I would also disqualify pens that can only be filled from bottles, as a High School is not an environment in which one wants to be carrying a bottle of ink around.

Sure, you could use a piston-fill or sac-fill pen with a high capacity, but doing so would require you to remember to check its fill level every night. Piston fillers also tend to be expensive, and so not worth risking in a High School.

In my opinion, it is less-risky/more-sensible to buy an inexpensive cartridge/converter pen, and carry spare cartridges to school.

I would advocate pens that take cartridges that have high capacities, such as Long International cartridges (i.e. not ONLY the Short Internationals) or the proprietary cartridges from LAMY, Parker, or Aurora.

 

I do not think that you necessarily need to buy a metal pen, as metal 'pencil boxes' (we Brits call them 'pencil cases') are cheap. One of those would also keep your spare cartridges safe in your school bag.

 

You have already said that you do not like the grip section on the LAMY Safari/Vista/Al-Star, so although they are excellent & robust pens for students, they are of no use to you.

In my opinion, a LAMY Studio is a bit too expensive to take in to a High School.

 

Pelikan makes a range of pens for use in High School. They take Long International cartridges - so you can get cartridges that fit them from many manufacturers, not only from Pelikan.

The 'Pelikano' has a round grip-section and an ink window so you can easily see how much 'ammo' you have left. They are available with 'Fine' nibs.

The more 'grown-up' Pelikan Twist & Stola III are ONLY available with 'medium' nibs.

 

If you are quite sure that you want a metal pen, Luxor in India still make the Parker Frontier.

It is only available with 'fine' nibs, and it has a round grip section.

I bought one from Amazon Marketplace, and one from eBay. Both are lovely smooth writers.

The design/construction of them is also superior to e.g. my Frontier made in 2005 in the U.K.

The modern Frontiers made by Luxor do NOT (in my experience) have the problems with their caps, or plastic/rubber on their grip section that wears off, which plagued older UK-made Frontiers.

Their nib/feed unit also simply unscrews, which makes cleaning them out really easy

They are cheap by US or UK standards, and they look more 'grown-up' than Pelikanos.

Once you leave school, you could use them at work without them looking like a 'School pen for kids'.

They are limited to using proprietary cartridges from Parker or Aurora, but those are high-capacity and available almost everywhere.

 

I advise you to read reviews of any pens that pique your interest before buying them. And, if possible, to try them out in your hand (IF you can find a bricks-and-mortar shop that stocks them).

Good luck!

 

[Edited to correct FFE & error inserted by auto-'correct' software.]

Edited March 27, 2017 by Mercian

[basterma]

Schrade (Shrade?) Tactical Pen.

 

Tombow Object

 

Pelikan Pelikano

 

Parker 45 may be too thin for you, but a solid pen.

[Meshal]

I would suggest Pilot metropolitan, great price, made of metal, but always put the cap on when you are done using it. an accidental drop can damage the nib aggressively.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Meshal

[inkstainedruth]

 

Don't think there's many $7.00 Parker 51 anymore, a working one is more likely to be $70.00

 

Well, that's mostly true, but I've gotten very lucky a few times. Paid $10 a couple of years ago for a Cedar Blue 51 Vac in an antiques mall, because it had the cap for some 3rd tier pen on it, didn't have a price tag, and the guy who open the case for me didn't know from pens (and I got a late Mk II Burgundy Aerometric in another booth the same day, because it was marked as -- and had the cap for -- a Parker Frontier; I paid $15 for that one; cost more to get a 51 cap for the thing than I paid for the pen... anyone have a need for a Parker Frontier cap? ).

My suggestions for good workhorse pens? A Pilot Metropolitan (but the F nib I tried was scratchy); a Parker Vector (but they are small pens and you'll probably want to get a converter, rather than use cartridges -- don't get a slide converter, get one of the slim sized twist converters). For a bit more $ there's a Lamy Safari (again, you'll want to pay the extra $5 US and get a converter): they're pretty rugged in spite of being plastic bodies); I also have a Jinhao 599, which someone gave me -- it's a Chinese knockoff of a Safari and isn't quite as good a pen, but is not bad for costing roughly $5-6.

For that kind of money, I'm also going to suggest a Dollar 717i, which is an inexpensive piston filler (mine is a demonstrator model) made in Pakistan. They hold a lot of ink and the plastic feed is better than I expected (not sure whether you can get different width nibs on them -- mine seems to be sort of an F/M); the only downside is that every now and then you may have to move the piston up to get rid of air pockets. But it's a pretty good pen for the money.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PotatoJesus]

A pen for 'every day carry' in High School?

 

You will be taking your pen in to an environment in which you and it will be surrounded by large numbers of the most dangerous animal on the planet - teenaged humans.

As such, one must consider that it is an environment that has high risks of theft and/or damage by classmates.

 

Accordingly, I would immediately disqualify expensive pens - those should be kept for use at home.

I would also disqualify pens that can only be filled from bottles, as a High School is not an environment in which one wants to be carrying a bottle of ink around.

Sure, you could use a piston-fill or sac-fill pen with a high capacity, but doing so would require you to remember to check its fill level every night. Piston fillers also tend to be expensive, and so not worth risking in a High School.

In my opinion, it is less-risky/more-sensible to buy an inexpensive cartridge/converter pen, and carry spare cartridges to school.

I would advocate pens that take cartridges that have high capacities, such as Long International cartridges (i.e. not ONLY the Short Internationals) or the proprietary cartridges from LAMY, Parker, or Aurora.

 

I do not think that you necessarily need to buy a metal pen, as metal 'pencil boxes' (we Brits call them 'pencil cases') are cheap. One of those would also keep your spare cartridges safe in your school bag.

 

You have already said that you do not like the grip section on the LAMY Safari/Vista/Al-Star, so although they are excellent & robust pens for students, they are of no use to you.

In my opinion, a LAMY Studio is a bit too expensive to take in to a High School.

 

Pelikan makes a range of pens for use in High School. They take Long International cartridges - so you can get cartridges that fit them from many manufacturers, not only from Pelikan.

The 'Pelikano' has a round grip-section and an ink window so you can easily see how much 'ammo' you have left. They are available with 'Fine' nibs.

The more 'grown-up' Pelikan Twist & Stola III are ONLY available with 'medium' nibs.

 

If you are quite sure that you want a metal pen, Luxor in India still make the Parker Frontier.

It is only available with 'fine' nibs, and it has a round grip section.

I bought one from Amazon Marketplace, and one from eBay. Both are lovely smooth writers.

The design/construction of them is also superior to e.g. my Frontier made in 2005 in the U.K.

The modern Frontiers made by Luxor do NOT (in my experience) have the problems with their caps, or plastic/rubber on their grip section that wears off, which plagued older UK-made Frontiers.

Their nib/feed unit also simply unscrews, which makes cleaning them out really easy

They are cheap by US or UK standards, and they look more 'grown-up' than Pelikanos.

Once you leave school, you could use them at work without them looking like a 'School pen for kids'.

They are limited to using proprietary cartridges from Parker or Aurora, but those are high-capacity and available almost everywhere.

 

I advise you to read reviews of any pens that pique your interest before buying them. And, if possible, to try them out in your hand (IF you can find a bricks-and-mortar shop that stocks them).

Good luck!

 

[Edited to correct FFE & error inserted by auto-'correct' software.]

Yeah thanks for the advice, now that I think more about it an expensive pen would be too devastating to take to school and have it get lost or stolen. I know that you said piston fillers would need me to check the levels every night, but I wouldn't be using the pen that extensively, as I much prefer using pencils on the basic homework and class work, and I would only really be using it during not taking time and writing test (bubble/multiple choice tests require a ballpoint pen so the grading machine can read it or something). I enjoy demonstrator pens, so I am leaning towards getting a TWSBI Eco because it's about the same as a Lamy Safari (less if you included the price of a converter) and it can hold quite a bit of ink that will last me a while in class.

I really appreciate everyone's recommendations and convincing me to bring in a less risky pen to school. This was all really helpful to me, with my next objective is to head to a local Staples and find a nice (and relatively small) hardshell pencil case to keep it safe while its in my bag.

Edited March 27, 2017 by PotatoJesus

[LizEF]

(bubble/multiple choice tests require a ballpoint pen so the grading machine can read it or something).

 

Pretty sure you could use your FP for this, as long as the ink is dark blue or black. (Only the older versions of these required a special way to darken the circles.)

[Freddy]

Parker "51" Vacumatic and or Aerometric filler...........................................

 

Fred

 

Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'......................................................Jeff Buckley

[dogpoet]

I'd go for a cartridge pen for school, myself: however much a piston or whatever holds, it's guaranteed to run out when you least want it to, and you don't want to be dragging a bottle of ink around in your schoolbag.

Maybe a Parker 45 (which still turn up cheap on occasion) rather than a 51? I'd second the suggestions of a Tombow Object (though I'm not sure you can get those in fine), Kaweco Sport or Pilot Metropolitan, and maybe suggest a Pelikan Twist as well: that one has the added advantage that it looks so naff it's unlikely to get stolen.