Your First And Why?

[senzen]

My first pen was probably something like a Parker Vector, simply because it's what was available; I now realize it contributed to making writing physically painful to me; after I decided to retrain my writing I tried with a Waterman Laureat, Man 100, and two Parker Sonnets; because of a lack of patience and bad paper I managed to destroy the Sonnets and gave up for some time. Only after my third attempt did I discover the advantages of writing calmly, without a death grip, with interesting inks, nice paper and something like 15 additional pens, mostly Lamys and Mujis. I finally managed to restore the Sonnets, the Laureat is finally not leaking, and the Man 100 seems to get along with Vert Empire. I have come to appreciate (1) reliability and ergonomics above all else, followed by (2) inks of specific colours and nice paper, even if (3) a nice smooth nib is a pleasure to use and (4) I do like pens with a specific design.

 

Montblanc is a no no because of social connotations (used by corrupt people with more money that aesthetic sense - which doesn't mean everyone who uses that brand is like that). A bit like when I had a craving for a decent Whisky and asked at the store what a good one would be, not what rich fools buy (the poor assistant had a hard time not laughing in front of a couple that fit the description perfectly); that 12 year Macallan was pretty darned nice, and not unreasonably expensive, like all my 20 current pens and inks are.

[amcityink]

So many peoples first were Parkers... and I never owned one... shame.

[ajcoleman]

I think it was in junior high that I discovered that not all pens and pencils write the same and that some clearly are better than others. From that point on I have been fascinated (picky, strangely obsessed, etc.) with pens and pencils. Still, I didn't own a fountain pen till several years ago when my son gave me a Levenger gift card for Christmas. Out of curiosity more than anything else, I used it to purchase a Levenger Truewriter Fountain pen and I was hooked.

[Arkanabar]

Prior to university, I preferred various 0.5mm mechanical pencils, including Pentels, Nijis (now sold as Zebra), and Staedtler-Mars. But in university, they dragged too much, and weren't smooth enough. I couldn't keep up. I tried some Papermate stick pens, and they were also too scratchy. I next tried Pilot Precise V5 rollerballs, and again, they weren't smooth enough.

Having run out of ideas, I went to the local art supply store, the Art Attack (alas, now out of business) and asked what they'd suggest. The proprietor recommended an Osmiroid calligraphy pen with a ball-tipped replacement nib.

It worked. Or rather, it WORKED!! My first bottle of ink was Parker Quink Blue-Black, and I thought it was unspeakably ugly. So I went back to the Art Attack and asked for suggestions for more colorful ink, and wound up with a rainbow of Dr. P. H. Martin's Brilliant Watercolors. I also wound up getting a Sheaffer school pen (red) and an A&W Sizzle Stix.

I dropped out of university halfway through second year, and lost my fountain pens. I didn't think about them for a few years. Then, some eight or more years later, a Levenger catalog was included in a box of parts from Bike Nashbar. It was subtitled "Tools for serious readers." That was me! I read all the time! So I flipped through it, and saw more fountain pens, and reading Steve Leveen's purple prose in describing them, I was reminded of how smooth they were and how much I'd liked them.

I agonized for weeks over my first purchase, which was a blue Waterman Phileas. I liked it, aside from the limited ink capacity. Then I ordered a charcoal Lamy Safari, which was a disappointment; I hated the triangular grip section and especially the rhino-hide finish. I also was disappointed with the matte black "stealth" Vanishing Point I later ordered to see what all the fuss was, about gold nibs.

But I was hooked. I found a couple of local retailers, and got a Pelikan M200 and an M400, which became my two primary writing instruments for the next ten or more years.

Then my brother-in-law got me a new old stock Sheaffer Pen for Men II, with the chalk marks still on it. I didn't know what it was, or how to get it to fill, so I searched the web, and shortly thereafter, I wound up here.

[fountainpagan]

I received my first fountain pen at the age of 5, a Pelikan 120, F nib, I still have, and use. This pen did all my school years, and through university, and is the cause of my never having stopped using a fountain pen, and loving fine and extra-fine nibs.

 

One day in my teens, I bought an M150, because Pelikan, of course. But I actually never really appreciated this one, even if I still have it, too.

 

Then I got a Parker Classic, Thuya finish, because my father had a Parker, but I didn't want exactly the same. My mother gave it to me, after my father's death (a Parker 75 sterling silver).

 

Then, I kept buying, once in a while, until I dropped in this well of temptation. The "once in a while", became recurrent practice

[Bidle]

I just became a member of this forum. Still already loved fountain pens and actually in school always wrote with them. Still never bought one, but got a view as a gift. Even some nice MB's. I travel a lot by plane so mainly write with rollers, still coming year I'll travel less,... so just bought my first. Meaning actually spending my own money on one.

 

It is the Pilot Custom 74 demonstrator and looking forward to write with it. Hopefully, I won't end up with a huge collection. ;-)

[dojocho]

At school, had a Parker with a barrel shaped like the model #2 by Mr Franklin & Mr Christoff. An all metal pen. What model that is... ? (not a clear memory though). Probably had it as it was likely a cheap pen for a child?

 

That would be a Parker 25, that was also my first serious pen in HS (early 80's). Cheap but robust, Parkers Willy's Jeep and just as cool. I still have it and every now and then I ink it up.

Prior to that I had used a Pelikano school pen, a blue pen with a metal cap. For some reason the Pelikano just didn't rock my craddle, the P25 OTOH marked a watershed, and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

regards,

Hugo

[Laefar]

I actually didn't use fountain pen as a child - our schools phased out the dip pens a couple of years before me and we went straight to ballpoints. My aunt had one - some Chinese hooded pen, probably one of those Hero P51 clones, and I liked it a lot, but it was never inked (not sure she even had ink for it).

My first pen was a Jinhao x750 I ordered a couple of years back, just because it looked cool and was cheap enough to try. Since then I accumulated around 30 pens, most of them pretty cheap, but there are gems among them for sure.

[akrohn2010]

I bought a Pilot Metropolitan after reading articles on Lifehacker and Art of Manliness about fountain pens - both recommended the Metro and Safari as ways to test it out. I didn't like the "school plastic" look of the Safari and thus ordered a Pilot.

 

I have two (in F nib), saving one for myself and looking to give one to someone interested in trying fountain pens. I like the metro just fine but find myself reaching for my Eco, Duragraph, or Jinhao w/Goulet nib more often.

 

Thanks to the Pilot Metro for opening up a new world to me!

 

~AK

[JakobS]

I have always loved to write, and loved using various pens and pencils. I used my first fountain pen in middle school, a Sheaffer calligraphy pen, and soon got the larger set with various nibs and different colored cartridges. The nibs on these pens, being untipped, we're not very comfortable to write with for extended period of time. My first tipped fountain pen was, I believe, a blue Pental snap cap with a absolutely horrible nib. I used ballpoints of every color in high school. At the end of college I picked up a Pelikano Junior, a great writer for not just kindergarteners! And then Lamy Safaris, Studio, my first Esterbrook J, then Dollars, and ten years later diving deeper and deeper into vintage pens!

Edited September 2, 2017 by JakobS

[Dronak]

Made me think, what inspired people to get their first FP, and then make it a life long obsession.

 

I don't remember exactly, but I think I got my first pen some time in grad school. I knew about them, but hadn't used them. Well, I had used calligraphy pens, which are similar in a way, but not really great for everyday writing. IIRC, I saw a Waterman Phileas in some office supply store for a pretty reasonable price, so I bought it, some ink, and tried it. I liked how much easier it was to write with than a ballpoint pen, and the experience of using real liquid ink was nice, a bit more expressive when you could see pressure changes and things in the lines. I got a few more pens over a number of years after that, but didn't really pick up fountain pens as a hobby until a couple of years ago when my favorite one -- a graduation gift from my parents -- had to undergo repairs and I was without it for a month or so. I bought a few more during that time to have another few pens to use, and things ramped up from there. I'm generally trying to limit how much i get now though, because I have more pens than I can readily use nowadays. Ink's a little different though; I'm willing to get some more of that now and then.

[Mister5]

My first was a Parker Vector that I purchased at Woolworth's, I think in the mid-early 1980's. Not knowing any better I probably used it as a ballpoint. It didn't write regardless of the pressure I put on it. I might have trashed it within the week. I didn't have much better luck with my next pen, a Lamy Safari, or some Watermans from the mid-early 1990's. I had better luck moving forward though - a faceted Namiki Vanishing Point, again mid 1990's was a good writer, and that was the one that gave me the first taste of a good fountain pen experience.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

A pair of Sheaffer school pens. Most one shortly after giving one to the pastor at my wedding. Our marriage certificate was signed with it.

[displacermoose]

My mom is an artist and is fascinated by broad edge calligraphy, so I grew up around Sheaffer No-Nonsense calligraphy pens and even used them occasionally as a child. When I started college I bought a few cheap fountain pens (I think two or three transparent Sheaffers and a Parker Vector) and used them till they vanished somewhere around my Junior year or so. I don't remember exactly why, but I really liked them and thought they were cool so I picked up a Cross Century II with some of my graduation money. All of this was fairly casual usage and after I damaged the Cross nib for the second time during my first year of grad school fountain pens went by the wayside.

 

Then, right after I finished my Ph.D., I won an NEH fellowship to do research at a special collections library for 6 weeks. I spent the first day of that fellowship with the early 17th century autograph manuscript of one of the works featured in my dissertation. The materiality of the words on the page struck me in the gut, and the experience turned my casual liking of fountain pens into a way of getting closer to the literature I love. Yes, dip pens would be closer (my authors would have all written with quill pens), but fountain pens are much more convenient.

 

The first pen I ordered after I got home that evening was a burgundy Kaweco sport. It was horrible when it came: scratchy and prone to hard starts. I employed my research skills to try and figure out what was wrong and ended up here. Been here (usually a lurker) ever since. I did get the Kaweco working a treat, but alas she jumped out of my briefcase at an out of town conference and has since been replaced. Since then my fascination with fountain pens has moved from an impulse toward a revisionist, romanticized gesture at the past into a love of the pens for their own sake. Most of my pens are modern, the exceptions being a couple of Esties and some Sheaffers, and I have way more ink that I will ever use.

[aggoo]

I was forced to use fountain pens for handwriting in primary school (not so long ago really), but my handwriting has always been awful, so when I got he chance to move to ballpoints I was quite happy to leave the school FP behind. I still remember the calligraphy training we did though.

 

Fast forward to 2011 and I was looking for a nice ballpoint for work, and I chanced upon a site in the UK selling a Parker Sonnet on special. I really liked the look and it happened to come with the FP, and was a good price. My plan was just to use the BP and keep the FP as a novelty, but once I inked her up, there was no turning back. The BP went in to the drawer and I have used FPs ever since. I still have the pen, and I reviewed it on my "mini fountain pens reviews" thread. It has a most unusual 14K nib, and I don't think I'll be getting rid of it for quite a while.

[Sasha Royale]

I'm amazed and forever infatuated with FP's and the way the ink spreads across the page. But lets face it, FP users are a very very very small % of the earths population.

 

 

% is irrelevant. What was ours will be ours again.

Dad had a beautiful Parker 51. I loved the easy flow of liquid ink for writing. I could not afford a Parker 51 for many years. At age 10, I got a Sheaffer cartridge pen ( 79 ¢) . The Parker 45 proved more practical for school. Parker 51's came later. Then, 100 more. (I'm sick. I need help.)

[SSD]

I used to borrow one from my father to write Christmas cards, when I was very young. No idea what it was; I think a Sheaffer. It had a transparent red plastic body and used cartridges.

 

In graduate school I bought a Sheaffer calligraphy set for paleography practice. In the '90s I started using a Namiki retractable and a Parker Sonnet; both of which are now lodged behind a heavy six foot bookcase. They are in a protective box, but not easily retrieved without shifting all the books and two book cases . . . .

 

This is what happens when you have a kitten and place a box on the top of a book case, thinking it will be safe.

 

But it gave me a perfectly legitimate reason to buy a Lamy Safari, a Vista and a Metropolitan . . .

[piembi]

My first one had been the Geha schoolpen. Kids were using either the Geha or the Pelikano back then.

 

The next pen had been a Parker 45 Flighter. This was my first "good" pen and a rather odd choice for a schoolkid. It got me through the following years in school and I still have this old workhorse pen.

 

I started university with a Pelikan M250. A "real pen" had to come with a gold nib and this was my fist "real pen". This 1980s nib was superb.

 

My mom gave me a Pelikan M400 as a graduation gift. I loved the pen but the nib of the M250 was way better than the nib of the M400.

 

The next one had been a vintage Montblanc 14 followed by a vintage Pelikan 400 followed by many other vintage pens .....

[mojo_65]

Hi I got passionate about FP just a few years ago despite I started using them during my early school days.

 

Back in the '70s as far as my memory goes it was common to use FP and everybody had one, may be as cheap as possible but everyone had its own.

And in my city the most common was clearly an Aurora Auretta, a FP used by so many users. I think that most of the childs learning to write in Italy in the '70s started with that one.

Other followed in my path but the passion started later on also boosted by the finding of my mother's engagement gift to my father, a 1964 Gold plated Waterman CF that I still own and it is still working.

From the '90s I had some other pens, a Montblanc 146 (stolen) a Perlikan M100 (stolen) an Omas Milord (stolen) a Montblanc Starwalker (stolen) .... So, someone try hard to undermine this passion but I am still here

 

Bye

Edited September 15, 2017 by mojo_65

[owend]

We had to use fountain pens from an early stage, but the early ones were non-memorable. The first one I remember, in secondary school, was a green Parker 21 in the mid 1960s, chosen by me because my father had a Parker 51! It served me well even after the hood developed a crack on the top so I had to be careful about how to hold it to avoid inkstains. I don't remember now, but the usual cause of pen damage was either gouging the desktop, see below, or stabbing other students (I've still got a small black tattoo on my right kneecap half a century on). Or both.

 

Our desks were the old type with a seat and back attached by a U-shaped cast-iron frame to the desk (lift-up lid, of course, and the lid heavily gouged over the years (not by me, of course )). The desks still had small ceramic ink-pots set into the wood beside the pen groove; the ink-pot was on the right side of the desk as it was technically a crime in Britain to be left-handed in those days I believe, and certainly a sign of deviant behaviour which the Masters (no lady teachers in those days) kept a close eye on.

 

We got detention for using a Biro (as all ballpoints were known as then). We were supposed to use blue-black ink; as a real tearaway some of us used black from about age 15. Oh, we lived dangerously in those days.