Your First And Why?

[AmandaW]

I love to draw as well as write and have been fascinated by stationery since I was very small. (I preferred the newsagent stationery aisle to the toy shop.) I studied mathematics at university, but thankfully that eventually led to a career in computer graphics. In mid-life I returned to university to study fine art.

 

My first fountain pen was a charcoal Lamy Safari with a 1.1mm nib chosen after reading lots of reviews and forums because I wanted a pen that could make interesting lines. I still choose pens for the same reason - wet or dry, very fine or very broad, or capable of variation in some way - and not a single medium in my collection.

Edited September 15, 2017 by AmandaW

[SSD]

This thread has driven me to try to find my Dad's old fountain pens . . . I don't mean the actual ones, but rather, the models.

 

I have the Namiki I gave him in the '90s, and that's been very meaningful to me (he died in 2005; my mom gave me the pen last December).

[Bass2trout]

i just always thought that fountain pens were cool when i was younger but they were not really available and i don't believe people were selling them online yet. i eventually stepped up from the ballpoint to roller ball pens that i thought were even cooler but not as cool as fountain pens. i think my first FP came in a box set that included multiple pens and types of pens, but the FP did not write reliably so i didn't really ever use it. my first working FP was a lamy safari i believe, but it was shortly followed by a pilot metropolitan which i used more than the lamy, both were used to take notes in college.

[Pendarion]

Around 1971, at primary school, our teacher ordered a pen for everyone - parents had to pay but a discounted price - and our pens had our names engraved on. The pens were Osmiroid and I chose a maroon one. It was a lever fill IIRC but I dunno the model. I remember the engraving was white. I used that pen and loved it and have no idea what happened to it.

 

My dad was a civil servant and ran a dept that used to make hand drawn maps of mines and quarries. I think the maps were hand drawn into the 1960s, maybe but at some point, many of the contents of the stationary cupboard to which he had the keys, were defunct. He used to give me old dip pens, nibs, holders and inks, from work. I had as many as I wanted. Such a shame I lost them over the years/ They probably had 'Property of Her Majesty's Government' all over them!

 

At high school, I sat next to a girl with the most beautiful italic handwriting and whilst everyone else used biros, she had an italic nibbed pen. I went to the village post office and bought a Platignum with an italic nib. I had a blue one, and later an orange one. I used them constantly, as a budding writer, I didn't just write homework with them, but everything and in my vaguely italic handwriting that friend taught me... I must have written for miles... I can remember both those Platignums I got the nibs to the point they were slightly worn down on one side and perfect for me. (I didn't know what an oblique was, then!) They were bog standard and very cheap but I loved them. I can remember using cartridges and Quink - I had Turquoise, Green and Blue/Black IIRC. Don't remember which was a cartridge and which an ink but I preferred ink.

 

At uni, almost the only readily available pens for my student budget were Parkers - probably whatever was the forerunner to the Vector. Later, Vectors were all I could get/afford. So I used them for years. I still miss my old crappy Platignums with the worn in nibs, though. They were workhorses.

 

I also had a fancy (dont remember the brand) FP my mum's best friend bought me a couple of xmases after mum died so I would have been 12. The school bully was in my form and he stole it from me the first day I took it to school. He openly used it in front of everyone and got away with it as his dad was a school governor and the teachers were scared of him. I don't think my love of pens is much to do with trying to regain my stolen pen, though - I already loved FPs.

 

We had a stationers' shop on my uni campus and when my grant came in, the first thing my best mate and I would do would be to go there and look at the pens... We were such nerds. Thirty odd years on and she is still my best friend and still understands the pen love.

[Robby_Boxers]

My good friends and family call me 'Mr. Top Shelf'.

 

Using a quality pen that stands out, and a fountain pen at that, just seems fitting.

[j1020]

Parker 51 a couple of years ago. Always wanted one when I was in college back in the 60s but couldn’t afford one.

[Dr_P]

Parker 45. In Argentina in the mid 1960s fountain pens were mandatory starting grade 2 (grade 1 was an introduction to writing with pencils).

 

Due to his job, my father frequently received gifts from suppliers and other businesspeople, mostly bottles of wine and pens. As there was a parker factory in the country, there was an endless supply of Parkers 45 at home and occasionally Perks 51.

 

I don't remember how many Parkers 45 I destroyed through elementary school, but eventually I used a black one throughout high schol and University. It was (and still is) the smoothest pen I have ever used!

 

So obviously when I started collecting fountain pens a few years ago, I concentrated in buying Parkers 45, 51 and 75 from the 1960s and 1970s.

 

My daily writers are now a 75 and a 51 from the 1970s.

[KLscribbler]

I first got into FPs in 8th or 9th grade, and the main reason was frustration towards the writing characteristics of ballpoints.

 

My "natural" pen grip happens to be almost exactly like the standard FP grip - tripod grip, almost no pressure, low pen angle (though I tend to write at an even lower pen angle than average - about 40°). Ballpoints hate being used in this way. Many ballpoints would simply refuse to write. I still remember the hand cramps I used to get in school due to the awkward angle and high writing pressure they demanded. Gel pens were better, but most had this annoying trait of accumulating ink on the opposite side of the pen tip from the paper when written with at a low pen angle. Every few lines or so, this bead of accumulated ink would then smear on the paper, making a blobby mess of my schoolwork. Not good.

 

Enter the fountain pen. I found two of my father's old FPs sitting around in a pile of unused pens at home. They were a red Parker "Super 21" with the usual octanium fine nib, and a black Parker Vector with an extremely wet medium nib. I borrowed them from my father, bought a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, and started writing. Oh, the bliss! Finally a type of pen that would write just the way I wanted!

 

This was back in 2004 or so. No-one else I knew used fountain pens. My parents cast strange glances at me - here were some pens they had tossed aside when the old Fountain Pen Era ended, and now decades later their kid is enthusiastically using them again! What an oddity!

 

Incidentally, that red Parker Super 21 is probably the oldest single item still in use in my family. It's probably about the same age as my father, if not older, considering that Super 21s were last manufactured in 1965. I've always wondered what the story of that pen was - did it belong to my grandfather before it passed to my father? When and where did my father acquire it? What interesting things were written with it? Alas, I will never know, because my dad doesn't remember anything about the pen. For, back in the day, these pens were just tools, much like the Pilot G-2s of the present. And it has been too long in any case. Fountain pen era here in Malaysia ended in the mid-1970s, and now so many memories of that time are gone - like tears in the rain, as the saying goes. (Or should it be - like washable blue ink in the rain? )

 

But that old pen remains. And it still writes without a hitch! Would that Janesville could make something like that today. I wonder if any of my modern pens could stand up to the test of working for half a century without any servicing or replacement of parts! Somehow I doubt it... heh heh. We shall see...

[Hamletta]

I think my first one was burgundy Parker 51 in grade school -- I lost it years ago and before I ever knew much about pens but from memory it's my best guess. Then I played with my father's dip pens left over from the days he studied architecture and drawing. I used them to write in my diary while in grade school and felt super cool.

 

When I was in high school, a boy that fancied me had a Parker 25 Flighter that I absolutely loved... though not enough to start dating him...

 

I don't think I owed another pen till I got a MB 144. I worked in business and that was the brand of choice for executives, though I went for the fountain pen and not a ball pen. I loved it but stopped using it when I moved to typing for convenience. I've rediscovered my love for FPs only this year I've cleaned the MB and it still writes like a dream.

 

And just yesterday I snapped a Parker 25 Flighter on eBay... Just for old times sake!

[WJM]

My fascination with fountain pens dates very early, to the times I barely remember. I already wanted a fountain pen as a little kid, a pre-schooler. I don't know why, but I wanted one, and for some reason two fountain pens appeared in the house, together with two bottles of characteristically smelly Hero ink (easily available in Poland to this day). I'm not sure where they came from. Neither of my parents uses fountain pens and they don't remember either. Possibly they were gifts, possibly I asked my parents for a fountain pen and they bought them for me, or one of them. Back then, as a kid, I didn't know how to use a fountain pen and I quickly gave up (now that I think of it, having two bottles of ink and two c/c pens, what could I do?).

I still have both of those pens today. One of them I years later identified as Parker 180, the second is some no-name (or at least I don't know its name) with an IPG nib and quite nice wooden finish.

After that short prelude in my childhood, I truly got into fountain pens in high school. Then I rediscovered those two and first time bought a fountain pen by myself. It was a steel Parker Vector. But the first pen that truly became my daily writer was a Parker 45 flighter, acquired a few months later, a gift from my grandmother if I recall correctly.

Edited December 29, 2017 by WJM

[Ink_Chick]

Being intrigued by the beauty and curvature of calligraphy, I received my 1st Sheaffer calligraphy gift set about 40 years ago. As the years went by, I would make additional purchases, but never veering from my Sheaffer comfort zone.

 

This past summer, longing for the relaxation and zen of fountain pen inking, writing, and cleaning, I purchased my 1st actual fountain pen, a Monteverde Invincia. Posts on FPN helped tremendously, and it looked so slick! Since then, I’ve made several additional purchases (there goes my savings) and recently made my first dip pen purchase so I can try my hand at some really flexy nibs.

[cat]

My first was with a very cute school teacher because it was love at first site.

[Inkling13]

I was never really inspired, but I was given one as a small kid. It was a red Pelikano with white cap, and I was fascinated ever since.

[GoldenNibs]

I never wrote with fountain pens until recently as I usually always used a ballpoint. However back in highschool which was probably in 2010 or so I bought a bag of fountain pens at a yard sale with my grandmother just beacues they were "old" for a dollar or two. I would just buy anything old for some reason if no antique fans were around. The bag included a parker 51 first year double jewel in teal, parker 61 first edition, a permapoint in snakeskin, and a few low end universals. I had no clue what they were or how to use them and thought they used cartridges. I dont have them anymore as I sold them on ebay when I started selling on there. Even though the 51 was nice I ended up finding a nicer one with a gf cap from my friend that I traded him for with an item I paid 20 bucks.

[Tasmith]

Waterman Executive in 1993 or so for $70. It was on sale. Thought it looked nice and decided to treat myself. Also thought I'd try to use it for calligraphy. Found out that the India ink I used with my dip pens clogged it within a day and put it away until I decided to try to repair it four years ago. Internet research brought me to FPN and fountain pens as a hobby. Did repair it and it writes great.

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Tasmith

[sdbruder]

Ive bought a unknown cheap fountain pen more than 20 years ago (now I know that’s a Chinese FP), that was my first (and for a long time my only one).

 

That got forgotten in some drawer (and survived so many moves and city changes with me). Recently a friend of mine started to talk about fountain pens and I remembered that Ive used to own one, searched for it, cleaned it and started using it again.

 

The rest is history as they say, now I have more than 50 fountain pens. And still counting

[Krulle]

Must be 25-26 years ago, when I went to the second grade in the elementary school.

 

My mom took me to a local shop in the town nearby or village to buy a fountain pen. I could chose my own pen ... a black metal Parker Vector with a fine nib. These days, they still came in a plastic box with a nylon lining ... shortly after they went to the plastic boxes with a see trough cover ...

 

I probably ruined 10 nibs but it survived untill university. I stopped using it then. A few years ago, I've tried it, writes OK, but a bit small

 

The shop no longer exists now, it became a friteshop. Belgians like fries better than pens!

 

 

 

[Tasmith]

Must be Belgians like fries better than pens!

 

 

 

 

The best fries in the world IMO!!!

[Krulle]

 

The best fries in the world IMO!!!

 

that's our trade

 

btw, to save the world from the biggest mistake ever ... french fries are not from France.

 

2 possible root-causes for this cruel mistake:

- the patatoes are frenched during preparing

- somebody was not good at reading maps during a trip to BE in WWII

 

the french tend not to double-fry their fries ... resulting in sloppy fries.

 

to complete my utterly off topic post, I'll give you the real recipe; please take your FP and note it in your cooking books

 

- thou shalt cut the patatoes in fries

- thou shalt wash the patatoes in water and dry them (e.g. with a salad spinner or a tea towel)

- thou shalt fry the fries at 140 dgr Celcius or 285 dgr Fahrenheit till thou see some coloration

- thou shalt let those fries cool down

- thou shalt fry those fries again at 180 dgr Celcius or 360 dgr Fahrenheit till the fries are crispy

- thou shalt eat those fries, and find the strenght to operate your fountain pen.

[james3paris]

I was inspired through serious pain in my hand. I used ball point pens and I gripped quite firmly. By my mid 20s, I could grab a handful of ice and I would not feel it. So, one-day, I was in pain and some guy noticed me at a cafe stretching and grabbing by hand and wrist. He came over and offered a suggestion. I should consider getting a fountain pen and he explained why.

 

However, I had to go through some more aches before buying a black Waterman Phileas. I was living in France at the time--mid 90s.

 

I still have it and I pretty much have carried one with me since.