Hello From Newbury, England

[BikerD]

Good evening, [well it is here]

 

Having just bought a new fountain pen - and resurrected some others from my various hidy-holes, drawers etc. - I have started on an effort to improve my dreadful handwriting. I am well into retirement and actually have very little reason (opportunity, zest, whatever) to write but, when I do, I am pretty ashamed of how much my handwriting has deteriorated. When I was working I was often paid compliments with regard to my "nice signature", which was actually about the most writing I did even then. So, I'm on a quest to remedy that!

 

My wife has bought me a very nice Lamy pen to encourage my efforts! However, today's early scratchings initially disappointed me as the ink seemed a little unwilling to flow. I picked up my Waterman and tried with that and, while not perfect, at least I was getting legible results. The fault, I suspected, was the nib or the flow of ink thereunto - what to do?

 

Having found your site and read a little I was encouraged to find others had experienced problems, but I was unwilling to take abrasives to the nib, so I tried a little hand-soap, from the kitchen 'squirty bottle', and applied a touch to the nib and washed it away with a little filtered tap water. Bingo! I've fixed myself up with a 'writing slope' (old veneered cupboard door) and real blooming paper, from a specialist shop (Scriptum) in Oxford.

 

I don't have pretensions to Copper-plate but I live in hopes of folk being able to decipher my greetings cards etc. without my having recourse to the dreaded keyboard (hush, I'm using one now!). I've also a Cross fountain pen (leaving gift) and an almost antique Parker to take out and exercise.......

 

Very best wishes,

 

BikerD

[OCArt]

Welcome to our little corner of the universe from a pen user in San Diego.

[migo984]

Hello & welcome.

I know Newbury well. In fact I was down that way this weekend, having family who live in the area (Lambourn).

Enjoy your new, and old, pens, and let us know how your writing improving efforts are progressing.

[Chrissy]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[Diver]

Welcome to FPN, and the pen addiction that follows!

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Enjoy your time here

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell.

[Drawing61]

Hello BikerD from a fellow terrible handwriting compatriot. You will find lots of good information and camaraderie here.

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello BikerD and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

 

I type 100% of my work, daily, with the odd signature here and there. But that hasn't stopped me from building up a fabulous small collection, currently consisting of 45 fountain pens.

 

The day I ordered a Conway Stewart with a custom ground medium-stub nib, was the day my handwriting was transformed from scribbles to something legible and actually quite attractive.

 

What to write? Lunchtimes I go to a restaurant near my office, where I find a quiet table (usually accompanied with good music), order a cappuccino and then I copy out of a book into a TWSBI journal for an hour. It's absolute bliss. I rotate my pens and ink weekly and have found the TWSBI journal/paper to be perfect for my purpose. I have a range of about 20 ink colours (still trying to find the perfect 'sepia' colour) - and all put together; it is a special time of every workday that I simply won't swop for anything else.

 

Enjoy your time here.

[migo984]

 

What to write? Lunchtimes I go to a restaurant near my office, where I find a quiet table (usually accompanied with good music), order a cappuccino and then I copy out of a book into a TWSBI journal for an hour. It's absolute bliss. I rotate my pens and ink weekly and have found the TWSBI journal/paper to be perfect for my purpose. I have a range of about 20 ink colours (still trying to find the perfect 'sepia' colour) - and all put together; it is a special time of every workday that I simply won't swop for anything else.

 

Enjoy your time here.

Sounds idyllic, almost therapeutic! Makes me want to grab my journal and head to the nearest café :-)

[Bisquitlips]

Glad you are among us! Welcome!

[Wahl]