What Fountain Pen Have You Lost?

[A Smug Dill]

I picked up the last two NOS, Medium-nibbed Waterman 'Racing Edition' Expert fountain pens — one in red and one in yellow, with the plastic racing car cases but no outer cardboard box — that de Bijenkorf put on clearance for something like €45 each, when I was in Amsterdam in 2001. I already had two other Waterman Expert II fountain pens — with green marble lacquered and red marble lacquered bodies — at the time, both fitted with Fine nibs that the local department store had sourced as replacements for me after I discovered I didn't like the Medium nib, and so I never actually inked the Racing Edition pens.

 

My (ex-)wife took the yellow Racing Edition pen and gave it as a birthday present to my then-12-year-old stepson whom I never met; I can only assume it was treated as a toy and has long since been discarded as clutter. A few months later, on her way out she took my red marble lacquered Expert II (and a S.T. Dupont fountain pen of which I can hardly remember the details now). That was some seventeen years ago.

 

The red Racing Edition ended up as a birthday present for my (soon-to-be) brother-in-law, who owned a small motor-racing club. My fiancée (still) has my green Expert II, which was the first fountain pen I ever bought with my wages.

 

That's how I 'lost' all my Waterman fountain pens eyes wide open.

[Honeybadgers]

I've never lost a pen. I had my backpack stolen from my car that contained a couple pens, including a gorgeous flex nib eversharp skyline.

[PAKMAN]

I keep really close track of my pens so I've never actually lost one. Have had a couple go missing but later found them either on my wife's or daughter's desks!

[McBaneG]

1) Beautiful octagonal black Caran D'Ache, given to me by my mother-in-law who owned a toy store and could get Caran D'Ache stuff wholesale because she sold their art-pencil kits. Wonderful smooth writing. I think it fell out of my pocket as I biked home one day. I went back along the road looking for it but did not find it.

2) Cheap but very functional Parker Vector, blue plastic with narrow section and smooth steel nib. It was my main grading pen, with Ruby Quink cartridges. I have no idea what happened to it; I haven't seen it for several years. I bought a replacement in mid-2013.

3) Black lacquer Cross, model unknown. It was a gift from my mother, probably my first or second year in grad school. It was my main note-taking pen through much of grad school. I don't know what happened to it, but I lost it long ago.

4) Thin, essentially cylindrical black-enamel Diplomat similar in size to the Vector. Whereabouts unknown.

and, one redemption story:

5) 4th quarter 1948 Parker 51 Vacumatic, cedar blue, single jewel. This pen was included in a box of old pens and pencils given to me by a colleague when he was cleaning out his office after he retired. I told him a couple of days later ``Dick, there was a Parker fountain pen in that box you gave me'', asking him if he wanted it back. He replied "Use it in good health!" I didn't realize it was a 51 until much later. Clip is Blue Diamond design but the blue enamel was never painted in; Parker was probably using up a stock of old caps after the FTC ruled they were not allowed to use the "Blue Diamond" lifetime warranty. Gold nib, I think M stub. It writes very smoothly, though the permissible range of phase angles around the pen axis is narrower than for most modern pens. It gives the nicest contrast between vertical and horizontal strokes of any pen I've used.

I lost this pen in May 2012, and believed at the time I had failed to remove it from my shirt pocket and it fell out on my bike ride home. However, after returning from a year in England, I found it in October 2013 in a plastic grocery bag that contained tiedown straps for our canoe. Oh happy day! Since then the jewel stem broke just above the threads, and I tightened the clip retaining ring and then shellaced the jewel in place. Let's hope I don't need to take it out again.

-George.

[kmart_security]

It may not sound like much but the only one I've lost so far is a pilot preppy. I used it at work and started just dumping my collection of the ink drops from Goulet back in the day in it and using them up. Went on a walk after in the parking lot and haven't been able to find it sense. Must have slipped out of my pocket or something, fairly cheap and I can get another one, but still annoying because how many different inks I was able to put through it made me feel good.

[langere]

I lost a Visconti Ragtime somewhere in my office, I think. Never found it again.

 

I did find three pens I thought I lost - one was my Lamy 2k, which in 2015 I had taken with me to Salta, Argentina on my research trip. I thought I lost it somewhere, but about a year and a half later, I found it in my backpack that I had taken with me to Argentina. By then, I had bought another 2K. So that gave me the opportunity to give as a present my extra 2k to a dear friend in Bolivia who is into fountain pens and has enjoyed it immensely over the last two years.

 

The other pen was my Bexley Owner's 2014 Club, which I love dearly. Again, I thought I lost it and when I couldn't find it, I purchased another one from Howard before they were all gone. Well, I did find it again, underneath my desk. That gave me the opportunity to gift the other one to a graduate student who is teaching me ArcGIS just about a month ago. It's the most expensive pen he's ever owned and I think one partial compensation for his good cheer in teaching me the complexities of an incredibly complicated program.

 

Lastly, about six months ago I took my Opus 88 Fantasia with me to a conference. When I returned, I could not find the pen. Oh well. However, the same backpack decided to spit out my fountain pen just a few days ago when I returned from a trip to Peru - my backpack has some amazing qualities and I guess one is to eat fountain pens and then regurgitate them at its leisure...

 

Erick

[knarflj]

I've been using fountain pens for about a quarter century and never lost one until last month at a conference in Louisville. I had a soft blue Pilot Prera I was using for note-taking right before lunch, and when I looked to write something down at the end of the meal I couldn't find it. Retraced my steps, asked hotel staff and the conference organizers - who even made an announcement to the attendees - but it never turned up.

 

Not an expensive pen, but a favourite writer, and had been a gift, so I was sad to lose it.

 

Jenny

[Arkanabar]

My first gold nib pen, a Namiki matte black "stealth" Vanishing Point purchased from Levenger back when they were a catalog company. I gave it to my wife, and she just wasn't into it. I also lost the rhino-hide charcoal Safari I bought at the same time, that I also never liked.

Also, all the pens I had when I first went to university. These included an Osmiroid c/c calligraphy FP that I'd put a round tip nib into, an A&W (Reform) Sizzle Stix, and an 80s era Sheaffer cartridge school pen with a clear red barrel and a chrome cap.

And what I'm guessing was a Sheaffer Targa, that I bought after I dropped out of university. It was a brass pen with some sort of cream colored lacquer, that I'd scraped off using a knife. I liked the raw brass better.

And I seem to have misplaced a couple of Ahabs -- mandarin yellow and lapis lazuli, the latter of which dripped ink nonstop, while not writing well at all. I've concluded that an Ahab has too much girth for me, so I can't say I miss them.

[bemon]

Does it have to be a fountain pen? I lost a Pelikan K400 that I signed my wedding papers with. I get that it's only a ballpoint but it had sentimental value attached to it. I keep my fountain pens in a leather pouch that I keep inside my briefcase, and they're always safe. Susceptible to theft at work, but I bank on most people not understanding their value.

 

I used to clip a ballpoint inside the middle of my shirt since I always need something that I can draw quickly. I'd either use my Pelikan K400 or a Lamy 2000 ballpoint and they'd always fall out a few times a day but I'd notice.

 

One day I was sick, dazed on cold medicine and late for work so I was hustling my daughter off to daycare and it must have fallen out. I didn't notice until I got to work an hour and 50 km later and was asked to sign something on the way in. I reached for that purdy blue underbuilt/overpriced Pelikan and it was gone! That was about a year ago and I still scan the ground in front of day care every morning as if it's going to turn up...

 

I also live in fear of losing my Fisher Bullet. Again, just a ballpoint but it's traveled with me to 3 countries. In one of which I used it to sign my daughter's baptismal certificate.

Edited August 21, 2019 by bemon

[Runnin_Ute]

I wish I could say the following was my only loss, but alas it isn't. Just the most expensive.

 

I pen roll I received in a PIF from a member here. In it were the following:

Parker 45 Flighter

Parker 45 Made in Spain

Parker 51 Special set with MP

Pelikan 120 Merz and Krell

Pelikan M150

Pelikan M205 Toledo red

Pelikan M205 black

[WalterC]

For at least 15 years, I used a vintage vest pocket flexy waterman for 90% of my writing. I think it was a 92v with #2 ideal nib. Walking to work on a cool day, I got hot so I took off my pullover wind breaker. It caught my pen and pulled it out of my shirt pocket. I didn't realize it until I got to work. I knew within a few feet where it happened. I went back and searched but never found it.

 

I still miss that pen. I have a couple of similar pens from ebay that are similar, but haven't gotten around to restoring them.

Edited August 23, 2019 by WalterC

[fkyu]

Years ago my landlord called me to say; work had to be done in my apartment. Workers came the next day while I was at work. That night I sat down to turn on the tv, but the remote didn't work. "I just put new batteries in, not too long ago" Opened it up to find the batteries had been replaced with dead batteries of a brand I never buy. You see, I'm somewhat particular about my batteries. I was alarmed. Why would anyone steal two batteries? After searching the apartment I discovered the only other missing item was from off my desk: a Unitech technical pen 3 1/2 - 1.0 mm nib, black. Unitech had already gone out of business - fortunately I had a supply of pens and nibs in my drawer.

After all these years, I applaud the thief's taste in pens, but why the batteries?

[Bibliophage]

Years ago my landlord called me to say; work had to be done in my apartment. Workers came the next day while I was at work. That night I sat down to turn on the tv, but the remote didn't work. "I just put new batteries in, not too long ago" Opened it up to find the batteries had been replaced with dead batteries of a brand I never buy. You see, I'm somewhat particular about my batteries. I was alarmed. Why would anyone steal two batteries? After searching the apartment I discovered the only other missing item was from off my desk: a Unitech technical pen 3 1/2 - 1.0 mm nib, black. Unitech had already gone out of business - fortunately I had a supply of pens and nibs in my drawer.

After all these years, I applaud the thief's taste in pens, but why the batteries?

That's simple. They needed batteries for one of their devices, and grabbed your remote. They then tried to make it look like the batteries just went dead. I'd supposed two AA's, which means a flashlight, small radio, or other similar electronic device.

[Tseg]

I lost a Montblanc 24 vintage in the past year, only to find it 6 months later in the inside pocket of one of my blazers (and still wrote perfectly... no hard start). I then lost a vintage P51 for several months only to find it at the bottom of a large bag I keep of pen supplies. Both lost and found.

Edited August 24, 2019 by Tseg

[MarcS]

waterman red ripple with "yellow" nib, lost in my home somewhere a few years ago. Hope springs eternal that it will reappear someday.

[adamselene]

We don”t lose things in my house.

 

We “misplace”.

[countrydirt]

Lamy Safari, Lamy Vista and TWSBI 580 - over the course of about 10 years.

[Antenociticus]

Some time around 1984 or '85, the guy who used to cut my hair sold me a fountain pen that he'd picked up somewhere along with a bunch of Turkish railway workers' retirement watches.

 

In my memory, the pen was Turkish too, but I have no idea of its actual provenance. It was devoid of any branding, slim and long – a bit like a Diplomat Traveller – with gold-coloured trim, the heft of a metal pen, and an elegant black-and-red marbled finish that I liked. I don't remember a thing about the filling system, but I inked it with blue-black and it wrote wonderfully in the notebooks I was using at the time.

 

This Turkish Railway Worker's Pen, as I thought of it, was the implement that reminded me how much nicer it was to write with a fountain pen than with the Ball Pentels I'd been using since I left school. It soon got lost, though. I still miss it.

[g33klibrarian]

I lost my whole freaking pen roll. I remember putting it into my courier bag as I was leaving work and that was the last time I ever saw it.

 

Thankfully only one of the pens was over $50 -- a TWSBI Mini Vac, which I actually don't miss as it had leaking issues.

 

Oddly I more miss the pen roll itself more than any of the pens. Probably because it was handmade by my wife.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Some time around 1984 or '85, the guy who used to cut my hair sold me a fountain pen that he'd picked up somewhere along with a bunch of Turkish railway workers' retirement watches.

 

In my memory, the pen was Turkish too, but I have no idea of its actual provenance. It was devoid of any branding, slim and long a bit like a Diplomat Traveller with gold-coloured trim, the heft of a metal pen, and an elegant black-and-red marbled finish that I liked. I don't remember a thing about the filling system, but I inked it with blue-black and it wrote wonderfully in the notebooks I was using at the time.

 

This Turkish Railway Worker's Pen, as I thought of it, was the implement that reminded me how much nicer it was to write with a fountain pen than with the Ball Pentels I'd been using since I left school. It soon got lost, though. I still miss it.

I have one of those pocket watches. Good watches with Rolex movements.

 

I have 1 lost and 1 lost and found.

 

I lost a Lamy Al-Star with a B nib. No idea when, where.

 

I lost a Sheaffer Admiral on the day my wife had breast cancer surgery. When I found ut, it had been run over and the cap shattered. That pen stayed that way until my wife was given the all clear. And new cap was procured and the pen traded.