Anybody Here Write With *only* One Fountain Pen?

[antarmukhee]

Most people I see on this forum own many pens, even if they are not avid collectors. And most people seem eager about 'rotating' them and using them one after the other, enjoying the variety and fun of multiple fountain pens. Many reviewers seem to be able to compare what one pen feels like in comparison to a range of other pens.

 

The way I have seen many elder generation people that I know who use fountain pen, they have often used a pen for decades and shift to a different pen only when the old pen is irreversibly damaged or lost. I think it was because: (1) pens were instruments of daily use and utility (rather than a hobby / collection), (2) good pens were less affordable and you have to hold on to it as much as possible, (3) nibs become smoother and best fit to one's writing style; long term fountain pen users hesitate to give their 'used' pens to someone else because of this reason.

 

Everybody have their own way of 'loving' fountain pens - a classification is as follows:

• Some have multiple pens inked and in use at each given time.
• Some have one pen inked and in use, and they change to another pen after the ink gets over, and they rotate pens.
• Some prefer to use *only* one pen (even if they may try out and collect multiple pens).

I have used pens in all the 3 patterns above - and I think I belong to the third category.

 

Does anybody in this forum write with *only* one fountain pen primarily (whether or not you collect and try more)? If so, which pen is your heartthrob?

 

Or do you actively write with multiple pens?

[Mysterious Mose]

I am in the first category. I have 5 working pens, all inked and ready to use. I rotate and use them by the day-of-the-week.

 

Monday - Pelikan M805

Tuesday - Pelikan M805;

Wednesday - Waterman Expert II (W)

Thursday - Waterman Phileas (W)

Friday - Pelikan M805

Saturday - Stipula Splash (St)

Sunday - Sheaffer Sagaris (S)

[langere]

Wonderful comment!

 

I use three pens usually and write with them until I have used the ink up. Then I switch to another pen and fill it with different ink. This way I rotate my pens and my inks.

 

Erick

[txomsy]

Even in the 70's I would use more than one pen. So I could have different colors for marking and underscoring. Nowadays I use mostly two pens for two colors. Except when I am in the mood and have the time (which I haven't had lately), then I I use pens for flexy and for italic writing, one each for different colors, so I can write on different topics on different styles and colors.

 

Yeah, I have some odd, nice old pens, for the sake of it, but mostly I am still a practical user.

[corniche]

Hi all,

 

I have a lot of pens, but lately I've been favoring my classic green stripe Pelikan M600 (medium nib) with Diamine Blue-Black and a Platinum Century broad nib with Diamine Eau de Nil.

 

I don't know if I could ever cope with just one pen... I love the color of Eau de Nil, but it's just not professional enough in certain circles.

 

 

Sean

[praxim]

After trying values from one to a dozen, I have settled for quite a while on four pens inked as a standard. There will be one of those which is dominantly used on a day, not solely, and that will change on the next day. My current chance list is (alphabetically)

Aurora 88

Omas 556/S

Soennecken 116

Waterman Man 100 Opera

with the Omas today's preferred. Each pen that I take up provides a different experience, not just a different ink.

[A Smug Dill]

Or do you actively write with multiple pens?

 

 

My wife does, with roughly two dozen fountain pens — including some of mine, since she's now commandeered the room where I keep most of my pens and all the ink for her work-from-home arrangement — in any given week.

 

Whereas I don't; I just keep >120 pens inked, and would personally use only a handful every few days.

[ENewton]

I have tended to rotate pens by season, because I prefer to use the same ink consistently in a given pen once I have found a good match. And I have tended, in recent years, to have two pens inked at a time, either in order to have two contrasting inks in play, or to have two different nib widths available.

 

However, I recently decided to confer year-round status on two of my pen-and-ink pairings. Right now, I have only those two pens inked, but I will probably add a third soon in order to get some use out of my other pens and inks.

[Runnin_Ute]

Right now I have eight pens inked. Ten awaiting either a flush or a fill. Normal is 8-12 inked. Once upon a time I had only two pens and kept both inked. Initially it was one with Levenger Raven Black the other with Levenger Cobalt Blue. Then I later used mostly Pelikan 4001 Blue Black in both. It wasn't until 2013 I bought an ink other than the previously mentioned three. (First pen and inks were purchased in 1998) I rarely use black anymore, my current bottle of Noodler's Black is over six years old and is still at the base of the neck of the bottle. I have used more of my KWZI Brown #4 or El Dorado or Pine Green or even Edelstein Olivine. Those were all purchased in 2018. The El Dorado is probably less than half full.

[Intensity]

I'm sure some people do. Everyone has a different philosophy on life and their hobbies and principles.

[RitwijMishra]

I do. While making the switch to longhand composition from touch typing years ago, I realised that I must acquire a tool that would embellish and accentuate the writing process I was to have for myself. I had used Camlins and Parker Vectors for most of my schooldays alongside gelpens, and so I was aware that I need a tool of a significantly higher stratum than that which these belong to.

 

A few months after having settled on Perle Noire, I laid by my Pierre Cardin - a temporary acquisition, primarily to test and ascertain the virtues of the ink - for a vintage Montblanc 149 with a 14C B nib. I have used it for years that followed, and the years that still follow my ageing mast witness its companionship.

 

Shortly afterwards, I switched to Montblanc Permanent Black ink, and so for years now I have been using precisely the same writing instrument with the same writing ink, on the same writing paper.

 

The reason why I had decided long ago to seek and adhere to the one pen-ink-paper combination I would find perfect for my needs is precisely this: I am a writer, and I need to write with the medium and the implement that negates for me any need for exploring media or implements that offer me less than what I have between my forefingers.

 

I have had plenty of models lure me over the years, but I never acquired them. There was a reason why I had preferred in the first place to purchase the model I did purchase over those I did not: the 149 offers me a mix to a greater degree of every attribute I find desirable for its utilitarian or aesthetic value than do other - excellent all, without a doubt - models likewise designed for heavy usage.

[jchch1950]

I use two ,changing them to use the one that suits better the paper I'm using at that moment. Keep between five or seven with ink in case one of the pens run out of ink when I'm writing.

[pajaro]

Parker 51 or a Sonnet rollerball. The other pens are sentimental or stuff I was curious about. Somebody should open a pen rental business so you could try without cluttering your house with this junk.

[ridiculopathy]

I’m trying to cut down on how many pens I have inked at a time, but I have too many favorite ink colors I want available at all times.

[TheDutchGuy]

 

Anybody Here Write With *only* One Fountain Pen?

 

Not yet, but I’m getting there.

 

I started out with just one pen, loved it, got into the hobby, discovered what works for me and what doesn’t, and am slowly gravitating towards fewer pens that I use more (instead of more pens that I use less).

 

I’m torn between conflicting desires. On the one hand, I’m pulled towards ‘one personal friend that I take everywhere’ and becomes an extension of myself. Like Rory Gallagher, who always played the same battered guitar his whole career. Or Brian May, who made his own. Or Willie Nelson. On the other hand, trying different pens, different inks, different papers and doing nib work gives me joy.

[Cyclohexene]

I basically only use one pen, and yet I have multiple pens inked and I still have one more pen in the post. Send help.

[vicpen123]

I have worked from home for over 20 years and so I used to use one rotating fountain pen for home/office use and another robust, not too expensive and readily replaceable good writing pen for out of home/office - an Italix Parson's Essential.

 

In this time of madness I have reverted to using the out of office/home pen only since I never go out and quietly continue to work using Zoom.

 

I still enjoy looking at and fondling my other fountain pens because they were bought for their intrinsic charm and style and not necessarily for lots of writing.

 

With a recent discovery of an old school pen, I now have 48 pens to enjoy.

[bayindirh]

I generally select a single pen and use it for months to come, then rotate it to something else. If I'm working intensely in that period, I may ink another pen with colored ink so I can title, take side notes, etc.

[Beechwood]

I think that the idea of using a one and only pen was just the way that pens were used pre 1960, people had one pen in their pocket and that was it, it was probably updated at Christmas or a birthday, although having said that I have recently been to Lloyds where there must have been 400 people signing their name almost constantly, they only use one pen and day in, day out.

[Addertooth]

At work, I use two. At home, Legion.