What's your everyday carry?

[Pimdtaun86]

There are lots of members here with big collections containing pens in all different shapes and sizes. However, I'm looking to buy a new pen to use as an 'everyday carry', and I'm curious to know what others here use. By everyday carry I mean the one pen you pick up and take with you when you travel for work or go on holiday. It's got to be a pen that's durable, reliable (and, of course, a pleasure to write with!).

 

So, which pen is with you in your pocket?

[InesF]

Hi @danielbird193.

For the daily use at home and for all purposes at the office, I rotate through all my pens. Usually one pen per week, sometimes one pen per two weeks. The pens in my collection are to be used, not only to be looked at.

 

For travel abroad I take either the Waterman Perspective or the Pelikan M600 with me. But if I travel by motorbike, I prefer the more robust Kaweco Lilliput in the steel version.

[Wolverine1]

Daniel- I leave most of my FPs at home. When I leave the house, I take a couple of Gel pens, usually the Pilot Dr Grip pens, and a couple of Karas Kustoms balloint pens. And I usually take  2 Lamy Al-Star FPs in medium and fine .  Usually, this arrangement seems to have worked well for me since about the year 2000 or so.

Best of luck to you.

[brokenclay]

I like all my pens to be reliable, and am actively working to shed the ones that are not, so that leaves durable. I carry my pens in a hard shell eyeglasses case, rather than loose in a pocket or bag.

 

I don't bother to differentiate between pens used at home (or at the office) and pens carried around, I just pick up my case with whatever's currently inked and take it with me.

 

If I were unable to bring the case and had to carry a pen in my pocket, it would be a Kaweco AL-Sport.

[Pimdtaun86]

4 hours ago, InesF said:

The pens in my collection are to be used, not only to be looked at.

 

That's a great sentiment which I think we can all agree with!

[Bristol24]

I am really partial to vintage pens from the golden age of fountain pens so I tend to rotate through my collection.  However, I have learned from experience that a pen that writes well at home or at the office where circumstances are controlled may not be the best out in the wild.  Consequently I generally travel with a Parker 51 or a 51 clone like the Parker 21 Super or even the Hero 616 (when there might be the risk of loss).  This is especially the case where air travel is involved.  My daily carry locally and aboard our boat is generally one of my vintage Wearever Combos with a custom stub italic or semi-flex nib.  Ink from one end and pencil at the other.  How was that for a rather circumlocuitous way of saying that I no longer have a single EDC pen?

 

Cliff

[Mongoosey]

Right now I'm using:

 

TWSBI Eco - Fine - Kiwa-Guro

TWSBI Swipe - EF - Kiwa-Guro

[ParramattaPaul]

Currently, for going places and doing things, it's an inexpensive Diplomat Magnum since I prefer not to risk damaging or losing a 'nice' pen.  This is subject to change after the two impulse purchase pens (both aluminium) arrive.

[Mongoosey]

Yah, I have trouble carrying around an expensive pen as well.

[Jerome Tarshis]

6 hours ago, danielbird193 said:

y

That's a great sentiment which I think we can all agree with!

 

No, not all. Not nearly all. You haven't got very many pens yet. You may not have very many books, either. (My academic cousin has more than 65,000 books, as do a fair number of his colleagues.) It's true that when I was younger I could still tell myself that I was going to use that pen with some frequency and I was definitely going to read that book. But the years pass, the acquisitions continue, and in practical terms some of us really aren't going to use that pen very much or read that book.

 

Walter Benjamin has addressed this point, as have other writers.

[vicpen123]

55 minutes ago, Jerome Tarshis said:

 

(My academic cousin has more than 65,000 books, as do a fair number of his colleagues.)

 

 

A slight deviation. Do you know if your academic cousin has read all 65,000 books and, if he has, is he any smarter than the rest of us who read comics?

[chromantic]

When going to work, I have a selection of (mostly) Pelikans I choose from; I've been using the little 140 a lot recently. In addition, I carry a Lyra roller for NCRs and one of two PaperMate c/c school pens (1864 and Take-sumi) and I recently added another roller, an Herbin.

When just going out on errands, I'll usually take a roller and a PM.

[silverlifter]

I carry three pens in my backpack when I go to work: two in a custom leather pouch (varies according to rotation), one in a leather sleeve (L2K MCI).

 

But the  pen that is always in my front right pocket, to work, or anywhere else, is a Kaweco AL Sport with a fine nib, inked with R&K Dokumentus Dunkleblau. This thing is indestructible, it writes a smooth fine line on *any* paper, and the ink is permanent. Bulletproof!

[VersoFolio]

Never leave home without Brass, Kaweco Sport and Lilput.

I'm hoping surgeons can eventually graft them onto my fingertips!!

 

versofolio...somehow slightly less than the sum of his parts!

[N1003U]

90% of the time I have a set in my (shirt) pocket, typically an M60x, paired with a ballpoint that may or may not match. 10% of the time I have a 3-slot leather Pelikan case in my pocket, filled with a FP, BP, and pencil.

 

I usually travel with a 6-pen roll that has 4 fountain pens and 2 ballpoints. I keep a spare pen or two (think Safari) and a couple of pencils in my briefcase (separate from the 6-pen roll) along with a traveling inkwell and a couple of emergency cartridges.

 

There are few things I dislike more than being caught without a functional writing implement handy, and a little variety is also nice, even on the road.

 

if I am crawling around on an industrial site or in a mine, etc., I will carry something rugged/damage tolerant, like a Lamy Safari, Studio, or a Kaweco Supra.

 

[jandrew]

 

I don't carry any pens in my pockets, but I always have my man-bag when I go out --- which always has my Franklin Christoph 20p (with Nagahara needlepoint nib) in a penloop on my pocket notebook holder. I also have a galen leather 3-pen case in there as well (contents vary) and usually a water filled brush pen as well (amongst other, non-writing paraphernalia).

[br549]

A 1949 Parker 51 in navy gray is my every day pen. 

[inkstainedruth]

My everyday carry pen is going to vary from day to day because I like variety.  There's only a few that don't ever leave the house because they're ring-tops which tend to unscrew themselves from the cap while on the lanyard.  And a fair number of other vintage pens that still need repairs (plus one of the Decimos got knocked off the bathroom counter and ended up with a bent nib, so the only place THAT's going for the time being is to a pen show so I can have the nib fixed).  Oh, and after almost losing the M405 Stresemann, that pen does NOT go camping any more.... 

Beyond that, though, most everything is fair game.  I do like to have at least one pen at hand (it feels weird not to) because I never know if I'm going to have to sign a credit card receipt or something), or get the urge to write a poem on the bus, or check off stuff on the shopping list or make notes about which booths at antiques stores to ask about opening up the cases, or such).  I do like to have at least one pen inked up with something relatively permanent and isn't a crazy color to make my bank freak out when I have to write a check.  

Of course yesterday when I ran to to grocery store I was checking to see if the lottery tickets in my wallets were winners (sadly no) -- but my local location has a monthly second chance drawing for losing tickets to win a gift card for the store and their affiliated gas stations). And yesterday's tickets were signed in 4001 Pink (just because).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[maclink]

I use only F and EF nibs for EDC which means that I cannot include all my collection.  My EDC has immediately write when I put it to paper with a good flow of ink.  It has to work well with my favoured permanent inks.  It has to write well on different papers, while I'm standing and writing on a counter, while writing on a sheet of paper not flat on a surface.  It has to be durable too.  

 

I've however used quite a few as EDC's, the highlights being:

- Lamy 2000 (surprisingly good nib under the varying circumstances I mentioned).

- TWSBI Eco, Diamond 580x, Vac700r

- Pilot Custom 823

- Montblanc 146, Classique

- Aurora Optima 

as backup, I find the Pilot Pura and Platinum Prefonte to be terrific EDC's

 

I have used Kaweco pens and do have the Brass Sport, but I find the section to be too short with my fingers uncomfortably ending up on the threads.  I therefore typically stop using them after not too long.  However, they are terrific options if you find them comfortable.  

Platinum 3776's - The ink flow isn't reliable.  Though they write immediately, the initial flow can at times, be relatively dry, then it picks up.

[KaB]

Like most over here, I tend to be carefull with my pens, whether using them at home or taking 2-3 (in rotation) to work or clients. 

However, I will at ALL times have a pen in the right pocket of my pants. At ALL times. The first one wasn't a succes (not sturdy enough). Currently I've been carying a Kaweco BRASS Sport for a few years now. Very small, very sturdy. Really up to the job to be carried around at all times. Two things to notice. Though I prefer stubs, in this case I picked an EF, for 2 reasons (EF works in all conditions, even writing on a flimsy scrap of paper that you hold in your hand, would become unlegible with a stub; more importantly: the Kaweco caries only very little ink. With the EF, it offers more than a week of ink for me. So just top up every sunday and never run out). And two: the converters are rubish and the cartridges don't fit well enough. Very easily solved with the small spring from a regular balpoint pen.